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| 20 Dec 2007 - FOXTEL HD - Coming in 2008 - Do we understand all this? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| HD really is the current HOT TOPIC in Tech - not just in TV.. But how confusing is it!! I have my head around it, but have no rushing desire to jump on board, mainly because i certainly cannot afford a HD TV yet. The most important thing I can say to people is DO NOT INVEST IN ANYTHING HD (blue-ray player, set top box etc) unless you have a HD TV. Plus, when you do have a HD TV - make sure you invest in high quality cables to connect the TV to the Set top box or other HD Devices - if you lose the HD part of the picture by using crappy old cables, you have wasted your money on the TV. Channel 7 and 10 have recently launched their HD channels, this is being well promoted, BUT, are people being well educated? I'm not so sure. I had a friend call me last weekend when Ten HD made its debut. His message was "something must be wrong at Ten - they are playing a Julia Roberts movie not Black Hawk Down which they promoted as their first HD programme" I thought to myself - oh no! - but, then I realised, my mate was watching NORMAL CHANNEL TEN - NOT HD. Let's be clear here, these HD channels are NEW CHANNELS, they are not simply a re-broadcast (simulcast), so if you see a program advertised as being shown on TEN HD or 7HD (or 9HD in 2008), you actually need to be WATCHING that specific channel. Look at it this way, if you have a DIGITAL set top box (or one built in to your TV), you will not just get 7,9,10,Abc,SBS. You will now get:
So you need to look at them all as EXTRA channels. This list is not definitive, it's just an example. IF you have a HD TV, AND you have a HD tuner built into it, or a HD set top box, you CAN view these new channels. So where does FOXTEL fit into all this. If you are a FOXTEL viewer, you will already experience a great picture - no ghosting, none of that reception trouble with normal TV. Except for the odd major storm or outage of course! But, if you have a HD TV, and Foxtel, you are not getting the best from your HD TV. In early 2008, Foxtel's new HD box will be launched, with at least 4 HD channels. This box will be IQ- in other words you need to be a premium subscriber with the IQ (recorder) service. No pricing is available yet, however it is anticipated the box will be sold up front, not pay by month as the current one's are. I don't see how that would fit the Foxtel model - however we just don't know. The box looks nice - this is not a photo, its a design image, but the Black works for me. You can't see it here, but when i look closely there is some sort of Message icon, and perhaps a wireless icon, so who know's what capabilities this box might have - perhaps integration with mobile devices?? All this HD stuff is very interesting, but please - BUYER BEWARE. Check your stuff out first, and don't just look at it as a single component buy. You need ALL the right bits. FOXTEL HD SITE: http://hd.foxtel.com.au/ TEN HD SITE: http://ten.com.au/ten/tv_hd.html SEVEN HD SITE: http://au.blogs.yahoo.com/preview/category/au-tv-special2 NINE DIGITAL SITE: http://channelnine.ninemsn.com.au/section.aspx?sectionid=2209§ionname=digitaltv All these sites have a stack of info - Foxtel has a good user friendly lamens terms style representation with cartoon pixels, and a blog from Patrick Delany, FOXTEL's Executive Director of Content, Product & Delivery Innovation. If you have any questions, send them my way, let's see what people are thinking! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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