Why isn't Jay Leno always in HD?

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I am a night owl. I have an observation about late night HD
broadcasting on NBC. Perhaps someone who knows TV business can come up
with an explanation.

I watch HD NBC everynight. The programming on Comcast channel 703 in
the SF Bay Area is typically as follows.

11:30pm Jay Leno in HD
12:30am Conen O'Brian in HD
1:30am rerun of last night's Jay Leno in SD
2:30am rerun of last night's Conen O'Brian in HD

What puzzled me is what happens in the 1:30am time slot. The show was
in HD just 26 hours earlier, but is always shown in SD in the next day
rerun. If you suggested that they may want to save money in the rerun,
then how do you explain the HD rerun in the O'Brian show?

When will David Letterman go HD? I used to choose Letterman over Leno
until HD Leno arrives. I wonder how much market share Letterman has
lost because of that? Anyone know how widespread HDTV sets are in the
American household?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Wed, 18 May 2005 13:54:12 -0700, Caloonese wrote:

> I am a night owl. I have an observation about late night HD
> broadcasting on NBC. Perhaps someone who knows TV business can come up
> with an explanation.
>
> I watch HD NBC everynight. The programming on Comcast channel 703 in
> the SF Bay Area is typically as follows.
>
> 11:30pm Jay Leno in HD
> 12:30am Conen O'Brian in HD
> 1:30am rerun of last night's Jay Leno in SD
> 2:30am rerun of last night's Conen O'Brian in HD
>
> What puzzled me is what happens in the 1:30am time slot. The show was
> in HD just 26 hours earlier, but is always shown in SD in the next day
> rerun. If you suggested that they may want to save money in the rerun,
> then how do you explain the HD rerun in the O'Brian show?
>
> When will David Letterman go HD? I used to choose Letterman over Leno
> until HD Leno arrives. I wonder how much market share Letterman has
> lost because of that? Anyone know how widespread HDTV sets are in the
> American household?

Well my gut guess would of been the local station recording it is SD.
But thats not a valid guess with O'Brian in HD...

Call the station and ask.

--
Korbin Dallas
The name was changed to protect the guilty.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Caloonese wrote:
> I am a night owl. I have an observation about late night HD
> broadcasting on NBC. Perhaps someone who knows TV business can come up
> with an explanation.
>
> I watch HD NBC everynight. The programming on Comcast channel 703 in
> the SF Bay Area is typically as follows.
>
> 11:30pm Jay Leno in HD
> 12:30am Conen O'Brian in HD
> 1:30am rerun of last night's Jay Leno in SD
> 2:30am rerun of last night's Conen O'Brian in HD
>
> What puzzled me is what happens in the 1:30am time slot. The show was
> in HD just 26 hours earlier, but is always shown in SD in the next day
> rerun. If you suggested that they may want to save money in the rerun,
> then how do you explain the HD rerun in the O'Brian show?
>
> When will David Letterman go HD? I used to choose Letterman over Leno
> until HD Leno arrives. I wonder how much market share Letterman has
> lost because of that? Anyone know how widespread HDTV sets are in the
> American household?

As far as I know, the repeat of the Tonight Show has always been in
SD. I had not read that the early morning Conan reruns were in HD, but
probably a lot of stations don't broadcast it to begin with. My guess is
that because Conan just switched to HD, they changed the procedure for
the rerun to have the network broadcast that in HD while sticking with
the status quo on the Tonight Show reruns.

In general of the traditional big 3 broadcast networks, NBC brings up
the rear in HD. They will still broadcast reruns of current HD shows in
SD on Saturday nights as well as repeats in the show's regular timeslot.
The Hercules movie on NBC Monday night was in SD which is amazing for a
brand new TV movie, but this is NBC.

The word is that Letterman will switch to HD in September. They are in
the process of a major upgrade to the studio and will complete the
upgrade during the August break.

As for the percentage of households with HD TVs, I have seen estimates
ranging from 5 to 8%. But with HD TV sales rapidly increasing, so any
number you see is likely to be out of date. The real problem is
figuring out how many people who have HD capable sets are actually
getting HD channels from either broadcast, cable or satellite. The net
is rife with stories of people buying an HD set, going home and hooking
it up to their regular cable box - with a composite or S-video cable no
less - and thinking they are getting HD!

Alan F

 

[tree]

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

The raw HD stream is 270 megabits. The typical satellite transponder
has a bandwidth of 45 megabits. After compression, the broadcast DTV
signal fits into 19.4 megabits.
Early on, to permit local breaks, The nets compressed the HD signal
down to 45 megabits. That was known as mezzanine level. A box at the
local station blew it back out into a pseudo 270 signal. Thus a local
station with the right equipment could insert local breaks. A signal
precoded as a 19.4 signal works best but it takes more gear to bust
into it with a local break. Initially that wasn't done. I saw the same
source material via a 45 megabit mezzanine path and also as a precoded
19.4. The 19.4 origination won hands down.
My guess is that there are potentially three problems. One is a lack of
HD recorders and/or bandwidth to do a repeat feed in HD. The other is
that local switching going in and out of HD for local breaks is faulty
and no one is really checking it. Saw that one myself. There could be a
problem at the source but as everything comes out of server farms, that
is less likely. Just thought of a 4th. An older repeat wouldn't be in
HD at all. That's similar to the stereo coming and going night by night
on the Johnny Carson show in the mid to late 80s.
Korbin Dallas wrote:
> On Wed, 18 May 2005 13:54:12 -0700, Caloonese wrote:
>
> > I am a night owl. I have an observation about late night HD
> > broadcasting on NBC. Perhaps someone who knows TV business can
come up
> > with an explanation.
> >
> > I watch HD NBC everynight. The programming on Comcast channel 703
in
> > the SF Bay Area is typically as follows.
> >
> > 11:30pm Jay Leno in HD
> > 12:30am Conen O'Brian in HD
> > 1:30am rerun of last night's Jay Leno in SD
> > 2:30am rerun of last night's Conen O'Brian in HD
> >
> > What puzzled me is what happens in the 1:30am time slot. The show
was
> > in HD just 26 hours earlier, but is always shown in SD in the next
day
> > rerun. If you suggested that they may want to save money in the
rerun,
> > then how do you explain the HD rerun in the O'Brian show?
> >
> > When will David Letterman go HD? I used to choose Letterman over
Leno
> > until HD Leno arrives. I wonder how much market share Letterman
has
> > lost because of that? Anyone know how widespread HDTV sets are in
the
> > American household?
>
> Well my gut guess would of been the local station recording it is SD.
> But thats not a valid guess with O'Brian in HD...
>
> Call the station and ask.
>
> --
> Korbin Dallas
> The name was changed to protect the guilty.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Tree (roy547@msn.com) wrote in alt.tv.tech.hdtv:
> My guess is that there are potentially three problems. One is a lack of
> HD recorders and/or bandwidth to do a repeat feed in HD.

This is not the issue here. NBC sends the repeat over the HD satellite feed
as upconverted SD. I don't know why, considering they have the HD version
sitting on disk/tape somewhere from the night before, and they have plenty
of storage space.

--
Jeff Rife |
| http/www.nabs.net/Cartoons/OverTheHedge/TeriHatcher.gif

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

"Korbin Dallas" <korbindallas@dodgeit.com> wrote in message
newsan.2005.05.18.22.42.44.397627@dodgeit.com...
> On Wed, 18 May 2005 13:54:12 -0700, Caloonese wrote:

If possible can you not post in HTML? Not everyone has HTML newsreaders,
plus it looks like feces.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Wed, 18 May 2005, Caloonese wrote:
> I am a night owl. I have an observation about late night HD ...
>
> When will David Letterman go HD? I used to choose Letterman over Leno
> until HD Leno arrives. I wonder how much market share Letterman has
> lost because of that? Anyone know how widespread HDTV sets are in the
> American household?

Letterman said on his show earlier this year that it is due to be HD come this
fall season.