A co-worker and I were just discussing the lack of high-def programming available despite the rise in ownership of high-def tvs. I think of the major television providers right now dish network offers the most high-def channels, but they are still lacking some that other carriers provide. (fsnhd,pbs,nbatv-hd,cinemaxhd) Right now i have dish network and have roughly 25 or so high def channels (including major networks,abc,nbc etc) Directv has been running ads that they will be adding close to a total of 100 hd channels soon, but no word on when exactly. has there been a date set for hd programming like digital programming? another thing a bit frustrating is with a OTA antenna i can pick up my local upn and wb/cw stations in high-def but not with cable or dish despite purchasing the local "hi-def" channel package. anyone know why that is? i have like about 200 standard def cable channels i hardly watch, i just watch my league pass and ucla in standard def most everything else is hi-def. they need to just start transitioning over to high-def soon man!
Man... at least GOOGLE it... Check out this law: http://www.ce.org/AboutCEA/CEAIniti...Overview.asp?name=269&title=HDTV: Turn It On! http://www.dtv.gov/ TV.com's listings: http://www.tv.com/listings/myhdgrid.html?tag=listings_tabs;hd_listings I believe ALL of the major networks do HD on prime time. The only ones that are not doing it are Univision's stations and the syndicated ones... like KNWS here in Houston. If you have an integrated HDTV tuner, it's usually the .1 stations on the regular dial. For example, there's 8, 8.1, and 8.2 for me for PBS. Look up your cable or satellite provider for all the HDTV channels and what they can provide.
There's some good programming out there. PBS HD in Houston (308) is really good. Frontline, American Masters, Nature and my current favorite fix is History Detectives. I also really like Three Sheets on INHD, but I've seen all the old ones and they're all just re-runs now.
Take that up with your cable or dish people. If you have the necessary equipment, but your channels don't "pick up" the HD signal... you might be looking at the incorrect channel... Sorry, I misread what you asked... it looks like you can solve all your problems with your provider.
HD is MUCH more expensive to produce than SD video. We produce 4 TV series a year, and only 1 is done on HD. why? We don't own the HD camera. A proper HD Camera is $70,000 to $120,000. (we're not talking a crappy HDV camera here..but a real broadcast camera) The profits from our 1 13 week HD show is not enough to pay for the high end HD Camera. Many smaller production companies like our produce the larges percentage of TV shows on the air today. Most of TV is a high overhead-low profit business. It's only the major networks and largest Producers that make bundles'o'money. As far as smaller-market TV stations...they don't have much money, and the cost to switch over is enormous. Not only do they have to replace several studio cameras, but smaller ENG location cameras, several edit systems, a dozen tape decks($20,000-$50,000 each) a new switcher, routers. It adds up extremely quick - and you often can't upgrade some equipment without being forced to upgrade others. Also, many sets have to be completely redesigned to take advantage of the new aspect ratio and the increased visibility of things like oh...tape holding something up, or cheap set materials..all of wich you could get away with on SD TV. Right now is an exciting..but very frustrating time for many content producers.
The 5 main networks broadcast a fair amount of their primetime shows in HD. It's a lot better than the situation 4-5 years ago. If you like movies, you'll wanna get Universal HD and HDNet Movies. I just added those to my cable package and there are tons of films in HD with 5.1 audio. I saw that Blade Runner will be on this weekend. Can't wait for that one. And I believe the CBS affiliate here just started broadcasting the local news in HD. Hopefully all news broadcasts follow suit. What's distressing is that a lot of major awards shows still don't broadcast in HD. The Oscars did, but last year's Emmys didn't.
I don't know if you guys get the Universal HD channel, but it's pretty neat. I luvs me some Battlestar Galactica, Stargate, and Firefly in HD.
nah the commercial just says "for the future of 150 HD channels" My guess is they have the bandwith/capability to broadcast 150 HD channels only, not that they are about to show 150 HD channels.
