World Rally Championship on Speed HD - Page 2

At least the WRC is more likely to go native HD than F1.

Here is a preview of the 2011 WRC with the Ford Fiesta in almost final trim.

Well the 2011 season is now upon us. The start of a new era of 1.6T WRCars. Only 2 manufacturers will be competing, but one more is going to do a partial season, and that manufacturer is Mini. VW is still thinking about the WRC and that could happen sometime in 2012.

Now we shall see if the WRC will go native HD instead of upscaled HD on HDT. HDTheater did air the 2011 season, but you had find it in your EPG's search function.

David Richards who is the head of Prodrive and Aston Martin, said that VW is going to be announcing a WRC program sometime this year. Earlier rumors are pointing out that VW could have their car ready sometime next year for a partial season, with VW doing the whole 2013 season. He did say that the WRC is probably not going to get no more than 4 manufacturers. Those manufacturers include VW, Ford, Citroen, and Mini.

I'm rooting for Mini to do well this year, as they seem to have a lot of potential since they signed Dani Sordo, and Kris Meeke. I'm sure Kris Meeke will do well even though he's not technically a British driver.

We'll see if Ford or another manufacturer can beat the Citroen domination, but remember, all good things must come to an end, and that includes both Citroen and Loeb's domination.

HDTheater is going to carry WRC for this year. Perhaps it will be shot in native HD. I saw a video of a DS3 WRC test and it was filmed in HD. Granted, it was Youtube HD, but it looked spectacular, and that even included the interior view. This means HD is now possible for the WRC, though they still need to get the cameras to work with the intercoms, so you can hear the pacenotes being called from the co-driver.

I love watching these races. I recorded all of the stuff from 2010, and just finished watching just recently. Loeb is seriously dominant.
Does anyone know if Ken Block will be participating again this year?

Block will definitely be driving a Fiesta WRC this year, and he will be doing 12 rallies this year. That means he is only missing all but one rally which would be Finland, since the X-Games collides with that date. Block will be competing in that event in lieu of Finland. I would rather see him drive Finland, but it's his decision.

This thing is fast and looks great in HD. I would say that this years WRC is going to look pretty interesting.

HD coverage is looking a big possibility as Ken Block's car had a GoPro camera mounted on the roof. GoPro's have nice PQ but the AQ is horrible since their casing makes the sound worse, it doesn't help as it has a terrible microphone. I'll ask Simon Long the head of the WRC's promoter North One sport about it.

Rally Sweden is coming up and HD Theater will likely delay it by a couple of weeks, but who knows.

VW will likely announce their WRC program in the next few months. Toyota is also working on a WRC and LeMans program and could be back in 2013, though a 2012 debut in the WRC is possible.

http://dhd.discovery.com/tv/world-ra...hip/about.html

It looks like HD Theater is going to cover the WRC this year, and the coverage is even better than last year. New for 2011 is the Power Stage which is a stage that is covered live on European TV. Americans will have to watch a tape delayed broadcast, but it's better than nothing. About time HDTheater is covering the WRC.

Thanks for posting the link. Rally Sweden is always my favorite. Watching them tear through the snow is insane!

Still not in HD. The PowerStage for Mexico was obviously in SD. I'm not sure when or if they will go HD. If F1 can go HD, then so can WRC. There are HD cameras that would work well in the WRC.

VW is going to join the WRC in 2013 with a Polo R. So now there will be more manufacturers joining. Renault and Toyota are still thinking about the WRC, though the latter is probably still having to rebuild from the recent tsunami.

http://www.volkswagen-motorsport.com...k&lg=e&st=592&


Official video and Press release.

WRC.com says another manufacturer is thinking about joining the sport. It could very well be Toyota or Renault. Maybe even both, but that is just wishful thinking on my part.

WRC does need to get better camera equipment and start showing real HD coverage. Last I've heard, they are still using disc based cameras. I'm sure the WRC could find a camera system that can allow them to do HD and is SSD based.

Rumor has it that a Canadian WRC event is in the works, and I don't know when it will happen. It's interesting that Canada doesn't even cover WRC on TV and they are getting a WRC round. I guess Canada is less of a liability than sue happy America.

Looks like Velocity will continue to broadcast the WRC.

I think the reason why the WRC isn't in true HD, probably has to do with editing. A guy on the Big Brother thread said it quite well. Then again, you also have time constraints as well. If the Amazing Race can be shown in HD, then the WRC can. For the longest time the WRC was using disc based recording solutions. They did mention a migration over to a flash based system, but I think they should focus on getting native HD and find a way to do it, alongside the live powerstage. Hopefully North One Sport and the FiA finally move the WRC into the HD era like F1.

Gerard Quinn said that the WRC is looking into a US based round, but the locations are a top secret.

It's amazing that the WRC still continues to broadcast in SD, since there are plenty of HD POV cameras that could work for the onboards. Infact, most of them have an input for an intercom. I've seen some Czech Rally onboards on Youtube, and even they can do HD onboard footage with pacenotes. I wonder if there are issues with editing with HD, that could be their hurdle. I'm sure they could do it. WRC uses ENG cameras, but they also use Sony FX1000 cameras for service park footage. I think they might have moved on to HD cameras, but they aren't actually filming it in HD. I think they probably won't go native HD, until they can find an onboard camera that can do HD.

The intercom is probably one of the reasons WRC hasn't gone HD. I'm sure there are reasons for them not being in HD, but who knows for sure.

This is the type of onboard the WRC should have for next year. I hope they go native HD for Velocity, but that probably won't happen, as they are too cheap to install proper HD cameras.

Rally France is being broadcasted live via IPTV. You'll need to enter in a survey, and they aren't blocking US IP address'.

https://wrcpaywall.appspot.com/static/player.html

If you're running Firefox or Chrome using AdBlock Plus, then you'll need to disable it. Any ad blocker will cause an error message. It's going to be on from 13:00 to 20:00 (8:00 PM) Strasbourg time on Friday, and 12:45 to 19:30 (7:30 PM) on Saturday. If you can try to stay up, then it might be a good idea to watch it live. There might be some technical issues, and it's the first time doing it, so try it.

No word on when or if the WRC will go native HD. WRC doesn't have the best upconverted SD PQ, so you'll have to suffer for a while. WRC uses ENG cameras, though they might be in HD. Last info on their cameras was from 2005, so they might have gone with XDCam HD units. I think it's the onboard cameras that are holding them back.

Enjoy the live coverage people.

Watching the WRC live and it's AWESOME! It will be on tomorrow, though it's on right now on the link I've provided above. This is the official site for Live coverage, so it's not some pirate site.

Live WRC will be on at 3:45 AM PST/6:45 EST till 10:30 AM PST/1:30 PM EST.

PQ for the live coverage was great. On HQ mode, it rivals the highlight broadcasts on HDTheater. This is on a 20.1" 16:10 monitor, so it might be worse on a larger display. I must be the only one to watch some of it live. The timezone difference terrible, but I did get to see some WRC live, and that was awesome! I hope they do more live broadcasts; however, they are considering a pay version of the coverage with premium content.

For a first time live broadcast, WRC did a good job. They could do a little less commentating, but not bad. No coverage for tomorrow . It's another way for those without Velocty/HDT to watch the WRC.

There are plans for pay content on the live TV feed. Maybe even make the live footage be a paid service.

Rally GB is on and it looks like a predictable fight. Velocity will air it in a couple of weeks, give or take.

Well the WRC is having some issues with financing as the owner of North One Sport is being wanted by a few authorities in Europe. This means that the WRC needs a new investor. Eurosport and BSkyB are interested in the WRC. If BSkyB buys it then the WRC could be getting real HD coverage; however, this makes any US deal with the WRC rather uncertain. Maybe Speed might get WRC if BSkyB buys it. I'm sure the WRC could go to another network if either Eurosport or BSkyB buy it. It could very well mean the end of Velocity/HDT airing the WRC as we know it. I hope someone carries it, and I really do not want Speed to carry it, as they will mess up the coverage.

here's to a 2012 season televised here in the US.

Agreed!