WFTV-Channel 9 out of Orlando goes high-def
By Matt Burns 
posted June 29th 2006 9:48AM
posted June 29th 2006 9:48AM
Central Florida can now enjoy their local ABC affiliate, WFTV, local news in beautiful high-def. This station has spent a good amount of money to build a whole new set and upgrade their equipment to handle high definition. Local news is great in high-def and we are happy for the local viewers. Remember that all broadcast stations need to transmit their signal in a digital form by February 17, 2009. Because of this, many stations have chosen to upgrade their news room and take advantage of the new signals. Stations have been doing this for years now and so while WFTV is excited about their new upgrade, we highly doubt their claim as the tenth station in the country to go high def with their local news.
Do you have any local news stations in high-def? Lets see if we can get more then ten.
[I, Matt Burns, have one. Richard has two and Ben: zero]
[thanks for the tip Bruce]
It's very expensive new technology, and it requires a shakeout period.
No hidef local news in the Dallas/Fort Worth area!
You'd think that we'd get something with Mark Cuban around!
ABC local news in Los Angeles is in HD. It looks great. The helicopter shots (for traffic reports and high speed chases) are even in HD.
W-USA TV9 CBS out of Washington DC is in HD. Not just the evening broadcast. I can watch HD news OTA at 5:30am while I am getting ready for work. They are really good about putting up pretty red custom pillars for 4:3 feeds and other camera's outside the studio. Its the only news I watch anymore.
Buzz on the AVS Forum is that the local fox station(Fox5) will be going Hi-Def in the next few months.
NBC has their news (11 alive) in HD here in Atlanta. Looks great.
lf
KSDK NBC News Channel 5 in HD began earlier this year in Saint Louis Missouri
Our ABC High Def Programs Audio doenst synch up and it stutters/drops ever few seconds (The abc news is NOT HD) Which is quite dissapointing. I emailed them months ago and they said they were working on it or something.
Adding HD to locals is an expensive proposition, but like Bryan I'm enjoying CBS in HD here in the DC region. We used to watch NBC exclusively, but dropped them when 9 went HD.
I also watch NBC in high def in the DC region.
does anyone else think the news anchors look very odd with the massive ammounts of makeup they wear?
KUSA Channel 9 here in Denver has been HD for a long time. It was a beta site for Sony, I think, along with other Gannett stations around the country. I know that Sky9, their helicopter, was one of the first HD helicopters.
KOMO 4, KING 5, KIRO 7, and KCPQ 13 are all HD local news in Seattle.
KARE 11 here in Minnesota went HD last month.
Cleveland has WJW-(Fox 8) and WKYC-(NBC 3) broadcasting HD local news. WKYC started a few weeks ago, WJW has been offering HD local news for over a year now.
Wow that is a pretty crappy looking set.
No HD news in Oklahoma, however one of the OKC sations brags about a HD helicopter, granted they can't broadcast anything so...
KGO, San Francisco's ABC affiliate, is odd: their newscasts are SD, but the live chopper shots inserted into the program are HD!
Still don't have hidef local news in Michigan. Funny thing, though, I've yet to upgrade to HDTV set. They're still too damn expensive!!
Looks like we've reached the 10 station mark with some to spare. :)
All WFTV's local news studio broadcasts are in HD. While the set looks better on the tube than it does in that picture. It does seem somehat under-lighted compared to other studio broadcasts from like, ESPN-HD or HD-NET. And yes, the anchors all seem to have a lot of make up on. More smilies.
One thing that *is* striking is the upgrade to the weather graphics -- esp. the doppler radar. Very spectactular. Also, their remote broadcasts are in true 16x9 in SD. No TBS stretch-o-vision. I wonder if this is from using new cameras -- or some computerized processing?
-bruce
Here in the Houston area, our NBC affiliate KPRC broadcasts local news in a nicely-produced 1080i.