F1 boss Ecclestone says no high definition feed until 2012
By Richard Lawler 
posted June 13th 2010 8:54PM
posted June 13th 2010 8:54PM
posted June 13th 2010 8:54PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
I Fu*king HATE Bernie. I seriously hate him with a deep rooted passion.
@Socr209905
I hate him with the fury of a thousand suns.
Every other weekend I switch on to BBC HD in the hope that F1 in HD just might show - even though I know it's gonna be a few years before it shows up, only to be crushed again, and again, and again.
Yeah, shooting HD must be COMPLETLY different than shooting in SD Wide like they do.
The contrast from all the technology on the F1 cars and the lack of such technology on the televisioning is impressive.
BTW, if LG cant do it, give Sony a call. They surelly can do it. Thats what you get by having crappy tech companies as sponsors.
I can live with this really. I can live with all SD generally, as long as it's Widescreen. Unfortunately, nothing in SD is widescreen in the US (besides F1).
not to say I don't want HD…
I'm not sure what you are all talking about. I watched the race in HD this morning. maybe TSN is getting their own feed or something, but F1 has been in HD for 2 years or so...
@walljordan What you watched was the normal feed upscaled to 720p. It wasn't filmed in HD
I just watched the 24 hours of lemans on HD.. 24 hours of live coverage through day/night... Looked fine....
bernie is so out of contact on what the fans want...
like said before... fuck him...
F1 is "the most technical sport in the world to shoot"? Completely ridiculous. I'm pretty sure ESPN has shown races from the EXACT same venue as today's race in HD. Somehow I doubt it would be that much more difficult to track those cars with an HD camera as opposed to the SD they used today. I guess if you're a sponsor you've got to suck up to Bernie.
Just keep in mind how hard it is to shoot premire class racing in HD. I mean if it were so easy, MotoGP wouldn't have been doing it since 2008.
Props to MotoGP for not only covering ALL of their classes in HD since 2008, but also offering streams at various levels of HD quality.
Not many viewers? maybe thats because the WORLD CUP is on
@davidoff86
in HD that is!
Well I watched the England v USA game in HD and that was a real let-down. The Canadian GP may have only been SD but it was a far more enjoyable experience. The quality of the content is far more important to me than the broadcast medium.
Bernie is so rooted in the British experience. He states that only 20% of TVs in his country can receive HD andalso ITV showing of that soccer matched defauted to SD. So he thinks the tech is too advanced.
Well Bernie I currently receive around 100 channels in full HD and watch most sporting events, including motor sports in HD as a routine. Perhaps he should watch our Nascar type events, or Indycar races and see what that TV show is really about and then compare that to the basically "crappy" so called "worldfeed" he sends us... Just another reason why F1 fails to and will continue to fail to appeal to American audiences. Last weekends race was very interesting in Montrea,l but in HD it would have been incredible.
FOM and the FIA continue to dither on how to make their series more relevant in terms of greener technology. Meantime LM/ALMS and Indycar are announcing their respective future techology specs. F1 lags behind in so many ways these days. Sure they throw money at it but they do it in unproductive ways. Move into the 21st century BE and JT! Or perhaps be shocked when some more manufacturers show an interest in AOW.
@IRJ You realize Bernie is about 100 years old and can likely not see that well to notice the difference?
That said, F1 should be in HD, ALMS is in HD (via Speed), 24hrs of Le Mans for the first time this year was in HD (Great Race btw) and of course NASCAR is in HD.
I want whatever he's smoking, its likely he wants somebody else to pick up the bill for converting....
seriously? come ON what is up with that? just do at least one track if you can't do them all LG
Bernie has a point on the one hand and does not on the other
The UK (at least via Sky HD TV) currently has over 40 HD channels.
But just like the rest of Europe, who also started commercial sales very late relatively speaking, HD TV take-up is years behind the USA & Japan (we first got it in May 2006).
We did not really have the 720p/1080i CRT HD TVs, Samsung did bring some in in but it was not before 2006.
So it's fair to say that even the pan-European market is tiny right now, even if it is now growing - although that growth will have been moderated by the recent recession.
But as a consumer I have trouble working out how come so many other sports can have it without much fuss (Eurosport's MotoGP coverage in HD was superb) and yet F1 finds it a step too far for 2yrs?
What they are really on about, of course, is money.
Bernie's extracting the last max amount out of the current tech & deals and letting demand grow before finally giving in - at a great price/profit.
F1 is not so much a sport as a money-generating machine.
.....and what's all that fannying around with 3D about?
Talk about an answer to a question nobody is asking.
Give us high quality HD and stop thinking about wasting bandwidth, time & money on that 3D BS.
F1 has only been in wide-screen for two years, I'm not surprised about HD.
we all may have HD TV's, but we still only have sky/virgin and freesat able to receive the hd signal. Once we get freeview hd, i think we'll see numbers rise pretty quickly.
Ofcourse, im only speaking for the UK.
F1 isn't in HD...really? I watch F1 diehard every race on SpeedHD, and the canadian round on FoxHD over the weekend. The video quality is very very good and the broadcast is in HD. I assumed it was filmed in HD as well, but I guess I was wrong. Considering that it isn't filmed in HD, it looks really good on the HD channels....it sure fooled me and I'm a stickler for video quality. so, although this is disappointing news, you have to admit that our current F1 broadcast looks pretty damn good for it not being HD. I'm actually still in shock that it isn't filmed in HD and keep checking the date on this article wondering if this is from 2 years ago when it truly was crap quality.
btw...I agree with TravUK...worldcup was BORING compared to Montreal F1 race!
Gotta agree, no excuse, F1 should be in HD
having said that, i agree theres not a huge amount of HD viewers yet, but im sure more would join HD if they knew F1 was on there
what we get on Speed is fine, it doesn't have to be HD as it's almost always a wide shot anyway.
BTW, I love the noobs who say it's "filmed" in HD. they're not using film, it's tape (or taped if you will).
(actually, we don't even use tape anymore except as a 2nd archive source, we're all digital in sports tv nowadays)
@blamp & @ john
what's shown on SpeedHD is an upconverted signal, yes it looks nice, but watch MotoGP which is actually shot in HD to see the difference... you won't think the upconverted signal is fine/adequate anymore...
@ Bernie Ecclestone
I thought F1 was the premier auto racing series in all the world. I'm surprised F1 cant handle the realities of 21st century broadcasting. The teams and the factories do all they can do, to outshine their competition. Shouldn't you?
Ditch LG, and find a real technology partner that will give you results not excuses. Your teams deserve better, your fans deserve better, and your sponsors deserve better.
Lead, follow, or get out of the way!