VBC1 and nfitz... the usual question... do you allow cookies and javascript from CBC?

Yes, of course.
By the way, cbc.ca work perfectly at this very moment.
So, I found there is an HD movie coming up:
Sunday, 03/FEB/2008 at 17.00 h - Chicken Little
(and sorry everyone about my mistake earlier saying that movie "A Bug's Life" was shown in SD once before, it was actually "Antz" I was thinking about, sorry)

Our copy is SD. Some scenes are 4:3 and others are letterboxed within the 4:3 frame. This is how the movie was produced. When this is upconverted for HD stations the letterboxed scenes have black bars all around.

VBC1 and nfitz... the usual question... do you allow cookies and javascript from CBC?Yes - from everyone. Hmm, it makes me be tempted to check my settings - but occasionally it does work. Often I get one or two pages, and then it stops responding ... right now it's working fine - and I haven't changed settings for a long time. Good idea though!

According to the IMDB, the movie's aspect ratio is 2.35:1 (2.20:1 on 70mm prints). It sounds like the CBC tried avoiding showing black bars at the top and bottom of the screen so that they wouldn't get any complaints from people asking "why doesn't the image fill up my screen" (the lack of proper education is still a serious problem today).

The French CBC isn't much better. They had a presentation of the second Astérix movie a while back, and they put on the 4x3 pan&scan version! Again, it was originally a 2.35:1 aspect ratio movie.

Unfortunately, it appears the fear of "black bars" is screwing up movie presentations once again, even in today's HD era.

On Sunday, the movie "Toy Story 2" was in HD.
Again, there was absolutely no indication about it anywhere (not on schedule, not in movie's cbc online details, not anywhere on tv). The CBC web site only indicated that this movie is closed captioned (wow!).

I subscribe to Bell ExpressVu and receive CBC HD East on channel 802. Living in Vancouver, I would like to receive CBC HD West as well, but this doesn't appear to be the case. I have tried to sort this out by twice calling Bell; however, I'm having trouble reaching someone who is helpful. BTW, I do receive CTV HD East & West.

Does anyone know if CBC HD West is available on ExpressVu and if so, how to receive it?

I think that's an issue/question for Bell.
It was noted before that CBC is ready to provide that feed to any service provider, at their request.

But, you can receive CBC HD west through your Bell receiver by plugging UHF antenna into it.

I believe ExpressVu puts up CBC Vancouver HD from time to time but at this time there is no permanent channel. If you want it there, you have to tell ExpressVu.

But, you can receive CBC HD west through your Bell receiver by plugging UHF antenna into it.

Yes. From West Van, you should easily be able to pick up CBC's digital broadcast with a small UHF antenna and the picture will be far better than what Compressview gives you so even if they do add it, you will want to stick with the broadcast signal.

Tonight I noticed some picture problems on The National.
First few minutes of it was zoomed-in picture (the middle of the screen was zoomed in), at 22.03 h it flipped to 4:3, and then at about 22.05 h it finally went into 16:9 mode (hd).
I can provide snapshots if needed.

There were problems with CBUT-DT yesterday which are continuing today. It looks like the Network Operations Centre switched to an SD upconvert for a couple of minutes. Someone is looking into it.

Hi Marc,

Not sure if this has been asked before, but I've been examining the audio bitrate of various stations and noticed that most are at 384kbps like CBC-HD, but some are at 448kbps (like FOX-HD Buffalo and SUNTV-HD). Is there any reason why CBC-HD can't up their audio to 448kbps? Especially with 5.1 channels, I think this would make a difference, and cutting 64kbps from a 18Mbps video signal shouldn't really cause any visible impact.

The current allocation of bits was worked out by consulting the equipment manufacturers like Dolby and some offline testing. Keep in mind there are other requirements such as DV and PSIP, it's not just pictures and program sound. The setup works, so I do not see any changes coming in the future.

Yesterday I noticed some weird cubes in one frame. Looks interesting, like some codes or types for blind.
(just an interesting observation, no big deal):cool:

http://img398.imageshack.us/img398/666/snowdogsmar09003wqc0.jpg

NCAA basketball in HD, free! Go Hurricanes :p

Not to mention curling in HD, free (at least this year, sometimes)!
It's a shame CBC Sports' HD quality is really not that great, though. :(

Not to mention curling in HD, free (at least this year, sometimes)!
It's a shame CBC Sports' HD quality is really not that great, though. :(
The curling isn't in HD on CBC. Its just 16x9 widescreen standard definition. If it was in HD you would know!

Tonight, at 19:00 h there was a problem with first segment of Planet Earth.
It appeared SD letterboxed/pillarboxed, and after 2 minutes it zoomed-in to fill screen. The second and other segments were HD and ok.
This was a bit disappointing for me as I was set to record it, but now my recording is ruined as beginning was not in HD.
After Curling, there was a filled transition of about 15 minutes (slack time), and that's why I assumed start of Planet Earth would be ok, but it wasn't.

The curling isn't in HD on CBC. Its just 16x9 widescreen standard definition. If it was in HD you would know!Ah, okay. I had assumed it was bad HD rather than CBC's usual superlative SD picture quality, due to the aspect ratio.