Surprise appearance of 4-2 !

[StarvingForHDTV]

Does this mean you won't have to break in to our national HDTV feed when you think weather is more important than the TV show being aired?  That would be nice.

Thanks for waiting until after the Olympics.

[Doug Mohr]

Does this mean you won't have to break in to our national HDTV feed when you think weather is more important than the TV show being aired?  That would be nice.

I hope so.

If this is a deal with TW, will it only be on cable or will us OTA guys have to suffer through the lost HD bandwidth as well?

[Todd Wiedemann]

I hope so.

If this is a deal with TW, will it only be on cable or will us OTA guys have to suffer through the lost HD bandwidth as well?

From the press release (bolding mine):

In addition to running on Time Warner Cable channel 104, TODAY'S TMJ4 Weather Plus will stream live on //www.todaystmj4.com. It will also be aired on TODAY'S TMJ4 digital channel 4.2.

[Joseph S]

It will also be aired on TODAY'S TMJ4 digital channel 4.2.

And the quality will suffer from artifacting and pixelation equivalent to what has been seen in other markets. Call their GM early and often!! I would be willing to be that there isn't 1% of viewers of their digital programming that want their other programming ruined for this at all. Leave it on cable and the web, keep our HD at full bitrate!!!!!! He clearly does not understand or doesn't care about the impact of this terrible decision.  :mad:

Does this mean you won't have to break in to our national HDTV feed when you think weather is more important than the TV show being aired? That would be nice.

I've got some swampland for ya. No way in hell.

[Doug Mohr]

From the press release (bolding mine):

OK, so I have A.D.D. and don't read the end of the sentence  

[Todd Wiedemann]

OK, so I have A.D.D. and don't read the end of the sentence  

No worries.

This ADD thing ... hey, look at that pretty bird !

[LoadStar]

So, wait a sec - does this Weather Plus thing replace TWC's Weather Now? And if so, does it replace BOTH of the Weather Now channels currently carried on TWC (103 and 1113)?

And if not - why not? Do we REALLY need Weather Channel, Weather Now, and Weather Plus? How much weather do we really need on TV anyway, when I'm more likely at this point to go to http://www.weather.gov/ ?

[Joseph S]

I doubt it. You'll just have more incorrect data to ignore. Their web crap is incompatible with OS X too.

How about a web button to shock the guest weatherman when they're wrong?

[oflaherty]

4.2 - Weather Plus is on the air and on Time Warner Cable 104 as of early this morning.
---
Sean at TMJ

[Joseph S]

4.2 - Weather Plus is on the air and on Time Warner Cable 104 as of early this morning.

and it's using a whopping 2Mbps + >1Mbps unaccounted for. Last night's Conan reached 20.43Mbps. Today NBC programming isn't reaching 16Mbps on 4-1 or  >2Mbs on 4-2. Time to turn the antennas elsewhere if possible. They're at craptastic CBS58 bandwidth levels already. Just wait for Nascar/ND/Kentucky Derby. :mad: I've also blocked it on TWC and my HD tuners.

[John L]

4.2 - Weather Plus is on the air and on Time Warner Cable 104 as of early this morning.
---
Sean at TMJ

Sean,

   I think its great.  I am getting it on 4-2.  I don't have digital cable.  Thus I will be getting it directly off the air on 4-2 or 4.2.   Its great to have a local 24/7 weather.

-John L.

[mhz40]

and it's using a whopping 2Mbps + >1Mbps unaccounted for. Last night's Conan reached 20.43Mbps. Today NBC programming isn't reaching 16Mbps on 4-1 or  >2Mbs on 4-2. Time to turn the antennas elsewhere if possible. They're at craptastic CBS58 bandwidth levels already. Just wait for Nascar/ND/Kentucky Derby. :mad: I've also blocked it on TWC and my HD tuners.

You can run, but you can't hide.  :rofl:

[mhz40]

So, wait a sec - does this Weather Plus thing replace TWC's Weather Now? And if so, does it replace BOTH of the Weather Now channels currently carried on TWC (103 and 1113)?

Yes and yes.

[tazman]

Watch the weather late at night, look out the window in the morning. You tell me how much we need another weather channel.  What we need is to hire forcasters from Canada and not from down South.  I,m tired of hearing about how a 1/2 inch of snow is a winter weather advisory. :guns:

[Gilbert]

Disclaimer: I am a meteorologist. No, I am NOT going to hell.

First off, why DO we need another weather channel? Great question.
"The" Weather Channel out of Atlanta has turned to actors, comedians and
"Storm Stories" instead of weather. I haven't watched it in two years for more than a minute. It is a mere shadow (and that's an insult to shadows) of its former glory to inform its viewers of bad weather across the country. When tornado outbreaks occur, they're showing reruns of ones that happened in the past!
Yes, they show crawls at the bottom of the screen. Helpful, but that's not what paying $60 a month is for. And their "Weather on the 8s" is nothing more
than a bad computer model for the local forecast. Morale there isn't great.

So, here comes competition, doing live weather, crawls, the whole 9 yards, and is now live during many of their national breaks up until midnight. And they do have two anchors on from time to time. Public service is provided. And it's FREE!
And the forecasts aren't from a bad computer model. And even when they go to a commercial, the crawls and live information runs constantly. No need to wait
to get a local forecast!

But of course, Joseph screams foul on the bandwidth part. As I said before...
there is NO mandate for 16:9, high definition, over-the-air TV. Just that all over-the-air TV broadcasts go 4:3 digital by February 17, 2009. That's it.

WTTW-DT in Chicago (PBS) got an earful when they went 720P and the images looked soft when they added 2 subchannels. They upgraded their encoders and
boom! Everyone stopped complaining, because the main channel and the 2 subs look great! It IS possible to have great looking HD and 2 subchannels if you are using the right equipment. On a night with "tropo" going on, catch WTTW
and WLS-DT from Chicago.  You may be quiet surprised at what you see!

Believe me when I say that WTMJ and other stations don't give a flying rip
about people whining about their subchannels. What they DO care about is high quality on all channels. WREX-DT (NBC Rockford, IL) looks GREAT with a radar subchannel. It's all how the bits are allocated. The best ones can make 2 subs and a primary look wonderful. Heck, FOX looks fantastic on 720p with NASCAR.
Check out the bit rates...10-12 MB? Yep, enough for 2 very good looking subs.
I'm surprised FOX O&O's aren't doing subchannels! The one in Champaign, IL does...but only to have "stadium audio"-no announcers during ball games, and spanish audio when available.

In summary, I like NBC Weather Plus, and kudos to WTMJ for providing this public service. As for the main channel, ask WTMJ to "fix it". If it is as bad as you say,
it can be taken care of.