Youngstown, OH - HDTV - Page 59

Looking Good WYTV

I'm getting WYTV here in Cochranton after no signal for quite some time. I got about a 52% reading which is probably as good as it will get if they are at full power. However MyYTV is not in HD yet.

Don't worry, you're not missing anything at all. A HD version of that channel is useless, especially after WWE Smackdown moves to the Sci-Fi channel. About the only other show in HD on that channel is reruns of Law & Order CI. Unless you have a local station that does a good job of using HD, a SD subchannel is all that is necessary.

Apparently FOX 62 is now on Directv in HD, not stretch-o-vision. I guess I'll only need the antenna for FM now.

In order to bring MyYTV up to HD, won't 33.1 have to be compressed in the same manner that 27.2 is compressed in order to fit the two 720p subchannels on the same carrier? And what will happen to 33.3? I'd rather see 33.1 in higher-quality HD than have MyYTV in HD or lose the Weather subchannel. As the quoted person mentioned above, MyNetworkTV in HD isn't really worth while. I'd rather see the major networks in their native less-compressed quality than over-compressed in order to get everything in low-quality "HD". Personally, I'd even rather see FOX in 480i in order to see CBS in 1080i, but that's just me.

I know it's only possible to do so much with the ATSC standard and 8VSB modulation as it stands. I was quite thrilled to see that I can now receive WYTV with my indoor antenna today. So I'll be happy to see anything else that improves the experience for the Valley's broadcasters. I'm looking forward to the HD newscasts and any other new developments WKBN Chief and the other folks at Sunset Blvd will be sending our way.

I take it that satellite doesn't suffer from the effects of super duper compression like cable tv suffers?

The following email form letter from WYTV was received here today:

Dear Friend,

At some point over the last several months you have inquired about when the new WYTV transmitter and antenna would be on the air. We turned on our One-Million Watt signal this afternoon with the new top mounted antenna. Please re-scan your TV or converter to pick up the Channel 33 signal. I would also appreciate any feedback as to whether your reception has improved or not. I would hope that in most cases there will no longer be a reception problem for WYTV but that can be affected by local receiving conditions as well.

Thank you for your patience and I hope that you will be able to enjoy the WYTV and MyYTV programming as well as the 24 hour weather information on the My Valley Weather channel, 33.3.



Best regards,

Thomas A. Zocolo
Chief Engineer

WKBN-TV, WYFX-LP
WYTV*, MyYTV

NVT Youngstown, LLC.
3930 Sunset Blvd.
Youngstown, Ohio 44512

Voice (Direct): 330-781-7086

Email: tzocolo@wkbn.com

Unforunately, here in SW Canton, while I get a little signal from the "New 33", not anything to lock in as yet..

It's not much better in Akron either. Although I am using just an indoor cheap antenna, I can get a little bar on WKBN and sometimes WFMJ(very close to the end); but a check of both 33-1 and 36-1(RF ch) show nothing at all.

I'm surprised that it cannot be received in Canton. I'm up here in central Geauga County, which is about 40 miles away. WYTV comes in like gangbusters now; I can point my rooftop antenna in any direction without losing the signal. I have yet to whip out my rabbit ears to see if I can get 33 with them. Terrain is in my favor towards Youngstown too, and that always helps ;-)

They are probably testing the signal and working on a few more things before making it official. There has been no official announcement yet from WYTV or WKBN on their websites.

Same for me. It was great last night, but this morning it's weak again. I also would assume that some additional changes are being made. But if they can eventually ramp the power back up permanently WYTV will finally be able to compete for my attention as I'll be able to watch it again. It's sad that for nearly a year (since I started using DTV) I've been unable to pick up WYTV in Austintown (only about 8 miles away) on the second floor with an indoor antenna. Hopefully this week that will finally change. I know if you walk into the Best Buy in Boardman, the signals from all 3 stations are so strong the TVs can even pick up WYTV without any antennas attached. It would be nice to see that kind of quality with an antenna once you get more than 2 miles away from the transmitters.

Nothing from WYTV now or this afternoon. Looks like more work is being done or there is a technical issue.

The station is back and coming in well.

ROTFL The price you pay for access to 250+ channels is compression out the wazoo. It doesn't not matter how the programming get delivered, compression is used everywhere except for OTA (and they may be using compression too like WKBN/WYFX twin HD signal).

I wouldn't roll on the floor, but maybe I'd giggle a bit. Satellite >>>>> Cable. But OTA still beats both. From what I remember about having D* back in the day, the PQ was at a level TWC will never dream of touching. Everything was digital, even the local channels were digital, back in 2003. None of the channels had fuzz on them, as cable does. And the digital(even though maybe the locals were not actual digital, unless it was a direct feed) was great quality. What TWC calls "digital" is pathetic. I compared the suppsoedly digital CBS on channel 4 with 19-1 OTA with a converter box, The Late Late Show looked like an entirely different show. 4 on TWC looked so murky and dark, like there was vaseline on the screen! Craig Ferguson's black jacket blended in with the black floor. But not on OTA.

Directv's current HD looks quite good, almost identical to OTA. Their SD is quite another story...it currently looks abysmal on a large screen owing to over compression/bit starving. SD has really gone down hill since I started with them back in 1999.

Looking Good WYTV

Same for me, but I've gotten used to it as WFMJ's usually goes out for a few days about once a month.

I also noticed that it disappeared for a few days this past week, but it's fully functional again

Any word on the WKBN/WYTV HD newscasts lately? It's 5/4 and the only change I've noticed is that the WKBN Wikipedia page now states, "In late April 2010, WKBN (along with sister stations FOX Youngstown and WYTV) had planned to move to HD broadcasts. This has been long delayed due to weather, cost, and equipment issues." While I'm not sure how weather would affect the newscast operation indoors, it seems they already own their HD cameras as I've seen promos in HD. I'm just curious why it has been quiet and no word of a new "live" date for HD has been announced yet. Thanks!

I agree! Would be nice if they would announce something about there delay. If its going to be in two weeks then say so. Hopefully people that live between the Erie and Youngstown markets will see that a smaller market station can put their news in HD. Erie TV owners take notice!

Just a heads up, after a lot of work and preparation, HD News is set to debut at 5PM on Thursday on wkbn and 5:30 on wytv. So might be worth a look.

WTOV/9 in the tiny Steubenville/Wheeling market has had HD newscasts for at least the past year. I have a feeling their parent company fronted them a good chunk of change to buy the equipment to go HD with their local news.

We'll see if the HD newscasts are finally debuted tomorrow. Like B.H. mentioned, WKBN's 5PM news and WYTV's 5:30 newscasts flopped this afternoon-reminiscent of the first attempt on April 19th.

I live between Erie and Youngstown and it is nice to see that a TV owner will put money into its station(s). Erie owners have raped their stations and sets look terrible, lighting is bad and even the reporting is suspect. The once proud TV channels in Erie are falling behind every minute. Yes, news in HD does not tell the story of each news item, but it does make it look professional and the advertisers get more bang for the buck. I will be watching tonight on both WYTV and WKBN.

I too live between Erie & Youngstown and must say the HD Newscasts look incredible. The picture quality with even SD programs looks better from Youngstown than Erie. Talk about night & day.

Did WYTV cut back their power? Their signal is not as strong as the first few days when they went to 1000kw

WKBN/WYTV in HD looks amazing! I can't believe what a difference in the video quality. It really is like night and day. Also, I think I really like WYTV's new graphics thus far. They were really due for an update, but at the same time the new graphics still reflect the blue theme they've had since about 2001. Not necessarily a bad thing, as it looks edgy and professional. More streamlined for the 21st century than the red lines and spinning clocks. I'd really like to see a new set built in that theme. The only complaint I have is that all the lower thirds were not updated for the area outside the 4:3 TV safe area. I understood when WKBN kept their existing lower-thirds, as they had been in use for some time; but WYTV's are all new and redesigned specifically for HD. I don't understand why at least those weren't created with observance of the additional horizontal space. In addition, there should be an graphic behind any 4:3 content to keep TVs from "auto-stretching" content whenever they switch between 16:9 and 4:3. Similar to the ones that were used while elections results ran Tuesday and the ones all the networks use for their nightly newscasts. Overall I must say it was worth the wait, as I was not disappointed at all. Now the next step is WFMJ... I wonder when their transition will begin to become noticeable on-air.

All four news operations in Cleveland are HD. I don't know if 5 flanks 4:3 video, but the newscast as a whole (including local field stuff on 5!) is in HD.

Though the Cleveland newscasts are all HD, I believe all of them do that same style (graphics on each side) if they're running 4:3 video. 16:9 is becoming the standard, though, even in SD. It's mostly the national feeds that need to be surrounded.

I don't think anyone in this market stretches for ANYTHING now, be it news or programming, in 4:3. They all learned that lesson some time ago. 5 was even stretching an odd aspect ratio (something like 14:9!), which drove everyone nuts.

I do believe the stations still run 4:3 video outside newscasts with black bars.