I decided to start this thread to capture any new HD programming spotted on PBS.

This month, the only truly new HD programs I could detect are the last few sessions of Soundstage Second Season.

Any others?

You could have put a question mark on it. It's an erroneous declaration as it stands and a bit disappointing.

Originally posted by greywolf
You could have put a question mark on it. It's an erroneous declaration as it stands and a bit disappointing.

I know what you mean. I thought about using the question mark, but decided that the Second Season Soundstage sessions qualified for the subject. (pretty lame excuse I admit)

The moderators took care of it.:)

I'm glad they also fixed my misspelling. My 13-year-old son is a spelling bee champ, but he's away on a camping trip this weekend. (another lame excuse) :)

Two new HD programs this week:

PBS Hollywood Presents: Cop Shop (PQ is subpar IMO)

Dancers: USA International Ballet Competition

That Niagra Falls show on PBS HD has lots of pixelation in it....

Soundstage disappeared abruptly from our local PBS lineup. They never showed the Russell Crowe episode or Yes. Meanwhile, they continue to repeat the same exact programs over and over. It's an amazing waste of bandwidth.

I see Austin City Limits on the schedule in HD. One showing a week. Then it's back to four months straight of the Hood vs. the Bismarck, Niagra Falls (again) and the Desert Continues to Speak to the American Family.

Surely PBS can do better than this. I don't mind several repeats, but this is excessive, and the best shows are not repeated or only repeated once.

Love to see Austin City Limits in HD :)

What's happened to Soundstage:confused:

that's my favorite HD show.

Originally posted by chroma601
Surely PBS can do better than this. I don't mind several repeats, but this is excessive, and the best shows are not repeated or only repeated once.

Maybe they want us to buy their DVDs of each program? :confused:

On KCET this week they showed Nova: Origins part 1 on the HD channel, but not part 2. Don't understand that. (The show looked like HD to me, but I don't have the highest resolution monitor.)

Mojo

Originally posted by Morris Jones
On KCET this week they showed Nova: Origins part 1 on the HD channel, but not part 2. Don't understand that. (The show looked like HD to me, but I don't have the highest resolution monitor.)

Mojo

Origins part II did air on the PBS HD national feed. It's odd that KCET DT didn't pass it through. In any event, Origins was not produced in HD. Though, it wasn't bad for SD.

how many pbs stations around the country are actually broadcasting a proper full bitrate HD channel?

There really isn't a point to PBS programming anymore..quite a few markets are multicasted to hell(6 channels) so the channel is just brutal looking

Rakesh, none I'd imagine. I belive the FCC requires a rather large percentage of the station's analog programming to be simulcast.

Originally posted by Rakesh.S
how many pbs stations around the country are actually broadcasting a proper full bitrate HD channel?

There really isn't a point to PBS programming anymore..quite a few markets are multicasted to hell(6 channels) so the channel is just brutal looking
In the Twin Cities market the PBS affiliate has two channels allocated (which it had before the transition with channels 2 and 17). One is used just for HD while the other one does all the multichannel programming. On the other hand the ABC, NBC and FOX affiliates have their single channel split between HD and SD. The NBC weather map is particularly sad since that bandwidth could be used so much more productively if they sent truly digital data rather than a digital copy of low res analog data. For instance they could periodically send out a high resolution, "zoomable" ground image and update it with a current high resolution cloud cover overlay, or wind direction and speed vectors, or barometric readings, or temperature readings color encoded, or rain or snow accumulation statistics. Of course no digital TV other than your PC running specific software, would be able to display such data. But imagine what could be done with a few free megabits per second of free bandwidth which is currently gouged out of the HD NBC channel to present the current lame weather radar. To see something like the possibilities I'm describing take a look at keyhole.com and some of the overlays available for it. There is a time limited free demo download available at their web site. Sadly it is PC only but that should work for the majority and those Mac and Linux users among us who maintain a PC just for such cases.

I'd also like to take issue with the there isn't a point to PBS programming. I suppose it could be easily maintained that they provide far less than one might hope but I've found many of their HD programs like the recovery of scrolls from Herculaneum and the Roman fires to be stunning and unlikely to be provided anywhere else.

Originally posted by TMilner
Love to see Austin City Limits in HD :)


I remember when this show was first aired. We used to be sure to tune in just to hear the stereo sound. If memory serves, it was the first TV show to utilize Dolby Surround.

With that setting and live audience wouldn't 5.1DD be great.

I'm getting pretty frustrated with PBS. There's the multi-casting issue which starves HD of bandwidth (multicasting 5, count 'em 5 subchannels). But more importantly, they seem to be losing their way; their reason for being in the first place. My local PBS station here in Charlotte recently announced that they were dropping Frontline, perhaps the most important show PBS does. Why? Because last year Frontline did an episode dealing with how large U.S. corporations evade taxes through elaborate shelters that skirt the very edges of legality while ethically reprehensible. One of the companies exposed was Wachovia, the banking giant based here in Charlotte, and a big corporate supporter of WTVI. Next thing you know, Frontline's not on their schedule next year. Outrageous. And Soundstage in HD? Forget it. They're showing BBC sitcom retreads and other similar fluff instead. I'm sick of it; they'll get no more contributions from this household, and I have told them why.

Originally posted by GeorgeLV
Rakesh, none I'd imagine. I belive the FCC requires a rather large percentage of the station's analog programming to be simulcast.

Here in Denver last time I checked (havent paid much attention lately), the main PBS channel, KRMA, simulcasts their analog programming from 6 am to 6 pm to satisfy that requirement and then switches over to the National PBS HD feed for the other 12 hours.

They arent running any subchannels so the quality is good but every time I tune to it in the evenings it's most always something I've already seen or otherwise not interested in. Which is why I havent tuned in much at all lately as I said and why the 12/12 scenario I mentioned above may not exactly be accurate these days. Maybe it's 15/9 anymore, who knows. ;)

Originally posted by chroma601
Soundstage disappeared abruptly from our local PBS lineup. They never showed the Russell Crowe episode or Yes. Meanwhile, they continue to repeat the same exact programs over and over. It's an amazing waste of bandwidth.



Sorry to get off-topic here, but I assume you mean WHYY in Philadelphia.
I concur about the amazing waste of bandwidth, but
they did show the Russell Crowe Soundstage (I recorded it) and I saw
the Yes concert in passing. I noted that both Soundstage's included the
extremely annoying PBS-HD logo in the upper left hand corner.
It does seem that these programs aren't aired when expected (and not
during prime time). I never did see if the Cyndi Lauper Soundstage was
ever aired in HD.

Originally posted by GeorgeLV
I belive the FCC requires a rather large percentage of the station's analog programming to be simulcast.

The FCC repealed the simulcast regulation about the time of the NBC HD Olympic broadcast.

I'd love to see KCET now take advantage of that, and drop their subchannel simulcast of the analog channel.

It's certainly a big advantage to have PBS broadcasting HD all the time. A fairly common story I'm sure; when I purchased and installed my first OTA HD receiver, they were the only HD source on the air when I hooked it up. PBS HD was probably the first look for many of us.

Mojo

Description on WETA web site says it was shot in HD:

Crater Lake, The Mirror of Heaven -

This program explores one of the most of beautiful and deepest lakes in the world, Crater Lake in southern Oregon. Shot in high-definition to capture the magnificence of the lake and its surrounding area, the film delves into the formation of the lake by a massive volcanic eruption approximately 7,700 years ago, its prominence in Klamath and Modoc Native American history and culture, and the struggle of William Gladstone Steel, Crater Lake's biggest supporter, to designate it as a National Park in 1902, allowing its pristine splendor to be preserved for generations to come. The film includes historical re-enactments, rare vintage lantern slides and sophisticated computer animation. This program is a chance to witness Crater Lake's past and present while enjoying the almost spiritual experience that comes from seeing such awe-inspiring natural beauty.

Originally posted by cwclark
Origins part II did air on the PBS HD national feed. It's odd that KCET DT didn't pass it through. In any event, Origins was not produced in HD. Though, it wasn't bad for SD.

Looked really bad to me.

There is no doubt that PBSHD suffers from the lack of programming. But remember, they don't have a lot of sources for funding: no commercials and no pledge drives (thank heavens!).

But we watch it a lot anyway, several hours per week. I guess, except for my sports, we watch DiscoveryHD most, then PBSHD, INHD1&2.

It is really sad that a company can control a TV station like Wachovia did in Charlotte and drop a show like Frontline.

Anyway, Maybe they'll have a new season of "Smart Travels with Rudy Maxa"? It's my wife's favorite.

Originally posted by raidbuck
It is really sad that a company can control a TV station like Wachovia did in Charlotte and drop a show like Frontline.


It's not only sad, it's pathetic. Frontline is one of the most important shows produced on any network. They're pretty fearless about exposing the dark, secret underbelly of governmental and corporate abuse. But Charlotte is one of the most white-bread, homogeneous, conservative towns in America and the power brokers who run this city will tolerate nothing that doesn't jive with the sparkling, squeaky-clean image they want to portray to the rest of the country. Wachovia's actions with regard to those tax shelters were scandalous and cost our country millions in revenue, but there was no penalty, no cries of outrage - not a peep, not here where the corporate headquarters is located. I guess only bleeding heart liberals get offended by stuff like that and there ain't many of those in this town (and the few that are are usually browbeaten into silence). Local PBS stations depend on local contributions. Do the math. :(

Six hours of HD programming (two hours each: last night, tonight, tomorrow night).

Since there has been no discussion on this HDTV Programming Forum, I'm assuming that very few people here are watching this in HD. PBS is keeping its HD-ness a well-kept secret.

Originally posted by DTGallagher
Sorry to get off-topic here, but I assume you mean WHYY in Philadelphia.
I concur about the amazing waste of bandwidth, but
they did show the Russell Crowe Soundstage (I recorded it) and I saw
the Yes concert in passing. I noted that both Soundstage's included the
extremely annoying PBS-HD logo in the upper left hand corner.
It does seem that these programs aren't aired when expected (and not
during prime time). I never did see if the Cyndi Lauper Soundstage was
ever aired in HD.

Cindy Lauper Aired in HD i TiVo'd it on WHYY.

We are watching the PBS Musicals series and enjoying it. Also bought the DVDs. It means I can't watch the playoffs on my big TV, but we all must make sacrifices. Besides, I can't get the playoffs in HD.

It is a shame that the quality music shown by these programs is now relegated to the background while much less talented people make all the money. But at least there are some outlets we can get to enjoy true talent.

Thanks, PBS and PBSHD.

Rich N.

One or two friends of mine are producing HD projects for PBS. I caught one taping at a local music festival. I see projects in the works but not aired yet.
http://www.pbase.com/george_thompson/image/30129237
http://www.pbase.com/george_thompson/image/30129209
George

In Portland, they simulcast all day except from 8 pm to 11 pm and none of the shows mentioned above has shown.

The PQ I get from the VT PBS HD channel is really good most of the time. I'd even compare it to HDNET or Discovery HD I get on satellite.

I also get the NH PBS in HD. They broadcast the exact same HD programming at the same time so I've been able to compare. NHs PQ is nowhere near as good as VTs. When I asked the Vt station engineer about this, I was told it had to do with the type of encoders they use. Vt uses a Tandberg encoder which apparently gives a better signal than the Harris HD encoders that NHPBS uses. Way over my head but I can see the difference.

WaltinVt

This was shown last week, and again tonight, on my local PBS station.

Originally posted by waltinvt
I also get the NH PBS in HD. They broadcast the exact same HD programming at the same time so I've been able to compare. NHs PQ is nowhere near as good as VTs. When I asked the Vt station engineer about this, I was told it had to do with the type of encoders they use. Vt uses a Tandberg encoder which apparently gives a better signal than the Harris HD encoders that NHPBS uses. Way over my head but I can see the difference.

That's intriguing, Walt. Recently MPEG2-expert dr1394 here outlined (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=4536665#post4536665) the 'inefficiency' of this encoder, assuming it's the same one. Must be quite a variation in image quality, especially if you use a 34" direct-view CRT (bio-listed gear) for the comparison. Guess if one PBS source was multicasting subchannels that could make an observable difference, too. It would be interesting to learn how many stations still use this or similar early inefficient encoders. Assume inefficient here means the encoding process has to discard more high-frequency information (details) to achieve compression. -- John

The First Lady: Public Expectations, Private Lives was in HD last night on PBS.

BTW, I just watched Out of the Ashes that I had recorded a few days ago. It was one of the most interesting documentaries I've ever seen. One of the subjects covered was the difficulty of detecting Greek text on old papyrus scrolls. High definition was perfect for depicting this. The point would have been lost in standard def.

Great Performances
Carnegie Hall Opening Night 2004

in HD and DD 5.1 last night

Renee Fleming and Yo Yo Ma ... great !!

The Carnegie Hall program was shown in HD in Chicago on 10/27, and looked (and sounded) VERY good. It's scheduled to be shown again on WTTW 11-1 on Friday 10/29 at 9:00 PM.

What was interesting in Baltimore is that the PBSHD feed was at 9:00 and athe SD feed was at 10:00, making watching it impossible for working people. What do people think sometimes?

Rich N.

There are virtues to being in the Central time zone! On Wednesday, the HD was at 8:00 PM, and the SD at 9:00 PM.

PBS used to have a listing of "Digital" shows both "widescreen standard" and "High" definition. But I can't find it anymore. The "Current" website publishes a "pipeline" of PBS shows in production. Here's the HD stuff mentioned in last year's version:

This is an excerpt from the full list where HDTV or "high definition" was mentioned. This was done on 10/29/2004. Note that a new "pipeline" will be published in a mont or two...

http://www.current.org/pipeline/

http://www.current.org/pipeline/pipe2004.html

Current's 12th annual survey of public TV series for future seasons

What's in the works for public TV? This list based on Current's annual Pipeline survey describes multihour projects in various stages of pipedream, conception, preproduction, scripting, shooting and editing for January 2004 and beyond. For space reasons, we include only projects two hours or longer, and no series intended strictly for classroom use. For more information about this list.

Originally published in Current, Nov. 3 and Dec. 15, 2003

Compiled by Geneva Collins and the Current staff


Winter/Spring 2004

Smart Gardening

Producing organization: Chambers Productions. Presenting station: Oregon Public Broadcasting. Distributor: APT. Episodes: 13 x 30. Status: production. Major funder: Proven Winners. OPB executive producers: David Davis, Tom Doggett. Series producer: Dawn Ford for Chambers Productions. Contact: David Davis, david_davis@opb.org, 503-293-1959.

The first PBS gardening series in high definition explores the wonder and fun of gardening.

Summer 2004

Fall 2004

The Funnies

Producing organizations: Alchemedia Ltd. and KQED, San Francisco. Episodes: 2 x 60. Status: fundraising. Budget: $1.2 million, including outreach, website and promotion. Contact: Elizabeth Pepin, epepin@kqed.org, 415-553-2340.

This colorful HDTV series takes a lively, nostalgic and socially relevant look at the artists, characters and quirky history of the daily newspaper comic strip.

Rape of Europa

Producing organizations: Actual Films and OPB. Episodes: 2 x 60. Status: preproduction, fundraising. Budget: $1.1 million. Major funders: NEH, NEA. Executive producers: David Davis. Producers: Bonnie Cohen and Richard Berge. Contact: David Davis, david_davis@ opb.org, 503-293-195.

An HDTV production that tells how Nazi Germany looted the treasures of Europe during World War II and how others have tried to find and restore the art works to their rightful owners.

Words & Music

Producing organizations: Terwilliker Limited and KQED, San Francisco. Episodes: 4 x 60. Status: R&D. Executive producers: Andrew Kuehn and Terrence Flannery. Executive in charge: DeAnne Hamilton. Producers: Stephen Netburn, Allen J. Svirdidoff. Contact: Elizabeth Pepin, epepin@kqed.org, 415-553-2340.

Michael Feinstein, singer, pianist and raconteur, will host this HDTV series, taped before a live audience, which provides a window into the creative processes of musicians and songwriters. Guests may include such artists as Elton John, Billy Joel, Sting and Mary J. Blige.

Sometime in 2004

Winter/Spring 2005

Summer 2005

Fall 2005

Sometime in 2005

History Through Deaf Eyes (w.t.)

Producing organizations: a co-production of WETA, Washington, D.C., and Florentine Films/Hott Productions in association with Gallaudet University. Episodes: 1 x 120. Status: fundraising. Executive producers: Dalton Delan, Karen Kenton. Producer/director: Lawrence Hott. Writer: Ken Chowder. Contact: Kristine Barr, 703-998-2713.

This HDTV documentary will explore the experience of the deaf community in America from 1814 to the present. Inspired by stories of people both famous and ordinary, the film will convey a range of perspectives on deafness. Outreach activities include an educators' guide for middle and high schools and a viewers' guide. Outreach, promotion and education activities will be developed for both hearing and deaf audiences.

Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ocean Adventures

Producing organizations: KQED, San Francisco, and Ocean Futures Society. Episodes: 4 x 60, 1 x 120. Status: fundraising. Budget: $6.5 million, including outreach, website, promotion, evaluation. Executive producers: Jean-Michel Cousteau, Danny L. McGuire. Contact: Elizabeth Pepin, KQED, epepin@kqed.org, (415) 553-2340.

This intimate HDTV view of the Earth's oceans follows Cousteau and his crew of young scientists and divers as they explore previously unseen sights and examine behaviors of mysterious sea creatures. The camera will swim with sharks, visit the remote island of Kure, find sunken treasures, follow the gray whale obstacle course and explore ghost shipwrecks.

The Warrior Class (w.t.)

Producing organizations: WNET and Florentine Films. Episodes: 4 x 60. Status: R&D. Executive producer: Stephen Segaller. Producer/director: Roger Sherman. Contact: Lisa Braun, braun@ thirteen.org, 212-560-2715.

A cultural portrait of today's military. Shot in high definition, the series will look at the people who make up America's fighting forces -- and the culture of what the Defense Department calls "America"s oldest corporation."

Sometime in 2006

The Storm that Swept Mexico (w.t.)

Producing organizations: KERA, Dallas; Paradigm Productions, Berkeley; Once TV, Mexico City, and Atlantic Productions, London. Episodes: 3 x 60. Status: scripting. Budget: $2.5 million. Major funders: NEH, PBS, Latino Public Broadcasting. Executive in charge: Sylvia Komatsu. Executive producer: Rob Tranchin. Producer: Ray Telles. Contact: Rob Tranchin, rtranchin@kera.org, 214-740-9273.

This high-definition documentary series will explore the first major social revolution of the 20th century, the Mexican Revolution of 1910, presenting a rich and timely reflection of central themes to the universal struggle for national independence, stability and prosperity. Bilingual website, music CD, DVD and educational materials will be developed for international distribution. Bilingual outreach and educational materials are also planned.

2007 and beyond

Journeys in Africa

Producing organization: KCTS, Seattle. Distributor: American Public Television. Episodes: 13 x 30. Status: production. Budget: $500,000. Executive producers: Bill Ball, Jay Parikh. Host: Bill Ball. Contact: Pat Mallinson, pmallinson@kcts.org, 206-443-6798.

This high-definition series is a travelogue, nature series and adventure program combined.

Originally posted by chroma601
Soundstage disappeared abruptly from our local PBS lineup. They never showed the Russell Crowe episode or Yes. Meanwhile, they continue to repeat the same exact programs over and over. It's an amazing waste of bandwidth.

I see Austin City Limits on the schedule in HD. One showing a week. Then it's back to four months straight of the Hood vs. the Bismarck, Niagra Falls (again) and the Desert Continues to Speak to the American Family.

Surely PBS can do better than this. I don't mind several repeats, but this is excessive, and the best shows are not repeated or only repeated once.

KUAT is still creating new episodes of the desert speaks in HD-- We're in the 15th season now. However with a 13 episode season, it begins to repeat quick on a 2x7 channel.

I just recorded Yo-Yo Ma's performance of Don Quixote by Richard Strauss with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall last night. Beautiful production and well worth the 6 gigabytes of space on my drive. My daughter and I both play cello so I'm looking forward to sharing it with her. Not the sort of thing you are likely find on other TV channels.

Originally posted by SBryan
Not the sort of thing you are likely find on other TV channels.

Watch for Discovery HD Theater's programming on Friday nights:

Nov. 5: Midsummer Night's Dream, Carmen, and Orfeo

Nov. 12: St. Petersburg 300-year Gala, Magic Flute

Nov. 19: Die Fledermaus

Although none of these shows are purely orchestral, it seems that Discovery HD is offering more classical music these days vis-a-vis PBS.

Thanks for the report from cable. That is great news about Discovery HD. Since Bravo seems to have become much less interesting for cultural events, I had dismissed cable as a useful option. I'm still reluctant because I really like not having that monthly bill but it sounds like I might need to re-evaluate if Discovery is doing so much more.

Did anyone see the PBS' National Geographic Special on Arlington Cemetary tonight?

PBS showed the HD logo and "in High Definition" tagline at the beginning. However, to my eyes, this was in NO WAY an HD telecast. I recorded it from two different PBS stations.

Since PBS went the way of a lower bitrate for HD I stopped watching. The PQ has suffered greatly, and it's kinda sad because PBS used to be the showcase for good looking HD material.

Discovery HD is the new and better PBS.

:D

"BROADWAY: THE AMERICAN MUSICAL is a new six-part documentary series that chronicles the Broadway musical throughout the 20th century and explores the evolution of this uniquely American art form. The series, created by filmmaker Michael Kantor, draws on a wealth of archival news footage, lost and found television moments, original cast recordings, still photos, feature films, diaries, journals, intimate first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in creating the American musical."

Watched about 1/2 of it so far, but so far I like what I see.

Today, my local PBS aired the program "Gettysburg and Stories of Valor." The program was introduced by the message "American Public Television presents the following program in High Definition."

However, the program was "clearly" in Standard Definition.

This is the second time within five days (see my 11/10/04 post above) that PBS falsely labeled an SD program as HD.

HAS ANYONE ELSE OBSERVED THIS? Does anyone else think it stinks?

PBS seems to be the only network that does not provide an HD/SD distinction in its program schedules. Apparently you can't even trust the information announced at the beginning of their broadcasts.

Well...I haven't watched a PBS program in months. What does that tell you?

;)

Last night's Nature: Shark Mountain was labeled as HD and appeared to be so.

In case anyone is subscribed to this thread, you might want to respond and/or keep an eye out for "Touching the Void" which PBS is broadcasting. Curious to see if it will be broadcast in HD anywhere...

Thread here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=470902

Originally posted by maximum360
Well...I haven't watched a PBS program in months. What does that tell you?

;)

Ummm, that you're a "red stater"? ;)

Originally posted by archiguy
Ummm, that you're a "red stater"? ;)

There are other reasons for not watching.

I'm very much a "blue stater" but, as I noted elsewhere in this thread,
I won't watch again till they stop using that obnoxious "PBS HD" logo
in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

FWIW (and probably off-topic), I consider PBS very much "red state" these
days, with lots of inoffensive, middle-brow programming, particularly at
beg-a-thon time. I stopped giving them money when they stopped challenging me, and started showing misty-eyed baby-boomer programming like the "Doo Wop" and Peter, Paul, and Mary concerts.

Noticed a show called Independent Lens: Los Angeles Now is scheduled for Tuesday 11/23 in HD, and of course Soundstage: George Jones is coming up next Thursday (Thanksgiving eve).

Forgive me if these aren't new broadcasts....I just started watching/monitoring PBS HD.

For Music Fans PBS will be showing the Crossroads Guitar Festival in HD on December 1st 2004. Titan TV has this airing at 8pm CST on KERADT in Dallas area. PBS has it listed as a national broadcast, but check local stations.

Great Performances

Eric Clapton: Crossroads Guitar Festival

"Eric Clapton: Crossroads Guitar Festival." Guitar luminaries join Clapton at Dallas' Cotton Bowl. Included: "Cocaine" (Clapton), "Love in Vain Blues" (Robert Lockwood Jr.), "Killing Floor" (Hubert Sumlin, Jimmie Vaughan, Robert Cray and Clapton), "Sweet Home Chicago" (Buddy Guy, Sumlin, Vaughan, Cray), "Six Strings Down" (Robert Randolph, Clapton, Vaughan, Cray), "Rock Me Baby" (B.B. King, Vaughan, Clapton, Guy), "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (Dan Tyminski), "Steamroller" (James Taylor, Joe Walsh). (2004)

A newspaper ad for PBS claims that tomorrow's broadcast of Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger is "in HDTV where available."

Let's hope so, and hope it has DD 5.1 sound.

I haven't watched anything on PBS for five months. This used to be my favorite network. :confused:

They are starting a new HD show apparently

Low Carb Cookworkz...

that sounds sooooo lame.

I want real cooking shows in HD!

Well, Die Meistersinger was in HD today but not with DD 5.1 sound.

PBS has done 5.1 before (e.g., recent Soundstage). The DVD of this same program (Metropolitan Opera, 2004) has DD5.1 and DTS 5.1 sound.

I'm disappointed.

Tomorrow starts a new season of Rudy Maxa's SmartTravels. It is one of my wife's favorites.

Rich N.

They're still running a show about HD every morning at 5 a.m. featuring Mr. Rogers and Julia Child. A tad outdated, isn't it?

Well, I searched and couldn't come up with a thread about the Newport Jazz Festival.

Saw it this afternoon OTA and was compelled to come here and blab about the PQ. It was everything that I love about HD. I'm talkin' damn near a window. Lots of color...great shots of the crowd. You could count all the people individually if you wanted to.

Don't know when it was shot, or how many times it's been on, but I recommend it highly.

P.S.....the music was good too. Great job PBS.

Also note that it did not have the PBS-HD logo...but it was clearly HD.;)


EDIT>>>OK, I have to add a little more....some close ups and interviews showed LOTS of detail in /on faces. Catch this if you can!!!!

Yes Newport looked great in HD.

I was stunned to see John Fogerty lin HD last night...unfortunately I caught it at the end before I could crank up the DVHS. THe PQ looked great.

I missed Fogerty myself.:( I'll keep my eye out for it again.

I caught the John Fogerty concert here in Houston and it looked and sounded great! Good to see the old timers still making great music!!

Newport Jazz Festival looked and sounded great! The last song with Herbie Hancock was incredible...Too many interviews and only an hour long. Still awsome!

I found a schedule online with shows appropriately tagged with HD/SD labels ...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=544591

I know someone previously mentioned that a new series of Rudy Maxa's Smart Travels has already started, but I just wanted to say that I've been watching the new episodes and they are as stunning as the first 3 seasons. If anyone has any interest in travel, these are a must.

7:30 Eastern time with a new show every week.

SMK

I know someone previously mentioned that a new series of Rudy Maxa's Smart Travels has already started, but I just wanted to say that I've been watching the new episodes and they are as stunning as the first 3 seasons. If anyone has any interest in travel, these are a must.

7:30 Eastern time with a new show every week.

SMKMy one beef with Rudy is that he spends too much of his show plugging individual hotels and shops which gave him some kind of deal. Still, it's one of the few shows that I find worth recording. And luckily, my local PBS station passes the feed straight through at full bit rate.

I just wish they would do reruns sometime so I could get the first 2.5 seasons I missed.

Soundstage: August 4, 18, 25, September 1st (skips August 11 for some reason)

How to Cook Everything: August 7

Walela Live in Concert: August 8. I did a Google to find out about this group: Walela, the Cherokee word for Hummingbird and the symbol of inspiration for this family of women singers. They are Rita Coolidge, her sister Priscilla Coolidge, and Priscilla's daughter Laura Satterfield.

Waters Journey: September 1.
(I think this is new but it sounds vaguely familiar)

A couple more Soundstage performances

Highlands Rediscovered

American Masters: Willa Cather: The Road Is All

American Masters: Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea

NOVA: Mystery of the Megaflood

Life and Times of Frida Kahlo

This topic sure has generated a lot of enthusiastic discussion and excitement lately, hasn't it? :rolleyes:

I just completed seeing the 13-part How to Cook Everything series. It's hard to believe this was high definition, but the normally reliable WVPT listings say it is. I suspect it was an HD transfer from low-quality (16mm?) film.

My wife and I enjoyed the series, and would recommend it to anyone interested in food and/or cooking.

The multiple sponsor "ads" at the beginning and end were annoying, as was the music soundtrack. Lots of delightful humor though.

My one beef with Rudy is that he spends too much of his show plugging individual hotels and shops which gave him some kind of deal. Still, it's one of the few shows that I find worth recording. And luckily, my local PBS station passes the feed straight through at full bit rate.

I just wish they would do reruns sometime so I could get the first 2.5 seasons I missed.

My wife loves Smart Travels so much that she bought the series. Not this year's series, all 3 of them (I think!) plus some bonus DVDs.

Yes, one of the problems with his and other shows is that you don't get a sense of how much all these places cost. "Expensive" is hardly definitive. I guess the establishments don't want their prices broadcast.

But it is visually stunning and Rudy does a good job.

Rich N.

Twelfth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

a couple more Soundstage concerts

Nova: Einstein's Big Idea

Small Fortunes: Micro credit and the Future of Poverty

Thanks for continuing to update this topic, DNeily

KQED in SF records and then plays later in the month various shows.
For instance, they don't air the John Fogerty soundstage until this weekend.

Does anyone know if Austin City Limits is coming back? Soundstage seems to be taylored to a different demographic.

The Atlanta PBS-HD OTA station started simulcasting 100% around the start of August. For a while I thought I had an equipment issue, but I emailed and asked what happened to the PBS-HD station and was told that PBS had started charging the local stations for it and they didn't have the budget to carry it anymore. Has this happened in any other markets?

[EDIT] It was August, not April.

The Atlanta PBS-HD OTA station started simulcasting 100% around the start of April. For a while I thought I had an equipment issue, but I emailed and asked what happened to the PBS-HD station and was told that PBS had started charging the local stations for it and they didn't have the budget to carry it anymore. Has this happened in any other markets?
I fear it's happened in Tulsa. I haven't tried calling them, hoping this would just "go away". For the last couple weeks, everytime I turn on PBS, it's four sub channels rather than one HD channel. It will take a little more time to figure out for sure, but I think they've gone to one night a week of HDTV, instead of 5 nights a week. If I'm really unlucky, they've cut out HD altogether, here in Tulsa.

If anyone knows how much PBS charges the locals for HDTV, I'd sure like to know. It might be possible to pay it ourselves. I'd be willing to pay $2000 a year for PBS-HD. At least for one more year, anyway.

Our Fiscal '06 HD fee was $15K.

Don't know about other markets.

Our Fiscal '06 HD fee was $15K.

Don't know about other markets.
Oh, god.

Was hoping it was a little cheaper than that. I guess my $2000 won't go far unless I can get others involved. Doubtful. Maybe I should try getting a job with PBS. Employee discount.;)

I'm gonna try contacting them...maybe they just came up short, rather than needing the whole amount.

Thanks for the info.. much appreciated,

I stopped giving them money when they stopped challenging me, and started showing misty-eyed baby-boomer programming like the "Doo Wop" and Peter, Paul, and Mary concerts.

Those, unfortunately, are the programs that bring in the money. The seniors are the most consistent members when it comes to donations, so pledge shows are catered to them.

[EDIT] It was August, not April.
This is when it seemed to start in Tulsa too.

If I've lost my PBS-HD, then I'll finally go with D* or E* and never look back at OTA again.:( Everyone else here multicasts with HDTV. Except for FOX but that's not enough to stay OTA only.

Looks like it's DiscoveryHD and/or HDnet for me.

EDIT>>>UPN doesn't multicast here either. Still no reason to stay OTA only, though nice to have.

The Atlanta PBS-HD OTA station started simulcasting 100% around the start of August. For a while I thought I had an equipment issue, but I emailed and asked what happened to the PBS-HD station and was told that PBS had started charging the local stations for it and they didn't have the budget to carry it anymore. Has this happened in any other markets?

[EDIT] It was August, not April.

here in NYC WNET-DT airs PBS-HD(national feed) on 13-1,simulcasts PBSKids on 13-2, & ThirteenWorld(news & docs-Mclaughlin,Charlie Rose. P.O.V, et. al.) on 13-3. i recall reading in another thread that revenues from PBSKids have been supporting PBS-HD but this is supposed to change the first of the year as PBSKids will be replaced by a new ch. i hope i'm wrong but this doesn't look good for local airing of HD. BTW even with multi-casting the HD PQ seems ok.

jim

I had PBS-HD national feed from TWC when I lived in San Antonio, and loved it. Now I live in D/FW and PBS-HD SUCKS! I't not available on E* (I have it), and I'm using OTA. It's SD, and I refuse to watch it as I'm so bitter. There's no going back.

Just a quick update..

I haven't heard back from my local PBS but I have gotten some info from a local HDTV website here in OK. According to some of the members, the Robert's hearings affected the HD broadcasts last week. Perhaps this lack of HDTV on some local PBS stations is temporary.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the most recent Soundstage concert. It featured Trisha Yearwood, Billy Currington, and Sugarland. I'm not a big Country music fan, but this program was outstanding, IMHO one of the best Soundstage concerts yet.

On the other hand, Independent Lens: Los Angeles Now was the biggest pile of horse dung I've ever witnessed on PBS. Your mileage may vary.

I guess I was unaware how lucky we are here in the Twin Cities (seperate channel just for PBSHD). Anyway, they showed a Nova special on the Scablands in Washington State in HD. First time I saw it. The picture was good for the most part, but there was still a little bit of pixelation.

-Suntan

Watch for Discovery HD Theater's programming on Friday nights:
[snip]
Although none of these shows are purely orchestral, it seems that Discovery HD is offering more classical music these days vis-a-vis PBS.

I still don't get any HD except OTA, so I can't directly confirm this, but HDNet apparently records a fair amount of fine arts programming for broadcast. They have a deal with the University of North Texas to record performances throughout the year -- mostly classical concerts, plus some jazz (I think). Might be worth looking for.

I had PBS-HD national feed from TWC when I lived in San Antonio, and loved it. Now I live in D/FW and PBS-HD SUCKS! I't not available on E* (I have it), and I'm using OTA. It's SD, and I refuse to watch it as I'm so bitter. There's no going back.

I kept wondering if I was just missing it -- years ago, I read rapturous comments about PBS-HD...and now that I've finally got my HDTV, on KERA 14-1 I see...a whole lot of crap. I actually watch a whole lot more CBS-HD than PBS-HD, which I would never have predicted.

Neither US satellite company carries it. However, you can get it 24/7 on Star Choice. Earlier this year, they were carrying WTVS-DT from Detroit. For the last several months, it's been on via WNED-DT in Buffalo. No idea why, but a week or so ago, they switched it back to the Detroit feed. No difference in schedule - same great quality.

Many US PBS affiliates stopped carrying it when they started charging for it (as much as $50K per year). The bigger markets run it for 10-12 hours in the evening, and resort to multicasting during the day.

They want more than that from some..

I'm getting pretty frustrated with PBS. There's the multi-casting issue which starves HD of bandwidth (multicasting 5, count 'em 5 subchannels). But more importantly, they seem to be losing their way; their reason for being in the first place. My local PBS station here in Charlotte recently announced that they were dropping Frontline, perhaps the most important show PBS does. Why? Because last year Frontline did an episode dealing with how large U.S. corporations evade taxes through elaborate shelters that skirt the very edges of legality while ethically reprehensible. One of the companies exposed was Wachovia, the banking giant based here in Charlotte, and a big corporate supporter of WTVI. Next thing you know, Frontline's not on their schedule next year. Outrageous. And Soundstage in HD? Forget it. They're showing BBC sitcom retreads and other similar fluff instead. I'm sick of it; they'll get no more contributions from this household, and I have told them why.

Are you serious, Frontline is the best show on PBS. Actually the best News magazine show on ANY station. Beats 60 minutes and 20/20.

Quite a few new programs in HD next month, some with interesting subjects:

A Cultivated Life: Thomas Jefferson and Wine

Rx for Survival: A Global Health Challenge

Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action

A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Nature: Can Animals Predict Disaster?

Dave Matthews Band, Weekend on the Rocks: A Soundstage Special Guest

Great Performances: Cream Reunion in Concert

Are you serious, Frontline is the best show on PBS.
No way. NOVA would be my choice.

Actually the best News magazine show on ANY station. Beats 60 minutes and 20/20.This I might agree with. But TV is a really crappy medium for presenting news of any type. That is, unlesss you are more interested in drama than information. With the explosion of alternative sources on the Internet, which I can get to with just a click, I can hardly bear to sit through a news show anymore. It's just so 20th century.

This problem goes well beyond the issue of bias, which is better left alone on avsforum.

This was a very good concert. The performance was not in the usual Soundstage venue, so the PQ wasn't quite as great (but still good). Audio was very good, including good use of the surround channels.

Martina can sure do Everly Brothers, and her signature song, Independence Day, really rocked the hall.

Martina is very easy on the eyes, which means in HD she is awesome.

I enjoyed it as well.

My local PBS seems to have dropped the four SD subs 3 nights a week. Now it's one HD channel, only. Been really nice turning on the TV every night and finding PBS-HD there.

And I agree, Martina is a pretty lady.

I just finished watching this gem of a nature program. I wasn't expecting much, partly because I thought that I'd already seen too many documentaries about sharks.

This is one of the best nature documentaries I've seen, rivaling the best on Discovery HD. The variety and behavior of aquatic life shown is amazing. It's not just about sharks.

The PQ and cinematography are excellent. The editing is expertly done.

I highly recommend to anyone interested in Nature documentaries.

Yep, another "I enjoyed it as well".

I liked those nightime underwater shots. VERY eerie. I can't recall having seen nightime underwater shots like that before. I really felt as if I was seeing something "new".

This was a very good concert. The performance was not in the usual Soundstage venue, so the PQ wasn't quite as great (but still good). Audio was very good, including good use of the surround channels.

Martina can sure do Everly Brothers, and her signature song, Independence Day, really rocked the hall.

Martina is very easy on the eyes, which means in HD she is awesome.

Agreed. Awesome voice, and a very attractive lady. A living national treasure.

Probably did not hurt to have her hubby doing the mixing.

Was able to catch Alison Krauss the other day. Don't recall if it was Soundstage or Austin City Limits. PQ was a bit iffy, similar to How to Cook Everything. SQ was good, though 2 channel only. I could listen to her sing all day.

I just discovered that the series Chefs Afield is in its second season. I don't recall anyone on this Forum mentioning this.

The first season was a favorite in my household. Highly recommended.

Alison Krauss / Kathleen Edwards was Austin City Limits and not HD, just PBS Widescreen.

Next week, KQED is showing a 6 hour series "Rx for Survival", each two hours. It has the HD tag both in TitanTV and on the HDTiVo.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/rxforsurvival/

I wasn't expecting much, partly because I thought that I'd already seen too many documentaries about sharks.


How can you see too many documentaries on sharks??? ;)

Anyway, yes I agree it was nice nature eye candy. Even better than my previous eye candy benchmark from PBS-HD (Violent Hawaii).

-Suntan

I guess I must be the only one watching "Rx for Survival". While there are some upconverts, the majority is HD. Thanks again, WGBH.

I guess I must be the only one watching "Rx for Survival". While there are some upconverts, the majority is HD. Thanks again, WGBH.

I just finished watching the first four hours. Great stuff! Extremely important subject about the fate of millions (billions?) throughout the world. Everyone should see it, but of course, few will.

Brad Pitt is an excellent narrator.

This program is largely funded by Bill Gates and his wife.

I've also seen the first half of the other new program this week, Thomas Jefferson: A Cultivated Life. It is much less impressive ... more sleep inducing than a bottle of wine.

Inside Passage

Nature: Encountering Sea Monsters

Great Performances: The Nightingale

Window to the Sea

St. Olaf Christmas in Norway

* * *

PBS aired a Morman Tabernacle Choir special last Christmas. It was wonderful. The following may be a repeat or may be a new program:

Christmas with the Morman Tabernacle Choir featuring Audra McDonald

Here in Denver last time I checked (havent paid much attention lately), the main PBS channel, KRMA, simulcasts their analog programming from 6 am to 6 pm to satisfy that requirement and then switches over to the National PBS HD feed for the other 12 hours.

They arent running any subchannels so the quality is good but every time I tune to it in the evenings it's most always something I've already seen or otherwise not interested in. Which is why I havent tuned in much at all lately as I said and why the 12/12 scenario I mentioned above may not exactly be accurate these days. Maybe it's 15/9 anymore, who knows. ;)

Which is why the satellite providers should pick up the national HD feed and run it 24/7. Sure, there are repeats, but you'll be able to get shows more on your schedule, instead of the 10 or 12-hour plans of those PBS stations who are still willing to pay for the national HD feed.

But don't hold your breath for D* or E* to pick up the HD feed. They probably have a pact that neither will succumb to the tempation. Your only option is to pick up either Star Choice or Bell ExpressVu. It is part of their HD packages, and, like the other US HD network feeds, it doesn't matter where you live.

Rick Steves' Europe (finally in HD !!)

Newport Jazz Festival 2005 (I think this is a new show)

It's a Big, Big World (a kids show ?)

NOVA: Mummy Who Would Be King

NOVA: Denali

Nature: Life in Death Valley

Nature: Oceans in Glass: Behind the Scenes of the Monteray Bay Aquarium

Utah: The National Parks

Canteen Spirit

Inside Passage

Nature: Encountering Sea Monsters

Great Performances: The Nightingale

Window to the Sea

St. Olaf Christmas in Norway

* * *

PBS aired a Morman Tabernacle Choir special last Christmas. It was wonderful. The following may be a repeat or may be a new program:

Christmas with the Morman Tabernacle Choir featuring Audra McDonald
Somewhat off thread topic, but I felt compelled to comment that this season's MTC program paled in comparison to last year's. Audra McDonald is beautiful and has an awesome voice but last year's show was one of the best Christmas concerts I have ever seen.

Agreed, VTHokie.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are times to wish the BYU channel was in HD.

The St. Olaf concert was definitely not in HD, although PBS said it was in their intro. It was a wonderful concert, but I also wish it had DD 5.1 like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert and the Nightingale telecasts.

Fire and Ice

On Detour with Manny Farber

Remember Earth: New Mexico's High Desert

Great Performances: Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation Live at Abbey Road :)

Thanks for keeping this topic updated, dneily...

Me too...

Say, did anyone see both parts of the BBC Last Day of the Proms 2005 on Christmas Day?

I enjoyed the Newport Jazz Festival...

Sweet Tornado: Margo Jones and the American Theater

Daisy Cooks! with Daisy Martinez

Walking the Bible

Tim Janis: Coastal America (sequel to Tim Janis: Beautiful America)

Exploring Space: The Quest for Life (2 hours)

Nature: Queen of Trees (DD 5.1?)

Is History Dectectives still in HD?

I hadn't watched it in a while, but it used to look WAY better. The new episodes have much more footage that's very fuzzy and doesn't appear to be HD, though it is widescreen.

anyone know when newport jazz will be rebroadcast?

anyone know when newport jazz will be rebroadcast?
Checking the local affiliate's HD schedule (which is exactly the same as the national schedule), I find no airings as far into the future as their schedule goes (until 3/31).

I caught one of the airings in January (I think it was on about 8 times), and it was TASTY -- great music, and spectacular picture, including many panoramic views of the water....

Is History Dectectives still in HD?


It never was in HD.

anyone know when newport jazz will be rebroadcast?

They never rebroadcasted the previous year's newport jazz (which had better performances IMHO) so I doubt they'll rebroadcast this years.

Legends of Jazz with Ramsey Lewis

Encore! with James Conlon

Evelyn Cameron: Pictures from a Worthy Life

Smart Travels: Pacific Rim (new season ... new hemisphere !!)

Jean-Michel Cousteau Ocean Adventures

The Greatest Good

A profile of the French Post-Impressionist painter. Included: his development of multiple perspective; his relationship with writer Emile Zola; his life in Paris as a young artist. Also: interviews with descendants, art historians and artists. Granted that this is locally produced on DC PBS station WETA and premieres Thursday, March 2, at 8 pm, I assume it will show up on PBS national sooner or later.

Are you serious, Frontline is the best show on PBS. Actually the best News magazine show on ANY station. Beats 60 minutes and 20/20.

That's because they have 60 Minutes best producer.

Is there a link for PBS HD's schedule?

Is there a link for PBS HD's schedule?

Thanks to AVS members umenon and dneily for keeping this WVPT link alive:http://www.wvpt.net/schedules/schedule.html

Granted that this is locally produced on DC PBS station WETA and premieres Thursday, March 2, at 8 pm, I assume it will show up on PBS national sooner or later.

Billodom: Great find! This is not yet on WETA's schedule, but I found it on their web page with "Upcoming Productions": http://www.weta.org/tv/productions/

Thanks to AVS members umenon and dneily for keeping this WVPT link alive:http://www.wvpt.net/schedules/schedule.html

Thank you.

I just deleted Alaska's Gold Rush Train from the For March 2006 list. I just watched it. Not only did it look SD, but it was preceded by the message "The following program is in Widescreen."

I also deleted Inside the Animal Mind: A Nature Miniseries from the For March 2006 list for the same reasons. I just watched it. It looked SD, and was preceded by the message "The following program is in Widescreen."

I can confirm that both Sweet Tornado and Daisy Cooks are HD.

Wild River: The Colorado
Damrell's Fire
Lincoln and Lee at Antietam - The Cost of Freedom
Sheryl Crow: Wildflower: A Soundstage Special
Katie Brown Workshop
Billie Graham: God's Ambassador
Cut from a Different Cloth: Burqas and Belief

A new music show, Encore! is on late Sunday night

Metropolitan Opera Presents: The Met Salutes Joseph Volpe (3 hrs.)

Design: e2 (30 mins. each: The Green Apple, Green for All, The Green Machine, Grey to Green, China: From Red to Green)

Deacon John's Jump Blues (1 hr.)

Power of Harmony (1 hr.)

Dance in America: Beyond the Steps: Alvin Alley American Dance Theater (1 hr.)

Soundstage: Robert Plant and the Strange Sensation (Season 4 begins !!)

I don't think it was very new, but I watched several of the Windsor Castle documentaries and found them very fascinating. Picture quality seemed typical BBC SD Widescreen, but it was still a lot of fun to watch.

I hope some of you saw last night's 3-hour Metropolitan Opera gala. In DD 5.1 !

For July 2006:

Great Performances: A Prairie Home Companion from Tanglewood

Niagara Falls (this may be a repeat)

four Soundstage concerts (in order: Garbage, Bill Laswell: AXIOM SOUND SYSTEM??, The All American Rejects and The Fountains of Wayne, Cassandra Wilson with T-Bone Burnett)

two Jean-Michel Cousteau: Ocean Adventures (Sharks at Risk, Gray Whale Obstacle Course)

I thought the Metropolitan Opera PQ was just okay. Some shots were soft...some decent.

I had my HDTV installed on friday so I could catch that. Only to learn right before the broadcast that I cant get PBS in HD in Sonoma via MPEG4 and have to install an antenna. And the only reason I got the MPEG4 HD Decoder was to avoid the antenna. Arg.

I removed The Blitz: London's Longest Night from the June 06 list. It is an SD widescreen program.

This is not yet on WETA's schedule, but I found it on their web page with "Upcoming Productions": http://www.weta.org/tv/productions/

Premieres on PBS National Friday, July 31 at 10 PM EDT.

Note that Bruce Springsteen Great Performances is on next week...

My cable system is showing this on the analog PBS Sd channel...not on the HD channel. If it is HD...can't see why they would do this :(

Great Performances: Dance in America: Jewels from the Paris Opera Ballet (DD 5.1)

Adventure Lodges of North America: Canadian Adventure Lodges

last Soundstage concert of the season (DD 5.1)

Frank Lloyd Wright's Buffalo

American Creole: New Orleans Reunion (DD 5.1)

Expo: Magic of the White City (about the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago)

Great Performances: Vienna State Opera: 50th Anniversary Reopening

Great Performances: Salzburg Mozart Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic

J-M Cousteau: Ocean Adventures: America's Underwater Treasure (2 parts)

Great Museums: Year of the Museum Specials (2 parts in September)

NOVA: Mystery of the Megavolcano (not Megaflood this time)

Cincinnati Pops: Take Me to the River

Was the Barry Manilow special (that won an Emmy) broadcast in HD? And if so will and when it be broadcast again? Thanks.

(snip)
Great Museums: Year of the Museum Specials (2 parts in September)
(snip)


I work for the company that produces the "Great Museums" series, which is broadcast in HD on most PBS stations.

We've just delivered three new episodes; "Baseball Hall of Fame," which will air in October, "Boston Children's Museum," and "Walker Art Center."

Another episode which is currently airing around the country is "Riches, Rivals and Radicals: The History of Museums in America." You might also still be able to see recent episodes on the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

For the past three years, all our programs were shot and produced in HD; a few PBS stations still air them in SD, sadly. Check your local listings.

For information about other episodes in the "Great Museums" series, here's our website: http://www.greatmuseums.org/abouttheseries.html

Cincinnati Pops: Take Me to the River is in DD 5.1 as well.

"Adventure Lodges of North America: United States Adventure Lodges" broadcast on KCTS HD Seattle on Wednesday September 6

Gorgeous scenery in spectular HDTV!

In theory, "American Masters: Sketches of Frank Gehry" will be shown on the 27th. I'm looking forward to that one.

In theory, "American Masters: Sketches of Frank Gehry" will be shown on the 27th. I'm looking forward to that one.

According to PBS, this is an upconvert, not HD.

I posted about 6 months back that the new headquarters for PBS in Boston is brand new state of art and will be doing there shows in HD when they open this winter or early spring.

Great Performances: Carnegie Hall Opening Night

Buffett and Gates Go Back to School

They should at least UPDATE the Digital TV thing they vshow EVERY DAY at 5am Eastern.

Great Performances: Carnegie Hall Opening Night

That's interesting. Watched and enjoyed the Mozart and Beethoven live at 480i this week, but wondered what it would take for HD. From this, it appears it's the cost of a live production versus HD taping the concert for later HD playback. -- John

NOVA: Monster of the Milky Way

Keeping Score: Beethoven's Eroica

Lindy Boggs: Steel and Velvet

NOVA: Wings of Madness

New York City Ballet: Bringing Balanchine Back

NOVA: Family That Walks on All Fours

Nature: Christmas in Yellowstone

Great Museums: Year of the Museums Specials (3 shows):

National Baseball Hall of Fame: Home Base

Walker Art Center: Creative Catalyst

Boston Children's Museum: Mind Over Matter

Kennedy Center Presents: Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Featuring Neil Simon

Live from the Seminole Hard Rock Featuring James Blunt with Special Guests The Fray

Thanks, DNeily!

Sing We Now of Christmas

Great Performances: Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival (2 hours)

Mystery of Love (2 hours)

Picturing Mary

Sweetwater Rescue: The Willie and Martin Handcart Story

Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Featuring Renee Fleming and Claire Bloom

Great Performances: Renee Fleming: Sacred Songs and Carols

One Symphony Place - A World Premiere from Music City (HD-Short ??)

O Come All Ye Faithful: Concordia College Christmas

Great Performances: Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion New Year's Eve (3 hours!)

Jazz for Young People: What is New Orleans Jazz?

Out of interest - was the BBC production of Bleak House - which I believe was a a co-production with PBS - aired in HD? (It was unusual in the UK as it was aired in 30 minute episodes - in a similar manner to Dickens publishing his novels as short episodic form)

A lot of BBC costume drama is often co-produced with WGBH Boston - but Bleak House was the first major BBC HD costume drama I can remember (since The Ginger Tree in 1989 - which was an analogue 1035/60i BBC/NHK drama starring a British woman - Samantha Bond (Moneypenny in the recent Bond films) living in Japan. In fact ISTR that The Ginger Tree was also a WGBH co-pro!)

I have a feeling the more recent Jane Eyre adaptation (again a WGBH co-pro ISTR) may have been SD - as it wasn't shown on BBC HD.

I removed Capturing the Killer Croc from the November 06 schedule. The show was in Widescreen SD, not HD.

Can anyone confirm that they don't re-air their Great Performances episodes?

I missed the Chaos and Creation episode with Paul McCartney back in February (due to timing problems with my D-VHS deck), and I've been looking for it to come back around ever since. But now that I think about it, I can't recall ever seeing any of the episodes air more than once.

- Tim

Can anyone confirm that they don't re-air their Great Performances episodes?

I missed the Chaos and Creation episode with Paul McCartney back in February (due to timing problems with my D-VHS deck), and I've been looking for it to come back around ever since. But now that I think about it, I can't recall ever seeing any of the episodes air more than once.

- Tim

My local PBS station telecast this program yesterday afternoon.

repeats? Depends on your local station.

> My local PBS station telecast this program yesterday afternoon. <

Thanks. So it is possible, if you have a decent local affiliate. I guess that leaves me out in the cold, since they haven't run any new OR old Great Performances for weeks, and none are scheduled for the next 2 weeks of lookahead I have available. :(

Hopefully, they won't screw up the Clapton Festival in December.

- Tim

American Experience: The Alaska Pipeline

Science RFP Pilots (2 episodes):
Science Investigators
22nd Century

China from the Inside (4 episodes):
Power and the People
Women of the Country
Shifting Nature
Freedom and Justice

Soundstage (3 shows this month):
Rob Thomas
New York Dolls
Lee Ann Womack

Independent Lens: Beyond the Call

America's Ballroom Challenge

Metropolitan Opera (begins !!!): Mozart's Magic Flute

I made a couple of changes to the December 2006 schedule.

I added "Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Featuring Renee Fleming and Claire Bloom"

Yep. Renee Fleming again, and with good reason !!

Also, PBS has labeled "One Symphony Place" as "HD-Short." We shall see if this is anything less than true 1080i.

At Close Range with National Geographic

9th Annual Sphinx Competition

Independent Lens: Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life (1-1/2 hrs.)

NOVA: Forgotten Genius (2 hrs.)

Soundstage: Peter Frampton, Jewel, one TBD, Tom Petty

Nature: Supersize Crocs

Hidden Epidemic: Heart Disease in America (2 hrs.)

Great Performances at the Met: I Puritani (3 hrs. - yes!!)

Nature: Raptor Force

The Marines (1-1/2 hrs.)

Ted Kooser's Poetic World (30 mins.)

during the last week of February, the following 30-minute programs in the afternoon (not all PBS stations broadcast HD in the afternoon):

Media in the Middle East
The Climate Change Debate
A New Beginning? The Future of U.S.-Mexico Relations
Crossing Borders: A Look at International Migration

As in past years, this program is a feast for eyes and ears! Produced in the Mormon's state of the art facility, it is a sterling example of High Definition, sound and camera work. My favorite is the 2004 concert with Frederica von Stade and Bryn Terfel, but this year's one is awesome as well.

Some of the best High Definition you will see!

My local PBS channel (WTTW-Chicago) has been advertising Max TV (or something like that) starting January 1. They appear to be IMax programs that will be aired in HD with 5.1 sound. But, I don't see anything on the January list that seems to match this. Is this just a Chicago (or limited market) thing?


Mitch

It's a Chicago thing.

Recently watched "Queen of Trees" on PBS ... outstanding HDTV picture quality. The macro HD was awesome!

Star Choice ... channel 288 (PBS Detroit)

I deleted Sleeping Monsters, Sacred Fires: Volcanos of New Mexico from the January list. The show was SD and the PQ was terrible.

Washing Away

Music Farmers DD 5.1

Grannies on Safari (four 30-minute installments)

Great Performances: A Tribute to James Taylor (90 minutes, DD 5.1) - This might be the MusiCares Person of the Year tribute released on HD-DVD.

Through Deaf Eyes (2 hours)

Great Performances: Barenboim on Beethoven (2 hours)

Good to Great

Rick Steves' Europe - new season !!:
401. (HD) England's Bath and York
402. (HD) North Wales
403. (HD) Edinburgh
404. (HD) Naples and Pompeii
405. (HD) Italy's Amalfi Coast
406. (HD) Milan and Lake Como
407. (HD) Tuscany's Dolce Vita
408. (HD) Italy's Great Hill Towns
409. (HD) Vienna
410. (HD) Salzburg and Surroundings
411. (HD) Special Episode: The Making of Rick Steves' Europe

Quartetto Gelato -- A Concert in Wine Country

Frontline/World: News Wars

The Boomer Century 1946- (2 hours, DD 5.1)

America's Lost Landscape: The Tailgrass Prairie

A Wayfarer's Journey: Listening to Mahler (90 mins.)

Masterpiece Theatre: The Wind in the Willows (90 mins.) (MP in HD ... a rarity !!)

Frontline/World: Afghanistan: The Other War

Fat: What No One Is Telling You (2 hrs.)

Take One Step for Your Health

The Hidden Child

Great Performances at the Met: Eugene Onegin (3 hrs.)

Nature: Dogs that Changed the World
..............Part One: Rise of the Dog
..............Part Two: Dogs by Design

NOVA: Saved by the Sun

Albert Paley: In Search of The Sentinel

Everyday Edisons: The Journey Begins

The Mormons

*************************
In April, the feature-length documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room will air for the first time on PBS, although it's been shown many times on HD-Net (and available on high def disks). The PBS broadcast will be presented as part of the "Independent Lens" series.

...

Nature: Dogs that Changed the World
..............Part One: Rise of the Dog
..............Part Two: Dogs by Design

....

The Mormons

.....

Are you sure these shows are new? They sound like shows that I've already seen.

Are you sure these shows are new? They sound like shows that I've already seen.


You may be thinking of the 2004 NOVA production "Dogs and More Dogs" which has seen time in the national schedule as recently as: Jan, Nov, & Dec 2006. Or perhaps Nature's "Extraordinary Dogs" (produced in 1997) which most recently ran in Jul 2006. "Dogs that Changed the World" is new.

"The Mormons" is also new. It's a four-hour documentary presented as a co-production between American Experience and Frontline.

on Channel Thirteen/NY HD, the Enron documentary schedule follows below:

http://www.thirteen.org/watchHD/search_results.php?start_date=2007-03-15&end_date=2007-04-30&key_words=enron&sort_by=date_time&submit=search

First airing on Tuesday, April 24th, at 10:00pm EDT

That Oscar-nominated Enron documentary is the Mark Cuban (Magnolia/HDNet Films) produced film that first aired on HDNet in 2005 and is hardly a "first airing".

fredfa, I meant first airing on 13 HD. In fact, as a Comcast subscriber, it's a first airing for me, until the day that the Moon and Sun alignments are correct and Mark Cuban and the Roberts come to an agreement and HDNet is added to Comcast lineup.

I removed Ireland: The Roads Taken with Tommy Makem from the March schedule. It was widescreen SD ... not HD. The Emerald Isle never looked so bad.

Dances of Life

American Masters: The House that Ahmet Built (2 hrs.)

Everyday Edisons - 3 new episodes (30 m. each):
Patents and Pitfalls
Making the Cut
What's in a Name?

Monumental Reflections (about St. Louis' Gateway Arch) (30 m)

NOVA: Samurai Sword

Secret Files of the Inquisition - 4 episodes:
Root Out Heretics
The Tears of Spain
The War on Ideas
The End of Inquisition

Road to the National ?? (30 m)

Great Performances at the Met: The Barber of Seville (3 hrs.)

Craft in America - 3 episodes:
Memory
Landscape
Community

Desert Speaks - 17th Season begins ! (added June 25 ... sorry for being late)

I hope this isn't a trend. Two PBS HD broadcasts last week had horrible picture quality: America's Lost Landscape and A Wayfarer's Journey: Listening to Mahler.

Both were preceeded by the usual PBS "HD" announcement. In each program, only about 10% of the content looked like 1080i. Portions of the Mahler program with narrator Richard Dreyfus looked to be soft-focus ... maybe to soften his age lines?

It's a shame, since both programs were quite interesting. However, the poor PQ was a major distraction for those viewers accustomed to better HD.

Nebraska's NET produced an hour long documentary on the Sandhill Crane "Crane Song", which aired locally this spring. It is an HD production which, I thought, was of very high quality.

A preview has been posted on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C77NLSiU-o

I hope PBS national picks this up so others can enjoy it. I love my NET having HD production capabilities and I hope they get some of their content on the national channel.

I've removed Washing Away from last month's list. It was telecast in Widescreen SD, not HD.Washing Away was HD. I watched it being cut. In fact, I had the incredibly exciting task of doing some dubs of the field tapes for the producer.

It was shot mostly 720p/24 on a Varicam, intermixed with 1080i/60i HDCAM and onlined with an Avid Media Composer HD.

I just realized that Nature: Encountering Sea Monsters was first broadcast in HD in December 2005. I removed it from the April 2007 list (since it's not "truly new").

Six Days in June (2 hrs.)

Wall of Separation

Great Performances: We Love Ella! A Tribute to the First Lady of Song (90 m.)

Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe (series ... 4 episodes in June)

Endless Feast (series ... 3 episodes in June)

America at the Crossroads: Kansas to Kandahar (90 m.)

Soundstage: Rob Thomas

Great Performances at the Met: Il Trittico

Frontline: The Endgame

Great Performances: Sting : Songs from the Labyrinth

Kid Fitness (series ... two episodes in June)

NOVA: The Great Inca Rebellion

Frontline/World

Paul Simon: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Music

Chef's Afield: Kids on the Farm

Horses of Gettysburg

... plus concluding episodes of:

Rick Steves' Europe, Season 4

Grannies on Safari

Everyday Edisons

I'm told by Lance Ozier, VP at WGBH in Boston, that "Antiques Roadshow" will be shooting this summer in HD and after its new season begins in January it will be in HD.

Well, I saw those new dog shows. What a disappointment. All they did was repackage all the stuff they said in the previous shows.

I'm told by Lance Ozier, VP at WGBH in Boston, that "Antiques Roadshow" will be shooting this summer in HD and after its new season begins in January it will be in HD.

BTW, Fred, do you konw anyone who takes AR seriously? I watched a couple of times and it seems totally phony to me. People who sound genuinely surprised when their item receives a high estimate - "I had no idea! "

Yeah, right.

The June schedule above includes the beginnings of two new 13-part series:

THE ENDLESS FEAST looks similar to Chefs Afield.


#101 "Whistler"
Chef Grant Cousar's holds his French-inspired feast of beef carpaccio canapés, roast corn and potato vichyssoise, locally raised beef with roasted beet jus, and hazelnut meringue with fresh berries and cream, in the majestic mountains of Whistler, British Columbia.

#102 "Portland"
For an island dinner just outside of Portland, Oregon, chefs John Gorham, Ben Dyer and Scott Dolich craft a meal of frogmore seafood stew and pasture-raised goat.

#103 "Brooklyn"
Chef Laurent Saillard incorporates seasonal vegetables like collard greens, kale and sweet potatoes from a Brooklyn, New York community garden into his autumn feast.

#104 "Vermont"
On a homestead in the mountains of southern Vermont, Chef Jason Tostrup incorporates meat and produce from four farms and a cider mill to create a meal of tomato tarts, quail, beef, lamb and locally made cider syrup.

#105 "Phoenix"
With saguaro cactus and a striking mesa as a backdrop, a desert feast held on Yavapai Nation land near Phoenix, Arizona, features dry-climate fare such as prickly pear margaritas, fresh dates and guarijio squash.

#106 "Virginia"
Chef Gail Hobbs' five-course meal of locally raised rabbit, chicken and pork, hand-crafted goat cheese and fresh-picked produce and raw honey takes in a lush vineyard in Virginia's Hickory Creek Valley.

#107 "New Hampshire"
Under the boughs of fruit trees at New Hampshire's Gould Hill Orchard, Chef Andrew Gruel creates a meal of venison, trout and produce gathered from seven local farms and a dairy.

#108 "Vancouver"
Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, a picturesque dairy in the foothills of Vancouver Island's Mount Arrowsmith, is the perfect site for Chef Ronald St. Pierre's delectable meal of locally raised pork, fresh-picked wild blackberries, seasonal greens and, of course, hand-made cheeses.

#109 "Petaluma"
A "full moon feast" held on a ranch in Northern California features beef raised on-site, winter squash and roasted beets, prepared by Chef Kelsie Kerr of famed Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, California.

#110 "Sherwood"
At Baggenstos Farm, a third-generation family farm located in the verdant hills of Sherwood, Oregon, chefs David Machado and Vitaly Paley serve an Indian-influenced six-course feast, including samosas, curried corn bisque and braised lamb.

#111 "Arroyo Grande"
A central California feast highlights local seafood, lamb and pork served in a pasture amid the rolling hills of Arroyo Grande.

#112 "Massachusetts"
On a small-town farm in Massachusetts, Chef Michael Leviton crafts a fall harvest supper featuring root vegetables, autumn squash, oatmeal stout-braised Angus beef and seared sea scallops.

#113 "Carpinteria"
A California coastal feast on the Coleman family farm in Carpinteria, prepared by chef Remi Lauvand, features sustainably caught black cod, fresh herbs and local heirloom tomatoes.

--------------------------------------------------

TRAVELS TO THE EDGE WITH ART WOLFE looks similar to At Close Range. This may be a source of some good HD demo material!:


Bolivia: The Altiplano (101)
Art journeys to one of the earth's most extreme environments—the high, rugged and remote Altiplano. More lunar than earthly in appearance, Bolivia's high plain is a land lost in time. The Altiplano's dazzling dreamscapes include the world's largest salt flat, an island of golden cactus, scarlet-tinted lakes, twin volcanoes and surreal skies.

Alaska: Glacier Bay (102)
The beautiful, protected waters in southeast Alaska are filled with islands and bays rich with wildlife. The concentration of diversity in this secluded environment is remarkable. Art goes by boat on a voyage of discovery, encountering dramatic calving glaciers and Sitka spruce forests, breaching orcas and migrating humpbacks, eagles and barnacle-eating bears.

Patagonia: Torres del Paine (103)
Torres del Paine National Park in the far southern Andes of Patagonia is remote and challenging. For adventurers it's the "edge" destination. Art's images tell a story of nature at its wildest – of a place where jagged peaks scrape the sky, icebergs catch the light, guanacos watch for pumas and Andean condors rule the skies.

Alaska: Katmai Coast (104)
The remote Katmai Coast is the largest intact stretch of uninhabited coastline left in North America. Art takes advantage of the long days of Alaska's short summer in Katmai National Park, spending time with the largest population of grizzly bears in the world. Joined by bear biologists, he gets up close and personal with Ursus arctos to provide a fresh look at the behavior of these powerful predators in the wild.

Africa: Madagascar (105)
Eighty million years ago, Madagascar split off from Africa. Separated from the mainland, the sturdy and lucky creatures that reached Madagascar's shores intact took off on a wild and bizarre evolutionary journey. Art documents Madagascar's most famous inhabitants: it's a who's who of the weird and wonderful, including dancing sifakas, rainbow-colored chameleons, a forest of upside-down trees and a spiny desert.

Alaska: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (106)
America's Serengeti? Wilderness or wasteland? Art rafts down the icy Kongakut River to document America's last pure and untamed wilderness. He chronicles the desolate, yet abundant beauty of the tundra and the rugged landscapes of the Brooks Range. He turns his lens on the delicate birds and animals for which the Refuge is a vital habitat and intersects the great Porcupine caribou herd on its annual migration to the coastal plain.

Peru: Manu (107)
It's a place where clouds conceal rare birds, animals blend into the forest, predators hide in the shadows and native peoples are disappearing. Manu, in southern Peru, belongs to the largest area of protected rain forest in the Amazon. Art goes downriver and encounters spectacular birds, animals and peoples of the Amazon, who together are struggling to survive.

Kenya: Masai Mara and Laikipia (108)
East Africa is a vast stage on which the circular, never-ending journey known as the Great Migration has played out for millions of years. After going eye to eye with thousands of wildebeest and zebra, Art enlists an old friend and bush pilot to help him capture aerial patterns of migrating herds and flocks of flamingos. On the ground, he pursues giraffe on horseback and tracks rhino on foot.

Patagonia: Mt. Fitz Roy (109)
Rugged Patagonia offers Himalayan-quality drama in a small package. Just above El Chalten, South America's unofficial trekking capital, rises the jagged silhouette of Mt. Fitz Roy – revered and iconic in the world of mountaineering and photographed thousands of times. Art sets off in search of a different view of the peak. En route, he treks through an ancient forest, fords an icy river, goes under a glacier and traverses one of the largest ice caps in the world.

The Southwest: Zion and Canyon de Chelly (110)
The American Southwest is a geological time capsule. Its bizarre and beautiful rock formations are the result of eons of erosion. In Utah's Zion National Park, Art explores surreal slot canyons carved from wind and water and encounters the strange rock spires—hoodoos—that punctuate the landscape like giant exclamation points. In Arizona's Canyon de Chelly, he goes by horseback with a Navajo guide to discover petroglyphs hidden in tribal lands. With its brilliant light, red desert rock, cobalt blue skies, golden cottonwoods and white-barked aspens, the American Southwest is a photographer's playground.

India: Allahabad and Varanasi (111)
Allahabad and Varanasi are India's holiest river cities. Allahabad hosts the largest religious gathering on the planet at the confluence of its sacred rivers. Art joins nearly 20 million pilgrims for a dip in the Ganges and captures images of Hindu holy men who have renounced all worldly pursuits. Downstream, in ancient Varanasi, the sacred and the ordinary meet in a swirl of color, fire and ritual. Hindus strive to visit this spiritual epicenter at least once in their lives to bathe in the Ganges and cleanse their karma.

The Southern Ocean: South Georgia Island (112)
Lying between wind-ravaged Cape Horn and Antarctica, South Georgia Island is an icy oasis with an abundance of wildlife. Stunningly beautiful and rugged, this island sanctuary protects thousands of sea birds and marine mammals. Art returns to his favorite place on earth to explore its emerald bays and fjords and visit colonies of king penguins, wandering albatross and elephant seals.

Ethiopia: The Omo Valley (113)
Ethiopia is like no other place in Africa. Some of the isolated animist tribes who have lived there for centuries are still unaware that they reside in a country called Ethiopia. In this episode, Art ventures into the Omo Valley, Ethiopia's nearly inaccessible and richest tribal zone. After enduring muddy, impassable roads and swollen rivers, he makes his way to the Hamer, Karo and remote Surma tribes. He documents the tribes' unique body painting, elaborate adornments and timeless ceremonies.

Horses of Gettysburg

PBS Previews The War - A Ken Burns Film

Desert Wars: Water and the West

A Capitol Fourth (the annual live Independence Day concert)

Soundstage:

Macy Gray
Dashboard Confessional - live from Madison Square Garden
Jewel from the Rialto Square Theater (this concert is different from Jewel's other Soundstage concert from the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas)

Golden Game: Baseball in Sacramento

Synchronized Swimming: The Pursuit of Excellence

Ferrets: The Pursuit of Excellence

Hairworld: The Pursuit of Excellence

American Masters: Les Paul: Chasing Sound

American Masters: John James Audibon: Drawn from Nature

Rochester International Jazz Festival

POV: The Chances of Changing the World

POV: Following Sean

Anatomy of a Hurricane

Do Not Go Gently

plus new episodes of ...

Chefs Afield: Kids on the Farm

Kid Fitness

Everyday Edisons

Travels to the Edge With Art Wolfe

Desert Speaks

I just discovered that a new season of Desert Speaks started in May. This is the 17th season !! I think the series began broadcasting in HD at the 12th season. Sorry for the late information. Undoubtedly there will be repeats of shows you might have missed (perhaps they'll appear on HDNet and Discovery HD as well).

Here are the 17th season episodes:

1713 Argentina: Ancient Patagonia People
1712 Patagonia's Glacial Landscape
1711 Sonora's Forgotten River
1710 Ageless Mud: Adobe Homes in the Desert
1709 Sierra Madre Easter
1708 Hummingbirds: From Desert to Jungle
1707 Ecuador's Fog Forest: Mists Over the Desert
1706 On the Road to Cajamarca
1705 Palms in the Desert
1704 Magical Michoacán
1703 Passions of the Pitaya
1702 Tequila: Exploring the Legend
1701 Exploring Arizona's Big Empty

To Market To Market to Buy a Fat Pig

Independent Lens: Revolucion: Five Visions

Best Recipies in the World with Mark Bittman (new series)

Sceneca Ray Stoddard: An American Original

Plein Air: Painting the American Landscape (new series): episodes in August:
Denali
Tongass Rain Forest
The Kenai
Cape Cod

Zula Patrol (new kids(?) series)

Cities of Light: Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain

Great Performances: Nureyev: The Russian Years (90 mins.)

Word World (kids educational series?)

Lords of the Gourd: Pursuit of Excellence

American Masters: Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends

Breaking the Curse with Daryn Kagan

Dave Koz at the Movies

Seeing in the Dark

American Masters: Orozoo: Man of Fire

Richard Bangs' Adventures with a Purpose "Egypt: Quest for the Lord of the Nile"

Taste of Louisiana with Chef John Folse: Our Food Heritage (series)

The War, A Film by Ken Burns (shown on consecutive nights):
A Necessary War (2-1/2 hours)
When Things Get Tough (2 hours)
A Deadly Calling (2 hours)
Pride of Our Nation (2-1/2 hours)
FUBAR (2 hours)

Brown is the New Green: George Lopez $ the American Dream

I just found out that Ken Burns new film "The War," as noted above, will be in HD. This is awesome. His "Civil War" was one of the best shows ever put on TV. I urge everyone to watch. It begins on Sunday, Sept 23, on PBS.

SMK

Great news. I'm really looking forward to "The War".

Great news. I'm really looking forward to "The War".

Guys: This is not news. Look at message #188. Check this space every month for a heads up on all that is HD on PBS.

Guys: This is not news. Look at message #188. Check this space every month for a heads up on all that is HD on PBS.
It's news to me. It's the first time I've heard or seen it. What can I say, I'm a little behind the curve.

Wired Science (series)

Turning the Tide

Inside (series). October episodes are:
Hong Kong's Big Bang
FIFA Club Championship
Speed Week
Battle of the Wines

Austin City Limits (since 1976 but first season in HD !!). October concerts:
Norah Jones
The Decemberists/Explosion in the Sky
Femi Kuti
Tribute to Bluesman Jimmy Reed

The Magnificent Voyage of Christopher Columbus (2 hours)

Painting with Paulson (series). October episodes are:
Yosemite Waterfall (2 parts)
The Passage (2 parts)

Still Waiting: Life After Katrina

Indian Pride (series). October episodes are:
Historical Overview
Indian Treaties and Sovereignty
Spirituality

Mysterious Human Heart (series). Episodes are:
Endlessly Beating
The Spark of Life
Silent Killer

Frontline: Chaney's Law

Saved from the Wrecking Ball

Masterpiece Theatre: The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard (5 episodes !!) *

Frontline: Showdown with Iran

Mountain Stage: Bristol: Birthplace of Country Music

Afghan Journey: A Story of Friendship

NOVA: Marathon

Frontline: The Undertaking

Nature: Silence of the Bees

-------------------------------------------------
* Unfortunately all of the other Masterpiece Theatre offerings through January 6th are repeats, and thus unlikely to be in HD.

Masterpiece Theatre: The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard (5 episodes !!) *

Nice to see Masterpiece Theatre finally appearing locally in true 1080i (WNET-DT) Sunday night (10/21/07). This series is about a woman supermarket manager who runs for political office on a whim, then becomes the British prime minister (within the first episode). Had my cable STB set to remind me of the SD showing but just happened to scan the HD channel listing before the 2-hour opening started. Good drama so far. -- John

Nice to see Masterpiece Theatre finally appearing locally in true 1080i (WNET-DT) Sunday night (10/21/07). This series is about a woman supermarket manager who runs for political office on a whim, then becomes the British prime minister (within the first episode). Had my cable STB set to remind me of the SD showing but just happened to scan the HD channel listing before the 2-hour opening started. Good drama so far. -- John

Yep - this was one of the first BBC dramas aired in HD on BBC HD. Quite a good watch in all sorts of ways. (Was shot on video in 1080/25p ISTR not 50i)

I'm told by Lance Ozier, VP at WGBH in Boston, that "Antiques Roadshow" will be shooting this summer in HD and after its new season begins in January it will be in HD.

The original BBC production of Antiques Roadshow switched to HD this season.

Yep - this was one of the first BBC dramas aired in HD on BBC HD. Quite a good watch in all sorts of ways. (Was shot on video in 1080/25p ISTR not 50i)

So when 1080/25p is displayed over here how is the frame rate converted? Do they slow the show down to 1080/24p, pitch shift the audio, then 3:2 to 60i?

Perhaps this was filmed using 1492 technology. ;)

The picture quality for this program was horrible. PBS must have mislabeled it as HD.

So when 1080/25p is displayed over here how is the frame rate converted? Do they slow the show down to 1080/24p, pitch shift the audio, then 3:2 to 60i?
Here's an excerpt from an '02 pdf paper on BBC standards conversion (section 5.3.2):On the other hand, conversions between 1080/24P and 1080/25P involve slight speed changes and can be achieved readily by adjustment of studio videotape recorders, notwithstanding the change in sound pitch associated with televised film.
Referring to SD, there's considerable discussion of 3:2 conversion in this (5.3) standards conversion section. Perhaps newer conversion hardware has updated the conclusion in this section that 1080/50i conversion to 1080/59.94 was unsatisfactory in '02. A number of live sports broadcast conversions at 625/50i 16X9, such as golf, have been available in the U.S at 1080/59.94i, which of course still isn't HD-to-HD conversion. -- John

Referring to SD, there's considerable discussion of 3:2 conversion in this (5.3) standards conversion section. Perhaps newer conversion hardware has updated the conclusion in this section that 1080/50i conversion to 1080/59.94 was unsatisfactory in '02. A number of live sports broadcast conversions at 625/50i 16X9, such as golf, have been available in the U.S at 1080/59.94i, which of course still isn't HD-to-HD conversion. -- John

The problem was that in 2002 HD standards converters weren't using as good motion estimation technology (Phase Correlation) as the high end SD converters (Snell and Wilcox Alchemist). This was simply down to the number of bits of information required in doing an HD-HD conversion, since you need to convert from 1080i50 to 1080p50, then do a 1080p50 to 1080p59.94 conversion and then reinterlace that down to 1080i59.94.

On the other hand, adding an upconversion engine from SD to HD on the back of an SD converter (such as S&W did with the Alchemist Platinum) is much simpler since you can do the motion estimation at SD converting 576i50 to 576p59.94 and then upconvert the result to 1080i or 720p.

Going back to Mrs. Pritchard, anyone who enjoyed Carey Mulligan's performance as Sally Sparrow in Doctor Who this year may well enjoy this...

Steven

The problem was that in 2002 HD standards converters weren't using as good motion estimation technology (Phase Correlation) as the high end SD converters (Snell and Wilcox Alchemist). This was simply down to the number of bits of information required in doing an HD-HD conversion, since you need to convert from 1080i50 to 1080p50, then do a 1080p50 to 1080p59.94 conversion and then reinterlace that down to 1080i59.94.

On the other hand, adding an upconversion engine from SD to HD on the back of an SD converter (such as S&W did with the Alchemist Platinum) is much simpler since you can do the motion estimation at SD converting 576i50 to 576p59.94 and then upconvert the result to 1080i or 720p.

Going back to Mrs. Pritchard, anyone who enjoyed Carey Mulligan's performance as Sally Sparrow in Doctor Who this year may well enjoy this...

Thanks for the details. From the descriptions of the newest converters, suspected they'd overcome the problems mentioned in '02.

Probably would have watched anyway, but the NY Times preview summary of The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard, which AFAIK didn't mention the first 1080i debut of Masterpiece Theater in NYC, was exceptionally fervent about this series. Having enjoyed BBC productions for decades on the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service's Masterpiece Theater, have hoped since acquiring HDTV 7+ years ago that many of them could be rerun here at 1080i and also marketed on HD discs. -- John

I mainly just want to say thanks for this thread. It's really useful. I especially appreciate the reviews. I have mixed feelings about "The War" from a content perspective, but the production values and picture quality were good, I thought.

There is a small spelling error in post 188, should be "Frontline: Cheney's Law"

Way of the Warrior

Inside: Rolling Stones in Rio

Water Haulers

Nature: In the Valley of the Wolves

Inside: Space Launch

In Country: A Vietnam Story

Billy Crystal: The Mark Twain Prize

NOVA: Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Always Cooking

Equitrekking (series)

NOVA: Master of the Killer Ants

Independent Lens: The Creek Runs Red

NOVA: Pocahontas Revealed

Great Performances: Eric Clapton Chicago Crossroads Festival

Those NOVA's look awesome. I can't wait for a visual report on Intelligent Design, since television programs tend to be too scared to report about it, leaving the details almost entirely in print.

Is "Inside" any good? 1 to 4 stars please?

Did you miss Chef's Story?

Rudy

Did you miss Chef's Story?

Rudy

Chef's Story is upconverted, not HD.

Chef's Story is upconverted, not HD.
Hmm just out of curiosity, how do you know that? The reason I ask is because here in Los Angeles, they show Chef's Story on two different PBS affiliates. One being KLCS (Create Network) that only transmits in 480i and the other being KOCE that transmits in 1080i. Now when the show is on KLCS (480i) there are bars on the side of the screen as well as top and bottom of the screen. And this is what made me think that this is a truly HD show.
It looks like there is a gap in my knowledge/understanding somewhere.

Rudy

I'm very much looking forward to Great Performances: Eric Clapton Chicago Crossroads Festival. The man is pure genius!

Hmm just out of curiosity, how do you know that? It looks like there is a gap in my knowledge/understanding somewhere.

Rudy

PBS publishes a monthly directory, which designates the programs that are HD and upconverted. WVPT posts this directory on their website:

http://www.wvpt.net/schedules/schedule.html

I find PBS' provision of schedule information to be wholly inadequate. They provide no insight into what it coming more than a month in advance, and their current programming schedule are incredibly user un-friendly, as compared to ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.

Defying Gravity: A Historic Achievement in Glass Featuring Josh Simpson

Grannies on Safari (2 new episodes)

L.A. Holiday Celebration

NOVA: Deadly Ascent

Austin City Limits:

John Mayer
Lucinda Williams/Old Crow Medicine Show
Bloc Party/Ghostland Observatory

Great Performances: Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogonney from L.A. Opera

Wired Science (2 new episodes)

Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Featuring Sissel (female singing artist from Norway)

Christmas from St. Olaf: Where Peace and Love and Hope Abide

Passport to Adventure (series)

Christmas at Belmont (the college not the race track)

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals: Bringin' It Home Live!

Design: e2 (new season)

On New Years Eve, there are three music programs spanning five hours, including Joshua Bell, Bruce Springsteen, and James Taylor (the tribute, already aired in HD). However, PBS has not indicated yet it they will all be in HD.

Has there been any announcement about America's Ballroom Challenge? The previous on aired in late January, so we should be hearing something soon.

Phillip Swann at TVPredictions.com recently reported that The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will be commencing HD broadcasts January 1st. I can find nothing on this at pbs.org or weta.org (the Jan-May PBS schedule grid I was able to find lists primetime only), but that's not too shocking since it sometimes seems that PBS is trying to ignore its HD operation altogether. The above-mentioned grid did confirm Swann's assertion that Antiques Roadshow will start in HD on Jan 7th. I was able to find an old article on current.org:

http://www.current.org/pbs/pbs0708bolandQ&A.shtml

That said that the NewsHour would go HD "around Jan '08" - this was back in May of this year.

Anyone know anything more about this?

Masterpiece Theatre's new look (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/series/newlook.html) starting next month apparently won't include HD--after a smattering of true-1080i with The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard. Hard to believe all the new dramas mentioned for '08 weren't made in HD, or suitable for HD telecine. Maybe the SD-HD cost differential is still too much; read M.T.'s $4 million Exxon sponsorship loss hasn't been filled by others. -- John

Phillip Swann at TVPredictions.com recently reported that The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer will be commencing HD broadcasts January 1st. I can find nothing on this at pbs.org or weta.org (the Jan-May PBS schedule grid I was able to find lists primetime only), but that's not too shocking since it sometimes seems that PBS is trying to ignore its HD operation altogether. The above-mentioned grid did confirm Swann's assertion that Antiques Roadshow will start in HD on Jan 7th. I was able to find an old article on current.org:

http://www.current.org/pbs/pbs0708bolandQ&A.shtml

That said that the NewsHour would go HD "around Jan '08" - this was back in May of this year.

Anyone know anything more about this?
Answering my own question:

NewsHour goes HD this Monday. Here's the press release:

http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2007/12/the_newshour_wi.php

plus a story from Engadget HD (that links to a story from Broadcasting & Cable):

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/12/11/pbs-the-newshour-with-jim-lehrer-going-hd/

NOTE: This is new enough that my local station (WGBH) that runs the national PBS HD feed has not changed its schedule (and thus my Comcast DVR program guide) to reflect it yet.

Updating the NewsHour situation - they had an extensive (as is their style) piece Friday on what this transition is all about.

But here's the thing - my local station (WGBH) still does not have this listed on its HD schedule! And now I think I may know why. According to the comments section (scroll down) of this article:

http://www.publicmediadigest.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=589&Itemid=135

the NewsHour feeds will be part of the new DT3A feed instead of the usual DT2A (PBS HD) feed. The following quote seems to indicate that local stations will be able to decide between the DT3A and DT2A feeds:
The launch of DT3A will not have an immediate impact on the DT2A schedule – the PBS HD Channel. However, with the addition of NEWSHOUR feeds and other material on DT3A, it will become important for your station to take into account what feeds are on both DT3A and DT2A to determine your local HD service.

That comment was written back in October, so local stations should have known about this for some time. I'm hoping this is just a scheduling bug and that the engineers at 'GBH forgot to communicate this to the scheduling people (who are presumably used to just putting up the DT2A feed as-is), but I fear otherwise. I'm going to do some more digging this weekend and report back to this thread and the separate NewsHour thread, but in the meantime you might want to check your own local station schedule and let us know what it says (and then what actually happens on Monday).

I said I would do more digging (see the post immediately above) on the NewsHour situation, and I did. Yesterday and today I checked the schedules of FIFTY Public Television stations. This represents 49 states and the District of Columbia (Delaware seems not to have a PBS station, at least not one in the PBS website schedule database, and I have Arlington, VA's WETA standing in for DC).

Of those 50 stations, 34 run the national (DT2A) "PBS HD Channel" feed (or some rearranged version of it). Of those 34, a total of FIVE have the NewsHour in their HD channel schedules for next week (including, as you'd expect, show producer WETA).

This means 45 stations that will be running the NewsHour only on their digital simulcasts (unless, of course, the schedule is wrong, as I hope is true in at least some cases), which may not be available to cable viewers (our local simulcast in Boston is not). From what I've gathered, some but certainly not all simulcasts pass on a true HD signal, many others pass only a straight upconvert of the analog signal (again, that's the case with WGBH-DT). So, if the schedules are right, I am out of luck when it comes to seeing the NewsHour in HD tomorrow, and many of you may be as well. I would still be very interested in hearing what your local schedule says, and whether it turns out to have been right. I'll be updating the separate NewsHour thread (and the blog referenced in my sig) later today.

I was able to find an old article on current.org:

http://www.current.org/pbs/pbs0708bolandQ&A.shtml
I thought this was a very interesting read.

5/14/2007

From current.org

John Boland came to PBS as its first chief content officer in June, after a stint with the same job title at San Francisco’s KQED-FM/TV. Without eclipsing the TV programmers who now report to him, he’s taken the role of trying public TV’s editorial content on numerous new media platforms that claim to be the next big thing—and may be. PBS plans to shift its National Program Service to high-definition in 2008, Boland spoke with Current Editor Steve Behrens in PBS’s Arlington, Va., offices. This is an edited transcript.

Current:
We hear PBS has been talking with stations about putting high-definition programs on the main PBS digital channel rather than showing them only on the HD Channel. Last week a group of public TV stations, the University Licensee Association, asked PBS to establish targets for increased amounts of HD programming, and the larger Affinity Group Coalition was to consider the resolution.

Boland:
We’re planning for more HD. For a lot of people in the system, it’s always been in the back of our minds that, assuming that HD would begin to predominate, our primary service would be mostly HD. Some people are calling it the HD NPS. Essentially, the NPS and the HD Channel would merge.
We’re now figuring this will happen in fall 2008, a little more than a year from now.
There are a lot of unanswered questions about what the HD NPS would be. Depending on how we define it—such as whether it includes PBS Kids, for example—the five time-zone feeds could require a lot of satellite bandwidth. What does that mean for accommodating other services? Could we do all the time zones we do now? We need to answer all these questions in order to move forward.

Current:
Are you saying it would be an all-HD service? So, even if a program is not originally shot in HD, it would be blown up to synthetic HD?

Boland:
That’s what we’d have to do. We’re hearing that what stations would like—and to some extent what commercial stations have conditioned consumers to expect—is that the primary service would be all-HD. For the foreseeable future, while we have a limited supply of true HD programs, that must be a combination of true HD and upconverted content.

Current:
Some years ago, PBS raised its tech standards for program submission and required producers to submit in digital. Do you foresee a gradual ramp up toward that?

Boland:
It’s gradual, and it’s already happening. For the seasonal tent-pole programs, which are often funded by the CPB-PBS Challenge Fund, we don’t accept anything that’s not HD. You’ll see the effect of this in the future because those programs are funded two or three years in advance of broadcast.

Current:
How much more does it cost to make a program in HD?

Boland:
It varies. If you’re doing a largely field-produced program, the cost of HD field equipment is coming down rapidly. But if you’re producing in a studio, completely outfitting a studio with HD cameras and an HD production switcher—that’s much more expensive.
In major PBS series, the trend is definitely underway. This next season of Antiques Roadshow will be produced in HD for the first time, and those programs will reach the air in ’08. The NewsHour will convert its operation to HD around January ’08. Series like American Experience that work with a lot of independent producers are coming in as a mix of HD and standard definition.
But you’ll always have older programs from the archives, so upconverting will go on for a while. Does the upconverting happen at the stations or at PBS? That’s one of the questions we’ll grapple with over the next months.

Current:
One of the chief engineers in the system, David Felland at Milwaukee Public Television, found by examining the video files that the upconverted HD takes up much more transmission capacity than true HD. For any stations trying to deliver more than one program stream at a time, this hurts their capacity.

Boland:
I read his article in Current and that’s definitely something we’re looking at. That would be one of the reasons to do the upconverting at PBS—if we got the best possible encoding equipment here and paid attention to minimizing what he calls “noise” in the upconversion process.
Downconverting would not be a problem for any station that did not want HD, because all of the stations have downconverters now as part of the Next Generation Interconnection System equipment package.

Current:
And if a viewer doesn’t have an HDTV set, the public TV signal in analog or digital will still be watchable, right?

Boland:
Yes, when television switches to digital in February ’09 you would have a digital box, for cable or satellite or over-the-air reception, which would convert the HD signal to a signal that could be seen on your TV.

Nice info on the NewsHour HD transition:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/july-dec07/newshour_hidef.html

Words and Music by Jerry Herman (90 mins.)

Pioneers of Television (series):
Sitcoms
Late Night
Variety
Game Shows


Andrew Jackson: Good, Evil and the Presidency (2 hours)

Everyday Food (daytime series, 30 mins. ea.):
Roasting
Everyday Elegance
Fast with Five
Food for a Crowd
Best Burgers

Everyday Baking from Everyday Food (daytime series, 30 mins. ea.):
Favorite Fruit Desserts
Easy as Pie
The Best Cupcakes
Elegant Cookies
Chocolate

Austin City Limits:
Crowded House
Kings of Leon/Roky Erickson

Nature: The Desert Lions

Great Performances: Carnegie Hall Celebrates Berlin (2 hours)

Antiques Roadshow (first time in HD!!):
Baltimore (3 weeks)
Orlando

Soundstage:
Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers: Live from Gatorville (Pt. 1)

Lifehouse
Daughtry

Inside:
Tut's Treasure Tour
Rio Carnival
Lord of the Rings on Stage


Design: e2 (new season - begins Dec. 26):
Harvesting the Wind
Energy for a Developing World
Paving the Way


Oswald's Ghost

Cal ... Forever and Beyond (daytime Kid's show?)

American Experience: The Lobotomist

From Curandera to Chupacabra: Stories of Rudolfo Anaya (30 mins.)

Biz Kids (series)

Nature: Parrots in the Land of Oz

American Experience: Buffalo Bill

NOVA: Parthenon

Island at the End of the World

I saw Everyday Food and Everyday Baking mentioned above. However, I'm curious if there are others. For example I see the following shows in 16:9 on one of my local PBS stations KOCE, that transmits in 1080i.
1. Best recipies in the World with Mark Bittman
2. Barbecue University With Steven Raichlen
3. Chef's Story ( I may have asked about this one up before)
4. Daisy Martinez

There are also shows that appear letterboxed on other PBS channels that only transmit in 480i, which made me curious if they are in HD. Like:
5. Simply Ming
6. Scandinavian Cooking

Thanks in Advance
Rudy

I saw Everyday Food and Everyday Baking mentioned above. However, I'm curious if there are others. For example I see the following shows in 16:9 on one of my local PBS stations KOCE, that transmits in 1080i.
1. Best recipies in the World with Mark Bittman
2. Barbecue University With Steven Raichlen
3. Chef's Story ( I may have asked about this one up before)
4. Daisy Martinez

There are also shows that appear letterboxed on other PBS channels that only transmit in 480i, which made me curious if they are in HD. Like:
5. Simply Ming
6. Scandinavian Cooking

Thanks in Advance
Rudy

The only ones among the six that I know to be HD are:

1. Best Recipies in the World with Mark Bittman
4. Daisy Martinez ("Daisy Cooks")

New Austin City Limits program:

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival


New Design e2 programs:

Growing Energy
Coal and Nuclear: Problem or Solution?
Druk White Lotus School - LaDakh
Greening the Federal Government

New American Experience programs:

Grand Central
Kit Carson

Prince Among Slaves

Red Tail Reborn

New NOVA programs:

Fractals
Astrospies
Ape Genius
Four-Winged Dinosaur

Super Tuesday (2 hours)

African American Lives (series):

A Road House
A Way Out of No Way
As American As Apple Pie
The Past is Another Country

New Soundstage programs:

John Fogerty
Matchbox 20


Mountain Stage HD (series):

Darrell Scott and Reagan Boggs
The Del McCoury Band/Paul Thorn and Jessi Colter

Jim Knox's Wild Zoofari (series)

Nature: Crash: The Red Knot and the Horseshoe Crab

Richard Bang's Adventures with Purpose: New Zealand: Quest for Katiakitanga

New Inside programs:

Kidney
Air Show
Miami International Airport

PBS Previews: Carrier

Great Performances: Company

Ribbon of Sand

American Masters: Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

The only ones among the six that I know to be HD are:

1. Best Recipies in the World with Mark Bittman
4. Daisy Martinez ("Daisy Cooks")
Thanks. Not to over dwell on this but has Barbecue University With Steven Raichlen been broadcast in your area? Have you seen any of the episodes? The PQ on this show looks better than the Mark Bittman show, so that makes me really curious.

Thanks.
Rudy

Thanks. Not to over dwell on this but has Barbecue University With Steven Raichlen been broadcast in your area? Have you seen any of the episodes? The PQ on this show looks better than the Mark Bittman show, so that makes me really curious.

Thanks.
Rudy

Barbecue University With Steven Raichlen is an upconvert, but maybe a very good one. The Bittman series has some of the worst Picture Quality of any HD show I've seen.

Nature Parrot's in the Land of Oz (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/parrotsinoz/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_4_naturebrparrotsinthelandofoz_200 8-01-28) is stunning. I may keep this around as a new example of HD . [Too bad KQED screwed up the sound so that the narration was reverbed out the left/right speakers as well as the center speaker.]

Better Hour: Legacy of William Wilberforce

Parklands off the Midwest with Dan Kaercher:
Nebraska and Iowa
North Dakota and South Dakota
Kansas and Missouri
Minnesota and Wisconsin

Great Decisions:
Exiting Iraq: Deadline for Democracy
European Union at 50
Dangerous Dialogue: Talking with the Enemy
Re-Examining Russia

Inside: Operation Wildfire

Keyboard Conversations: A Concert with Commentary by Jeffrey

e2:
Bogota: Building a Sustainable City
Affordable Green Housing
Architecture 2030

Frontline: Bush's War

Call of the Entrepreneur

Great Performances: Peter and the Wolf

Great Performances at the Met: Hansel and Gretel

American Experience: Minik, the Lost Eskimo

NOVA: A Walk to Beautiful

Great Performances: Company



Do you know when this is on in HD? I searched my program guide but didn't see any HD listings.

Do you know when this is on in HD? I searched my program guide but didn't see any HD listings.

PBS will broadcast Company on Wednesday, February 20th, at 9 p.m. ET. Your mileage may vary.

Finally viewed a DVR of the New York Philharmonic's concert in North Korea via WNET-DT and NYC's TWC. Excellent musically, and was surprised the PQ was so good, too. You could even follow the score in an over-the-shoulder shot, at least for someone playing in the foreground, although the page wasn't perfectly crisp. Wow, talk about a rigid audience. Just a bit of relaxation with conductor Maazel's attempt at speaking Korean and the final encore Korean folk song. -- John

I watched Company the other night. It looked and sounded great. One thing I found disturbing is that it was censored. What happened to the PBS of my childhood that provided uncensored material? I remember watching Monty Python & the Holy Grail and it was uncensored.

What you're seeing is a reflection of the evangelical Christian crusade launched in the 1980s, which attacked the trend in our national media towards open-mindedness and choice.

Deleted message.

It looks like Made in Spain is also in HD.

Rudy

Frontline:
Bad Voodoo's War
Sick Around the World

Jean-Michel Cousteau Ocean Adventures: Return to the Amazon (2 parts)

Caring for Your Parents

Parklands off the Midwest with Dan Kaercher:
Illinois and Indiana
Michigan and Ohio

Great Decisions:
Waning War Machine? The State of the U.S. Military
The Latin American Left
Out of Balance: The U.S.-China Trade
Philanthropy and the Rise of Global Giving

Retirement Revolution:
Hazards and Vicissitudes
On Our Own

Great Performances at the Met:
Romeo et Juliette
Macbeth
Manon Lescaut

Nature:
What Females Want and Males Will Do (2 parts)
The Gorilla King

NOVA:
Cracking the Maya Code
Car of the Future

American Experience:
Walt Whitman
Roberto Clemente

Zora's Roots

Illicit: The Dark Trade

The Truth About Cancer

Return of the Cuyahoga

National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth: Most Dangerous Catch/Dirty Secrets

Great Performances: Dance in America: Wolf Trap's Face of America

Carrier: (shown on consecutive nights) April's episodes include:
All Hands/Controlled Chaos
Super Secrets/Squared Away
Show of Force/Groundhog Day
Rites of Passage/True Believers

It looks like Made in Spain is also in HD.

Rudy

The Made in Spain series is upconverted.

Happened onto Peter & the Wolf on PBS-HD this morning (Great Performances), just before I had to leave. I found it brilliant as well as fascinating. There was an interesting behind-the-scenes segment as well. Will definitely keep an eye out for another encore and make sure I record it.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/peterandwolf/index.html

Yes, Peter and the Wolf looked awesome! I happened to be flipping through the channels and came across this right at the beginning. I grew up listening to the Bernstein-narrated version of this piece so I was very curious to see how my imagination compared to this. The animation looked amazing in HD. The expressions and mannerisms of each animal are very good, especially the cat. You can see the wonder, delight, and horror in Peter's big blue eyes. The one thing I thought was peculiar was that the wolf wasn't as big as I was expecting. I always envisioned him as larger than life. I guess that is my childhood not wanting to let go.

Truly fantastic in every way.

I agree. Definitely one to catch if you missed it.
It looked great in HD. I too was expecting a more menacing looking wolf, but I think I liked the wolf as the somewhat pitiful, hungry beast it was simply looking for dinner.


Mitch

Nature:

Superfish
Prince of the Alps

Masterpiece Classic: Cranford

American Experience: George H. W. Bush

NOVA:

First Flower
Lord of the Ants

Artist's Table: Jacques Pepin and Itzhak Perlman

Great Performances at the Met:

The First Emperor
Peter Grimes

Frontline:
Storm Over Everest
Frontline: Crimes at the Border

The Adirondacks

Struggling in Silence: Physician Depression and Suicide

Men Get Depression

Depression: Out of the Shadows

Phoenix Mars Mission: Ashes to Ice

Austin City Limits: R.E.M.

SS United States: Lady in Waiting

Great Performances: Maestro: A Portrait of Valery Gergiev

Eden at the End of the World

On a Wing and a Prayer: An American Muslim Learns to Fly

For the past couple of years, WVPT has been a reliable source for HD program information on PBS.

Starting June 2008, the WVPT schedule no longer identifies HD programs from upconverts.

The only other partial source for this information is KQED's website. There the episode numbers for some HD programs have an "H" at the end. However, this convention is not used consistently.

So it was nice while it lasted, but I'll no longer be able to post reliable monthly schedules on this thread.

Bye.

... You're welcome. :(
Bummer. :(

Have you tried sending WVPT an email? Anyway, thanks for the effort. Sadly all 4 PBS stations in my area multicast 4 channels each, making even an HD show appear of a lesser quality. :( And this practice is unlikely to stop.

Rudy


Rudy

Bummer. :(

Have you tried sending WVPT an email? Anyway, thanks for the effort. Sadly all 4 PBS stations in my area multicast 4 channels each, making even an HD show appear of a lesser quality. :( And this practice is unlikely to stop.

Rudy


Rudy


Same here in Phoenix. KAET now has so many subchannels that they went from having the second best PQ to having the worst PQ. I don't even bother recording anything off of KAET anymore because the PQ is so bad it's not worth the trouble.

Bummer. :(

Have you tried sending WVPT an email?

The WVPT site has the following note: "*Due to manpower needs and expenses to develop the expanded listings each month, the expanded listings document will be the final one provided. Thank you for watching and supporting WVPT."

A very helpful AVS member gave me information for the following corrections:

For May 2008, add "Frontline: Crimes at the Border" (airs next week on most PBS stations)

For September 2007, add "Brown is the New Green: George Lopez & the American Dream" (airs next week on some PBS stations)

*******************

TitanTV.com may be the next best thing as a semi-reliable PBS HD schedule. I noticed that Titan correctly specified HD and non-HD programming this week for my local PBS HD station, with only one mistake that I could find ("Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe" should have been labeled as HD).

Good news. :) The Monthly "Truly New HD Programs on PBS" is back. I'm very sorry to everyone for the inconvenience. I deleted my previous message about the demise of the schedule. :(

Great Performances at the Met:
Tristan und Isolde
La Boheme
La Fille du Regiment

Crane Song

Woodsmith Shop (series)

Travelscope (season 2 in HD)

Ayo: Live from Monte Cristo

Frontline: Darfur

Cleveland Orchestra in Performance: Bruckner Symphony #5

Arabian Horse: The Ancient Breed

Global Focus: The New Environmentalists

Another Day in Paradise

Sikhs in America

Taste of the Midwest with Dan Kaercher (series)

Long Walk: Tears of the Navajo

Gates of the Arctic: Alaska's Brooks Range

Tie a Yellow Ribbon

The Sandias

Great Lodges of the National Parks (series)

Soundstage (don't know the artist but I suspect it is new)

Rudy Maxa's World (new series !!)

History Detectives (6th season starts in HD!!)

I'm pretty sure History Detectives was in HD last year too. No?

I'm pretty sure History Detectives was in HD last year too. No?

No. PBS has consistently listed these programs as upconverted.

Interesting.

...
Soundstage (don't know the artist but I suspect it is new)
...


KAET just reran the Frampton concert a couple of days ago, so I wonder if they actually have any new shows or if they're all just reruns.