WDJT CBS 58 OTA Analog Audio Oddity

[N9XX]

I have not yet joined the HDTV age, but I see that this is a very knowledgeable and "connected" forum.  Perhaps someone can enlighten me:

What's with the analog OTA broadcast audio of WDJT?  For the past month or more, it has been very "uneven" - lots of overly loud "louds", especially during commercials and during CBS-fed broadcasts.  It almost appears to be "Surround Sound", even though that's currently disabled on my 27" Sony.  A good example is that Hyundai commercial that features a marching band chasing some guy around town.  The music just "blasts".  Even during Thursday's Survivor premiere, the music virtually drowned out any dialog.  'Twas the case also throughout virtually every other network fed broadcast.  Local programming (news) sounds nice and normal.  This only appears to occur on WDJT 58, which has always come in beautifully in my hilltoppy New Berlin location.

Is it me, or my antique Sony, or some artifact of the switch to HD broadcasting?  Of course I recognize I'm not receiving/decoding digital - the Sony is vintage 1996.

Dan

[Bent_MG]

I noticed the same thing tonight on the analog broadcast of the Tennesee-Florida game...it's as if 1 channel of surround sound was piped into my speakers extremely loudly. I'm was watching on a 10 year old Mitsubishi tv at my work, and didn't notice it on any other channels.

[StarvingForHDTV]

I guess that's another reason to upgrade to digital.  Maybe pick up a used digital set top box for $100 or so on eBay.  Feed the audio and video to your antique equipment, and enjoy the superior sound and picture quality of digital.

Just a thought.:wave:

[Bent_MG]

lol, I forgot to mention that I *do* have a nice little hd setup at home...pulling in stations from Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and Rockford...but I was stuck viewing the analog stations at work, where we haven't upgraded to all-digital...yet...

[N9XX]

Not quite the reply I'm looking for, Starving... but I'd love to upgrade if I had the $$$.  At this point, HD is a high-tech toy I can't afford and can live without.  I'm sure many here will see that as heresy

What I am looking for is some explanation of what is going in at CBS 58 - is this a technical problem, or a preview of where analog broadcasting is heading?

[John L]

Originally posted by N9XX
Not quite the reply I'm looking for, Starving... but I'd love to upgrade if I had the $$$.  At this point, HD is a high-tech toy I can't afford and can live without.  I'm sure many here will see that as heresy
 

This is very true and as long as Best Buy, American TV, Walmart, etc. continue to sell analog TVs, it will be a long while until the number of viewers in SouthEast Wisconsin own HDTVs.  Right now only 12% of SE Wisconsin viewers own HDTVs.  Once the last of the analog TV's go, then people will be forced to buy a HDTV.  By that time prices on Digital TVs should have come down.

-John L.

[N9XX]

Perhaps 88% of the people in SE Wis. find the current technology prohibitively expensive - I do.  My Sony cost around $600 in '96, and it was considered a fairly middle-of-the road set, maybe even low-end by some.  Well, "it ain't broke", and I'm satisfied with the picture quality, though it has started degrading slightly with age.  When it does break, I'll definitely go HD/digital, but I hope the entry-level pricing on HDTV can drop closer to a similar price point by that time.

So, back to my original topic:  does anyone here know what's going on with WDJT and their audio?  Surely they still need to remain compliant with analog broadcast standards.  This is why I posted this question in the Non-HDTV forum - hoping to find a knowledgeable answer concerning a non-HDTV topic.

Dan

[kwinrich]

Dan if you sold me some of your ham equipment, you could afford a HDTV box :wave:

Kent, K9EZ