Finally, there’s one more channel on StarHub – the long-awaited free-to-air HD5 from MediaCorp, which promises “true HD” channels during primetime (the rest are up-converted).
The channel is supposed to have started on July 28 (yesterday) – just in time for the July deadline set by MediaCorp/StarHub and of course, just in time, for both the Olympics and Barclays Premier League in August. The sharp images for HD5 are on Ch 300, next to the existing Ch301 and Ch302 for National Geographic and Discovery.
In a letter to subscribers this month, StarHub also says it will have a “new” HD sports channel – basically repackaged stuff like US PGA and selected Barclays Premier League matches (for sports group subscribers) that used to go on its defunct HD Showcase channel.
That’s still only 4 channels for diehard HD fans here (not counting SingTel’s “game TV” type of content that shows meaningless gameplay videos).
With the number of HD TV sets sold at each lelong PC trade show, you can only hope StarHub and MediaCorp (and SingTel) pick up the pace and show more channels in the next year.
Meanwhile, share with us your experience of HD5 on StarHub here.
really disappointed with HD5…for the olympics…showing many times the same thing through the day, and for example only 1 of the 4 quarter final for handball….same in basketball….
Some some are not even shown….
Why ?
why showing warm up for table tennis while so many things happening….????
Thks guys, it’s true, the TrueHD programmes may look good, even the upscaled ones look at little better than regular Ch5, but there seems to be some problems with the upscaling coz I get a little ghosting on my Samsung N8 HDTV.
The video quality is terrible as compared to both discovery and nat geo. The Prison Break was washed out , looks more like a DVD upscaled image then anything else.
Feel free to vsit my blog at hdtvsg.blogspot.com
Hi,
i have a HD set-top box from starhub, but when I press “mosaic” on my remote there is no HD5 channel 300, I only have clannel 280 something and 400 something.
Any help will be appreciated.
Francis.
The HD5 upscaled programmes look slightly better than the standard definition equivalent. But when I switch from HD5 to Discovery HD and Nat Geo HD, I can see the upscaled content pales in comparison. I’ve not watched any actual HD shows on HD5 yet. I guess true HD content is limited to the weekend movies and some drama series.
Discovery HD and Nat Geo HD sometimes have problems with out of sync audio. Also, if you’re not watching with a sound system, the audio levels are slightly lower than the regular channels. Have to keep that in mind when channel surfing!