Any newscasts in widescreen yet (forget HD for a moment)?

[Gilbert]

As I just learned, right before Christmas, the CBS affiliate in Rockford, IL went widescreen and darn good looking 480i upconvert on their studio cameras and field cams. Weather graphics are still in 4:3, for now.

Which begs the question...

If Rockford goes widescreen and very good looking SD (they aren't advertising it as HD, so I'll call it widescreen SD), why can't somebody in Milwaukee do the same thing if they can't afford to go HD yet?

[Tom Snyder]

That's a great question. Fox originaly did a lot of their NFL games in widescreen SD. Not sure if that takes special cameras or lenses to do that, but as all the announced plans last year were for most of them to go HD sometime this quarter, they probably wouldn't want to spend a cent on something temporary.

[Nels Harvey]

Some TV cameras sold in the last several years do have the ability to output a 9X16 SD picture, just by flicking a switch.  That may be what they are doing in Rockford.

Nels....

[troyriley]

I finally had a chance to watch WIFR's (CBS-23 Rockford) 16x9 standard definition newscast and, although it isn't HD, it is an improvement over the 4x3 newscasts we have here in Milwaukee. For one, the black bars are obviously wasted space. The SD video is crisp, and apparently nicely upconverted. As previously mentioned, the weather graphics are 4x3. Most of the graphics, such as the sports ticker, is designed to fit on a 4x3 television. When 4x3 video is shown, there is a border on the sides, but I did not find it very distracting. The sound is also DTS, unlike the basic stereo sound on all Milwaukee newscasts.

I checked the other Rockford newscasts at 10:00 on 13 and 17, and they are still 4x3. I wonder if they will soon go 16x9 like 23 did, or are just waiting to go all out directly to HD in the future.

Again, I wonder why there are so many smaller markets that are ahead of us. Although it's still SD on 23, it seems they are at least preparing for the future HD newscasts.