Loading ...Jun 17 2009
As of the 1st July 2009 The Bill will grace the high-definition stage on ITV HD twice per week. This is an additional boost for ITV who have clearly increased their HD output over the past few weeks. Fans of The Bill with a HD Ready television and Freesat HD digital box will be able to press the red button and enjoy this long running drama in crystal clear picture and sound.
Additional highlights over the next couple of weeks include Wimbledon, the 2004 hit staring Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany; plus drama’s such as The Royal and Kingdom. A full schedule can be found here.
June 18th, 2009 at 7:53 am
This will be great, keep going ITV, a few more wont hurt
June 18th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Sorry to be negative but won”t this be 2 more. Opportunities for it to go wrong.
When ITV follow the BBC and have a dedicated channel it will be a real offering and not a half baked attempt at a HD service.
June 18th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Allo, allo, allo, what’s all this then? The Bill in HD, should make an arresting sight. Well done ITV, more please, c’mon, let’s be ‘avin you!!
June 18th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
ITV does not have enough HD material for a full HD service yet that’s why its a red button service. Good to see ‘The Bill’ will be in HD from July.
June 18th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
More HD on ITV (England) is excellent news.
But I still can’t get my head round why ITV chose to broadcast Teletext on a separate channel.
Personally, I like to look at this type of information whilst watching (or listening to) tv. Now you have to tune in specifically and can not mix the two together.
June 18th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Teletext and ITV aren’t the same company. The teletext service is owned and operated by Associated Newspapers, the same lovely (for certain definitions of the word) people who bring you the Daily Mail.
June 18th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Well they manage to do it on Freeview and analogue – so why not Freesat?
June 18th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
nee wha nee wha nee whaaaa
June 18th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
any extra hd programme is a bonus…if seen some good stuff on itv hd…and it was worth waiting for…but dont bother me just now!!!..i just cant get my head around itv dropping…PRIMEVAL….i havent slept for a weeks…bah humbug…
June 19th, 2009 at 12:03 am
Oh thats nice,
for all you in England, but unfortunatly, up here in the mafia controlled STV, we wont get this.
OK, I have retuned my box to recieve a London signal, but Im starting to feel sorry for all the local advertisers in scotland who spend a lot of money ( me ) to advertise in the breaks. So many people are retuning their box to England, that who will I be advertising to ?
anyway, more HD is always good news.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:24 am
nee wha nee wha nee whaaaa?
And your point is m o malley?
June 19th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Gary W @ 10
The ads on ITV HD in the West of England area all seem to be based around the Manchester area so technically you are nearer to that area than what I am.
June 19th, 2009 at 9:55 am
On analogue teletext, you have to have it attached to a specific broadcast channel, so of course teletext has to go on channel 3 (and that’s what the licence was for originally).
On Freeview, Teletext has its own channel numbers, so it can be accessed directly, and ITV don’t seem to have their own interactive service, so it’s easy enough to have an application (the thing that starts when you press Red) that directs people to the data from Teletext.
Things are complicated on Freesat, because of the need for ITV to carry the application that launches the HD service.
There are some workarounds, but they’re awkward. If you had a launch menu on the red button, for example, with ‘Go to HD’ and ‘Enter teletext’ the first option would only work some of the time, confusing viewers. So too would having the red button launch text most of the time, and HD when it’s available – on top of which, Teletext would doubtless not be pleased at not being able to give people a consistent way of getting to their service,
And having the red button do different things depending on which region you’ve selected would also be confusing. You’d get people in, say, the West Country, hearing that ITV HD is on the red button and getting Teletext every time they try it.
So, in the absence of a full time ITV HD channel, Teletext as a red button service from ITV1 is another casualty. It would be quite interesting to know how that’s affected the usage of the service on the platform. I can’t imagine Teletext are thrilled, but there’s probably not much they can do about it. And ITV probably don’t care – they have enough self-inflicted problems of their own.
June 19th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Why can’t HD be continuous when two or more shows are shown like on Sunday 21st when there are three HD shows in a row.
BTW Is three in a row a new record for ITV HD?
June 19th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Thanks Nigel.
June 19th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
It really is great that itv is trying, but Christ , i haven’t seen an episode in over 15 years.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
@ Gary W
Just go to ITV London on 977 and you’ll get the red button prompt for ITV HD.
June 19th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I assume the Bill is made with HD cameras so it should look good.
Shame about Kingdom though. It looks like a transfer from 16mm film, very lacklustre.
June 19th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
Big deal !
June 20th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
this is great news. i love the bill. well done ITV HD for actually showing some more content!
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:28 pm
I have a problem I was wondering someone can help me out on. When I run my freesat HD box through the coaxial cable in my living room, all channels and services run smoothly, but when I move it to my bedroom TV; CNN, BBC news and the sport multiscreen on BBC HD all don’t work. I originally had it installed in my bedroom. So my question is, Did the installers mess up the installation, or is the fault to do with my box.
June 22nd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
wrong place to ask this question! but i will have ago at answering, you may have a cordless phone or BT hub which may interfere with the box or cable, maybe your cable is cheap and not twin screened.
June 25th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Would be great news if Ch 4 could go HD on freesat this year
June 25th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
I don’t think so sunny Jim,may be in 2015
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:07 pm
Another epic fail by ITV. One night of The Bill in HD followed by the second half broadcast in London the following night with no “red button” flag.
A red button service is all well and good but not if you have to restart the service when the following programme is also in HD. How about a software upgrade to make this unnecessary?