bbc hd some good stuff at last

...Not to mention the Doctor Who Prom...

The Dr Who Prom was excellent - unlike most orchestral broadcasts on the BBC and Sky Arts , hearing this in Dolby Digital was a real treat. ÿIt seemed as if a great deal of care had been taken over the whole thing, whether you were in the hall or watching the recording.

I very much enjoyed the Hootenanny too, but I'm afraid I can't stand 'Nige' !ÿ

ah well each to there own,, i thought nigel and jeff beck was magic what a player of the guitar, i will give you nigel is irritating at times but he knows his stuff, i missed most of the dr who concert but i will watch the repeat today at 17-00 and looking forward to that--- happy new year cheers.

It still puzzles me, however, how a programme with such a draw as last night's Jonathan Creek special was not in HD - the BBC was, oddly, merely showing a movie instead (so it wasn't even a clash of scheduling). And it looked like it was shot in HD....

There is some very odd HD scheduling going on at the moment, As far as I can work out only the second episode of  BBC2's "Three Men in more than one boat" is showing on HD. Last nights first episode was replaced on HD by the same movie that ran against "Jonathan Creek", but episode two is being simulcast on Monday. The repeat of episode one on BBC2 on Saturday is not being being simulcast because the HD channel is showing a repeat of the same film!!! (also preventing the simulcast of the new BBC2 series "History of Scotland).

Obviously it is assumed that the owners of HD systems would rather watch repeats of 5 year old movies than original programming.

Sorreltiger:

 hearing this in Dolby Digital was a real treat.

Was it in true Dolby Digital though? Its been alleged that although many previews are in Dolby Digital most transmissions are either in Stereo or AC3.0 Dolby Stereo (stereo with additional rear info) which I understand is in reality is similar to Dolby Pro Logic and inferior to Dolby Digital 5.1.

For anyone with a cinema system, this is quite an important difference and maybe something that should be addressed.

Its also dissapointing that nearly all non HD films are stereo only when even analogue TV transmits them as Dolby Stereo (Pro Logic).

Whether it's 2.0 or even mono, it can still be still Dolby Digital - DD is an encoding system, not a number of channels...

Oh, and it cant be 'in Dolby Pro-Logic': PL, PLII and PLIIx are processing protocols used to extract surround sound encoded into stereo source material. They can also have the effect of creating some surround effects from pure stereo material, reacting to out of phase signals.

Watched the Dr Who Prom today and it was excellent. Have we established whether the first episode of Jonathan Creek will be on HD anytime soon?

I was definitely getting a Dolby Digital signal for the Dr Who Prom. ÿMy kids were particularly taken by the loud "Exterminate! Exterminate!" which suddenly came from behind them. ÿIf this was cooked up at the mixing stage, I don't mind, as the final effect for the whole concert was excellent.ÿ

It was a great shame that Toy Story - with a great HD picture - was only broadcast in stereo by the BBC. ÿMost, but not all, of the other films on the HD channel over Christmas have been in DD.ÿ

Andrew Everard:

Whether it's 2.0 or even mono, it can still be still Dolby Digital - DD is an encoding system, not a number of channels...

Oh, and it cant be 'in Dolby Pro-Logic': PL, PLII and PLIIx are processing protocols used to extract surround sound encoded into stereo source material. They can also have the effect of creating some surround effects from pure stereo material, reacting to out of phase signals.

Well that was kind of my point Andrew.

For Dolby Digital most people expect 5.1 especially as thats what most films are encoded in. In fact what we seem to be getting apparently is Pro Logic from Dolby Stereo encoded sound rather than DD 5.1. With SD films you don't even get that just plain stereo.

Sorry if this seems a thread hijack btw, but it was discussing Freesat Audio.

Forgive me if I'm being very dense, but the Prom was broadcast in 5.1, not stereo. ÿAre you implying that there was something false in this? ÿAs I said, Toy Story was a stereo broadcast, which was very disappointing.

i also agree that it was dd 5.1 as that was showing on my av amp if it was not 5.1 it still sounded very good to me ..

Have been watching BBC HD through my new Foxsat HDR and I can echo all the comments about the sound.  I too watched the New Years Eve content and was blown away by the quality of the sound and picture.  I have also noted though that some programs are listed as DD 5.1 but my processor displayed Dolby Pro Logic.

If you think the HD programming is a bit hit & miss at the moment then you wont be surprised to see all six episodes of "Parents of the band" one after the other during prime time tonight. Ahhhh!

Sorreltiger:

Forgive me if I'm being very dense, but the Prom was broadcast in 5.1, not stereo.  Are you implying that there was something false in this?  As I said, Toy Story was a stereo broadcast, which was very disappointing.

I've checked on some other forums and it seems the Proms were in DD 5.1, so a big thumbs up for that. didn't actually watch the proms myself as I'm neither a big classical nor Doctor Who fan.

hdmad:

I have also noted though that some programs are listed as DD 5.1 but my processor displayed Dolby Pro Logic.

Thats what I'm on about. Thats because the transmission whilst technically describeable as Dolby Digital, is in fact Dolby Stereo which is Digital Stereo with additional rear info that a surround processor can decode as Dolby Pro Logic signal.

If you're wondering why I'm being picky over this, its because there's a vast difference in sound quality between Pro Logic and 5.1.

5.1 has discrete sound ie sounds designed and specifically assigned to certain channels, it has bass seperation with a dedicated bass channel thereby avoiding bass distortion of dialogue and mids / highs whilst allowing a dedicated speaker to accurately reproduce the bass, it has accurate sound sound placement - the fact the sounds are discrete and thus assigned to specific channels and thus speakers meaning both placement and volume can be tightly controlled so that effects can be very accurately placed in the room.

Dolby Pro Logic on the other hand has non of these features although PLII does get a dedicated bass channel upgrade.

Very well said, "hdmad"! I'm very interested in buying the Foxsat HRD after its excellent review in WHF - but for what? 6 episodes of any domestic sit-com (in SD, HD or even black & white) is 6 too many for me......

Rant-mode ON->

Can someone at WHF please bang some TV executives' heads on the table until they realise that HD content is the future and that they need to stop focusing on promoting Freesat as a slightly-higher tech version of Freeview. The only reason I would move to Freesat is to get HD programmes without paying Sky's exorbitant package rates for its million other SD channels, most of which are rubbish.

Give me the current BBC-1/2/4/News24 output in HD and with DD5.1 sound and I'll happily spend £300 on the Foxsat plus maybe £100 on a dish install. But I'm not doing that just to watch the same SD channels that I already have on my Freeview-equiped TV!

Rant-mode OFF->

Happy New Year to all!