CBS released a high definition player today in the labs area of their site, along with a few clips. They are currently streaming (not progressive download) in H.264/AVC format at 480p, with 720p and 1080p coming soon, they say.
Hulu and others are also beginning to test high definition streaming. Some shows on Hulu, for example, are optionally available in 480p format. They also have a few clips available in 720p.
Update: We’ve had a chance to speak with Eric Feng, the CTO of Hulu, about how this CBS announcement compares to the video quality provided by Hulu.
Hulu currently provides three levels of quality: 360p, 480p, and 720p. The first two levels are streamed whereas the third is progressively downloaded. Since CBS has yet to stream anything above 480p, these new tests are nothing extraordinary…yet. However, even if CBS begins to stream 720p or higher, consumers might not see much benefit. According to Feng, the median broadband download rate in the US is 1.9mb/sec and high definition video (ordinarily considered 720p or higher on the web) consumes 2.5mb/sec. So if CBS tries streaming 720p, they’d probably run into lots of buffering issues.
We should note that 480p and 720p are not available for all videos on Hulu. Only a certain selection of movies are available in 480p and only very few samples are available in 720p. Hulu doesn’t currently plan to deploy 1080p because it takes up too much bandwidth and processing power.
it’s not really fair to call 480p ‘high-def.’
HD on a computer is at least 720.
browse - 480p is very close to being true HD, which is 720 vertical lines of resolution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.....television
Isn’t that the girl from Showgirls and Saved By The Bell?
I could get into this high-resolution stuff.
Too Bad Comcast and Verizon are going to limit your bandwidth so that if you actually try to stream HD you’ll be labeled a ‘Heavy User’ and have to pay 10X for your bandwidth.
elizabeth berkeley?
She’s yummy in HD, SD, DD, whatever…
Great, now they can run our HD video ads
http://www.brightroll.com/2008.....vertising/
Mike,
look on wikipedia again. 480p is most definitely standard def.
“vertical resolution” means image height. 480 < 720.
480 or 720 - whatever. The clips seriously look great. Bring it on CBS. Can’t happen soon enough.
CBS is actually using our transcoding engine for the HD gallery.
if anybody is looking for high-quality, high-throughput transcoding solutions, shoot an email to transcoding@agnostic-media.com, and we can talk.
Is that kelly from save by the bell?
I seem to recall 480p being referred to as “Enhanced Definition” and 720p, 1080i, and 1080p (and presumably anything else 720p or above) being referred to has “High Definition.” While it’s great that we can finally stream shows online at the same resolution my SD TV gets (480), don’t go patting these sites on the back quite yet.
Good stuff… Internet TV comes of age, finally!
Do we know what technology is going to be used? I believe ABC uses Move Networks, what will CBS use?
I can produce in full HD but the only free online distribution
I’ve found & used sucessfully is :
http://www.vimeo.com/tsunamix/videos
they requirer 720p to be considered HD there.
Only available in usa not anywhere else
admin
http://freeindiantv4ever.com
Arrington, I think you better stick to commenting on things you know something about. Because clearly HD resolutions are not one of them.
480 is the VERTICAL resolution
Normal SD is 720×480.
HD resolutions are as follows.
1280×720 and 1920×1080.
SLIGHTLY different more resolution than 480, by like a magnitude of 3 and 6.
> According to Feng, the median broadband download rate in the US is
> 1.9mb/sec and high definition video (ordinarily considered 720p or higher on
> the web) consumes 2.5mb/sec.
Wow… 1.9 millibits per second! That’s almost 165 bits per day! Is it really so hard to use to correct terms on a site that has “tech” in its name?
do higher bandwidth countries like Japan have HD streaming now? The US is limited by the pipes, but several other countries are not.
Wow. Quality on these CBS videos on my computer is better than on my HD television.
Jake when you are viewing them on a 20″ monitor, anything with decent quality looks great.
Has anyone gotten this to work? It just hangs when I click Play.
Works for me!
Looks awesome. How do I get this to play on my TV?
Hook up pc/mac mini - use wireless keyboard/mouse
Hasn’t ABC.com been offering HD streaming online for some time…i know you can watch Lost in HD and I think other stuff too
Are people watching this with a wifi connection or with ethernet? It plays back horribly for me but ABC’s video works great. I know ABC is using Move.