HDTV in Germany: Where is it?

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Germany’s Slow Progress in HDTV

Australia, Japan, South Korea, and the USA are the world leaders in high-definition television. Europe has lagged behind. Germany, Europe’s largest TV market, has been particularly slow to start HDTV broadcasts, falling behind even Austria and Switzerland!

Buying an HD-ready TV in Germany is not the problem. The problem is finding any HD shows to watch. PHOTO © ZDF

Germany began its conversion to digital television (DVB-T) in 2003, much earlier than the USA. That’s an essential step for HDTV, so you’d think that Germany also would have been one of the first countries to introduce hi-def TV broadcasts, but you would be wrong! In fact, the much smaller countries of Austria and Switzerland are ahead of Germany in HDTV. While Germany’s public broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, didn’t broadcast in HD until August 2009 (for the IAAF World Championship athletic games in Berlin), Austrian and Swiss TV broadcast HD for the 2008 World Cup Games.

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No over-the-air HDTV!
But don’t think that means you can watch HDTV using an antenna! In Germany, the only way to receive and watch HD programming is via digital satellite or cable. Although there are many over-the-air digital TV (DVB-T) channels in standard definition in most larger German cities, not one of them is HD. Over-the-air HD programming is set for the future, but such HD projections and predictions have been notoriously unreliable. (Germany had also promised HD for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, which didn’t happen).

Not that it matters a lot. Even on cable or satellite, ARD and ZDF offer little HD programming (and most Germans get their TV signal via cable or satellite). A few demonstration hi-def shows went out for Christmas 2009, but to watch movies or other programming in HD, you’ll need to subscribe to a German pay-TV provider such as Sky Deutschland or Anixe HD. The German private TV broadcasters have not done well with HDTV either. Two private HD channels, Pro7HD and Sat.1HD, began satellite transmissions in 2005, but shut down in February 2008. Regular HDTV from ARD and ZDF only began with the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, but viewers still need cable or satellite to get HD. No over-the-air HDTV is planned. Which is odd when you realize that the German cable operators have been fighting with ARD and ZDF over carrying HDTV!

What’s the problem?
German (and European) TV viewers are suffering from a chicken-and-the-egg problem. Broadcasters don’t want to spend money on HDTV that no one can watch. Viewers don’t want to buy an HDTV set they can’t use. European governments have been slow to solve that problem by forcing TV broadcasters to move to HDTV, in the same way they once helped promote the shift to color television.

Another possible reason for the slow adoption of HDTV in Germany and Europe is the fact that the standard PAL TV picture has always had more lines of resolution than NTSC in the US (and in Japan, Mexico, and some other countries). For Americans, the jump from a TV picture with 480 lines (NTSC) to 1080 lines for HDTV is much more apparent than going from 576 lines (PAL) in Germany. Still, full 1080 HD has five times the resolution (2 megapixels) of the standard digital TV picture (0.4 megapixels) seen by Germans today! But amazingly, ARD and ZDF, Germany’s public broadcasters, have opted to go with the lowest international standard for HDTV: 720p.

Mostly for cost reasons, German TV viewers will have to settle for 720p rather than 1080i or 1080p HDTV. (If you find these numbers confusing, see our HD glossary below.) ARD and ZDF justify their choice of 720p HDTV by claiming it is better for sports with fast-moving images, but critics point out the inferiority of the 720p standard and the fact that newer 1080i/1080p displays can increase the frame rate to 100 or 120 Hz, reducing blur. For movies and most TV shows, the 1080i/p HD picture is far superior to 720p. But many other public broadcasters in European countries are also adopting 720p, mostly to save money. Commercial channels and pay-TV services via cable and satellite usually offer a better 1080i picture. Blu-ray discs are 1080p. Consumers can easily compare the sharper Blu-ray image with a 720p TV image.

Continued below...

HDTV Glossary 16:9: The aspect ratio found in the HD widescreen TV picture. The old standard (SD) aspect ratio is 4:3, but PALplus (wide SD) is 16:9. 720p / 1080p: An HDTV picture with 720 lines (1280 x 720 pixels) or 1080 lines (1920 x 1080 pixels), scanned progressively, not interlaced 720p50 / 1080p60: As above, but adding the frame rate of 50 or 60 full pictures per second. 1080i: An HDTV picture with 1080 interlaced lines, not scanned progressively ATSC: The Advanced Television Systems Committee developed the new US digital TV standard that has replaced the old analog NTSC color TV standard. ATSC is also used in Canada and Mexico. Blu-ray™: An optical disc system that displays movies or games in 1080p HD. DVB: Digital Video Broadcasting is the European standard first implemented in 1998 (in the UK). DVB replaces the old analog PAL and SECAM TV standards used in many countries around the globe. HDTV: High-definition television, with a minimum of 720 progressively scanned lines (720p). MPEG-4 AVC: Moving Pictures Expert Group, Standard 4 Advanced Video Coding is an advanced version of MPEG-2 video compression used for HDTV. NTSC: The old US analog color TV standard, with a 480i picture. Now replaced by ATSC. PAL: Phase Alternating Lines - The old German analog TV standard, with a 576i picture. See Germany’s PAL TV for more.

But all of this is rather academic, as long as ARD, ZDF, and Germany’s private broadcasters continue to offer little or no HD programming. Yes, you can buy HD flat-screen TVs in Germany, but the only hi-def image (hochauflösendes Bild) that you can currently view on your flat-screen 16:9 TV display will have to come from a Blu-ray disc or satellite or cable pay-TV. The sad truth is that most Germans have no idea of what they’re missing.

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