# Food Network, HGTV to Begin High-Definition Simulcast



## jgurley (Feb 1, 2005)

FYI

http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2008/03/food_network_hgtv_to_begin_high-definition_simulcast.php


> KNOXVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Scripps Networks' HGTV and Food Network will simulcast their respective standard-definition and high-definition feeds to cable and satellite affiliates beginning March 31, 2008. This means that the rapidly growing number of HD-enabled households will be able to watch their favorite Food Network and HGTV programs in high-definition at the same time the shows air on the standard-definition channels.


----------



## Dicx (Sep 17, 2007)

jgurley said:


> FYI
> 
> http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2008/03/food_network_hgtv_to_begin_high-definition_simulcast.php


Finally! This might be the best news we get for today, well unless Charlie can top it.

He does have that girl from BSG on tonight, so it would make for a good announcement that SCi-Fi will be in HD


----------



## Cyclone (Jul 1, 2002)

I actually see this as a bad thing. As someone had observed before, we had "two" Food Network channels when they had different schedules. Now not only will we lose that, but the chances that we will see upconverted SD on Food-HD are now much higher. The HD only format of these two channels was appreciated.


----------



## Dicx (Sep 17, 2007)

Cyclone said:


> I actually see this as a bad thing. As someone had observed before, we had "two" Food Network channels when they had different schedules. Now not only will we lose that, but the chances that we will see upconverted SD on Food-HD are now much higher. The HD only format of these two channels was appreciated.


Yeah I can see that might be bad for the upconversion if they do a lot of it, but I could only watch the "History of Chocolate" so many times on Good Eats and Unwrapped


----------



## coldmiser (Mar 10, 2007)

Dicx said:


> Yeah I can see that might be bad for the upconversion if they do a lot of it, but I could only watch the "History of Chocolate" so many times on Good Eats and Unwrapped


Not to mention the commercial of that teacher smacking the desk with her ruler! :lol:


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

I'm not looking forward to hours of upconverts, but having the channels on competing schedules wasn't good.

I believe that they should have simulcasted when the SD program schedule had a program that was also available in HD and filled the "SD" hours with reruns and alternate HD programming.

It was odd to see different episodes of the same show running at the same time.


----------



## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

coldmiser said:


> Not to mention the commercial of that teacher smacking the desk with her ruler! :lol:


The "Let's not cheat" commercial? But what about the "See clearly / Check yearly" commercial, or the "Arbor Day Foundation" commercial? I mean, how can you not want to hum the catchy "Arbor Day Foundation, planting trees across the nation" tune?

Seriously, though, I think the simulcast will be a huge boon for a lot of the "Food Network Challenges" and other new shows that air on Food Network in SD and then only later get re-run on Food Network HD many months later.


----------



## DCSholtis (Aug 7, 2002)

coldmiser said:


> Not to mention the commercial of that teacher smacking the desk with her ruler! :lol:


How about the "ewwwwwwwwwww new girl" commercial.....:lol:


----------



## dennispap (Feb 1, 2007)

DCSholtis said:


> How about the "ewwwwwwwwwww new girl" commercial.....:lol:


" I am Beautiful~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Actually i always told my wife that the new girl made out. She got the whole table to herself, until the other girl comes and sits with her.


----------



## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

jgurley said:


> FYI
> 
> http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/news/2008/03/food_network_hgtv_to_begin_high-definition_simulcast.php


Cool! It's confusing having 2 streams.


----------



## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

I for one am looking forward to this. I know that most of the shows that I watch on there are now shot in HD but I have to wait forever to see them in HD because of the repetitive schedule on FoodTV HD today. Typically I don't have the patience so I just watch them in SD today, after this month that won't be an issue.


----------



## cornflakes (Sep 30, 2005)

Food Network SD looks so blurry anyway, so hopefully upconverted SD shows will be an improvement in quality. As long as they don't stretch 4:3 to 16:9.... that will bother me. Otherwise I think this is great news. The SD version has so many more shows.


----------



## davethestalker (Sep 17, 2006)

This is great news!!! I'm sick of missing out on new episodes of Good Eats and Unwrapped. With BBQ season right around the corner, I'm going to have to exercise restraint from licking my TV......MMMMM

BTW...my local Famous Dave's burned down a couple of weeks ago


----------



## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

Rob Glasser said:


> I for one am looking forward to this. I know that most of the shows that I watch on there are now shot in HD but I have to wait forever to see them in HD because of the repetitive schedule on FoodTV HD today. Typically I don't have the patience so I just watch them in SD today, after this month that won't be an issue.


Typically some FOODHD shows go back to 2004.


----------



## smendira (May 1, 2005)

"I'm just a normal teenager. But why do I feel so bad?"


----------



## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

smendira said:


> "I'm just a normal teenager. But why do I feel so bad?"


Because you're a normal teenager.


----------



## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

cornflakes said:


> Food Network SD looks so blurry anyway, so hopefully upconverted SD shows will be an improvement in quality. As long as they don't stretch 4:3 to 16:9.... that will bother me. Otherwise I think this is great news. The SD version has so many more shows.


You know that Stretch-O-Vision is coming to Food Network. As if Emeril isn't fat enough.


----------



## peak_reception (Feb 10, 2008)

> The "Let's not cheat" commercial? But what about the "See clearly / Check yearly" commercial, or the "Arbor Day Foundation" commercial? I mean, how can you not want to hum the catchy "Arbor Day Foundation, planting trees across the nation" tune?


I never watch commercials anymore. That's the real DVR advantage!


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

davethestalker said:


> BTW...my local Famous Dave's burned down a couple of weeks ago


Mine too. Grape Road?


----------



## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

Paul Secic said:


> Typically some FOODHD shows go back to 2004.


Yep. I know my favorite FoodTV show has been recorded in HD for quite some time, Good Eats. Except if I want to see an episode in HD I have to wait months after it's been shown in SD for it to show up in HD. I'm assuming that will be a thing of the past after this month.


----------



## jpeckinp (Nov 6, 2006)

dennispap said:


> " I am Beautiful~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Actually i always told my wife that the new girl made out. She got the whole table to herself, until the other girl comes and sits with her.


Am I the only guy on here that sees that new girl as easy prey? Come on she was new and nobody liked her, if that isn't an easy target I don't know what is. Oh to be in High School again.
He shoots, he scores!


----------



## Suomi (Jan 7, 2006)

jpeckinp said:


> Am I the only guy on here that sees that new girl as easy prey? Come on she was new and nobody liked her, if that isn't an easy target I don't know what is. Oh to be in High School again.
> He shoots, he scores!


I didn't think that, but I but I always tell my wife that the girl who comes and sits with the new girl at the end was hotter than the girls who left. Either way, we're both going to hell.

And I'm glad about the simulcast. Finally the new Good Eats will be in HD.


----------



## djzack67 (Sep 18, 2007)

very Cool


----------



## jpeckinp (Nov 6, 2006)

Suomi said:


> I didn't think that, but I but I always tell my wife that the girl who comes and sits with the new girl at the end was hotter than the girls who left. Either way, we're both going to hell.


See you there. Be sure and bring the HD.:lol:


----------



## davethestalker (Sep 17, 2006)

James Long said:


> Mine too. Grape Road?


Bingo...

It's a cryin' shame. I took Wifey there for her birthday a couple of years ago. I hope they rebuild.

At least the local Harding's stores has a couple of Famous Dave's sauces.


----------



## Hutch123 (Aug 21, 2007)

I sent an email to HGTV about 6 weeks ago. Was told a tentative date of 3/31/08 for HD simulcast. I thought about posting the info here but since it didn't have anything to do with SiFi or USA thought no one would be interested. As they say one person's trash is another's treasure. As long as they get USA going for the new season of Monk I will be content.


----------



## PRIME1 (Nov 29, 2007)

Just one more reason that the HD only package is looking better and better for me! I was holding back because Ace of Cakes was only on the SD channel.


----------



## davethestalker (Sep 17, 2006)

It started first thing this morning. All of my timers I had on either of the former channels are now on both the HD and SD channels. So, I deleted the timers for the SD channels.

Can't wait for BBQ programming to get smokin'


----------



## PTown (Aug 18, 2007)

jpeckinp said:


> Am I the only guy on here that sees that new girl as easy prey? Come on she was new and nobody liked her, if that isn't an easy target I don't know what is. Oh to be in High School again.
> He shoots, he scores!


No you're not the only one haha thats exactly what I thought


----------



## PhantomOG (Feb 7, 2007)

So does this mean I can turn on the HD channel mapdown thing and reduce clutter without adverse consequence?


----------



## larrysano (Oct 13, 2006)

Cyclone said:


> I actually see this as a bad thing. As someone had observed before, we had "two" Food Network channels when they had different schedules. Now not only will we lose that, but the chances that we will see upconverted SD on Food-HD are now much higher. The HD only format of these two channels was appreciated.


Agreed. I liked the HD channel having only HD content - not upconverted, stretch-o-vision shows mixed in. Theirs seems especially bad for some reason. Almost like everything was shot with a fish-eye camera. Oh well, hopefully they're doing the simulcast in anticipation of more of their shows being HD only....


----------



## BillJ (May 5, 2005)

PhantomOG said:


> So does this mean I can turn on the HD channel mapdown thing and reduce clutter without adverse consequence?


I was thinking the same thing. Can't recall whether there is any other channel that has different programming on SD and HD. I do like having all the HD channels together but I could switch to all HD list in favorites for that.


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Other than the game only nature of RSNs, all HDs that are mapped down into the regular channel range should have the same content as their SD version.


----------



## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

davethestalker said:


> It started first thing this morning. All of my timers I had on either of the former channels are now on both the HD and SD channels. So, I deleted the timers for the SD channels.
> 
> Can't wait for BBQ programming to get smokin'


Hmm? I'm still getting two feeds of HGTV & Food Network as of last night. Anyone have any idea as to why?


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Because you should ...

The change is that it is the same content/programming schedule on both HD and SD instead of different content on the HD.


----------



## chuckflarhu (Oct 27, 2005)

I think this stinks. 

Not only do I have to watch stretch o vision now, but I will have a harder time avoiding that hack Rachel Ray. 

I love the Food Network, especially when I had the 2 programming sets.

Now we'll see mostly their "prime shows," which are mostly lame IMO.
Rachel Ray, Emeril, Iron Chef, Ace of Cakes. Blah.

I'll trade em for most of the stuff that was on the HD channel. 

Oh Well.


----------



## mcss1985 (Dec 6, 2007)

chuckflarhu said:


> I think this stinks.
> 
> Not only do I have to watch stretch o vision now, but I will have a harder time avoiding that hack Rachel Ray.
> 
> ...


I agree, I actually liked it better when I had two choices of food network shows. Granted I didn't like watching the SD feed on my HDTV, but it was better than watching a show I didn't like. Plus I usually watched food network in bed on my TV2 so I really didn't care which channel it was on.

I understand their reasoning for it, I just hope the don't stretch-o-vision too much. I'd rather watch it in SD in its correct format than "HD".

Oh well, as long as I can watch AB I'm happy


----------



## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

chuckflarhu said:


> I think this stinks.
> Not only do I have to watch stretch o vision now, but I will have a harder time avoiding that hack Rachel Ray.


Avoiding Rachael Ray is nearly impossible; she's freakin' everywhere.


----------



## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I noticed yesterday that HGTV has gone stretchovision and looks REALLY bad. Why can't they just leave it in its original format and send it out with the increased bandwidth?????


----------



## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

mcss1985 said:


> Oh well, as long as I can watch AB I'm happy


This is why I'm happy about the switch. Good Eats is the only Food Network show I watch every single week when it's new. I knew it was being filmed in HD but episodes wouldn't show up on FoodHD until weeks/months after it was on the SD channel and I didn't want to wait that long just to see it in HD.

I should add that I do not like the fact that they are putting everything not HD in stretch o'vision, they should just leave it in it's native aspect ratio and let the end user decide. The other thing that killed me was turning on Ace of Cakes last night, which is at least filmed widescreen (I had assumed it was HD until last night), but being broadcast in stretch o'vision so you still have top and bottom bars AFTER they do their stretch. Definitely some issues the network needs to sort out.


----------

