The most you could hope for with Universal Sports would be a downconvert of the HD signal to widescreen 480i. The picture could be reasonably good when 2-1 is running 24p originated material - assuming their encoder is capable and configured to switch from 30i to 24p automatically. The engineering folks at WGRZ understand widescreen 480i - their local programming looks like it is good quality widescreen SD. I don't think widescreen SD is used as much as it should be particularly for subchannels.

don't believe there is an HD signal to downconvert.
Universal Sports originates from NBC's satellite mux in 480i SD.

Is Universal Sports available on cable or satellite in HD?

Far as I know, NBC owns it, runs it, distributes it via satellite on their C and Ku band Muxs to their NBC affiliates in 480i SD. It's watchable quality
there, if your in to it.
If there's an HD feed of it to any of the BDUs anywhere it has to be via fiber cause it is not distributed to BDUs via satellite in HD. Despite all the regular NBC programming I see there in 1080i.

I've seen it in SD on TW cable here (no better quality than the OTA signal of course) . Dunno what Direct TV, etc do though.
Have seen them advertising the channel, so they might be carrying it in HD. Can't imagine em advertising if it wasn't 'eh?

Trip,
From the poor quality I've seen on some universal sports programs, I don't see how even 720p or 1080p would improve sharpness. Some of the events I've seen look like they were recorded with a cell phone :p

LOL, unfortunately I have to agree with this. I still like it though...especially the Giro!!

for kicks, I'm gonna record WGRZ-US with Mythv, and the Universal Sports feed from CBand via the Openbox PVR sat rcvr. Same program at the same time. Post it on wuala, anyone interested can download them and compare for themselves.

WBBZ height above sea level is 599 metres while WKBW is 845 metres.Still 245 metres more height with WKBW.Compared to CN tower TV antenna at 467 metre mark plus 80 metre ground elevation =547 metres above sea level.Perhaps VHF Hi ASTC just performs poorly ???

I'm sure the height makes the difference in our ability to recieve WBBZ and not so much the ERP. The WKBW tower and the new WBBZ tower are only about 7 miles apart as the crow flies.

The important metrics are antenna Height Above Average Terrain at 176 meters and antenna height Above Ground Level at 66 meters for the WNGS site. By comparison, the WKBW analog channel 7 antenna was 433 meters HAAT and was around 316 meters AGL. The base of the WNGS tower is at 532 meters while WKBW is at 529 meters which is close to the same elevation. These numbers come from the FCC database directly or through simple calculations.

The general rule of thumb for signal strength is each doubling of antenna height above ground level increases the signal by 3 dB. The WKBW antenna is more than 4 times the height AGL which is two doublings or 6 dB. That is like increasing the WNGS transmitter ERP from 27 to 108 kilowatts. These are very rough calculations but explain why the WNGS site doesn't put a good signal into Toronto.

Email WGRZ to allay your disappointment at losing the station. I did, but don't know if it will do any good. At least it gets them an indication that people do watch it. If WBBZ reached Mississauga, I wouldn't be upset, but it doesn't. I watch RTV quite often.

thought of that too and was gonna do the same. Have emailed them about other issues in the past. They've never acknowledged receiving my emails much less responded though...Others around here may have had better luck than I though...

Yeah, you are right. I didn't receive an acknowledgement email back from them. I think it's important to let them them know, whether they choose to ignore or not, at least it advises them that people DO watch.

i hear ya... I do plan on sending em a little love note...
just haven't done it yet...I will though..,.
just wanted to point out that other stations are very prompt in following up

Finally, WKBW local programming and News is going HD. Saturday at 6pm before the Bills game, the news will be in HD. Here is a link to the story.
http://www.wkbw.com/news/blogs/pasceri/HD-Is-Coming-to-7-126810043.html

WGRZ should of gotten rid of Universal Sports.they dont show anything worthwhile,and the picture is absolutely horrible.cant get WBBZ at my local,going to miss RTV.:(

While I enjoyed rugby on the weekend (which interestingly Universal Sports picked up from TSN), I do find more value in RTV. I am a big sports fan and while I like the fact I never see poker on Universal Sports, it seems to moreso be fringe sports than anything else.

Too bad I can't get WBBZ for their RTV equivalent and for the Yankees games.

Finally, WKBW local programming and News is going HD. Saturday at 6pm before the Bills game, the news will be in HD. Here is a link to the story.
http://www.wkbw.com/news/blogs/pasceri/HD-Is-Coming-to-7-126810043.html
I recently saw this article in the Buffalo News. I'd say these two things are related.

http://www.buffalonews.com/business/article513048.ece

So I guess now WIVB is the only local channel with old fashioned 4:3 SD news. WGRZ is upconverted, iirc. This must compel them to upgrade to HD soon enough.

And maybe Jeopardy can actually be in HD now, instead of just saying so in the corner. :P

For those that get it. You might want to check out WKBW's local news tonight at 6pm. It's supposed to be in HD for the first time, less than an hour from now.

It's supposed to be in HD for the first time, less than an hour from now.

The studio cameras looked like HD. (You could see how 'junky' their weather backyard is.)

But the rest looked like 480 widescreen.

I missed it, but did see a "First News in HD for Buffalo" promo at 7pm---in standard definition. ;-)