Well I gotta like the 2 favorites - Curlin and Street Sense. Street Sense does have to beat the jinx of no BC Juvenile winner ever winning the Derby.
For longer odds picks - Scat Daddy and Tiago.

Is the Entertainment division of NBCU taking over the Kentucky Derby coverage? What's this? A Red Carpet pre-show hosted by people from Access Hollywood? Well if it works for Oscars, the Globen Globes, let's try it with horse racing? Maybe they'll do it next year for the presidential debates!!!

Queen Elizabeth II is wisely staying out of camera range.

1.00 ExBox,TriBox,SuperBox 1/4/6/15. 10.00 Win 9/11/15/17

Is the Entertainment division of NBCU taking over the Kentucky Derby coverage? What's this? A Red Carpet pre-show hosted by people from Access Hollywood? Well if it works for Oscars, the Globen Globes, let's try it with horse racing? Maybe they'll do it next year for the presidential debates!!!

Queen Elizabeth II is wisely staying out of camera range.


Well she has to...

Otherwise Reggie Jackson may try to kill her... :D :D


"I must.... kill... the Queen...."

One of the Queen's hats surely must come in first.:D

In the UK they're probably laying odds on which hat she's wearing today. I hear they'll bet on anything over there...

NBC needs to invest in some HD handheld cameras. Jeesh.

NBC needs to invest in some HD handheld cameras. Jeesh.

No kidding. This is the Kentucky freaking Derby, a once-a-year event in one location. It's not like NBC Sports didn't have plenty of notice to reserve the equipment. Oh well, at least the cameras on sticks that will follow the horses will be in HD.

So was the race upconverted or in hd. It didn't look too good here in Seattle via comcast.

Looks OK on WNBC-DT OTA. Not CBS good but typical NBC HD except when the broadcast cuts to hand-held cameras, which are your typical upconverted NBC-doing-a-golf-telecast bad.

Again this year NBC mixed widescreen SDTV and HDTV cameras. The HD camera shots looked fabulous including the aerial shots. I just wish they would get enough HD cameras to cover this event properly!

NBC Seattle on Shaw Cable.

Yeah, looks like a major shortage of HD cameras. And when shot in closeups, major pixelations.

Gotta give NBC some credit for sticking with the winning horse and jockey all the way back to the winner's circle, instead of squeezing in a dozen commercials. Amazing use of the camera-in-the-sky during the race. I don't think ABC ever tried it when they aired the race.

Yeah, looks like a major shortage of HD cameras. And when shot in closeups, major pixelations.

Gotta give NBC some credit for sticking with the winning horse and jockey all the way back to the winner's circle, instead of squeezing in a dozen commercials. Amazing use of the camera-in-the-sky during the race. I don't think ABC ever tried it when they aired the race.

The "camera-in-the-sky" was definitely the best coverage of a horse race I have ever seen ... it really showed how Calvin Borel on Street Sense won.

Memphis, WMC, OTA 2 subs

Terrible blocking throughout the race. In fact once it started I could barely even tell the dirt was raked. It was all a big blur of brown. The white boards on the inside of the track was jagged, swimming grass, even ghosting on the horses from long shots. When they showed the cameras stuck on the winner that had terrible ghosting.

Typical WMC, and one reason why I only watch 2 shows on that channel now. Before mulitcasting I watched most of my viewing on that channel.

edit-NBC Nightly News isn't even showing their own Derby highlights in HD, how cheap.

Well, we had HD up until the race itself here in Jacksonville. Then they decided that SD was the way to go. Unbelievable at this stage of the game.

The "camera-in-the-sky" was definitely the best coverage of a horse race I have ever seen ... it really showed how Calvin Borel on Street Sense won.


But you didn't get to see him until the last half mile. And the overhead camera didn't look HD to me. I would have thought that an overhead HD camera could have shown the whole field the entire time.

And WAY to much SD. Pretty dissappointing. On to NASCAR and those beer throwing boobs.

Camera up in the sky wasn't HD. The technology to relay HD wirelessly for that distance does not appear to exist yet.

They usually put the guy with the steadiest hands up there. But I think this time he didn't frame his shots properly. So for about half the race the horses ended up going vertically up his viewfinder instead of going horizontally across, a waste of space and the widescreen. He was steady, though.

NBC pull a quick change in the schedule.......

"Barbaro: A Nation's Horse" tonight at 8. Website says it's HD. It was originally scheduled for last weekend but pre-empted by Hockey. It was also on CNBC last night, which wasn't in HD (and blacked out in Canada).

Camera up in the sky wasn't HD.Are you sure?

Camera up in the sky wasn't HD. The technology to relay HD wirelessly for that distance does not appear to exist yet.


Really? I've seen plenty of NFL telecasts with HD blimps. Perhaps for NFL events they can afford to run a really really long fiber optic cable tether to the blimp? :D

How many more years in the contract for NBC on this thing? This is the third year in a row they've botched the production with lousy SD handheld cams.

Really? I've seen plenty of NFL telecasts with HD blimps. Perhaps for NFL events they can afford to run a really really long fiber optic cable tether to the blimp? :DWell, I was going to mention that at some point....

How many more years in the contract for NBC on this thing? This is the third year in a row they've botched the production with lousy SD handheld cams.At this point CBS is the only network using wireless HD cameras.

Kudos to Street Sense for an exciting win going from next to last to first and for breaking the jinx on BC Junvenile winners. As for NBC's coverage - what I saw of it was awful -that celebrity crap - yech! Actually I was switching to ESPN during this because they showed the undercard races. I also didn't like the 10+ min on Calvin Borel after he won when I was dying for them to replay the race.
No complaints about PQ though.

Well, we had HD up until the race itself here in Jacksonville. Then they decided that SD was the way to go. Unbelievable at this stage of the game.
Our local here in Reno(KRNV-DT) never switched to HD during the entire telecast. Really too bad. KRNV via Charter cable.

Video was ok quality, but the audio was out of sync on WGRZ-Buffalo.

Our local here in Reno(KRNV-DT) never switched to HD during the entire telecast. Really too bad. KRNV via Charter cable.

I would have hoped that by now, local stations would find a way to automate the switch. Surely there has to be a better way.

Are you sure?

I'm not 100%. The clarity just isn't there. You can usually tell by looking closely at the TV. And the last time I recall, you can't relay 1080i or 720p wirelessly from that far up -- with present compression the bandwidth wouldn't allow it. Maybe some technies can help here......

"Barbaro: A Nation's Horse"....... HD on the east coast, but SD (with bars all around) on the west. Something's screwed up at NBC.

Stopped off to buy dinner at the local "Greek Souvlaki" restaurant.....the new one with the Philips 50-inch plasma HDTV.

Of course, it was tuned to analog Cable TV channel 5, and in "zoom" mode!

(Last time I was there, I scanned everything for them, but was told it wouldn't matter, "since no one can see the difference between HD and analog, anyway". From the comments I heard about the "great flatscreen TV", I guess they were right.)

I also didn't like the 10+ min on Calvin Borel after he won when I was dying for them to replay the race.

I differ with you. I really liked the coverage given to Borel. It was such an emotional win. (As if any KD win wouldn't be.) I was very moved by his demeanor. And plenty of replays came in due time.

I also loved the sky cam angle of coverage. If it wasn't HD it sure looked pretty good on my set.

my local nbc went sd for 7 minutes out of the 2 hour telecast, the most crucial time to do it of course, arghhhhh........... the five minutes before the race and about 1 minute and 50 seconds of the actual 2 minute and 3 seconds of the race.

Ken H, CBS is not the only one with wireless HD cameras.
Fox and ESPN now have wireless HD cameras inside several of the cars in both the Nascar Nextel Cup and Busch series races.

JCL,
The overhead shots were from HD camera in the blimp. They can do it with cars going 195 mph on a 2.66 mile oval like Talladega they can get it from the blimp down to the ground. Churchill Downs is pretty close to the airport in Louisville, but they allow the blimp to get pretty low especially since it is a short time frame for the actual race. No it is not Discovery Channel:Planet Earth pristine clarity, it is still moving and being buffeted by any winds and they can't zoom in as close because they need to cover the field.

I wish handheld HD cameras were the issue here, but KRNV Reno once again didn't pass along the HD feed, so we had all the NHL playoffs and the Kentucky Derby in glorious Standard Definition again!!!

Our local here in Reno(KRNV-DT) never switched to HD during the entire telecast. Really too bad. KRNV via Charter cable.


They're hopeless! They've had less than 1/3 of the NHL playoffs in HD on that station this season!

I'm looking to see if I can find an HD copy of the 2007 Kentucky Derby on DVD...I forgot to program my DVR before I left for out of town..Can anyone help me???
THANKS!

Looked like garbage here (Chicago Comcast), very disappointing, I remember it looking a lot better years ago. Or maybe it was just because I had Giacamo?

The Response... (I removed identifying information, since I don't want to embarass her personally.)

Dear ******,
Thank you for your email, and for watching News 4.
I appreciate your wanting to watch programming in HD.
From all indications, NBC had planned to carry the Derby in HD, but in actuality, aired nothing in HD over the weekend. We have not been able to ascertain yet, exactly why, but my engineers tell me that NBC faced some sort of technical problem on Friday with their HD equipment, and did not provide any network programming to us in HD over the weekend.
You see, on the network level, we are able to air in HD, only that which is provided to us in HD. The Derby (and other NBC programming) was not provided in HD, so we had no choice in the matter. Rest assured that when NBC provides HD programming, we will certainly air it that way.
Conversely, News 4 is the ONLY television station in Northern Nevada that has taken the time, resources and Herculean effort to provide our viewers with local news in 1080i High Definition. No other station in this market is even planning such an enormous undertaking. So, while I understand your frustration with the Derby and other network sporting events not being in HD, I hope you realize the effort and expense my station has gone to, to provide you, the viewer, with the best-possible quality viewing there is to offer.
Sincerely,
*******


**********
KRNV News 4
General Manager
1790 Vassar St.
Reno, NV 89509

If it was a network problem then why did other cities get it in HD? Sounds like a cop out.

I've got an absolutely beautiful copy of the Derby along with that evening's NBC Nightly News, all in 1080i.

If the Reno station would like a copy they should feel free to contact me. ;)

isles, i agree with mx6 that is just an excuse.
I got NHL hockey in HD over the weekend from local NBC and an hour and 53 minutes of the derby in HD and the NBC news in HD too. My local screwed up 7 minutes of the derby as i noted before.

My local fox gave me the same "network" excuse when they showed only half the nascar race in HD.

If it was a network problem then why did other cities get it in HD? Sounds like a cop out.


Oh, I know it was a cop out, and I told her so. I had a list of cities where I had been in contact with people on the dbstalk site regarding the HD coverage, or the lack thereof, of the NHL on NBC. I had complained, at one point, that NBC was only showing the games in HD when Sidney Crosby was playing. Otherwise, they didn't even bother with broadcasting in HD. Then I got a raft of responses like "I had the Sharks game in HD yesterday..." when I only had it in SD. This weekend was not the first time. KRNV Reno has been passing the SD feed on most NHL games this season, but I didn't know it was KRNV and not NBC's fault until recently.

I am awaiting the reply to my latest email...