Category Archives: HDTV

Australian Teletext Long Gone

Posted on February 9, 2010 by Stephen Dawson

Last few TVs I’ve reviewed haven’t seemed to be able to access Teletext. For good reason: it has gone. Apparently since 20 September 2009. I should have researched this earlier. I can’t say I’m surprised. It never had a big … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, Equipment, HDTV | 5 Comments

Widescreen ‘pan and scan’

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Stephen Dawson

A few weeks ago I recorded The Da Vinci Code from high definition TV, since I was too busy to watch it during broadcast, and in any case I wanted to test out the Panasonic Blu-ray recorder I was reviewing. … Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray, DTV, HDTV | Leave a comment

HDMI 1.3 cables

Posted on December 1, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

On the Sony BDP-S350 Review Thread at the Blu-ray forum someone asked, ‘I am totally confused whether I should be using a HDMI 1.3 cable.’ Someone else responded, ‘If you want to bitstream DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD you must … Continue reading →

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HDTV vs SDTV again

Posted on September 5, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

Last night one of the Australian Idol judges, Marcia Hines, was wearing this brilliant jacket. Brilliant, that is, from my point of view. That’s because it was white with a strong, very narrow, closely spaced, near horizontal, black stripe. Brilliant … Continue reading →

Posted in DTV, HDTV, Interlacing | Leave a comment

HD Olympics 2

Posted on June 17, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

Much of the Olympics will, as I mentioned in the previous post, will be broadcast in Australia on Channel 7 (Prime TV in regional areas) in high definition. Some of the overflow will be carried by SBS, as agreed between … Continue reading →

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HD Olympics

Posted on May 21, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

The principal broadcaster for the Olympics in Australia will be Channel 7, (Prime TV in regional areas). This time around we will be getting it in HDTV (1080i) in addition to SDTV. There is an interesting problem with the live … Continue reading →

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Will Australian digital TV switch to MPEG4?

Posted on March 5, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

Last night I received a telephone call from a reader who wanted to know if Australia would be switching over to MPEG4 for its digital TV broadcasts. At the moment we are using MPEG2, the same codec used for DVD. … Continue reading →

Posted in Compression, DTV, HDTV, Video | 4 Comments

How to wreck HDTV

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

Last night I watched ‘House‘ which I had recorded earlier on a HDTV PVR. Naturally I recorded the high definition version from my local station, Southern Cross 10 in Canberra, which broadcasts HD at 1,920 by 1,080 pixels. As I … Continue reading →

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Macro blocking

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

In the last item on the HD cricket broadcast I referred to the appearance of MPEG macro blocking in the picture from time to time. So what is macro blocking? I don’t pretend to fully understand the maths behind it, … Continue reading →

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Cricket finally makes it to high definition!

Posted on February 2, 2008 by Stephen Dawson

At long last the first cricket match to be delivered in high definition in Australia was broadcast. This was the 20/20 match between Australia and India, played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Australia won handsomely. Let us have a brief … Continue reading →

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