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IntelliStar 2 Discussion / Re: IntelliStar 2 Beta Launch
« on: September 05, 2010, 06:12:44 PM »
I've had an idea for the past couple of days. There may be some cable headends that:
1. Don't have a WeatherScan channel, or wish to start one with their current Intellistar
2. Are interested in HD local forecasts
3. Would rather maintain as few WeatherStar units as possible
I was watching a baseball game which took the HD feed, and through a process called "Active Format Description", or AFD, letterboxed the feed on the SD version of the channel. Some AFD metadata was sent with 4x3 SD commercials, so these ads displayed normally on standard def TVs -- there weren't any black bars on all four sides (also known as "windowboxing").
It's not the only place I've seen this happen. I've also seen it on several other channels. There has been enough of a trend in the cable industry to use a single master feed for HD and SD, that The Weather Channel should look into enabling a similar, entirely optional, feature on the Intellistar 2, for headends who are interested.
I don't know if the Intellistar 2 has an SD output of some kind, but hopefully one can be retrofitted for cable headends who are interested. Also, the text graphics would likely need to be tweaked so they're legible on SD sets.
1. Don't have a WeatherScan channel, or wish to start one with their current Intellistar
2. Are interested in HD local forecasts
3. Would rather maintain as few WeatherStar units as possible
I was watching a baseball game which took the HD feed, and through a process called "Active Format Description", or AFD, letterboxed the feed on the SD version of the channel. Some AFD metadata was sent with 4x3 SD commercials, so these ads displayed normally on standard def TVs -- there weren't any black bars on all four sides (also known as "windowboxing").
It's not the only place I've seen this happen. I've also seen it on several other channels. There has been enough of a trend in the cable industry to use a single master feed for HD and SD, that The Weather Channel should look into enabling a similar, entirely optional, feature on the Intellistar 2, for headends who are interested.
I don't know if the Intellistar 2 has an SD output of some kind, but hopefully one can be retrofitted for cable headends who are interested. Also, the text graphics would likely need to be tweaked so they're legible on SD sets.