ABC Clicks On Online HDTV Test - 7/25/2007 12:59:00 PM - Multichannel News: "ABC.com Tuesday quietly kicked off a beta-test of its 'high-definition' Internet-TV channel with four episodes from the network's top-rated primetime shows -- but if your broadband connection and PC aren't fast enough, you won't see any difference over the regular versions.
In a cheeky disclaimer of sorts on the site, ABC promises to deliver the HD programming 'at the best quality and the biggest size allowed by law, or by your hardware.'
The four HD episodes are the recently aired season finales of Desperate Housewives ('Getting Married Today'), Grey's Anatomy ('Didn't We Almost Have It All'), Lost ('Through the Looking Glass') and Ugly Betty ('East Side Story').
ABC announced the online-HD plans in May and said it will expand the HD content on the site with the launch of the fall season in September.
In a test of the feature, Multichannel News found that the full-screen episodes were indeed sharper than the standard versions available on ABC.com, as long as the Internet connection hovered around 2 megabits per second.
Still, the experience doesn't compare to watching HDTV on a big-screen set. ABC.com compressed the video down to about 2 mbps using codecs from On2 Technologies, whereas cable operators typically encode HD streams in MPEG-2 format at between 12 and 19 mbps. ABC.com uses video-player software from Move Networks to deliver the episodes to users' computers as files (as opposed to truly streaming the video in real-time).
ABC has taken steps to set viewers' expectations about whether they'll even be able to get the 'online HD' programs. Before launching the HD channel, the site pops up a list of recommended minimum requirements: an Internet connection of at least 2 mbps, a PC with a dual-core processor and 1 gigabyte of random-access memory and a monitor capable of displaying 1,300-by-770 resolution."
(Read Original Article - Via Multichannel News .)