NCAA on 58

[Pat]

MesaV, the HD broadcasts you're talking about are "upconverted" NTSC -- not even SD.  (SD is better than NTSC but still 4:3.  SD is what 10 shows most of the time on their 4 channels.)  They are upconverted because there isn't enough HD remote equipment to go around.  I believe they are also using some older non-HD equipment at the HD games.  Once in a while you'll see oval basketballs and crappy resolution.  On replays, mostly.

There was a time, however, during the game before the Wisconsin/Maryland game, from Washington, that was on but was not HD.  I have no explanation other than perhaps CBS failed to switch over because it would screw-up stations which do not have HD yet.

The Lexington, KY site has the truck next weekend.  So we should get the Duke/Indiana bracket, but not Illinois and that bracket from Madison.

[GS kid]

I guess this is a shout out to Jim Hall since he doesn't have an E-mail address to reach him. I noticed that Max Bickford was not in HD except the last 15 seconds of the show. I also noticed that Days Of Our Lives was not in HD today. Does channel 58 have to enter the HD shows into a computer so that it will turn on HD itself or is somebody who's supposed to turn it on by hand just asleep on the job? What the broadcasting industry should do is have the main direct feed send out a electronic code like they do now with program ratings for V-Chip enabled TVs that allow us to block out certain shows. The NEW code should tell the station's broadcasting equipment to automaticly switch over to HD when there's an HD program on and to switch back to SD when there isn't one. I notice the equipment seems to switch okay automaticly between them during commercial breaks. By using this code, there would be no need to program ahead of time when to trip over to HD.

I also wish they didn't have those sidebars during the NCAA HD feed whenever they drop to a SD feed. They're pretty, but they could cause screen burn-in. I too also noticed the replay stretching you talk about. It's like they are taking an analog camera's picture and doing a Horz. stretch to fill the screen. Thus the nasty looking replays.

---- GS kid
 

[This message has been edited by GS kid (edited 03-18-2002).]

[This message has been edited by GS kid (edited 03-18-2002).]

[MesaV]

********* and he replies to his email.

(Moderator: Please don't post Mr. Hall's e-mail per his request. He will visit the forum as possible and answer questions here. Thanks. Todd.)

[This message has been edited by Todd Wiedemann (edited 03-18-2002).]

[GS kid]

 Well I got answer to my own question after talking to the station engineer. There is no code sent from the Sat. feed to tell the station to automaticly pop-over to HD. He thinks it would be a great idea if CBS would go that direction. It would make his job easier. At this point, they have to enter the HD times into a computer there to do the HD switch-over. Only problem with that is, when shows (like sports games) run long, the entered times are useless and somebody must pop in HD manually. Let's hope CBS and others use an HD pop-over code in the future!!

---- GS kid