PBS baby-steps towards HD
By Steven Kim 
posted Feb 11th 2008 2:37PM
posted Feb 11th 2008 2:37PM
We come down pretty hard on stations that try to push stretch-o-vision off on us (upscaled SD is a lesser offense), but we might cut not-for-profit PBS a little slack. A little. Suffice it to say that between costs for production and satellite bandwidth, PBS is feeling the crunch. Only about 20-percent of PBS programming is headed to HD this year, and even then you may not be able to actually view it. PBS is strapped for satellite bandwidth, so three of the five time zone feeds (Mountain, Central and Alaska/Hawaii) will be getting the axe to make room for the HD streams. This means affected affiliates which do not have the ability to time-shift HD will be out of luck. The result for customers of said affiliates is, you guessed it, stretch-o-vision. Our advice -- if your local affiliate doesn't have the HD programming you want, donate some money or look into alternative ways of getting your PBS-fix.
Huh.. I've had PBS HD OTA for around a year now. I love it.
I don't go to PBS that often, but when I do it almost always was showing HD content.
Oh, and don't cut PBS *any* slack for being "not for profit". Keep in mind that they're partially funded by the U.S. taxpayer via numerous federal grants. I've worked with people who worked at my local PBS station (yeah, I know, the friend of a friend stuff...), but the consensus was that PBS can get any piece of TV and radio hardware that you could possibly think of. The quarterly (or semi-annually) begging for money apparently is not very necessary, at least at the local affiliate.
Now, the issue of satellite bandwidth ... are there not other satellites on which they could lease bandwidth? No sarcasm. Serious question.
um, PBS runs a 24 hour constant HD broadcast, there is no stretch-o-vision or upscaled SD at all. At east in my area
Here in Indy they offer HD OTA, and it's one of the best OTA channels. No strech-o-vision; only HD content. There's repetition, but I'd prefer that over the alternative.
What you'll have available to you is dependent on your local PBS affiliate. I'd expect those of us in major markets will get treated to HD, but areas served by less "well-heeled" PBS stations will be left behind. I agree completely that PBS has some fabulous programming.
Nice pixelated logo.
yeah, I was just thinking that. It's clever.
Our local PBS station has been transmitting a dedicated HD channel for quite awhile. They also have 5 SD channels. They offer more content than any other broadcast station in our area (Minneapolis, MN).
Glad I get PBSHD in Richmond, VA. Not the best HD channel I get, but some of the shows like e2 are flat out awesome. I hope more shows over time get the same treatment, but the few ones that do come in HD are worth it.
I am confused by this post. Does this mean that HD Downloads will only be once and local PBS stations will need equipment to record them in HD in order to broadcast them in full HD later, e.g. no local HD recorder means station records in SD and broadcasts later in stretchovision (whatever that is)? Please clarify. THANKS
I'm confused, I thought the east coast feed was the same as
central... hence the typical "tomorrow at 8/7 central".
Nowhere in the article does it say PBS will be using stretch-o-vision. Come on, do a little research before posting this shoddy crap.
I've not seen stretch-o-vision on PBS for quite some time, if ever. However, based on the quality, it does appear to be upscaled 480p widescreen video.
What happened to Wired Science? Was that canned? I thought that was pretty neat, but poorly promoted. I have a friend that subscribes to the Wired magazine and he's never heard of Wired Science.