VFL Grand Final is being shown live in HD tonight at 7pm on ABC HD

Neon Kitten · September 25, 2009, 04:01:38 AM

Just saw a promo on the ABC on a recording from last night, which was promoting the fact that tonight's VFL Grand Final (scheduled for a 10pm broadcast on ABC1) will be shown in HD on ABC HD at 7pm tonight - presumably, a live broadcast. Going by the scheduled time on the SD channel, I'm guessing this'll go for 3 hours.

Cannot provide any online confirmation, since as far as the ABC's web site and iPhone app are concerned, ABC HD doesn't exist. But the ad clearly stated ABC HD, 7pm, in high definition (they called it a "revolution" or similar, amusingly :)

Mitch IceGuide · September 25, 2009, 10:32:10 AM

We're checking it out ... thanks

prl · September 25, 2009, 10:52:09 AM

From what I can gather from the ABC Web program, ABC1 will show Collectors at 2000 then George Gently at 2030, and from 2000 VFL Grand Final on ABC HD (native, if the promo Neon Kitten refers to is correct). There is some information about this on the ABC program page. Just hover over the program entry for George Gently in the main program. It's got different information in it from what you get if you click through. Then at 2200, the VFL will continue on both services. Apparently.

There's nothing in the ABC Web schedule to indicate that the VFL starts at 1900, but if that's what thery're advertisng, then I guess it starts then.

Mitch IceGuide · September 25, 2009, 11:36:04 AM

Hi. We have amended ABC-HD to show VFL Grand Final at 7pm Australia Wide .......

Neon Kitten · September 26, 2009, 05:16:31 AM

Quote from: Mitch IceGuide on September 25, 2009, 11:36:04 AM
Hi. We have amended ABC-HD to show VFL Grand Final at 7pm Australia Wide .......

Which, as the recording I'm now watching confirms, was exactly what went to air (in 720p HD, albeit somewhat blocky).

I'm a bit mystified about why the ABC was keeping this one so unpublicised. Aside from the ad I saw from Thursday night, there was absolutely no indication, even from the ABC's own web sources, that this was going to happen.

I'll be emailing the ABC to ask them to give their HD channel a presence on their web sites. Currently it doesn't have any.

j s · September 28, 2009, 11:49:04 AM

When I was checking this out on Friday afternoon I did discover that the yourtv guide correctly showed the VFL GF as live on ABCHD. The Tivo EPG also showed it correctly. By that time, of course, Ice was also showing it correctly. I have no idea what Yourtv and Tivo might have had listed earlier in the week - I didn't look then.

vincent · September 30, 2009, 06:56:01 PM

I am really starting to like iview as I missed GG which was scheduled. I had a look on the ABC website and they don't even have a TV guide for ABCHD.

prl · September 30, 2009, 07:55:43 PM

Quote from: vincent on September 30, 2009, 06:56:01 PM
I am really starting to like iview as I missed GG which was scheduled. I had a look on the ABC website and they don't even have a TV guide for ABCHD.

The popups when you hover over a program in the ABC's TV guide say if a program is in native HD. Except for the 7pm news and some weekend sport, ABCHD has the same program content as ABC1. It's just a matter of whether the content on HD is native HD content or upscaled SD. It's almost all scaled-up SD.

Daniel Hall at IceTV · September 30, 2009, 08:29:02 PM

Quote from: prl on September 30, 2009, 07:55:43 PM
The popups when you hover over a program in the ABC's TV guide say if a program is in native HD. Except for the 7pm news and some weekend sport, ABCHD has the same program content as ABC1. It's just a matter of whether the content on HD is native HD content or upscaled SD. It's almost all scaled-up SD.

True, what you will find though is that the changes all relate to Sydney, basically ABC HDTV all over Australia is an up-scale of ABC 1 Sydney, so the 7PM News is the Sydney news and not the local state news, same for weekend sports, whatever is shown in Sydney/NSW is what will be on ABC HDTV. The way our feed for ABC HDTV is setup now will reflect this correctly (except there is no note to say that the news in from Sydney/NSW).