7.30 must be produced in a non-HD studio
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Iâm pretty sure that all of the ABCâs news/current affairs programs are produced in SD.
If theyâre still using equipment which dates back to when the news/current affairs originally upgraded to 16.9 widescreen production circa 2005, I genuinely wouldnât be surprised.
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Of course you know all of us outside 7-metro-land hate you! 
(Envy can be an ugly thing, like the blurry SD coverage on Prime7.)
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Itâs a matter for me who cares in my house hold. I particularly donât ATM considering how hd has been treated like crap several years.
Interesting how they were able to do it in 2009 but not 2016
AFAIK, ABC HD was an EPG when non-HD programming was shown, so this must have been in HD even though this looks highly compressed (also a 50fps Youtube upload from 2009âŚinteresting).
Nope, they upconverted ABC Sydney when they werenât showing HD programming. Native HD was notable at the time by the slightly different watermark it got (a sharper and larger version of the green smear).
Unfortunately the caps I would have of that are lost to time, but I can assure you that the clip above has not a single second of native HD content in it.
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The current system uses the double digit LCNs as the main ones to keep all channels in a grouped list by network (i.e. 10-19 = Ten, 20-29 = ABC, etc.) making it easier to navigate with the HD channel (Nineâs example) on 90, SD on 91, then all other multichannels afterward.
100% agree. Keep an SD simulcast of the channel on the single digit LCNs for tradition, the multichannels in HD on double digits, then the SD multichannels on the equivalent 100s.
9 - Nine (SD)
90 - 9HD
92 - 9Gem HD
93 - 9Go! HD
94 - 9Life HD
190 - Nine (SD)
192 - 9Gem
193 - 9Go!
194 - 9Life
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Just to be clear, I only think the SD versions of the main channels should be striped of their favourable channel positions and dumped into the 100s. I donât necessarily support the same thing happening to the multichannels for as long as theyâre SD-only.
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As raised earlier in this thread by @Moe , putting the HD simulcast on the primary LCN eg. 9HD on LCN 9 will create issues for receivers that are not MPEG 4 capable - they would just get an error message or black screen.
If only our âSmartâ TV sets were âsmartâ enough to detect a HD simulcast and automatically swap them over for us eg put 9HD on LCN 9 and 9SD on LCN 90.
A bit like the FOXTEL example @Moe used further above.
The LCN numbers between 100 and 149 are already allocated to Ten. The three digit allocation for others vary to allow for 222, 333 and 777 with Nineâs allocation 950-999.
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agreed i think its about time prime7 followed there parent company and went hd
My Samsung telly puts any duplicate LCNs (eg. ABC NSW here in Newcastle on UHF 37 gets scanned into LCN 2, but ABC Sydney on VHF 12 will get put into the 350-399 range).
That might be a different thing to what you are talking about.
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350-399 are for broadcasts received that have duplicate (or no) LCNs.
In your case 2 broadcasts, both LCN 2 - the receiver is supposed to allocate the stronger signal to 2 and the other to the lowest available between 350 and 399.
This should only occur however if the broadcasts are different services - ABC metro and ABC regional. If you received multiple LCN 7âs for exampe that are all ATN7 then only one LCN should be allocated.
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These issues completely sum up what I keep seeing too!
Every venue has nice big new screens with the boring old SD quality channels on them.
One place I event visited recently had 9SD airing instead of 9HD, AND had their aspect ratio on the TV set to a âZoomâ type level meaning the image was zoomed in a little to the centre. Made it look even more terrible.
My parents are exactly the same. They have an âolderâ MPEG-2 only TV, that I have connected an MPEG-4 compatible set-top box up to when I visited about 6 months ago.
I explained the benefits of HD, the addition of 9Life, etc. with using the set-top box and got them used to using it. I even went into the TVâs native settings and removed the LCNs for all the SD primary channels (meaning if they flicked to 9 for example theyâd see an error because the TV isnât MPEG4), and removed the SD LCNs from the set-top box in order to make sure they were watching the HD feed.
Came home for Christmas and found they were no longer watching via the set-top box and were using the TV normally again, and were still watching the SD versions, as theyâd just push 5 on the remote and even though the LCN had been removed from everywhere on the TV, pushing 5 on the remote still directed them straight to 9SD.
Once again I convinced them to start using the set-top box and tried to show them the differences between the SD and HD versions, but they swear they canât see a difference on their 55-inch TV!
This is despite us watching the Tennis (which is only available in SD in Primetime in Reg QLD) on 7 where the players movements are attrociously blocky and hard to see on the big screen, but apparently it looks great to everyone else⌠sigh
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I realise that, but one can dreamâŚ
It would certainly make it easier if 100-199 was reassigned for the SD versions of multichannels once they launch in HD, would certainly make them easier to find for those unfamiliar with the LCNs: just hit â1â followed by the main channel number (e.g. Nine promo: â9Go! is now available in high definition on channel 93, and in standard definition on channel 193.â)
Just add a 1 to the end of all the networks wants to do this. 911 or 921 etc. But right now, the networks are not in a position to even think about HD with SD Simulcast.
I have tried numerous times to get my parents to at least try and watch the Big Bash in HD this month (especially before I went to Melbourne) but they claim that HD is not available on foxtel. I said to them that the free to air HD channels are available so you can watch those even without the HD subscription.
Trying to get Dad to see reason is like getting a monkey to take an apple from a horse. 
Obviously I have been watching Nine HD as most of the content is HD and itâs beautiful , and of course some of the tennis in HD too, but trying to get people to take adavantage of it who donât want to or are set in their old ways is a never ending battle.
As for businesses who donot switch to the HD channel, maybe they are completly oblivious to the HD channelâs being on a different number . They probably think 7 is the HD channel. Letâs admit it I have that experience with some people in my family.
The networks need to do a better job explaining the HD channels and wehre they can be found. And a certain Network needs to give up and fuck off with the idea of split HD programming for certain states⌠Pick a HD feed and stick with it. 
Iâm still finding that some content on ABC HD is standard quality, so I am hoping to see some prime time programming in HD soon enough (then again I donât watch ABC enough).
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An addition to the watermark on the SD channels along the lines of âTune to Channel 90 to watch in Crystal Clear HDâ would be the best way to educate the masses.
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This could confuse viewers watching through Foxtel though.
Networks should bring back the âAvailable in HDâ supers and icons during programming, like they did when they were simulcasting in MPEG-2 HD.
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