Jake,

the monitors *are* relatively small, like what you'd see in a typical TV control room on the wall in front of the director so maybe that is part of the issue....

- Programming duplication

That must be the number one priority.

Thanks for taking an interest Mark. I hope you will keep dropping in.

I've been managing the launch and programming for CBC HD. I haven't been able to peruse many of the posts before today, but having done so I'm impressed with your collective interest and knowledge.

I'm sorry Harry Potter didn't look good to many/most of you--we are certainly analyzing what's going on, and why it didn't show up in testing. HD masters are still relatively hard to get from the Hollywood studios, so we didn't, and are not likely to, have too much time to test any specific titles before they go to air. We were prepping Potter until very late on Thursday to ready it for broadcast, and early reports say everything looked fine leaving our master control. I was there on Saturday night for the first HD broadcast and everything looked fine... including the return signal we get OTA from the CN Tower. So we'll keep working on it.

As far as other providers, we certainly expect the satellite folks will carry us soon. I've heard they may have up to 90 days, but I'll certainly pass on any dates I hear about...

Curious to hear how you find The Newsroom tonight at 20:30ET

--mark

Newsroom was fine for me also tonight OTA on a CRT. Is it shot on film or video? Last week I noticed the strobbing effect right at the opening of This is Wonderland when the Title and credits are first shown. Will watch again this week. On the crt there was never actually flashes it just looks like a jerky pan. If the pan is slow then there was no problem but if it was rapid it was like the data stream was not keeping up. Also why the extreem zoom on the 14:9 UK material? Why not just fill the screen top to bottom and have small black bars on the side like Citytvhd does all the time until you acquire 16:9 masters? The title of Coronation Street which ran that way this evening are at the bottom of the screen are almost totally chopped off. That should be easy to see at network control.

I thought The Newsroom was fine (video-wise).

The sound was still "stereo" despite the signal being DD5.1

There were two sound "clicks" (almost like static) when they went to commercial and came back. No other stations do this.

Rogers doesn't "Rate Shape" HD channels. I believe rate shaping is only applicable to SD digital at this time since there can be 10 channels to "shape". With only 2 (or 3) channels, I believe the bitrate is constant (although lower when 3 channels are on each frequency instead of the "normal" two).

Here is part of an email I received from Gary Smith from Expressvu.

"In March, Expressvu will launch CBC and SRC HDTV. Expressvu have 25 chanels HDTV now."

I have seen the same quote on another forum. So it seems sometime in March Expressvu customers will see CBC HD and SRC HD.

Here is part of an email I received from Gary Smith from Expressvu.

"In March, Expressvu will launch CBC and SRC HDTV. Expressvu have 25 chanels HDTV now."

I have seen the same quote on another forum. So it seems sometime in March Expressvu customers will see CBC HD and SRC HD.

Does not specify the year though. ;)

I've been managing the launch and programming for CBC HD.

Is CBC broadcasting solely 1080i? Or was Harry Potter sent out 1080p@24?

Gary

Is CBC broadcasting solely 1080i? Or was Harry Potter sent out 1080p@24?
It's my understanding that there is no 1080p being broadcast yet. Could be wrong though.

CBC is 1080i, which seems to be the most common standard in North America. I gather Fox and ABC are 720p.

--mark

mhyland: See the Digital Home FAQ on "HDTV Formats" (below)

http://digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17721

Thanks 57.

Update on Potter picture issue: We had the Tandberg folks in yesterday to test the broadcast encoders. We were able to reproduce the problem by running the version of Potter on our servers through a spare encoder with the encoder's Film Mode button on, as it was on Sunday. Film mode is supposed to detect content that has a 3:2 pulldown (eg filmed content like Potter and the Peter Cottontail clip from Saturday) and run that content through a different encoding algorithm which optimizes bandwidth. With film mode off, the problem goes away. We are looking at the original master and our post production process to see if we introduced something that would throw the encoder off, because Film Mode should be a useful feature.

Btw, we may get a chance to see Potter again properly in May...

Other upcoming HD: a doc called Slammin’ Iron: Rebuilding The World. Follows the lives of ironworkers working in Manhattan... Passionate Eye April 13th 9pm. 5.1 Surround.

--mark

Mhyland, this is terrific having you onboard! I hope you'll stick around, and I wish all networks/providers would have someone keep in touch with us like you are. We appreciate being treated with respect and intelligence, so thanks again!

You mentioned Tandberg - could you point us towards some product numbers or specs that geeks like me can sink our teeth into? ;)

cheers,
stampeder

Other upcoming HD: a doc called Slammin’ Iron: Rebuilding The World. Follows the lives of ironworkers working in Manhattan... Passionate Eye April 13th 9pm. 5.1 Surround.
Thanks for the "heads up" on CBC upcoming HD programming. Are there plans to announce HD schedules on CBC's web page, or otherwise? At the moment it is very difficult to determine what/when HD programs will be broadcast on CBC.

We had the Tandberg folks in yesterday to test the broadcast encoders.
--mark

Slightly off subject, but...

Without referring to your whole message, how can we thank you to bring to this forum such details about diagnosing a telecine problem. Or if not a telecine, a VTR? Tandberg?

Generally, spectators are allways in a kind of «passive wait» state, forgetting that there is an important infrastructure from the broadcast control room to their tv set, «hops» like they are called in a networking environment.

Broadcasters, satellite and and distributors, bringing such details in forums like here, are welcome, of course. If everyone brings comments in a polite tone, it will convey them to visit the formums and take the pulse of TVHD and other issues.

When I press the button on the remote, to call 606 CBC HD channel on an Illico Terminal to ask my program from a server, I am curious to know what is the complete chain of «hops» from CBC to our TV set and I am still amazed what is left of the signal after all these «hops»!!!

Today, your learned me that the pull-down processs is not only on our DVD players, but even in the broadcas room! Very interesting!

The same questions raises, as an example, when the signal is leaving Detroit from PBS, which is a piooneer... HDTV is quite new in Canada and we didn't assist to the glitches 5 years ago in USA - they surely had such problems we didn't experience because not being broadcasted in Canada then. It was probably worse that here.... CBC and SRC are starting, and we have to give them a chance!!!

Maybe a little bit philosophical, but we must not forget peoples behind «closed doors» of boradcasting centers and their efforts. There is real people working there and this kind of precise answer demonstrate it!!!

Thank you..

Slammin’ Iron: Rebuilding The World.

This sounds very cool. Sure hope CBC-HD is up on BEV by then...

Stampeder: try--

http://www.tandbergtv.com/productview.asp?n=51

Scotta: Yes, I want to have a separate lineup for CBC HD on the web. One of many things I didn't have time to get to prior to launch ;-)

Lancla: Not my area of expertise, but 1) we prep material on tape 2) we transfer the tape to a broadcast server 3) it gets output via master control in two channels (Montreal and Toronto) 4) CBMT-DT gets sent via an ASI fibre line to Montreal where it is picked up by Videotron and broadcast OTA. HTH.

Mark, welcome aboard. Glad to see CBC HD content on the CBC (i know it sounds silly by HDNET has been showing CBC HD content for about 2 years).

In regards to HDNET, any more CBC / HDNET collabrations in the new future that you are aware of (i.e. program swapping).

Since the CRTC is delaying the decison regarding HDNET, a Plan B might be needed.

Mhyland,

It sounds to me (and I am no expert by far) like the source may have incorrect or inconsistent flags. I know some DVD players suffer from this when they try to deinterlace video suffering from this. You can usually override the flag reading mode and pick a "film mode". It sounds like this is what you did.

This is a snip from HT hifi (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_7_4/dvd-benchmark-part-5-progressive-10-2000.html).

In short, the content on a DVD is interlaced conceptually, and is stored in interlaced sequences. Frames can be marked "progressive" to help compression, but are not always marked that way, even when it would be correct to do so. In interlaced sequences, the encoder can either keep the fields separate, or combine them together into one frame, whichever is best for compression purposes. There is a flag on each image stored in the MPEG-2 stream called “picture_structure” that can be either “frame” for a full 720x480 pixel frame, or “top field” or “bottom field” for a single 720x240 field. (We’ll learn about top and bottom fields later.) And it is allowed, but again not required, to set a flag called “progressive_frame” as a hint to the decoder that the fields in that frame were taken from the same frame of film.

mhyland,

I live in Pointe-Claire(western part of Montreal) and cannot get the over-the-air channels of cbc and src.
I am being told that the mountain(Mount-Royal) is in the way. I cannot get an answer as to when the transmitter will be on the mountain instead of the downtown building. I pick up WCFE-DT(38) PBS Plattsburgh with no problem.

Thanks.
Ettisl

Ettisl,
I'm sorry, there is no date or timeline yet. We're on La Maison Radio-Canada for quite a while, I'm sure....