HD Latecomers

Noticed this morning that the CBS Early Morning Show is now being broadcast in HD, it being the last of the network morning shows to do so (I don't watch them regularly, so I'm not really sure when this happened, just that it's relatively recent).

Also, came the news that NBC's "Meet the Press" will be aired in HD for the first time tomorrow morning. Seems a little strange that MTP, one of the longest-running shows in all of television, is so late in the day in this regard. Almost every major-network (and PBS) show I can think of is in wide-screen HD besides a couple of low-rent ones like the one on ABC with the British nanny. It has been almost two years since Tim Russert's death, and MTP's new host David Gregory had stuck with the old set until now. From what I saw of the new digs from the preview, it's not anything to write home about --- heavy on bookshelves (Books as props, likely. Wonder how many of them Mr. Gregory has read.... My guess: seven) and opaque blue-glow glass. Too many colors, which is something most people get wrong in design/decoration. If they had worked off of the historic MTP colors of medium blue, gold and white (which are used in the new info/identification bars) a very nice set could have materialized. As it is, the set is very empty and divided down the middle by a large black table (a very 'This Side vs. That Side' feel for a show about politics), and too busy around the perimeter. Not something to write home about, but I guess it is something to write a blog entry about.

With the leaves coming out once again, we've effectively lost WSBK-38 (real-channel 39) from the Boston line-up and WLVI-56 (real-channel 41) was pixelating a bit this evening. It's for just this purpose I went to such heroic measures with our antenna system. It's good to have a back-up for when things go wrong.