This can be a complicated question and answer but can also be very simple. I will take the simple approach on this one.
For the most part and for the forseeable future, most local broadcast network (over the air) affiliate stations (like your local NBC, ABC, CBS etc.) do not have the very expensive equipment that would allow them to RECORD and later PLAYBACK on their own time, a High Definition program. That means that unless the actual network is sending out that program in HD and your local station is in turn sending out to you at the same time in HD, it isn’t going to be in HD.
Let me restate using an example. Let’s say that you are sitting down to watch Ugly Betty on Thursday night and there is local breaking news in your area, or they decide to air some other special local programming. Your local ABC affiliate doesn’t air Ugly Betty at the time the network is uplinking it to them. They can’t record it HD because they don’t own that type of equipment. The can record it only in standard definition. So if they decide to replay it at a later date or time, it won’t be in HD, only standard definition.
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It will be quite some time before most of your local affiliates can afford this type of equipment that will allow them to RECORD shows uplinked to them from the network in HD.
2 comments:
TV stations can't record HD content?
I call B.S. on that. There's HD DVRs for consumers, there's hardware and software that takes HD input and stores it on a home computer.
Equipment to store a digital signal in it's original form can't be all that expensive for TV stations. (It's probably a trivial expense compared to all the other equipment needed to covert a TV station to digital.
I agree with you. I've had many conversation about this topic with Doug Finck who manages both The CW and My Network stations in Portland. Apparently, the process is a lot more technical than simply recording a show like we would with a DVR. They are dealing with satellite transmissions and the audio and video actually comes in on separate feeds. (Have you ever noticed an HD TV show or HD commercial where the voice doesn't match up or the voice track doesn't show up at all?). Also, the way they get this feed takes an enormous amount of storage space in order to save it and replay it later. Doug is a smart guy and has always been up front with me. He is the only person in our local market who support the Maine HDTV Forum and is willing to offer whatever information he can to get the truth out so I do believe him when he tells me these things.
Actually, he offered to give me a tour of their studios. I have a post that talks about it so if you or others are interested I'd love to get a small group together to take the tour together. Then we can ask questions and see how it all works for ourselves.
Thanks for stopping by the forum.
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