HIGH-DEFINITION TV IS CLEARLY CATCHING ON FIVE STAR Edition

• Published in: Pittsburgh post-gazette (Pittsburgh, Pa. 1978)
• Main Author: Everitt, David
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pittsburgh, Pa Pittsburgh Post - Gazette 01.09.2002
• ISSN: 1068-624X

PBS may have made the most headway in digital broadcasting. The public television network has been more inclined than commercial broadcasters to respond to the federal government's prodding, and as a result it was one of the first networks to broadcast HDTV. PBS has placed much of the emphasis on "Great Performances" and nature documentaries, which benefit greatly from HDTV's rich visual detail. A year ago "PBS was feeding us one new high-definition program a month; now they're averaging one or two a week," said Paula Kerger, station manager and vice president for development of WNET in New York. HBO and Showtime offer their own high-definition channels, and serve up some of their own series in high definition, including Showtime's "Odyssey 5" and HBO's "Band of Brothers" and "The Sopranos." Both networks also transfer recent films to high definition. Turner Classic Movies, the leader in vintage Hollywood programming, has no immediate plans to take the technological leap into the format, even though old movies would benefit from the format's greater detail. Some new HDTV channels have emerged. Last September, Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, introduced HDNet, available on the DirecTV national satellite system, which offers a variety of sports, news and documentaries. In June, the Discovery Networks introduced Discovery HD Theater, featuring documentaries originally produced by the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, Discovery Health and the Travel Channel. Currently, the satellite broadcaster EchoStar carries HD Theater for a separate monthly fee on its Dish Network, and three cable companies -- AT&T, Charter and Cox -- plan to offer it as well.