National Geographic HD and MHD headed to Germany

After Sat. 1 HD and ProSieben HD went dark in Germany until 2010, things haven't been as dormant as expected. Late last month, we received word that both FOX and TNT would be making their way over (and hopefully in HD), and now we're seeing that both National Geographic HD and MHD (MTV HD) could be arriving on undisclosed cable carriers in the near future. Reportedly, Nat Geo HD -- which is nearly ready in Austria and Switzerland -- could be arriving any moment, while MHD is likely to land on PREMIERE this December. Slowly but surely, it looks as if Europe may actually be moving forward in adopting HDTV programming.

[Thanks, Chris]

Read - National Geographic HD to Germany
Read - MHD to Germany

[(Unverified) Posted May 12th 2008 11:47AM]

Well they better be good.

One of the unspoken parts to the whole issue of high def is that in the USA it's a much bigger deal over upscale cos the USA has cr@ppy 480 visible line standard definition TV.

In Europe we have 576 visible line Pal.

It may help explain why so many people here in Europe are distinctly underwhelmed by high def.
Of course nobody is saying there is no difference, it's just that the differences we can see are often very minor
(particularly on the majority's 32" - 50" HD TV)
and the value of the switch is highly questionable - especially at the premium prices some are determined to try & charge.

Unsurprisingly free-to-air high def is coming......without it high def TV
(averaging around 20% of the total UK TV market and slightly over 10% of continental Europe)
would have an extremely limited potential & future here.

(none of which does much for the future of Blu-ray here either......and yes Europe does matter, we're a single market of 480 - 500 millions - depending on which st at you prefer - compared to a US market of around 300 million :P )

[(Unverified) Posted May 13th 2008 3:15AM]

Also Truth Teller, here in Europe we've had widescreen TV for over 10 years now, the US only got widescreen with HD.

I think MHD would be great to have in the UK, would love to see a pan-European MTV again, like we used to have in the 90's when MTV was worth watching (and bring back Ray Cokes!)