WVTV/WCGV scaling up widescreen programming

[mrschimpf]

Just saw in the last few days that the Sinclair stations are scaling up their widescreen syndicated shows to display in full-screen in 16:9 without the green and blue sidebars and bottom letterboxes, using the Active Format Description #9 code to do so (so that stuff is still there, but just appearing in the "offscreen" section). It does appear right now as zoomed-in 4:3 on the SD cable channels though (at least on Charter).

Still not HD (I know that's not coming at all until the move to Calumet Road), but I'm glad to see they're keeping up somehow, especially when all the cable nets have their HD simulcasts up now. It'll be great once they move to the new studios with all new technology.

[Jimboy]

Science experiment in progress.........just trying to make improvements with our current technology. And yes this all changes to HD in the new facility.

[trev57]

Is it just me or are the logo bugs in a very weird place?

[Jimboy]

Is it just me or are the logo bugs in a very weird place?

It's a work in progress......something for next week.

[John L]

Sorry for being way out of touch.  I happened to tune onto channel 18 and noticed a non-network, syndicated program on HD!!!  So, trying to log onto HDTV forum I notice I didn't have it on my new laptop, which means I haven't logged on here in quite some time.

So whats this about a new facility?  I take it channels 18 and 24 are moving out of the building on 35th & Capitol?

I've been away and have been going thru major changes in life that past 2 years, thus out of touch with the TV and radio as of late, but now trying to get back into it.

-John Lentz

[mrschimpf]

Sorry for being way out of touch.  I happened to tune onto channel 18 and noticed a non-network, syndicated program on HD!!!  So, trying to log onto HDTV forum I notice I didn't have it on my new laptop, which means I haven't logged on here in quite some time.

So whats this about a new facility?  I take it channels 18 and 24 are moving out of the building on 35th & Capitol?

I've been away and have been going thru major changes in life that past 2 years, thus out of touch with the TV and radio as of late, but now trying to get back into it.

-John Lentz

It's not quite in HD, it's SD video upscaled to fit the screen actually as I explained (or tried to without having to go into techspeak) above. They're zooming in the screen for now to just show the picture part of the screen.

What happened was back in July 2010, there was the major flash flood that knocked off Weigel for a couple days because of tower flooding. However, it hit worse the 35th and Capitol building. WCGV and WVTV were taken off the air for two days and eventually came back, but slowly; for near a week an outside Sinclair master control had to feed them programming (mostly Coach reruns, which I still find amusing), and much of their HD equipment was ruined and the building took enough damage where rebuilding everything wasn't cost-effective (it took them two months to get network HD back at minimum). So for the last year they've searched for new studios.

They've found a new building at 115th and Calumet on the northwest side (not a new building, but an old Rockwell Automotive office/storage building next to a nice pond) next to the 41/45 split, and just got approval from the Milwaukee City Council to move in (effectively, the only thing in their way was building satellites and a new STL tower to beam the programming to the tower farm, and the few homes there really didn't care as Sinclair also plans to block off all they can with foliage). It was approved universally by them with only one real citizen objection (a terribly constructed "the STL tower will beam cancer across the northeast side" argument, using a phone book map of all things).

So Sinclair will move WCGV/WVTV out there by the end of the the year. In the meantime, all HD upgrades have been on hold for syndicated and local programming, because of the building condition and just common sense (why upgrade a place you'll move out of soon?). All in all, a good thing, and it does keep near all the market's stations somewhere in the City of Milwaukee (though WITI and WPXE are close to the city line themselves) to keep generating good revenue for the city. Compared to most mid-market cities where stations are fleeing in droves out to their Waukesha equivalents, I'm glad for Sinclair and everyone else here staying in town or the county.

[Jimboy]

The flood happened on Thursday July 22, 2010 and we powered off at 7:10pm. We were back up on that Friday around 3pm with borrowed programming from Columbus OH on WVTV. WCGV was back with locally originated programming around 5pm on Saturday and WVTV was back locally on Sunday. Everything was run on folding tables with two tape decks and a switcher per station. It was business as usual on Monday, except for Network HD. I spent the next two weeks cleaning and reconditioning flood (sewer) soak automation equipment and built a mini master control (using real racks) upstairs. Eventually restored full automation and HD Network signals (August 10th or so). The lower level of the building is pretty much gutted with the exception of the original master control which still handles sat feeds and commercial playback. We were schedule for the master upgrade before the flood, but it doesn't make sense to install it into a building that you're leaving. Getting flooded out was really disappointing, but I really enjoyed the challenges that it brought for everyone in the building to get where we are now.

What wrong with Coach? :huh?:

[mrschimpf]

What's wrong with Coach? :huh?:

Nothing, just there was alot of that show when you went down and that's what I remember most about the flood. If anything, I'm glad it was on because I got to see a few early eps I missed and assured me you were hanging in there .

[AA9VI]

Just saw in the last few days that the Sinclair stations are scaling up their widescreen syndicated shows to display in full-screen in 16:9 without the green and blue sidebars and bottom letterboxes.

Thank God.  The sidebars were ANNOYING as hell.

[mrschimpf]

Since this is the closest topic dealing with it, I now see the SD stylized pillarboxes have disappeared off both WVTV and WCGV, leaving standard black on SD programming. Is the move to Calumet Road beginning to happen now then?

[mrschimpf]

Another bump up...looks like the studio move was completed a couple weeks back and the new master control is online...18 and 24 are now showing syndicated programming in full HD (though the daytime talk shows remain in SD because of their studios being cheap misers, not 18 and 24).

The shows now look wonderful, and it's nice to know those workers have all new equipment and no longer have to deal with the effects of the flooding from a few years back.

[Jimboy]

Another bump up...looks like the studio move was completed a couple weeks back and the new master control is online...18 and 24 are now showing syndicated programming in full HD (though the daytime talk shows remain in SD because of their studios being cheap misers, not 18 and 24).

The shows now look wonderful, and it's nice to know those workers have all new equipment and no longer have to deal with the effects of the flooding from a few years back.

The switch actually occurred Monday 12-30-13 at 5am. Still have lots of things to do yet. {cheers}

[Nels Harvey]

Congratulations for the hard working staff!  I'm glad you are out of that basement!