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#1 11-08-2007 2:59:56 PM
Commentary: It Seems To Me
Don't get me wrong. I know it takes a while for new technological advancements to grow and develop. But, come on. The U.S. television broadcast world has known about the digital switch since what... 1997? It seems to me they would have had time to figure out what they were going to do with those extra channels by now. In my market (Little Rock, Arkansas,) the two stations taking advantage of the supplementary channels are simply broadcasting an image of current weather radar and a five day forecast. Every now and then we get a pre-taped 5-minute newscast. Woo Hoo!
Of course, they have little ads scattered throughout the screen. Nobody's watching' but they're selling it!
Is this it? Is this all the broadcasters can offer on the additional channels? Is there a bandwidth issue limiting them to such mundane programming?
Clear Channel owns a couple of the stations in this market. That means they have a full slate of radio stations just down the hall. They could at least air live shots from the control room of the stations. On second thought, we would actually SEE the radio people and that might be too upsetting for small children.
What are the digital TV stations in your market airing on their additional channels? What do you think of the programming?
Joe
My System: Comcast Motorola DCH-3416 HD-DVR (on a APC UPS), Samsung LN-T4065F LCD HD TV (on a APC voltage regulator), Sony DVD Recorder RDR-GX315, Yamaha HTR-5460 Home Theater unit, JBL satellites and subOffline
#2 11-08-2007 3:19:54 PM
Re: Commentary: It Seems To Me
We've got pretty much the same thing going on here in Philly. 1 does NBC Weather+, the other ABC News Now + Accuweather.
For a while, one station had The Tube on a sub channel. I really enjoyed the Tube. It went bankrupt and is now off the air.
That same station replaced The Tube with WCSN (World Championship Sports Network), which features Olympics-like sporting events 24 hours a day. It's not a bad little channel (I watch it frequently) but the low bitrate afforded to it by the station makes it difficult to watch for long stretches of time. You start to forget what digital clarity is after a while.
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#3 11-08-2007 3:49:12 PM
Re: Commentary: It Seems To Me
So is that the issue? The additional channels broadcast at a lower bitrate? So they are limited to what they can carry? Aren't the individual stations able to use the additional signals for other forms of revenue?
Last edited by HDJoe (11-08-2007 3:57:32 PM)
My System: Comcast Motorola DCH-3416 HD-DVR (on a APC UPS), Samsung LN-T4065F LCD HD TV (on a APC voltage regulator), Sony DVD Recorder RDR-GX315, Yamaha HTR-5460 Home Theater unit, JBL satellites and subOffline
#4 11-08-2007 4:26:27 PM
Re: Commentary: It Seems To Me
The broadcast HD Channels have a finite bitrate (I think it's 19 Mbps). Any bits the dedicated to a sub-channel gets taken off the top, so the quality of the main HD channel (in theory) suffers as they add additional sub-channels.
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#5 11-08-2007 4:43:03 PM
Re: Commentary: It Seems To Me
Here in Chicago:
WTTW (PBS) - 11.1=PBS-HD (720p, unique schedule), 11.2=SD simulcast, 11.3=Create (home/arts/crafts/gardening), 11.4=V-Me (Spanish PBS).
WCPX (ION) airs 6 SD feeds.
WLS (ABC) airs both a weather feed and a local programming feed.
WMAQ (NBC) airs a weather feed.
WGN used to air The Tube, but now 9.2 is just 9.1 with Spanish audio.
Except for WCPX, the subchannels are all on Comcast.
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