Memphis, TN - HDTV - Page 106

Such a waste of bandwidth, and in our situation, we're stuck with our crappy affiliates.

Has anyone else noticed we are now getting GMA in HD?

Yeah, GMA went HD to the Central time zone last Thursday, just in time for May sweeps. and to their credit (or WPTYdude's credit), WPTY has not been asleep at the switch this time (although Saturday morning they forgot to switch back to the local programming after GMA Weekend, so we got the old ABC HD test loop with the Monster's Inc. trailer, the shuttle launch, et al. for about half an hour).

Thanks for the link pilot.

Reading over that I'm not as trilled as I first was when I heard all the stuff about the upgrade. Some of my main concerns are:
-- no -4 DVR to replace HDTivo
-- $99 per box to upgrade
-- PQ
-- looks like they might take away the FOX HD feed if you do upgrade

Does anyone have any new info on TW changing over to Comcast? It's been over a year since the agreement and the agreement said within 9 - 12 months.

Has anyone noticed that 30-1 is now s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d to full screen now? I noticed it for the first time last night. Looks like I'll be sending an email off about it. If I wanted to see a stretched picture I would watch the analog station.

No kidding.

Tonight at 7:
WREG: non-HD show
WMC: WIll & Grace, not showing in HD
WKNO: HD on
WHBQ: non HD show
WPTY: non-HD show
WLMT: Chris. not showing HD. showing nasty ass stretched SD

And to make matters worse, the Cards game is being blacked out on ESPN2

what was up with Earl and The Office last night on WMC. I recorded them on my HD TIVO. Background music was there but no dialogue. The picture kept bouncing from HD to SD also.

I called last night during Will & Grace (there really WAS nothing on at 7) and asked to speak with master control. The person transferred me to that number but it went to voicemail. Ileft a message asking to turn the HD feed on. Apparently they got the message about 45 minutes later because they tried to switch to HD, but like you said, only 2.0 audio. I had to end up watching the rest of Earl on the D* feed.

I Tivo'd ER last night and my wife will die if that has no audio.

I know it won't do any good, but I just sent a note to WMC telling them to get their act together. Sure wish I could get waivers.

NBC Schedule

SATURDAY, MAY 6 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS ON NBC
New Jersey Devils @ Carolina Hurricanes (Game 1)
Commentators: Chris Cuthbert, Peter McNab, Cammi Granato
Site: Entertainment & Sports Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina
*Available in High Definition

SUNDAY, MAY 7 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS ON NBC
Colorado Avalanche @ Anaheim Mighty Ducks (Game 2)
Commentators: Mike Emrick, John Davidson, Pierre McGuire
Site: Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California
*Available in High Definition

SATURDAY, MAY 13 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS ON NBC
Carolina Hurricane @ New Jersey Devils (Game 4)
Commentators: TBA
Site: Continental Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey
*Available in High Definition

SUNDAY, MAY 14 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. NHL STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS ON NBC
Colorado Avalanche @ Anaheim Mighty Ducks (Game 5 if necessary
Commentators: TBA Site: Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, California
*Available in High Definition

Forgot to also note, afterwards is the Kentucky Derby this Saturday. WMC has lots of chances to get it right this weekend. Will they or wont they *insert suspense theme*

My response from WMC......

We are having technical difficulties with the Dolby 5.1 audio processors
at our digital transmitter. Our engineering staff switched to standard
definition to minimize the annoyance to viewers.
HDTV digital equipment is still very new technology and the
manufacturers' are doing their best to solve these types of glitches
with their equipment. One day out digital equipment will be as reliable
as our analog. We can only ask that you be patient as this new
technology rolls out.
Thank you for watching WMC-DT.
Cordially,
Howard Meagle

Is this a Microsoft Word template? I've gotten pretty much the same exact response from 3 other local stations. If this technology is still very new to them, then they are behind the curve. They've been doing HD since when this thread was started. The only channel that can call this very new technology is WHBQ.

I've counted at least 5 times so far that the WMC-DT signal has gone down. PQ is bland. I'm seeing tons of blocking when the NHL on NBC logo comes flying in

Has anyone heard from WLMT about 30-1 being stretched now and no HD being shown? I sent one on Thursday or Friday but haven't gotten a response back yet.

I still haven't seen 30-1 being stretched. Is this just during certain shows? Really though, the only thing I ever watch on 30 is Smallville, wich I know can't be shown in HD due to the closed captioning nonsense. But even that is not stretched it is just shown in letterbox iirc.

Whatever is on is now taking up the entire 16x9 screen, no bars on the side anymore. If an HD program is on, it's shown the same way above, but in SD. It's pretty much just like watching the D* feed. I've seen it on both my E86 and HDTivo. If you get a chance turn it to that station and you will see what I am talking about.

I only watch Reba, Veronica Mars, and Chris (every now and then) VM and Chris have not been in HD the past 2 weeks. I was hoping to start watching Supernatural again when the sweeps are over but it doesn't look like that's gonna happen.

MX I just don't see it. I went and looked at 30-1. It was on Fresh Prince of Belair. Pillar boxes on both left and right side and not stretched on either of my 16x9 tv's. I use an hr10-250 HDTivo on both Tv's. Do you have the default set to panel or full? I have mine on Panel and get the sidebars, but when I go to Full it does stretch, but not by the default of the signal only when I tell it to. Hope that makes sense.

I have my HDTivo set to full. When I change it to panel it adds the grey bars on the side coming from the HDTivo, not the station. I checked all the other locals and changed those from full to panel and didn't see a change. I've always had my HDTivo set to full and the black bars from the station always show up on the sides. All of the other locals have the black side bars.

I also tested this on the E86 in the living room, attached to the same tv, and also in the game room. Both 30-1 channels were stretched to fit the entire screen. When I changed the channel from 30 to 30-1, there was no change at all. Not even a PQ difference, and no black bars. But all of the other locals had black bars on the sides.

OK I FINALLY see what you're saying.

I just did a test between Panel and Full too. When mine is on Panel I see black bars on each side because I have that option set in the Tivo setting to be black and not gray.

So when mine is on panel on 30-1's stretched picture it shows up 4x3 with the bars on each side. However when I put on Full it stretches the way they are sending it, like you said.

Just as a comparison, I put it on Deal or No Deal, which is being sent as a 4x3 picture on 5-1. REGARDLESS of whether I had it on Full or Panel I saw the black bars on each side. So, this show was being sent non-stretched.

Wow, sorry it took me so long to see what you were saying (seeing). Anyway, if you want a workaround for 30-1, just set the options to show black bars on each side instead of gray bars then choose panel setting.

Man, about time j/k

Yeah I know the workaround. But it won't work on the other recievers. WLMT needs to get it fixed. And while Scott is at it he can make sure they flip the HD switch on for WPTY. I had to call last night for the bird flu movie. It was so bad I decided to give it a try. Glad I wasted 30 minutes of my life on it.

Has anyone else noticed Weather + is gone? At least OTA. Hopefully for good so they can use that bw for the main channel.

I'm not sure Weather + is actually gone. Last time I checked my channel guide, I was getting two 5-3s. One was dead, the other was weather.

Chase

I just checked again. The extra 5-3 is gone and weather is back. Was NBC airing a major program in HD when you noticed Weather + was missing?

Chase

It disappeared from my guides because I haven't been to that channel in so long. If I haven't been to that channel and it drops off my guides it wont work if I go to 5-3, only 52-3 then it maps back to 5-3 and shows up on my guides as 5-3. I was going to what I thought was 52-3, but I was typing in 53-3. I put in 52-3 correctly and it showed up. Oh well, guess it will disappear again from my guides again soon.

30-1 is back to normal

The analog watching Smallville last night was letterboxed, horizontally filled.
but the digital was just a rectangular box surrounded by black.
I dont' understand why the analog was correct and the digital was not?
Any ideas?

Channel 30 is stretched to fit the entire 16x9 screen and 30-1 has just been set back to 4x3. 30-1 puts black bars on the sides and fits the video into the 4x3 screen. So if there is a letterbox program on, it will be surrounded by black bars all around it on 30-1.

SNL and Conan O'Brien are both letterbox. So it the HD feed wasn't turned on on 5-1, you would see the same thing you saw last night.

Is WHBQ-13 down? Or is it just me again... If they are down they better get it back up in time for the race later on this afternoon!

Thanks, Craig

It's been down all day so far. Your best bet would to look in the phone book and get the news tip line since there is nothing on teh website, and ask for master control and see if they are going to turn the feed on. Most of the time on the weekends they have it off in the morning, but usually turn it back on later in the day.

edit: I found the number, 320-1313, asked for MC, and the ladt asked if she could help and I asked her if they were going to turn the digital feed on. She said she would get the word back to them.

I am having issues with WMC today. There must be a huge tree in between me and the tower that is making the signal fluctuate at times. It'll be fine for 3 or 4 minutes then act up for a minute. I hope they fix the jumping I saw this morning on local programming.

WMC has dropped out on me periodically from day one. I will have 93% signal strength on a D* H10, then the signal suddenly drops down between 0% and 40% (with break-up). After a few seconds, it's back to 93%. It's the only station that doesn't come in perfectly all the time. I've neglected to find the problem because I don't watch anything on NBC. That will change come football season. I'm not looking forward to more antenna tweaking...

Chase