According to this posting on the BBC's R&D blog, BBC HD in Freeview is now broadcasting HD in both 1080i and 1080p:
A great deal of material is shot natively at 1080p25 ... Within a single programme interlaced may be used for moving credits, cross-fades and studio shots whereas progressive may be used for location shot material. Up until now ... 1080p25 material was encoded using a 1080i25 encoding mode. But after a software upgrade on the 22nd/23rd March the HD encoder supporting BBC HD on Freeview HD has been set-up to automatically detect progressive material and change encoding mode appropriately. The encoded bitstream can only change at each GOP boundary to ensure decoders maintain a consistent display.
According to this thread on DigitalSpy, the encoding change shows up on the programme information displayed by a Digital Stream HD PVR. I have checked a couple of recordings from BBC HD on my Humax (including one which was definitely reported to be using 1080p25 by DS users) and can see no change on the iPlate during the programme. However, I detected no adverse impact on the picture or sound (unlike Sony FreeviewHD TV owners, apparently) so this looks like a fairly minor gripe.
The thing is though, I tend to keep my Humax set to output 1080i, on the understanding that this would upscale SD programmes and pass through HD programmes (which up until now has always been 1080i) pretty much unprocessed. If there is 1080p source material now coming available, would I better switching my box to output 1080p? What effect might that have on programmes still broadcast in 1080i?
A great deal of material is shot natively at 1080p25 ... Within a single programme interlaced may be used for moving credits, cross-fades and studio shots whereas progressive may be used for location shot material. Up until now ... 1080p25 material was encoded using a 1080i25 encoding mode. But after a software upgrade on the 22nd/23rd March the HD encoder supporting BBC HD on Freeview HD has been set-up to automatically detect progressive material and change encoding mode appropriately. The encoded bitstream can only change at each GOP boundary to ensure decoders maintain a consistent display.
According to this thread on DigitalSpy, the encoding change shows up on the programme information displayed by a Digital Stream HD PVR. I have checked a couple of recordings from BBC HD on my Humax (including one which was definitely reported to be using 1080p25 by DS users) and can see no change on the iPlate during the programme. However, I detected no adverse impact on the picture or sound (unlike Sony FreeviewHD TV owners, apparently) so this looks like a fairly minor gripe.
The thing is though, I tend to keep my Humax set to output 1080i, on the understanding that this would upscale SD programmes and pass through HD programmes (which up until now has always been 1080i) pretty much unprocessed. If there is 1080p source material now coming available, would I better switching my box to output 1080p? What effect might that have on programmes still broadcast in 1080i?
