CBC-HD Official Thread (No Hockey)

[Walter Dnes]

Question... what would this accomplish that could not be done by an ordinary STB in pan/scan mode? An SDTV feed would essentially be a 16:9 feed with the edges chopped off. A duplicate OTA SDTV signal would be absolutely pointless. It would be received by either...

1. an HDTV with a built-in ATSC tuner. The SDTV signal would be pointless.
2. an NTSC TV set fed by a stand-alone tuner/converter box... which could pan/scan 16:9 feed itself. So again, an SDTV subchannel is pointless.

What would make a lot more sense is for Ontario CBC digital transmitters to carry TVO as a subchannel. If TVO isn't going to go digital, they shouldn't be clogging up an entire 6 mhz channel.

[Marc]

SD analog signals may still be around after 2011. CRTC, May 2007:
• Television licensees will be authorized to broadcast only digital OTA signals after 31 August 2011, although exceptions may be made in northern and remote communities where analog transmissions will not cause interference.

[57]

Marc - just as an FYI:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=77714

[VBC1]

Just another observation:
I'm still noticing very rough transitions on CBUT-DT.
On Friday during RCAF it was mostly ok on transitions between commercials and programming, but noticed what to me looked again like local insertions - couple of times 16:9 (full widescreen) promo clips for 'coming up tonight on Vancouver news' was actually inserted INTO the commercial brake, almost collapsing surrounding commercials on transitions (occurred at 20.17 and 20.38 h PT).
At around 4.00 h (7 hours later) I noticed the rerun of local Vancouver news was entirely in 4:3, also with 'cbcnews' logo that's only seen on analogue cbc, so I wonder if that was an error with 16:9 programme being shown cropped as 4:3 (although I did not see the original news show at 18.00 h to claim that it was in 16:9, but it always is).

Anyways, I too have a question for far in future.
After the transition is done in 2011, I am not looking forward to CBUT-DT going from current ch.58 to ch.2.
The reason is that I hardly ever found possible to properly receive this channel due to enormous interference of some kind (intensive waves over picture making it often unwatchable) downtown; in suburbs signal is clear. Currently there is no signal for me on CBUT-TV (ch.2) while I get CBUT-DT.
(although this is the issue for reception thread, just wanted to ask Marc for any ideas).

[Walter Dnes]

Originally Posted by VBC1

After the transition is done in 2011, I am not looking forward to CBUT-DT going from current ch.58 to ch.2.
The reason is that I hardly ever found possible to properly receive this channel due to enormous interference of some kind (intensive waves over picture making it often unwatchable) downtown; in suburbs signal is clear. Currently there is no signal for me on CBUT-TV (ch.2) while I get CBUT-DT.
(although this is the issue for reception thread, just wanted to ask Marc for any ideas).

I don't think you have to worry about that. While channel 58 will be abandoned in favouvour of something in the range 7..51, I don't think any ATSC station in North America will be on VHF-LO (channels 2..6). The issues have been discussed in another thread. The executive sumary is that the VHF-LO band is a bad place to get a channel. Your grandchilderen will probably be asking you why there aren't any channels 1..6.

[Marc]

Like Walter Dnes said, CBUT-DT will not be in the 2-6 range. I don't know what the new channel will be.

[wprager]

Marc, do you know what's been happening with CBC-HD and HNIC? I'm on Rogers-Ottawa, and last year CBC-HD *always* showed the Leafs game, while CBC-SD (cable 8) showed the Sens game. It seems that this year this has changed -- even if the Guide says Leafs, CBC-HD has been showing Sens games.

That said, the quality is oftne non-HD. Case in point, last Saturday's game was just horrible from a PQ point of view. It was definitely not HD. I know that CBC has two high-def setups: one for (primarily) Leafs games and the second unit they got near the end of last season, I believe, that is used (again, primarily) for the late game from out-West. Nevertheless, som Ottawa games (even when not involving the Leafs) were in high-definition.

So I guess the question is -- does teh CBC rely on a high-def feed from someone else (and add their own announcers' voice over) or what?

[Marc]

There are 2 HD trucks at the moment. The general rule is: the national games are HD and the regional games are WS.

A while ago, when the regional games were SD, the SD transmitter would get the regional game and the HD transmitter in that market would get the HD game. Why show a 4:3 upconvert on a 16:9 channel?

Now that the regional games are WS, they get fed to the HD transmitter.

[Marc]

Work continues on that front. The ugliest switches have been fixed as of today. Some fine tuning is still going on.

[wprager]

Thanks again, Marc. My last question was whether the CBC ever guy someone else's HD feed for the regional games? For example if the Rangers were in Ottawa and the MSG Network (or whatever they're called) already had their HD gear there. Or are we relegated to see the Sens in HD only if they play the Leafs or one of the Western teams, or when the Leafs are either not playing or playing out West?

For the record, I'm on Rogers, so I get SNet-HD for "free" but not TSN-HD (or RDS-HD, for that matter).

[Marc]

I can't recall a time when CBC took someone's production of an NHL game. Cameras are shared, but that's about it.

[ardsa]

Marc,
The last few nights there has been a double channel bug during the national at certain points.

For example, last night the Tata car and At Issue panel both had double bugs on CBUT-DT.

[Marc]

There are a couple of ways that can happen. Someone is looking into it. Thanks

[Marc]

CBC plans to launch a new sports channel.

[chilipad]

Was it just me or did Pearl Harbor go from HD to SD in the middle of the movie last night.