Mobile, AL / Panama City, FL - HDTV - Page 129

WKRG is now carrying the syndicated repeats of "The Big Bang Theory" in HD!

Great to hear. Final goal: all HD all the time!

I just did a scan on my TV and it's telling me that WJTC is now in 720p!
Meanwhile, WPMI is still in 1080i (due to NBC) and still has the audio issue that has persisted them since they started passing HD content locally.
I wonder what made WJTC switch from 1080i (from the UPN days)....could a subchannel be in the works?

Good guess. Let's see what happens.

WFNA has lit up 55-2 for its Bounce TV subchannel. It's in a loop right now saying it will launch at 12 eastern on Monday.

However, on 55-1 during the ACC game, the picture quality is noticably lower with a lot of heavy pixelization on fast motion, even a degraded picture quality on the local content. Any ACC fans out there who can agree that the picture is worse than in the past few weeks?

I was under the impression that a 720p feed was actually more of a bandwidth hog that a 1080i feed due to the higher frame rate.

What was WFNA-TV broadcasting on channel 55-2 shortly after noon on Saturday besides the information loop? I saw video of some folks speaking, but I did not have enough time to keep watching to understand.

I saw this too, and it's part of the loop that was running.
As of now, around 10am on Sunday, they appear to be running programming, but so far what i've seen is the start of some movie or show which only lasted about 2 minutes, then it cut away to another movie (which ended up being the opening sequence to "The Wiz"). This has been currently happening for the past 5 minutes, as the intro plays, and the movie re-starts over and over again.

In other words, they're on the air and likely working out the bugs. Hopefully all is well come launch time!

I just tuned in to a logo for Bounce TV "TV Our Way" which says programming is to begin on Monday at 12 p.m. Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific.

That anouncement seems to apply to the network. I assume WFNA will be broadcasting it at that time.

The Bounce TV website has a sound bite from Andrew Young, referring to Bounce TV as the first African American network available free over the air to everyone.

I also saw the film clip from The Wiz, which appears to be running in a test loop.

Alabama is going to be blanketed by Bounce TV when it debuts tomorrow. They're on full power stations here, Montgomery, Dothan, Huntsville and Columbus, GA. Definitely making a big splash in the south, affiliate-wise.

Going back to WJTC for a moment, I was thinking about the move to 720p while some HD program was on this afternoon (Stargate?) SEC Network is probably their biggest draw right now and it's run by ESPN. Who does everything in 720p. So maybe it's to help the picture look better by not reconverting the SECN's 720p feed?

Aww.... That's sad that we're losing RTV in the morning to get MeTV. I bet MeTV will be better than RTV.

But... It's 2 and half years of carriage for RTV...

Do you think ESPN's interest in the SEC Network might influence Directv to offer WJCT in high def? I realize that's probably hoping against hope.

I figured the SEC games were the factor in switching to 720p...not to mention how much better sports performs on a progressive HD signal than on an interlaced one.

And if things ever go sour between LIN and FOX, there will be another station in the market that could snatch up the affiliation!

I really wish that would push DirecTV to add them in high def. I don't subscribe now but plan to in the future whenever the trees cooperate () and not having UTV44 in HD would be a bummer.

I cant get WJTC via Antenna and they are SD on Dish. Ugh.

Where yat? Last time I was in Gulf Shores I was able to get WJTC in one of the condos with nothing more than some bare wire clipped to the coax cable. Granted, I was ~7 stories up.

Here north of Foley it's 100% with nothing more than a straight piece of metal (my spare bedroom antenna is the whip off an old Chrysler or Dodge vehicle attached to the coax via alligator clips.) WJTC/WPMI seems to be one of the easier combos to get.

Almost the Miss line. Have a winegard indoor about 12 feet up. I get 3, 5, 15, 42 and 55.

I get a great HD signal OTA. And and with my directv package, the SEC game of the week is always on at least two of those channels: MSG and, I think, FSN, in high def. I have Showtime and Sports Monthly that gets me those channels, in addtion to Choice Extra.

But the directv SD feed of WJTC is pretty marginal in my opinion.

Does anybody know to to write to, if there is anyone, to lobby for an HD feed of WJCT?

After watching a few recordings, I'd say pq is worse. Reminds me of wkrg with the blocking in motion.

WFNA is 1080i right? Seems like every station doing that with subchannels looks really bad.

55 is completely dead for me right now on the living room tv, no idea why. It actually has a real indoor antenna at the same height as the car whip I use in the bedroom. They are only separated by a wall. Who knew wall could wipe out a signal?

Yepp, 1080. I wish these guys would go to mpeg4, plenty of bandwidth then.

From what i've seen, it looks like most of WJTC's schedule is in HD, meanwhile WALA and WFNA seem like they are light years away from ever airing non-network content in SD. If common sense was a part of getting DirecTV and Dish to carry WJTC in HD, then they have more than enough reason to because of the abundance of HD content. Unfortunately, this is going to likely come down to whatever retrans deal Newport Television (WPMI & WJTC's owner) can strike with the providers, and if Newport holds their ground too much, then things could get ugly (just like LIN and Dish, Brighthouse, Cox, and now Mediacom.....) Because of WJTC's lack of affiliation and WPMI's ratings, this may be an uphill battle.

OTA signal cutting in and out contstantly today. It certainly isn't the weather. Anyone else having that problem?

You mean going completely out or just macroblocking? It macroblocks and has near-regular glitches OTA for me, despite being a solid 100% on the signal meter.

WPMI-TV was broadcasting "Monkeybone" and "From Hell" today (they were syndicated movies) and I noticed "From Hell" was displayed in the 16:9 aspect ratio ratio, by which the scenes fit the entire high-definition TV screen in my home. "From Hell" was not displayed in its original format of 2:35 : 1 or else it would have not fit the entire screen.

What were the start times for these movies today? The TV listings from Zap2it, TV Guide, and TitanTV do not have the start times (they had "To Be Announced" between 12:00 PM and 5:00 PM).

Periodic macroblocking with audio cutting out before the scene stabalized. Frustrating. I had to use my directv HR24-500 to dub the Alabama - Florida game, instead of using my media center recording which was recorded from the OTA signal. Four hour dub in real time as opposed to simply editing the media center recording.

Cannot remember the last time this has happened with the WKRG signal. If it continues I will try and view the signal strength meter to see if it is varying or consistent during the macroblocking episodes. They only last for a few seconds.

Mine was fine for both games. Other than their usual breakup during fast motion.

When a station uses a portion of the bandwidth allocated to one HD channel and spreads a it out over 3 or more sub channels, the quality goes downhill fast. Look at 21-. They have 5 subchannels and non are watchable. Also, none are HD. SUB CHANNELS EAT UP BANDWIDTH AND QUALITY. COME ON FCC, DO SOMETHING ABOUT LETTING STATION DILUTE THE BANDWIDTH SO MUCH. UNTILL THE FCC STEPS IN. IT WILL JUST GFT WORSE. THE MORE $$$ THE STATIONS CAN MAKE, THE MORE THEY WILL MAKE.

Are we talking about the same FCC? The FCC wants more subchannels, not fewer.

- Trip

Remember, this is the age of the YouTube video... 21 looks great compared to some of the junk uploaded to the internet! Expect to see more picture degradation over time. No one strives for perfect anymore, just 'good enough'.