WRGB multicasting the NCAA tournament?

[scott]

Any word if WRGB will be multicasting games in the early rounds of the NCAA tournament? HD?

[MasterFX1]

Not sure. In the past, its made the main picture look horrible. CBS won't allow its Owned & Operated stations to multicast. WRGB, however, is owned by Freedom Broadcasting and is free to choose for itself.

Regardless, this year is the first year that all the CBS feeds will be in HD, so the Siena game should be in HD in its entirety. In previous years, when U Albany was in the Big Dance, whenever the primary feed switched to another game WRGB was forced to jump to a SD feed to keep viewers tuned to the game of local interest.

Saints game is scheduled for 7:20pm this Friday.

[MasterFX1]

Received word from WRGB that they will be multicasting one sub channel during the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

There are some significant changes from previous years multicast efforts...

1. Better and more stable encoding software
2. WNYA is no longer on 6-2 to take away bandwidth
3. The subchannel will be a 16:9 SD downconvert of an HD feed

[Skaggs]

Will the subchannel be available in 16x9 SD via TWC?

Too bad WRGB couldn't work out a deal like WRAL in Raleigh, NC. All games (up to 4 at a time) will be available in HD via TWC in Raleigh, NC.

[as12798]

www.cbs6albany.com/articles/ncaa_1254244___article.html/news_cbs.html

That is the schedule. Since 1896 is currently broadcasting in widescreen SD I am betting the 2nd game will in fact be broadcast in wide screen on 1896 rather than Window box.

[Skaggs]

NCAA Game Schedule on CBS 6 News
CBS 6 News is proud to be the exclusive carrier of the NCAA Tournament games. Below is a program schedule for this Thursday's and Friday's games. Be sure to check back for updates on the rest of the weekend.

Thursday, March 20th on CBS 6 News (Time Warner Channels 6 & 1806)
12:30 PM (12) Temple - (5) Michigan St
2:30 PM (11) Kentucky- (6) Marquette
7:10 PM (15) Belmont - (2) Duke
9:40 PM (12) George Mason - (5) Notre Dame

Thursday, March 20th on the CBS 6 News Digital Channel (Time Warner Channels 3 & 1896)
12:20 PM (14) Georgia - (3) Xavier
2:45 PM (9) Kent State - (8) UNLV
7:25 PM (9) Texas A&M - (8) Brigham Young
9:30 PM (10) Arizona - (7) West Virginia

Friday, March21st on CBS 6 News (Time Warner Channels 6 & 1806)
12:25 PM (10) Davidson - (7) Gonzaga
2:45 PM (13) San Diego - (4) Connecticut
7:20 PM (13) Siena - (4) Vanderbilt
9:40 PM (12) Villanova - (5) Clemson

Friday, March 21st on the CBS 6 News Digital Channel (Time Warner Channels 3 & 1896)
12:30 PM (10) St. Mary's - (7) Miami
2:35 PM (15) UMBC - (2) Georgetown
7:10 PM (16) Mt. St. Mary's - (1) North Carolina
9:30 PM (9) Arkansas- (8) Indiana

[scott]

Thanks for posting the schedule.

No USC/Kansas State? That could be the best game of the first round. Belmont-Duke is going to be a horrible game (although they'll probably switch games if the Duke lead gets out of control), and I guess they have the BYU game on 1896 because of the Glens Falls guy on the team.

[MasterFX1]

Based on the schedule above's note that the secondary broadcast is both on TWC 3 and 1896, I would guess (and this is purely a guess) that Ch. 1896 will be SD-Widescreen, while Ch. 3 will be center-cut (just like analog 6). If I get definative word on this, I'll update.

[adam]

Aren't all of the games supposed to be in HD this year? I was watching a game on 1806 today and it was in 4:3 SD. The same game was on 1896 in 16:9 widescreen SD. Most of the games on 1806 were in HD today though.

If a game isn't in HD on 1806 is that a problem with CBS6? Or is it a national feed in SD?

[ProTuber]

adam said:

Aren't all of the games supposed to be in HD this year? I was watching a game on 1806 today and it was in 4:3 SD. The same game was on 1896 in 16:9 widescreen SD. Most of the games on 1806 were in HD today though.

If a game isn't in HD on 1806 is that a problem with CBS6? Or is it a national feed in SD?

The second game on 1806 had to be switched to an SD feed a couple of times for 5-10 minutes. There were also a few brief interruptions. CBS had a problem with one of the HD feeds from Anaheim.