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Sam Newman learns the definition of High Definition

Sam Newman didn't expect the answer Andrew Demetriou gave him when he asked, "Why can't the football game be televised in high definition?"

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Some confusion on The Footy Show last night when Sam Newman, interviewing AFL boss Andrew Demetriou, tackled him on the lack of high definition broadcasts on rival network Seven.

“I watched Curiosity that robot land on Mars the other day, and it came back in high definition. Why can’t the football game be televised in high definition?”

“Channel Seven do a wonderful job,” Demetriou answered, “they’re a great broadcast partner. Just as Channel Nine do with the NRL which is not in high definition I might add, as well.”

“What?” Newman interrupted.

“It’s not in high def on Channel Nine,” the AFL boss insisted.

“I’m going to check that,” Newman replied. “I’m going to take that on advisement.”

Demetriou wasn’t able to directly answer why Seven wasn’t screening in HD, but gave Foxtel’s HD broadcasts a free kick.

After the interview Newman told viewers, “If you want to watch rugby league, here, in Melbourne, on Channel Nine it’s in high definition.”

Yes, Sam it is on GEM.

“If you want to watch it in Sydney, it’s not,” he quickly added.

And that’s the rub.

According to Nine CEO David Gyngell this week, it won’t be until 2014 after the digital switchover is completed.

Which is presumably when AFL will be in HD on Seven too.

20 Responses

  1. @Secret Squirrel Not so much installing SD Boxes, more mopping up legacy sites, especially when 9 were having the Cricket part on Nine and part on GEM last year.

    Going back a lot of the original Plasma TV’s were monitors without tuners, with others Analogue only (even in early LCD’s), so STB’s were installed say behind the bar and they changed channels from there.

    I pretty much installed SD/HD Boxes in venues I attended (if the price was right going back), however some were done by the Publicans and there Maintenance person, so a number of times the wrong one were bought even after the price drops (there thoughts were why by 5 for $100 when you can get them for $30, not understanding the difference).

    So yeah I agree I am likely talking out of step (and get what you are saying), some of the SD only boxes were probably still holding LNC 12 in SD as they’d never been retuned to the new channel maps.

  2. @Johnny1P5 – “Or maybe I’m just getting misinformation…” Not mis-, just out-of-date. Not sure when you last would have installed a SD STB since HD boxes have been under $100 for a long time now.

    That webpage you quote hasn’t been updated since 2010. The channel hasn’t been called “One HD” since it was changed from being 100% sport back in April-May 2011. (Now just called “One” with a new logo).

  3. Or maybe I’m just getting misinformation, as come to think of it, it has been a while since I have done anything outside of commercial venues (not homes) and most of that has been installing MPEG 4 compliment TV’s and updating Sky Racing Decoders.

    So yeah, have to dig deeper may have fallen behind the info and out of the loop somewhat in the last 2 plus years (could be that long since I saw 12 on an SD only Box to be honest).

  4. Well @Secret Squirrel all I know is that any of the SD only Boxes I have encountered installed all over Victoria, ONE does not work and 12 does work.

    The ONE website says the same here: ten.com.au/one-hd-faqs.htm

    “ONE is available in High Definition on (digital) Channel 1 and Standard Definition on (digital) Channel 12. If you have a High Definition television all you need to do is flick to Channel 1. If you have a Standard Definition digital television simply turn to Channel 12.”

    So have no idea why you would have 1080i on it, mine is 576i on the PVR then upscaled by the TV (just checked as I normally have it deleted), this is what I see most places.

  5. @Johnny1P5 – agree with everything you said except about LCN 12. 12 was the SD stream of the content on One until Eleven was launched. The bandwidth for the 12 SD stream was then allocated to Eleven.

    I just checked channel 12 on my STB and it says that it is 1080i.

  6. @Secret Squirrel: 12 is broadcast in SD, otherwise on the STB’s that do not have HD, you would not pick it up, like you do not pick-up ONE, GEM or 7Mate ( ie: ten.com.au/one-hd-faqs.htm ).

    Pointers can be changed at the source, no reason 7 couldn’t point 70 to 7Mate, all they need to do is change the channel mapping and then revert back later.

    And yes the bandwidth is not there at present, not until they change to MPEG 4 as mentioned before, though undetermined when that switch will happen, it will not be far off. I work in the industry and have had to change TV’s out in Hotels, TABs etc to have them MPEG4 ready (as Sky Racing is heading that way soon, digital output decoders are already installed and will be switched soon).

  7. @Cam Reed – you’re confusing logical channel numbers – LCNs – with data streams (what you would call channels). 7 and 70 are simply pointers and they both point to the same stream which you know as 7. Similarly, 12 is not a SD version of One. It is 1080 HD because it’s just pointing to the same data stream that 1 points to.

    The networks only have sufficient bandwidth for 1 full HD channel and 2 SD channels (or 3 if you’re prepared to drop the HD to 720 and/or reduce bit-rates).

    I suspect that both the Seven and Nine networks want to maximise their audiences by showing AFL / NRL on their main channel in the prime states. Simulcasting on their respective HD digital-only channels would merely split their audience. Better for them to show something else for people who don’t want to watch either football code.

  8. Andrew that’s something that’s often puzzled me, especially in Sevens case as they also have Channel 70, which if they wanted they could shift those 7Mate programs to for those AFL matches anyway.

    People interstate having AFL on 7Mate sure don’t seem upset those shows aren’t on, as is the same for people in Melbourne with NRL on GEM.

    Personally I think the FTAsecondary channel sports laws are ridiculous now anyway, let the channels have them on the other channels. In 7’s case they could have 7Mate and 70 for SD only people, like how Ten have ONE and 12. I’m fairly certain 9 are allowed to have another similcast SD channel as well as they have 2 less than the 7 (who have 70 and 71).

    Main thing I was saying was that the main 2, 7, 9, 10, SBS are unlikely to go HD straight away, (for the reasons mentioned), the whole digital switch has been a mess by the Governments (first Liberal, then Labor have made it more difficult than it should have been).

  9. why don’t they just put NRL on GEM HD everywhere, and AFL on 7mate HD everywhere, but still keep the SD simulcast on the main channels. Then viewers of both codes in either market are happy regardless of whether they have a SD or HD tuner.

    Are the Antiques Roadshow and American Pickers fans going to be so upset that they might have to relinquish their shows occupying the HD channel for a couple of hours?

  10. *MPEG 4 (not MPEG $ – held the shift key too long d’oh).

    And to reiterate, at present there is not enough bandwidth available to broadcast all channels in HD, though once analogue is gone next year, I cannot see what difference it would make if 7 and 9 only broadcast there sports on there HD Channels (in true HD not upscaled).

    As at that point there would be no need to protect sports to primary channels for people who only have analogue (as it wouldn’t be around) unless the Government are also protecting people with SD Boxes and TV’s only.

    Once Digital is in properly, it shouldn’t really make any difference what channel a show/sport is on, as everyone will have all those channels to choose from (ie; you either have digital or you don’t have TV too watch at all).

  12. They won’t shut down SD any time soon, if they did most of the Set Top Boxes that people have in there homes would not work as they are SD only.

    Some folk do not get get GEM, 7Mate or ONE on some of the boxes now because of that, so to switch the primary channel to HD would cut all those people out from watching.

    Set Top Boxes with no HD on should never have been allowed to be sold here in the first place (same with some of the TV’s that only have SD).

    Of course eventually there will be quite a number of STB’s and TV’s that will be non-functional once MPEG 4 becomes the standard (MPEG-2 is in a lot now).

    No time frame on that change, however most STB’s and TV’s in the last 3 years have both MPEG 4 and MPEG 2 (barring real cheap ones on sale), once that change over happens, then I would expect a change to HD (as you can fit more bandwidth in on MPEG $).

  15. I believe the idea is that the primary channel will become the HD channel after 31/12/2013. The current HD channels will revert back to SD.
    Whether sport is then telecast in HD or not I assume is up to the individual agreements. Saw nothing in either the AFL or NRL agreements dictating that they were required to show their coverage in HD.

  19. There is a difference between full HD and upscaled SD. Demitriou’s answer was pretty poor and I think you could explain this issue further.

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