 tschmidtPremium,MVM
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| reply to wings10
Re: When will HD be the standard? said by wings10:So they are using the same equipment and then ether up converting or down converting? Correct, at the studio filming is done in either SD or HD format. It would be too cumbersome and expensive to have two sets of cameras. Assuming show is filmed in HD it is converted to SD.
Broadcast stations are able to simulcast multiple digital programs for free because they can fit both HD and SD program into a single digital OTA channel.
For Cable it is a different issue. They prefer to carry as many different programs as possible, not different versions of the same program. They have a limited amount of bandwidth. Ideally they would like to get rid of analog completely. In fact I think some MSOs have already done that. Some are looking at giving customers of basic cable a cable ready set top box that works much like the OTA converter box. It converts unencrypted QAM to analog SD NTSC. The converter box is cheap and prevents a lot of complaints by basic cable customers. I use OTA so am not really up on Cable industry.
/tom |
