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South Africans to see 2010 World Cup in HD after all?

by Darren Murph posted Dec 10th 2008 at 9:40PM

We were completely and utterly dismayed after hearing that South Africa -- the host nation of the 2010 World Cup -- would not be able to catch the action in high-def in its own backyard. Thankfully, it seems that someone with some clout was able to change all that, or at least that's what we've gleaned from a recent writeup praising the country's sole HD channel (DSTv). Put simply, the writer states that "all [2010] World Cup games will be televised in high-definition," and he also states that locals can catch said HD action "on big screens at one of the many fan parks that will be dotted about the country." We're sincerely hoping these fan parks come to fruition -- can you imagine the excitement of a people experiencing HD for the first time as they watch the beautiful game?

Sony shows off curved multi-panel HDTV display at FIFA event

by Darren Murph posted Dec 4th 2008 at 4:20PM

There's not really a practical in-home use for the display array you see pictured on the right, but it sure demands attention at trade shows and special events. Demonstrated at the FIFA Confederations Cup Final Draw at the Sandton Convention Centre in South Africa, the highly unique display consists of nine individual HDTVs mounted on a curve aluminum structure. The whole lot was coordinated to form a single image via Sony's Ziris Canvas HD technology with split visual HDTV renders running on a "proprietary PlayStation 3 hardware solution." According to the report, this is just the fourth time ever that this tech has been used, and it's the first time in South Africa. Man, would 3D material be trippy on this or what?

South Africa to host 2010 FIFA World Cup, not see it in HD

by Darren Murph posted Aug 20th 2008 at 2:28PM


What, is this some sort of sick joke or something? The host nation of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, South Africa, will be unable to watch the action happening in its own backyard in high-definition. According to a recent report from Johannesburg, the SABC "has no plans to broadcast the 2010 FIFA World Cup in high-definition for South Africans." Instead, Switzerland-based Host Broadcasting Services (HBS) will film the games in HD for other countries. The trouble is that an overwhelming amount of South African citizens would need to procure a digital set-top-box in order to view the content in high-def, and considering that HD adoption in the nation is already low, it's simply not a high enough priority to bother with. Of course, political pressures could lead to change in all of this, and for the sake of the locals yearning for more high-def (and technological progress in general), we certainly hope so.

Overcompressed bitstarved HDTV frustrates World Cup fans

by Richard Lawler posted Jun 13th 2006 at 7:22AM

It's an unfortunate but familiar circumstance for many high definition television owners, after spending a lot of money on a new HDTV, hooked up the cable/satellite/antenna and settled in to watch the big game, only to get a blurry, blocky mess. While American soccer futbot football soccer fans have commented that they "can finally see the ball" during the World Cup broadcast, Korean watchers are flooding the nations three major broadcasters with complaints that they can't see anything thats moving quickly.

The broadcasters have been testing a new multicasting system, MMS to broadcast more channels within the same frequency, lowering the bitrate from 19Mbps to 13Mbps. It looks like viewers noticed the difference, with threats to sue and other complaints posted on the internet. The Korean Broadcasting Commission is going to vote tomorrow on whether to continue the MMS test or not. Korea, we've got our fingers crossed. Whether or not someone will sue ESPN for their poor color commentary during games remains to be seen.

HDTV Broadcast preparations for 2006 FIFA World Cup

by Richard Lawler posted Mar 29th 2006 at 3:17PM


After a harsh lesson learned during the Winter Olympics, we now know that the quality of our international HDTV viewing is almost totally in the hands of the host broadcaster. In the case of the upcoming World Cup action in Germany, those appear to be very very good hands.

Check out Host Broadcast Services official website for more details on how they plan to showcase high definition this summer (whether or not people in Europe have HDTVs to watch it on), Also be sure to take a look at thier Widescreen HDTV FAQ. With a minimum of 20 high def cameras on each match producing the action in 1080i/50, we should finally have a good reason to watch the other football.




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