[OT] TOTPs not offered in HD (720p)

[Vangelis forthnet]

On Sun Jan 10 21:46:00 GMT 2016, CW wrote:

... Many thanks Christopher for your most informative post

> You'd also be surprised that HD transport streams don't require that
> much horsepower, if your graphics card can decode H.264 it's offloaded
> to that and the rest is just probably MP2 or AAC audio.
> It's the Yadif deinterlacing that sucks CPU (to get a proper pseudo-50p
> reconstructed image like you'd watch on telly

Sadly, antiquated hardware here...
Embedded Gfx card with non-updateable proprietary driver,
that does not support hardware acceleration/decoding of h.264.
2 core CPU, dated to 2007 - could not possibly cope with
profile High at L4.2,
12 Mbps video stream bitrate,
Scan type: MBAFF

Audio is AC-3 at 192kbps + MP2 at 256kbps.
More CPU cycles are needed to downscale
from 1080i to my monitor's 1280x800 res.

iPlayer's 720p25fps is the best I can manage
with this piece of hardware... :-(
Anything better has to be viewed on
neighbour's Hi-Tech LED 52'' TV...

> most animation doesn't really have a benefit
> being in anything above 720p,
> you simply can't notice it
> (snip)
> And if people think CBeebies' target audience
> is going to care about Peppa the Pig
> being in 1080 or 720 lines

... What I had implied in my comment was
that even 720p for online animation is an overkill;
especially if it's to be streamed on a mobile device
like a tablet/smart phone (I am judging
from my toddler nephews, they watch
everything on a tablet...!).

> For TOTP, if source material is SD from whatever tape format
> it was dubbed off, what's the point in similarly offering upscaled SD

Again, I was not talking about vintage
TOTP shows from the analogue TV era,
but for last Xmas 2015/New Year 2016 episodes
broadcast in HD (and, in all probability) taped in HD, too!

But it seems my query is partly answered:
They are reserving the HD versions for their
"new & shiny" BBC Store:

http://i.imgur.com/dSYe8HJ.jpg

And what "ownable" thing do you get with £2.49 ?
Just an online-only DRM'd stream that has to be watched
via the Adobe Flash Player / MS Silverlight plugin
in a compatible browser...
(BBC Store Downloader to fetch DRM'd files
also an option, I discovered...,
but only for Desktop PCs/Macs, Win7+/OSX 10.7+).

Regards