Top Gear HD

[Mr Dobey]

Anyone else here super excited about it!

The 720p looks good, but the 1080i will look fantastic :)

Not Mac related but it is ATV content related. Since 1080 is a no go for ATV I suppose 720p is perfect.

[Rich1963]

Can you elaborate a little? I'm a huge fan of the show, and have no idea what you're talking about...

[Chipskip]

Can you elaborate a little? I'm a huge fan of the show, and have no idea what you're talking about...

Season 14 started last night and it is the first Ep in HD

[Rich1963]

In America? Not in US? File-sharing? Don't tell me I missed an anouncement... I didn't think season 13 had aired yet.

By the way, Jezza's bald spot has to look even more flattering when driving a convertible in HD.

[Mhaddy]

In America? Not in US? File-sharing? Don't tell me I missed an anouncement... I didn't think season 13 had aired yet.

By the way, Jezza's bald spot has to look even more flattering when driving a convertible in HD.

Yep, S13 had 7 episodes and yesterday had its 1st in S14. On BBC UK don't'cha know, no idea when it'll air in the US.

[Rich1963]

I'd like to say we're getting screwed on the other side of the pond, but the fact is the producers and the BBC never thought this showed would gain the following it did, and the show isn't set up with regards to rights and redistribution to making it friendly. It takes quite a bit of work before it can be aired over here. I'm just glad that the BBC is making them more and more available on iTunes.

That said, some say it is quite popular on the torrent side of the internet, and that ducks become hypnotized watching Hammond's hair in a cool breeze.
:p

[Mr Dobey]

After waiting for the download I finally got to watch the first episode of Season 14. I must say the new HD recording makes a big impact on the show. Especially the better quality audio which really showed in the underground loudest car scene.

[AWDBat]

After waiting for the download I finally got to watch the first episode of Season 14. I must say the new HD recording makes a big impact on the show. Especially the better quality audio which really showed in the underground loudest car scene.

Agree 100% - even transcoding to a lower quality for the ATV it still looks and sounds awesome. Stig likes.

[Capt Crunch]

I can't find any HD on torrents or usenet :(

[Gav2k]

Eztv.it has it in highdef.

[Capt Crunch]

Eztv.it has it in highdef.

What a fantastic place! Thanks!

[GreatDrok]

I've got the 720p rip and it doesn't look markedly better than the old SD versions from previous seasons. Of course, there are some parts which are SD but the footage of them going off to Romania was HD and looked pretty good. Sadly, the 720p rips out there are only 3Mbps which isn't really enough for 720p and it isn't any wonder people think 720p looks crap at that bitrate. All my own encodes are done at 5-6Mbps which looks much better.

I don't think Top Gear really benefits much from being in HD based on what I've seen so far. On the other hand, the HD version of the polar special looks great.

I know there has been a bit of a stink over the level of compression and bit rates on BBC HD recently so that could also explain why the quality isn't great but I'm of the mind that over compression is the issue so anyone who has seen it directly in the UK would know better than me. Still, better than waiting for Prime here in NZ to broadcast it because they chop out the news which is the best part of Top Gear and then fill the show it advert breaks to pad it back out to an hour.

[Mhaddy]

I've got the 720p rip and it doesn't look markedly better than the old SD versions from previous seasons. Of course, there are some parts which are SD but the footage of them going off to Romania was HD and looked pretty good. Sadly, the 720p rips out there are only 3Mbps which isn't really enough for 720p and it isn't any wonder people think 720p looks crap at that bitrate. All my own encodes are done at 5-6Mbps which looks much better.Agreed that I've seen higher quality 720p videos before but the shots of the 'best road in the world' near the end of the episode looked great.

[fpnc]

Is anyone else a bit disappointed that the so-called "HD" version of "Top Gear" on iTunes is encoded at 960x540 rather than 1280x720 (720p)? It still looks pretty good (surprisingly good actually, maybe because the bitrate is fairly high for this smaller "HD" size), but this seems to be a prime example of where the Apple TV's 24fps limitation on 720p is really starting to show.

[Mr Dobey]

Is anyone else a bit disappointed that the so-called "HD" version of "Top Gear" on iTunes is encoded at 960x540 rather than 1280x720 (720p)? It still looks pretty good (surprisingly good actually, maybe because the bitrate is fairly high for this smaller "HD" size), but this seems to be a prime example of where the Apple TV's 24fps limitation on 720p is really starting to show.

After watching the 1080i .ts rip, the iTunes versions seem like a joke ; )

[fpnc]

After watching the 1080i .ts rip, the iTunes versions seem like a joke ; )
What was the framerate on the 1080i source? The iTunes HD version was 25fps which wouldn't make much sense if the original source was 30fps (unless the 25fps progressive master was converted to 30fps for broadcast, but that would introduce notable interlacing/telecining artifacts into your 1080i rip).

[CWallace]

BBC HD content is filmed in 1980x1080i and the frame-rate is 25fps though, evidently, only Virgin Media's cable service offers this resolution in the UK.

The rips are usually off UK satellite sources, which is 1440x1080i using MPEG-4 H.264/AVC. They also use a much lower bit-rate on sat in the UK - under 10Mbps vs. the cable 17Mbps.