HDTV in Europe

[Tappen]

What refresh rate do European HDTV sets typically run at? In North America it's mostly 60hz. I'm asking because I'm writing a media player for playing DVDs and over-the-air HDTV and trying to figure out where to put extra effort in displaying NTSC and PAL DVDs nicely.

[bob0r]

50Hz.
http://en.kingofsat.net/hdtv.php all here run @ 25fps.

[2Bdecided]

It's all 50i, 25p wrapped in 50i, or maybe 25p.

There's no 720p in the UK, though STBs and TVs support it.

Cheers,
David.

[Tappen]

Thanks for the help. 50 fields per second is the answer for testing then.

[wonkey_monkey]

For some reason I had it in my head that all HD sets ran at 60Hz, that being the de facto standard for flat panel tech, and everything was up'd from 50Hz (which would explain why fast scrolling credits are unreadable on a Plasma/LCD).

David

[pandy]

Most european broadcaster prefer 1080i25, some brodcasters trying to brodcast 720p25 (probably to save bandwith and push more services on single transponder).
probably no one at this moment use other than h.264 to broadcast HD in Europe (in past h.262 ie mpeg-2 was used but only on few services). probably no VC1 is used at all.
most of services is crypted.

[2Bdecided]

It's 720p50. 720p25 isn't a standard (though of course you can send p25 content out via 720p50 with repeat frame flags, or hard coded repeats).

Cheers,
David.

[pandy]

It's 720p50. 720p25 isn't a standard (though of course you can send p25 content out via 720p50 with repeat frame flags, or hard coded repeats).

Cheers,
David.


You have abolutely right but real life differ from theory - i suspect at least one broadcaster in Europe have 720p25. It is a fully decodable from MPEG-2 decoder perspective (720i25 is also fully compliant in MPEG-2). Standard for 720p50 ia a rather kind of "gentlemen agreement" but is not formal from MPEG-2 point of view.

[2Bdecided]

I thought that maybe the DVB standards prohibited this, but it seems that any resolution is permissible as long as it's compatible with the MPEG profile and level in use, and the resulting bitrate is allowed.

I guess the more you move away from the common resolutions, the less you can be certain that existing hardware will support what you're doing correctly, or at all.

Cheers,
David.