[ROBERT HUNZEKER]

Just suffered through 30 mins of the show in hopes that the PQ and the story would be improved from last week, no go. Can anyone else watching the feed from K2 confirm that it is really bad looking, some of the worst HD I have ever seen.


Bob H.

 

[AgtCooper]

it's source,

film, upconverted to HD, it's actually not a bad job concidering that it was never intended by the director to be seen in HD, if you noticed, the outdoor scenes (daytime) were very very good. I think this is attributed to using a different exposure time or something for the indoor scenes, creating a "grainy" appearance. I also read from last week's post that the same guys that do the other hd-transfers (abc, cbs, etc...) did this same one too.

i say cut them some slack, this is among the first batch of shows from nbc to get high-def treatment, it will improve. I've seen worse HD programming IE: all those shows that are on torch mode, thinking that the extreme contrast is some cooler - more detailed image.

 

[Pagali]

Quote:

Originally posted by AgtCooper i say cut them some slack, this is among the first batch of shows from nbc to get high-def treatment, it will improve.

I'm always willing to cut them some slack, but we're not having very good luck here in Sacramento tonight. It took KCRA about 20 minutes to get the HD broadcast going, then the signal went back to stretched-out SD after about 20 minutes.

 

[ongopt]

I'll agree with the last post. KCRA's picture was stretched out and grainy. Just awful looking HD. And while we are complaining, KCRA seems to stretch out its local HD news programming all the time. What gives!? You would think that KCRA would get the aspect ratio correct since they have been broadcasting their local news in HD for a long time now ( at least for a year I believe). Or maybe it's really not true HD but stretched out SD.

 

[gpb]

Similar to last week, the PQ varied throughout the show. However, the difference between the best shots (some of the exteriors were excellent) and the worst (most of the dark interiors) were more extreme. I would have to say that some of the interiors were the worst looking HD I've seen yet. It looked more like noise generated from excessive video gain (although I'm sure that there was film grain underneath that noise) than from film grain. I switched over to the NTSC broadcast a few times to compare, and even that had obvious PQ problems. I originally thought that the director of photography might be in over his head slightly, based on looking at his entry at imdb: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Gershman,+Michael (mostly credited as a camera operator) until I noticed that he was a DP for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.

http://us.imdb.com/Pawards?Gershman,+Michael

He was nominated for an emmy (single camera cinematography) for one of my favorite episodes of Buffy.


I did like the composition of the shots, but I'm guessing that he severely underexposed the film and/or the scenes were brightened up in telecine more than he wanted.


Some digging found more information that indicates Michael Gershman does indeed know what he is doing: http://www.designinmotion.com/articl...112493,00.html


Anyone here who was involved (or know someone who was) in the production of this show have anything other than speculation as to why there was so much noise in the picture?

 

[Pagali]

Quote:

Originally posted by ongopt ...maybe it's really not true HD but stretched out SD.

I'm pretty sure that's what it is. I've never seen anything but Leno from KCRA in HD until now. Are you sure they've broadcast news in HD? Must have missed that...

 

[texasbrit]

Here in Dallas PQ was really variable. For much of the show the PQ was not any better than the commercials. Also I had picture breakup every 10 seconds or so - but this was on the commercials also so it was probably a local issue. Certainly NBC has a long way to go to catch up with CBS on the PQ.

 

[ongopt]

Mary, you might be right now that I have looked at it more closely.


When I was looking to purchase an HDTV over a year ago I was told by one of those salesmen "in the know" from one of our fine chain electronic stores that KCRA was indeed broadcasting it's local news in HD. I should have known better!


Now if KCRA could just get rid of that overly wide stretch mode they use!

 

[roddie]

A thought;


Could the difference in PQ on different shots of "Crossing Jordan" maybe be caused by some of it being shot on film and some being done on video?


I was a big fan of "Homicide: Life On The Streets", and I remember them using this method from time to time.


Roddie

 

[Al K]

This may be the only post from Phoenix that has something good to say about HDTV. KPNX our NBC affiliate has their act together. Their upconverted SD picture is really good and Crossing Jordan was definitely in HD with a great PQ. Sure it was soft compared to some HD programming, but better than most ABC dramas, being bright and colorful.



The network with the least amount of HD programming (five Lenos and one Crossing Jordan a week)has by far the best PQ in Phoenix.



Al Keown

 

[Lee L]

Anyone have some bad lip sync problems with last nights show? I am pretty sure it was my local affiliate but most of the show the sound was ahead of the picture buy about a second. My wife thought it looked like an old kung fu movie.

 

[tpfarr]

I watched Crossing on WRC in Washington D.C. area and thought that the PQ was indeed variable but where the quality was high (such as the outdoor scenes) I thought it was very good. WRC has always had a good upconversion of the regular broadcasts and I was very pleased with the lack of any switching problems when the show was supposed to start. Very well done considering the ABC problems (and of course we won't mention WJLA in D.C.)

 

[Hot]

Great NTSC picture quality since KUSA-DT in Denver is not on the air with digital. They should have been on the air by May 2000. They do not even have a tower proposal on file. So much for NBC HDTV in Denver. Gannett Broadcasting should get their act together. Why doesn't the FCC do something about these procrastinators like Gannett. Let DISH Network carry all Networks and force the stations like KUSA to grant waivers.