HD Syndication

[Tony Peters]

Since I last posted in the schedule thread, I worked on tweaking our antenna a bit, resulting in (somewhat; the picture sometimes drops out for some unknown reason) the ability to watch one additional station, namely WAAY-ABC-31.  For the past 2 days I watched Jeopardy! on said station (where it moved this week from its longtime Huntsville, AL market home of WAFF-NBC-48; BTW,Wheel still airs on WAFF).  I was pleasantly surprised to see WAAY air Jeopardy! in 16:9 720p HD, making it (I believe, since I can't confirm how WAFF runs their syndicated shows now) the first syndicated game show, and the first of 2 (The Doctors is the other) syndicated shows to air in HD in the market.  Part of the pleasant surprise came from the fact that WAAY is (last I checked) the market's 3rd place station and runs everything else other than live ABC feeds in 4:3 SD, owned by a smaller company (Calkins Media) than either WAFF (Raycom Media) or WHNT-CBS-19 (Local TV LLC), the 2 "power" stations in the market (as some additional background, WAFF is in the midst of converting their news operation to 1080i HD, while WHNT currently does their news and HD-produced syndicated programs in 16:9 SD with some limited 1080p HD capabilities and, I think, will soon be under pressure to fully convert).  WZDX-Fox-54 (Grant Broadcasting II) and WHDF-CW-15 (Lockwood Broadcasting), meanwhile, apparently have no plans or funds to upgrade their local/syndicated programming to HD any time soon.

Just curious to know if there are any other posters here who can receive Wheel and/or Jeopardy! in HD, and how soon can they expect to receive these and other shows in HD soon.

[tpirfan28]

DMA #86 (South Bend, IN) has them in HD since 2008.  Love it.  The station's only non-HD programming now I think is any network programming (Bold and Beautiful is the only one?) outside of paid programming.

/Fox Sports is doing it right
//16:9 for all

[chad1m]

Flint/Saginaw/Bay City ain't got nothin' syndicated in HD. The best we've got is WJRT, the local ABC affiliate, airing Live! with Regis & Kelly in widescreen.

[tvmitch]

In the Harrisburg/Lancaster/Lebanon/York market in PA, I believe that WGAL and WHTM are the only two stations capable of showing HD syndie programming. WHP, WLYH, and WPMT have not invested in the necessary equipment, which is a substantial expense from what I understand. It was a Big Deal when we got the equipment to air the CBS/King World syndies in HD, like Dr. Phil and Orpah. WHP airs Wheel and J!, and it's a darn shame we can't see them in HD. Folks in about half the market get WPVI on cable, which airs J! and Wheel for the Philly market, but the vast majority don't get WPVI in HD.

We are also the largest DMA (#39) without a single station airing local news in HD, interestingly enough.

[Unrealtor]

What is and is not produced in HD these days? Both the "Feud" and "Millionaire" premieres were in SD for me, even though I know that "Millionaire"'s station is capable of airing HD recordings and I think that "Feud"'s station is as well (the two other operations based in the same building certainly are - Wheel and J! air in HD on one of them.)

[quote name=\'tvmitch\' post=\'247654\' date=\'Sep 15 2010, 07:44 PM\']In the Harrisburg/Lancaster/Lebanon/York market in PA...
We are also the largest DMA (#39) without a single station airing local news in HD, interestingly enough.[/quote]

From what I saw of the local news there about six weeks ago, I would have guessed it was a much smaller market than Austin (#44), but sometimes I get the impression that we've somehow managed to luck into higher production values than a city our size might normally have because all of our stations have corporate siblings in Dallas and/or Houston, and most of them have shared various elements of their newscasts at one point or another.

[catkins522]

For the Ft. Myers/Naples area:

non-HD syn shows:
Millionaire (only downloaded from Pathfire)
5th Grader (Fox syn)
Bold and Beautiful (CBS)
Let's Make a Deal (CBS)


Charles Atkins

[gameshowcrazy]

HD is a budget-buster, even for network TV.  It's being done just so everyone can keep up with the Joneses (only 46% of households are able to receive a HD signal, while only 53% of households even own a HD TV, and we all know that is mostly due to the fact that a.  you mostly can't buy a tube TV anymore and b.  HD through PS3, Blu-Ray, et. al. makes owning the rectangle worth it), but due to the expense, I wouldn't expect to see too much of it for syndicated game shows real soon.

Not that I watch enough football to know, but does Fox/CBS show all NFL games in HD yet?  I know in years past there were only 2 crews worth of HD equipment per network, but has that changed yet?  If not, that will just show you how expensive it is.

Really from what I've seen of HD (I refuse to pay extra for it), it really doesn't do much for most programming (sports being what it is best for).

...and just for the sake of griping, and to see if any of you saw this:

I hate HD for the fact that I and most TV homes don't have it, yet so much programming is in HD that those of us without are missing something--the edges of the screen.  Trying to watch some things have been awful as graphics on screen are not being fully shown in SD (like someone's name at the bottom of a screen in an interview and their last name is cut off by the right side of the screen).  But I did manage to catch a few minutes of football on Fox last week, and was really happy to see it in letterbox format so I could get the full view and graphics an HD viewer would see--anyone else see this on Fox, or the letterbox format for HD on SD display used elsewhere?

[NickS]

[quote name=\'tpirfan28\' post=\'247652\' date=\'Sep 15 2010, 06:47 PM\']DMA #86 (South Bend, IN) has them in HD since 2008.  Love it.  The station's only non-HD programming now I think is any network programming (Bold and Beautiful is the only one?) outside of paid programming.

/Fox Sports is doing it right
//16:9 for all[/quote]

I don't know if "The Talk" will be HD or SD this season; the same goes for LMaD.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Unrealtor\' post=\'247671\' date=\'Sep 15 2010, 10:07 PM\']What is and is not produced in HD these days? Both the "Feud" and "Millionaire" premieres were in SD for me, even though I know that "Millionaire"'s station is capable of airing HD recordings and I think that "Feud"'s station is as well (the two other operations based in the same building certainly are - Wheel and J! air in HD on one of them.)[/quote]
Wheel, J!, and TPiR (AFAIK) are the only syndicated game shows in HD.

My station shows Wheel and J! in HD...and we receive the occasional complaint when it airs in SD. :-P

[Mr. Brown]

[quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'247682\' date=\'Sep 15 2010, 10:48 PM\']Wheel, J!, and TPiR (AFAIK) are the only syndicated shows in HD.[/quote]

Price hasn't been syndicated since 1994/95.

/We knew you meant game shows.

[BrandonFG]

[quote name=\'Mr. Brown\' post=\'247692\' date=\'Sep 16 2010, 12:58 AM\'][quote name=\'fostergray82\' post=\'247682\' date=\'Sep 15 2010, 10:48 PM\']Wheel, J!, and TPiR (AFAIK) are the only syndicated shows in HD.[/quote]

Price hasn't been syndicated since 1994/95.

/We knew you meant game shows.
[/quote]
Oops...I knew that and yet I still posted it! Thanks. :-P

/Fixed the post for myself

[clemon79]

[quote name=\'gameshowcrazy\' post=\'247673\' date=\'Sep 15 2010, 07:32 PM\']HD is a budget-buster, even for network TV.  It's being done just so everyone can keep up with the Joneses[/quote]
It's being done the same reason that color was done: because THINGS CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.

Not that I watch enough football to know, but does Fox/CBS show all NFL games in HD yet?

Yes.

I hate HD for the fact that I and most TV homes don't have it,

Ah, now it comes out.

yet so much programming is in HD that those of us without are missing something--the edges of the screen.

Suck it up, or...

anyone else see this on Fox, or the letterbox format for HD on SD display used elsewhere?

...write those in charge so you see more of this in the interim. I think this is a perfectly reasonable compromise in the meantime.

[golden-road]

No HD Wheel or J! in Boise, although twice in four years there was a fluke WS Wheel airing.

[Craig Karlberg]

In my #4 market(Philly), most stations air HD programming,  WoF & J! are all in HD as is Millionaire as far as I know.  Not sure about FF since I have to resort to WFMZ-TV out of Allentown which just last year converted to HD

The thing that bugs me about HD is that if you switch from an SD channel to an HD channel in 720p, parts of the screen on the sides get cut off.  It's most noticable when I watch ESPN's SportsCenter where they show what's ahead on the left side(In HD mode, it doesn't show up at all).  I guess having an 83 year-old stepdad needing to watch things in full screen on SD is probably part of the problem.  He doesn't want to see those black/gray bars on the sides.  I just wonder how to fix something like that when going from a normal setting to something like 720p or 1080p.  Does intelace do the same thing as progressive scan?

[Mr. Armadillo]

[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'247699\' date=\'Sep 16 2010, 12:14 AM\']

Not that I watch enough football to know, but does Fox/CBS show all NFL games in HD yet?

Yes.[/quote]
Not only is it all in HD, FOX's score bug is now 75% outside of the 4:3 viewing area.  All anyone not viewing the game in widescreen can see is the home team's score and timeouts (and maybe the seconds digit of the clock).