Tracks Ahead

Yesterday I stumbled on an episode of Tracks Ahead...hadn't seen that show in a looong time. It was on WNET-HD, and the episode filled my widescreen. The copyright of the episode though was 2001, so did they do some creative cropping to make it fill a widescreen TV? I see looking on the Tracks Ahead website that a season 6 is beginning production now in HD, slated for Fall '05 airing.

I thought that show was long gone and to rest in peice forever. Never thought they would dig it up again.

The Tracks Ahead web site is http://mptv.org/Trax_main.htm.
It occurred to me what they may have done is stretched the picture to fit the wide-screen format, but I didn't notice any distortion. TNT-HD stretches programs to fit all the time, and it makes people's heads look fat.

Caught a piece of another. WNET-HD is playing Tracks Ahead every weekday at 6:30. Trouble is my normal arrival time from work is usually just before 7, which is why I'm not otherwise glued to the TV every day at 6:30 to catch up with these episodes.

I'm still curious how exactly they are able to show them in widescreen format. The picture looks very good for an HD source (not quite as good as most stuff on Discovery-HD, but not bad...other so-called HD material sometimes is really pretty awful from a picture quality standpoint). In order for Tracks Ahead to look so good on HD with the old reruns, I wonder if they were originally filmed on film stock, and PBS has remastered them for broadcast. Does anyone know?

what channel is wnet? i know the numbers vary but any other name for the station?

WNET is the PBS station in New York City. My cable system carries WNET-HD on channel 713. The 'analog' PBS station on my cable system is WMHT-17 (Albany/Schenectady) on cable channel 13, and I haven't found Tracks Ahead there yet.

will the show air in the boston area? or other areas?

The Tracks Ahead web site says series 6 will be carried by 200 PBS stations in the Fall. As for who is showing repeats of series 1-5, it doesn't say. Check your local PBS station, and if they don't have it scheduled, give them a call and say you are interested.

WGBH Boston, is on the list. To check if your station is on the list, Click Here.