Quote:
Originally Posted by Topgun
Well, the title says it all really, what's the point? Surely at some time in the future, SD will disappear altogether leaving us just with the HD channels. As far as I am concerned it might as well happen sooner rather than later! It would presumably free up a load of bandwidth and reduce costs, also it would end the rediculous channel numbering system we have at present where the HD variant of a channel may be hundreds of channels away from its SD version.
I appreciate that some people would have to upgrade their TVs, but have you seen the prices of basic HD TVs these days, they're dirt cheap!
I honestly can't see a downside to this suggestion, but appreciate that others may have a different point of view and if so would be interested to hear it.
|
Actually, no. Every channel moving to HD only would not save bandwidth. It would actually use a lot more. This is why we are *never* likely to get a situation where SD is switched off entirely. There is also the problem for current SD channels of cost. While you or I might only have to upgrade 1 TV at the cost of £100 or £200, a TV company would have to look at upgrading all it's cameras, recorders, editing systems and playback systems. Not to mention the networking and power systems of it's buildings, as the new equipment is likely to use a lot more power. This is actually the reason the BBC moved out of Television centre: It would have cost too much to fully upgrade TC for HD work. In short, you or I would be looking at a couple of hundred pounds for a cheap set. A TV company (even a small one) could be looking at several million pounds of expenditure to upgrade their buildings and equipment.
Personally, I don't think we will get a situation where the current channels with both HD and SD variants will switch the SD variants off. Purely because while HDTVs are dirt cheap these days, they are still out of reach for some people. Not everyone can afford to throw out a perfectly good SD set purely because the world has gone HD, even if new HD sets are around the £100 mark.
---------- Post added at 15:25 ---------- Previous post was at 15:07 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Topgun
Well, some interesting points there. I have to say I don't quite understand the compensation argument, no-one suggested that Kodak should compensate anyone who owned an old camera when they said they weren't going to make film any more. No-one suggested that the makers of HD DVD devices should pay compensation to owners when they lost out to Blu Ray in the format wars and loads of other examples of similar that have occurred over the years!
|
Spiderplant is, I think, looking at things from Virgin's point of view. Because we rent the STBs from Virgin, people would (rightly) expect them to provide replacement boxes for free (or at least a reasonable cost) if any of the major channels stopped SD broadcasts. I think, although I am not sure, that there may also be a legal requirement for them to do so, or at least allow the customer to terminate their contract with no penalty.
When you buy something (like a Blu Ray player or Camera), the company's responsibility toward you ends when the warranty does (and even then it's limited). When you rent something from a company, their responsibility does not end until the contract is cancelled, which may take years (or even decades).