CBS Evening News goes HD 7/28/08

[HGN2001]

Effective today, the CBS EVENING NEWS WITH KATIE COURIC will be broadcast in 1080i HDTV.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/couric072808.htm

A picture of their new control room below:

[Jack White]

If you do not have a HD TV set, will there be any noticeable change in picture quality?

[Steve Hoffman]

Yeah, it will get smaller.

[jupiter8]

HDTV=the newsreader's worst nightmare....

I'd invest in Botox futures...

[HGN2001]

If you do not have a HD TV set, will there be any noticeable change in picture quality?

Probably not much on a standard old NTSC TV.

You might see a slight difference if you have a digital tuner and can access the digital version of CBS. If nothing else, you might be able to access the full widescreen 16:9 picture.

Harry

[Dan C]

HDTV=the newsreader's worst nightmare....

I'd invest in Botox futures...

I've seen some NBC News clips in HD (not here, none of our affiliates are in HD :rolleyes: ) as well as CNN-HD, and it looks very pretty. They've also done a good job with make up and lighting from what I've seen, so there are fewer 'blemishes' than you'd imagine.

The studio stuff looks great, but most or all of the video and live reports are in standard def. Amazingly (to me at least), most network news crews are stull using good old BetaCam SP for their field coverage.

dan c

[HGN2001]

Hey, if the five people in this thread watch, the ratings might double!

Harry

[therockman]

Gross, Katie in HD.

[CraigVC]

Several local news channels here in Portland already broadcast their evening/nightly news in HDTV (including the CBS affiliate, KOIN-6). I'm surprised it's taken CBS this long. I'd also like to see 60 minutes catch up and start broadcasting in HDTV (though I'm not sure the world is ready for Andy Rooney in HD! :) ).

Craig(VC).

[nosticker]

I'd also like to see 60 minutes catch up and start broadcasting in HDTV (though I'm not sure the world is ready for Andy Rooney in HD! :) ).

Craig(VC).

Already in the works.


Dan

[HGN2001]

Not quite a success tonight. There was about 30 seconds of HD picture in Philadelphia with no sound. Then it switched to SD for the rest of the broadcast.

Over at the AVS Forum, someone from a local affiliate posted this:


Just thought I'd pass along that around 18:40 ET, CBS notified us (affiliates) that they were experiencing "technical difficulties" with the Evening News HD feed. Too early to tell at this point, but my guess is that stations that normally provide 5.1 audio are having issues, and stations that normally pass only 2.0 aren't. CBS did suggest a solution to the problem, but it involves manually swapping AES audio channels, and not all broadcast facilities are capable of doing this at a moment's notice.

Oh well, perhaps tomorrow they'll get it worked out.

Harry

[BeatleJWOL]

Remind me again why you need the news in 5.1?

:laugh:

[HGN2001]

Remind me again why you need the news in 5.1?

:laugh:

So all the fancy lights and indicators on your stereo rig will light up!

Harry

[charlie W]

CBS is rather(pardon the pun) late to the HD news game and they are not doing it yet for their morning show unlike NBC and ABC. Remember only the studio segments will be HD. Typically the field video will be SD. On the local level, news in HD is a pipe dream done by a few stations across the country and most are doing HD in studio segments, not field acquisition though it might be in 16x9. It's very expensive to do from newsroom to control room to transmitter. For field use, I doubt many stations(though still may be) are using BetacamSP but the digital variant BetaSX since Sony no longers makes nor services BetaSP gear. It's digital-either BetaSX, DVCam, XDCam or DVCPro.

[Dan C]

CBS is rather(pardon the pun) late to the HD news game and they are not doing it yet for their morning show unlike NBC and ABC. Remember only the studio segments will be HD. Typically the field video will be SD. On the local level, news in HD is a pipe dream done by a few stations across the country and most are doing HD in studio segments, not field acquisition though it might be in 16x9. It's very expensive to do from newsroom to control room to transmitter. For field use, I doubt many stations(though still may be) are using BetacamSP but the digital variant BetaSX since Sony no longers makes nor services BetaSP gear. It's digital-either BetaSX, DVCam, XDCam or DVCPro.

KUSA, the NBC station in Denver, has been doing full HD newscasts for a couple of years now...or longer. Everything is HD, all the remotes and pieces.

For years they've had one of the best photography shops in the country. They do incredible work and they're on the cutting edge of technology.

Sadly the bean counters are at it again and reducing the photography staff and giving cameras to the reporters. :rolleyes: Kill the golden goose to save a few pennies. Brilliant.

dan c

[CraigVC]

On the local level, news in HD is a pipe dream done by a few stations across the country and most are doing HD in studio segments, not field acquisition though it might be in 16x9.

Good point. I suspect that the field reports for local news are being sent in and cropped to fit as 16x9. The field reports still look pretty good to me, even if that's what they're doing, but then again I'm limited on my receiving end, as I only have a 480p-capable 4:3 digital TV.

It's still kind of odd to go from watching HDTV of the local news, to tiny letterboxed images of the national news. I'd have thought the national news would be faster (and more financially capable) to adopt new technology.

Craig(VC).

[Dan C]

Good point. I suspect that the field reports for local news are being sent in and cropped to fit as 16x9. The field reports still look pretty good to me, even if that's what they're doing, but then again I'm limited on my receiving end, as I only have a 480p-capable 4:3 digital TV.



Craig(VC).

The SD field reports are 'pillarboxed', usually with some sort of graphic on the edges.

dan c

[Steve Hoffman]

It's still kind of odd to go from watching HDTV of the local news, to tiny letterboxed images of the national news. I'd have thought the national news would be faster (and more financially capable) to adopt new technology.

Craig(VC).

You kiddin'? I just watched a 2" color video tape master of a 1968 Ed Sullivan CBS show that still had some commercials in black and white. This is 1968 (Sullivan was first broadcast in color in September, 1965). Now THAT'S not taking advantage of new technology.

[jupiter8]

You kiddin'? I just watched a 2" color video tape master of a 1968 Ed Sullivan CBS show that still had some commercials in black and white. This is 1968 (Sullivan was first broadcast in color in September, 1965). Now THAT'S not taking advantage of new technology.

It still cracks me up when I pass an old motel that offers "color tv'! I think the networks are slow to put their news to HD because the nightly news demographics skew older and they figure a great majority of their audience doesn't care or doesn't have the gear (they sure run a lot of "digital conversion is coming!" ads during the news).

KUSA, the NBC station in Denver, has been doing full HD newscasts for a couple of years now...or longer. Everything is HD, all the remotes and pieces.

For years they've had one of the best photography shops in the country. They do incredible work and they're on the cutting edge of technology.



I grew up near Denver- KUSA always had the best toys for sure. I remember when KUSA (which may have still been KBTV at the time) rolled out their ENG stuff-"Actioncam!" (Hello, Ron Burgundy). They used "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy in the ads!

Also- I now work across from CBS on West 57th Street and see a lot of their crews using XDCam.

[Doug Sclar]

It still cracks me up when I pass an old motel that offers "color tv'! I think the networks are slow to put their news to HD because the nightly news demographics skew older and they figure a great majority of their audience doesn't care or doesn't have the gear (they sure run a lot of "digital conversion is coming!" ads during the news).



I grew up near Denver- KUSA always had the best toys for sure. I remember when KUSA (which may have still been KBTV at the time) rolled out their ENG stuff-"Actioncam!" (Hello, Ron Burgundy). They used "A Fifth of Beethoven" by Walter Murphy in the ads!

Also- I now work across from CBS on West 57th Street and see a lot of their crews using XDCam.

I'm building some new hotels now and we're debating on whether or not we'll be delivering HD content or not. It's not inexpensive and as you may guess DRM is the main hurdle. Most all the hotels with flat screens are showing stretched 4x3. First thing I do when I stay at one is to switch the display to pillarbox.

Btw, we have most of our channels here broadcasting news in HD, but not Fox. Ch 9 often has 3 hours of news in HD every night.

[CraigVC]

The SD field reports are 'pillarboxed', usually with some sort of graphic on the edges.

dan c

I think it depends on the channel and/or the feed.

For example, I just caught the KOIN-6 6:00 news in HDTV here in Portland, and they had a live feed field segment on the streets of downtown. The quality of the video was visibly more pixelated (I could tell even with my 480p SDTV) than the studio video. It didn't look horrible, though. Just not quite as good as the studio video.

So it appeared to me to be as charlie W said - they are cropping the standard video feed as 16:9. Either that or they're using an HDTV camera for live street feeds, but down-rezing it so it'll transmit via satellite more quickly/easily?

However, I have seen other channels doing the pillarbox effect you describe for other segments - usually when they are displaying video they got "over the wire," so to speak (i.e., stuff shot by other stations, or sports highlights that were broadcast on other networks).

Craig(VC).

P.S. - Be kind if I have been technically inaccurate about any of the above. I'm no expert on television broadcasting technologies!

[CraigVC]

You kiddin'? I just watched a 2" color video tape master of a 1968 Ed Sullivan CBS show that still had some commercials in black and white. This is 1968 (Sullivan was first broadcast in color in September, 1965). Now THAT'S not taking advantage of new technology.

:laugh: I guess CBS is maintaining their legacy, then. ;)

I watched the first few minutes of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric here on the west coast, and I guess nobody remembered to re-write the introduction she read off the teleprompter. She said something like "welcome to our first broadcast in high definition . . . " Problem: I was watching it on a digital 4:3 TV receiver but it was boxed around all four sides just like a typical old analog broadcast. :(

I guess they will try again soon.

Craig(VC).

[MMM]

You kiddin'? I just watched a 2" color video tape master of a 1968 Ed Sullivan CBS show that still had some commercials in black and white. This is 1968 (Sullivan was first broadcast in color in September, 1965). Now THAT'S not taking advantage of new technology.


How did it look, Steve? What's the resolution on tapes like that - are they higher than the NTSC standard?

[Steve Hoffman]

How did it look, Steve? What's the resolution on tapes like that - are they higher than the NTSC standard?

Res is the same but the Noralco color is very pastel, not the same as the NBC color of that era (which is very different looking).

Beautiful looking show picture (the equipment was but a few years old at that time) but it was so jarring to still see B&W commercials in it. I guess some advertisers just didn't get it or didn't want to pay to deliver a commercial in color.

[charlie W]

KUSA, the NBC station in Denver, has been doing full HD newscasts for a couple of years now...or longer. Everything is HD, all the remotes and pieces.

For years they've had one of the best photography shops in the country. They do incredible work and they're on the cutting edge of technology.

Sadly the bean counters are at it again and reducing the photography staff and giving cameras to the reporters. :rolleyes: Kill the golden goose to save a few pennies. Brilliant.

dan c

Very true and I believe WRAL in Charlotte, North Carolina may be another station doing full HD newscasts but there are very few stations doing so and probably none(except Denver) in Nielsen Top 10 markets. But it's all about costs with stations constantly changing hands month to month and it takes much $$$ to do a full transition to HD digital newscasts. A good friend and former co-worker is employed as a newsphotographer for the CBS station in Dallas/Fort Worth and they just recently made the switch to local HD newscasts but the field work is still SD, shot in 16x9. He says there are no plans to do field work in HD at this time and the station is a CBS O&O(owned & operated). The station where I work(as newsphotographer) is months behind on its own transition to digital. It passes NBC's HD signal but there are other substantial parts of the infrastruction that are still missing. For instance, one of our live trucks has been converted to digital microwave but the other has not and come Feb.17, 2008, it will be useless. The news department was suppose to dump DVCPRO for the tapeless P2 format this summer-not happening because of the financial cost of transition. Out of a staff of 5 shooters, only two have camcorders capable of shooting 16x9 SD.