WRAL Sports Fan

Maybe I have misunderstood...however, I am getting 5.1 and 5.3 in HDTV (Kansas vs. S. Ill.) and SDTV for 5.2 and 5.4 (Texas A&M vs. Memphis)...would it not be possible to have only two digital channels and have both in HD??? I understood the reason for having sdtv last weekend for the first two rounds, however we only have 2 games going at any one time now... I do appreciate being able to get all games, however I would rather watch Texas A&M vs. Memphis in HD... I am getting these channels over the air, and feel like this could happen, I mean Time Warner is making it happen for their feed...why can't WRAL do this for over the air??? PLEASE try to work this out!!! I pray that WRAL and Time Warner are not becoming a team in order to squeeze out the over the air and satelite customers!!!

I for one commend WRAL on its broadcast of these NCAA games. I have loved this time of year for the multicasts CBS and WRAL provides.
While the bouncing around is annoying that's the price we pay to see all games and we are subjected to CBS jumping from game to game. Now I have HD with Time Warner and LOVE IT. Let's just say my 51" Hitachi bigscreen was and is going to be Busy surfing between the 6 channels provided. One HD channel was added along with 2 extra standard def. channels. Kudos to WRAL and Time Warner. It's not a perfect system, but it is close enough for me. Enjoy the rest of the tourney. WIN IT ALL TARHEELS.

We appreciate all the comments -- positive and otherwise --regarding WRAL's NCAA coverage during the first two rounds of the tournament. I thought it would be good to provide some answers and feedback to some of you who had questions or concerns about the coverage, so here goes:

First let's deal with the HD issue. The fact that WRAL dropped its over-the-air HD signal for the first four days of the tournament is not new. We began multicasting all the tournament games seven years ago and the only way to do that over-the-air is by reconfiguring our digital bandwidth and dropping HD. CBS is well aware of this practice and even encourages us to provide the multiple games, so the claims of "false advertising" are a bit overblown in our opinion. As some of you mentioned here, we fed two HD games at a time to Time Warner via a fiber line, so many viewers did have HD. Bottom line - we know that the multicast is a trade-off between HD and SD, but we've been willing to accept it for one four-day period each year.

DirecTV was not able to carry WRAL’s HD feeds because it relies on the station’s over-the-air HD signal, which was not available for those four days. Unlike Time Warner, Direct does not have a fiber connection to WRAL – so it was only able to pass along our Standard Definition digital signal. Again, it’s part of the tradeoff that we accept during the first two rounds of the tournament.

Several of you questioned why PBS is able to provide one HD channel and several SD channels in its digital bandwidth. It’s all a matter of content. Basketball is fast-paced, high motion content and it requires lots of bandwidth. Otherwise, it looks “blocky” and ragged and is almost unwatchable. PBS does not normally carry this type of high-motion programming, so the local station can crunch down the channel size and use the bandwidth for more low-motion channel offerings. It’s simply a case of digital apples and oranges.

Finally – the question and concern over content and why the same game appeared so often on multiple channels. CBS offers stations two types of NCAA game feeds – a “flex” feed for most stations and a so-called “constant” feed for stations in areas where a home team is playing in that particular game. As we’ve all seen – there is no such thing as a truly constant feed. CBS has been very aggressive in jumping from venue to venue any time the action heats up. The network says it is televising a tournament, not just a bunch of separate games, and it wants viewers to get that full-tournament feel by having them look in at many different games. This often happens simultaneously on all the feeds and creates those maddening situations where the same action is being fed across all our channels. Even the constant feeds will occasionally jump to other action, as was witnessed in the second half of UNC’s first round game. These content switches are completely out of WRAL’s control. We must take the feeds as CBS sends them, and we acknowledge that it’s not always what some viewers want to see.

The good news is two-fold: WRAL-HD is back and the jumping feeds should improve from here on in. After the final game Sunday evening, WRAL reconfigured its bandwidth and returned to the standard set-up of one HD and one SD channel. This will remain in place indefinitely, so over-the-air HD viewers and those with DirecTV should be back in business. With only two simultaneous games airing on Thursday and Friday, we should also see less venue-jumping. This has been the pattern in previous years and we hope it continues this tournament. Again – WRAL has no direct control over the feeds and how often the action is interrupted, but we can assure you that we’ve voiced our opinion on this issue to the CBS brass in New York.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to comment. The multicast is not perfect, by any means, but it is free to over-the-air viewers and gives people a chance to see all the games in some shape or fashion. We’ll keep an eye on this section the rest of the tournament and will provide more feedback if required. May your favorite team advance.

What A Shame

At first was I was content to watch the games even though it was not in HD. Now its Sunday and games are being played that i cant see(Texas) Whats the deal? Good idea at first but now I see that you guys were not honest with us.