Superbowl in HD?

Mark A wrote:
"Rog'" wrote in message
. ..
Recognizing that many households will only have SD sets, I
suspect that many, if not most will broadcast both in digital
with both SD and HD signals. I doubt that cable is likely to
become exclusively HD anytime soon.

Cable and Satellite converter boxes can fairly easily convert a HD signal to
whatever signal is needed by the TV, whether it is analog or SD digital,
720p digital, or 1080i digital (the later 2 being HD). Most of the cable
boxes and all of the satellite converter boxes do that today.

No, most digital SD cable boxes do NOT down convert the HD signals.
They just can't receive those channels. The cable systems will provide a
analog and digital SD version of the HD channel from the broadcast
networks for their subscribers. The satellite SD boxes can't handle HD
channels either AFAIK, so the satellite providers will provide a
downconverted SD channel for the broadcast networks as well. Not hard
for them to do this.

Sidenote: some cable systems are going all digital. In this case, they
provide a low end SD STB to receive the SD cable channels for the analog
TVs.

However, there is no need for the broadcast stations to provide a SD
version of the HD sub-channel. ALL ATSC tuners can receive a HD signal
format as the HD formats as just part of the 18 screen resolution
formats supported by the ATSC spec. ALL ATSC tuners can downconvert the
HD channels to a SD 480i output.

The digital ATSC to NTSC converter boxes that are now coming out for
the analog TV broadcast shutdown which are eligible for the $40
government coupon program do not output HD by federal requirement. But
they can receive a HD, 4:3 SD, or 16:9 widescreen SD signal and display
it to a SD TV. The boxes, again as part of the requirement, have a
aspect button to switch between center cutting the 16:9 to 4:3 or
display the widescreen channel in letterboxed format.

Alan F

Wes Newell wrote:

I don't keep up with cable much since I don't have it, but all they are
required to carry on analog is the locals. And this was only because they
were forced to by the FCC. They will move all none local channels to
digital asap to give them more room for HD. They've already started doing
this. The bandwidth for one analog channel will support 5 or more digital
channels.

With QAM-256, they can fit up to 9 high quality SD channels into the 6
MHz bandwidth taken up by 1 analog channel. With additional compression
or for the lower quality SD sources, most cable companies put 10 to 12
SD channels on each QAM channel. One QAM-256 channel can have 2 full
bandwidth HD channels or 3 if the cable companies squeeze them (and they
do). No question that analog is a bandwidth hog as the pressure grows to
add more digital services - HD, internet, VOD.

However, the cable companies have not really been forced to maintain
analog by the FCC. The FCC left them an out if the cable companies
decide to go entirely digital before 2012. The cable companies just have
to supply low cost SD STBs to their subscribers with analog TVs. They
have to give enough advance notice, ideally a year to their subscribers,
before they shut down all analog channels.

A number of smaller cable companies have opted to go all digital and
are in the process of doing so. Comcast in Chicago in mid 2007 reduced
the analogs to locals & PEGS only for a total of around 30+ analog
channels. All the national cable channels went digital. Appeared to be a
test project by Comcast. Also had the benefit of stopping analog cable
theft. Verizon FiOS will be killing it's up to 40 analog channels this
year to free up the bandwidth, but anyone with a Verizon STB or DVR
never got the analog channels anyway as they were all digitally
simulcast from the start.

Alan F

"Cass Lewart" wrote in message
...
Cass Lewart ) wrote:
: As I understand in NYC area it will be carried by Fox which does not
: have an HD channel. The analog channel is 5 and the digital SD
: channel is 5-1. Will they switch to HD by tomorrow?

I just checked it again. 5-1 is transmitted in 720p. PBS and other
networks send their HD channels in 1080i so 5-1 will be close to HD.
Cass

===================================
720p IS HD!

Couldn't use it 'cause my screen was already taken by the Magnavox
Odussey game system overlay.

BTW - those blue-red-green slapons fooled a few people into thinking
they were getting a "fell-off-the-truck" color TV in NYC during the
early '70s. I saw the aftermath firsthand when the victims realized
what they actually bought.

On 04 Feb 2008 03:29:02 GMT, "John Q. Public" wrote:

In message , Richard
Cranium is alleged to have said:

GREAT!!!

Then I can watch it in peace on my Dumont with the magnifying glass
hanging down in front of the 5 inch screen.

Don't forget the 3-color screen overlay to simulate color (blue on the top
1/3, red in the middle, green on the bottom).

(Alan*F) wrote:

"With QAM-256, they can fit up to 9 high quality
SD channels into the 6 MHz bandwidth taken up
by 1 analog channel."

Alan, I was under the impression that an SD signal requires a 3.75 Mbps
bitrate, in which case a 38.8 Mbps QAM channel would yield TEN
subchannels. Which of my figures is in error?

wrote:
(Alan F) wrote:

"With QAM-256, they can fit up to 9 high quality
SD channels into the 6 MHz bandwidth taken up
by 1 analog channel."

Alan, I was under the impression that an SD signal requires a 3.75 Mbps
bitrate, in which case a 38.8 Mbps QAM channel would yield TEN
subchannels. Which of my figures is in error?

The bit rate for a quality SD channel is not written in stone. It is a
bendable number, same as the bit rate for HD. Verizon FiOS generally
puts up to 9 SD channels per QAM-256 channel. They do squeeze more low
bit rate channels such as channel & weather info channels (with slowly
changing screens), PEGs, foreign channels than just 9 into a QAM
channel. I think you also have to look at overhead and peak bit rate.
So, depending on how much bandwidth you want to set aside for each SD
channel, they can fit 9 or 10 good quality SD channels into 1 QAM channel.

Alan F