Last night's Miami @ Boston College game broadcast by Raycom was broadcast in HIGH DEFINITION.

No, Im not kidding. The game was only broadcast on the WRAL Newschannel here in Raleigh in SD, but the highlights during the newscast were indeed HD. Im told it was more of a test than anything, but the test went well so there are reasons to hope more HD games will be broadcast this year, but there is apparently a plan to broadcast the ACC tournament in HD this year.

1/17/2007 5:50:58 AM

only if the announcers didnt completely suck balls

1/17/2007 6:32:56 AM

^beat me to it. Mine was:

Yeah, but it's Raycom.

1/17/2007 7:21:59 AM

Who gives a shit about the announcers, you watch the game because you have an interest in the teams that are playing. When you have a choice of watching the game on Raycom or not watching the game at all, it being available in HD is big news, not to mention the fact that weve missed out on the tourney in HD for the past two years because of the blackout.

1/17/2007 9:03:25 AM

that is great news. syndication should not be an issue anymore.

1/17/2007 10:13:52 AM

thank GOD

[Edited on January 17, 2007 at 11:03 AM. Reason : the quality for them as always been shitty]

1/17/2007 11:03:48 AM

^For the record, I looked through the tape of the game, and it was some of the best HD Ive seen...this was straight from the satellite though so I cant vouch for how it will look OTA on WRAL, but it is indeed a stellar first effort.

1/17/2007 11:38:18 AM

even more of a thank god, they look so bad in SD on a big TV

1/17/2007 12:56:41 PM

Hopefully our local affiliates can carry the game HD.

1/17/2007 1:11:19 PM

PRAISE JESUS.

1/17/2007 1:30:28 PM

it'd be solid if these came to football as well. as you said, their football broadcast is poop

1/17/2007 1:32:55 PM

i HATE raycom and fox's football broadcasting. You NEVER hear the crowd noise, only espn does a good job of giving you a better atmosphere, and ocassionally cbs

1/17/2007 10:20:11 PM

Anything is better than their SD broadcasts. The colors are always blown out compared to other channels.

1/18/2007 7:29:52 AM

it is about god damn time

1/18/2007 2:08:58 PM

woooohooo how about our Duke game this weekend?

1/18/2007 3:08:22 PM

i still can't get ABC in HD for ANYTHING, so i'm not really hopeful about raycom

1/18/2007 4:26:00 PM

^^ its on ABC

^ our game isn't in HD for some reason this weekend

1/18/2007 4:56:11 PM

okay i still haven't seen a game in HD yet

even if they were just testing it, why the hell would they not use their HD equipment?



and another reason why raycom sucks is try looking at the clock on the FSU/WF game on right now

they have it zoomed out so far you can see the box around it

wow. and more shitty quality.

1/27/2007 4:10:48 PM

OK, watched a game on it the other night, and was pissed...it didn't fill out to widescreen. Still a lot clearer, but I hated watching it on only 80% of my TV.

1/29/2007 3:48:15 PM

REALLY?!?!?!

AWESOME!

1/29/2007 3:48:37 PM

Here is the response I got to an email I sent to Raycom/LFSports wanting to know when HD will be available for broadcasts:

Quote :

"Currently, Raycom Sports and Lincoln Financial Sports are testing "non-network" HD delivery of our ACC Basketball telecasts with our local stations throughout the ACC Territory. If the tests are successful, we have plans in place to produce and deliver the entire ACC Basketball Tournament in HD. I believe WDCA will be able to broadcast that feed. It is difficult for the local stations to pull down HD feeds that aren't being sent to them by their network."

FYI, my question was specifically about the DC metro, but the answer is probably applicable for most carriers.

1/29/2007 3:52:16 PM

WRAL should have absolutely no problem doing this, they've been doing HD for years

1/29/2007 3:55:38 PM

^Read again. Raycom/LF is not yet delivering broadcasts in HD, so it doesn't matter what WRAL can do.

1/29/2007 3:57:38 PM

Quote :

"It is difficult for the local stations to pull down HD feeds that aren't being sent to them by their network."

1/29/2007 5:49:22 PM

Quote :

"WRAL should have absolutely no problem doing this, they've been doing HD for years"

Youd be surprised...in 2004 when the two conventions were in HD, FOX 50 aired the clean feed start to finish on their HD channel. For me to record the broadcast to for news purposes, I had to record it over the air with the FOX50 bug on it rather than get it from the actual satellite feed because WRAL didnt have the equipment necessary to pick it up, which really sucked because you had a nice 1080i->720p->1080i conversion going on there.

That being said, they can pick up the Raycom broadcasts, as I mentioned in my first post, they had highlights of the BC-Miami game during the news that night in HD. I am surprised that they appear to only be planning to do the ACC tourney in HD...I figured theyd at least try to do their Duke-Carolina game as well.

1/30/2007 9:54:18 AM

is the game tonight in hd?

i wish i could just watch espn. gotta get direct tv. they own cable in everything. its not even close and they are cheaper

2/7/2007 7:01:35 PM

Now we can see even more of those completely shitty camera angles

2/7/2007 7:24:59 PM

no of course its not

i don't think any of them will be

[Edited on February 7, 2007 at 8:50 PM. Reason : till tourney time]

2/7/2007 8:50:23 PM

DOESNT MATTER i found a way around the blackout.

unplug your box for 10 minutes and when you plug it back in the local blackout data won't be uploaded again until midnight.

2/7/2007 8:54:36 PM

o rly

[Edited on February 7, 2007 at 9:04 PM. Reason : did it work? that doesn't sound like it will work]

2/7/2007 9:04:05 PM

god dammit, I have direct tv and the game is blocked on ESPN, have to watch this CBS shit

2/7/2007 9:11:49 PM

^Raycom/LF. CBS actually airs games in HD.

2/7/2007 9:12:41 PM

at least this is one of the few games where the quality isn't shitty

but ESPN still looks 5000 times better even in SD

I WANT FUCKING HIGH DEF

FUCK YOU ACC FOR SIGNING THIS BULLSHIT

2/7/2007 9:13:24 PM

whatever it is, its on CBS... I want Dickie V

2/7/2007 9:13:26 PM

Quote :

"unplug your box for 10 minutes and when you plug it back in the local blackout data won't be uploaded again until midnight."

DirecTV or TWC box? Did anyone else try this?
Not that I would have if I had read this earlier...Lost was on...Lost >>>> Duke-Carolina. And Lost isnt even close to one of my favorite shows.

2/7/2007 11:29:58 PM

^ I have TWC and never thought of that.

However how can you not have UNC Duke in HD? How can you as a business not do that. Yet a BC game is worth it?

Hell dont even blackout ESPNHD if youre only going to offer Standard cable viewing for the game.

2/8/2007 10:29:12 AM

^^ gay, any sporting event involving football, bball, or baseball >>> any goofy ass tv show if you have a penis

2/8/2007 10:33:36 AM

Here's the response I got today from my email:

Quote :

"Raycom Sports and Lincoln Financial Sports have been testing "non-network" or syndicated HD delivery of our ACC Basketball telecasts with our local stations throughout the ACC region. The tests are have been fairly successful thus far, with about half of our local stations having the ability to downlink and broadcast a HD feed from R/LF. Because of this promising statistic, we will most likely be producing and distributing the entire ACC Basketball Tournament in HD this season. We are also looking into the feasibility of broadcasting other regular seasons games (such as the UNC-Duke match-up) in HD during the 2008 season. Thank you for your patience and your support of ACC Basketball."

But not all games, just selected games will be shot in HD.

Seriously?

Also it seems like local stations choose NOT to carry it in HD. Seems like it from the email i received. I don't quite know whats true, b/c no one wants to take the heat.

2/8/2007 2:33:28 PM

Quote :

"However how can you not have UNC Duke in HD? How can you as a business not do that. Yet a BC game is worth it?"

Well what youre missing is it was a test. If youre testing something new and you dont want to risk it affecting your broadcast, you dont do it during your biggest game of the year. However, doing it during a game between the teams with the least interested fanbases is as good a time as any.

However, I got the impression that when the tests went well with that broadcast, that doing more games through the rest of the season would happen, not just the tournament. But now its maybe next year doing the UNC-Duke game? I realize that Raycom does a TON of games between the ACC and SEC, but if they have the technology, then theres no reason they cant do either their ACC or SEC football games each week in HD (or both) and at least 1 midweek matchup during basketball season.

I will say this: based on what I saw of the BC-Miami game, if they do the tourney as they are promising, we will be getting the better HD broadcast over everyone who is watching on ESPN.

2/8/2007 3:18:20 PM

Quote :

"DirecTV or TWC box? Did anyone else try this? Not that I would have if I had read this earlier...Lost was on...Lost >>>> Duke-Carolina. And Lost isnt even close to one of my favorite shows."

if its for TWC that does not work

even if you have regular cable without a box its still blacked out, its all about the signal coming from the cable station, which is cut by TWC

so fucking gay, they should be able to blackout ESPN if they really need to but not FUCKING ESPNHD

2/8/2007 3:52:49 PM

Oh no I knew it was a test. I was just curious how they plan on doleing out HD programming now that those tests went, apparently, well.

Quote :

" I will say this: based on what I saw of the BC-Miami game, if they do the tourney as they are promising, we will be getting the better HD broadcast over everyone who is watching on ESPN."

I hope you're right. I always liked the local coverage feel to ACC games over ESPN.

2/8/2007 4:42:08 PM

N&O is reporting it now

http://www.newsobserver.com/734/story/541449.html

2/10/2007 10:38:51 AM

they could at least let the ucla game show on hte hd channel instead of unc wake

2/10/2007 1:34:35 PM

Well this is typical...NC State in the 7-10 game, and thats the one game broadcast only on ESPN2HD...which of course we dont have on TWC.

3/4/2007 10:36:13 AM

at least the espn sd feed is ok

3/4/2007 11:11:08 AM

yeah if it's on espn2 HD wouldn't it also be on espn2 SD?

i don't really care if it's not HD as long as i can see it. then maybe if we get to the second round they'd show it on regular ESPN.

3/4/2007 11:31:28 AM