[igreg]

Is anyone surprised that TV Guide has yet to make a notation whether a particular program is being broadcast in HD or not? For a magazine with such a market share and seeking to attain and retain customers, I find is surprising. Is the HD market still that small not to merit a HD program designation? I know my local newspaper's Sunday supplement (Sacramento Bee) has HD in its grid next to programs broadcast in HD. How's your market?


Do others remember back in the sixties when color was relatively new and TV Guide would place a little C inside a circle for those programs in color, and then when color became the norm rather than the exception TV Guide would place a BW inside a circle for those programs not in color. Of course, now the issue is moot and no designation is made regardless.


Anyone care to speculate on a similar time line with HDTV as contrasted with the introduction of color?

 

[CycloneGT]

I'm sure that its just around the corner for them. They also don't do it for the guide that comes with the Sunday Paper around here. They'll mark SAP, DVS, CC, and all kinds of other tags though.

 

[John Mason]

Gave up my NYC TV Guide issue last summer because it didn't list HD programming. The subscription was for all of Time Warner Cable's digital channels. It took a long time for them to even list HD channels.


My weekly NY Times guide lists "HD" next to scheduled HDTV programs in the grid. Seemed fairly accurate initially, but the programmers and networks have the advantage. NBC apparently convinces guide sources that its NASCAR coverage, for example, will be HDTV when it looks like it's only upconverted 1080i widescreen. Just got TNT-HD and the Times guide editors are being mislead there, too. All of the daytime network reruns are labeled "HD." But TNT-HD's color- and resolution-drained transmissions don't look anything like the original 1080i I've watched since 2000. Can't recall seeing any quality 1080i yet on TNT-HD. Even the SD TNT channel usually looks better on my 64-inch CRT-based RPTV. -- John

 

[wiggo]

Quote:

Originally posted by igreg Is anyone surprised that TV Guide has yet to make a notation whether a particular program is being broadcast in HD or not?

Let's see...


1. TV Guide is owned by Rupert Murdoch (Fox).

2. Fox is the last network to go to true HDTV (still not completely there).


Um, no, not suprised in the least.


After November, when Fox becomes the network with the 4th most HD hours in primetime (5th most percentage-wise), still not so surprised.

 

[roulette27]

TVGuide.com is a step ahead of the magazine. It has a filter for HDTV Only when you view listings.

 

[snidely]

TVG, going back 30 years, has always been slow to adapt to new programming. When cable became more popular, they didn't carry the listings for channels like HBO or SHO for a long time. TVG became useless for us, so we dropped them.

Newspaper guides only carry a few of the cable listings. The SF Chronicle, for eg., doesn't carry all the HBO channels.

We have discovered that the only way to get complete listings is to subscribe to something like "On Sat", which seems to list all the D* or DISH channels. They put out an issue for each service as well as C-band.


...mike

 

[ironfoot995]

Try titantv.com. You can subscribe (no cost), enter your zip code and get mostly reliable, complete listings of analog, OTA digital, and cable/satellite. HD broadcasts are clearly marked in the listings, as well as a short synopsis of each program. I dropped my TVG sub after finding titantv.


John

 

[chroma601]

Titan is great, but I'm liking zap2it.com a little more. In addition to the grid, you have an option for a text schedule that brings thoughts of what TV Guide could be like if it really cared anymore.


TV Guide has really gone downhill. It's not just their total disregard of HDTV. They only list Primetime shows in text format now, but they show fewer channels there than they do in the grid. The grid itself doesn't contain all the channels we receive. Plus it's laid out in odd time blocks, splitting the evening. And the grids are so small they don't always have room to put the name of the program in!


I'm not renewing my sub. If anybody finds a decent printed TV guide, please shout it from the rafters. Titan and zap2it are far and away the only real resources we have in this area.

 

[mssturgeon]

You may also want to take a look at the new HD-Only program guide launched recently by HDTV Magazine:

http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/programming/guide.php


Cheers,


- M. Shane Sturgeon

 

[pbenjamin]

HDTVMagazine looks promising but its lack of west coast feeds makes it relatively useless.

 

[mssturgeon]

Quote:

Originally posted by pbenjamin HDTVMagazine looks promising but its lack of west coast feeds makes it relatively useless.

Check again ... West Coast feeds of everything are available. IF you didn't register (which is free), then all you saw was the default list of stations and the grid will have been locked in to East Coast Primetime. Once you login, oyu can adjust your station selections and the grid adjusts to your time zone settings ... whatever they may be.


Cheers,

- M. Shane Sturgeon

 

[Ken H]

Quote:

Originally posted by wiggo Let's see... 1. TV Guide is owned by Rupert Murdoch (Fox). 2. Fox is the last network to go to true HDTV (still not completely there).

Unrelated.

 

[pbenjamin]

Quote:

Originally posted by mssturgeon Check again ... West Coast feeds of everything are available. IF you didn't register (which is free), then all you saw was the default list of stations and the grid will have been locked in to East Coast Primetime. Once you login, oyu can adjust your station selections and the grid adjusts to your time zone settings ... whatever they may be. Cheers, - M. Shane Sturgeon

Thanks, much better now. I was fooled by their list of most popular stations and the fact that their FAQ says they don't have them yet.