WISN 2005-06 Equipment and Switching Failures

[Joseph S]

Boston Legal
9:59 - Boston Legal - Flipped the damn switch in the final minute of the show. Did I mention this is my favorite show on ABC? Did I mention they never repeat this show? Did I mention the show wasn't over when they flipped the damn switch?? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!.  :mad:

[Mark Strube]

Yeah I noticed this too. Very distracting. :mad:

[Mark Strube]

Has anything changed with their signal? I've been receiving it perfectly - consistent 97-99 signal - until starting late last night and into today, the signal is all over the place with a few break-ups every minute. I don't get it.  No trees grew into the way overnight.

[Mark Strube]

Okay solved my own problem. Unplugged the power from my indoor antenna... whala, solid 94-96 signal, no glitches. Ideas? I'm thinking it was pulling in multipath or something.

Interesting... the only channels that seem to have a reliable signal-boosting benefit from having the amplifier turned on are 6-1 and 18-1. The rest are full signal without it, and 12-1 is totally reliable without it.

EDIT: Nevermind... still having issues. :bang:

[Joseph S]

Have they gotten a single local commercial break correct in two months? I don't think so. Another miserable job on Grey's Anatomy last night.

[LoadStar]

*shrug* For some reason, I never notice any of these horrible switching problems that you report. Not a one. Odd.

[Joseph S]

*shrug* For some reason, I never notice any of these horrible switching problems that you report. Not a one. Odd.

I find that hard to believe. It was present on Alias again tonight.

All you have to do is watch a single commercial break to see one of the issues. When they leave HD for local you get the same last seconds of audio repeating as a hiccup because SD is behind HD audio. When you watch return from local commercial to HD feed you'll get the reverse where SD audio overlaps HD feed. You'll also notice on local to national feed we don't have any lead. All of their breaks are about 3 seconds too early on the out and 3 seconds too late on the in. In addition to the audio you will note local commercial-> national feed results in zero visual black lead as opposed to national commercial- > national HD there are about 4 seconds of lead.

[LoadStar]

I find that hard to believe. It was present on Alias again tonight.

All you have to do is watch a single commercial break to see one of the issues. When they leave HD for local you get the same last seconds of audio repeating as a hiccup because SD is behind HD audio. When you watch return from local commercial to HD feed you'll get the reverse where SD audio overlaps HD feed. You'll also notice on local to national feed we don't have any lead. All of their breaks are about 3 seconds too early on the out and 3 seconds too late on the in. In addition to the audio you will note local commercial-> national feed results in zero visual black lead as opposed to national commercial- > national HD there are about 4 seconds of lead.

The only time I notice the "flip" is after prime-time, as they flip for the closing credits, and yes, in that instance, I do notice the stutter as they flip back to the SD network feed. And yes, I do notice that the SD network feed does run a second or less behind the digital/HD network feed in that instance - not the 3-4 seconds that you report.

The stutter is noticable in that instance, but not anything I even find rises to the level of anything I need to report every time it happens. Other than that, I don't notice issues during prime-time at all.

As for the lack of "visual black" - I don't notice it. I'd challenge you to find ANY average viewer who notices the lack of "visual black." I mean, I notice it on your images now that you point it out and show the frames in film-strip mode, but it's not a problem I really care one bit about. More than that, I don't think this is a unique problem to Digital/HD... I'd suggest that even on the non-digital channel, ANY break with local insert material suffers the risk of running late/long and killing the "visual black" before returning to network programming.

Honestly, I think there are more important issues to worry about than the lack of a second of "visual black." I'd argue that the stuttering of video DURING programming over on FOX is much more important. The failure of ANY local affiliate to get systems in place to allow graphics overlays on the digital channel without having to drop down to the SD network feed is likewise an important topic to rant and rave about.

This? IMHO, petty and insignificant to a ridiculous degree. If I were an engineer from one of the local affiliates, and I saw endless posts any time a commercial ran 0.002 seconds later than it should (exaggeration, of course), I'd be inclined to disregard ANYTHING that person said as equally petty and insignificant, even if it were regarding something that wasn't.

[Joseph S]

They've screwed up every single local commercial break on Lost, Alias, Desperate Housewives, Boston Legal, and Grey's Anatomy for at least 2 months. They are so late that even the ads themselves aren't completed when they switch to national programming already in progress. It's time for a mass firing at WISN.