REPORT: Mos-Def High-Def: Top Gear shooting in 1080p
Regardless of what viewers may think of the opinions of Jeremy Clarkson and his cohorts at Top Gear, no one can argue with the production values. The cinematography is magnificent and even those who couldn't care less about cars find themselves getting sucked into the BBC program's visuals. Amazingly though, aside from one 2007 special, the show has always been shot with standard definition cameras (*cue Clarkson voice*).... Until now. In a post on the BBC's blog, Danielle Nagler, head of the HD division, announced that the upcoming 14th series of Top Gear is being shot with high definition cameras.
The new series will debut in the UK on November 15, which means that we should be seeing it on BBC America sometime in 2019. Give or take. The U.S.-based BBC America cable channel just started running series 7 of the show. While we love the show here at Autoblog headquarters, we sincerely wish we didn't have to resort to the torrents to get our fix at the same time as our British friends.
[Source: BBC Internet blog via EngadgetHD]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
yomama84 8:40AM (9/23/2009)
Why can't we just get Top Gear the same time as the brits?
To this day I still watch the Scirocco episode and laugh at them trying to make a commercial.
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xenos 8:56AM (9/23/2009)
For one, the licensing for music is different over there - I'm pretty sure they can use whatever they want. As soon as you play it here in the US, you have to have purchased the rights to use it here. When you watch episodes on BBC America, note how the music is different.
The Hit 6:38PM (9/23/2009)
I told you guys. We shouldn't have seceded from Britain. But noooooo....
RWD 3:48PM (9/23/2009)
Xenos... You are correct! I hate the different music too, but it's because Top Gear rips off some high profile sources including alot of American cinema. I have found myself visiting the "Whats that song?" pages at finalgear.com many times wondering where they got such a perfect song. It may sound strange, but this is a big reason why I feel I must resort to the torrents (season number aside). The sheer awesomeness of their film segments is powered in no small part by the excellent music selection. To take the same film and replace the music without changing the cut could never possibly have the same impact as what the editor originally intended.
Bring on the 48 hour torrent downloads!
Randy915 7:20PM (9/24/2009)
In a related story, why is Demonoid still down????
Visnick 8:41AM (9/23/2009)
It will look great but those are going to be some HUGE files!
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Sean Flanagan 9:45AM (9/23/2009)
Suck it up and seed!
hoyaCS08 9:54AM (9/23/2009)
The highest quality video... in the wooorld
jv2k 10:54AM (9/23/2009)
And thus we have the ultimate dilemma. I can't not watch the hd version, but since it usually is around an hour long the file is going to be enormous.
Yar 12:16PM (9/23/2009)
The North Pole special in 1080p was about 7 gigs, so this is going to be a tortuous event.
I'm just going to download them in standard def and try to find a place to buy the series on Blu-ray.
Visnick 12:32PM (9/23/2009)
I thought it was 720p, however, it was much longer than a normal TG episode
F00n Marani 7:41PM (9/23/2009)
Join a good private torrent community like HDBits. It takes about 9 minutes to download a 1 hour show in HD. Public trackers blow.
MajorGeek 8:44AM (9/23/2009)
Even movie stars are having trouble hiding some things with High Def, I don't need to see Clarkson any closer up or more detailed, thanks.
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Shamdiddly 8:50AM (9/23/2009)
It's more for the stig-fanbois and their quality-of-fap.
CB 8:54AM (9/23/2009)
"The U.S.-based BBC America cable channel just started running series 7 of the show"
Uh, I saw a series 12 episode several months ago on BBC America. It was Episode 2, the Factual Muscle Car episode. It was on while Series 13 was still going in the U.K.
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MBZ4me 9:18AM (9/23/2009)
Yes you did, but the series that wraps up next week on BBC America with the TG Winter Olympics is Series 7 from 20-(bloody)-05!! Not exactly the "all new" BBCA advertised... I imagine it was the first run of those shows on the network but I was expecting series 13.
Mr. Roarke 3:46PM (9/23/2009)
A-freakin'-men!
I was so ticked, I emailed BBC, BBC-America, and the local cable nimrods.
The local nimrods were sub-useless. BBC apparently were not interested.
BBC-A, with all the charm and consideration of today's Tool-Britania, burped up some noise about how they understood it seemed illogical not to follow series 12 with the new series 13, but that they had to choose whichever programming was most suitable to the viewing audience at any given moment---which means following 12 with 7.
So, yeah, 2019 sounds about right for series 14.
XGM 8:56AM (9/23/2009)
HD is fine by me, as long as I get my torrents on time.
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Sean Flanagan 9:44AM (9/23/2009)
Alas, viper has said the scene will have to delay a bit releasing the 720p and 1080p rips, but the standard def one will be released almost immediately as always. It takes much longer to encode 1080p, so we have to wait. Plus the extra time to get seeders.
I plan on getting the standard def and 1080p, and seeding both immediately and indefinitely, like any good pirate would.
XGM 9:54AM (9/23/2009)
Yea encoding HD is a pain when you dont have a powerful machine (like me :/), but after seeing the Arctic special they did in 1080p, they wait for the shows would very well be worth it. Plus I could upload anywhere from 1-5MB/s which makes some people very happy.