[QuadList] OT: "Improv Ice" on NBC--16:9 SD uprezzed to 1080i? Hard to watch!

[Dennis Degan]

		On Jan 15, 2012, at 5:55 PM, Ted Langdell wrote:

 > NBC's just now ended skating show, "Improv Ice starring Styx" and  
it looks like the main program content is 16:9 SD uprezzed to 1080i.
 > On the skating and interview segments, I see interlace artifacts  
such as doubled scan lines on graphics and content.  The video lacks  
clarity compared to certain show interstitial elements, NBC graphics  
(the bug is clean!) and HD commercials.
 > Definitely seeing jaggies on diagonals like mike booms. Small  
lights have an Image Orthicon halo around them.
 > The show is fresh—recorded in the Bi-Lo Center, Greeneville, SC on  
Dec. 15, 2011.
 > Wondering what's amiss here.  Is it actually an SD show uprezzed?   
HD with an interlace problem?  Setting out of whack during editing or  
ingest?

		I offer:

	Ted, a lot of programming originates in 16x9 SD and is uprezzed to  
1080i HD.  Just this morning, the live segments of the Today Show from  
NBC Burbank (shot on the
"Access Hollywood" set in Studio 1) were done in 16x9 SD.  I don't  
know why this was done.  Access Hollywood appears on the air (in  
syndication) in real honest-to-goodness 1080i HD.  Whatever the  
reason, I believe the thinking is that it's better to fill the frame  
with 16x9 pictures in SD than to add side panels to 4x3 SD pictures.   
Of course, the best solution is to originate in 1080 HD, but that's  
not possible, the next best thing to do is to AT LEAST fill the  
frame.  So that's what they did.

			Dennis Degan, Video Editor-Consultant-Knowledge Bank
					     NBC Today Show, New York