BBC America promises HD feed announcements "soon"
[Thanks, Michael]
[Thanks, Michael]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
plonk420 @ Jul 23rd 2009 2:41PM
what's the point if Top Gear isn't HD native? :(
glenskey @ Jul 23rd 2009 12:56AM
lol, doctor who
Jeremy W @ Jul 23rd 2009 1:13AM
If there is an HD feed, but nobody can see it, is it really there?
mugatu @ Jul 23rd 2009 11:20AM
I was looking forward to blaming Dish Network for waiting until after the Torchwood mini-series to turn on BBCA HD since that would so be their M.O., but it looks like everyone is doing it. I'll blame Dish Network anyway, it makes me feel nice.
lucyfan62 @ Jul 23rd 2009 2:40AM
Well, they lost a viewer for the Torchwood event this week because no HD on DirecTV (thank god the BD is out next week). Would love to see Being Human in HD.
antftw @ Jul 23rd 2009 5:38AM
Fail. I was super-duper excited about the launch, but now, I just don't know. I'll be glad when it finally get's here (Comcast in Indiana, specifically,) but it won't be an "event" anymore... and Torchwood looks BBAADD in SD on an HD set. So much grain. THE GRAIN! O_O
Brandon Sharitt @ Jul 23rd 2009 10:13AM
Lack of HD was the biggest reason I grabbed Childrem of Earth from torrent sites, no HD for BBCA on U-Verse. Sure the 1.4 GB files for each episode was big, but looked great.
Alex @ Jul 23rd 2009 10:46AM
My TiVo says I'm getting it in 720p here outside DC on Comcast. Signal looked better than in the past. 1080 would be better
Nate @ Jul 23rd 2009 10:48AM
Top Gear HD please
Michael @ Jul 23rd 2009 10:49AM
Why is there even a BBC America, why don't they just give us the BBC that the British have?
Andrew Timson @ Jul 23rd 2009 10:55AM
There's actually four BBC channels in the UK. But even if all of the BBC content was licensed for broadcast in the US (which is doubtful at present!), you'd still have to pay premium channel fees a la HBO in the range of $250/year to get the BBC channels (as there's no commercials for funding; instead, residents have an annual tax per television used).
Having a separate American channel lets them pick the best of the content from the four, as well as including commercials so it's cheap enough that it can be included with standard cable packages.
Tim @ Jul 23rd 2009 12:00PM
I actually was wondering what happened with this.
I watched BBC America HD on July 20. I saw the first episode of Torchwood and it looked amazing and I woke up the next morning and the channel was gone...???
riverside_guy @ Jul 23rd 2009 11:30AM
The HD channel was supposed to launch last year... ok so they missed that. BUT they had PLENTY of time to do the carriage agreements, so it's NOT an excuse so many "new" shows are only being viewed in SD.
Of course, there's no guarantee which MSOs may or may not carry BBC-A HD. Or when. My guess would be that it will take 1-2 years before any TWC customers see BBC-A HD.
mugatu @ Jul 23rd 2009 11:40AM
Special thanks to BBCA for the perpetual on-screen text at the bottom of the screen. We need to know we're watching Torchwood: Children of Earth at all times while we're actually watching it. Pop-ups would be less annoying but I guess some people have Alzheimer's so they tend to forget what they're watching every 5 seconds. Thanks also for the 5 line high bug on the right hand side of the screen promoting Dr. Who. Great idea, way to get the most out of that graphics software you purchased.
Jeff Songster @ Jul 23rd 2009 12:18PM
Dish was supposed to have it soon on Channel 9450... but they failed to make it by torchwood so I'm going to cancel and download via my AppleTV in HD. After 2 online chats and a call they have failed. Hope they get it someday I may eventually resubscribe. Or maybe I'll just use U-Verse when it arrives at my home. Oh well.
Eh @ Jul 23rd 2009 12:59PM
One things for sure, 99% of Comcast customers wont be getting it this year.
Joe Siegler @ Jul 23rd 2009 1:05PM
Time Warner Cable in Dallas is godawful slow in adding things in HD, so I won't expect this any time this year. Heck, they haven't even added the MLB Network HD and that's been available since Jan 1st.
Anyway, I have been watching in SD on BBCA, even though I watched it the week it happened in the UK.
If you have an Xbox 360, the show is available in the Video Marketplace too. It costs $3 an episode in HD there, so it's $15 for the whole series in HD, which isn't bad, considering the BluRay of that will cost $25 (discounted at Amazon).
This also has the advantage of not having the text scroll all over the BBCA feed, too. :)
WebDev511 @ Jul 23rd 2009 1:05PM
Kind of frustrating to have them say they're in HD, but not be carried as HD by DirecTV.
robert @ Jul 23rd 2009 1:40PM
If the BBC can't broadcast the British Open in HD, how can you expect them to have a HD channel?
Are they even shooting programming in HD?
Otherwise, just another Stretch-O-Vision channel.
Andrew Timson @ Jul 23rd 2009 5:56PM
The BBC has a dedicated HD channel running parallel to their four SD channels, roughly eight hours per day. Some content like Torchwood is simulcast, the rest is reruns.
Starting in 2010 all BBC programming must be delivered in HD (or at least that used to be their plan), but until then it's up to the program makers. As for when their other channels will have high-def feeds available... who knows?
squiggleslash @ Jul 26th 2009 8:25AM
The BBC has little reason to employ stretchovision given virtually all of it, since the mid-nineties, has been recorded in 16:9. Even if they're showing SD content, the SD content is natively 16:9, just as SD DVDs are usually 16:9.
In the late eighties the BBC came up with a standard 14:9 framing strategy where the content would be recorded so that the action could be seen within a 14:9 box on a 16:9 recording. The content transmitted for regular 4:3 TV would be the 14:9 box (giving you very thin black bars on the top and bottom of the screen), while it would be the 16:9 version for 16:9 TV standards (PAL Plus and all of their digital TV channels.)
I think it's a big shame the US TV stations didn't follow suit at the time. Even if they were required to broadcast 4:3 for their NTSC feeds, they could have provided 16:9 to satellite and cable companies digital feeds and standardized upon 16:9 for digital. Then when the HD switch came around, we wouldn't still have this stupid mix of pillar boxed, stretchovision, and real 16:9 content.
Jeffrey @ Jul 23rd 2009 4:18PM
I wasn't going to watch "Torchwood" at all since BBC America HD wasn't available. But, I broke down and just watched them in SD. Nothing new since I'm used to watching BBCA in SD.
I had to laugh when, on the second night, at the bottom of the screen was the scrawl (or should I say a plea) for viewers to call their providers and ask for BBC America HD.
DirecTV said that they do not have the bandwidth to carry this channel, and will more than likely be carried some time after September (a new satellite is going up). I just say that is bull. DTV has numerous pay-per-view channels that are in HD. They could have, at least I think, easily dumped a couple of those to become the ONLY provider in the US to have BBC America HD. It could have been a good marketing campaign and selling point for people to leave Comcast or Dish Network.
Of course, maybe it is not that easy to stop broadcasting a couple of HD pay-per-view channels and switch it to another.
jay @ Jul 24th 2009 9:26AM
I watched the first 2 episodes of Torchwood children of earth on directv. I then got sick of the quality(I am used to hd) and went to the computer and downloaded the final 3. I have a wd media player and I watched the last 3 episodes in hd, fantastic. I just downloaded doctor who planet of the dead and am getting ready to watch it. bbca has quite a few good shows and the previews for being human looked good. It would be great if directv would carry this channel in hd since I have satellite internet and have bandwidth limitations.
E71 @ Jul 28th 2009 10:47AM
British shows suck... they're just so damn depressing.
Much like the Brits I guess...