U Albany and March Madness

[MasterFX1]

U Albany will play Virginia in the opening round of the NCAA Div 1 Mens Basketball Tournament on Friday at 12:20pm. It will be shown locally on WRGB (CBS).

This year CBS has HD crews at all tournament venues. However, CBS' HD coverage is being offered as "Flex Feeds." This means that if the HD game that your local CBS is showing becomes too much of a blowout, CBS will opt to switch feeds and show a more competitive game. This decision comes from CBS national and the local affiliate has no control over it.

However, on 6-3 OTA and 1896 TWC, WRGB will be showing games in SD. These are Constant feeds and not Flex Feeds. In the event the CBS regional feed chooses to leave the U Albany game, WRGB will then switch to upconvert the SD feed of the Albany game. Bottom line, if the game is close, you'll be able to watch it in HD. If it's a blowout (in Albany or Virginia's favor) the game will likely become SD mid-stream.

6-3 OTA, which is currently not broadcasting, will reopen for the Tournament. Additionally, there's a game at 4:55 PM on Thursday and Friday that WRGB will carry on 6-3, but not on analog.

Go Danes!

(Skaggs- Sorry about 'Cuse getting popped on the bubble, who'd a thunk it!?!)

[Skaggs]

SU started playing well the last 8 or so games of the season. I was excited about the improved play of both Andy Rautins and Paul Harris.

The snub by the NCAA was surprising. Stanford at 18-12 got in after losing their last 4 games???

I'm going to predict that SU wins 1 at most in the NIT. It is like a slap in the face to have to play in the 2nd class tournament.

[Skaggs]

The picture quality is very poor on WRGB for today's games. Channel 1806 on TWC is grainy with artifacts for the Georgetown game. The other game on 1896 is even worse with pixelation all over the place.

I switched to OTA and saw little improvement. The game on 6-3 was just horrible picture quality.

Those familiar with Tivo could relate the picture quality to a program recorded at "basic" quality.

[Skaggs]

The poor picture quality continues for today's games.

Via both TWC & OTA, the U Albany - Virginia game looks like SD widescreen.

CBS just switched away from the Albany game only 8 minutes into the first half, with Virginia winning 21-4.

[Skaggs]

Now showing Albany game in 4:3 SD on 1806 and 6-1.