Quote:
Originally Posted by Felim_Doyle
At some point the balance of HD to SD channels will swing and there will be little incentive to continue to support SD variants of channels where there is a HD equivalent. To achieve that, everyone will either have to be fully HD-ready or have a means of down-scaling HD content for SD viewing equipment. That either means having a HD STB or the satellite or cable provider doing the down-scaling centrally. Maybe that's how it works for some channels now. I'd like to see it happen maybe some time in 2013 and definitely by 2015 but there are obstacles.
I feel sorry for DVB-T (FreeView) and DVB-S (particularly FreeSat) customers who have recently purchased equipment but did not opt for HD STBs as they may have to upgrade at a cost sooner than they expected.
Alternatively, the tail could wag the dog and we might be stuck with SD until the majority of people have upgraded and that could take years.
When digital TV was coming, I don't think enough emphasis was put on the fact that HD was rolling out too.
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A typical HD channel takes up around x4 the bandwidth of a SD channnel. Even if you closed all the SD channels, its doubtful there would be enough bandwidth for a HD version of every SD channel - unless you start reducing the bitrate of those HD channels (in which case they become HD-lite).