[JCL]

 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episod...roduction/430/


Stage, screen and recording legend Julie Andrews rings in the new year as she hosts From Vienna: The New Year's Celebration 2009, Thursday, January 1 at 2:30 and 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). Joining her for the annual Vienna Philharmonic holiday extravaganza will be celebrated conductor Daniel Barenboim, who will lead the orchestra in a sparkling program of Strauss waltzes, marches and polkas. The telecast marks the first appearance for each as host and conductor respectively of the program, beamed around the world to an estimated 1.2 billion viewers from the Musikverein, the gilded hall that houses the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.


AND IN HD FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THIS SIDE OF THE POND !!

 

[CycloneGT]

Looks good on Maryland Public Television. Its feels like its rare that MPT has HD shows on its HD channels nowadays.

 

[JCL]

With many PBS affiliates now integrating their regular daily schedules with HD programming, it was hard to know in advance what will be in HD and what won't. This concert wasn't listed as HD, but having been produced out of Austria and presented in SD widescreen on PBS for so many years here -- it was screaming for HD.


The Musikverein looks marvelous in HD. The wide to medium shots of the orchestra and the ballet dancers looked great, so does the outdoor scenery -- as I expected. What ultimately detracted from an otherwise fine production were the close-ups, whether they'd be the rapid movements of the dancers, or the quick hands of the musicians and the conductor. The bandwidth couldn't handle very well -- through no fault of the director (may be blu-ray might do it some justice). PBS/wnet is only releasing a standard DVD.

 

[petergaryr]

^ Agreed. Our local PBS insists on running subchannels so the HD is rarely without artifacts.

 

[jtbell]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JCL /forum/post/15435173


(may be blu-ray might do it some justice). PBS/wnet is only releasing a standard DVD.

Decca plans to release it on Blu-ray. It's listed as available for pre-order at a British classical CD/DVD specialist store , but not yet on amazon.com or on amazon.co.uk.


It looks like the PBS broadcast showed only excerpts from the complete concert. The Blu-ray gives the complete concert, probably without Ms. Andrews's commentary and the scenes of the Alps and the dancers at the Eisenstadt castle.

 

[JCL]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jtbell /forum/post/15436350


Decca plans to release it on Blu-ray. It's listed as available for pre-order at a British classical CD/DVD specialist store , but not yet on amazon.com or on amazon.co.uk.


It looks like the PBS broadcast showed only excerpts from the complete concert. The Blu-ray gives the complete concert, probably without Ms. Andrews's commentary and the scenes of the Alps and the dancers at the Eisenstadt castle.

Yes, these yearly concerts are typically closer to 2 hours each without commentaries of hosts from anywhere in the world. It's just easier to sell these as concerts discs rather than "television programs". I understand the need for PBS to bridge the gap to a TV audience. But surely after all these years (25 I believe), with all these classical music programmes on public televisions, this intermediate step can be minimized. With all this being said, I confess that the hosts (Cronkite, and now Andrews) usually supply a lot of inaccessible and interesting information on these shows.

 

[mikey mo]

But where is the 5.1?

 

[sneals2000]

Sadly BBC HD didn't show this in HD this year - we got it in SD only.


95 mins of the concert was shown live (or close-to-live) on BBC Two in 16:9 SD, with the full 120 min concert shown later on BBC Four - also in 16:9 SD.

 

[JCL]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jtbell /forum/post/15436350


It looks like the PBS broadcast showed only excerpts from the complete concert. The Blu-ray gives the complete concert, probably without Ms. Andrews's commentary and the scenes of the Alps and the dancers at the Eisenstadt castle.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on this -- as I haven't watched any of the DVD's for recent versions of this concert (PBS was good enough for me) .......


Didn't the ORF telecasts also include all those ballet sequences? I don't believe they were only produced for PBS. They're probably fully integrated with the host and world feeds. The international broadcast partners probably supply their own hosts and graphics (PBS's were in English, and with host Julie Andrews as mentioned).

 

[sneals2000]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JCL /forum/post/15438032


Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on this -- as I haven't watched any of the DVD's for recent versions of this concert (PBS was good enough for me) .......


Didn't the ORF telecasts also include all those ballet sequences? I don't believe they were only produced for PBS. They're probably fully integrated with the host and world feeds. The international broadcast partners probably supply their own hosts and graphics (PBS's were in English, and with host Julie Andrews as mentioned).

The BBC appear to have taken the ORF graphics (or a dirty international feed) as the graphics were in German and not 4:3 text safe.

 

[jtbell]

South Carolina ETV showed the concert twice last night, at 8 PM and at 1 AM. The 8 PM showing had a brief glitch during the first encore (at about 1:07), in which the video went completely black for about one second, without affecting the sound. So I set up my DVR to record the 1 AM showing also, hoping to get a glitch-free version. I just finished scanning through it, and to my surprise, it has the same glitch, in the same location.


Did anybody else get this? I'm not sure whether SC ETV is still using a national PBS HD feed without alteration, or whether they've switched to recording stuff and playing it back on their own schedule (in which case they probably used the same recording for both showings).

 

[JCL]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jtbell /forum/post/15441867


South Carolina ETV showed the concert twice last night, at 8 PM and at 1 AM. The 8 PM showing had a brief glitch during the first encore (at about 1:07), in which the video went completely black for about one second, without affecting the sound. So I set up my DVR to record the 1 AM showing also, hoping to get a glitch-free version. I just finished scanning through it, and to my surprise, it has the same glitch, in the same location.


Did anybody else get this? I'm not sure whether SC ETV is still using a national PBS HD feed without alteration, or whether they've switched to recording stuff and playing it back on their own schedule (in which case they probably used the same recording for both showings).

Yes, it's on my PVR at the 67 minute mark as well. The picture blacked out for less than a second but the sound was unaffected. The PBS-HD channel is no longer available as a standalone in many markets recently. Many PBS affiliates still rely on a national feed to get programs including this one.


The two original PBS feeds were the two times listed at the beginning of this thread. All the affiliates probably recorded one of the two, mostly likely the second. The first one was the "live" broadcast concurrent with ORF's prime-time (time-zone difference) -- I think.

 

[DSperber]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mikey mo /forum/post/15436925


But where is the 5.1?

I'm not at all surprised.


Here in LA, KCET-DT (which like many PBS stations decided to reduce quality and converted from 1080i to 720p a while back in order to cram in additional sub-channels) broadcast the recent annual Mormon Tabernacle Choir show (from SLC) also NOT in DD5.1!


In fact, the audio was awful (or so I felt). Low level, no "presence", maybe two mics (or so it seemed), no real sense of surround... just awful.


Furthermore I felt the picture quality was also inferior. Dunno if this was 720p related, or just a reduced production overall, but last year's show was similarly inferior picture-wise. In contrast, the 2006 concert presentation (still in 1080i) was STUNNING to look at and listen to! Gorgeous lighting, costumes, colors...


It was so disappointing (visually and sonically) that I actually FF'd through this year's concert, after very much looking forward to it. I think I'll skip it entirely next year.


Anyway I don't know what's with PBS on these nationally broadcast programs. Why can't they deliver in DD5.1? Or, if the problem is in the original production itself, why doesn't anybody realize that these concerts DEMAND DD5.1 for maximum viewer entertainment?


What are they thinking?

 

[petergaryr]

^ How much is due to the national feed, versus what the local stations are doing?

 

[sneals2000]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JCL /forum/post/15445999


The two original PBS feeds were the two times listed at the beginning of this thread. All the affiliates probably recorded one of the two, mostly likely the second. The first one was the "live" broadcast concurrent with ORF's prime-time (time-zone difference) -- I think.

It may have been concurrent - but the ORF broadcast was not in their prime-time (unless Austria is very different to the US or UK!)


The ORF broadcast was at around 1200CET (i.e. noon local) I believe (which is 1100GMT) - not prime-time (which is usually around 1900-2200ish in Europe I believe?)


The BBC aired it live or semi-live on BBC Two (they joined it at 1120GMT but it may have been edit-delayed rather than a straight late opt-in)

 

[Robert Clark]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DSperber /forum/post/15446029


I'm not at all surprised.


Here in LA, KCET-DT (which like many PBS stations decided to reduce quality and converted from 1080i to 720p a while back in order to cram in additional sub-channels) broadcast the recent annual Mormon Tabernacle Choir show (from SLC) also NOT in DD5.1!


In fact, the audio was awful (or so I felt). Low level, no "presence", maybe two mics (or so it seemed), no real sense of surround... just awful.


Furthermore I felt the picture quality was also inferior. Dunno if this was 720p related, or just a reduced production overall, but last year's show was similarly inferior picture-wise. In contrast, the 2006 concert presentation (still in 1080i) was STUNNING to look at and listen to! Gorgeous lighting, costumes, colors...


It was so disappointing (visually and sonically) that I actually FF'd through this year's concert, after very much looking forward to it. I think I'll skip it entirely next year.


Anyway I don't know what's with PBS on these nationally broadcast programs. Why can't they deliver in DD5.1? Or, if the problem is in the original production itself, why doesn't anybody realize that these concerts DEMAND DD5.1 for maximum viewer entertainment?


What are they thinking?

I don't know what KCET is doing with their HD channel, but lately everything looks like crap, even looks like sub-720p!

 

[hphase]

Just tuned into a WNET replay of the Vienna concert. It was sent as 5.1, but it only had audio in L and R channels. (That would explain no "sense of surround" that DSperber reported. There wasn't any surround!)


This show has been broadcast in real 5.1 before, but I don't know if this was a screwup by PBS or a change in how the concert was delivered this year. Because the show I watched was a WNET replay, and because WNET was the producing station, I can't tell if the PBS feed was sent as 5.1. I can only be sure that the WNET version of the program was coded as 5.1, and only contained stereo audio.


The first US airing was at 2:30 PM, which would be 8:30 PM in Vienna. According to Sneals, the concert was closer to Noon local Vienna time, so the US feed must have been recorded, and maybe edited. While the concert itself and Julie Andrews host segments appeared to be in HD, some of the segments (like the ballet dancers) were not in HD.


The picture was typical WNET quality, but the audio should have been better.

 

[DSperber]



Quote:
Originally Posted by hphase /forum/post/15455132


Just tuned into a WNET replay of the Vienna concert. It was sent as 5.1, but it only had audio in L and R channels. (That would explain no "sense of surround" that DSperber reported. There wasn't any surround!)

I was referring to the Christmas presentation of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, not the Vienna concert.

Quote:
This show has been broadcast in real 5.1 before, but I don't know if this was a screwup by PBS or a change in how the concert was delivered this year. Because the show I watched was a WNET replay, and because WNET was the producing station, I can't tell if the PBS feed was sent as 5.1. I can only be sure that the WNET version of the program was coded as 5.1, and only contained stereo audio.

I can confirm that the lights on my receiver indicated "Dolby PL", not "DD 5.1", during the Tabernacle Choir concert. This could have been a local KCET-DT issue, or it might have come from the national PBS feed.


Now as to what was actually there, well you're observation that there actually was only L/R channel content during the Vienna concert would certainly explain things, if they handled the Tabernacle show the same way. Don't know.


A real shame (the Mormon Tab Choir, I'm talking about).

 

[hphase]



Quote:
Originally Posted by DSperber /forum/post/15455195


I was referring to the Christmas presentation of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, not the Vienna concert.

Thanks for pointing that out.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DSperber /forum/post/15455195


I can confirm that the lights on my receiver indicated "Dolby PL", not "DD 5.1", during the Tabernacle Choir concert. This could have been a local KCET-DT issue, or it might have come from the national PBS feed.


Now as to what was actually there, well you're observation that there actually was only L/R channel content during the Vienna concert would certainly explain things, if they handled the Tabernacle show the same way. Don't know.

If your receiver showed Dolby PL then the program was sent and coded as stereo. Your receiver would not switch to Dolby PL if it was getting a 5.1 signal. It wouldn't be able to tell that there were only two channels of audio in the 5.1 stream.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DSperber /forum/post/15455195


A real shame (the Mormon Tab Choir, I'm talking about).

Agreed. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir has been a long-time user and fan of 5.1.

 

[hdtvfan2005]

KPBS-DT had the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Dolby Digital.