Belo completes carriage deal with D*

[HDTVFanAtic]

From reports of WFAA (ABC Dallas) and KHOU (CBS Houston) now being available, its clear the Belo has completed a deal with Directv.

A complete list of the Belo TV stations are here:

http://www.belo.com/companies/tvgroup.x2


Dallas

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=65168


Houston

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=65159

 

[MurphieNB]

As noted in a similar thread, DirecTV doesn't show WFAA-HD as an available local channel, and of last night, I'm not getting on my H20. Did you see this as an announcement or press release somewhere?

 

[chris_fowler99]

Anyone know if 720p Belo stations broadcast through DirecTV still be converted to 1080i by Belo?

 

[billt1111]

As noted in a similar thread, DirecTV doesn't show WFAA-HD as an available local channel, and of last night, I'm not getting on my H20. Did you see this as an announcement or press release somewhere?

It shows up on my H20 in the DFW market. I now have 3 WFAA options in the guide, WFAA 8 is the first option and is MPEG4, the SD D* feed is the second option in the guide, and 8-1 OTA is the third option in the guide. They all work great, or as well as BELO allows them to work.

 

[billt1111]

Anyone know if 720p Belo stations broadcast through DirecTV still be converted to 1080i by Belo?

The native resolution for my BELO WFAA ABC MPEG4 feed to the DFW market is 1080i. The H20 receiver just passes through whatever resolution it receives in native mode and it is definitely 1080i.

 

[chris_fowler99]

crap. Was hoping we'd get around this stupidity with HDLIL. Guess not.

Belo will continue to screw up ABC for good.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Actually, why would you be concerned. 1080i will have 50% more resolution than 720p - and considering the highbitrate that it is sent out via the network - you might have the best looking resolution ABC in America

 

[colofan]

Well the frame rate is half when you go to 1080i versus 720p when watching hockey yes the frame rate does make a difference.

 

[charper1]

Aren't the frame rates the same but just different scan rates? Maybe I mis-read.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/720p

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080i

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Well the frame rate is half when you go to 1080i versus 720p when watching hockey yes the frame rate does make a difference.

And how many hours a year does ABC has Hockey on versus other programming that looks great with 1080 programming? Quite simply, the hockey probably benefits from the lower resolution of 720p instead of the 60fps.

Again, if we were talking about Directv converting at lower bitrate stream (standard OTA stream) I would agree with you.

HOWEVER, we are talking about the TV station taking a 45Mbps stream and decompressing it to fullbandwidth and then bringing that down to 1080 - again, not conversion of an OTA signal.

I have not seen the Belo CBS station OTA, but again it has the POTENTIAL to be the best looking ABC station in the Country if they give it good treatment.

Aren't the frame rates the same but just different scan rates? Maybe I mis-read.

1080i 29.97 fps
720p 59.94 fps

 

[chris_fowler99]

Actually, why would you be concerned. 1080i will have 50% more resolution than 720p - and considering the highbitrate that it is sent out via the network - you might have the best looking resolution ABC in America

The problem isn't a 720p versus 1080i thing.

It's taking a 720p source, converting it to 1080i and then having my box reconvert it to 720p to be displayed on my TV causes blocking on fast motion and graphics.

I'm actually extremely thankful that MNF moved off of ABC because of this. College football in HD will still suck, though.

 

[colofan]

My only comment was that the 1080i horizontal resolution is higher but at half the frame rate so when something is happening fast on the screen then yes lower horizontal resolution but higher vertical resolution can make some programing look better.

If film is the source at 24 fps then yes 1080i will look better.

Really if they would just provide full bandwidth signals (no mulitcasting) I would be very happy with either at this point. But that is another subject as well