My cable TV service carries two PBS stations, analog WMHT-17 (Albany NY) and WNET-HD (New York City). WNET-HD has been showing Tracks Ahead episodes...these are the old episodes created 5 to 6 years ago...but they are in HD. And it appears to be 'true' HD--it fills my widescreen TV and the images are crystal clear, not pixilated. Some shows on WNET-HD have obvious flaws of blowing up non-digital programming to fill the widescreen format. In order for Tracks Ahead to look as good as it does, they must have had the foresight to record in digital format 5 years ago, or they used filmstock and remastered for HD broadcast. I'm curious if anyone knows more information on their production techniques. The web site for MPTV (the PBS station sponsoring Tracks Ahead) doesn't say much about the old episodes, but does say season 6 is in production now in HD format.

As far as I know Tracks Ahead has always been shot on videotape, not film, and only recently switched to HD this season or last. It is entirely possible that the first few season were created in 16:9 widescreen but not HD. I find that the word "digital" confuses people. Before high definition, which is obviously digital, there were other formats which were not HD, but digital nonetheless. There are no less than 5 professional video formats which are digital. There are analog cameras which record on digital tape formats. There are digital cameras which record on digital tape and there are even digital cameras which use an optical disc to record on. And there are already several HD formats. Yes, it's confusing!http://www.mptv.org/Tracks_Ahead/Trax_behind.htm

The last time I saw the Tracks Ahead crew taping they were using a Sony Beta HD digital camcorder. This is a top of the line device. At that time those things cost about $80,000.fk

The Sony HD format is actually called "HDCAM." Part of the confusion comes from the fact that the shell of the HDCAM cassettes is identical to Beta SP tape shells, except for the color of the plastic and the words, "HDCAM." And as you pointed out, the price of the camera is about double.

"The last time I saw the Tracks Ahead crew taping..." How long ago was this? After finding the episode summary for Tracks Ahead (http://www.mptv.org/Tracks_Ahead/Trax_series5.htm) I see that what WNET-HD is running now is the season 5 episodes, so apparently these were taped with the HDCAM. Was season 5 produced in 2001 (2001 is the copyright date at the end of the episodes)?