They had it all at one time. A 100% high definition feed from the national PBS network on their primary channel, and a standard definition feed with their local programming on their subchannel. They had been doing this for several years and they were the toast of the town when it came to HD programming in New Hampshire and Southern Maine.
Suddenly, it all changed. A few weeks ago, NHPTV started broadcasting all standard definition, no High Definition at all. I don't know if it has anything to do with the February 17, 2009 drop dead date getting so close or what. I've tried to write to the station to find out what was going on and have not heard anything back. I did see, on their web site, an explanation that they could broadcast up to 4 standard definition TV shows at one time, which is true, but who wants that when so many of us have now invested in HD TVs. We were, and still would be, very happy with one HD and one SD channel.
The standard digital broadcast TV station template would be, or rather should be, one High Definition outlet on their primary channel and one optional program on one of their sub-channels. Any deviation from that limits high definition capabilities because they only have so much bandwidth to play with, and would leave the station in a position where they might have more broadcast options but far less quality in them.
I hope things change but again, I can't seem to find out. Their web site has changed a lot too, and it is not so easy to get in touch with them via email anymore. NHPTV has reduced its visibility, and availability to the public.
This is not the direction I expected from NHPTV, once the gold standard for High Definition. It is disappointing and I have discovered very few reasons to even check in on what's being broadcast on their channel because nothing is in High Definition.
I have been trying to tell Maine and New Hampshire broadcasters that the station who commit to High Definition will turn out to be the winners in the rating, and therefore revenue, wars but I can't seem to get them to believe me. They will figure it out soon enough.
3 comments:
I’d like to respond to this posting by stating that NHPTV agrees with your comment that “we had it all” -- and we feel we’ve made it even better!
On October 15, NHPTV replaced the national PBS HD feed on 11.1 with an HD version of all of our regular programming. NHPTV has just finished upgrading its camcorders and editing equipment to HD. We now are airing full HD versions of our productions “NH Outlook” and “Windows to the Wild” on our HD channel.
We offered the PBS national feed on 11.1 so that we could provide HD content to our viewers until our own HD technical facilities were ready. PBS will discontinue its HD feed in the next few months.
An over-the-air viewer can see our HD service on 11.1, and an SD version of the same shows on 11.2 (pre-formatted to display correctly on 4 x 3 television screens).
Thanks for watching New Hampshire Public Television!
Grace Lessner
Communications Manager
New Hampshire Public Television
So you went from a 24/7 exquisite HD national PBS feed to 2 local programs in HD that I might catch if I'm flipping through and claim that you made it "better".
You're kidding, right?
Better would be if you still had 24/7 of HD television and if it has to be a combination of national programming (which by the way appeals to everyone) and local programming then so be it. The bottom line here is that 99% of you programming is back to the grainy, lackluster standard definition television. That is not progress no matter how you wish to slice it and no matter how you want to convince the public that your are doing a good thing. It's all in the "eyes" of the beholder and my eyes are not deceiving me and I won't let you deceive me. NHPTV has taken a giant LEAP backwards and I refuse to watch NHPTV until this is fixed. Can you even record and playback HD programming yet? I doubt it. Which means we, the viewers, the public, are stuck with what NHPTV is shoveling at us whether we like it or not. And I don't.
And one more thing. Let's not get confused between digital TV and HDTV. I just checked your TV schedule and I don't see much in HD even though you say "NHPTV replaced the national PBS HD feed on 11.1 with an HD version of all of our regular programming." Are you sure you want to stick to that story? That you have replaced the national feed with a HIGH DEFINITION version? You may want to think before you respond.
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