LOCAL STATIONS HOORAY

[bigcheeshead]

I noticed that many people who are responsible for the local HDTV programming in Milwaukee visit this forum. So I figure this would be as good of a place as any to post my concerns/praises for the local stations.

1. CBS. Thank you for the gorgeous WIDESCREEN college football games and many HiDEF shows such as "Touched by an Angel", "The Agency" and many more.
Suggestion: Please do increase the power of your station. I live in Germantown and you are the only station that I constantly have to play with my antenna to receive your signal. All other HDTV stations are working flawlessly around here.

2. TMJ4. My praises are to you for having the strongest signal available. Jay Leno in High Def should be used as a standard on how HiDef should be done. Truly amazing. Your HDTV news are absolutelly gorgeous thus making you the only station that I watch the news from.
Suggestion. Please broadcast more programming in WideScreen. We all know that widescreen is far superior to 4x3. With the backup from you and other stations we can make the move to widescreen more widely acceptable.

3. PBS Your HDTV programming is gorgeous. The picture is flawless and the signal is nice and strong.
Suggestion. Increase your high definition shows to more then just 1 a week or less and bring some variety into it instead of repeating the same shows over and over.

4. ABC. Salute goes to you for finally adding HiDeF channel. The signal is strong but HDTV programming is lacking.
Suggestion. Please do broadcast more in WideScreen.

5. WB and UPN Still waiting and waiting waiting...........

6. FOX. In my opinion fox has the best shows available. Everything from NFL games to 24, Simpsons, 70's show makes Fox an attractive channel to watch. Unfortunatelly Fox does not seem to care about HiDef. Your bastardized version of 480p widescreen is not considered high definition by the rest of the world. You gambled and you've lost. So throw away what you have and get your equipment on par with the rest of the stations. Oh, and WHAT IS UP WITH THE 2 MILES BROADCAST RANGE?
Suggestion: Increase the range, broadcast in 1080I widescreen or in the near future you may find yourself the least profitable station in the Milwaukee area.

Well, that's just my 10 cents worth.

[P a u l]

Good point here withThe Tonight Show. The reason it looks so goo is because Jay Leno bought HiDef cameras and recording equipment. So that show is what TV will look like when everyone starts filming shows in high definition. Most of the shows you see are converted from film to high definition like NYPB Blue. I'm not really sure how it is done, but I am looking for information on it and I will let you know when I find out. I do know when you convert film to video the process is called Telecine.
The reason we are not broadcasting in 16:9 all the time is this. When the 4:3 is converted to 16:9 the picture is stretched to fit the new format. If you have a big screen the image starts to get fuzzy near the edges. I posted a link to our web site that has our program guide on it. I believe we now have 12 hours of high def programming since Push Nevada was dropped. I've never actually counted the total program hours. Plus we have 5.1.   Did anyone watch Gladiator tonight?

[Pat]

Gladiator was awesome.  It's one of my favorite films of recent years, and it looked and sounded great.

But, Mr. Head refers to 4's news being in HD.  It is not, even though it looks very nice.  It is "upconverted", so what you're seeing is NTSC as good as it can be, which is about a quarter of HD.

[This message has been edited by Pat (edited 11-03-2002).]

[John Polulach]

A good friend of mine is building a dedicated home theater.  He was over on Friday evening for his 1st view of HDTV.  We watched Gladiator...FANTASTIC!  Then we began watching a DVD and the superiority of HDTV was obvious.  At 10:30 we switched to Jay Leno just to enjoy the WOW factor.

John

[John L]

Give it time.  If we are waiting patiently for WVTV-DT and WCGV-DT to go on the air, I am sure in the near future WITI-DT will eventually be ready to raise their antenna and increase their power.

Don't forget what about WJJA-DT and WPXE-DT?

WPXE-TV is owned and operated by WTMJ-TV and DT as well as AM radio and WKTI.

-John L.

[Mike Sheahan]

When I show people what the Jay Leno show looks like in HD, they all say the same thing: "Is that 3D?!?"

It really does look three dimensional.

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Mits 65819
Hughes E86
My HT Page

[bigcheeshead]

Thanks for the reply Paul. Yes 5.1 is definetly a nice bonus. Yes, the programming choices are definetly improving on ABC.
I'm just curious exactly how badly are the edges distored during upconvert. I have a 65 inch HDTV and personally I would rather see distortion on the edges then risk the possibility of burning my screen with 4:3.
Also I can see some lame TV manufacturer using  this misleading line in their ads.
"YOu don't need 16x9. Mosts stations are broadcasting HDTV in 4x3 format to fit our TV"

[oflaherty]

For the record, WPXE (PAX55) is still OWNED by Pax. It is OPERATED by the Journal Broadcast Group.  
I hear the DTV transmitter should arrive sometime this month, but they still need a special joint antenna they are working on with Sinclair, and then the tower work still has to be done, including a lot of transmission line running up the tower.  Sounds like it could take awhile to get it on the air.
---
Sean at TMJ

[Tom Snyder]

So are PAX, 18 and 24 under a different FCC timetable than the rest?

[wxndave]

No they aren't.  The problem is the tower and antenna manufactures have delayed the finishing of this project before november.  That is why 18 & 24 asked for a extension.  They may not be able to get the antennas installed before the bad weather hits.  I don't think anyone on this forum would like to go working at 1200 feet in the cold & ice.  Lets hope for a warm November

Dave

 

Originally posted by Tom Snyder:
So are PAX, 18 and 24 under a different FCC timetable than the rest?

[Joseph S]

 

I don't think anyone on this forum would like to go working at 1200 feet in the cold & ice. Lets hope for a warm November

May is usually not nearly as bad to get work done. Neither was a year ago summer, fall, or even winter. It doesn't help to be prepared for a deadline set 5 years ago.

Get the ski gear and a blowtorch!  

[P a u l]

Mike, I think it looks like one of those picture slide show toys from when I was a kid. You know the toy you put a white round paper thing with pictures on it into the toy that you looked into, but had to hold it directly at the sun to see it.  

bigcheesehead, Is your TV a RPTV or plasma? We have a few plasma monitors around, the one in our lobby is hooked up to a STB, and I noticed the "fuzzy" edges on other stations. From far away it looks fine but the closer you get the more fuzz I see. Also have you noticed how the news anchors have egg shaped heads? And where do you have a 65" set. That thing must be huge!!!!!

[Todd Wiedemann]

Paul, among other things, I'm a toy collector as well. The thing you're referring to is a 'ViewMaster' and they are still in production, still in the same basic format, too.

Still have my Six Million Dollar Man and Batman slides. 1080i is better, though.

[bigcheeshead]

The TV IS a Toshiba RPTV. About two years ago I had to make a choice between using the patio and a 65 TV. I chose the TV   The TV is literally the size of the patio doors. I sitt about 15 feet away. I do not see any pixalation on the edges viewing 16x9 programming such as HDNET, Jag, Jay Leno, etc. The news show up in 4x3 format so I don't see the cone effect either. Unfortunatelly because it's a HiDef signal neither my receiver, HughesE86, or my TV let me resize the picture.