Technical Details and Availability
BBC HD is available to viewers of the Astra 1N satellite with suitable reception equipment. The channel was also broadcast as a digital terrestrial (DVB-T) service from London's Crystal Palace Transmitter until May 2007, enabling the channel to be viewed by a selected trial group of 450 companies and homes.
Both the satellite and terrestrial broadcasts are free to air, which means that anybody with the necessary equipment will be able to view the channel. The cable broadcast is available through Virgin Media's basic television package.
Until 2 April 2010, when ITV1 HD was made available to all platforms, the BBC was only terrestrial broadcaster to offer a "platform neutral" HD offering. Channel 4 HD is currently available through Freesat, Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media. ITV, Channel 4 and Five also took part in the terrestrial HD trials from London's Crystal Palace Transmitter, ITV also made their trial available through the Telewest cable service.
The BBC HD channel launches on digital terrestrial television on a region-by-region basis, starting on 2 December 2009 and ending in 2012.
The UK broadcasts are typically at a resolution of 1440x1080i and encoded in MPEG-4 H.264/AVC on satellite and terrestrial television and in MPEG-2 on cable. Although it is not 1920x1080, the resolution is within European Broadcasting Union specifications for HD.
On 27 April 2010, BBC HD launched on Sky Ireland platform in Ireland. Before this date, BBC HD was only available in the UK on Sky. BBC HD has also been available on UPC Ireland since the launch of their Digital+ HD service on 5 August 2009.
From 3 November 2010, BBC HD is statistically multiplexed on satellite with BBC One HD.
Between 22 and 23 March 2011 changes were made to the Freeview HD encoder to enable automatic switching between 1080i/50 and 1080p/25 according to the material being broadcast. This selection is made automatically by assessing each GOP. Unfortunately some manufactures of receiver do not handle the transitions between the modes well, resulting in sound and picture disruption. This was extended to all of the other Freeview HD channels in October 2011.
On 6 June 2011, the satellite transponder carrying BBC One HD and BBC HD was upgraded to DVB-S2.
BBC HD broadcast the men's and women's finals of the 2011 Wimbledon Championships live in 3D on 2 and 3 July 2011. To facilitate this, the horizontal resolution increased from 1440 pixels to 1920 between 13 June and 6 July. BBC HD also aired the final of Strictly Come Dancing series nine in 3D on 17 December 2011. For this the horizontal resolution was again increased between 8 December 2011 and 5 January 2012. An increase to 1920 horizontal resolution was again observed on 30 May 2012 and will last until September. BBC HD also broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics as well as the Men’s 100m final and a daily highlights package in 3D. The men's and women's finals of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships were also shown in 3D again on 7 and 8 July 2012. Planet Dinosaur Ultimate Killers was broadcast in 3D on 19 August, which was followed by the second-half of the Last Night of the Proms on 8 September 2012.
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