WMSN Madison Upconv. Golf

[Kevin Arnold]

Watched part of the Bucks game and now golf on Ch 19 digital out of Madison. I'm not sure whose doing the upconvert, NBC or local but it looks damn good. They're using that device whose name I can't remember that adds pixels based on the existing picture. There is a small black frame around the 16x9 picture and the people aren't stretched much at all. This is the way to watch SD on a HD channel. Maybe Tom Weeden can enlighten us. Too bad TMJ hasn't signed on yet for comparison.

[Tom Weeden]

WMTV uses an "upconverter" that takes the analog (480i) picture and turns it into 1080i simulated HD.  Ours is not set for the full 16:9 stretch, but maybe "14.5:9" with the top and bottom cropped off slightly.

Viewer response to this has been about 75% favorable.  Some would rather see 4:3 with black side bars if source material is 4:3.

When ER and West Wing are on, we turn off the stretch and do a 25% crop so the letterbox effect is not visible on a 16:9 display.  Still waiting for those shows to show up in HD....

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--Tom Weeden
  Amateur Radio WJ9H
  Chief Engineer, WMTV/WMTV-DT
  Madison, WI

[This message has been edited by Tom Weeden (edited 04-08-2002).]

[Scott Sippel]

I am one of the 75% in favor of WMTV's use with the up converter especially what they do for ER and West Wing.  

I like to watch the digital signal whenever possible but ER with both vertical and horizontal borders on WTMJ just doesn't work for me.  That's when I swing the antenna around to Madison.  

[Pat]

Seems like the right thing to do for programs like that.  Can't get Madison though.

I wondered about those shows: are they produced in such a way that reruns in years to come will be 16:9 HDTV?

Are there a lot of 4:3 HDTV sets out there?  (I hope not.)  What does it look like for them?

[Kevin Arnold]

I found this article on the latimes.com site that talks about cable carriage and more importantly about NBC's plans for the fall.
Quote:Several top cable operators disclosed plans to carry digital stations in a dozen cities, doubling the current number of communities served. Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America announced Saturday that it has stopped making analog TVs, committing itself totally to digital sets. And the amount of digital programming continues to increase, with DirecTV planning to carry an additional entertainment channel in HDTV this quarter and NBC officials saying they'll broadcast all their new prime-time shows this fall in HDTV.

Here's the link: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000025031apr08.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbusiness%2Dmanual

Looks like NBC will join the HD revolution this fall!


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Kevin Arnold
38" RCA widescreen w/a Winegard on a rotor.

[Joseph S]

 

Viewer response to this has been about 75% favorable. Some would rather see 4:3 with black side bars if source material is 4:3.

If the source material is 4:3, why the need to butcher it by cropping and stretching the image?? It the same as turning WS movies into P&S. It offers zero benefits.

I'll never understand this "black bar" fear. There should be a great deal of primetime in 16X9 this fall and burn in should not be a concern. No matter what you do to alter the aspect ratio, the most likely risks of burn in will still exist in the form of FoxNews, CNBC, and CNN tickers and bright station bugs.