PBS HD Programming

The PBS HD channel in New York City area 12-1 has fantastic programs. They
do not list them in their guide, only on their web site. Hardly anyubody
is aware of it. Culture, science, music both classical and pops, history,
documentaries, etc. Their programs are like PBS used to be when it started
many years ago. Is the same kind of PBS HD programming available outside
NY metropolitan area? I am located 30 miles from the Empire State building
and get it over the air.

Cass

On 6 Jun 2007 13:40:40 GMT, Cass Lewart wrote:

The PBS HD channel in New York City area 12-1 has fantastic programs. They
do not list them in their guide, only on their web site. Hardly anyubody
is aware of it. Culture, science, music both classical and pops, history,
documentaries, etc. Their programs are like PBS used to be when it started
many years ago. Is the same kind of PBS HD programming available outside
NY metropolitan area? I am located 30 miles from the Empire State building
and get it over the air.

Cass

Same here with KCTS 9 in Seattle. We have "Create" on 9.3 and KCTS HD on
9.5. These channels are not in their guide, and there isn't even a monthly
schedule for them online. It's like a big secret. No wonder they're always
broke. Sheesh.

Pete

Cass Lewart wrote:
The PBS HD channel in New York City area 12-1 has fantastic programs. They
do not list them in their guide, only on their web site. Hardly anyubody
is aware of it. Culture, science, music both classical and pops, history,
documentaries, etc. Their programs are like PBS used to be when it started
many years ago. Is the same kind of PBS HD programming available outside
NY metropolitan area? I am located 30 miles from the Empire State building
and get it over the air.

Cass

We get similar programming in Seattle on 9-5 (9-1 shows the same
programming as the analog PBS channel, although some of it is 16:9). I
believe it is distributed nationally by PBS. There is a lot of very
good programming, although much of it is repeats. Occasionally there
will be HD simulcasts of the SD programs.

Isn't that on 13-1?

"Cass Lewart" wrote in message
...
The PBS HD channel in New York City area 12-1 has fantastic programs. They
do not list them in their guide, only on their web site. Hardly anyubody
is aware of it. Culture, science, music both classical and pops, history,
documentaries, etc. Their programs are like PBS used to be when it started
many years ago. Is the same kind of PBS HD programming available outside
NY metropolitan area? I am located 30 miles from the Empire State building
and get it over the air.

Cass

In article ,
says...


The PBS HD channel in New York City area 12-1 has fantastic programs. They
do not list them in their guide, only on their web site. Hardly anyubody
is aware of it. Culture, science, music both classical and pops, history,
documentaries, etc. Their programs are like PBS used to be when it started
many years ago. Is the same kind of PBS HD programming available outside
NY metropolitan area? I am located 30 miles from the Empire State building
and get it over the air.

PBS provides a national HD feed that many stations rebroadcast. In our
market, the only ways to see a schedule for this feed is on the station's web
site and the over the air program guide - when the guide is working.

If the local station web site doesn't have a readily available schedule, you
can try the schedule at the national site, which is arranged by locality.
High Def programming is included in the schedules at the national site.

http://www.pbs.org/tvschedules/

whosbest54
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(Cass Lewart) wrote:

The PBS HD channel in New York City area 12-1 has fantastic programs. They
do not list them in their guide, only on their web site. Hardly anyubody
is aware of it. Culture, science, music both classical and pops, history,
documentaries, etc. Their programs are like PBS used to be when it started
many years ago. Is the same kind of PBS HD programming available outside
NY metropolitan area? I am located 30 miles from the Empire State building
and get it over the air.

Cass

I think most PBS affiliates run PBS-HD at least part of the time.
Some do it only at night and have maybe 4 SD channels during the day.
An obnoxious practice, since it can disrupt reception when they switch
back and forth, and some tuners need to rescan the channels each time.

My station does better. They always run PBS-HD on one subchannel and
their local SD programs on another. And KUAT in Tucson does the best
of all. They have two transmitters with 4 SD programs on one and just
PBS-HD on the other (as KUAS). They also produce the excellent HD
program "The Desert Speaks," while most PBS stations settle for a
talking-heads show (e.g. reporters in a studio discussing the week's
events) and think they've fulfilled their requirement for
locally-produced programming.

I too wish the PBS-HD schedule were in my newspaper's weekly guide.
But the TitanTV and Zap2It online guides have it and my computer-based
DVRs can use one or both of them for scheduling.

It's obvious that PBS doesn't have enough HD programming to fill a
schedule. There's a lot of repetition (a good thing if you miss it
the first time around) but even still, only about half of their shows
are actually HD. It's easy to be fooled because it's all widescreen
and often very good (i.e. DVD) quality. But some of their most
popular shows like The History Detectives and Secrets of the Dead are
never HD, and Nova and Nature rarely are. I don't understand that.
If you're making a show in widescreen to air on an HD channel, why
wouldn't you make it in HD?

Del Mibbler

"Pete" wrote in message
...
On 6 Jun 2007 13:40:40 GMT, Cass Lewart wrote:

The PBS HD channel in New York City area 12-1 has fantastic
programs. They
do not list them in their guide, only on their web site.
Hardly anyubody
is aware of it. Culture, science, music both classical and
pops, history,
documentaries, etc. Their programs are like PBS used to be
when it started
many years ago. Is the same kind of PBS HD programming
available outside
NY metropolitan area?

Yes.

I live outside Boston and get GBH 2.1,2.2, 44.1 ... 44.4.
GBH2.2 is the HD channel and yes the programming is great
and
even outside the box. Occasionally this native Bronxite
watches
America's Heartland. The PBS digital channels are the
primary reason
I bought an HDTV with ATSC. I recently chastised GBH for
only showing
the Hidden Epidemic: (about Heart Disease) on the HD
channel.
It turns out PBS, not the local channels, controls the HD
channel
programming.


Same here with KCTS 9 in Seattle. We have "Create" on 9.3 and
KCTS HD on
9.5. These channels are not in their guide, and there isn't
even a monthly
schedule for them online. It's like a big secret. No wonder
they're always
broke. Sheesh.

They do promote the digital ***Comcast*** channel around
here. Ironically,
Cablevision charges extra to get the PBS HD channel in NYC.
:-\ Hmmm.

--

Rick Evans
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lon -71° 04' 35.3"
Lat +42° 11' 06.7"

Cass Lewart" wrote in message
...
The PBS HD channel in New York City area 12-1 has fantastic
programs. They
do not list them in their guide, only on their web site.
Hardly anyubody
is aware of it.

I should also mention that for listings I use Zap2it.com
with my local zip code and provider set for Local Broadcast.

http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/
--

Hilton Evans
---------------------------------------------------------------
Lon -71° 04' 35.3"
Lat +42° 11' 06.7"

In article , [email protected] says...

My station does better. They always run PBS-HD on one subchannel and
their local SD programs on another. And KUAT in Tucson does the best
of all. They have two transmitters with 4 SD programs on one and just
PBS-HD on the other (as KUAS). They also produce the excellent HD
program "The Desert Speaks," while most PBS stations settle for a
talking-heads show (e.g. reporters in a studio discussing the week's
events) and think they've fulfilled their requirement for
locally-produced programming.

In large markets where the local PBS broadcasters were originally allocated 2
or more (are there more than 2 in LA or NY, for example?) analog channels way
back when, they have the ability to broadcast 2 sets of digital channels.
That gives them the ability, if they desire, to devote the full bandwidth of
one to HD. My market doesn't have that, unfortunately.


It's obvious that PBS doesn't have enough HD programming to fill a
schedule. There's a lot of repetition (a good thing if you miss it
the first time around) but even still, only about half of their shows
are actually HD. It's easy to be fooled because it's all widescreen
and often very good (i.e. DVD) quality. But some of their most
popular shows like The History Detectives and Secrets of the Dead are
never HD, and Nova and Nature rarely are. I don't understand that.
If you're making a show in widescreen to air on an HD channel, why
wouldn't you make it in HD?

I've seen History Detectives, Nova, Nature and Secrets of the Dead on the PBS
HD channel. Are you saying they are all mostly in 480P? Some PBS programming
still is. I know Austin City Limits still is.

whosbest54
--
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whosbest54 wrote (in part):

I've seen History Detectives, Nova, Nature and Secrets of the Dead on the PBS
HD channel. Are you saying they are all mostly in 480P? Some PBS programming
still is. I know Austin City Limits still is.

Exactly. TitanTV and Zap2It are pretty good about telling you what is
and isn't in HD. And at the start of each show, PBS-HD says it's
presented in either high definition or widescreen. The latter is not
HD. It's upconverted to 1080i just as a DVD is in some players, and
it's zoomed to fill the 16:9 screen.

For example, on tonight's primetime schedule (8-11 PM EDT), "Sweet
Tornado is HD, but "Windsor Castle" and "Secrets of the Dead" are not.