"The Newshour With Jim Lehrer" to go HD on 12/17/07 on PBS-HD

I believe you're looking for this existing thread. It can usually be found on one of the first 2 or 3 pages of the Programming Forum.

See post #215 in that thread, posted yesterday around 6 pm.

It's also been mentioned in fredfa's "Hot Off the Press" thread in the sticky section at the top of the forum.

It's also in the HDTV Programming Synopsis, but it's fine to have a topic of it's own.

Tonight (Friday 12/14) - The final segment of the Newshour is doing a behind the scenes look at the show's transition to HD and a general disussion about the digital TV transition. Check it out.

The following info is crossposted from the "Sightings of Truly New HD Programs on PBS?" thread, as a heads-up to those of us who are waiting impatiently for dinnertime tomorrow.

Since news broke on the 11th of this event happening Monday, I've been curious as to why my local station (WGBH) that runs the "PBS HD Channel" had not yet changed its schedule to include the NewsHour broadcast. So I did a little digging, and came up with this article that seems to say (in the comments section, so scroll down) that the NewsHour feeds will be part of a 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:
That comment (by Keith York) was written back in October, so local stations should have known about this for some time, and adjusted their schedules accordingly.

So since it was now the weekend, I did a bit more digging and 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).

As I said in the other thread (and the blog reference by my sig), I'm hoping that what I've reported here is just one large scheduling bug (the schedulers are presumably used to just putting up the DT2A feed as-is) and that the engineers at the various stations are planning to cut in with the other feed, but I fear otherwise. If so, this means that 45 stations (90% of my sample) will be running the NewsHour only on their digital simulcasts, which may not be available to cable viewers (WGBH-DT - 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 be very interested in hearing what your local schedule says, and whether it turns out to have been right.

Our local PBS station WEAO out of the Akron, OH area has The Newshour (with HD indicator) appearing in my D* guide for the OTA channel 49-2. Their channel 49-1 runs the PBS national feed and will have some other HD programming running at the same time as the Newshour. So it would seem WEAO has it right.

http://www.pbs4549.org/schedule.htm?...3,16085,16087&

my PBS HD doesn't have it listed ??? (TWC) Schenectady NY .. channel 1811

What I find interesting about the PBS Newshour going HD is that PBS is beating the ABC and CBS nightly news programs in going HD. Of course, the Newshour program features a lot of in-studio interviews and discussions, so it does not quite have the amount of same day field reports as the commercial broadcast nets have. Still Jim Lehrer can now go to up Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric and say, nah-nah, I'm in HD and you aren't! Not that I would expect Jim Lehrer to do that sort of thing.

Should not be surprising that a lot of PBS stations won't be ready to carry the show in HD. This is the sort of thing where they will have to upgrade or change their programming schedule for their HD channel. PBS is not centrally organized as are the broadcast nets. May take a few months for the HD version to become widespread.

Well, you're not the only one. Our local (Portland, OR) broadcaster does not have it either. What is even worse, after calling them it was very clear to me they had no clue about it!

From WTVS-DT PBS Detroit:

They are ready to go with NewsHour in HD tonight.

"PBS will be simulcasting NewHour in SD in letterbox so we expect some complaints from those watching the SD/analog version. This is a good way to steer people to HD. PBS will be doing more of this over the next year or so."

This news also means Canadian HD viewers with ExpressVu, Star Choice, and various cableco's will have HD access.

The PBS Newshour going HD had help from a federal grant.

ABC & CBS did not.

The Lansing PBS WKAR, will not have this in HD until February. They sent out all their December and January scheduling info before the announcement.

The engineer is active in our local thread and says Feb is the target.

Here's what WPSU in central PA said to my email:


Hmmm. OK.

They are a different situation.
They have multiple towers, not just one and I forget why, but it does make a difference.

Looks great - as long as nothing is moving too much.

Some HD field reports.

Screen shots?

Ask and you shall receive:

Looks sweet.

No go in Houston, KUHT, but that's no surprise.

HD on Maryland Public Television.

from the screenshots posted, it looks like Newshour is protected for a 4:3 crop. Besides, there will be a lot of pillarboxed stuff on it for years to come. It makes no sense to show the SD version letterboxed, then.

They specifically said that they're trying to steer people to HD, and that they expect complaints. They did it on purpose. It's nice to see such a refreshing attitude, instead of the trash we get fed from companies like Turner and A&E Networks.

HD on KAET in Phoenix.

There were audio dropouts in one segment, don't know if it was local or not. The new set looks nice

I did a check of WGBH-SD ! off air - 4:3 letterbox.

KPBS-DT in San Diego is HD 1920x1080

Here are a couple of pics of HD and SD to compare.