[CrouchingDonkey]

So people who live in apartments/houses that don't fulfil that criteria won't get HDTV on NOW I suppose?!

Any HD alternatives on satellite?

[KnowItAll]

Our apartment blocks are getting rewired at the moment -- not trivial task from the looks of it. Not sure if it is because of the HDTV roll out or if it is just a infrastructure update.

[PDLM]

Originally Posted by CrouchingDonkey

So people who live in apartments/houses that don't fulfil that criteria won't get HDTV on NOW I suppose?!

If NOW thinks there's a chance of it being viable then I'm sure they will bring HDTV to you building. But bear in mind that if they have to lay new cable ducts to get the fibre there then it costs in excess of HK$1M/km to do so, and they aren't a charity.

Originally Posted by CrouchingDonkey

Any HD alternatives on satellite?

No chance - satellite bandwidth is far too expensive for that.

[KnowItAll]

Arent the TV stations going to have broadcast over the air in HD?

[PDLM]

No - they have to broadcast using digital signals. I don't think there's any requirement to broadcast in HD, although they have licences to do so.

[William06]

Originally Posted by insomniac

The video quality on NOW [now] sucks I have to say. It is definitely worse than DVD quality and I would say probably on par with VCD/VHS. Given that DSL has a limit of about 8Mbps, and that HDTV uses atleast 10-15Mbps - not sure how they are gonna offer HD without some infrastructure overhaul.

Totally agree, its VCD quality at best! Sadly this is yet another step back for those of us who like mid to high quality picture content.NowTV makes Cable TV look like High Def and i for one am going to miss the footie qualty that cable offerd (even though it was'ent that great).
Such is HK, 1 step forward then 3 back....

[BenderBends]

so is it safe to say that after NOW does the upgrade...NOW HDTV will equal everywhere-else's cable quality?

and is this because HK gets the stream from singapore?
is singapore quality bad?
Cant HK get their own stream?

[PDLM]

The quality limitations are to do with the fact that NOW is coming to you down a tiny little piece of copper that was designed to carry a single voice phone call. It's nothing to do with the underlying quality of the feed. The quality of NOW is far better than Cable TV in most Asian countries by the way - you need either to get out a bit more or to stop using phrases like "everywhere-else".

I assume that HDTV on NOW will be HDTV-quality.

[KnowItAll]

>> HDTV Quality

I am betting it will initially be cleaned up SDTV resolution (4xxP?) which will probably be twice as good as the current so called DVD quality.

I've watched torrent downloads of American Idol (SDTV res) this week along with the same show on Star TV and am pretty disappointed with how bad Now TV quality is compared to the torrents.

Would be interesting to see if they can boost the quality to 720P, but I doubt that many of their feeds would have that resolution available. (Perhaps premium movie channels..?)

[BenderBends]

Originally Posted by PDLM

you need either to get out a bit more or to stop using phrases like "everywhere-else".

I assume that HDTV on NOW will be HDTV-quality.

numero uno....relax and take a deep breathe
my cable quality in northern china (as well as quality in western china at hotels) was far better than the quality i get in HK. I know many places have far worse...but everyone boasts about HK being such a modern city and so advanced (especially in technology) but it seems not so in this case

its nice that you "assume" Now HDTV will be HDTV quality, however i "assumed" Now Cable TV would be Cable TV quality. I was sorely mistaken.

Assumptions are great...but it sucks when you sign on for an 18 month contract only to find that your assumption was way off. And i am guessing that Now will require a new contract at higher cost to upgrade to HDTV...so I'd like to be sure that its actually HDTV quality if I sign up.

as i don't know much about cable deliveries...i was not aware that our bad quality is due to the "single copper wire"...
...how about satalite delivery? is there any way to get satalite delivery of US broadcasts (uncensored) and at HDTV quality...or would satalite not be able to do that?