Last Saturday I really got annoyed when the movie "The Mexican" (in WS), was shown without beginning.
I was getting ready to record it too, tuned into CBC-HD at 22.00 h, but instead of the scheduled movie, there was american football on. Waiting, I tuned on cable (analogue CBC) and there, there was movie shown from the start.
This is, by the way, the first time that I see CBC not simulcasting programming on cbc-tv and cbc-hd.
Once the american football game was finished (at about 22.30 h PT), CBUT-DT said "now joining regular programming" and then it was commercials - but zoomed in, and after it, the first segment of the movie was not DT feed but the zoomed-in (cropped) image from analogue CBC. It also looked like they used an analogue feed of cbc toronto or something like that, not of cbc vancouver.
The second movie segment was ok (true cbut-dt) and the picture quality of the movie was really good ('very-wide-screen').
I never noticed any promo clips for this movie on CBC in days prior to it's showing (last year tbs was very aggressively promoting it prior to the showing) and there is no info about if it's going to be rerun.
I really got very disappointed by this.


As for the CBC PDF schedule, I think it would look even better now if they would to eliminate those few repeating hours at the end of every day (time from 06.00 - 08.00 is shown twice for each day).
Also, on the new 'fall schedule', all new shows are marked with 'HD', while there is no "HD' for Rick Mercer Report. I wonder if that's a mistake or Rick is pushed back to SD.

A CFL blackout was in effect which means the Vancouver analog transmitter gets a movie instead of football. The blackout does not apply to HD. To my knowledge the TRANSMITTERS got the right feed. I was on the phone to Vancouver tech at the time.

Rick Mercer Report is being produced in a widescreen studio this season.

Suggestion from the peanut gallery here (re: movies starting in the middle...).

CFL games sometimes go longer than the alloted three hours (note to VBC1, that's Canadian football, not American). Why start the movie "on-time" in the SD blackout area, while the rest of the country still has football in SD (entire country in HD)? Wouldn't it make more sense to start the movie at the end of the football game, whenever that would be. Then *all* viewers have the chance to see the whole movie, not just the blackout region SD viewers. It may require airing some filler in the blackout region, or maybe they could just join the game if it goes beyond three hours (I've definitely seen that for Eskimo games).

Just trying to come up with a way to air the full movie. Missing the start, merely because the blackout region already started, seems like an odd procedure.

Does a widescreen studio also mean in HD or just an electronic stretch version?

The last season of Rick Mercer Report was already WS (or HD) and DD5.1.

It was HD last year. VBC1 was asking why it was not listed as HD this year. The show has moved to a WS studio this season.

Lindsay649: Widescreen is standard definition that will fill a 6:9 screen. There is no stretching. It's not HD.

Enquiring minds want to know; is "widescreen" the same as EDTV (i.e. 852x480)?

Widescreen SD is like a widescreen SD DVD. It is a standard definition image intended for 16:9 displays. It is just SD. Not EDTV. Not HD.

Sometimes CBC has aired movies in a better format than the guide indicated (i.e. widescreen or HD instead of just 4:3 SD). Probably too late to ask, but any pleasant surprises in store for Braveheart tonight?

The same thing happened again tonight with "Braveheart". First 30 min of the movie was not shown due to sports, and I don't see much logic in this, especially for movies like this - 4 hours long. Who ever is seeing this movie for the first time, will not be watching it without beginning, which, I think, automatically translates into almost 4 hours (the whole primetime evening) of lost viewership for CBC.
Also, again tonight, after 'joining programming in progress', the first segment of the movie was again upconverted analogue (analogue cbc watermark was there), second segment was ok, with cbc-hd watermark.

I also noticed that CBC watermark on analogue cbc now opens and closes the same way as HD watermark does, and I personally don't like it; it looks to me like the process takes almost a quarter of the tv screen (or maybe I'm just used to our nice and smooth and crisp CBC-HD watermark).

Thank you Marc for all you answers.

It was great to see the Toronto FC came in widescreen today! Hopefully we'll see more of this in the future. And perhaps some HD as well! Bit of a surprise, as the schedule (http://www.cbc.ca/hdtv/schedule/CBC_HD_nextweek1.pdf) clearly showed the timeslot as not being neither Widescreen nor HD.

Agreed VBC1. Joining a movie in progress after a football game makes little sense. I highlighted it a couple months ago (see here).

The Last Samurai aired from the start of the film, so perhaps the blackout was lifted in that game (based on Marc's earlier response, #582 in this thread).

Still, I find it perplexing that a movie must start on time in the blackout region and then be joined in progress elsewhere (hence my post earlier today on the subject--scroll down just a couple from Marc's to #584). Why not delay the start of the film in the blackout region? Or join the football game after three hours? Or allot three and half hours for football broadcasts? Something, as the current "joined in progress" situation doesn't seem to serve viewers.

The light just came on this morning. Last weekend there was a lot of behind the scenes excitement about how to blackout Vancouver without covering more territory than is required. Back at post 581 I jumped to the conclusion that was what VBC1 was asking about. Wrong. Ignore my previous reply.

When a live show runs long your choices are...
1. Join the next show in progress
2. Drop a program and fill the difference, if necessary
3. Join a later show in progress

The easiest option was: offset all shows until sign off, but since we started running 24/7 a last year, that's no longer an option.

The Network Operations Centre gets a minimum 3 minute warning for the end of the live program. During that time 3 techs operating 22 stations have to edit their program playout lists. As part of this process, they all go to a single Join In Progress server, which is SD, including the HD stations. Once the all the stations are on their post game show, the HD stations get moved to the HD version of their show, usually at the next commercial break. That's why you may see some upconverted images for the first segment.

As far as joining movies in progress, that is a scheduling rather than a technical issue. I recommend leaving your comment on the CBC website (http://www.cbc.ca/contact/index.jsp).

Thanks for the explanation. Interesting process.

Hi.

Since someone from CBC lurks these grounds, I figured I'd post this question here.

Anyone know why the weekly HD TV schedules on the CBC website have not been updated since September the 10th?

As of today, the "This week" schedule is for the September 10th week and "Next week" is for the September 17th.

Someone sleeping? Vacations?

Passed on. I expect it will be updated shortly.

Enquiring minds want to know; is "widescreen" the same as EDTV (i.e. 852x480)?
Standard definition widescreen is 720 by 480 pixels in a digital studio. Regular 4:3 is also 720 by 480 pixels. What gives? The pixels are not 'square' in standard definition but vary in aspect ratio. Widescreen (16:9) has an aspect ratio of 1.2 (width/height) while 4:3 has a ratio of 0.9 (width/height). European systems have the same non-square pixel issue - 720 by 576 pixels. Widescreen is 1.422 while 4:3 is 1.067 (width/height).

The non-square pixel concept evolved during the definition of the first digital television production standards more than 2 decades ago. To keep costs under control, the authors of the standard wanted to create technology that could be used in 525 and 625 line systems. The amount of data produced by 30 frames per second of 720 by 480 is close to 25 frames per second of 720 by 576.

The EDTV number (852x480) comes from square pixel implementation of 16:9 based on a vertical count of 480 lines. It exists in display panels but not as a working production or distribution format.

Here's a post from a year ago:I heard someone saying that CBC is showing a record 9.5 hours of HD this week. But by my count that in addition to over 28 hours of widescreen, there is 11.5 this week (Schedule for September 25 - October 1, 2006)We've come a long way in a year. Looking at next week (http://www.cbc.ca/hdtv/schedule/CBC_HD_nextweek1.pdf)there is about 30 hours of HD and over 70 more hours of SD, including virtually everything from 5:30 pm to midight 7 days a week. That's over 100 hours a week; good grief, there's only 144 hours in a week!

Two years ago, we only had an hour of SD or widescreen here and there, and people were moaning on how much worse it was than CTV. In the meantime CTV and Global really haven't done anything.

The HD quality of yesterday's LA-Anaheim game was the best I've seen from CBC. No pixelization at all. Last year's playoffs were unwatchable at times with freezing and massive pixels everywhere. I'd like to think it's something to expect in the future but I'm afraid they probably rented a truck and gear in the UK that was simply better than what they use in North America.