If anyone in Ottawa has TSreader, it might be interesting to compare PSIP. In Toronto I see, CBLT's System Time Table as

STT: GPS/UTC offset: 13
STT: DS Status: 1 DS Day of Month: 0 DS Hour: 0

"DS Status: 1" is what you want this time of year. As an aside "GPS/UTC offset: 13" 13 was the correct value from 1999 to 2005 (it's definition is the number of leap seconds observed since Jan. 6, 1980 - the STT time origin). Since there were leap seconds at the end of 2005 and 2008, the correct value is 15 now but there are many non-conformers out there.

Meanwhile over on CBLFT:

STT: GPS/UTC offset: 13
STT: DS Status: 1 DS Day of Month: 0 DS Hour: 0

Same thing. DST also looks good and same observation on GPS/UTC offset.

Now no conversation on CBC/SRC's PSIP is complete without mentioning they are the GOLD STANDARD in this area, better than all the Buffalo stations overall. Below are tonight's listings. Notice how CBLFT provides program details (that's the only area of improvement for CBLT ;)) while CBLT has about 40 more EITs (event information tables) than CBLFT, giving nearly a weeks worth of data!


CBLT

Starts: 2009-06-29 20:00:00
Length: 01:00:00
Name: Triple Sensation
Description: n/a

Starts: 2009-06-29 21:00:00
Length: 01:00:00
Name: Just for Laughs: The Colour of Funny
Description: n/a

Starts: 2009-06-29 22:00:00
Length: 01:00:00
Name: CBC News: The National
Description: n/a

Starts: 2009-06-29 23:00:00
Length: 01:00:00
Name: The Hour
Description: n/a

CBLFT

Starts: 2009-06-29 20:00:00
Length: 01:00:00
Name: Chère Betty
Description: Betty fait visiter les locaux de Mode à la classe de Justin.

Starts: 2009-06-29 21:00:00
Length: 01:00:00
Name: Bons baisers de France
Description: Talk-show animé par France Beaudoin.

Starts: 2009-06-29 22:00:00
Length: 01:00:00
Name: Le Téléjournal et Les Nouvelles du sport
Description: Revue des dernières nouvelles nationales et internationales, et les prévisions de la météo.

Starts: 2009-06-29 23:00:00
Length: 00:30:00
Name: Le Téléjournal Ontario
Description: n/a

Starts: 2009-06-29 23:30:00
Length: 03:00:00
Name: Sur mes lèvres
Description: Une femme (Emmanuelle Devos) souffrant de surdité embauche un ex-prisonnier (Vincent Cassel) comme stagiaire pour l'aider dans son travail.

mlord, I think what Marc is saying he can't find a check box for the DST flag in his encoder. If you can give him more details about where this flag is located in the PSIP data he might be able to fix the problem.
I think Marc is more expert than I on PSIP. I just look at what my "dumb" TV screen shows, and CBC is off by an hour. Simple as that, no PVR involved.

I'm sure Marc's setup in Toronto is probably fine; but us folks in remote villages to the North might still need some help from the Big City folk to get things working correctly up here. ;)

Cheers

Marc,
It is back again (the VBI in the first few lines of the local SD news). I noticed it on the 23:00 local news tonight.

Any word on the local news in HD? The new studio is running now.

Marc,

I haven't wrote in for a while, but CBUT-DT is having a re-occurring problem.

For at least the last 3 or 4 (possibly more, I can't really remember) months SD closed captioning has been visible on the first few lines of all SD broadcasts on CBUT-DT.

I first alerted you to this problem in this thread in July 2007. If you get a chance could you please look into it? I have the 18:00 local news on right now and the visible lines are happening if you need a specific time to check tape.

You have fixed this problem at least twice already. It keeps re-occurring though.

One more thing. Any update on the Vancouver local news moving to HD? Do we have to wait for a new studio as part of the building renovations?

Thanks,
ardsa

I'm not working in Presentation these days, so I've asked someone else to look into the VBI issue. I'll be back in late August.

As far as HD news goes, I haven't heard anything new. The studio is only one piece of the puzzle. We're missing components, like inter-city HD capability. Work is being done on that front but don't expect any big changes in the immediate future.

Hi ardsa

The person looking into Vancouver's VBI checked out the usual upconverters and watched a few shows but came up empty. Have you seen the lines since your last posting?

mlord

Someone is still looking into the 1 hour schedule shift on CBOT-DT Ottawa. It has been a tough nut to crack.

Hi ardsa

The person looking into Vancouver's VBI checked out the usual upconverters and watched a few shows but came up empty. Have you seen the lines since your last posting?

Marc,
I am sorry. I have been unable to turn on the TV over the last five days (sports injury, hospital, etc.)

I am semi-mobile again so I will let you know what I see. I have really only ever noticed the lines on local SD 16:9 programing - almost always the local news. Like I said in the previous post it was visible during the 23:00 five minute local new segment on Tuesday evening.

Sorry to hear about your injury.
I've screened the show on the night you mentioned. I didn't see any lines. It's quite likely it just doesn't get recorded on the logging system which records at a low bit rate.
One of my coworkers screened the local news live several times last week. She came up empty. Let me know if you see them in the future.

Was This Beat Goes On shown in HD in the East? My EPG and the CBC web site said it would be HD, but I recorded the CBC Vancouver showing and it was 4:3. Most of the show was letterboxed in the 4:3 frame.

It looks like it should be an entertaining look back at Canadian music in the 1970s. Part 2 is on next week.

Since a lot of the recordings from that era were (pretty poor quality) 4:3, this was a 4:3 programme. I don't know if any of the (recent, interview) segments were HD. Good show though.

I'm sure most of the archival stuff was shot in 4:3, but it was shown in 16:9. It looks like they just cut off the top and bottom. The recent interview portions were also in 16:9, but everything was letterboxed in a 4:3 frame.

It looks like it was produced in HD.

This one is a bit confusing. That program was SD, but it played within Doc Zone which is advertised as HD. I'll send a note to the appropriate people.

Part one of Rise Up - Canadian Pop Music in the 1980s is on Thursday at 9pm. I assume this will be in SD too, even though my EPG and the CBC web site say HD.

The production staff tell me the first 4 episodes are 4:3 full screen. I know it looks letterboxed most of the time but there are full 4:3 elements. I also passed on the message about the website and EPG.

I know it looks letterboxed most of the time but there are full 4:3 elements.
In the first episode, at least, (the only one I've watched so far) it appeared that the only full 4:3 elements were the introductions placed in borders at the start of each segment. If these segments were upscaled and cropped to 16:9 you wouldn't loose any useful content, just the static upper and lower parts of the border. The borders contained no information.

I had no problem watching the show zoomed to 16:9.

Are SRC2 HDand CBC6 HD transmitting from the top of your downtown builbing in MTL east? Is so why can I get 6 but not 2 in the West Island corner St-Johns and Sources.?

You should be able to receive SRC HD at your location. Both CBC and SRC HD transmitters are located at 1400 René - Lévesque Blvd. Est. How long have you had this problem? You can try scanning for channels or manually tuning to UHF 19.

Scotta: I know what you are saying, but it's the Producer's call. We're not allowed to crop programming at the transmission stage. It aired as intended.

Marc, Since most people still have 4:3 TVs, would you say the CBC is still optimizing programming for 4:3? Letter boxing is fine, but given the choice of window boxing on 4:3 or 16:9, you would window box on 16:9 broadcasts?

A letterboxed SD 4:3 show would upconverted such that it would fill the screen on a 16:9 HD display. The problem is, some shows appear to be letterboxed 4:3, but at some point elements such as titles appear in the 4:3 black bars. You can't "zoom" those shows for HD without losing those graphics.

As far as optimizing... The vast majority of CBC program are now produced in 16:9. Most of the time, they are center cut for SD.