Europe launches its first HDTV satellite channel

January 6, 2004

Over the
past few months, we have seen a few cable companies in theUS rolling out some HDTV channels. Now, Europe has launched its first satellite based HDTV channel on the Astra satellite called Euro1080 on the 1st of January. While normal PAL digital TV channels have a typical resolution of 704x576 with a 6Mbps bit-rate stream, Euro 1080 has a resolution of 1920 pixels x 1080 lines with a 18Mbps bit-rate stream and 5.1 surround sound. This is a much higher resolution than what
even most PC monitors can cope with.

Euro1080 offers two free-to-air channels; one with four hours of language-independent content per day and the other with live/delayed-live programs. Consumer giants Panasonic, Thomson and Pioneer are funding this project in an aim to sell more widescreen & plasma HDTV sets. GristyMcFisty submitted the following news from The Register via our news submit :

As of January 1 Euro1080 is the first European satellite channel to broadcast in the high definition TV (HDTV) format, which has roughly double the number of vertical lines and horizontal lines of traditional analog television.

The satellite channel, set up by Belgian production company Alfacam, will distribute language-independent content, including sports, music, shows and cultural events, with best quality surround-sound.

The first programme aired last week was the New Year's Concert from Vienna. Other highlights this year will be the European Championship Soccer in Portugal, a summary of the Olympics and the Eurovision Song Contest.

The channel's name refers to the number of lines on the TV screen: 1920 pixels x 1080 lines at 50 hertz interlaced. Anyone with a 60cm satellite antenna will be able to receive the signal, but you need an additional set-top box the watch the content. The HDTV signal is an 18Mbps stream, but mixed with other services it will occupy at least 40Mbps in a single 7Mhz channel.

Euro1080 currently offers two channels: a Main Channel, with four hours of material every day, and an Event Channel that distributes live or delayed live programs to 'event cinemas' - theatres equipped with electronic projection and 5.1 surround sound systems.

There are already High Definition Television (HDTV) broadcast channels in Asia (all Japanese TV channels, Korean Broadcasting, CCTV China), Australia and in North and South America (such as HD net, TV Azteca-Mexico, TV Globo-Brasil), but Europe is lagging behind. In the 80s Europe tried to adopt the D2 Mac standard, but that failed because the standard was analog and not digital.

This time around, consumer electronic giants Panasonic, Thomson and Pioneer have put money in the satellite project as they hope to sell more widescreen (plasma) screens.

I tried tuning this channel on my PC equipped with a Skystar2 DVB card, but my PC (AMD XP1700+) is too slow to cope with decoding it in real-time. Even still, the frames it did display look like hi-resolution digital photographs rather than typical snapshots taken from a regular digital TV broadcast.

Currently, China seems to be the only country that is really pushing the HDTV standard by developing their own HDTV optical disc technology known as EVD.

Source: The Register