ABC HD already showing different programming to ABC1

Started by marnott, July 07, 2010, 11:29:47 AM

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raymondjpg

Quote from: prl on July 09, 2010, 07:07:35 PM
If you think that they're claiming upscaled SD material to be HD, then you should address the matter to ACMA, since that's likely to be a breach of the Broadcasting Services Act.

It does emphasise my point about programs like Sunrise (Seven/Prime), though, since Sunrise alone fulfills the day's quota every day it runs.


I have followed your arguments about the requirements of commercial broadcasters to screen a certain amount of native HD content for some little while now.

I have no way of knowing if, for example, Sunrise in HD is upscaled SD, or Sunrise in SD is downscaled HD. My only clue (up to about a year ago) was when Channels 9 and 7 displayed an HD logo on their HD broadcasts, and when those programs weren't directly paralleling SD broadcasts, as they have been doing for about a year now.

Would ACMA be able to tell the difference? What constitutes native HD? Would use of an HD camera in a studio setting and beamed directly on an HD channel fulfill the requirement? If that is the case then it seems to me that any channel (including SBS and ABC) would have little difficulty in complying.

Quote from: prl on July 09, 2010, 07:11:08 PM

The joke's really the other way around. As far as I know, the only native HD SBS have ever broadcast was the 2009 Ashes Series in the UK. The ABC has screened more native HD, but very little of it.

My point was more that 9 and 7 no longer give any clue through use of an HD logo that they may be broadcasting native HD content.

Again, I have no way of knowing if the SBS coverage of the Tour de France is native HD, but the use of HD cameras this year has made for some stunning video on SBS HD. So far I haven't watched or recorded any of the Tour on SBS One (SD) but it may be that the video is just as good, which would point to the HD broadcast being an upscaled SD broadcast. I guess from what you say that this is quite likely.
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prl

Quote from: raymondjpg on July 09, 2010, 08:31:21 PM
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Would ACMA be able to tell the difference? What constitutes native HD? Would use of an HD camera in a studio setting and beamed directly on an HD channel fulfill the requirement? If that is the case then it seems to me that any channel (including SBS and ABC) would have little difficulty in complying.
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Certainly a HD camera in a studio going straight into a HD broadcast without downscaling would constitute HD (why wouldn't it). That's why shows like Sunrise are an easy way to help fill the quota and boost the hours. But despite that, ABC HD didn't show much (or perhaps any) studio-based programming in native HD. Dorothy the Dinosaur, though, was for a time, and some documentaries and drama.

The ACMA quotes Schedule 4 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 as defining what is meant by 'high definition television programs'. If you read that, you'll know as much as I do about how the ACMA defines HD content. It's a bit muddied by the legalese, but it's not an unreasonable definition.
Peter
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