"This Old House" and Time Warner

[KryptoNyte]

It seems that a decision has been made to move "This Old House" and "Ask This Old House" from Time Warner channel 1010 to channel 1016.  When these shows were on 1010, they came through in all their 720p, full screen glory.  Unfortunately, when they moved the shows to 1016 midseason, channel 1016 has decided to downsize the HD show into a 4:3 window with their silly logo on the left/right borders, and black borders top and bottom.

Why in the world would you want to take a program in fullscreen 720p HD and cripple it?  What a bummer.

[mrschimpf]

It seems that a decision has been made to move "This Old House" and "Ask This Old House" from Time Warner channel 1010 to channel 1016.  When these shows were on 1010, they came through in all their 720p, full screen glory.  Unfortunately, when they moved the shows to 1016 midseason, channel 1016 has decided to downsize the HD show into a 4:3 window with their silly logo on the left/right borders, and black borders top and bottom.

Why in the world would you want to take a program in fullscreen 720p HD and cripple it?  What a bummer.

Two words; pledge week :bang:. It returns to 10 after it's all done on the 22nd. You may also be watching the overnight version of the show, which airs at 3:30am on Create (36.4), which isn't in HD and MPTV upconverts to 720p widescreen to air on 36.1 for overnight times when they don't have classroom programming for later taping.

[LoadStar]

This doesn't have anything to do with Time Warner that I can tell. Programming decisions on the various channels aren't the decision of Time Warner, they are made by the broadcaster.

[wxndave]

KryptoNyte I take it you were watching this while it happened?  Yes this was done because of the local pledge cycle.  I agree with mrschimpf.  You must have been watching the 4 X 3 up convert of create during the overnight.  I have a friend that has the same problem with his Sage system.  It picks the early morning airing because it is on 36.1 and thinks it's HD.

Dave

[KryptoNyte]

Okay, you guys are right.  When this issue came about this last week, I couldn't see far enough forward in the EPG to realize that it's back on 1010 March 22nd, but I can see that now.

The problem that I [luckily] recognized early on is that Sage is setup to only record these two programs when they show up on 1010, and with 7MC running beside Sage on this machine recording the same TV shows, it picked up the show on the 1016 (or 36.1 as you mentioned).

Thanks, and sorry for the false alarm.  Looks like just a couple episodes that will be screwed up.

[PONIES]

It seems that a decision has been made to move "This Old House" and "Ask This Old House" from Time Warner channel 1010 to channel 1016.  When these shows were on 1010, they came through in all their 720p, full screen glory.  Unfortunately, when they moved the shows to 1016 midseason, channel 1016 has decided to downsize the HD show into a 4:3 window with their silly logo on the left/right borders, and black borders top and bottom.

Why in the world would you want to take a program in fullscreen 720p HD and cripple it?  What a bummer.

First of all, PBS is native 1080i, not 720p, so it was never in its "full glory on MPTV." Milwaukee's PBS affiliate blows *** now and downrezzes the PBS HD feed in addition to bitrate starving it. It is one of the worst affiliates in the nation.

Secondly, what does this have to do with Time Warner?

Thirdly, why don't you just grab recordings from a proper PBS affiliate?

You have Time Warner Cable. You have no bandwidth caps. Time to use your 21st century technology and bypass the limitations of 20th century technology.

[KryptoNyte]

Ponies, I really appreciate the helpful information.

I don't know the ins-and-outs of how a local PBS station is funded, other than it seems to be based on locale donations, so if there is a deficiency in broadcasting quality, perhaps there is some relationship with a lack of donations and how that relates to bandwidth limitations (again, I don't really know).

Reading through the thread, it seems as though we've established that the issue is with PBS programming and not Time Warner, so I'm not completely sure if you have something additional to add to that, or if you're just re-stating something another already made clear.

Regarding the newsgroup downloads, is this something that Time Warner Internet services natively support, or would I need to purchase additional services to give me access to newsgroup downloads?

Again, thanks so much for the helpful info.

[PONIES]

I don't know the ins-and-outs of how a local PBS station is funded, other than it seems to be based on locale donations, so if there is a deficiency in broadcasting quality, perhaps there is some relationship with a lack of donations and how that relates to bandwidth limitations (again, I don't really know).

That's not it at all. PBS tries too hard to please too many people so all their affiliates cram too many subchannels onto the signal. All those worthless "Jazz music," "weather," "create," "world," etc. subchannels are responsible for this.

Regarding the newsgroup downloads, is this something that Time Warner Internet services natively support, or would I need to purchase additional services to give me access to newsgroup downloads?

http://www.news.astraweb.com/specials/kleverig-11.html

[KryptoNyte]

Wow, man, you have a seriously intimate knowledge of the PBS operations as well as their pocketbook!  Do you work for them or something?