Grand Rapids, MI - HDTV - Page 2

I only watched part of the WWMT game as I was catching up on my programs on my Tivo (just getting around to Children of Dune for crying out loud!)

Anyway, noticed the no announcers as well but the picture was fantastic. Like others there was a time here and there with pixelization but much better then it has been. I tuned in later to check it out again and the game was over already but the local news was in 5.1! So I figured they must have been working on it during the game.

All I can say is I am all over the Colts game today to check out the video and new 5.1! Good job so far WWMT!

No matter what you do, you'll still need OTA for the broadcast channels.

We shouldn't turn this into a Sat vs. Cable debate, there are better threads for that. But basically choose which one offers the best channel lineup for you along with price and features. I personally have DirecTV, have had it for over 7 years and would never go back to cable. To be honest, Charter around here isn't all that bad with channels for the price. But they have only about half the HD channels that DirecTV or Dish has and the PQ to be honest isn't the greatest.

Anyway, with a DirecTV HD receiver your Sat and OTA channels are all combined into one guide. So I created a "HD only" favorite list and I can surf seemlessly between OTA and Sat and I don't even know the difference. Not sure if cable boxes can do that (I don't think so) but check the box's feature set that Comcast would get you and compare.

Good luck!

Game looks great. Only a couple video breakups so far, mainly when graphics with text are on the screen. 5.1 is coming through great and sounds excellent. CBS does a nice job with the mix putting in the crowd noise and PA system in the rears with annoucers up front.

Good job WWMT getting it done for us.

As for WXMI in 720p, I don't have a way to tell but it is great if it's true. They could be getting their equipment upgraded when Fox goes HD this fall.

No problem, I just know how these debates go and it's usually not pretty. There are some threads on the debate over in the programming forum.

Had a lot of drop outs on WXMI during the second half. Weird.

Been emailing back and forth with Jim at WWMT for a few days. I gave him the link to this thread. He said he used to come out here once in a while but hasn't had time with all their upgrades lately. He said he'd try to stop out here again now and then and that I could post what he said to keep us up to date.

Dolby Digital 5.1 is in and running as we have already seen. The equipment is supposed to switch between 5.1 and 2.0 automatically, depending on what the network is sending down but it's not working all the time (thus the no announcers on the Sat game and audio messed up during Cold Case last night). They are working on correcting the issue.

As for video dropouts, I brought up the fact that we though there wasn't full bandwidth given to 3-1 and we were right. I'll just quote him here:


So basically yes, the HD channel doesn't have all the bandwidth and they use 3-2 to deliver their signal to DirecTV, Dish, and the local cable companies which gives them a clean signal. So I'm guessing that what we have now is about as good as it will get for a while.

I think WOTV doesn't have this issue because they are in 720p (less bandwidth hog) and their only sub-channel is the radar station which takes up basically nothing.

I've always wondered why WOOD doesn't always seem the most crisp and they are probably using the same ratio (or worse) for bandwidth since they have 8-2 for UPN and 8-3 for radar.

WXMI has no subchannels and I would guess we'll get some excellent HD out of them come fall.

Anyway, just wanted to report the latest from WWMT. I think we are a go for 5.1 during the SB (assuming CBS sends it), WWMT is ready to pass it on to us.

Oh, and let WWMT know via email that you enjoyed the 5.1 and improved audio and video overall. Let's let all our stations know in fact that we HD viewers are out there and we watch their local channels and their ads.

During the Colts game? Got to say I didn't notice it but then I didn't watch the whole game either as I got sucked into the movie Chain Reaction on HBO-HD during part of the game.

Wow, Jim at WWMT is really going to town to tweak their HD signals. I think we are being heard and they are listening!

Here is the latest update that he wanted me to pass along. And I quote...

My next chance to watch CBS will probably be CSI on Thursday or most likely the football game this weekend so we'll see if it helps some. Every little bit helps and another .5 MB for the HD channel is certainly quite a bit considering. So in reality WWMT is setup bandwidth wise like pretty much any other station out there other then the subchannel but then I'd hazard to guess a good majority of digital stations out there have at least one subchannel. I'm glad this is getting done before the SuperBowl. Personally I've let CBS corporate in New York know the great job WWMT and Jim have been doing. Any little encouragement helps.