Petteri Pyyny
21 Jun 2004 14:09
Leading European satellite operator Astra and 60 European broadcasters have agreed on a HDTV initiative that aims to create a standard HDTV platform across the Europe. Astra is the satellite provider that most large European satellite broadcasters, including British Sky Digital, use.
The group agreed to standardize on two broadcast resolutions, 720p50 and 1080i25. 720p50 means that the broadcast resolution would be 1280x720 pixels with 50 full frames per second (==progressive) and 1080i25 means a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels with 25 full frames per second (==interlaced). Both resolutions are the most commonly used HDTV broadcast resolutions in the United States (but American HDTV uses higher framerate). Both resolutions are natively in 16:9 aspect ratio.
Group also agreed to create a pan-European "HDTV" label that would be granted to devices, such as TVs and digital set-top boxes, that are ready to receive and decode HDTV material. Compression formats that the European HDTV will use are MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC.
Source: Astra press release