CBS HD Quality.

[Tom Sielicki]

Somebody posted this on AVSForum but I was also noticing the same thing.  The promo spot CBS runs "It's all here" is in excellent quality and seems like 3D.   How come when you watch the regular HD primetime shows they do not appear that good.  It just goes to show you that it can even be better at 1080i than it is right now if they tweak their material.   The NCAA games are looking fairly good on CBS58.  Still a little lower in quality than the NBC NBA game on super bowl Sunday.

[tenth_t2]

Well, I'd guess that it's because that spot was produced with HD equipment.  I don't know how many of the prime time shows are actually recorded with equipment that's HD, or if they upconvert.  Survivor for example I believe is just simulcast on the HD channel.  I think true HD does give that "snap" and crispness in the image-- whether it's 720p or 1080i.

Did you catch the Wisconsin game last night?  That was HD, and I would say equivalent to anything else I've seen in 1080i thus far.

Greg O.

[shawn123]

The CBS quality is top the best that it can be because they are multicasting 41 at the same time.  That eats up @25% of the bandwith, and a noticable amount of the HD quality.

[Matt Heebner]

It all has to do with how a show or event is shot. Sporting events and other "events" are shot using HD VIDEO cameras. These are digital video cameras using up to 60 frames per second. Most shows (Crossing Jordan, CBS shows, etc.) are using film cameras. They are capturing at 24 frames per second (cinema). This helps preserve a more film like appearance, even introducing a "film" haze and grain. Video is way too sharp for most films, and even movies (shot at 1080 progressive @ 24FPS) would look like digital video which is not what you really want for film.
Sports on the other hand....IT should look as sharp as possible, and video-like.

Matt

[GS kid]

I have to agree with that for the most part. Anytime you convert from film/SD video, there is a decent chunk of digital noise artifacts introduced in the process. I see it all the time when it comes to DVD movies. It's not the end of the world, but it does bother me. The CBS HDTV promo does look very good as they are using HD cameras as do sporting events. I saw a little bit of the Little House II movie last night. It appeared to be a film to HD conversion and it showed. I saw alot of white-noise static like digital noise in the background fields. Most noticeable in the big blue sky backdrops.
----- GS kid