From Steve in Cleveland:
Q: Since you've gone HD, I've noticed your video is not as clear as before? Why is that?
A: This is a really good question. There are a couple of reasons. First, the studio cameras are now in HD and give a much clearer picture. So, anytime we go from the studio to video, you'll notice change in quality. For stories we shoot ourselves, the field cameras capture video in a standard definition (but 16X9 widescreen mode) which looks pretty good.
When we air video that is not shot by us (from the network or other 4X3 video sources like CNN), the video must be converted from the standard 4X3 aspect ratio to a 16x9 picture which fills the left and right side of the screen with "HD" panels without changing how the video looks.
If this process isn't done, you'd see 4X3 video that's stretched to 16X9 and isn't very flattering for people being interviewed. And unfortunately, this conversion process makes the video look very grainy.
Once the price of HD cameras drops, it'll be affordable for stations like ours to buy true HD cameras and shoot all our video in HD. This is probably a year or so away.
