Marc,

F.Y.I: "The Second City's Next Comedy Legend", shown last Tuesday at 9:00PM (and on again tonight at the same time), was at least widescreen and, judging by the detail, probably HD.

The CBC HD Schedule PDF on the Web does not indicate this. The time slot is blank.

Yes, that PDF sheet is often inaccurate and incomplete, I use it for general orientation and never fully trust it, last week it did not indicate 'Minority report' in WS, for this saturday I am also assuming that 'Kill Bill' may also appear in WS, while nothing is indicated.

As for the 'CC dancing black/white lines' on top of WS programmes, I see them too very often, they were visible last night too (can't remember, I think it was during 'Hustle')

Is there any possibility that the 'Minority Report' was actually zoomed in from the letterboxed version last saturday, rather then original 16:9 feed; some moment I thought that was what I was looking at.

ardsa: The CC lines appearing in the upconverted WS SD shows should disappear in a day or two. That's an old problem that had been corrected, but I found one upconverter had an old configuration file on board. I'm not sure how that happened, but the supervisor for that area is rounding up the memory cards to ensure they're all up to the same level. Thanks.

I'll pass on the WS/HD schedule comments.

Interesting that the cbc series Just for Laughs is being shown on ABC Television. I noticed they changed the graphics and added narration/a host. Are all the actual hidden camera clips those that are shot in Montreal and aired on the CBC?

Sorry, but I wouldn't know. I'm only involved with CBC's distribution system.

In case you missed it in the online schedule (http://www.cbc.ca/hdtv/schedule/CBC_HD_currentweek1.pdf), Troy will be airing in HD Sunday night.

sick i was hoping that would be in HD. sure won't be watching if it's SD Narrowscreen, although that schedule DOESN'T indicate anything about Troy being in HD or Widescreen

Guess I was spoiled by the unscheduled HD version of a few CBC movies lately, so a 4:3 The Aviator last night was bit disappointing. Any news re: The Last Samurai this Saturday?

On a related note, Samurai will be airing after the Eskimos vs. Stampeders game (watching that for sure :) ). Just wondering why CBC doesn't start movies at the beginning if a sports event goes "long." Instead, CBC joins the movie "in progress"...which doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Surely the middle of the night programming can be adjusted to accommodate, rather than chopping the first half hour of a prime time, possibly HD movie. Like I said, just wondering why it's done that way.

Thanks.

I recorded "The Aviator" (on CBC last weekend) and I found out that the recording was prematurely cut off after about a little less than 2 hours. When I played the last seconds of the recording, I heard a "stay tuned" announcement telling us that the movie would resume after a brief newscast.

Is it possible that the newscast interfered with the "tagging" of the movie for scheduling and recording purposes?

I am assuming you are using some type of PVR where you tell it to record a specific program rather than giving it start and stop times. If so, the problem is with whoever gives you the schedule information.

CBC split the movie into two parts, with a 15 minute "portion" of the National in between. The guide on our Shaw box appropriately listed all three "programs" (Aviator, News, Aviator). As a result, getting the entire movie on our PVR would have meant selecting both parts on either side of the news.

Not sure how M-HD attempted the recording, but it was probably a similar scenario.

I am assuming you are using some type of PVR where you tell it to record a specific program rather than giving it start and stop times. If so, the problem is with whoever gives you the schedule information.
I apologize for the lack of information in my post about the recording of "The Aviator". I have a SA 8300HD. Based on oilblue's post, I probably missed that there were two separate program listings for the movie. I will be more careful in the future.

Thanks guys!

Yeah, with CBC movies it's definitely something to watch out for as they frequently split them (gotta get the National in there apparently...).

Football from Edmonton looked good tonight.

Just a Q. I talked about this during the hockey season. When I unplug the center speaker, I don't get the volume modulations like I did during hockey. It's much nicer to unplug the speaker and cut out the announcers. TSN's hockey was free of this 'problem', as are the major US networks.

What's changed? I thought there was a sound tech on the boards at one time.

Just an observation.

I think 'The Last Samurai' was in stereo this weekend.

and it looked pretty soft.

Mark, sorry to bug you, would you have any idea why the tennis finals yesterday was not in HD?
I noticed the picture on French CBC (analogue) was letterboxed and then turned on CBC-HD, and the picture there was WS. Then I noticed that all cameras on the field had 'HD' engraved on them, but the picture was not HD. That probably made the picture quality very high, although I noticed there was one camera in use that was SD (giving much worse image than others).
There was also nothing on schedule about it being in HD or WS.
Is there any hope women's tennis will be in HD?
Thanks.

VBC1,
Between vacation time and some other business I'm not in the office for a few days. I can answer general distribution questions, but I don't have details regarding current programs.
Marc

Thanks Marc.
:)