Ultimate HDTV channel: The Weather Channel?
By Matt Burns 
posted July 4th 2006 8:27AM
posted July 4th 2006 8:27AM
People love The Weather Channel. Some are addicted to it. But check this out. What if there was a high-def Weather Channel? Would you watch it? We would. Gorgeous high-def graphics coupled with breathtaking views of the weather across the globe. It's simply a great idea. Perhaps not all the location based cameras would be in high definition but all the studio shots and graphics could. They have been prepping for the transition for a few months now but there still is no sign of it.
Wonder how long it will be till we see The Weather Channel go high-def?
We already have it here in Raleigh. Not the weather channel but our local news in in HD (WRAL). HD Copter, HD Viper Radar (only one in the world) all news in HD and so on.
I'm still trying to figure out why this blog refuses Universal HD (aka Bravo HD). Its part of the HD package for DirecTV and I guess that isn't enough for representation. Yet, TNT HD is represented? What politics goes on here?
I think that Weather Channel HD raises the greater question of where our HD priorities should be. Is it better to HD-ify those channels and shows which are "easy" to turn high-def? Single camera comedies, C-SPAN, etc.? Or is it better to prioritize those which really benefit visually from HD, like The Amazing Race?
I'm of the belief that if we get the easy ones done first, we'll have more HD cameras out there (and more HD-trained cameramen and producers, etc.) which can get spread around to all the other shows that are more complex to film.
The bigger question is when Weather Channel will go back to actually showing us the weather rather than TV shows and movies of the week.
Perhaps off topic, but isn't it interesting how many niche channels that sprung up to provide one thing -- for instance, MTV and CourTV -- turned to regular variety programming?
In Boston, Comcast actually has a weather channel on our HD set - but it doesn't exactly look like it's in HD. Far as I can tell, it's exactly the same as the non-HD version - but with an 800 series (HD) channel number.