MPTV adding subchannels to channel 10

[ArgMeMatey]

So much for full rate HD from MPTV.  

http://onmilwaukee.com/movies/articles/mptvshuffle.html

[jjallou]

When the FCC is done screwing up free tv via their National Broadband Plan quality won't matter much anyway. :bang:

[Bebop]

So, they are moving some of the channels over to 10, so 36 can have more bandwidth to broadcast HD in early 2011.

10 will give up about 8mbps, so that leaves about 10mbps for HD.

Don't forget to donate next time.

[Xizer]

Jazz? Classical music? Who watches this crap? Why does MPTV need a subchannel just for weather? And have you seen that horrible traffic cam crap they've got on 36's subchannels? It's ugly, obnoxious, and most importantly, completely and utterly useless. What a ridiculous waste of bandwidth :bang:

I am looking forward to channel 36 getting HD though. I'm not spending money on a VHF antenna just for MPTV.

What they really should do though is just switch 10.1 to UHF instead of VHF and quit worrying about adding a billion subchannels that no one gives a **** about.

[Milwaukee12]

I watch the the traffic cams.  I watch the weather channel.  I find them very informative.

The reason MPTV has Jazz and Classical is because there are no radio stations playing them in Milwaukee.  They started it when 93.3 and 106.9 first changed.

[Xizer]

I watch the the traffic cams.  I watch the weather channel.  I find them very informative.

The reason MPTV has Jazz and Classical is because there are no radio stations playing them in Milwaukee.  They started it when 93.3 and 106.9 first changed.

You realize NBC has a waste of space that performs the exact function, right? I don't see why we need that redundancy when NBC has a perfectly fine weather subchannel on 4.2.

Who uses their TV to listen to music? It's absurd. And in the age of the Internet, MPTV continues to show its backward thinking. Doesn't make me want to contribute. I'm not interested in funneling money into a company that is looking backwards instead of forwards :rolleyes:

[WITI6fan]

What's interesting is that the weather channel is going to be "Upgraded" to an Accuweather channel, which is what WTMJ 4.2 currently is.

There is only two other markets that have two Accuweather channels. I wonder if WTMJ will change their weather subchannel once 10.4 goes live...

[LoadStar]

What's interesting is that the weather channel is going to be "Upgraded" to an Accuweather channel, which is what WTMJ 4.2 currently is.

There is only two other markets that have two Accuweather channels. I wonder if WTMJ will change their weather subchannel once 10.4 goes live...

It'd be nice. I can't stand Accuweather, particularly their graphics; they look very cheap, amateurish, and dated.

I'm kind of surprised that there wasn't a Weather Channel package available to NBC affiliates, now that Weather Channel is owned by NBC Universal. They have WeatherScan, but that's a cable channel, not broadcast, and doesn't have any on-air hosts and doesn't have any ability to integrate the local TV station forecasts/meteorologists.

[mrschimpf]

You realize NBC has a waste of space that performs the exact function, right? I don't see why we need that redundancy when NBC has a perfectly fine weather subchannel on 4.2.

Who uses their TV to listen to music? It's absurd. And in the age of the Internet, MPTV continues to show its backward thinking. Doesn't make me want to contribute. I'm not interested in funneling money into a company that is looking backwards instead of forwards :rolleyes:

The thing is that unlike WDJT's loading up Shorewest TV on their subchannel, the bit bite from the music and weather channels is virtually nil. You have two high quality audio streams, another one which barely needs to get to 32 kbps because NOAA weather audio is low-quality, and then three channels with basically still images. It takes just as much room as one regular subchannel.

I understand the need for the weather station to at least get the NOAA weather audio out there for everyone who is in a weak weather radio area, and I admit I enjoy the traffic channel for incidents and background noise since when the regular stations show the cams they just use them as decorative wallpaper unless there's an accident the DOT's focusing on (I almost never see a traffic reporter talking about what's on-screen at the moment). And the jazz and classical stations have their place in non-cable homes, but if you have digital cable or satellite you have those two services already (or if you have an HD Radio that can get WHAD-HD2), it's redundant.

Definitely though, the weather station needs the most improvement; you take away the audio and it's just random NWS maps with no context at all to speak of, and incredibly poor compared to what WBAY does with their weather subchannel in Green Bay or Twin Cities Public Television's weather subchannel in Minneapolis. I'm thinking it might just be more organized customized mapping and information presentation since there will be no way MPTV can just get away with streaming what WTMJ does now because of their non-commercial nature.

[beeper]

You realize NBC has a waste of space that performs the exact function, right? I don't see why we need that redundancy when NBC has a perfectly fine weather subchannel on 4.2.

"Perfectly fine" is a subjective observation.
The not-so-accuweather channel is terrible. The initial 4.2 weather channel format was better.

Not-so-accuweather routinely has the wrong info for the first day of the extended forecast.

[Xizer]

If you're really gonna sperg about the weather that hard when why not just use the Internet instead of some shitty TV channel? Sheesh

[WPXE ION]

If you're really gonna sperg about the weather that hard when why not just use the Internet instead of some shitty TV channel? Sheesh

Some people do not have internet and for those of us who are strictly OTA having a free weather channel is a bonus. {cheers}

[mrschimpf]

It looks like MPTV has put the new weather layout to use on 36.7 as of last night if you go by the newest imagescan of the Milwaukee channel map on SilliconDust;



I wasn't able to get it in via antenna tonight so I don't know what background audio they're using, if it's NOAA or just looping production music.

Pretty much just the same as what WTMJ has, except without the national programming, fewer ads, and information more spread out on the screen (another SD cap shows the hour-by-hour forecast filling the right space like it does on 4.2) and two extra days for the seven-day outlook. I guess it's better than they had, but it's unexceptional and plain. If anything at least the deal finally moved MPTV's warning capabilities beyond the pictures they use for warnings and to actual maps (which are even more absurdly large than the first TMJ HD warning bug).

[Bebop]

The bit rate is much lower too. It's only  600-800kbps compared to 2-4mbps for 4-2.

[AA9VI]

What's interesting is that the weather channel is going to be "Upgraded" to an Accuweather channel, which is what WTMJ 4.2 currently is.

There is only two other markets that have two Accuweather channels. I wonder if WTMJ will change their weather subchannel once 10.4 goes live...

AccuWeather is a downgrade.  They're actually pretty bad forecasters for local areas.
WTMJ would be better off just keeping a radar loop and a recorded portion of the weather from the news every now and them.

If you've seen WLS, you'll get a feeling of how accuweather and their made up terminology like RealFeel (TM) stinks.