New Years Not In HD?

[js6751]

I was disappointed when I turned on 12 and found the countdown to 2008 in SD. I know they put it on an hour delay, but why was it not in HD (when it was produced in HD)?

[RLJSlick]

Most of the stuff was in SD. Plus there wasn't nearly as much coverage on local, Chicago on Nation TV. Local TV like WISN stop covering New Years, years ago.
For the most part the coverage was all pretty lame.
Things like having a commercial right up to the last minute before the ball drop, that was very commercial and very lame.

[RLJSlick]

Odd thing I swear part of it was in HD, but when it came down to the countdown it was SD. Maybe it was the liquor.

I was disappointed when I turned on 12 and found the countdown to 2008 in SD. I know they put it on an hour delay, but why was it not in HD (when it was produced in HD)?

[gparris]

Odd thing I swear part of it was in HD, but when it came down to the countdown it was SD. Maybe it was the liquor.

:rof:

I put on a HD DVD movie I got for the holidays and set the DVR to ABCHD (TWC 512) so I wouldn't miss the countdown...didn't see any HD at all.
BTW, I was not drinking.

[Dan the Man]

The shows on last night sucked. This was the first time in a bunch of years that I stayed home and thought I would tune into the specials. None if it was in HD which kind of suprised me.

The show on FOX was a bunch of crap. Performers that I never heard of, lame hosts, stupid comments and interviews, etc. I could go on and on. Who's that woman that hosted it? She's a babe, but yuck, she was lame.

Dick Clark's Rockin NYE special on ABC wasn't too bad. They had good music, but I hate to say it I could not bear to watch Dick Clark "host" this thing with Seacrest. Nothing against Dick, but he looked like a plastic man and sounded horrible. I would have been embarrased to be on TV like that.

It also seemed to me that he was actually in a studio and in front of a green screen. It just didn't seem right to me. Again, Dick Clark had a great run all those years but now he should sit it out permanantly.

I didn't catch the NBC programming and I turned an watched movie channels after the ball dropped.

Next year I'm going out again to a party or something.

[Tom Snyder]

If they broadcast it on delay to have Midnight in Times Square happen at Midnight here, don't forget: None of the locals have the capability to record and re-broadcast HD .

[SRW1000]

Dick Clark's Rockin NYE special on ABC wasn't too bad. They had good music, but I hate to say it I could not bear to watch Dick Clark "host" this thing with Seacrest. Nothing against Dick, but he looked like a plastic man and sounded horrible. I would have been embarrased to be on TV like that.

It also seemed to me that he was actually in a studio and in front of a green screen. It just didn't seem right to me. Again, Dick Clark had a great run all those years but now he should sit it out permanantly.

I thought it looked like Dick Clark was in front of a green screen, and his parts may have even been prerecorded.  That's what they used to do for almost all of the musical acts, but I don't know if that's still the practice.

I have to disagree with you about his appearance, though.  Dick has been an institution to New Years for years and years.  After he barely survived a massive stroke, the thought was that he would never be seen again.  

Is he the same, no.  But each year, his speech is a little less strained and more clear, and he looks a little more like his old self.  I greatly admire his courage in placing himself in front of the camera again, and the progress he's made each year.

Strokes affect about 700,000 Americans each year.  Dick's appearance is a piece of hope to these people, their friends, and families as they battle through recovery.  Simply having a stroke shouldn't mean that your life is over, or you should be shuttered up in a home.

Scott

[LoadStar]

The loss of HD was due to the affiliates decision to synchronize the network feed with local time, so that the video of the ball dropping would be shown here at midnight. This is a very disappointing decision; if they lack the ability to record and replay HD programming, they should show it at it's original broadcast time. (Frankly, they should show it at it's original broadcast time anyway. We're smart people, we can figure out that 12:00 in NY is not 12:00 here.)

Dick Clark was better during the countdown this year. He was able to keep up with the countdown for the entire 30 seconds or so. In previous years, he's had to skip a number here and there because he started trailing behind. Still, the effort he has to put in to speak these days visibly drains him fairly quickly.

The NY programming has always been broadcast live, including the musical acts in NY; the Hollywood programming has been tape delayed for as long as I can remember.

[RLJSlick]

Ah that makes sense, yeah it was pretty disappointing not to see it in HD. Poor Dick did look pretty good, but it will never be the same.
What I heard on the radio was that they may have pre-recorded his countdown, because last year he wasn't able to keep up.

[MrVideo]

The loss of HD was due to the affiliates decision to synchronize the network feed with local time, so that the video of the ball dropping would be shown here at midnight. This is a very disappointing decision; if they lack the ability to record and replay HD programming, they should show it at it's original broadcast time. (Frankly, they should show it at it's original broadcast time anyway. We're smart people, we can figure out that 12:00 in NY is not 12:00 here.)

WKOW-DT in Madison did the same damn thing.  But I didn't care because I watched it in HD.

The Times Square Alliance produced SD video had more coverage of the ball dropping than ABC did.  ABC went to the ball dropping really late, considering that the ball drop started one minute to midnight.

From what I could tell, Dick Clark was live in their Times Square studio, with the real event out the window, not a green screen production.

For those of you who watched before the local news, the Carrie Underwood performance was not in HD.  For some strange contractual reason, the Times Square Alliance produced the video/audio and they are only SD.  The video sent to the world did not contain the performance, as ABC had that as an exclusive.  Really strange.  All other performances were in HD.

The cameras used to cover Ryan were given an extremely low bitrate.  As I was going through my captured video, I noticed some really bad macroblocking and that just doesn't happen with the ABC high bitrate network feed.  This is what I saw:

http://vidiot.com/images/ABC-HD-NewYearsRockinEve-071231-1.png

They went for cheap out there in the street and it showed.

[Dan the Man]

I have to disagree with you about his appearance, though. Dick has been an institution to New Years for years and years. After he barely survived a massive stroke, the thought was that he would never be seen again.

Is he the same, no. But each year, his speech is a little less strained and more clear, and he looks a little more like his old self. I greatly admire his courage in placing himself in front of the camera again, and the progress he's made each year.

Strokes affect about 700,000 Americans each year. Dick's appearance is a piece of hope to these people, their friends, and families as they battle through recovery. Simply having a stroke shouldn't mean that your life is over, or you should be shuttered up in a home.

Scott,

I didn't mean to minimize the effort or committment that Dick Clark has in continuing his participation in the New Years eve programming. I haven't seen a New Years Eve special for a number of years and hadn't seen Dick Clark either. I still remember him a a really young looking guy. I give him credit for continuing on with what has been a long standing tradition and also give him kudos for getting up there when he could stay home. The fact that he has overcome (at least partially) a serious medical problem to appear is awesome. He should be a role model to other stroke victims.

It was hard for me to see him, remembering what he used to be like. I hope he is around to see many more New Year eves come and go.