Posted by Barry Watzman on 01/17/07 15:00

Re: "I don't know about NBC News but I did hear their commercial touting
it being the first nightly news now in HD. But what is to stop someone
from recording in HD, then downconverting to SD format (4:3) for
broadcast and yet simulcast the same full HD signal only over digital
broadcast just to HD capable tuners?

That would work well, no? Maybe that's what they do?"

That's my point; I'm watching the NBC HDTV distribution (on our cable
system, there is a separate channel for the analog SD and the digital
HDTV versions of each major network channel). And this channel delivers
1080i widescreen on prime-time entertainment shows. The "Nightly News"
has full hd quality, but it's not widescreen (e.g. it's 4:3 aspect ratio
with side bars). So I'm trying to figure out what the format is.

I am SURE that the studio origination is done with HDTV digital cameras
and that the analog SD broadcast is down converted from that. But it
seems odd to have a live broadcast from what must be a digital HD
studio, that is pretty obviously in "way above SD" format from the level
of detail and quality, but that is 4:3 aspect ratio rather than widescreen.

And, as you note (although I can't find it now) I think that NBC
advertises that the nightly news is broadcast in HD.


AnthonyR wrote:

>
> I don't know about NBC News but I did hear their commercial touting it being
> the first nightly news now in HD.
> But what is to stop someone from recording in HD, then downconverting to SD
> format (4:3) for broadcast and yet
> simulcast the same full HD signal only over digital broadcast just to HD
> capable tuners?
>
> That would work well, no? Maybe that's what they do?
>
> AnthonyR.
>
>
>

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