2003 NASCAR Winston Cup Daytona 500 (16:9 HD broadcast)
Jul 26, 2022 20:54:03 GMT
MantleM likes this
Post by nogginoid on Jul 26, 2022 20:54:03 GMT
Though there are a plethora of NASCAR articles on the LMW, I haven't seen much discussion regarding the sport here on the forums, so allow me to share something interesting I found and break the silence:
I was recently browsing NASCAR.com through the Wayback Machine and came across an article, dated July 2004, taken from a press release detailing FOX's broadcast of Speedweeks...for 2003. I find it odd that NASCAR and FOX would boast about their coverage of the series of events from the previous season halfway through the current one, but oh well...it could be from a 2003 press release and the date listed on the page is just when they posted that particular excerpt from it onto NASCAR.com (and it's not a typo either: they specify 2003 a couple times throughout the article, and NBC aired the 2004 Daytona 500, not FOX).
Anyways, the article goes over all the details of what went into FOX's coverage: technical specs, programming hours, staff...even catering, but one paragraph caught my eye, and it is as follows:
This surprised me since I (among many others) thought NASCAR began tinkering with HD with the 2004 Daytona 500 which, again, was aired on NBC. Strangely, the master of the race NASCAR uploaded to their YouTube channel is a 4:3 SD broadcast, while a master NBC aired of the race a little over a decade later (part of NASCAR Classics, I think) was a widescreen HD broadcast. You can find both on YouTube pretty easily.
NASCAR also uploaded the entire 2003 race to YouTube, which is also in 4:3 SD, which leads me to believe that if this article is true, then FOX might still have a widescreen master of the race in their archives somewhere. To my knowledge, FOX isn't known to rerun old races on TV (unless a current race is delayed) or upload them to YouTube, so I'm not exactly sure how this might resurface unless someone with an HDTV receiver recorded it and shared it publicly. I believe the likelihood of someone recording the race in HD isn't out of the realm of possibility, as original recordings of a few NBC races from the following season have been uploaded in widescreen.
A clip of Ryan Newman's infamous crash from the race shown here at 1:13 is the only footage I have found from the race in native widescreen. If anyone has any leads or has found any other clips of the race in 16:9 (not cropped or stretched from the 4:3 feed) then please feel free to share...
I was recently browsing NASCAR.com through the Wayback Machine and came across an article, dated July 2004, taken from a press release detailing FOX's broadcast of Speedweeks...for 2003. I find it odd that NASCAR and FOX would boast about their coverage of the series of events from the previous season halfway through the current one, but oh well...it could be from a 2003 press release and the date listed on the page is just when they posted that particular excerpt from it onto NASCAR.com (and it's not a typo either: they specify 2003 a couple times throughout the article, and NBC aired the 2004 Daytona 500, not FOX).
Anyways, the article goes over all the details of what went into FOX's coverage: technical specs, programming hours, staff...even catering, but one paragraph caught my eye, and it is as follows:
FOX WIDESCREEN(tm): FOX Sports offers digital television viewers the ability to enjoy a true racing experience, from prerace to Victory Circle, in a clarity like never before when it presents the 2003 Daytona 500 in a 16:9 digital format dubbed FOX WIDESCREEN(tm). Its picture is twice as sharp as that generated by most DVDs, and four times clearer than traditional analog television.
NASCAR also uploaded the entire 2003 race to YouTube, which is also in 4:3 SD, which leads me to believe that if this article is true, then FOX might still have a widescreen master of the race in their archives somewhere. To my knowledge, FOX isn't known to rerun old races on TV (unless a current race is delayed) or upload them to YouTube, so I'm not exactly sure how this might resurface unless someone with an HDTV receiver recorded it and shared it publicly. I believe the likelihood of someone recording the race in HD isn't out of the realm of possibility, as original recordings of a few NBC races from the following season have been uploaded in widescreen.
A clip of Ryan Newman's infamous crash from the race shown here at 1:13 is the only footage I have found from the race in native widescreen. If anyone has any leads or has found any other clips of the race in 16:9 (not cropped or stretched from the 4:3 feed) then please feel free to share...
