[j0dest3r]

I have noticed that as well in Edmonton. Some shots are ok but others look plastic or like a cardboard cut out of the people.

 

[Jase88]

I like that they've made the jump. However, their field shots/remotes are still in SD. At least when CTV Toronto went HD, they upgraded their remote cameras/equipment as well.

 

[j0dest3r]

Its just a matter of time, they will get'em there. I just wish they would have done the grey cup parade in HD. It was a disappointment to say the least.

 

[Nels Stewart]

There's nothing more bush league than showing highlights from an HD sports broadcast that are then squeezed into a square frame within an HD news broadcast.

 

[MAXAM]

My wife and I really hate the new pop-up type news headlines at the bottom of the screen that Global B.C. are now using. We would like them to go back to the crawler type that they used for years before the HD news transition.
Do other Global stations use the pop-up type that rotate vertically instead of moving horizontally across the bottom of the screen?

 

[Jase88]

Yes, agreed. The bug often blocks programming text (captions, etc) that appear. And yes, Global Toronto also has the pop up bugs.

 

[MAXAM]

Glad to hear it's not just us that find the new set annoying. The way it is now, while watching the news, you glance down and you see the tail end of a news item e.g." ...he starred in many Westerns during the '50s "(obviously the death of an old movie actor), "...the suspect was charged with four counts of capital murder" or "....the few survivors of the plane crash were taken to nearby hospitals." You don't know who, what, or where these events happened until the bulletins rotate much later and you have to wait for it to come up again to find out the rest of the news item/s! I'm a great believer in the old maxim, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

 

[Vostok]

Epic fail.

Simply put, their studio is the only thing that's HD at the moment. Their entire studio in all Canadian cities is totally green screen. Hard to imagine they can't even afford a real studio. CTV, on the other hand, has a real studio for all of their stations across Canada. Don't even talk about Global BC. Their green screen sucks so much that the studio is actually shaking sometimes. Also, during the weather and traffic, the monitor keeps jumping. Epic failure. I'm glad I switched to CTV a long time ago. Really don't get what all the fuss is about Global BC being the #1 newscast in BC. Their newscasts are boring as hell. CTV is much more lively and it actually makes me want to watch the news.

 

[Jase88]

Green screen is common in the news industry. Fox and CNN use it extensively. I don't see a problem with it.

 

[Nels Stewart]

I have to agree with Vostok. The green screen studios that Global is using just look really cheap. There is aliasing around the anchors which looks like someone hasn't quite got the hang of the pen tool in Photoshop and what's with the bogus latitude and longitude grids, the constantly moving lines and type that doesn't really say anything, the blurred monitors in the background that don't show anything. The whole production smacks of someone's idea of technical wizardry and self-importance when all it really does is create a sterile, generic environment that totally takes the newscast out of any connection with its community.
And for Global to roll out its HD studio without facilities and infrastructure to also implement HD, or at least widescreen, newsgathering and pick up the readily available HD feeds for other sports and national and international news packages is just so 2005, it's inexcusable in 2011.
I made the switch to BC-CTV long ago. Their newscast has more local content, better reporters, more professional production values, 95 per cent of which is HD.

 

[57]

Several OT posts deleted. This thread is about Global in HD, not whether CTV is better, etc.

 

[MAXAM]

Re:those annoying pop-up headlines: If they showed the headline story on one line, as they do on CNN, I wouldn't have a problem with that. This system they have now where you see the end of a news item and you have to wait to the cycle repeats is the pits! IMHO e.g." ... the ferry was grossly over-loaded when it sank." and ..."the plane was carry 189 passengers and crew when it went down." etc.

 

[Hotwax]

Does anybody have any new information on when the field cameras will go HD?

 

[ghostrider06]

Does anybody have any new information on when the field cameras will go HD?

I have heard this spring. March/April. I hope that goes for there Tower Cam also!

 

[downbeat]

I've noticed that since the middle of last week, Global Calgary's local news reports from the field are being recorded and shown in HD.

 

[57]

Are you sure they're not widescreen? They have some pretty good widescreen cameras. You can usually tell when they put the HD graphics over the widescreen coverage, or the stairstepping that you usually see on angled lines, or halos to the sides of dark colours, etc.

Of course with HD cameras getting less expensive all the time, they could be HD, but most I've seen in the field for news are WS.

 

[downbeat]

They look HD to me … The very first report I saw was on the mountain pine beetle, with images taken up in the mountains. Lots of rich visuals filled with details that an SD image could never reveal.
And the video itself is of greater detail than the supers/lower-thirds in use by Global. For whatever reason, many of those have horrendous resolution.

 

[JamesK]

Are you sure they're not widescreen?

On CBC & CITY, I've seen some shots that have such poor resolution that I suspect they're using a 4:3 SD camera and using only the middle 360 lines to get a 16:9 image.