Do We Matter? An HD Weather Warning Update

[pkphreak]

I just finished watching Friday Night Lights on WTMJ and as usual, during the most climactic portion of the show, WTMJ has to tell me all about the weather in SD.  It amazes me that 18 & 24 are the only 2 stations that have HD titling gear.  Why am I paying  for HD content, if it's still in SD?

[techguy1975]

Why not do the warning during commercials?  

Simple:  The warning information is important, especially if it is for something like a tornado warning which is sometimes issued moments before the actual tornado strikes the warned area.  A broadcaster cannot sit and wait until a commercial, or a time that wont offend everyone.

I guess part of it too is to not offend advertisers as well, since they do pay for that ad to run at a specific time.   The actors/directors, etc have bigger concerns than a few people in S.E. WI with HD capable equipment are not able to fully enjoy their shows, as long as the national neilsen numbers look good, then they are happy.  

I think the bigger crime that has been happening for years is the networks squeezing credits to the 1/3rd of the screen and showing them at lightning speed just so they can air more promos and start the next show 20 seconds earlier is the bigger crime.

[LoadStar]

I agree it's huge but currently there's no method to resize it. Looking into it however.

Please do. Tonight was the first time I had seen your HD crawl, and it is ridiculously huge. Though, not having the program drop to SD was a refreshing change of pace.

Also, if possible, shifting to the bottom of the screen, where tickers/crawls are traditionally placed, would also be much appreciated as well. Placing it at the top tends to be much more distracting, as it covers up more important parts of the programming, like people's heads and such.

[Jimboy]

Also, if possible, shifting to the bottom of the screen, where tickers/crawls are traditionally placed, would also be much appreciated as well. Placing it at the top tends to be much more distracting, as it covers up more important parts of the programming, like people's heads and such.

more fun reading..... http://www.fcc.gov/eb/eas/47part11.htm

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(d) By the above date, television stations shall transmit
a visual message containing the Originator, Event, Location and
the valid time period of an EAS message.  If the message is a
video crawl, it shall be displayed at the top of the television
screen or where it will not interfere with other visual messages.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still working on the "huge" factor, however that crawl is hardcoded into the unit. Changing it won't be an easy task since "I" can't do it.

[GBK]

Simple:  The warning information is important, especially if it is for something like a tornado warning which is sometimes issued moments before the actual tornado strikes the warned area.  A broadcaster cannot sit and wait until a commercial, or a time that wont offend everyone.  ....

OK no disrespect but that statement is utter crap.  There is nothing during commercials because that's who pays the bills not the programming and not the viewers.

[Mark Strube]

There is nothing during commercials because that's who pays the bills not the programming and not the viewers.

Exactly. They'll run school closings during commercials but not storm warnings? Nice.

[borghe]

here;s what ****es me off about WTMJ. We already lose PQ thanks to 4-2. And now we lose HD altogether thanks to the weathermap. WTF?? the only way you can even freaking get WTMJ-DT you are also able to get WeatherPlus (either through TWC or 4-2). So do you really need to drop your HD? Can't they just put a line over that says something like "Tune to channel 104 or 4-2 for more information"? Really, with a 24 hour local weather channel available to everyone that gets the HD channel, killing the HD broadcast is just idiotic.

edit - sorry for the tone of this post, but I was aggravated to no end that Heroes on Monday was mostly SD.. sorry, not only SD with black bars on the side but then the SD was crammed into a little sindow to accomodate the weather junk, and THEN that window was letterboxed to boot because the SD version is letterboxed. a 55" widescreen TV and I watched most of Heroes on monday in a 27" window... WTF? really, WTF?

[Gilbert]

Exactly. They'll run school closings during commercials but not storm warnings? Nice.

Jimboy, or someone else, correct me if I am wrong, but...

Our ABC affiliate in Rockford now lets them stay HD when they have a
box at the bottom left and a crawl going. I think it will NOT work for
FOX affiliates, because of their special-designed splicer, but for everyone
else, it should be good.

Now, having said that, I don't know of any station in Rockford or Chicago
except for a few indies that only have the EAS system. Every station I know has special software that displays a map, radar, and crawls the bulletin at the bottom. So are they legal? It's not generated by the EAS, so I am guessing that is
their way "out". One owner has two stations and a subchannel, and he does this on all 3, but has to drop FOX down to SD due to the splicer.

[Mark Strube]

I think it will NOT work for
FOX affiliates, because of their special-designed splicer, but for everyone
else, it should be good.

If they can add a local FOX6 logo to the HD picture, they can add radar maps and weather warnings, probably just requires new hardware.

[Jimboy]

Every station I know has special software that displays a map, radar, and crawls the bulletin at the bottom. So are they legal? It's not generated by the EAS, so I am guessing that is
their way "out". One owner has two stations and a subchannel, and he does this on all 3, but has to drop FOX down to SD due to the splicer.

All weather alerts are generated via NOAA radio and are EAS messages.
It's up to the station on how to display it.

[DooMer_MP3]

After being in the internet/television weather industry for several years, I can tell you that most networks are handicapped by their equipment. To generate the Severe Weather crawl and/or map, the TV signal is fed into a computer with a special video card called a "character generator". It is fed in using RGB coax connectors, and the weather information is composited on top. This is then fed out to the public.

As you can guess, most, if not all of this equipment is dated and does not support HDTV. When I left my previous employer a couple of years ago, talk of HDTV character generators was non-existent. It will likely be some time before this issue is ever remedied.

[LoadStar]

After being in the internet/television weather industry for several years, I can tell you that most networks are handicapped by their equipment. To generate the Severe Weather crawl and/or map, the TV signal is fed into a computer with a special video card called a "character generator". It is fed in using RGB coax connectors, and the weather information is composited on top. This is then fed out to the public.

As you can guess, most, if not all of this equipment is dated and does not support HDTV. When I left my previous employer a couple of years ago, talk of HDTV character generators was non-existent. It will likely be some time before this issue is ever remedied.

While all likely true and accurate - "a couple of years" in terms of anything based on computers is an eternity. On top of that, we've had an explosive growth in the amount of HDTV programming within that timeframe (laugh all you want, "a couple of years" ago, we were lucky to get maybe 3-4 hours of primetime in HD).

I'd be shocked if this hasn't been thought of and rectified by video equipment manufacturers hungry to sell stations all new equipment for the HDTV era.

[DooMer_MP3]

While all likely true and accurate - "a couple of years" in terms of anything based on computers is an eternity. On top of that, we've had an explosive growth in the amount of HDTV programming within that timeframe (laugh all you want, "a couple of years" ago, we were lucky to get maybe 3-4 hours of primetime in HD).

I'd be shocked if this hasn't been thought of and rectified by video equipment manufacturers hungry to sell stations all new equipment for the HDTV era.

I agree with what you're saying. But before I left the company, I can tell you that switching such things to HDTV was not a priority. It didn't seem to be a priorirty of other weather hardware providers either.

You also have two entities that need to make this happen. The hardware providers, and the buyers (stations). Many local stations don't have the kind of money you would think they would, at least from what I saw. They were quite a hard sell!