MeTV in HD
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It's too bad that most of the program material looks like 2nd or 3rd generation analog copies. Oh, and it's 99% 4:3 aspect. The only thing I've seen in 16:9 is a rare commercial. So I really don't understand the need for these so called "HD" feeds. Is there something on the horizon ??
Fill me in as I'm apparently missing something.
Fill me in as I'm apparently missing something.
We have WJLP METV 3 on Dish in HD, and While it isn't always in 16x9 HD, it is Quite better then having the SD stretch o vision that most other providers have.
And it has Quite a Nice line up, and my Elderly Mother loves this channel. Which is a lot over the Reason we "Moved" to the NY DMA.
Dish give us 2 METV networks , and they don't have the same lineup which is a nice bonus.
WJLP and WZME.
Plus we have
BlueHighways,
Fetv
Up
TV Land
Rural tv
Inspiration tv
Get Tv
The perfect Elderly mother line up.
But if we ever lost METV, she would be a very Pissed off Elderly mother.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
And it has Quite a Nice line up, and my Elderly Mother loves this channel. Which is a lot over the Reason we "Moved" to the NY DMA.
Dish give us 2 METV networks , and they don't have the same lineup which is a nice bonus.
WJLP and WZME.
Plus we have
BlueHighways,
Fetv
Up
TV Land
Rural tv
Inspiration tv
Get Tv
The perfect Elderly mother line up.
But if we ever lost METV, she would be a very Pissed off Elderly mother.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
To me, the picture looks better displayed in the original 4:3 aspect ratio as it was intended.
The MeTV HD channel also records and plays back fine on the A3's I have when recording to an NTFS or FAT32 formatted drive.
The MeTV SD channels exhibit playback problems (as previously reported) unless the recordings are made on an ExFAT-formatted drive.
The MeTV HD channel also records and plays back fine on the A3's I have when recording to an NTFS or FAT32 formatted drive.
The MeTV SD channels exhibit playback problems (as previously reported) unless the recordings are made on an ExFAT-formatted drive.
FAT32 has a file size limitation of about 4GB, but that doesn't explain why you would have problems with NTFS though unless the OS on the A3's are Android?
I believe native Android doesn't support NTFS and it comes down to the manufacturer paying M$ for licensing to include NTFS support, or some custom ROMs may have it. This might not be true for newer Android like KitKat, None the less I tend to here from time to time users complaining of issues with NTFS. I cant say for sure with your device but theres a good chance it will have issues. Can you go EXT3?
Just because it;s transmitted in 16:9 aspect doesn't necessarily mean it's "HD". HD or SD is solely a function of compression. Little to no compression is HD. The HD-est would be NO Compression. And as compression ratios rise the quality fades from HD to SD, and to crap if continued. Aspect has nothing to do with the picture quality. (IMHO)
Another bug in my shorts is twofold. A 16:9 transmission stretching a 4:3 source to 'fill the screen' or a 4:3 transmission where a 4:3 source is squashed leaving a vertical black bar on each side of the 4:3 frame.
Back on topic: Are these HD feeds on 101W any better quality than the SD feeds? Using the eyeball test, I don't think they are.
No reason to re master old shows UNTIL there is a place to air them, this is a step in the right direction and I have to applaud any network for trying to make the conversion to the new format. It may look like crap for now but at least they are ready for new content later to come. Advertisers also most likely send the ads in HD format and want them to stay that way so this will help accelerate the content to the new standard as well. Guess I am looking on the bright side and hoping more networks that have yet to do this will make the switch.
I wish receivers would do ext3, I was cursing when I could not get my 3 TB drive to work for recording.
Ext3 is just not what the masses are using, unfortunately.
I realize that just because it's 16:9 or the channel is labeled HD doesn't make it HD. I do prefer real HD content but it's just not available for most of the old shows.
I only brought up the disk format because the HD mux records and plays back fine on all the disks I've tried, no matter what the disk format and the A3 has a problem with recording/playback of the MeTV SD mux on SES 1 unless it's recorded to an ExFAT-formatted disk.
This is kind of off topic but as far as disk format on the A3, I've used NTFS, FAT32, and ExFAT formatted drives. Ext3 is also supported though I haven't tried it. The A3 won't format a disk with ExFAT but will read and write to it.
I only brought up the disk format because the HD mux records and plays back fine on all the disks I've tried, no matter what the disk format and the A3 has a problem with recording/playback of the MeTV SD mux on SES 1 unless it's recorded to an ExFAT-formatted disk.
This is kind of off topic but as far as disk format on the A3, I've used NTFS, FAT32, and ExFAT formatted drives. Ext3 is also supported though I haven't tried it. The A3 won't format a disk with ExFAT but will read and write to it.
The definition of HD vs SD is a matter of lines of resolution, not compression. HD can be 1080 or 720 lines of resolution while SD is 480. It's very possible to have compressed HD and uncompressed SD. Think of it this way, you have a high resolution computer monitor but you can compress a jpeg image and still get a lousy picture on it. The screen is HD but the image being displayed isn't.
So you're saying that's a HD transmission then.(?) No it's not, IMHO. I think this is where they 'got it wrong'
You're confusing lines of resolution with image quality. They are two different things. 20 years ago I was watching first generation SD feeds from satellites that had a higher picture quality than a lot of what I'm seeing today. It wasn't HD, it was SD, but the image was better because it was uncompressed. You need to seperate the two, HD and SD are TV signal transmission standards, not image quality standards.
A High Definition broadcast image is a combination of lines of resolution and compression (or absence of compression). If you hit the Info button and it says the display is 1080 or 720 then it's being transmitted in HD, even if it's an SD source. If it says 480 then it's SD, even if the source was HD. An HD or SD transmission signal (lines of resolution) is different than compression (image quality). For full HD the signal needs to be transmitted in either 1080 or 720 with no compression but compression alone does not determine what the lines of resolution are, only the image quality.
Most everyone's computer display is in HD or even better than HD so look at the two images. On the left it's uncompressed and on the right it's compressed. There is a noticeable difference in image quality even though both are displaying in HD. Perhaps another way to understand it is, HD allows for displaying a higher quality image but is not the source of the quality, only the method of display.
In addition, if the originating content is SD 480i, the interlaced (I) frame is of two different images called fields, each being 1/2 of the visible 483 vertical lines. To create one progressive scan image, the two interlaced lines are combined into one image. This is referred to as deinterlacing.
In all reality, a 480i image resolution is only 240 visible lines of vertical resolution that is refreshed every 1/60th of a second (59.94fps). If a 480i image is combined to create one 480p image, the image resolution does not increase, it is only two 240 visible line fields combined to create a single 480 line frame.
If the 480p (480 vertical lines) image is sliced up into a 720p (720 vertical lines) image, the image resolution does not increase, it is simply cut up into smaller slices.
Many legacy programs still exist in an archive on film stock. If these shows were originally shot on film and were to be rescanned at a higher resolution for distribution, it might be possible to view these shows with much higher resolution.
Many shows were originated on video and captured on film for archive. These will always be locked into the original captured resolution of 480i.
In all reality, a 480i image resolution is only 240 visible lines of vertical resolution that is refreshed every 1/60th of a second (59.94fps). If a 480i image is combined to create one 480p image, the image resolution does not increase, it is only two 240 visible line fields combined to create a single 480 line frame.
If the 480p (480 vertical lines) image is sliced up into a 720p (720 vertical lines) image, the image resolution does not increase, it is simply cut up into smaller slices.
Many legacy programs still exist in an archive on film stock. If these shows were originally shot on film and were to be rescanned at a higher resolution for distribution, it might be possible to view these shows with much higher resolution.
Many shows were originated on video and captured on film for archive. These will always be locked into the original captured resolution of 480i.
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OK. but wait a sec. MeTV's sources are 480i for a great majority of their broadcast content. Right? (answer is an apparent YES) And 480i isn't HD (?)
So why the need for an HD feed at this time? (Original question not clearly stated, only eluded to, in #2, Sunday at 10:51 PM)
I think you and I know i't going to be a few years until there's 'true' HD content available for this and other 'channels' of this nature/ genre.
- IMHO, HD refers to picture quality, not aspect ratio. (which you could have proven with your pictures, IF they were separate pictures) As like in this:
IMHO a 480'i source broadcast in a 720 or 1080 container doesn't qualify it as HD.
So why label the channel as HD???
-Oh, the above image(s) are all the same 'lines of resolution', 409, as posted previously, only two have been compressed, and then 'stacked' into gif format.
So why the need for an HD feed at this time? (Original question not clearly stated, only eluded to, in #2, Sunday at 10:51 PM)
I think you and I know i't going to be a few years until there's 'true' HD content available for this and other 'channels' of this nature/ genre.
- IMHO, HD refers to picture quality, not aspect ratio. (which you could have proven with your pictures, IF they were separate pictures) As like in this:
IMHO a 480'i source broadcast in a 720 or 1080 container doesn't qualify it as HD.
So why label the channel as HD???
-Oh, the above image(s) are all the same 'lines of resolution', 409, as posted previously, only two have been compressed, and then 'stacked' into gif format.
I'm thinking the HD format is not for contents sake but so advertisers can use their 16X9 ads in the way they are intended to be viewed. Making ad time more valuable.
I'll check this service to confirm, but often individual programs on a service are flagged for aspect ratio changes. This allows the viewer to keep their TV set to the standard 16:9 aspect ratio and not change each time they tune the channel to prevent viewing short/fat actors... 
The native 4:3 is automatically switched by the TV to window boxed and the native 16:9 is switched full screen.
Formats are sometimes transmitted to simplify management on the downlink side. Multiple versions are provided to minimize the need for additional gear for the turn and combining signals at the TV station or headend. I suspect that in this case it is for content flexibility, commercial insertion and the option for station integration.
The native 4:3 is automatically switched by the TV to window boxed and the native 16:9 is switched full screen.Formats are sometimes transmitted to simplify management on the downlink side. Multiple versions are provided to minimize the need for additional gear for the turn and combining signals at the TV station or headend. I suspect that in this case it is for content flexibility, commercial insertion and the option for station integration.
WJLP 3 from New York City and KJWP 2 from Philadelphia both transmit meTV in 720p HD. It is up-converted, at this time (May 2016) from the 480P network feed. Local talk shows
and news breaks are in 720P HD. The up conversion is done with a Blackmagic Design Teranex format converter. It actually converts to an unusual for the US, 14x9 aspect ratio, so
a tiny amount of the top and bottom of the original 4x3 frame is cropped off for this HD up-conversion. Weigel broadcasting in Chicago, WCIU, from which meTV originates, is planning an
actual HD feed to these two stations. "Hogan's Heroes" is likely to be the anchor show for this launch, possibly soon. Some year's ago, "Hogan's" was scanned from the original 35mm film negatives it was shot on into full HD by Mark Cuban for his "HD Net". When that happens, WJLP and KJWP and WCIU will likely start an actual HD feed with the new meTV HD network.
The HD satellite receivers have been in the rack for some time, not sure when the feed will light up, if ever. I don't know if Saturday night's "Svengoolie" will start production in HD.
and news breaks are in 720P HD. The up conversion is done with a Blackmagic Design Teranex format converter. It actually converts to an unusual for the US, 14x9 aspect ratio, so
a tiny amount of the top and bottom of the original 4x3 frame is cropped off for this HD up-conversion. Weigel broadcasting in Chicago, WCIU, from which meTV originates, is planning an
actual HD feed to these two stations. "Hogan's Heroes" is likely to be the anchor show for this launch, possibly soon. Some year's ago, "Hogan's" was scanned from the original 35mm film negatives it was shot on into full HD by Mark Cuban for his "HD Net". When that happens, WJLP and KJWP and WCIU will likely start an actual HD feed with the new meTV HD network.
The HD satellite receivers have been in the rack for some time, not sure when the feed will light up, if ever. I don't know if Saturday night's "Svengoolie" will start production in HD.
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