Oh crap...

[Mikey]

Well, the new TV season is upon us tonight as my long awaited favorite Heroes season premier is on tonight in glorious HD!!!!

Or is it?

Seems there is T-Storms rolling in tonight, or at least possibly.

So I guess my 56" HDTV feed of Heroes will be shrunk down to about 30", changed to crappy SD and distorted so as to fit in a non-16:9 square...

Is it not 2007?  Can't they just put a tiny storm overlay img in the lower-left corner and keep the screen in glorious HD?

I mean, I ALREADY know there is a chance of a T-Storm tonight...do I have to be told every second of every minute from 7pm til 10pm?

[Doug Mohr]

Maybe we should flood the phones now while the managers are actually there, instead of tonight when it obviously falls on deaf ears.

Maybe we should keep a log of commercials and let those sponsors know that we would rather download the programs illegally to get HD than to watch it shrunk down over a chance of rain.

If they perceive that they are losing commercial viewers, perhaps they will let their sales reps know that the weather follies are costing them viewers.

Doug

[Jayflap]

It's really not that simple. With the exception of MPTV, none of the stations have any HD equipment in line that would allow you to insert anything. Due to the enormous costs (and trust me they are quite large) that changing one's production to HD, the locals are all just taking the digital signal from the network and passing it through. The cost to upgrade the transmitters to allow HD is large enough much less adding the other production equipment.

To even get an HD character generator in-line for a commercial station at this point is cost prohibitive. I do agree with everyone that when a bug is added (for weather or in CBS58's case a post game show) that dropping to SD is really not an acceptable solution. Until they can justify the costs to implement full HD production, I think will will all have to live with it.

[Jimboy]

It's really not that simple. With the exception of MPTV, none of the stations have any HD equipment in line that would allow you to insert anything. Due to the enormous costs (and trust me they are quite large) that changing one's production to HD, the locals are all just taking the digital signal from the network and passing it through. The cost to upgrade the transmitters to allow HD is large enough much less adding the other production equipment.

To even get an HD character generator in-line for a commercial station at this point is cost prohibitive. I do agree with everyone that when a bug is added (for weather or in CBS58's case a post game show) that dropping to SD is really not an acceptable solution. Until they can justify the costs to implement full HD production, I think will will all have to live with it.

The same digital transmitter can pass HD or SD, it's the encoding equipment that generates the ATSC compliant stream whether it's HD or SD.

FYI..
WCGV & WVTV can also do HD inserts, however, at the present time it's only used for EAS crawl information.

[Jayflap]

That being said, the cost of upgrading a your transmitters for digital is still a sizable cost that stations have had to invest in. The cost of an HD Dekocast for weather is still a bit much for most stations to put in the inserts they are used to having.

BTW, what are you guys using for your HD inserts??

J

[Mikey]

That being said, the cost of upgrading a your transmitters for digital is still a sizable cost that stations have had to invest in. The cost of an HD Dekocast for weather is still a bit much for most stations to put in the inserts they are used to having.

BTW, what are you guys using for your HD inserts??

J

They can insert their station logo over the top of the HD picture....

If they didn't want to take up more than 50% of the screen for their weather warning, and instead just put a picture of a storm cloud up in the corner, wouldn't they be able to do that now?

PS-Thankfully there was no storm last night and thus we HD subscribers weren't stuck with a crappy, distorted SD feed for TV last night.  Hooray!

[Jayflap]

They can insert their station logo over the top of the HD picture....

I understand what you are saying, but the inserter must be an HD box to do that. The signal has to pass through the unit that is doing the logo insertion, and if it is not HD then it will be changed to SD just to put that logo on. Regardless, you will lose the HD signal to insert any logo unless the station of origin has an HD capable inserter.

[AndrewP]

So you are saying, that they have the ability and resources to insert their enormous bug (like ch.12) in HD feed, but they can't do it for weather?
It is not acceptable. Learn something from Chicago stations. It is only 1-2 hour trip to visit their sister stations and learn something.

[Doug Mohr]

It's really not that simple. With the exception of MPTV, none of the stations have any HD equipment in line that would allow you to insert anything. Due to the enormous costs (and trust me they are quite large) that changing one's production to HD, the locals are all just taking the digital signal from the network and passing it through. The cost to upgrade the transmitters to allow HD is large enough much less adding the other production equipment.

To even get an HD character generator in-line for a commercial station at this point is cost prohibitive. I do agree with everyone that when a bug is added (for weather or in CBS58's case a post game show) that dropping to SD is really not an acceptable solution. Until they can justify the costs to implement full HD production, I think will will all have to live with it.

I was talking more about the choosing of interrupting programming, not the technical aspect. There are Emergency situations and then there are "Newsworthy" situations. The local stations here have a bad history of doing drop by drop coverage (or flake by flake in winter) simply to get there face time on the screen. My big peeve is not the lack of a digital inserter (although its a ledgitimate gripe in Q4 of 2007), but the choice to interrupt the show to tell us that we are having very mild weather.

I just want the station to apply the same decisions of what to interrupt in prime time as they do in daytime TV. You never see anything other than important weather updates on soap operas and Oprah-type shows. No "There is a front moving in that may cause rain. We'll keep you posted" interruptions during the day.

The biggest insult to me is when they obliterate the prime time show, but run the canned 15-30 second commercials for their own news coverage. Wouldn't that be the perfect time to update us on the weather? I mean its already SD and there is no revenue coming in from that airtime.

Doug

[Jayflap]

So you are saying, that they have the ability and resources to insert their enormous bug (like ch.12) in HD feed, but they can't do it for weather?
It is not acceptable. Learn something from Chicago stations. It is only 1-2 hour trip to visit their sister stations and learn something.

I honestly have never seen them insert a CH 12 (or 4, 6, 58) logo over an HD feed. The only logos I have seen in HD have been from the networks themselves. The locals will have their bug on over an upconverted SD signal on the Digital stations, but in true HD I have never seen it from a local. Please correct me if I wrong on that.

Doug,
  I couldn't agree more that unless it is a newsworthy break in that there should be no interruption to the HD signal, but unfortunately that is management making that call and not us. :confused:

[AndrewP]

I honestly have never seen them insert a CH 12 (or 4, 6, 58) logo over an HD feed. The only logos I have seen in HD have been from the networks themselves. The locals will have their bug on over an upconverted SD signal on the Digital stations, but in true HD I have never seen it from a local. Please correct me if I wrong on that.

Just take a look at Ch 6, Ch 12. They have logos over HD.
Don't recall CBS, kind of tired of CSI.
Ch 4 doesn't do it.

[Milwaukee12]

Ch. 6's logo is network controlled.  But I agree with Ch. 12.  They can put a 12 mext to the ABC logo but can't put the weather alert in HD?

[AndrewP]

Ch6 FOX6 logo is network controlled? Are you sure? Chicago WFLD Fox Ch. 32 has a different one. Actually it shows it for 1-2 min after commercial break, and then it is clear picture.

[mhz40]

Static logos and watermarks may be as simple as burning an internal chip in a satellite receiver or high-end hi-def mpeg encoder.  There the image would be overlayed just before the encoding process.  Custom graphics with radar and/or text overlays likely require external keying systems capable of passing the original component HD content and converting the SD graphics to HD scan rates.  If I'm right, I don't blame stations for holding off right now, as the cost is not justifiable.  That being said, broadcasters are doing a dis-service IMO, by continually going to SD for indefinite periods of time in order to simulcast weather content.  If it warrants distribution, break-in completely, do the weather break, show the radar and get back to the national broadcast...

[Doug Mohr]

That being said, broadcasters are doing a dis-service IMO, by continually going to SD for indefinite periods of time in order to simulcast weather content.  If it warrants distribution, break-in completely, do the weather break, show the radar and get back to the national broadcast...

You hit the nail right on the head with that one!

Get in, get out and get on with life. We don't need to see the radar blips for the entire evening.