Columnist Dean Juipe: Telecast left Rebels in a blur

Dean Juipe

Monday, Dec. 6, 1999 | 10:53 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

In the pre-cable days, poor television reception was such a common problem in America that almost everyone was privy to the solution.

Anytime difficulties persisted, the viewer was forced off his couch and called upon to make a series of adjustments. Steps 1 and 2 were tinkering with the horizontal and vertical control buttons. Step 3 was experimenting with the antenna and seeing the effects of bending it into any number of unorthodox positions.

Step 4 was to stroll into the kitchen to retrieve the aluminum foil.

Prehistoric as it seems today, back in the Eisenhower/LBJ era aluminum foil served a dual purpose. It was seen as often in refrigerators or in the stove as it was wrapped around a rabbit-eared antenna, a quick fix of a gimmick that the exasperated tried with varying degrees of success.

Those black and white days almost longingly came to mind over the weekend while trying to watch the UNLV men's basketball team on its two-game trip to North Carolina. Televised by KFBT Channel 33 via the Raycom Sports Network that does most of its business in the deep South, the games -- Friday vs. Princeton and Saturday vs. North Carolina -- were billed as the first in college basketball history to be televised in high-definition.

As you probably noticed, with a picture awash in orange and magenta and with far too much blue and black the games were almost unwatchable. The reception was so poor on a conventional cable-accessed television that uniform numbers were impossible to decipher and graphics bent in a diagonal blur.

The result was a telecast that appeared less real than a Penny Hardaway video game.

Satellite owners watching the UNLV games suffered through the problems as well, which led to the passing thought that maybe those business moguls pushing the high-definition industry were conspiring to make everything but high-definition TVs obsolete. If, as they do more and more sports, those sports can't be enjoyed without a high-definition TV, then we'll all have to purchase a high-definition TV -- current price tag $5,000 -- sooner rather than later.

But a sales clerk at the WOW appliance center on West Sahara didn't buy into the conspiratorial talk and thought the problem was either on the sending end with Raycom or the receiving end with KFBT.

Due to the fact late-night highlights from the games on other channels appeared fine, KFBT may be the culprit here. But leave it to UNLV to play the guinea pig in this TV conundrum.

If it's any consolation to the team, those fans watching its games back in Las Vegas found it so difficult to ascertain the images on TV that it's as if the Rebels really didn't lose to the Tar Heels. Viewers may have caught snippets of play between nauseous moments and they may have seen the Carolina fan dozing in his seat with his team up 64-51, yet they have no real feel for how or why UNLV was beaten by 24 points.

If it wasn't for Chris Richardson's skinny legs, none of the Rebels would have been identifiable.

As an introduction to high-definition TV, this one brought mixed results. Yes, the picture is brilliant with the proper equipment, but, no, don't foist this on the hapless masses until you've worked out the bugs.

Aluminum foil anyone?