Did ABC drop the ball on HD?

[Cricket2]

ABC has taken the left fork in the road when it comes to HD television. Out of the major networks, ABC is the only one that adopted the 720p format rather than the 1080i format that was made unofficialy the standard by HDNet. Fox is still in the dust not yet adopting HD at all but brodcasting in 480P upconvert (ED) still, with the assumption that they will move to 1080i when it's needed sometime before the 2007 deadline, if ever (I'm not sure of the date anymore so this year could be wrong)

There is quite a bit of tech behind the #'s above which I can add if needed. 720p is not necessaraly better than 1080i, but different from the norm.

So.....did ABC drop the ball on HD or do they have insight the other networks lack?

Side note: "The Ultimate Home Theater" presented by Lutron is showing in 1080i and was filmed by ABC (at least that's what the Lutron kid said). Sort of funny if you think about it

 

[YoHo]

It was my understanding, that when ABC first started contemplating Digital television, there plan was to use 720P so that they could fit 3 channels in the broadcast lineup. They felt that it would provide a better revenue stream then the 1080I format would. I haven't been paying attention to it recently, so I don't know if they still plan to do this. There were some issues with the cable companies that clearly didn't want to have to carry all 3 of the programing options.

Of course the cable companies are being Asses with regard to HDTV all aorund, so who knows.

 

[Cricket2]

Originally posted by YoHo
It was my understanding, that when ABC first started contemplating Digital television, there plan was to use 720P so that they could fit 3 channels in the broadcast lineup. They felt that it would provide a better revenue stream then the 1080I format would.

This is true, and it is a reality of the science. The lower the quality (bandwidth) the more other stuff can be jammed through their alloted "pipe" allocated with UHF bandwidth.

720p is easier to compress than 1080i which allows for 2 (could be more, I'm not sure) higher bandwidth sub-channels to generate income. Right now they use it for sat. weather images and odd junk from the locals rather than the network feeds which only are brodcasting one channel (to my knowledge). 1080i still has sub-chanels, but not of the same bandwidth.


The other 2 reasons given for the choice made by Uyttendaele, tech advisor for ABC at the time of the decision were:

1) Viewers are consumers, and consumers are stupid. They can't tell the difference between the 2 formats. (which is somewhat true)

2) It's cheaper to make a 720p naitive CRT.

Well, guess what:

Consumers don't buy what's cheaper, they buy what's going to be percieved as a better product at the best price.

With hindsight being 20/20, these idiots are still crossing their eyes and trying to read the big "E" at the top.

Someday progressive screens will be the norm, but people will take quite awhile to move over to the new formats from current interlaced screens. It's sort of dumb to try and save a buck now and cross your fingers for 10 years or so and hope your investment pans out.

Let's put it this way....are you going out next week and buying that $9000.00 Plasmatron? How about that $8000.00 Digital Theater Projector? Neither am I, and I'm a AVS freek.

JC

 

[YoHo]

Actually, the Engineers that built the standard found 1080i to be superior in every way to 720p, if it weren't for Bill Gates, every single HDTV broadcast in America would be in 1080i by law. But Bill gates had to stick his nose in at the last minute.


I would be very surprised if progressive scan made any sort of REAL inroads into television standards in the near future. they've pretty much proven that Interlaced is better for general TV viewing.

This by the way I got from someone who holds a large number of the HDTV patents for Zenith Electronics, so I believe him.

 

[seashoreCM]

According to my calculations, too technical to go into here,

1. Compared to 1080i, 720p is more sensitive to visible degradation due to deficiencies in the TV set and also due to watering down (downrezzing) to make room in the channel "pipeline" for a second or third program.

2. A 720p picture tube type TV set (I mean not LCD or DLP or plasma) is more difficult to construct than a 1080i set. In terms of scan lines per second, 480p (the not quite HDTV used by Fox broadcasting and upscale DVD players) and 1080i are almost the same while 720p is a big step upward.

3. Transmission-wise, both over the air and between the channel selector and the picture tube, 1080i and 720p consume the same bandwidth, or "pipeline diameter" when handled fully and correctly.

Video hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

Another dirty secret: Most HDTV's are fundamentally 1080i, without an explicit 720p "speed" or picture tube scan rate. For a lot of them, 720p shows end up severely compromised. For many HDTV's that are fundamentally 720p, which include DLP and plasma models, 1080i shows end up severely compromised. What often happens is the there is a conversion process either in the TV or the HDTV tuner box that leaves the vertical resolution maxing out at 540 (it varies from the max to half the max during a show depending on subject motion), no longer HDTV, instead of 720 or 1080. For 480p the vertical resolution maxes out at 480.