Subject: Spoiler in Met HDTV Broadcasts?
Author: Robert SheafferDate: 1 May
Am I the only one here trying to record the Met Opera broadcasts as they
are shown, one per week, on PBS-TV? (Sunday afternoons. Next up: I
Puritani on May 4.)
In each of the operas that I recorded on PBS-HD, using a home DVD
recorder, there was a terrible flickering or flashing dark/light/dark in
certain scenes of the opera, which is extremely annoying. Sometimes it
looked like there was a herringbone pattern of dots marching across the
screen. These were Hansel & Gretl, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, the Magic
Flute. This makes them no fun to watch.
I have never seen this problem on any other station, or on any other
programming, except the "Live From the Met" broadcasts. And I've
recorded a lot of programs.
So last Sunday, I recorded Manon Lescaut from the standard PBS channel.
No problem at all! So I plan to use this channel, at least until it
disappears in Feb of next year (non-HD TV is going away).
My conclusion is that this is a deliberate 'spoiler' signal injected
into the HDTV broadcast signal, analagous to the Macrovision system used
in copyrighted DVDs and VHS tapes. Macrovision puts a wobble into the
picture that you won't notice when viewing it live. However, if it's
recorded the wobble becomes pronounced. I suspect that the Met doesn't
want people making decent-quality recordings off PBS-HD, so that people
will be more inclined to buy the commercial versions of the DVDs.
Has anyone else tried to record these?
Robert Sheaffer
Cbeyond
