HD channels not in HD (1 Viewer)

[agnerc]

I have Dish Network and when I watch the Houston Astros when they are away, I watch them on the FSN Network which is channel 445. I have two channel 445's, one is the SD channel and the other is the HD channel. When they are away, I am not able to see them on the 445 HD channel. Does anyone know why?

thanks,

chris

 

[Joe_H]

For sports, not all games are actually recorded in HD. They have a limited number of HD setups that they send to the 'more interesting' games. You'd think by now all games would be able to be HD broadcast, but apparently not.

 

[agnerc]

Well for some reason, ALL away games (except Chicago) because we have the WGN channel are SD and I am sure that all of those cities are shooting their games in HD. I am just wondering why we are not able to see them in HD?

Chris

 

[Jason Seaver]

That depends on the sport and/or network. Here in New England, every Red Sox game is in HD and I imagine NESN give the Bruins the same treatment. Not sure about the Celtics, and football is up to the broadcast network: With one game a week, HD is guaranteed for NBC, ESPN, and likely the NFL network, while I've read Fox is all-HD while CBS is only HD for the top five games (or vice versa).

Chris,

From what I've seen, teams don't generally use each other's feeds except in cases of emergency. The cameras are generally all pointed at the ball/puck, sure, but I'm guessing the directors want the authority for long shots/close-ups at their own discretion, as well as being able to point a camera into their own booth or seek out fans in the crowd.

 

[Joe_H]

Well that's because the Red Sox have their own TV network. As a Cardinals fan in the Boston area myself, I watch the games myself using the MLB.tv service, and you get maybe 75% of the games in HD, so you see the home games in whatever home network they're on (FSN midwest often for the Cardinals) and even some of the home games aren't broadcast in HD. And I've seen a couple that were only shown with a couple cameras even (SD of course) because the games weren't being broadcast on TV in the home team's area that day.

From what I've seen, the smaller market teams that don't have their own networks are at the whim of what the broadcasters want, so while yes, the Mets, Yankees, and Red Sox are always in HD, its different for other teams. (There are more teams to baseball besides the Northeast you know .)

 

[Ockeghem]

Joe,

No, there are not. I would strongly consider rooting for the Red Sox from this day forward. Thanks.

 

[nolesrule]

Have you seen the AL East standings lately?

Go Rays!

 

[Jason Seaver]

Even if NESN is owned by the Red Sox and Bruins, they still had to decide that covering every game in HD was cost effective, especially if that means they're shipping heavy cameras and equipment around the country or paying more to rent an HD-capable production van in each location. Sure, team ownership means that they're probably using the HD video for more than just broadcast, but I suspect NESN had a relatively early focus on HD because they felt it would be profitable, and that applies to all the non-team-owned regional sports networks across the country.

Anyway, that's probably the answer to the original poster's question - FSN Texas (?) may have ponied up to install HD cameras in Minute Maid Park and park an HD production trailer behind it, but may not feel it's worth doing the same on the road. Even if they were willing and able to use the home team's camera feeds, they'd still need all the other production services to be HD-capable, and that can be in fairly short supply.