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Foxtel's HD Channels Dissected, Guts Thrown Around Room
Posted by Nick Broughall at 11:46 AM on January 31, 2008
After yesterday's unveiling of Foxtel's HD+ service, I thought it would be a good idea to take a closer look at the channel menu. Some of you were disappointed by the selection of only four dedicated HD channels. In reality there's a little bit more on offer than just four channels, and a plan to roll out even more channels next year. Hit the jump for a closer analysis of the HD offerings. BBC HD
Because the BBC has such a wide variety of programming, you can expect BBC HD to be just as eclectic in its selection. Some of the programs you can look forward to watching include comedies and dramas like Bleak House, Robin Hood, Torchwood, Hotel Babylon, Lead Balloon and Sensitive Skin. Plus you'll get awesome documentaries like Planet Earth, Galapagos, Hannibal, Supervolcano and Who do you think you are? (If you haven't seen Planet Earth in HD, you should go out, buy a Blu-ray player and the Blu-ray disc and watch it today - it's spectacular). Finally, there will also be musical shows and operas, like The Proms, Glyndebourne, Aida and Tosca.
While not every thing there sounds completely enjoyable, it offers a pretty good variety. And with the BBC hoping to produce all its primetime programs in HD by 2010, the amount of content is only going to grow in the next few years.
Fox Sports HD
Last year, Channel 10 showed their key AFL matches and the Rugby World Cup in HD. If you didn't get to experience it, you were missing out - HD is pretty much made for sport. Fox Sports HD is going to join the other four Fox Sports Channels as a dedicated station, showcasing a selection of Australian and international sports.
The press release says local coverage will include the "AFL, NRL, Rugby Union Internationals, Socceroos matches, The Hyundai A-league and the Ford Ranger Cup". At the launch, they also mentioned the Super 14 in that list.
On top of that, look for international HD coverage of sports like tennis, cricket, golf and motorsports including NASCAR. Local sports panel shows NRL on FOX, Total Football and Inside Rugby will also be filmed in HD.
I'm not entirely sure whether Fox Sports HD will be filming their own coverage in 1080i, although it would seem logical, considering half of those are currently only filmed in SD. I've put the question to Foxtel and am currently waiting for a response.
ESPN HD
Continuing the sports theme, we'll also get ESPN HD which will show a massive array of
ESPN HD will generally be transmit at 720p - Foxtel HD+ will broadcast in the standard the program was filmed at, and most US sports is filmed in 720p.
Discovery HD and National Geographic HD
These two channels get grouped together because, well, they'll be broadcast as a single documentary channel. At least initially - once that D3 satellite goes online next year, expect them to branch off into two separate entities.
Content-wise, the mega documentary channel is fairly self-explanatory. You can expect to see lots of documentaries.
Foxtel Box Office HD
The new iQ2 box that's a necessary part of the HD+ package lets Foxtel improve their Box Office / On Demand offerings into one super service. Box Office HD will offer a selection of 1080i HD movies with 5.1 surround sound that can be watched instantaneously.
It works exactly the same as On Demand does in the current iQ box - movies will be pushed to the iQ2's hard drive via a built-in 4th tuner, so that when you press play, the movie starts immediately. It also offers full DVD functionality - you can pause, rewind and fast forward through the film.
Purchased movies are available for a full 48 hours and the service is on offer for all iQ2 subscribers.
The Future
As mentioned earlier, Foxtel are planning on expanding content when the D3 satellite goes online in May next year. The most obvious moves would be to separate the National Geographic and Discovery HD channels, plus add more standard entertainment HD channels - think Fox8 HD, Arena HD, TV1 HD and so on.
The fact that they've only launched with four HD channels may turn some people off subscribing initially, but it isn't necessarily a bad move. Remember, HD is still in its infancy in Australia - it was only November/December last year that channels 7 and 10 launched their own HD channels, which still spend a lot of time showing the same content as the SD channel. Channel 9 is still fart-arsing around with their HD offering, and despite the fact HD panels are selling more and more, most people still only have CRTs in their lounge rooms, making HD irrelevant to them.
The good news is that with everybody moving towards an HD future, content is going to become more readily available. This move from Foxtel is just the start.
Comments
Bam
Posted January 31, 2008 12:55 PM
HD will only exaggerate the massive difference in picture quality Foxtel already spit out on the standard digital channels. Sure some of that will be alleviated with iQ2 but at what cost..an extra $10/month? $110+/month for the full package is a big call compared to pricing overseas (NZ for example, if you are thinking that the Aus pop size is a real excuse).
What would have been impressive is if they will at least bring all the digital channels up to SD quality once D3 is up and running. Watching an episode of Futurama last night on Fox8 looked like it was being sourced from YouTube.
Ken
Posted January 31, 2008 4:03 PM
If Foxtel wants to stay relevant, they are seriously going to have to forget about charging extra for HD. There are increasing oprions for people who don't want to pay their inflated charges and don't see why they should have to pay extra when production of HD media has roughly the same costs as SD.
jimbo
Posted January 31, 2008 4:05 PM
Sorry, did you say TV1 HD? How exactly do you have a HD channel consisting entirely of shows created before the advent of HD and 1080p filming?
Peter Bambara
Posted January 31, 2008 5:37 PM
And all of you who live in a multi-unit dwelling won't get the HD channels at all because Foxtel can't (won't?) supply the IQ where the signal is split between apartments.
digriz
Posted January 31, 2008 10:51 PM
"If you haven't seen Planet Earth in HD, you should go out, buy a Blu-ray player and the Blu-ray disc and watch it today - it's spectacular)". ???
Or spend less on a HD player and buy the HD disc? Exactly the same quality sound and image for far, far less cost. This is one of the reasons that the BBC are carrying on with HD despite their main distributer going to bluray. I kow fox has 'decided' to go bluray, but really.
Iain
Posted February 1, 2008 10:46 AM
DIGRIZ, I know where you are coming from but the HD-DVD option is now bad advice.
I hate to say it, but if you look at the way the HD-DVD/Blu Ray war is shaping up HD-DVD is looking like a lost cause at the moment. I know it is cheaper and has had better standards right from the start (and doesn't have a shifting target meaning the only blu-ray player on the market that can currently keep up is the PS3 (convenient huh!)) but you will be investing in a technology that wont be supported by a majority of the film studios any more. Even Gartner has sounded the death knoll for HD-DVD. On the bright side we don't have to worry about which format will die now.
HDLover
Posted February 3, 2008 11:00 AM
Actually the image from a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD will be better that what Foxtel will offer on their MPEG4 HD service because-
- Blu-Ray/HD-DVD can be outputted from the player in their native 1080p/24hz format as opposed to the 1080i from Foxtels Movie channel.
- Lossless sound formats such as Uncompressed PCM, Dolby True-HD, and DTS-MA.
- More importantly there is not blocking or pixelating that occurs on free to air HDTV when the bit rate is starved. What bitrate will Foxtel use?
Reubot
Posted February 3, 2008 4:03 PM
"it was only November/December last year that channels 7 and 10 launched their own HD channels,"
ABC, 7, 9 & 10 have all had HD channels for years.
Steve Arden
Posted May 5, 2008 11:21 AM
Forget about HD, when is Foxtel gonna start delivering SD?! The low-res. compression ratios of a lot of their programming is disgusting (TCM, History Channel and Ovation spring to mind). If they're worried about consumer "churn" then they'd better start addressing basic product quality issues.
Macca
Posted May 6, 2008 4:40 PM
It's a bit hard to get excited about Foxtel HD when last night I watched an episode of NCIS on TV1 in grainy 4:3, when I watched the same episode in crystal clear widescreen HD on FTA last year!
Only a few channels on Foxtel Digital are anywhere close to PQ of FTA SD.
Will these problems be fixed with the advent of the IQ2 box?
Posed similar questions on the Foxtel BLOG, but they seem to pick only positive ones to display.
Jack
Posted May 22, 2008 10:09 PM
Will Foxtel IQ 2 be limited to Dolby Digital 5.1 lossy? Does it take up too much bandwidth for Dolby True HD, DTS MA, PCM uncompressed?
Macca
Posted June 3, 2008 4:47 PM
Anyone?
Seems as though the question has got through a few times on the official HD blog, but remain conviently unanswered.
Watch any movie on Foxtel with a dark background and colour banding is horrific!