MeTV and the Soap-Opera effect (1 Viewer)

[Richard Gallagher]

The MeTV affiliate that I get on DirecTV is WJLP out of Middletown, New Jersey. DirecTV carries it both in HD and SD. I just watched bits of both Wagon Train and Adam-12, and both have black bars on the sides.

 

[Harry-N]

The one show that MeTV (and sister H&I) does not mess with is STAR TREK: TOS. It is proper 4:3 and looks like film. I guess they don't want the wrath of Trekkies upon them. TNG on H&I also looks proper 4:3 and they run the high-def remasters.

Whenever I occasion to see VOYAGER or DS9 on H&I, they look a little squashed and fattened, with smaller black bars. ENT is already a 16:9 show.

 

[Charles 22]

Nevermind, see next post.

 

[Charles 22]

The MeTV affiliate that I get on DirecTV is WJLP out of Middletown, New Jersey. DirecTV carries it both in HD and SD. I just watched bits of both Wagon Train and Adam-12, and both have black bars on the sides.

I think if it has black bars, the material isn't HD. Not an absolute barometer, but that's pretty accurate. Like right now, Big Valley is on METV, and it has some narrow black bars, but definitely not HD. HD signal, just not HD enhancement.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

I think if it has black bars, the material isn't HD. Not an absolute barometer, but that's pretty accurate. Like right now, Big Valley is on METV, and it has some narrow black bars, but definitely not HD. HD signal, just not HD enhancement.

Here's a screen grab from an episode of Star Trek that aired on MeTV on Saturday evening.

 

[Harry-N]

Both STAR TREK and STAR TREK: TNG are shown by MeTV from High Def sources. If your affitliate is the main channel, that is an X.1 channel, then these shows will by in HD. If your MeTV affiliate is a .2, or .3 or beyond, then the best you'll get is an SD showing of an HD image. I believe the same applies to TWILIGHT ZONE.

All three of those will be pure 4:3.

M*A*S*H was remastered in 16:9, and those would be HD on those .1 affiliates and SD on the .2 and beyond channels.

There are probably a few other shows that could be HD. My own MeTV affiliates are all SD, but HOGAN'S HEROES looks amazing to me. It didn't look that colorful when it ran on CBS!

 

[Charles 22]

Here's a screen grab from an episode of Star Trek that aired on MeTV on Saturday evening.
View attachment 106533

That sure is a weird looking photo. You know what's so good about it though? I thought it was a separate studio shot and not from the film itself, because for some reason it looks weird. It's better than 480p, but it just looks odd, and then I noticed the logo. That just backs what I've noticed about METV, their logo can be so inconspicuous you don't even notice it, but I do notice that's more than the case here, because for some reason it's been chopped off a bit.

BTW, I knew weeks ago ST was in HD, and also a host of other programs, but as METV had a great deal that isn't in HD, what I was telling you earlier, since you mentioned them, is that Adam-12 and Wagon Train AREN'T in HD. To further confuse matters, I was recording Happy Days in HD when I think it was midway through the fourth season. By the time it got to the sixth or seventh season, the ruddy thing had turned back into 480i or 480p. Talk about a very rude surprise to your eyes (I'm only uncertain about when it did it, because I wasn't checking them as they recorded, then one day I did)! So with saying that, this may mean METV has other shows that may switch resolution like that. Just because we see one episode in one resolution, doesn't mean the prior or later shows stay that way.

 

[Charles 22]

Both STAR TREK and STAR TREK: TNG are shown by MeTV from High Def sources. If your affitliate is the main channel, that is an X.1 channel, then these shows will by in HD. If your MeTV affiliate is a .2, or .3 or beyond, then the best you'll get is an SD showing of an HD image. I believe the same applies to TWILIGHT ZONE.

All three of those will be pure 4:3.

M*A*S*H was remastered in 16:9, and those would be HD on those .1 affiliates and SD on the .2 and beyond channels.

There are probably a few other shows that could be HD. My own MeTV affiliates are all SD, but HOGAN'S HEROES looks amazing to me. It didn't look that colorful when it ran on CBS!

LOL, I was wondering for some time what you meant by .1 and .2. Mine is a .1 anyway. Yes, I have only one other retro HD channel and it also is a .1. I think you might say that generally the higher the fraction, the worse the programming altogether. And yes, I'll agree Hogan's Heroes does look amazing, but what I have for it, is definitely HD. Another thing weird about METV, is their signal keeps changing between 720p and 1080p. It used to be you couldn't get 1080p at all, but more and more it's coming into use.

(edited) I was incorrect. My other HD channel is a .2 (Comet), but I think it clearly is better than it's .1. Actually that station has like a .3 and a .4 as well, and though all aren't in HD, they're all better than the .1. The .1 is a sports station.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

That sure is a weird looking photo. You know what's so good about it though? I thought it was a separate studio shot and not from the film itself, because for some reason it looks weird. It's better than 480p, but it just looks odd, and then I noticed the logo. That just backs what I've noticed about METV, their logo can be so inconspicuous you don't even notice it, but I do notice that's more than the case here, because for some reason it's been chopped off a bit.

The logo isn't actually chopped off. The missing part is visible in the black bar. It's the black bars that I cropped out.

 

[Charles 22]

The logo isn't actually chopped off. The missing part is visible in the black bar. It's the black bars that I cropped out.

Want to hear a fascinating bit? I am recording METV Gilligan's island as usual, and they are running it for two hours, which will complete in nineteen minutes. So that's four shows in two hours time. The first two shows (I didn't check the third) were allegedly in 720p. Now, the last one is in 1080p. The picture looks exactly the same. What is it with METV and jumping around the signal all the time? I mean it's the same blasted show, deeper into season three and it changes? This hasn't been the only time either, but I haven't been watching it more hawk-like such as today, and it changes on the very same day. Incidentally, for the one or two times I checked the signal, it was 1080p last week.

And yes, the fact that it's 4x3 without the black bars, is probably one of the instinctive things I was seeing (or not seeing) that told me the photo looked odd.

 

[Richard Gallagher]

Want to hear a fascinating bit? I am recording METV Gilligan's island as usual, and they are running it for two hours, which will complete in nineteen minutes. So that's four shows in two hours time. The first two shows (I didn't check the third) were allegedly in 720p. Now, the last one is in 1080p. The picture looks exactly the same. What is it with METV and jumping around the signal all the time? I mean it's the same blasted show, deeper into season three and it changes? This hasn't been the only time either, but I haven't been watching it more hawk-like such as today, and it changes on the very same day. Incidentally, for the one or two times I checked the signal, it was 1080p last week.

Is it MeTV, or your MeTV affiliate that is doing it?

 

[Charles 22]

Is it MeTV, or your MeTV affiliate that is doing it?

How would I know the difference? Oh, I think I know what you mean. You're asking who is changing the resolution, but I have no idea.

 

[AndyMcKinney]

Both STAR TREK and STAR TREK: TNG are shown by MeTV from High Def sources. If your affitliate is the main channel, that is an X.1 channel, then these shows will by in HD. If your MeTV affiliate is a .2, or .3 or beyond, then the best you'll get is an SD showing of an HD image. I believe the same applies to TWILIGHT ZONE.

All three of those will be pure 4:3.

M*A*S*H was remastered in 16:9, and those would be HD on those .1 affiliates and SD on the .2 and beyond channels.

There are probably a few other shows that could be HD. My own MeTV affiliates are all SD, but HOGAN'S HEROES looks amazing to me. It didn't look that colorful when it ran on CBS!

Whether a station is a x.1 or .2, .3, etc doesn't really make a difference. What makes more of a difference is how many sub-channels a particular signal has, and how much bandwith it's being given.

WLEX (18) has five 'channels'. Our NBC affiliate is 18.1, at 1080i). Me-TV is in HD (albeit 720p). The other three channels are each 480i.

WTVQ (36), on the other hand, has EIGHT channels. The main channel is the ABC feed, but it's in 720p rather than 1080, as is 36.2. The other six are 480i. To get more channels, they're broadcasting the main network in 720p.

It really depends on how far up (or down) the the tier of subchannels you are as to how much resolution your station is being given. Typically, the 'main' network gets the highest resolution, and it decreases from there the more channels you have.

 

[Harry-N]

Yeah, I know that it doesn't apply to all stations, but it's a general rule for someone who wasn't understanding what I was saying. When it comes to TV channels and bandwidth and aspect ratios, it's a wild-west anything-goes situation right now. I'm not a cable or satellite subscriber - we get all our TV through an antenna or streaming.

This week, we're renting a place that has Dish satellite reception and once again I'm appalled at how just surfing through the channels you can see all sorts of mis-shapen television shows.

For example, we found both Heroes & Icons and MeTV on this setup. Both are sister stations owned by Weigel and are SD. But to get MeTV in the correct aspect ratio, I have to go into the Options and pick a "Zoom" image to get it to look right. The picture is also nowhere near as clear as it is at home, over the air.

Meanwhile, at that setting, if I change the channel to H&I, everyone's tall and thin with heads cut off, and I have to go back into settings and select "Stretch" instead of "Zoom".

At home, both of these channels are in a "Full" mode and look proper most of the time (except for a little bit of stretching on some shows to make them wider.)

It's no wonder that the average mom and pop just get used to misshapen images.

 

[Worth]

...WTVQ (36), on the other hand, has EIGHT channels. The main channel is the ABC feed, but it's in 720p rather than 1080, as is 36.2. The other six are 480i. To get more channels, they're broadcasting the main network in 720p.

ABC always broadcasts in 720p. At the beginning of the HD era, their engineers decided that 720p was better than 1080i.

 

[Charles 22]

Yeah, I know that it doesn't apply to all stations, but it's a general rule for someone who wasn't understanding what I was saying. When it comes to TV channels and bandwidth and aspect ratios, it's a wild-west anything-goes situation right now. I'm not a cable or satellite subscriber - we get all our TV through an antenna or streaming.

This week, we're renting a place that has Dish satellite reception and once again I'm appalled at how just surfing through the channels you can see all sorts of mis-shapen television shows.

For example, we found both Heroes & Icons and MeTV on this setup. Both are sister stations owned by Weigel and are SD. But to get MeTV in the correct aspect ratio, I have to go into the Options and pick a "Zoom" image to get it to look right. The picture is also nowhere near as clear as it is at home, over the air.

Meanwhile, at that setting, if I change the channel to H&I, everyone's tall and thin with heads cut off, and I have to go back into settings and select "Stretch" instead of "Zoom".

At home, both of these channels are in a "Full" mode and look proper most of the time (except for a little bit of stretching on some shows to make them wider.)

It's no wonder that the average mom and pop just get used to misshapen images.

Terrible.

 

[Jeff]

Almost every show on MeTV has "motionflow" now. If you see an episode that looks normal it's because it hasn't been applied yet. One of the few shows that has completely escaped it is Alfred Hitchcock Presents/Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Manix.

Once those shows have been converted I will no longer watch MeTV.

 

[Purple Wig]

I don’t understand their rationale in running episodes out of order. MASH jumped from season 3 to season 1 (and not even the beginning of season 1), Andy Griffith seems to always be a very limited rotation of select black and white episodes, etc.

 

[Charles 22]

I don’t understand their rationale in running episodes out of order. MASH jumped from season 3 to season 1 (and not even the beginning of season 1), Andy Griffith seems to always be a very limited rotation of select black and white episodes, etc.

, I have been recording Monk recently, and today I noticed a first for me. You won't believe this. It's a CBS UHF station. According to my tv guide for like the next two weeks, and probably longer, they are running consecutive episodes, but in reverse. I thought something awfully odd was going on with it, now I know for sure. Just think how lovely it would be to see the second part of a two parter, first. I don't believe I've ever seen Monk do that, two parts, so maybe they're safe.

So tonight you see, say S2E6, and after some weeks you'll be to the point of the probably easy to recognize first episode afterwards. It can be like Avengers End Game. This may answer the long pondered question, that what would happen if you went back in time and killed your grandfather before your father was born?

Ahhhh, what spoil sports!!! I found the above about an hour ago, but it's already been corrected, and now they're back to consecutive episodes in the forward fashion, at least, that's what the online tv guide shows that I usually use.

The funny thing is this video I just put up is the WRONG ONE. It's just the first thing the youtube search came up with and I thought it was it. So some git took this epsiode here

and totally reversed it. It's an episode where most everything happens in reverse, but they made the thing basically unintelligible by reversing that (you see the end credits first for example).

 

[Neil S. Bulk]

The Twilight Zone marathon on SyFy has the soap opera effect, too.