[geeks] 1080p TV broadcasts?

[nate at portents.com]

On Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:19:57 -0400 (EDT), Steve Haavik
<shaavik at soc.lib.md.us> wrote:
> I just don't know that anyone is actually broadcasting in 1080p yet.

In the US, the ATSC standard initially only supported 1080p24, 1080p25 and
1080p30.  It was amended in 2008 to support 1080p50 and 1080p60, however
those frame rates require H.264/AVC High Profile Level 4.2, which isn't
able to be decoded by the vast majority of ATSC decoders, and therefore,
currently, nobody is broadcasting shows in 1080p50 or 1080p60 in the US -
just 720p or 1080i60.  Using metadata in an MPEG-2 stream, broadcasters can
encode a 1080p24 signal inside a 1080i60 signal, enabling proper 3:2
pulldown reversal for movies on TV (to confuse matters however, even a
"Full HD" TV set in the US isn't guaranteed to be able to do proper 3:2
pulldown).

I don't have any experience with European DVB, so I can't comment on that.

- Nate