They are using HD cameras. Not on all tracks yet. But if your remember FOX HD broadcast - it was clearly shot in HD
I remember a discussion about it on here and some folks argued it wasn't. I can't say, but I did remember, that it was useless to me anyhow because it wasn't in the 16:9 aspect ratio. HD with the old aspect ratio is just a prettier picture. HD in "cinemascope", now you're talking!
I was able to clearly see heat comming from engines. Full 16:9 picture. - Was huge improvement over standard SpeedTV picture. Now - will all cable\dish operators will cary SPEEDTV in HD or it will go to DirectTV only ?
IIRC The USGP was in full HD because it was probably a Fox Camera Crew convering the race. The other races on fox were broadcast in the 16.9 on FOXHD but they were not an HD picture. Hopefully F1 will switch over next year.
F1 has never been broadcast in HD, anywhere. I asked Bob Varsha in person if once Speed goes to HD, will F1 be broadcast in HD? He clearly told me no, and that he anticipates it will not for at least the next 5 - 10 years, if ever. Please see my old posts and read my explanation of why, and of what you thought you was an HD broadcast on Fox: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=136857205#post136857205 http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=157932 That being said, this news article still may be positive for F1 fans in the US - it is possible that Speed will broadcast in the 16:9 format like Fox did. I hope so. It would probably be a great time to go here and start posting messages on the SpeedTV F1 forums begging for the 16:9 feed starting on '08: http://insider.speedtv.com/viewforum.php?f=15 I wouldn't be surprised if they are reluctant to give us this feed due to extra bandwith & hardware costs. Not many people watch F1 live at 2 AM. But I have been told they listen to fan suggestions if enough people make enough noise about it!
As I sure Varsha has much more insider knowledge on the subject, he does not know everything. As far as I know the camera crew at every race comes from whatever local TV network is broadcasting it. Every week NAscar is broadcast in HD, the Indy 500 is in HD, I think even various IRL races are in HD, how is it possible that F1 so behind in this area. I'm sure for most of us the draw to F1 vs some of the other series is the complexity of the engines, the minute differences in the aero packages between the cars, the specialness of each track- things that HD would really exacerbate. I see at least ine HD race in 08 and it going mainstream by 09 - 5 -10 yrs is just Varsha being bitter.
As Tom pointed out F1 will not be HD as it is not broadcast as such. Big difference between upconverting a lower res signal and true HD.
Still - I saw heat from the engine coming up during Silverstone broadcast on Fox. I'll take that over Last year's Fox broadcast when I had hard time distinguishing between "8,9,6" on timing and scoring. If we get original full 16x9 picture with higher color depth and unknown resolution professionally upconverted to 720p - I still going to take it and say "Thank you"
May be original material is shot in 480P (improvement over SD which is 480i) if we get 16x8 480p source upconverted to 720p - you need at least 50" screen and very good eyes to tell the difference between 480p and 720p even if it's not upconverted using professional hardware.
Anything is better than the garbage quality picture we all view now for F1 races. Heck, even NASCRAP is in HD.
Not true. For two seasons, BernieVision was in digital HD - that was the digital service that Ecclestone provided to Pay TV services in Europe. Bernie's TV company flew their own camera gear and broadcast equipment to every race - IIRC, it was in 2002/2003. For subscribers, you could see the regular world feed, but you could also choose your own camera to watch from any of the on-board cameras, pit road cameras, etc - you were your own race director, all the cameras were available to switch and choose. Bernie shut that down and stopped the travelling BernieTV studio because it was losing money and subscriber rates were far below what he needed to indicate growth potential.
