Is HD non-region?/universal format?

[ToddL]

I just read something that gave me the impression that HD broadcasts will be universal as opposed to the SD broadcasts of NTSC, PAL and SECAM and regional variations of these. Is HD universal? Is this old news?
Thanks

[edtyct]

Not really universal, though the world is getting smaller, and the codecs invented by US companies could possibly appeal to foreign markets under the right conditions (think Microsoft). Although Europe had an HD standard twenty years ago, it was never really practical and didn't stick. Most European companies don't appear to have much interest in HD, though England has a delivery system or two. Japan started out with a complicated analog HD system back in the 90s, and certain parties in the US flirted with the idea of adopting it as an interim standard, but it too dropped off the face of the earth. China has its own HD format for DVD, which no company here is likely to touch, even though it could conceivably bide time while the majors shoot it out in their format war; the Chinese are too lax about copy protection. The country that's most like us, at least in terms of interest, is Australia.

Ed