WTMJ Becomes first Milwaukee TV Station with Local News in HD

[Tom Snyder]

WTMJ's News Live at Daybreak is in HD this morning!

Been a 12 News This Morning fan for years.. that changes this morning.

[gb4fan92]

Wondering what the plan is for the rest of the days newcasts? All HD or just the morning show? Exciting!

[jrh1985]

Wondering what the plan is for the rest of the days newcasts? All HD or just the morning show? Exciting!

When they did tonight's line up, there was an HD Icon next to Live at 10:00!

[jrh1985]

I'm Shocked that they don't have a graphic yet for Breaking News Now and/or Breaking News Update

I don't know if this is related but it might be, I have not seen a local forcast on Storm Team 4's Channel 4-2 since 5AM.

[vegasvic]

That's good news but I still can't stand Channel 4 news.  They've gone down the toilet since Gousha left. Actually it started before he left, which is why he left in the first place.

[Talos4]

I tuned in this morning after yesterday's tease and was pleasantly surprised to see it actually happened.

I was surprised to see local video in HD too! Archbishop Dolan looked pretty good in HD.

Obviously not everything was HD but all in all Good Job TMJ.

SWMBO, said why are we watching channel 4? Because it's HD!!!

Needless to say it was back to Ch 12. I still like 12 better in the AM.

[WITI6fan]

Now that one has made the switch, I'd expect others to follow shortly. WISN is supposed to get a new set before they launch in HD, so we should see them move to the newsroom or the Gousha set before they launch HD news, and WITI could possibly go at any time, although their studio cameras aren't exactly HD but do support 16:9 (from what I've researched).

[uwgrad]

I DVR'd the early news this morning, and just tuned in to the 3pm news.  I must say that the quality is very good - too good in fact because Charles Benson looks pretty darn scary on the tight shots.  Way too much makeup caked onto his face.  I noticed the same thing on the morning newscast with Vince Vitrano - although he didn't look quite so scary.

It looks like some of the outside weather cameras are in 16:9, but some of them do look stretched.  There is also an annoying jittering on certain graphics maps such as during weather and traffic.

This won't however change my preference in local news.  I can't stand Ch 4 news producing and the way they treat their employees, so today was my only time watching them.  I'm sticking with Channel 12.  I really wish that Ch 12 would go HD soon, but with the way the economy is and corporate spending cut way back, I think it's doubtful that they will go HD in the near future.  At a minimum they will probably go 16:9 SD somewhat soon as a temporary step.  Their current studio cameras look pretty sharp at times, so if they went 16:9 it would look decent.  The only problem is that sometimes the shots are out of focus - mainly in the weather area.  If they could fix that issue, it would be much better.

[jeffski]

It's about time!!

[BK7725]

Some things I noticed this morning:

LOVED:

New graphics

Overall News Quality

Stories in HD

DISLIKED:

Weather: Still needs a new 7 day planner. Also, they need to get a new radar, because it is not HD. I could see them getting this soon. EDIT: As of 5PM, John Malan is showing the conditions of where the Brewers are (San Fran) on his new HD radar. I bet he's excited!!

Traffic: The worst part of Live at Daybreak, their old traffic map is just in blurry widescreen, and the traffic times are cut off in SD.

OVERALL

I'm loving it!

[OlsonNet]

A lot of the weather graphics still look SD (or worse), especially the maps with the current temps around the state/midwest.

Also the actual TMJ logo/time/weather bug seems very "soft" and nowhere near as crisp as the other HD graphics.

[Dan the Man]

Wow, the 10:00 PM news looks fantastic. Where'd they get the HD shots of F-16's flying? I know that must be stock footage but boy does it look great!

A fair amount of it seems to be in HD but obviously some of it must be stretched SD as I bet not all the truck cameras are HD yet. Some of the live feeds looked like SD.

I am very impressed.

Nice HD radar John Malan!

The news graphics look good also.

I am happy to see someone in MKE finally take the step into local HD broadcasting. Thanks TMJ4!!!

[LoadStar]

Wow, the 10:00 PM news looks fantastic. Where'd they get the HD shots of F-16's flying? I know that must be stock footage but boy does it look great!

A fair amount of it seems to be in HD but obviously some of it must be stretched SD as I bet not all the truck cameras are HD yet. Some of the live feeds looked like SD.

I am very impressed.

Nice HD radar John Malan!

The news graphics look good also.

I am happy to see someone in MKE finally take the step into local HD broadcasting. Thanks TMJ4!!!

I agree; truck live shots look like stretched SD, but everything else looks HD.

I know this is the first night, but tacking on the "in HD" to the station name (i.e. "Live in , , TMJ4 in HD") and pointing out every opportunity they can how things are "in HD" is really annoying. We can see it, thanks, you don't need to constantly point it out.

[TAS]

screenshots anyone?

[Neilium]

WTMJ HD Screen Caps...

http://www.packofseven.tv/tvnt/showthread.php?t=5349

Enjoy!