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[Gregg Lengling]

The HD Muse


What a difference a month makes!

All of a sudden the HD Transition has gone from a shaky future to a virtual fait accompli. Everywhere we look the dominoes are falling.

Two years ago Mark Cuban predicted that when the major programming players finally got hip to the big picture (as it were) there would be a desperate staking of claim to available spectrum. Well those words have already proved prescient as even the most ardent of HD-phobes are now claiming territory in a manner reminiscent to the Oklahoma land grab depicted in the movie "Far and Away".

Anti-HDTV grump John Sie of Starz, who as recently as six months ago was still disavowing any interest in an Starz-HD, led the way at the recent NCTA Cable Show with the startling
announcement of three new Starz HDTV feeds, even going so far as to specify a 17+Mbps bit rate for the video portion. Me thinks this signals Starz's intention (which we applaud by the way!) to insist on full bit rate pass through for its 1080i signals when contracting with cable companies and
satellite providers as 1080i savvy CBS and HDNet are already doing...   And yes all of you Comcast HDTV customers, that IS the reason you do not have CBS HD signals on your HD cable
system... Apparently the "Starz Challenge" in which NCTA
passers-by were asked to attempt to differentiate between a Starz HD feed and a "Starz High Resolution" 480i 5.6 Mbps feed was a real bust as anyone with experienced eyes could tell the difference in a heartbeat. Mr Sie was still insisting that HDTV is a waste of bandwidth, especially where film based sources are concerned. We would speculate that Mr Sie has not yet had the opportunity to check out HDNet
Movies...

Our old friend Rupert Murdoch has been a busy beaver on the HD front as well. Not only is he cooing sweet HD nothings into all the right ears on Capitol Hill, but both Fox Sports Networks and Fox Network proper have announced HD plans. FSN will launch four regional HD networks while Fox Network plans to broadcast 50% or more of their primetime content in 720p by the 2004 season...

Congratulations to DirecTV on their assumption of satellite supremacy with the July launch of their new HD package consisting of HDNet, HDNet Movies, Discovery HD Theater, and the fledgling ESPN-HD...The champagne may have to go back on ice after the Starz and Fox Sports Net unveilings
at the NCTA Cable show...The latest programming  nnouncements seriously adds to the growing number of HD Networks (InDemand HD, Bravo HD, Cinemax HD, and now Starz and FSN feeds) DirecTV will be extremely hard-pressed to add in the months to come until their dedicated local into local satellite launches. Look for DISH Network and cable to
attempt to capitalize on that bandwidth advantage in the months to come.

DirecTV HDTV customers are already complaining over the results of squeezeing two HD 1080i channels on a single transponder-resulting in an ~ 20% bit rate reduction for each. When asked about this bit squeeze chicanery and
the havoc it reeks on a 1080i signal like HDNet's, a DirecTV VP
declared recompression of HD feeds a "proprietary concern."
Hopefully, DirecTV can figure out how to accomodate one HD channel at full bandwidth along with a number of SD channels at limited bandwidth on a single transponder so as to not
compromise the enduser's HD experience, not to mention
their current marketing advantage...

720p Redux: Recent live sports HD offerings from ABC and ESPN have me scratching my head. Does 720p really HAVE to look this bad? Technical glitches with encoders and focus problems aside, the Stanley Cup Finals and particularly the NBA Finals had extremely disappointing picture quality. Reviewers on the web at AVS Forum were not kind either. Clearly, the comparison to the "NBA in HD" re-broadcasts on
DirecTV and DISH was not a favorable one for Disney...
My broadcast engineering friends keep reassuring me
that video sourced 720p can look either almost or just
as good as 1080i. While everything I have seen so far
this year has led me to be skeptical about this, I finally went back to tapes of the 2000 SuperBowl (Rams vs Titans) for a comparison to more recent offerings...Well in this case memory did indeed serve correct: That SuperBowl PQ from three and a half years ago simply BLOWS AWAY any of the recent HD sports broadcasts served up by ABC and ESPN. Even the distance shots were nicely detailed in a manner that would do CBS or HDNet proud. The HD Muse is simply
dying to know why that is. Somebody please send me an
email (thehdmuse@yahoo.com) and explain why ABC was
getting it right back in 1999-2000, and why they
simply aren't now... Don't want to be accused of piling on those poor blokers at ABC Sports, but.. Ya gotta love the timing of that fat contract they inked with the NBA, just as
Michael Jordan retires and the Lakers go bust.
Television ratings of the 2003 NBA Finals on ABC were
the lowest since CBS taped delayed the games back in
the late 70s before the Magic and Bird era...

The Home Entertainment Show in San Francisco in early
June gave Sony an opportunity to show off a prototype of its new SXRD 1920x1080 LCOS front projector which they claim to be set for a fall release. I must admit the pictures looked absolutely great, right up there in quality with the current JVC DILA projector line... Needless to say the subsequent announcement of a $20,000+ opening price was a bit of a disappointment, but not surprising in light of the general
skepticism expressed by Pete Putman and others of Sony's ability to mass produce an LCOS chipset at the high yields
that have eluded so many others...

Samsung also showed off its HDTV line at HES, but did not bring their new DLP front projector with the Joe Kane color palette user selectable tweaks that created such a stir at the recent InfoComm in Orlando... Unfortunately, rumors of a firewire ported DirecTV HD STB were also definitively quashed by a Samsung insider...This is good news for 169Time which
meanwhile announced firewire mods for several DirecTV STBs in addition to the original DTC-100...

Soon firewire will not be limited to DISH STBs and 169Time mods. Motorola, Pioneer, Pace Micro, and Scientific Atlanta have all unveiled new cable HD STB/PVRs compatible with the Cable/Consumer Electronic Manufacturer plug and play agreement reached last December. Only problem remaining is the FCC which had promised a swift decision but has instead still failed to ratify the agreement...Too busy loosening up
those media ownership rules, eh?

Meanwhile over at the DVD Forum, Toshiba was unable to garner the votes needed to win endorsment of its alternative HD-Blue Laser format known as Advanced Optical Disc (AOD).It now would appear likely that another alternative backed by Warner Bros that uses standard DVD-9s and red lasers along with a more efficient compression codec (variations of MPEG-4) will fail to win support as well. Problem is just too many of the Forum's voting members are already in the Blu-Ray camp as well. Let's keep our fingers crossed
that a single unified HD-DVD format emerges from the smoke filled rooms of Tokyo...

Check out the "Waiting to Die" new series on Showtime which debuts this week. The four episode "No Way Out" on Showtime was terrific...And a little known film by an obscure director named Francis Ford Coppola debuts in HD on July 2nd on HBO, "The Godfather."

Write the HD Muse at thehdmuse@yahoo.com.