HD syndication: Seinfeld and Jeopardy
Starting on March 27th Sony will start to syndicate HD versions of some of the most popular syndicated shows on Television, including Seinfeld, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Syndicated shows are one of the last to go HD mostly because of the challenges involved in distributing the content.
Unlike most network content syndicated shows are downloaded to the affiliates via satellite and saved for later when they will be shown and commercials spliced in. This poses all new challenges for networks and content providers. The other problem is that many shows that are syndicated today were originally aired before HD was widespread. Lucky for us most of these shows were originally produced with film, which makes it possible to go back to the source and remaster it in HD, since film has more resolution than HD does. But unfortunately as we have seen with DVD, not all transfers are created equally.
No word yet on which networks will take advantage of the new HD programming, stayed tuned for more and please let us know of sightings.
Before you ask; Seinfeld was 4x3 and HD isn't going to change that.
As a TWIHD reader once pointed out, not all HD is 16x9 and not all 16x9 is HD.
via [AVSForum.com]
