I hope you will forgive me to insert a few off-topic words about DTV in this forum which, i understand, is essentially dedicated to long-term weather evolution (a fascinating subject, i won't dispute that).
Just to say TNT HD has started, indeed, and that it works. I've been watching it for quite a few hours this evening, ending with "Cat on a hot tin roof". Perfectly smooth motion, thanks to 50 Hz "pal" speed-up, as expected. I don't think they used some exotic 24P or 25P mode, anyway. I have little access to the raw technical parameters of the stream on my decoder. I saw some macroblocks twice on one of the multiplexes, none on the other. Still watching on a 2.4m wide screen.
4 free HD channels are available.On some CSA documents, they consider the possibility to have 25.3 Mbps for the HD multiplexes, which would result in a slightly more fragile broadcast. I don't know if that setting has been put into practical use. Also, some interference with transmitters of the neighbouring region have been anticipated on the forums. Perhaps an explanation for the macroblocks? Will have to check how frequent that really is.
The receiver says C/N is 24 dB, with a 50% signal level and 98% quality on its proprietary indicators. I am connected to a an amplified Yagi Antenna on top of a barn which is on top of a hill, some 35 kms away from the transmitter. It used 32Kw for SD DTV channels, i did not bother to check the power on the HD multiplexes, yet. Will have to try with a rabbit-ears antenna, just for fun.
I've been waiting for what must be some 25 years for this, since i read my first articles about HDTV in technical magazines in the eighties (with the 1992 HD-MAC demos as an a apetizer). Fortunately, i am not disappointed in the end. It is done. Finally. I can now relax and enjoy.
The evening before, i thought they had already started some tests, and found the quality to be, at best, just correct, but not stunning at all. I now realize it was only SD, upscaled by the receiver, and i am surprised it can be so good on this screen size. But true HD is really a different beast. This question was still opened for me as far as the french DTTV was concerned, as a i feared the heavy compression could blur the difference.
Now , the trendy touch :-) I am sad to say that my VP projector, combined with the HD receiver (that has 2 tuners and a hard disk), probably gobbles up more energy than my good old CRT TV. I am slightly annoyed by this state of things, but i can at least take confort in the fact that it essentially operates on nuclear energy, and will therefore not cause a significant extension of my personal carbon footprint.
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