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Topic:
CBC and Radio Canada now in 720p?
This thread has 10 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Wednesday September 21, 2011 at 11:56
donnyjaguar
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As above, I noticed the switch immediately. I don't see this mentioned so I'm wondering if my LG TV is on the blink?
Donny Jaguar
Post 2 made on Wednesday September 21, 2011 at 12:30
hd fan
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No , your TV is fine.They switched back to 720p in Toronto more than 1 week ago. No EPG ever since. I was hoping it was a temporary thing due to some equipment failure but it could be permanent. They probably decided because CBC sports prog to use 720p instead in Toronto (well and now Barrie! because they have to rely on our CN Tower signal).

Their 5 C band signals (5 each) for National distribution are also 720p from the get go in Sept 1st but that is understandable to lower the distribution costs (at least they are not using the lower quality sat signals from Bell TV or Star choice like other OTA stations)
Post 3 made on Wednesday September 21, 2011 at 16:13
el gran chico
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CBC told me this was due to them be able to fit 15 720p streams on a single transponder. For 1080i, they'd need an additional transponder which I understand costs big $. All about cost savings on distribution.

I understand that up until the change, CBLT was stand-alone so it could be 1080i but it was brought in with the others thus the change. EPG will return very soon I'm told.
Post 4 made on Wednesday September 21, 2011 at 17:43
hd fan
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Thanks for the info , at normal viewing distances no human eye will even tell the difference (well if you own an eagle that watches TV with the family then that is another case, lol). If 15 would have fit then they should have used all 10 signals on the same one, well .... , eh...... it might be the case they are using the same TP for all 10 of them (I will have to double check), it is just that they are split into 2 different uplink signals with the same parameters, only the frecuency changes, so it appears as if it is 2 TP. BTW the picture quality on those (C band at 107.3W Anik F1) is great and I could not tell any difference with CBLT or CBLFT when they still were 1080i. For someone who wants to enjoy these free timeshifted 5 CBC and 5 RDS HD signals all you need is a C band Dish (at least 6 feet) and an HD MPEG4 8PSK Satellite receiver, the openbox s10 only costs 120 cad these days.

These are C band transponders, if a way cheaper 36 Mhz wide Ku band (this band is affected by heavy rain/snow) TP roughly costs around 1 million dollars a year then going 720p will represent a big savings , besides most sports networks typically choose 720p due to lots of motion on the sport scenes.

I guess they were sending our Toronto signals to the CN tower via either digital microwave or fiber or even a direct coaxial line therefore with some added cost to it , so if they already had to pay for satellite uplinking then why not use that one instead. That I can understand, but leaving communities accross the country in the dark, no way!.
Post 5 made on Tuesday September 27, 2011 at 18:16
mr.eous
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Tonight's Ontario provincial election leaders debate should be amusing -- being hosted in the atrium/lobby of CBC's broadcast centre in downtown Toronto, but run by a consortium with CTV, Global, TVO, CHCH, and maybe one or two others.

How fun it'll be to watch CBC airing 1280x720p while every other broadcaster shows 1920x1080i from the same damn feed.

I stick with my original "shame on CBC" for downgrading the flagship CBLT CN Tower transmitter to 720p; no excuse for that... "standardizing" transmission nationwide is one thing for outlying areas, but CBC Toronto serves the largest population, so I can't understand taking a step back after years of DTV in 1080i.
Post 6 made on Wednesday September 28, 2011 at 09:33
hd fan
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IMO it is not a step back but , in fact, depending on the content it will be a "step forward" if sports are being broadcasts. The future will probably bring systems that adapt to the show content on the fly so it switches to 720p while hockey games and back to 1080i for lets say The National. I was also used to 1080i and I remember when WNED went to 720p as well , but I do not see much of a difference. This is all mostly subjective matter. ABC and FOX use 720p for that sport reasson , look at their presidential debates , CBS at 1080i still blows away IMO the rest but ABC is just behind them , at least for my eyes, lol. Besides, and more important, the final transmitter could well be 1080i but if to get the signal to the TX site they have to overly compress it (like the ones that use Bell TV or Shaw signals) rather than dedicated properly set links (wide bandwidh links on Sat TP or Digital Microwave or even better fiber optics) then what is the point fo 1080i anyways?.

If not for the cities and towns left in the dark and the lack of PSIP EPG in Toronto still , I would have given the CBC a 5 star rating for their digital conversion.
OP | Post 7 made on Monday October 3, 2011 at 14:35
donnyjaguar
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Thanks for the confirmation and thoughts. I think its shameful of CBC to take this step backwards when most lower-budget broadcasters are merrily at 1080i. Like I said, I saw it immediately and I don't have eagle eyes. I guess its a case of living in the age of quantity and not quality. Tragic...
Donny Jaguar
Post 8 made on Monday October 3, 2011 at 23:32
Daniel Tonks
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It's not easy to see the different on small screens, but on a big 1080p screen the decrease in detail and sharpness is noticeable, especially when you're so familiar with how things like the news used to look.
Post 9 made on Friday January 13, 2012 at 03:11
bzteam
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I watch TV on a my PC on a 23/22 inch monitor I've noticed the reduction in quality in general as well. It seems like the quality is inconsistent...sometimes faded and sometimes in brilliant crisp quality. I don't know why this is exactly, but I wish everything was consistently crisp.

It seems like their prime time programming is all in crisp quality. Same with the hockey night in Canada games. CBC news looks soft though. Some of the sports events on the weekend are soft as well.

Same thing with Radio Canada - their prime time programming for the most part is vivid. TElejournal and some of the daytime talk shows are less crisp and soft-imaged.

Could it also be the source that the actual program is recorded in> Maybe some shows have a larger budget for recording quality?
Post 10 made on Friday January 13, 2012 at 08:46
buffalofan19
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The Winter Classic looked like crap on CBLT compared to WGRZ. That's definitely a first.
Post 11 made on Friday January 13, 2012 at 16:40
babaji
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I think the image looks softer too. It is also possible that they have increased the compression, to help all those streams fit on one transponder.


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