Why you should check out the State of the Union Address
Other than to hear how the ol' Union is doing this year, HDTV fans have another reason to check out the State of the Union Address tonight. We all know that it takes a lot of work to get HD programming to your HDTV and like many things in life some have more success than others. That is what makes the SOTU so unique, it is one of the only opportunities we have to truly compare the networks. The reason why this is such a great comparison is because in the past all the networks have used the same video pool. This means that all the networks are using the same cameras, and since you're using the same HDTV as you switch channels, that only leaves all the other stuff in the middle to judge. This year HDNet is also going to cover the event and although the other networks haven't confirmed their HD coverage, we will assume they will cover the event in HD, based on their coverage from the past few years -- well everyone except Fox who has previously covered it with Fox Widecreeen rather than HD. So while your checking out the SOTU tonight switch between all the feeds and look for a poll tomorrow.
Filed under: Primetime
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Max @ Jan 23rd 2007 1:48PM
Well you can watch in HD, which will mean less and less if you are playing this game:
http://www.drinkinggame.us/
Stewpac @ Jan 23rd 2007 9:31PM
Fox looks horrible, I just switched between it and CBS.
Ben @ Jan 23rd 2007 9:31PM
That's Fox Widescreen for you, one day they will act like they like HD.
CBS looks the best, but I can't stand their crappy graphics.
ABC has as good as a picture as CBS, but with better graphics.
HDNet is nice, but it is a little delayed and the audio is much louder.
NBC is just all messed up with jitter and something else I can't put my finger on.
drew olanoff @ Jan 23rd 2007 9:34PM
check out the pluggd smackdown and search within the audio for the stuff you want to hear, not everything else.
http://www.pluggd.com/state-of-the-union
William C Bonner @ Jan 23rd 2007 9:39PM
I'm in the Seattle area. I'm watching over the air ATSC with a Samsung SIR-T451 connected to a Mitsubishi 55 inch crt projection TV that's only capable of 1080i but not 720p. That means that the samsung is set to always output at 1080i to my TV.
ABC is not broadcasting wide screen, and looks low def, even though my samsung on screen says HD. My stereo is decoding a 5.1 dolby digital sound stream.
NBC is running wide screen, and you can definitely tell it is wide screen. I can see the flicker on the screen, especially around George's brilliant white collar line. I'm guessing this is 1080i. The stereo is decoding 5.1, and this sounds like it's coming significantly more from the front center channel, where ABC was a broader sound from the front three speakers. I'm not noticing significant applause noise from the surround channels.
CBS is running wide screen, in HD. The flicker on his collar isn't as noticeable. I noticed more applause from the surround speakers just now. I'm guessing that this is being broadcast in 720p, but I have no way of checking.
PBS is airing the state of the union on their SD channel, with Dolby 2 channel sound. (which sounds an awful lot like what ABC was broadcasting) The Samsung knows it's in SD, and I think it actually looks better than ABC's video. The other PBS subchannels are playing normal programming, including the HD subchannel. (9.1 and 9.3 are SD, 9.5 is HD)
Fox is airing "The Simpsons".
I bought this TV nearly four years ago, and have been wanting a flat panel tv to replace it. One advantage that this TV might have is that it has variable sized pixels, while a new flat panel would have fixed sized pixels and a video scaler.
The geek in me constantly wants to be able to hit a button and know what resolution it's actually running in. My samsung set top box doesn't give me that. I'm also looking for a set top box to simply continue to use my old sony SD tv as It still looks better than my projection tv much of the time. Finding an inexpensive set top tuner is something I'd like to see covered, since NTSC will stop broadcasting in just two years.
Ben @ Jan 23rd 2007 9:41PM
CBS, NBC, and HDNet are 1080i
ABC is 720p and Fox is too usually, but on this and some other shows they are 480p.
Bradley @ Jan 23rd 2007 9:45PM
Well I watched it for a few minutes with my OTA feeds. My TV is a Samsung 42 inch DLP (HL-S4266W native resolution 1280x720) NBC and CBS seemed to have the best picture, with the sound on CBS being the best. NBC's tower is 8 miles away and CBS 10. ABC was third with an okay picture and bad sound with a tower 13 miles away. And Fox comes in last. Sound was average but picture was horrible. Looks like it was upcoverted or something. The picture was blurry in the same way an analog feed looks not the pixelated digital static normally the feed on Fox looks and sounds great. Their tower is right next to CBS's and is 10 miles away.
It will be interesting to know what folks who get their feeds via cable or satelite think since those feeds usually have less variables to deal with.
Josh @ Jan 23rd 2007 10:09PM
ABC was best for me. Great picture and minimal graphics. CBS was second, same picture, but way too garish graphics. NBC and HDNet were just a little soft compared to ABC and CBS.
Fox was crap. I switched between the HD Fox and the SD Fox channels, and the SD Fox looked better.
I can't comment on the audio since I had it on mute the whole time. Just watched it for the HD comparison.
junkie @ Jan 24th 2007 12:32AM
All were in HD on my setup. I actually think I could see the difference between the picture on NBC and CBS, ABC did not look as detailed - but only slightly. But like the others, I had to watch ABC as the other graphics were in tolerable. I really like the wide-shots of the audience.
7Towers @ Jan 24th 2007 1:33AM
This was fun being able to compare all the feeds, my summary:
Best, buuutt...: CBS - The colors were brighter and that is what really helped their feed, buuuutt what was up with those graphics? Take a look at the shot from last year.. much better then CBS, remember sometimes less is more
What I watched: ABC - My station is one of the Belos that takes ABC's 720p and upconverts it to 1080i, really that usually doesn't bother me as the picture is usually great anyway. The picture was nice clean with more muted colors than CBS, but much better graphics.
Something's off: NBC - Just like Ben said, the colors were almost identical to ABCs, but it seemed to have edge enhancement or something. They were doing something to the signal that I couldn't quite put my finger on.
Honorable Mention: HDNet - Thanks for playing HDNet, and I don't mean that sarcastically. I am kind of wishing now that they have Dan Rather HDNet will cover more live news stories. I really appreciate what they do on a budget that the big boys go through in a minute. The picture was great, audio problems galore after the speech, but what was up with the delay? They were easily off by several seconds.
Better Catch up... QUICK: Fox - Come on.. Terrible SD Widescreen, I would have thought I needed glasses had I not known better. The more and more people start watching HD, the more and more people are going to stop watching Fox News reports... oh wait, maybe that's a good thing!!
I really can't wait until they have a full budget news department in HD, I know that CNN-HD is coming to DirectTV but I really hope my cable company picks it up too. I don't understand why people complain about HD being too good? (blemishes, wrinkles, etc.) What?! Who doesn't love watching parts of the world on DiscoveryHD this will make people be more interested b/c the news will be prettier. Seriously, the more natural a person looks, the better they come across in HD. I think that the celebrity flawless obsession just needs to end, just like people with weird voices couldn't get jobs once "talkies" came around, people w/o natural looks will just have to fall by the wayside, hell there will only be thousands of people willing to step up to the plate!!
icerabbit @ Jan 24th 2007 7:21AM
First evening on HD. :)
42" Vizio. Time Warner HD Box as of yesterday.
What an underwhelming choice of channels & programs that are actually 720p or better. The vast majority of programs on the main channels are actually SD :( and it looks horrible when scaled up. The image over the analog cable input is better than what I can view on the HD channel (ABC, ...) .
720p is much better (if station recorded native or used good scaler).
1080 of SOTU was very clear & tack sharp.
Can't say I'm impressed with the status of HD programming in general. Hopefully it will improve in the near future.
Amadeus93 @ Jan 24th 2007 1:30PM
CBS and ABC were neck and neck for picture, but ABC had 5.1, so that was nice. My NBC affiliate (WHDH in Boston) was 4:3 SD, and Fox was, as everyone else has stated, atrocious SD widescreen (and oversaturated, to boot).
TC @ Jan 24th 2007 9:24PM
I found for picture quality HD net was best.