BBC HD

Yes - no problem with carrying them on Freeview HD - any HD set top box can output some of the 3D standard image types.

The side-by-side 3D system which is most commonly used with 1080i (top/bottom is used for 720p) is compatible with all HD receivers as it sends a perfectly standard 1080i (or 720p) signal which contains both eye feeds. It's why it is so popular. You wouldn't want to watch this signal on a 2D display, but you could if you wanted.

The contents of the signal are different - but the receiver doesn't know this. Effectively the 1080i side-by-side system horizontally squashes the two 1920x1080 eye feeds by a factor of 2:1, halving their width and their horizontal resolution, allowing the two eye feeds to be carried in a single normal video signal. When you look at it on a standard TV you see two very squashed images side-by-side.

I believe the BBC will be using side-by-side transmission - which means Freeview HD receivers will work fine with it. All that it might need are 3D TV owners to manually force their TVs into side-by-side mode - though I think some detect this automatically?

There ARE new 3D transmission systems which send full-resolution HD images for both eyes (they send one eye signal as a standard full resolution 2D image and then have a second data stream that allows the other eye feed to be reconstructed from the 'difference' data). However this DOES require new set top boxes. The theory for this system is that you don't have to broadast two entirely separate 2D and 3D feeds as you do with side-by-side - however this forces 2D viewers to watch one eye of the 3D feed - which may be dull, as 3D coverage is often shot differently to 2D (more movement, fewer close-ups and cuts)

If you have a Sky HD box, you can get a feeling for what it might look like by selecting the Sky 3D channel in the EPG. Unless you subscribe to all the premium packages, you won't be able to see any programmes, but it forces the EPG into side-by-side mode.

Anyone know what the situation is with Mock the Week? It's been advertised/trailed as being on BBC HD tonight, but the listings have been altered to remove it.

In fact I think you have to ring Sky to enable Sky 3D even if you have the full premium Movie+Sport packages, as they don't want people to surf through and think there is a fault.

I guess the one thing that Freeview HD and Freesat HD receivers won't do is have an EPG optimised for 3D - so when you press an INFO or GUIDE button you'll get a mess in 3D.

More details here - including an explanation of side-by-side http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2011/06/gearing_up_to_deliver_wimbledo.html

They could, but I'm not sure if they will be - from the BBC blog:

I'm sure he would have mentioned in that post if they were going to increase them for the test. That might mean the encoder encoding the 3D programme (at 1920) might ask for & get more bitrate than normal (though does it depend on how complicated something else is on the same multiplex - or is that a different thing?), though they won't have changed the min/max/average (target?) bitrate figures in the encoder I think? They might not want to increase bitrates on Freesat if Freeview can't also increase to the same bitrate (if they're different)?

Err - hasn't he said that 1920 needs more than 1440 - though it's not a linear relationship? I suspect the "we haven't changed how the encoders choose the bitrate" line isn't clear - as it assumes knowledge we don't have.

However his line about not being a linear relationship suggests that BBC HD will be allocated more bandwith but not 1920/1440 x more (which is what a linear relationship would demand). I guess there is also the issue that the side-by-side content will actually be 1920 subsampled to 960 x 2 which may mean it has much more content >1440 than a 1920x1080 originated single source would normally.

My gut feeling is that they will increase the statmux pool a bit on satellite (as they have more bandwith available since they introduced DVB-S2 - around 40Mbs for the mux - similar to the Freeview HD mux total) and the encoders will now favour BBC HD a bit more as it is 1920x1080. However if they work on a quality basis that would still fit with Andy Q's statement - as to deliver a given perceived quality of image 1920 requires more bitrate than 1440 - so if the encoder choices are based on quality, you might not have to change much.

No explanation at the scheduled start, other than an apology and advice to retune to see the programme on BBC TWO.

3D Testing started this morning.

Yes resolution increased to 1920x1080i

A late schedule change tonight, swapping HIGNFY for Britain for Above and A Little Later, because the scheduled episode of HIGNFY, simulcast on BBC2, has been swapped for one from last series, which presumably wasn't shot in HD.

They've got other HD episodes they could have repeated, so I'm not sure why they didn't save themselves the bother. But mostly I just want to know why the scheduled episode got bumped!

David

Because there was no HIGNFY on BBC 1 on Friday, instead a new series of My Family, except it wasn't, it was an ep from 2010 !