What's wrong with MPTV

[bimmer_immer]

This letter was sent to Ellis Bromberg, GM of MPTV.

Sorry for the lengthy flame, but we gotta let Milwaukee Public TV know that their policies are unacceptable. I urge everyone  to write MPTV and/or withdraw their financial support until these policies are changed.

Mr Bromberg,
I am writing you to let you know why this long-time contributor to Public TV in Milwaukee is now a former "Friend".
 
I have been one of the many hundred viewers of your digital over-the-air signal -- I pretty much tuned in when you folks started broadcasting a digital signal. But now I am bitterly disappointed in your station's management of your digital TV bandwidth.

The reasons for this are as follows:

1.) PBS's HD picture quality is among the best. But as a viewer, I have no way of knowing when you will broadcast a widescreen or high-definition signal. For any of the other 5 HD signals available to me via over-the-air broadcast and satellite, all programs broadcast in HD are scheduled. If I want to watch a replay of the Winter Olympics on HDNET, The Tonight Show on NBC, JAG on CBS or an HD movie on HBO, I know exactly when to tune in.

On your station, I have to guess. PBS schedules several widescreen and, on average, one HD program per month, according to the PBS prime time DTV schedule. Only problem is: When I tune into your station at the appointed time, these seldom seem to be broadcast in HD.

A case in point was the "Frontier House" series, which PBS claimed to be in widescreen standard definition. Your viewers surely would have appreciated seeing the vistas in this improved (anamorphic) format. Sorry. Not on MPTV.


2.) I feel you are mismanaging your digital bandwidth.  I am the first to admit that there is still not lots of original HD content out there -- you can only watch HD video of lighthouses, flowers and birds so many times   -- but there is little reason for you not to broadcast original PBS HD programming when it is available.

 Instead, you choose to timeshift your own signal as well as provide PBS Kids and PBS You to the exclusion of HD broadcasts. I suppose there is a faction of those who become upset when "Julia's Kitchen" or "Teletubbies" get switched off in favor of an HD broadcast, but this situation could be somewhat remedied through a published schedule of digital TV broadcasts.

3.) I feel that this timeshifting is completely asinine. In this era of VCRs and PVRs (aka TIVO) it is simply unneeded.  Secondly, you end up timeshifting your late afternoon children's programming into prime time. I hope most viewers of "Zoboomafoo" are in bed at 8:30pm. This policy makes absolutely zero sense to me.

As far as I am concerned, your original strategy of providing [what seemed to be] PBS nationwide feeds on two of your digital multicast channels, as well as PBS You and Kids was a far better one.


Milwaukee Public Television does a lot of things right. Your early leadership in digital broadcasts, high quality local programs and your broadcasts of the "American Eagle" channel are just some of those things.


When you first started broadcasting your digital TV signal, I doubled my "Friends" contribution.
I am truly saddened, now, that I must withdraw my financial support until such time as your revise your policies concerning HDTV broadcasts.


Cc: www.milwaukeehdtv.org



[This message has been edited by bimmer_immer (edited 05-14-2002).]

[John Brundage]

I agree 100 percent!