Senior CBS Exec says Multi-Casting Hurts Picture Quality

[Mark Strube]

I lifted this great story from AVSForum...

CBS is committed to making HD from the field part of its HD newscasts just as soon as possible, says Bob Seidel, the CBS advanced technology VP. So, he says, introduction of Sony XDCAM HD camcorders has been a first step in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago and other markets.

Since TV engineers in the United States first began thinking about HDTV 25 years ago, CBS has been at the forefront of development and deployment. The CBS O&Os are now joining the vanguard of stations that have begun offering local HD news. KYW Philadelphia made the leap earlier this month and KCBS Los Angeles and WBBM Chicago are next in line.

In this interview with TVNEWSDAY, Bob Seidel, talks about the local HD rollout and how it's part of other plans for new facilities, microwave upgrades and the new generation of ENG camcorders.

An edited transcript follows:

What about DTV? Does CBS have any plan for using its extra DTV capacity for services other than HD?

• We kind of think, in many cases, we don't have the extra capacity if we are going to preserve image quality. In fact, if you look at some of the recent AVS Forum comments, you'll see that people are beginning to perceive that stations that are doing multicasting are causing the quality of their HD to suffer.

Two things have been happening here. Consumers receivers are getting a lot better in terms of quality. You see receivers now coming out that can display the full two million picture elements. Before, a lot of the receivers like DLP were only half of that.

As a result, people are becoming a lot more critical in their viewing. Any imperfections become really obvious. If you were at the Consumer Electronics show, you saw 1080P was all the rage. That means that all those sets are going to have the full 1920 by 1080 resolution.

The other thing that a lot of stations have been confronted with is the fact that must carry only applies to primary video and that the secondary services may not being carried by cable or satellite.

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2007/04/19/daily.4/