MPTV Relocates Digital Channels

[wxndave]

MPTV Relocates Digital Channels
 
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Several digital channels offered by Milwaukee Public Television, including its high definition simulcast of MPTV-10, will move to new locations beginning Monday, Sept. 1, at 12:01 a.m.

Viewers who receive their digital TV signal over the air will find MPTV-HD, the high definition channel, at 10.1. It will provide a simulcast of the programs on MPTV-10, one of the two analog channels operated by Milwaukee's public television station.

A digital version of MPTV-36, the other analog channel, will be available on 36.1, but it will not be high definition. Both analog stations will continue to present their regular programming until Feb. 17. On that date, television stations are required to begin broadcasting in the digital format.

"The new MPTV digital line-up is more logical," said Tom Dvorak, MPTV's Director of Broadcasting. "When everything changes in February, it will make it easier for viewers to find their favorite programs."

MPTV offers several other digital stations, including MPTV Create, which presents cooking, gardening, travel and other lifestyle programming; V-me, a Spanish language mix of education and entertainment; and MPTV World, providing public affairs coverage and documentaries.

V-me will be 36.2, MPTV World will be 36.3, and MPTV Create will be 36.4. These channels, as well as 10.1 and 36.1, also are available on some cable systems. Viewers should consult their cable guides to find the locations.
MPTV also offers two digital music channels, MPTV Classical 36.5, MPTV Jazz 36.6 and two informational channels MPTV Weather 36.7 and MPTV Traffic 36.8.

MPTV KIDS, on digital channel 10.3 and Time Warner Cable channel 552 on Time Warner Cable, will end. The same day, the weekday schedule of children's programs on MPTV-10-HD and MPTV-10 will expand to 13 hours, from 5 a.m.-6 p.m.

MPTV KIDS began as a pre-packaged service from PBS, a 24-hours children's channel. Three years ago,
PBS stopped offering that service to stations. At that time, MPTV made the decision to continue running
the channel using a back-up feed of PBS programming and repeating it every 12 hours. PBS is now eliminating that back-up feed so they can transmit more and more programs in high definition, which requires the use of greater bandwidth. Therefore, MPTV can no longer offer a 24-hour children's channel.

MPTV has been and continues to be committed to children: the new 13-hour block of children's programming, delivered in HD for the first time, is evidence of that. To review the children's lineup from 5 a.m.-6 p.m., click on TV SCHEDULES above.

Visit MPTV.org and select TV schedules for more information.
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For more information, contact...Tom Dvorak, Director of Broadcasting, 414 297-7587

[duncantuna]

What makes no sense is putting 13 hours of kid-tv on HIGH DEF!  

They have 9 non-HD channels.  Currently, one of them is dedicated to MPTV-KIDS .. why not, well, continue that scheme?  Do kids really need HD?  Are any of those shows even filmed in HD?

Wouldn't you prioritize non-kid TV for HD?  

(I'm still furious they've removed The News Hour from their HD lineup.)

[Stanley Kritzik]

What makes no sense is putting 13 hours of kid-tv on HIGH DEF!  

They have 9 non-HD channels.  Currently, one of them is dedicated to MPTV-KIDS .. why not, well, continue that scheme?  Do kids really need HD?  Are any of those shows even filmed in HD?

Wouldn't you prioritize non-kid TV for HD?  

(I'm still furious they've removed The News Hour from their HD lineup.)

I looked today, and the DirecTV menu system said that 36-1 will have the News Hour in HD at 6:00 PM.  Seeing is believing, of course, so we shall see.  If, indeed, it is true, why didn't MPTV respond to our complaints by telling us that it would be fixed on 9/1?  For that matter, why doesn't MPTV management talk to its viewers, leaving same to relatively uninformed volunteers?

Stan

[ArgMeMatey]

... the DirecTV menu system said that 36-1 will have the News Hour in HD at 6:00 PM.  Seeing is believing, of course, so we shall see.

The Journal Sentinel TV Cue shows the News Hour at 6:30 PM on 36.  So does the mptv online listing.  

Can they broadcast HD on 36-1 while also broadcasting on 36-2 through 36-8?  The news release ( http://www.mptv.org/insidemptv/news/detail.php?n=293 ) says 36-1 will not be in HD.

[Stanley Kritzik]

The Journal Sentinel TV Cue shows the News Hour at 6:30 PM on 36.  So does the mptv online listing.  

Can they broadcast HD on 36-1 while also broadcasting on 36-2 through 36-8?  The news release ( http://www.mptv.org/insidemptv/news/detail.php?n=293 ) says 36-1 will not be in HD.

I was off by 1/2 hour.  DirecTV's menu shows ML36 at 6:30 PM in analog TV and 36-1 (OTA) also at 6:30 PM in HD.  This could make sense, if it were true, and we shall see this evening.  I would not bet the house on it.

Stan

[duncantuna]

I'll bet a donut that the text that suggests it's on 36 "in HD" simply means that PBS films it in HD.  36-1 is gonna be an SD channel.  And, of course, unless your cable/sat system has 36-1 in HD, which none do, you are again out of luck.

I suppose you could flip over to OTA .. but for most of us that means no DVR recording.

[Stanley Kritzik]

I'll bet a donut that the text that suggests it's on 36 "in HD" simply means that PBS films it in HD.  36-1 is gonna be an SD channel.  And, of course, unless your cable/sat system has 36-1 in HD, which none do, you are again out of luck.

I suppose you could flip over to OTA .. but for most of us that means no DVR recording.

It's getting confusing!  Here's what I've got.

First, DirecTV (D*) is not picking up 10-1 or 36-1, so they are re-broadcastin old analog stuff (ML10 & ML36).

Second, on my OTA reception, 36-1 is showing the news hour at 6:30 PM and 10:30 PM.  It is being shown in "letterbox" -- full width but shortened height.  To me, it looks digital, of course, and it may even be HD, but it isn't the whole thing.  I think, a month or so ago, it was full-screen HD, but I don't remember.  Now, digital is so much better than analog, I'm about done whining, but why MPTV doesn't go "all the way" with the News Hour is a puzzle.

Stan

[AA9VI]

THANK YOU MPTV!  36-1 comes in much better for us in the Northern Chicago 'burbs. Now just combine the traffic and weather channels into 1 subchannel.

[jkane]

I have Dish Network 722 with OTA recorder.  I finally got around to rescanning for local channels this weekend.  Up until now, 10.x channels had all the programming listed for what is really now on 36.x! So I removed all teh 10 and 36 channels and did the scan again.  Now I only have 10.1 and 36.1-8 or how ever many it is.  The channel names are right, but the guide data that used to be on 10.x did not move over to 36.x.    All the 36 channels are now saying "digital service" like it does when it knows nothing.  I gave it until today to see if it needed an over night or two to sync up.  But still no joy.

I asked Dish to fix it, and the gave me the canned response about them not being responsible for guide data and to contact the network them selves.  Grrr!

Do you think it would pay to contact 10/36 and see if they really have control over that?

Any other Dish people here who can verify that they also have no guide data for 36?

[troyriley]

If you're getting guide data for all the other channels, I assume you subscribe to locals through Dish. I don't, and therefore all of my OTA channels say "digital service". For you though, it sounds like either Dish Network has not updated things on their end, or MPTV has not updated the data they send to Dish. Dish's response is just what I would expect from them... "it's not our fault". I would say send MPTV a quick e-mail and I would hope you would get a better response from them. If MPTV is doing everything on their end to give Dish the updates, I would assume they would contact Dish and get the issue resolved. I'm also guessing the people MPTV would contact at Dish are "higher up" than the people Dish customers contact, and the issue would get resolved more quickly.

[cjucoder]

Guide data for my Gemstar DVRs is also very wrong for PBS.  Actually, data for 36-1 and to a lesser extent 10-1 has been wrong since LAST September when they did the change removing the 3 hour delay.  

At least the 10.(2-4) subchannel data was pretty accurate during the last year, but the guide thinks those still exist and has no guide for 36 subchannels.  36-1 and 10-1 are almost always wrong.

I would be willing to give them more time and latitude to get the current guide right with this big change if they had got the guide right in a timely manner after the last change A YEAR AGO. :bang: I talked about this in a thread here back then.

I wonder if this is a Gemstar or PBS or local MPTV issue?

[tbarney]

I'm not sure where the issue is, but I noticed the same thing a couple weeks ago. The 10.x channels still had program information even though the signal was not there any longer. I belive what was showing for 10.2 matched what was being played on 36.2.  If that is the case, I'd blame Dish for not moving the guild information to the proper channels.

Now I wish I hadn't removed the 10.x channels from my 622, at least then I would know what was on those channels.

This was a rather quick changeover. I didn't hear much about it until it took place so I'm willing to give Dish a bit of time to straighten things out. If it isn't fixed by the beginning of next month then I'll start communicating with Dish and MPTV to see if anyone knows what they are doing (doubtful)

[troyriley]

The TV listings at zap2it.com show the listings for 36.1 through 36.8, but also show 10.1, 10.2, 10.5, 10.6, and 10.7. The listings at tv.yahoo.com are more up to date, showing 36.1 through 36.4 (no need for the music, weather, and traffic channels) and only 10.1.

[jkane]

Guide data for my Gemstar DVRs is also very wrong for PBS.  Actually, data for 36-1 and to a lesser extent 10-1 has been wrong since LAST September when they did the change removing the 3 hour delay.  

At least the 10.(2-4) subchannel data was pretty accurate during the last year, but the guide thinks those still exist and has no guide for 36 subchannels.  36-1 and 10-1 are almost always wrong.

If the numbering is wrong, that is because you have to manually delete what is gone now from your reciever.  To get the new channel numbers, you have to re-scan for digital channels.  That part is not automatic.  The guide data however, has to come updated from the provider.

[cjucoder]

If the numbering is wrong, that is because you have to manually delete what is gone now from your reciever.  To get the new channel numbers, you have to re-scan for digital channels.  That part is not automatic.  The guide data however, has to come updated from the provider.

Thanks jkane, but I was only referring to the guide data.  No problem with the channels themselves.