Strictly Come Dancing in 3D: the facts Apparently some Brits are keen on the BBC's playground for sparkly attired hoofers, Strictly Come Dancing, which comes to its latest grand final this Saturday. Tech watchers have an interest too: it's one of the first BBC shows to be transmitted in 3D via Freeview HD. Don't want to miss the 'action'? Gone Digital's Nigel …
Unfortunately, the 3D used on the BBC HD test card is in side-by-side rather than crosseye format (L & R images are on the wrong side for crosseye viewing). You can still free view it, but you need to aim your eyes out rather than in which takes more practise :)
I find that if the TV image is small enough in your field of view, then I can lock focus on these images and see the 3D but I have to try really hard to avoid cross-eye viewing, in which case the 3D field is inverted and it all looks very odd indeed.
If only the side-by-side TV format had been the opposite way around, you'd have been able to watch it on any old TV easily.
This will work but only if you can flip the whole picture horizontally. Displayed normally you will have to diverge your eyes or have a screen narrower than the distance between your eyes, easy enough if you are a chameleon or an elephant.
If you cross your eyes you will see 3d with the depth reversed and it will hurt your brain even more than Brucie's jokes.
Sky only have one satellite to worry about. BBConeHD on Freeview comes via your local transmitter from one HD encoder in the Beeb, BBConeSD comes from an SD encoder in your local Beeb area. Broadcasting local SD content on the HD channel would require the HD content be fed from Beeb central to each local area and an HD encoder in each local Beeb area to mix in the SD content when required.
Given that local Beeb content is bollocks it's not worth the cost of duplicating the HD encoders. ITV do area based HD but there are just two areas for the UK (London and the poor) so less hardware required.
BBC One HD shows all BBC One programmes? On Sky anyway.
Tries to upscale those in SD.
Only ones it doesn't show is local news/weather. Takes the London feed to 8/9pm local news bulletins are replaced by the national weather. Local programming is also replaced by whatever they're feeding London.
My bugbear is that ITVHD is not available in the UTV region. We have UTV in SD and have to manually tune ITVHD. All because UTV make more money off radio and internet than TV broadcasting.
Not that there's anything worth watching on ITV anyway, it was nice to see Downton Abbey in HD.
I'll be watching this with me wife on the regular BBC1 HD, in 2D, but I would like to see what the 3D version is like. I hope they repeat it later because although my TV will record from Freesat HD, it only has one tuner, so we can't watch one and record the other.
(It has a Freeview HD tuner as well, but we don't live in an area with coverage.)
Stereoscopic. Not 3D
No one has 3D broadcasts. Not even the old monochrome ones long ago & far away.
Stereoscopic doesn't work for 20% (1/5th) of people and affects many more badly. Why is the BBC wasting money on a Gimmick first pushed by Cinema to "fight back" against TV and second pushed by TV makers that want to sell new sets?
There is very little merit to it compared to colour. A waste of Licence fee to promote pointless and overpriced TV upgrades.
"Shame you didn't answer my favourite question about BBC One HD, which is why the hell can't they show SD programs on the same channel where HD is unavailable, instead of making me switch back to BBC One (not HD)? Sky One HD manages this amazing technical feat quite well."
They have started putting regional news magazine programmes on BBC 1 HD which is good because it gives them a viewing outside their normal coverage area.
I quite like the lack of regional HD programmes, it means in Scotland (and probably other regions) we get an alternative choice when Scotland is carrying different programmes to the rest of the network.
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