CBS Launches Evening News in HD

[Palmateer]

Well, the CBS Evening News finally went HD yesterday evening. But not without a hitch - the first moments were without audio, and the feed had to be switched to standard definition for a few minutes to get audio. Then it was switched back to HD with the audio track restored. It looked very nice and, like NBC, they showed standard-definition news footage portions in a 4:3 box with sidebars instead of stretching to fill the 16:9 screen. (A curse on local newscasts that still do that.)

CBS was clever - they showed some vintage footage of when old Walter Cronkite's newscast started appearing IN COLOR to emphasize the historic nature of the new transition to HD. I'm not really a fan of Katie Couric, but the broadcast now looks much more appealing than the smeary quality we used to see from the CBS feed.

[bdraw]

I meant to catch this, but remember about 7:15.

Also, FYI, most of the local news casts don't really "stretch" to 16x9. They switch their cameras to 16x9 mode. So it's still SD, at least it is widescreen and everyone isn't fat. That being said, I have from time to time seen them stretch old footage.

[Palmateer]

Yes, that's what I meant.

And the local ABC affiliate, WFTS, is the biggest culprit! They even stretch fresh NETWORK footage. They are the ONLY local news outlet that grotesquely distort (stretch) highlights of my favorite sports team, the TB Rays. The stretching is so bad it even looks lousy on the SD version of the WFTS broadcast.


I have from time to time seen them (local newscasts) stretch old footage.

[bdraw]

That is because WFTS has older cameras that don't have a 16x9 mode. At first they didn't stretch, but once both WTSP and WFLA switched their newer cameras to 16x9, it was stretch city for them.

The good news is because they have older cameras they are more likely to go HD first -- or as soon as the up-unlink infrastructure can handle it.

[Palmateer]

I wasn't talking about camera footage they shot of the Tampa Bay Rays. I was talking about footage fed to them from Rays TV or FSN. The other stations show the game video feed in normal SD, but WFTS stretches the same video feed.

That is because WFTS has older cameras that don't have a 16x9 mode. At first they didn't stretch, but once both WTSP and WFLA switched their newer cameras to 16x9, it was stretch city for them.

The good news is because they have older cameras they are more likely to go HD first -- or as soon as the up-unlink infrastructure can handle it.

[bdraw]

Ohhh, yeah that does suck.

I'm sorry I wasn't following you there.