What's new in High Definition in Southern Maine

Lately, we have seen some changes going on with high definition. Some more impressive than others.

I'll start with WPME who began transmitting a second digital signal on one of their subchannels. If you subscribe only to cable or satellite you won't see it. But if you are receiving digital TV off air, then you will.

This new channel is called the Maine Visitors Channel (MVN). WPME spent a lot of money and formed relationships with Hotels in the Portland area to ensure that visitors received this new channel. Think about all of the hotel rooms that probably still have old analog style TV sets in the rooms. WPME installed digital converter boxes in all of the hotels with whom they have an agreement. The boxes are similar to the ones you would install in your own home if you were receiving off air (rabbit ears) broadcasts.

MVC focuses on Maine's restaurants and other tourist related businesses in which those "from away" may be interested. The funny thing is that even for me, as a Maine citizen, I find many interesting things to see, to do, and to visit right here in my home state. The programming is produced locally. This is one of the first, if not THE first Broadcast TV station in the country to produce and distribute its own programming on a digital subchannel to other business with whom they have formed personal, local relationships. I am very proud of the folks over there at WPME Channel 35.

Maine weather in Doppler HD? Well, don't hold your breath just yet. WGME Channel 13 started using the name "Doppler HD" so they could "save the name" in our area before anybody else did. Channel 5 in Boston uses Doppler HD but they are a different TV market so it's OK. The only people seeing Doppler HD in Maine are the ones sitting in the WGME studio. They don't have the technology installed to broadcast it to the viewers in HD and until they do, you won't see a change other than the name with "HD" right in it. So again, don't hold your breath waiting for HD on a local news cast in Maine. WCSH and WMTW aren't close either.

In Boston, WCVB has been in HD for their local news and news magazine (called "Chronicle") for some time. Now, WHDH, Channel 7 in Boston is supposed to be taking the plunge to HD for their local news as of today. As of this morning I didn't see the change so I'll keep you posted.

Finally, the CBS Evening News, who incidentally was the first Network News to be broadcast in Color, is now stepping into the HD ring as well. I saw a promo for it and a news item talking about it very early this morning but I had already missed last night's broadcast (I always do because I can't stand that news broadcast). From what I hear, the first 11 minutes of the broadcast had no audio, so affiliates across the country were scrambling to get the News back on the air in Standard Definition (SD). They ironed out the problem for the second half of the broadcast and it was fixed before the West Coast feed went out but still, the debut was tainted with incompetance.

It is amazing how much technology is available and how powerful it is. We are only 6 months away from full digital broadcasting across the board and most of the bugs haven't been worked out. Heck, most TV stations who are not in the top market segments of the country aren't anywhere near ready for the HD broadcasting of their news programs. They can broadcast network TV shows in HD because that is basic uplink/downlink, but to produce it and broadcast it themselves in HD? We'll see how that goes. Remember that digital and HD are two different things. You need to be in digital to then be able to broadcast in High Definition. But not everything digital is HD. Digital broadcasts that have black bars (called pillars) on the side are digital but not HD.

I've said since the beginning that whoever wins the race to be in HD for local news, will win the revenue and the respect as well. Some simates state that only 30% of household in this country have a digital TV set capable of receiving High Definition programming. As we get closer to February 2009, that number will increase obviously.

Here's the catch: Owning a TV that can receive HD programming doesn't mean that the TV in question has ever actually received an HD program. But that's for my next post