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Next syndicated show to go HD?

J

johnnya2k6

Last year, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy made history by becoming the first syndicated programs to be broadcast in high-definition. But I'm wondering...who'll follow suit next?

Oprah Winfrey debuted her current set in 2005 to mark her 20th anniversary, and it looks HD-ready. Now after spending millions on opening that school in Africa, she probably has enough -- way enough -- to afford HD equipment for her studio.

And what about Entertainment Tonight, another long-running show? For them to be in HD, they would have to rebuild their control room -- meaning the temporary use of a production truck like Letterman did -- and replace all or some of their field cameras with the Sony XDCAMs that shoot in high-def. But since it's a day-and-date show and that it's fed via satellite analoglly (no Pathfire for them), I think they're better off doing it in SD.

But I wouldn't be surprised if Soul Train hops on the HD bandwagon...if Don Cornelius would allow it.

Jonathan Allen
 
johnnya2k6 said:
Last year, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy made history by becoming the first syndicated programs to be broadcast in high-definition. But I'm wondering...who'll follow suit next?
Click to expand...

I'd give a fair chance that it will be some of the library material in syndication that next goes HD -- at least for those stations that are willing to pony up some money for high definition tapes.

CBS' Paramount Syndication unit indicates that "Cheers" is available in high definition, and that "Hogan's Heroes" may be available in HD, as well. The site also indicates that they have remastered several other programs (including "I Love Lucy", "Laverne and Shirley", and "The Twilight Zone") in HD, and are in the process of remastering many other programs. At some point, we'll start seeing these shows appear in syndication in the high definition format -- and we'll also start seeing syndicated reruns in high definition of programs that have been running in that format on primetime television for several years now. Exactly when will all this happen? With HDTVs selling rapidly, I would expect to see a lot of these library shows syndicated in HD in the next couple years.
 
TexasTom said:
CBS' Paramount Syndication unit indicates that "Cheers" is available in high definition, and that "Hogan's Heroes" may be available in HD, as well.
Click to expand...

..."Hogan's Heroes" has been running on HDNet for the last couple of years. The episodes appear to be legitimately widescreen, too, which made me wonder if that's how it was actually shot and then cropped for the CBS run. I posted a few questions about that hereabouts a year back or so, but never got any responses...
 
I've read about Hogan's Hereos before. It's my understanding they just took the original film prints of the show and transferred them over to HD. I don't know if it was shot in wide-screen, but that's not a bad guess. It looks pretty good. It's the same basic way that TNT and UHD get so many recent TV shows in HD that were never shot in HD. (like the x-files)
 
"Hogan's Heroes" was not shot in widescreen, and CBS Paramount apparently has both 16:9 and 4:3 HD versions of the show available. I'm assuming that the former is what HDNet was running, although I recall it was actually closer to 15:9, with very narrow black bars on the sides.

For the widescreen version, they simply cropped some from the top and bottom of the image, while opening up as much of the sides on the image as possible. Since shows in that era were framed to allow for high amounts of overscan, it is possible to crop a certain amount of the top and bottom without losing anything critical.

The result did end up looking pretty good.
 
johnnya2k6 said:
And what about Entertainment Tonight, another long-running show? For them to be in HD, they would have to rebuild their control room -- meaning the temporary use of a production truck like Letterman did -- and replace all or some of their field cameras with the Sony XDCAMs that shoot in high-def. But since it's a day-and-date show and that it's fed via satellite analoglly (no Pathfire for them), I think they're better off doing it in SD.
Click to expand...

Why bother with the truck? Take the show on the road over the summer while the control room is rebuilt. MTV probably has some extra studio space in New York they could borrow, or just do 3 months of field shoots.

Almost forgot...once all the original Star Trek episodes are remastered, there will be an HD package available.
 
johnnya2k6 said:
Last year, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy made history by becoming the first syndicated programs to be broadcast in high-definition. But I'm wondering...who'll follow suit next?

Oprah Winfrey debuted her current set in 2005 to mark her 20th anniversary, and it looks HD-ready. Now after spending millions on opening that school in Africa, she probably has enough -- way enough -- to afford HD equipment for her studio.

And what about Entertainment Tonight, another long-running show? For them to be in HD, they would have to rebuild their control room -- meaning the temporary use of a production truck like Letterman did -- and replace all or some of their field cameras with the Sony XDCAMs that shoot in high-def. But since it's a day-and-date show and that it's fed via satellite analoglly (no Pathfire for them), I think they're better off doing it in SD.

But I wouldn't be surprised if Soul Train hops on the HD bandwagon...if Don Cornelius would allow it.

Jonathan Allen
Click to expand...


Are you kidding? OPRAH could do HD if she wanted in a heartbeat.

It's just that she's gotten stale and boring like everything else on t.v. so I don't see what
good it would do.
 
Of course, any old show that was filmed (rather than taped), could get the HD treatment. Isn't M.A.S.H. in the works as well?
 
The big problem is with HD versions of some of the classic shows, will local stations or cable networks with HD actually carry them? Somehow I don't see local stations that won't give classic TV any time changing their attitude, and I don't see a network like TV Land having an HD version for a long time to come.
 
In response to my own thread...

It would be IMPOSSIBLE for Entertainment Tonight/The Insider (and Inside Edition and Access Hollywood) to be in HD, simply because they're taped and broadcast on the same day. And also...would the stations carrying the shows even care?

Besides ET and Oprah, other first-run shows who won't get the HD treatment anytime soon include:
Live with Regis and Kelly
Judge Judy (or any other Judge shows)
Rachael Ray
Ellen DeGeneres Show
The NBC Universal talk shows (Maury, Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos)
Ebert (actually, Special Guest Critic Sitting In for Ebert While He's Battling Cancer) & Roeper

Dunno about off-network reruns of Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, or the CSI/Law & Order franchises.

Jonathan Allen
 
johnnya2k6 said:
Dunno about off-network reruns of Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, or the CSI/Law & Order franchises.

Jonathan Allen
Click to expand...


Acutally, L&O: SVU is in HD and on Universal HD right now, as is an ol skool show (The Equalizer).
 
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