Blu Ray Player Sales up 72%

[edDV]

An ASTC station could run a 480i "must carry" primary and then carry two 1280x720p/23.976 movie subchannels with very good quality. The movies could have multiple language tracks and subtitles.

It seems like a good business plan to me. Maybe even a network.

Most if not all, allocate 14mb to their primary and then divide up the rest. They also use VBR on their channels. Marketing wise, it would be a bad move to do SD on their primary when all their syndication is being advertized as HD

Not talking the big 4 here. This would be an independent. New stations mostly go to minority or religious interests. That gets you the license. Then you do Chinese or Indian on the 480i, then run your 720p movies on the subs.

The 480i would work ok at 3Mb/s, the 720p/24s could get 8Mb/s ave. each. Quality would be fine. Statistical multiplexing could improve quality further.

[samijubal]

No TV station has yet chosen to broadcast 24p since it takes all the channel bandwith

So I guess its theoretically possible but economically impractical right now.

As for cable and fios, I haven't seen a set top box yet that supports 1080p out.

That's kind of what I figured.... I'm guessing satellite is the same.

Dish Network has 1080p for on demand.

[stiltman]

Not talking the big 4 here. This would be an independent. New stations mostly go to minority or religious interests. That gets you the license. Then you do Chinese or Indian on the 480i, then run your 720p movies on the subs.

The 480i would work ok at 3Mb/s, the 720p/24s could get 8Mb/s ave. each. Quality would be fine. Statistical multiplexing could improve quality further.

Ahh gotcha..misunderstood

[edDV]

No TV station has yet chosen to broadcast 24p since it takes all the channel bandwith

So I guess its theoretically possible but economically impractical right now.

As for cable and fios, I haven't seen a set top box yet that supports 1080p out.

That's kind of what I figured.... I'm guessing satellite is the same.

Dish Network has 1080p for on demand.

But does the box output 1080p/23.976 over HDMI?

Most likely it outputs teleceined 1080i/29.97. If so the TV will IVTC to 1080p/23.976.

[samijubal]

There's a firmware update for the sat boxes to output 1080p if the TV will accept it, if not it's downconverted.

[Persistence]

People can say "BD blows away DVD" all they want, but I have to wander if they also see UFOs, Elvis and wear tinfoil hats -- they're clearly seeing something that us normal folks do not.

The difference between the BD and DVD versions of Planet Earth are very evident to anyone with 20x20 vision and an HDTV screen over 37". The differences are astounding with the screen over 42". No foil hats necessary. Yes, I know that some sequences are a bit doctored or faked, but a great deal of the series is not.

One reason why most Hollywood or sports videos look almost the same in SD and HD is because so much of it consists of closeups and quick cuts. Filters and light effects also smudge the resolution. Even lots of long shots or "outdoor" vistas are fake matte screens or digitalizations, thus muting or defeating the impact of HD. Finally there are BD's that are no more than upscaled DVDs. I recall that the BD Master and Commander fell in this category. Neither will the sound be Jen-you-wine DD 5.1 or 7.1 unless the master tracks are mixed with appropriate integrity. Often the only real multi channel sound is in cartoons, which is to say entirely artificial, and gets tiresome fast. A soccer or US football or baseball broadcast optimized for small VGA screens will use lots of cameras and telephoto shots to compensate for the low resolution, so a big HDTV screen adds little benefit. On the other hand, a broadcast optimized for a large HDTV might use more wide angle shots, more "as seen from the bleechers" and be an entirely different story. Old-time outdoor spectacle epics shot in 70mm Super Panavision should also look far better on in HD than SD. Nowadays directors would have made Lawrence of Arabia, on the cheap, with digital camels and deserts. 10 year-olds would have preferred the enhancements of the digital versions (synthed flyovers, splashing blood, exploding bodies); others would squirm and prefer old-fashioned "real live fantasy."