Local Stations in HD on Access? - Page 4 - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

PhotoJim · 2012-05-10, 12:10 AM

I wouldn't say it defeats the purpose of going HD.

Back in the 1960s when colour television was adopted, lots of programming was still produced in black and white. However, if you didn't have a colour-compatible broadcast platform you had no possibility of receiving colour content in full colour.

Broadcasting in HD lets us watch HD programs in HD. It doesn't make us lose anything on 480i content - it just doesn't give us an upgrade (with the exception that Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is compatible with ATSC broadcasting, and not with NTSC analog, so even if you don't get a picture upgrade on a given show, you might get an audio upgrade.

brithgob · 2012-05-17, 03:52 PM

So for some reason Access has the Regina HD stations included in their "free preview" until June 6th. This made no sense at all... but looking at their individual packages, the "HD Starter" package does indeed include the Regina stations, while Toronto and Vancouver HD move into "HD Timeshift" which makes more sense. And in fact, it looks like they've addded a couple that SaskTel Max doesn't offer in HD: Spike and Peachtree.

As for CTV and local news in HD, don't hold your breath. Colour TV began in 1966 but it took CKCK seven years after that to buy colour cameras for their studios.

EDIT: Oh, and only a couple new HD channels have been added to Access in North Battleford, which clearly has far less capacity. The free preview consists only of the HD versions of Encore Avenue, Food and HGTV (and the non-HD ABC Spark.) No Hollywood Suite, no Peachtree and Spike and no HD locals.

PhotoJim · 2012-05-17, 04:04 PM

Access needed to free up some bandwidth to make room for more HD channels. They recently changed their compression to be more efficient (obsoleting the DCT1000 SD digital cable box in the process, but giving a free box to people who still had the old one) and now they've launched a bunch of new channels.

I still think the local channels should be in clear QAM (i.e. tunable with ATSC TV tuners) on digital cable networks in Canada, but to my knowledge, no Canadian cable company agrees. I'm tempted to write a letter to the CRTC to explain why it's desirable. (Cable companies are obliged to carry local channels unencrypted, but in my opinion, they should be obliged to carry them that way in equal quality to the over-the-air broadcast. An SD analog channel on their cable system doesn't count.)

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2012-05-10, 12:10 AM	#46
PhotoJim Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Regina, SK, CA Posts: 618	I wouldn't say it defeats the purpose of going HD. Back in the 1960s when colour television was adopted, lots of programming was still produced in black and white. However, if you didn't have a colour-compatible broadcast platform you had no possibility of receiving colour content in full colour. Broadcasting in HD lets us watch HD programs in HD. It doesn't make us lose anything on 480i content - it just doesn't give us an upgrade (with the exception that Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is compatible with ATSC broadcasting, and not with NTSC analog, so even if you don't get a picture upgrade on a given show, you might get an audio upgrade.

2012-05-17, 03:52 PM	#47
brithgob Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Saskatchewan Posts: 31	So for some reason Access has the Regina HD stations included in their "free preview" until June 6th. This made no sense at all... but looking at their individual packages, the "HD Starter" package does indeed include the Regina stations, while Toronto and Vancouver HD move into "HD Timeshift" which makes more sense. And in fact, it looks like they've addded a couple that SaskTel Max doesn't offer in HD: Spike and Peachtree. As for CTV and local news in HD, don't hold your breath. Colour TV began in 1966 but it took CKCK seven years after that to buy colour cameras for their studios. EDIT: Oh, and only a couple new HD channels have been added to Access in North Battleford, which clearly has far less capacity. The free preview consists only of the HD versions of Encore Avenue, Food and HGTV (and the non-HD ABC Spark.) No Hollywood Suite, no Peachtree and Spike and no HD locals.

2012-05-17, 04:04 PM	#48
PhotoJim Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Regina, SK, CA Posts: 618	Access needed to free up some bandwidth to make room for more HD channels. They recently changed their compression to be more efficient (obsoleting the DCT1000 SD digital cable box in the process, but giving a free box to people who still had the old one) and now they've launched a bunch of new channels. I still think the local channels should be in clear QAM (i.e. tunable with ATSC TV tuners) on digital cable networks in Canada, but to my knowledge, no Canadian cable company agrees. I'm tempted to write a letter to the CRTC to explain why it's desirable. (Cable companies are obliged to carry local channels unencrypted, but in my opinion, they should be obliged to carry them that way in equal quality to the over-the-air broadcast. An SD analog channel on their cable system doesn't count.)