Even though the Speed channel has an HD channel, Does The F1 races have an HD feed?
Not sure if all of them do but back in civilization I didn't have BBC HD, however the picture was much clearer with the new camera's they have compared to last season.
Last year there was a thread about this. F1 had changed the cameras in the cars. One of our fellow F-chatters had posted images (the same image) in HD standard. I don't know if other countries have HD tv's. I do know that Japan has always had the best signal, even b4 HD. I had a C-band receiver with a 10 foot dish and sometimes get their signal from a SAT b4 it was retransmitted by ESPN. The picture was always sharp. My local Fox (for those races that FOX does) retransmitted by DISH HD, I choose to watch in standard def as the picture seems to be a SD expanded to HD format, appears less sharp and incomplete (like when you turn on zoom). The Speed feeds borh HD and SD are both sharp and complete with HD having a wider view. Stephen
Its just widescreen for now. The HD rumours from 2years back were actually ITV going HD, they invested a lot of money in HD getting a 4year contract with SISLink but FOM/F1 Productions were against the idea.... then they lost the rights to the F1... hmm.. Apparently the rumour is that F1 Productions want to sell HD as a pay per view like the F1 Digital channel in the early 00's. BBC have their hands tied. The HD cameras are at the circuit each race. The HD feed is available only to the teams and big corp sponsor tents.. Brazil and Japan aren't covered with F1 Productions so the next race might be shown in HD. There are other rumours like BBCHD doesn't rate well or not enough broadcasters around the world want to pay extra for the HD coverage. Hooray Bernie... Here is the link to confirm no hd with the BBC so I'm not sure where you guys are getting the idea the F1 is HD. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/2009/02/the_2009_formula_one_season_on.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2009/02/bbc_hd_update_dog_patrol.html
The cameras used to shoot the races are HD cameras. But before the feed that is released to the broadcasters is SD, not HD. The HD feed is kept internal to FOM at the tracks. For the majority of the races, FOM are the ones who own the cameras and actually shoot the race. For some races (the Japanese GP, and possibly others), someone other than FOM shoots the race. In Japan, Fuji TV shoots the race, and they shoot it in HD. It is then broadcast in Japan in HD. However, Fuji TV is not allowed to retransmit to other TV stations... only FOM can retransmit. So Fuji TV hands it to FOM who does not transmit it in HD, only in SD. SpeedTV, BBC and other stations take the SD feed, upscale it to 720p or 1080i. So what we see on TV is not high definition. It is just an upscaled version of the digital SD feed. It will look better than the SD feed, but it's a long way from being HD.
Unfortunately that won't happen... unless you live in Brazil or Germany You are right... "hooray Bernie" (dripping with sarcasm). The stations who have rights to shoot the races can do so in HD (like Brazil and Japan), but they are not allowed to sell the feed to anyone else, only FOM can do that. So FOM takes an HD feed, downscales it to SD, then retransmits that to SpeedTV, BBC, etc. A bunch of BS! You're right, supposedly Bernie/FOM want to charge more for HD, or even do it as a PPV.
Somehow despite being the pinnacle of technology HD is still missing. The feed is widescreen but anything HD you see is just upscaled. As always it's a question of money why it isn't yet. My bet is Bernie isn't willing to shell out for uprated equipment for FOM until public pressure becomes too big to ignore, at which point equipment will be cheaper.
It is about money, but not for lack of an equipment budget. As I understand, Bernie wants to sell the HD feed through a pay-per-view scheme. So you see it free on TV in SD, and if you want to watch in HD, you do pay-per-view. ...which I would never pay for.
Good news! Maybe Bernie doesn't want to charge us after all Roll on Abu-dhabi http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/10/09/abu-dhabi-gp-to-be-seen-in-hd/
Wow, that's a shock... I thought PPV HD was Bernie's last word on the subject. Maybe he realized nobody would pay for it or the distribution mechanism just wasn't there? Very good news. Now let's hope that Speed will take the HD feed and send it to the customers and not mess with it. And let's hope Bernie gives it to Speed without a premium that Speed then refuses to pay.
Well it looks like we wont be getting F1 in HD till 2011 http://twitter.com/LeeMcKenzieF1/statuses/7483495405 http://www.leemckenzie.tv/ If I recall correctly Abu Dhabi wasn't shown in HD either
My understanding is that the transmission equipment (owned by BE's organization) is not HD, and there's no indication that Aunt Bernie is ready to spend the money on it.
Sweet, we are going to get HD just in time for it to be replaced by 3D. Way to be on top of the game. Mark
