Personal Experiences
Last Updated April 13, 2008
Notes (April 13, 2008): Well, it's been a long time since I've updated this page. There have been a number of changes in the HDTV environment for Detroit. Comcast cable has all of the main channels plus some of the subchannels for the Detroit stations. The stations are running public service announcements for converter boxes for the transition in February 2009. Comcast is carrying more HDTV channels than ever before, and it's moving some regular channels from analog to digital to free up some bandwidth for this. I'm now watching and recording OTA HDTV on my iMac, thanks to the Elgato EyeTV Hybrid tuner.
Notes (February 8, 2004): WBWD-DT is finally on the air, the last full-power Detroit station to broadcast a DTV signal. They are broadcasting two channels right now. The main one, 21-1, is for widescreen TV's and will carry their HDTV programming; the other, 21-2, is for standard TV's.
Notes (January 1, 2004): Recently, Comcast added CBS and Cinemax to their HD lineup. I can now watch CBS programming without having to resort to my over-the-air setup. Bright House cable also added INHD and INHD2, but they also added HDNet and HDNet Movies. Word is that they will be charging extra for those channels soon; currently, Comcast does not charge anything extra for the HD channels, only for the box. I wish we could get HDNet in Comcast-land. In other news: A few weeks ago, I replaced my 19" monitor on my upstairs HD setup with a Samsung 26" widescreen model, which happens to be my first widescreen model. So far, I've been impressed.
Notes (September 20, 2003): We've had INHD and INHD2 for nearly a week, and they are fantastic. 24 hours a day of HD programming from various sources. I've seen documentaries, baseball, cartoons, movies, previews for movies. I am impressed. Right now, I believe that only Comcast is carrying them in this area.
Notes (September 13, 2003): In a couple of days, Comcast will begin to carry the new channels INHD and INHD2. These channels will carry movies, sports and documentary programs, all in HDTV. They appear to be similar to HDNet's channels. I'm looking forward to them.
Notes (November 23, 2002): The big news in Detroit HDTV is that Comcast will soon be providing HDTV coverage on most of its Detroit-area cable systems. It is being tested now by Comcast employees and others (I am one of the others); public availability is expected in December. Both the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press covered Comcast's announcement on Nov. 19. Yours truly was interviewed by the News. My only major complaint is the lack of HD channels so far; as of today, only 3 locals (WDIV, WTVS and WXYZ) are being carried, along with HBO and Showtime. However, their quality is excellent.
Notes (September 3, 2001): The WKBD subchannel is gone. WDIV's and WXYZ's subchannels are back. WXYZ is having audio problems with their HDTV programming; all that comes out is an annoying hash.
Notes (August 8, 2001): WKBD channel 50 (digital 14) is using their subchannel 14-2 or 14-3 (the number depends on your receiver) to show the satellite backhaul feed from Tiger games. I've seen Headline News appear frequently on the channel, and I once saw an educational session for child care providers. The subchannels associated with WDIV and WXYZ are inactive at the moment; they show up on the receivers, but there's no programming. WJBK's 4:3 subchannel is still working fine.
Notes (July 14, 2001): I've altered my HD setup -- upgraded it, hopefully. I've acquired a Mitsubishi SR-HD5 HD receiver, which is now being used downstairs with my Hitachi. The DTC-100 that I was using downstairs is now upstairs, replacing an older DTC-100 that has never been upgraded. That receiver is now idle; perhaps I'll sell it.
Notes (July 12, 2001): I have been frustrated by reception difficulties on my downstairs setup. I'm using amplified rabbit ears at the moment; sometimes I use a Radio Shack bowtie antenna. Dropouts are all too frequent for me; I suspect I'm having a lot of multipath difficulties. My upstairs setup has fewer difficulties with reception, but my upstairs DTC-100 still has the original firmware, which is in dire need of upgrading or replacing. I either need to find someone with a dish who can allow me to hook up my receiver and download the upgrade, or I need to get another HDTV receiver -- perhaps another DTC-100, perhaps another model. As for the antenna, I should investigate mounting an antenna that would work for both systems.
I saw Panasonic's new 47" widescreen HDTV-capable set at Circuit City yesterday. It was airing a stretched SDTV demo signal, but it didn't look bad. The sale price ($1949) wasn't too bad either; if this set had been out last December, I might have bought it instead of the Hitachi 43" 4:3 set. My next set will be a widescreen model, I'm sure.
I haven't been watching as much HDTV lately as in the other seasons. That may be due to this being summer rerun season.
I acquired my RCA HDTV receiver on November 30, 1999. At the time, I intended to use it solely to convert the HDTV signals to standard TV signals for viewing on my regular TV. I installed the receiver in my 2nd-floor bedroom to better receive the off-air signals. After setting everything up, I turned it on and scanned for the digital stations. I was able to find all four of them, and the picture quality was phenomenal. I could barely receive analog channel 4 with my indoor antenna, but digital channel 4 was truly picture-perfect. The same was true with digital channels 2 and 7. Unfortunately, digital channel 62 had serious problems. I could get a picture, but it was extremely jerky, and the sound was likewise very spotty. For a long time, I was mystified by this. But thanks to the AV Science Forum, I was able to learn that there was an incompatibility between my receiver and certain encoding equipment used by channel 62. This required updates to be made by 62; unfortunately, these updates were not completed until mid-January 2000. But once they were, the picture quality was just as good as the other stations.
When I noticed that the HD output of the receiver was a 15-pin VGA connector, I got the idea to hook up an old computer monitor to it, allowing me to get a more realistic HDTV experience. It worked, but the monitor was too small (14 inches). So I bought a 19" monitor, which was close enough in size to the 20" TV I used to have, and hooked that up. It's still a small picture, but it'll do for now; it may be a small picture, but it's a small price, too.
The HD output can be set for either a standard 4:3 monitor or a widescreen 16:9 monitor. When it's set for a standard monitor, I can view widescreen images either letterboxed or cropped, just like on the analog outputs. If I set it for a widescreen monitor, I can view the entire image on the monitor, but the image is stretched out vertically. However, the image has the full complement of horizontal lines. I can play with the image height and get it back to normal proportions, and that will give me a letterboxed picture again, but with one major difference: unlike the letterbox option on the standard 4:3 setting, this image will have all 1080 horizontal lines, which means the image is that much sharper. Then again, the letterbox option will give you 810 lines of picture information, so you can do whatever you want.
New HDTV: I've just acquired a 43" Hitachi digital TV set -- the 43FDX01. I'll write about my experience with the set soon.
Sports: I enjoyed the broadcasts of Monday Night Football and the playoff games, including the Super Bowl. The image quality on both the ABC and CBS HD-casts was superb. But there were several differences between the two networks' productions. ABC handled its HD-casts almost as an afterthought, it seemed, to their regular telecasts. There were fewer HDTV cameras covering the game, and the placement of the cameras was less than optimal. The cameras were much higher in the stadium than the regular cameras, leading to what I thought were worse viewing angles. The on-screen graphics were downright Spartan compared to the regular broadcasts, and the announcers' comments often referred to images on the screen on the regular broadcast but not on the HD-cast. CBS's coverage of the AFC championship game used its own announcers and did a better job of adapting its regular graphics to HDTV, eliminating those problems.
Update (April 7, 2000): CBS did a great job with the NCAA Final Four and championship game, and they're doing a magnificent job with the Masters. Some of the shots from Augusta are mind-bogglingly crystal clear, almost postcard-perfect. Now if I only had a larger monitor....
Other programming: Many programs are now being shot in widescreen, but the image is composed for a regular screen so that no essential information is lost in the transition. Still, it's interesting to watch programs that are in widescreen format and compare them to their standard format versions. I find that I prefer to watch Fox's Ally McBeal in 480p widescreen as opposed to the 480i 4:3 "regular" version. However, the picture quality cannot compare to CBS's 1080i broadcasts.
DTC-100 comments: as I note in the FAQ, the DTC-100 is upgradeable via satellite. However, I do not have a satellite dish, which means that I've not been able to receive any upgrades. My older receiver has the original firmware, and recently it has had difficulty receiving programming in 5.1 Dolby Digital sound sent via WTVS-DT, the PBS station in Detroit. The audio is frequently absent, though the picture is unaffected. This problem does not occur on later revisions of the firmware. The solution would appear to be for me to find someone with a satellite dish and ask them to connect my receiver until it receives the upgrade.
Written by Roger Reini
©2001-2008 R. W. Reini