Thanks for the great advice everybody. I'm like Vinny Barbarino with this stuff. Remember when TV's used to just be TV's? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ll9-jEtEiiI At the 0:59 mark.
My understanding is that sports programming doesn't compress well, so they would require a lot of satellite or cable bandwidth at 1080 resolution. Video with near static backgrounds compress the best - like TV news with only the reporter's head moving and a static blue screen image in the background. The background for sports programming pans across the fans in the seats.
so are you saying, we get 1080 here because the signal doesn't go as far? but not 1080 in other arenas because they are further? i don't mean to sound rude, just confused on your exact point other than, 1080 sports is hard.
You may not be getting 1080 for sports at all. It has nothing to do with distance, but with mpeg compression ratios. 480 takes 4 megabits / second of bandwidth. 720 takes 12 to 15 megabits. 1080 takes 15 to 28 megabits (and toward the 28 MBit/sec for sports). There's not an unlimited amount of bandwidth in a cable system or on a satellite. Cable TV is currently FCC regulated so they can't use MPEG 4 compression, so they are stuck with MPEG 2. MPEG 4 is about 2x less bandwidth for the same quality programs. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2006-06-04-cable-hdtv_x.htm Cable operators find it tough to swallow HDTV NEW YORK — After years of dithering and infighting by government officials and corporate executives, the high-definition TV revolution is finally here. This year, for the first time, consumers will buy more HDTV sets than traditional ones. Morgan Stanley estimates that nearly 26% of households will enjoy HD's gee-whiz video and theater sound by year's end and that 67.6% will in 2010, thanks to prices falling from today's $1,000 and up. That's good news for the TV industry, right? Maybe not for cable operators. Their wires are so packed with TV channels and new services — including video on demand (VOD), broadband Internet and phone — that many are scrambling to find bandwidth for the coming wave of HD channels. "Cable operators need massive capacity for HDTV, and have to move quickly," says Sanford C. Bernstein's Craig Moffett. "HDTV is hot." (more at the link)
