I dreamed a dream of High Definition

As a kid coming home from school, I sometimes hung out with my older sister who would watch General Hospital. In my high school years I was part of the whole Luke & Laura generation. I remember sitting on the living room floor at my house or somebody else's with about a dozen other kids from school. The "Wedding" was a huge deal and still today I believe is the highest rated episode in the history of Soap Operas.

Obviously as the years things changed and I moved on. It was only if I was home on a sick day or after some surgery that I even bothered to check in on General Hospital mostly for nostalgia's sake. I have a running joke with my sister who would ask me what was going on in Port Charles these day (after not having watched it for 8 years) where I would always say "Well, it's later the same day and...." and she just busted out laughing.

My interest in Soap Opera's has waned, of course. I noticed a few years ago, when I first go involved in High Definition broadcasting that "The Young and the Restless" was in high definition and for many years now has been the only daytime soap in HD. Until now, that is.

I was using my Google mail account yesterday and as usual, as record speed. All of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see some words on the page off the the left, or right, I can't remember. Google delivers content to you that they think you are interested in all the time so I just can't recall at one point these words were thrown at me. It said "Today is the Day, General Hospital begins broadcasting in High Definition". I sort of froze in my tracks. Not because I was interested in General Hospital but because something happened, or is beginning to happen, for which I have been waiting such a long time. Non-prime-time shows are starting to convert to High Definition. A few weeks prior to this I noticed that the late night show "Jimmy Kimmel Live" finally converted to HD leaving only poor Craig Ferguson on CBS the only late night show in standard definition (poor Craig, he's the most talented, and funniest, and gets no respect).

When I talk about the "dream I dreamed" it is about a world, someday soon, where High Definition is the norm, not the exception. Right now the ratio of standard definition to high definition, when considering all broadcast and cable television, is astounding. Comparatively, there is very little HD. Other than between 7 and 11 pm (considered prime time), a few morning shows and a few late night shows, that's about it for the networks. Cable channels have some HD programming but most of it is not original programming. Reruns of CSI on A&E in high definition are not ground breaking technology.

The bottom line here is that we are finally turning the corner. ABC has been pretty tight-lipped about the General Hospital conversion to HD and have hinted, but not confirmed, that their other daytime soaps will probably go to HD within the next two years. It is very expensive to do. ABC spent $3 million to convert their sets, change the lighting, redo their on-air make-up formulas, all to ensure that the money they spend on HD is well worth it. It's a big investment but has a big payoff. The only other daytime soap in HD, as I said, is "The Young and the Restless" which has been number one in ratings for many years. Some of that may be attributed to good writing (who knows), but much of if is attributable to the fact the people (especially HD nerds like me) would rather watch ANYTHING in high definition than something else that is not.

So, I can finally see the day where I am not searching for something to watch in High Definition. (And I mean real HD, not the fake HD that many cable stations try to fool us with). I can see the day where HD is commonplace and shows that are not in HD will probably get cancelled because nobody is watching them. It's sort of like how shows that didn't convert to color back in the 60's went by the wayside. Americans are a fickle bunch, me included. Give me the best, or don't give me anything at all. The bottom line is when you spend gobs of money on a High Definition TV set and HD service from your cable company (or even receive HD free over the air), you want to feel like you are getting your money's worth. For years the television industry has been in a conundrum. There weren't enough HDTV's out in the general public to warrant spending the money on it and people weren't buying HDTV (or spending the money on HD services) because there wasn't enough programming that was actually in HD.

That has all changed now. The tides have changed, the sand has shifted. Americans are truly "consumers" and feel that they have to keep up with everybody else. Ergo the spike in HD TV sales in the last few years. While most did not even know how to get HD out of their HD TV set, they bought it anyway. Now there are enough HD TV's out there to make HD worth while for the broadcasters. HD equal ratings. There is nothing stopping the complete conversion to High Definition across the board.

And finally, let's remember not to confuse Digital TV with High Definition TV. Most TV is now digital TV. If you are lucky enough to have a High Definition TV and lucky enough to receive programming in High Definition, that's a bonus. DTV is the baseline. All HDTV is digital. But not all digital programming is HDTV.

Good luck folks. Let me know what you think.

Problems receiving Channel 8 HD over the air

Joe in West Gardiner wrote:

I ran across your Maine HDTV blog and was hoping you could help mewith an issue I'm having. I recently dropped my cable tv and I amusing an antenna. I am getting all the stations I expected with thetype of antenna I purchased (via information from antennaweb.org). Theonly issue I am having is the digital signal for wmtw channel 8. Withcertain hi-def programming the picture will skip (not pixellate). It'slike a very momentary freeze (less than a second), then the pictureskips frames to catch up. The audio is never disrupted. This happenscontinuously. The thing is that it doesn't happen with all hi-defprogramming. It only seems to be with filmed shows and movies. If it'sa talk show or sports program in hi-def, no skipping at all. In fact Iwas watching a talk show where the picture was perfect except whenthey showed a clip from the guest's upcoming movie. The clip did theskipping but when they went back to the interview, the transmissionwas fine. I just didn't know if this was a reception issue, set-upissue, or the station itself. Just wondering if you had any opinionsbefore I invested any more money into my setup. I currently have aTerk HDTVo antenna that is oriented in the proper direction (I amlocated in West Gardiner). I currently have it mounted in an attic.The antenna is an outdoor antenna but I was hoping to avoid the extracosts and expense of mounting it outside (weather, grounding, etc)unless absolutely necessary. Thanks for your time.

My response is as follows but please feel free to add your comments:

I have a TERK antenna as well so I know it well. I have converted to cable HD just recently but relied on my TERK and still swear by it. When I first started reading your email I thought "reception problem" regardless of what you might think or experience. It was my first impression. Then when you said it only skips when certain types of video are broadcasted, that one stumped me. To be hones after hearing everything, I'm leaning more toward your TV. I am assuming you have a wide screen HD TV with the built in tuner. Cinema film is shot in different frames per second than regular TV. So if that were the problem, I would ask that you check your TV setup for Cinema mode or something called Cinema 3:2 mode and play around with those settings to see if that's the problem. TV's also have different refresh rates (HZ). Like my older HDTV is a 60 HZ and my new one is a 120HZ and they are night and day different when it comes to screen refresh rates. I really don't think it's your antenna. If anything it's WMTW's signal or the Cinema (3:2) mode on your TV. Sorry I wish I had more. If it's any consolation, WMTW's signal is the least consistent in Maine.

From Joe:
Thanks for the quick response. I'll see if if any of those thingswork. I have 2 hdtvs and they both do the same thing on channel 8.Both are 720 resolution. One LCD, one plasma. I think they are both60HZ. I wouldn't mind you posting this on the blog just to see ifanyone else has the same problem with channel 8. Thanks again.

A complaint about HDTV reception and Channel 13 - WGME

This is an email I received directly in my inbox from someone very frustrated with HDTV reception:
----------------------------------------------------
I am emailing to complain about this transition that was forced upon us viewers. For those of us who do not have cable or satellite TV, this has quickly become a nuisance. Channel 13, specifically, has most of the shows that I like to watch, yet I cannot maintain signal. I have scanned for channels several times, adjusted my antenna, and was able to improve it to the limited signal that I currently have, but while other stations have a much stronger signal and a consistently clear picture now without all of the annoying pixelation and cuts, I find it especially aggravating that this one station, that I watch the most, cannot maintain a consistent signal. I am amazed to not hear stories of sponsors pulling their ads and dropping their support! Is this ever going to be resolved? Or, are we viewers stuck with this ineffective system?
----------------------------------------------------
I am going to email this user back with my comments but I thought I woud post this here so that others can comment as well.

RSC