Blu-Ray or HD-DVD?

[Harrison]

Everything is digital these days, except once it reaches the old analogue transmitters, and then it is turned into an analogue broadcast.

[Stephen Coates]

I knew the news would be compressed when sent via satellite, but I still don't understand the compression in corronation street the other day.

[Harrison]

Well, you are talking about Corronation street! Does that even deserve it's own dedicated bandwidth?

Everything is compressed in some way through it's travels. And most broadcast transmitters are receiving their feeds via satellite.

[AlexJ]

I knew the news would be compressed when sent via satellite, but I still don't understand the compression in corronation street the other day.

Because on it's way from the ITV playout centre in Chiswick to the Emley Moor transmitter it will be a digital signal. Only at the Emley Moor site will it be decoded back into analogue ready for broadcast.

[Stephen Coates]

No, it was only the scenes when they were in the lake district. The scenes that were actually on Coronation street weren't compressed. So they had obviously made the video in the lake district with some kind of compression.

[Harrison]

Maybe the shock of them actually realising the world is bigger than one street distorted the image?

[Sharingan]

Another blow to the HD DVD camp soon to happen?

Financial Times: Paramount poised to drop support for HD DVD

[Harrison]

HD-DVD losing Paramount pictures support is definitely a huge blow, especially if you factor in their parent company Viacom, as they own many other companies too including Dreamworks and the Nickelodeon network.

[AlexJ]

Another blow to the HD DVD camp soon to happen?

Financial Times: Paramount poised to drop support for HD DVD

That would definitely spell game over for HDDVD - Universal aren't going to hang round for long on their own. One of Paramount's biggest films this year, the new Indy film, is already scheduled for a dual-format release anyway (Spielberg's films are already exempt from Paramount's soon-to-be-ripped-up HD-DVD exclusivity agreement)

When your forced to hold "BBC Video" up as one of your key partners (With BBC Video a) I can't imagine being that big in the US and b) Being dual-format) you know you've got problems.