Wheel Of Fortune and Jeopardy in HD - Page 2

well I doubt they're gonna be framing for 16x9 so the framing will probably remain the same with extra space on the sides

That's not what I meant at all.

NOBODY, including the contestants, could keep up with the guy. Even he, himself, admitted that his main tactic was to win the buzzer first, and THEN guess the question. And they kept making the questions harder as they went along, to try and stymie him, and just made it progressively harder for eveyone else. It was as if he was just playing against the writers, and not the other contestants themselves. He was basically just playing by himself.

It was just the most utterly protracted, wasted period ever in the shows history. Actually, it was the ONLY one. I know there are occasionally people on who just outright beat the pants off of the others - and that's to be expected. But that just went on way too long, and all the fun and interest was taken out of it. It was boring and monotonous. Most everyone I knew that watched the show regularly couldn't wait for the guy to lose. And what made it worse, was that something about the guy just didn't make him all that likable. Yet it went on, and on, and on, and on,........

It was like a bad dream that you couldn't wait for to end. If you were a real fan of the show (and not just tuning in to see what all the hype was about), it truly sucked. He may have added a bunch of temporary viewers to the ratings, but he probably caused the show to temporarily lose more of it's regular, devoted ones.


(And F.Y.I., I keep up with the questions quite well, thank you. - I actually appreciate it the harder it is. I'm not bragging, but I often can beat the contestants to the question. I like a challenge, but Jennings was just plain ridiculous.)

You guys might want to check this out for more on the Ken Jennings incident:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cESHt4MboYk

The real benefit of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune going HD is that these two shows appear to be popular enough to get some stations to spend money to set up for HD broadcasting of syndicated programming. Once these stations are broadcasting Jeopardy in HD, the station may move to increase the amount of HD programming by arranging for the HD version of recent season network shows. This may also open the door to some of the syndicated daytime talk shows moving to HD. I almost never watch daytime TV, but the more hours a day of true HD content, the better in the long run. Oprah in HD. THAT will result in some interesting threads here.

One question is what will the stations broadcasting the HD version do? They have to support SD and HD channels. Are they going to download every day both the SD and HD versions and keep them in sync? Or will they download/downlink only the HD version and downconvert it to SD for the SD channel? If downconvert, will the station crop to 4:3 or send out a 16:9 letterbox? Anyone in the business with info on how this is going to work?

Any show in HD benefits us all, whether it's a show "generic you" want to watch or not.
It lends itself to wider acceptance and more pressure to keep adding HD content.

It wasn't that long ago HD content was so sparse that everytime even an HD commercial came out there was a thread started about it.

We'll have to run dual playback unfortunately due to the legal requirement to pass captioning. Our Sony decks will not pass HD captions until a future software upgrade. Plus, our Teranex cross convertor from 1080i to 720p will also not pass captions. If Sony can make the decks pass captions through to the downconverted
480i SDI output, then we can use the HD playback to feed both HD and SD. We'll see what they come up with.

It would have to be 4:3 center cropped, I don't think the "analog" demographic that these shows are so popular with would tolerate letterbox.

KNXV (ABC-Phoenix) just got the final list of equipment that will be needed to carry these shows in HD and is working to get the last piece obtained and set up. I guess this is one time where being stuck in MST is a good thing for viewers as the stations are already familiar with delaying and playing back HD.

The UPN channel here has WOF and Jeopardy, and will be changing over to FOX on August 21st. They announced that they were making the switch to FOX back in May I think. Supposedly they did an HD upgrade (although I wont know for sure until 8/21) for the transition, so maybe its possible that they'll show these two programs in HD, but Im not holding my breath. Im in DMA #148 after all.

Other than Soap Operas which are truly drama programs that are in a daytime timeslot, daytime television is ALL based on talk. whether its infotainment or a talkshow or a variety of talkshow with segments on other stuff it is all very similar. These shows do things on the cheap which means cheap sets. Just the cost of upgrading a set and maintaining it would kill their budgets. ABC's GMA has to have 2 I.A.T.S.E. Union set painters come in everyday they move the set to touch it up and 'maintain' it. That gets VERY costly. Until they have to producers of these daytime shows will not switch to HD. They are syndicated shows. So Unless someone like Kingworld distribution has advertising buyers demanding that the show be in HD then forget it. we've got another 5-year run on this type of cheap-as-it-can-be programming. When you can have production assistants become associate producers (a fake title as their paycheck reflects they are a lowly assistant) and operate a miniDV camera on location why would you want to have that same person fall flat on their face trying to shoot High Definition video showing all the flaws of their focusing, framing, exposure, camera shake, lighting problems unless you can get away with it. In 5 years this type of show will still be using little HDV (or AVCHD, the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 8cm DVD consumer format that will make its way into low quality camera shooting for cable tv and daytime television location shoots) as a replacement for miniDV and when they edit in HD and post it all the way through it will really separate the hacks from the pros.
Oh, and the 'talent' on daytime television will demand that they look good facilitating additional makeup and hair budget upgrades and much wasted energy will go towards this as daytime TV is mostly closeups anyway. With HD though, this may change for the 'Barbara Walters syndrome' reason. Yeah I like that. we ought to coin that phrase. Not everybody needs it written into their contract that they are to be shot with 3 filters at all times. (black diffusion net, +1 Soft FX, +1 ProMist)

I applaud soap operas moving to HD as even though it is all on studio stages it brings the quality up. Although with mostly closeups here too Makeup and Hair go into overdrive and work 4 times as hard. Mostly makeup artists.

Yes in general gameshows moving to HD will help programming in times other than primetime but daytime tv is in for a major overhaul when they upgrade to HD as they will find out. they will ride out SD production as long as they can.
It will only be in 2009 or so that Letterboxing will become the norm. I highly doubt American broadcasters as well as producers will do what the UK has done and decided to go with 14:9 as the only alternative to 16:9. that is just a major compromise.
It will take another 10 years before all TVs are made in 16:9 ratio and no longer 4:3 square.

Of course that's a union issue, not an cost of HD issue. ESPN, a non-union division of the Disney company, has several sets that are moved, collapsed and stashed away every day, yet they somehow manage to do without ridiculous fanfare such as that. For the amount of money GMA would waste each day on those two painters, ESPN can staff an entire show. If something needs touching up, one of the studio crew members will grab some paint and a brush. Besides, if the set get's dinged up that easily on a daily basis, they should have demanded something more durable.

There are plenty of shows along the lines of Oprah that have fixed sets that are often rebuilt every 12-18 months anyway. They just need to be more detail conscious on the next set rebuild and use less cardboard, paper and gaffers tape in places that can be seen on camera.

In addition, existing syndicated shows that were produced in HD in their original run could definitely stand to have HD transfers available to stations that can run them.

I, and obviously millions of others not only disagree with everything you say, but we just wanted to let you know you got that one WRONG, Mr. Smarty Pants.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Jennings

when are Soap Operas on abc going hd?

The afternoon soap operas are all network shows, AFAIK, not syndicated. So it is up to the network and production company. So if the soap upgraded to HD, the network would only have to place the signal on the existing HD feed to the broadcast stations. They might to arrange for an afternoon HD feed, but the distribution system is in place. Email ABC asking for the daytime soaps in HD. Can't hurt.

The issue with Jeopardy and WOF is that they are syndicated programming and there are no daily or weekly scheduled syndicated programs in HD at this time. It will be a first if even a small number of stations show them in HD starting September 11.

The following is an exchange of emails between me and Paul Garnet, head engineer at Baltimore ABC affiliate WMAR:

Plus according to Bob's post above, they'll have to accommodate closed-captioning. The engineer at the DC station that carries WOF/Jeopardy has already said 12-18 months.

How does that make me wrong?

If anything, it proves that at least half of what I said was right - the part about how they added a bunch of TEMPORARY viewers. They were hyping it all over the place, so what do you expect? It was on the newscasts, in the newspapers, and the butt of late-night talk show jokes constantly. Most of those people just tuned in to see how much he'd win - not necessarily to become new, devoted fans of the show. I do not have any numbers or proof in front of me, but I'd be willing to bet that the regular ratings are nowhere near that number now, and are not that different from what they were before he was on.

And as far as the other part, whether they actually did lose some viewers TEMPORARILY or not, the TEMPORARY ratings jump would've more than made up for it. So naturally the actual number of viewers went up. But I knew of plenty of long standing, regular watchers that were sick of him. The people that just tuned in for the sideshow, were the ones that were enjoying it the most. But they weren't true fans of the show itself.

The key word in the italicized part of my post you were referring to is TEMPORARY.

I think the thing that myself and others (who've watched the show for years and years) didn't care for the most about the whole thing was not the he was winning so much - it was that it was never a show about "hype", or "stars". It's sort of an institution - a constant in this ever-changing world, and we wanted it to remain that way.

I don't watch Wheel, but it is a very colorful show and should look great in HD. Besides, we all have shows we could care less about. The object is to get everything in HD, not only what certain individuals want to see.


Well, we all need to save face don't we? I don't know, Ram, I was kinda caught in-between. My wife and I have been long-time fans as well (she competed locally for the show) and we always pulled for KJ to win. But after awhile I was getting anxious for some new blood,' and as much as anything, tired of the banter between Alex and Ken. The undeniable fact is the guy did know his sh*t.

I think most of us are more interested in the fact these are the first syndicated shows to go HD. There is tons of potential for syndicated HD to give us several more hours of HD per network. If we can get locals to pick these shows up in hd it bolds well for more hd in the not so distant future.

This was in response to HDTV Freak.

This may be just a nostalgia thing, but locals broadcasting HD reminds me of the excitement of seeing local stations switch to color many years ago. Back then, a local station buying a COLOR camera was a big deal.

I have to get out more.

I remember there was talk about General Hospital going HD in November
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=541951

The first syndicated HD program was Paramount HDOne. From the HDTV Programming Synopsis, circa 2004.

Paramount HDOne Movies - broadcasting 1080i
Paramount Domestic Television has introduced the first syndicated movie package available in HDTV. HD One will consist of 39 titles, including The Godfather I & II, the first six Star Trek movies, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. The syndication window runs through the 2004-2005 TV season, with two showings per title, per station. Many of the local UPN DTV affiliates have picked up this package, but it can show up on any station that purchases HDOne; DTV, HDTV or analog NTSC. Here is the list of features for 2004.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II-The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III-The Search for Spock
Raider of the Lost Ark
Star Trek IV-The Voyage Home
Star Trek V-Final Frontier
Star Trek VI-The Undiscovered Country
The Godfather
The Godfather, Part II
Major League

Paramount HD One started in November 2001. But it wasn't a program, per se; it was a set of movies. Syndicated programming after that was Billy Graham specials in HD, and Imax movies.

But we all know Star Trek isn't going to provide enough motivation for a station to go thru the hassle of setting up a syndicated HD system. Wheel and Jeopardy is on enough and get high enough ratings that it might spur some of the stations to go hd. Maybe I'm wrong and everybody here just wants to see 50 year old Ms White in HD and I'm going to puke if you provide a link that tell me she's 45 or something lol.

Actually Vanna is 49 1/2, so you're close. She still looks awfully good to this 62 year old. Bring her on in HD.......

I've always felt that her head was too large for her body. Or at least her face, anyway.

And although you can't see them on the show, her thighs are disproportionately too skinny. There's no muscle or tone to them at all. I just remember getting a good look at her body when she was half-naked in bed with AL Bundy.

I guess when all you do all your life is just stand around and smile, that's to be expected. But I like my women with a little more flesh, curves and muscle tone.

She never did all that much for me, even when she was younger. She's the last thing I pay attention to when I'm watching that show.

I didn't feel the need to start another topic since we are talking game shows in here.

But today I saw that the Price is Right is operating with HD cameras. Now isn't the Price is Right broadcast on the National CBS feed, meaning no expensive syndication equipment?

Yup, Baldmaga, that is correct.

As a reminder: David Letterman used HD cameras for quite a while before actually switching to HD.

Actually Wheel has been using HD cameras for a while. I remember Pat saying something about the new cameras at the opening of the show like 6 or 8 months ago.

I *knew* I should have gone into cosmetic surgery!

I think we will see The Price is Right in HD after Bob retires (in 2048).