Hd — Tag

The FreeView Consortium has announced some details about the PVR system they have approved for use with FreeView|HD.

Of interest,

It will run a system with features like American TiVo, which suggests similar content for viewers and features series link technology similar to that employed by Sky’s new HDi decoders.

and

Browning explained that - using Shortland Street as an example, if the receiver has a programming clash for a weeknight episode, it will look forward and choose between rescreenings on other digital channels, or pick the episode out of the weekend ‘Omnibus’.

The device will include two tuners, but an unspecified hard drive size.

Meanwhile, the Sony PlayTV for PlayStation 3 has been dated for Europe, to be released on September 10th this year. Major technical challenges were to blame for the delay, as the device was supposed to be released around March… at least, that’s what the SCENZ chief had said late last year. They snuck in some PlayTV-required code in the latest firmware update, 2.41. New Zealand and Australia are looking at a January/February release next year, “because on their digital terrestrial they haven’t actually set the standards yet.” Ummm, Australia hasn’t, but New Zealand has.

While on the topic of FreeView, I got a FV|HD box the other week and was somewhat impressed by the quality. You wouldn’t of thought that upscaled content would look better, but it certainly does.

TVNZ have released more details on their HD launch next year. To sum up:

• It will be on Freeview DTT only, Sky will not be able to receive the content, nor will the current Freeview Satellite service. Freeview DTT will be available from March next year.
• 50% of content on TV One will be in HD, 80% on TV2.
• It will be 720p (the current standard from HDTV) and surround sound will be broadcast when available. SD content will be upscaled.
• TVNZ6, TVNZ7 and TVNZ Sport Extra will not go HD.

They have the technical stuff, MPEG-4 using the H.246 ABC codec, 23 Mbps and statistical multiplexing 2 HD channels with 3 SD ones.

Time to get me an HD ready TV

It has been announced on Throng.co.nz that TVNZ will go High Definition from July 2008.

The up shot of this announcement is that the Beijing Olympics, held in August next year, will also be broadcast in HD on TV One.

As Freeview Terrestrial service will be the only one that can support HD at this stage, you’ll need a Freeview DVB-T box (from March 2008). And of course an HD-TV.

Remember, next year the Playstation 3 is getting a DVB-T tuner too…