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Local PBS Channel not in HD

I'm in New Castle County, DE so my local PBS channel is WHYY broadcasting over channel 12. Prior to getting FIOS in my neighborhood I subscribed to Comcast. Knowing FIOS was coming my wife and I bought a Samsung 50" HDTV thinking we'd just get a bigger 4:3 picture. To our surprise we discovered our Comcast service was also pumping in QAM signals that gave us real HD on a number of channels all designated with dot something (12.3, 17.9, etc.)

We then discovered our local PBS channel was delivering two three HD channels beyond their SD signal. 12.1 was a repeat of the SD signal but in HD, 12.2 was the arts channel, and 12.3 was the wider horizons channel. These two extra channels gave us access to concerts and travel programs that filled our 50" screen and delivered 5.1 stereo through our surround sound amp.

When we changed over to FIOS last Feb we no longer seem to have access to QAM signals and only get when our settop box sends through the HDMI connection. All the dot something channels seem to still be there but now they are remapped by Verizon to numbers without the dot something. Curiously the "extra" PBS channels arts and wider horizons are in the FIOS lineup but are not designated as HD channels. As a result these channels are presented as letterboxed 4:3 images - a real disappointment.

My wife and I are supporting members of WHYY and have contacted them as to why these two channels show up on FIOS as non HD. Their response was that this was an issue that would be corrected after the digital changeover. Well, that has happened but there's been no change in these channels.

I am not sure who I should be addressing about this issue so I am contacting both FIOS and WHYY to see what is happening. It would be great to hear from a Verizon rep who could comment on this issue.

Comments

Keyboards

All the WHYY channels map on my Sharp QAM tuner to 12.1, 12.2, and 12.3. Typically only the primary channel (12.1) is in HD and the sub-channels in SD. AFAIK WPVI (ABC) out of Philly is the exeception with their adding Living Well HD as a sub-channel. In order to do this they have taken the ABC network feed and further compressed it as there is only a fixed amount of bandwidth per broadcast ATSC channel.

drrich

Thanks for this response. Since you know about the WHYY options this is helpful information. Perhaps my (human) memory is going bad regarding what I used to see on these channels. I recall seeing episodes of Nature and The Power of Art which I recall as being in full 16:9 wide screen. Also WHYY ran a lot of "fillers" between shows (since many of the shows ran shorter than 60 minutes) which I also recall being in 1080i wide screen. Since I was getting these through a QAM feed that was the only way my HDTV would produce an HD image. But maybe my memory is playing tricks on me. Your explanation of the sub channels makes sense of why what I am seeing now is just letterboxed 4:3 SD

spacedebris

I'm not in your area so I dont know about the differences between the .2 .3 channels. but I went to the channel line up for northern DE and it says that the WHYY HD broadcast is on channel 515. channel 12 will be the SD broadcast in the 4:3 format but channel 515 should give you the 16:9 (assuming the show is being broadcast in HD)

This is also assuming that you have a HD Verizon STB

Message Edited by spacedebris on 08-17-2009 10:30 AM

drrich

spacedebris,

Thanks for responding and for checking out the listing on the WHYY channels. I do have the HD settop box and subscribe the HD extreme service but what I see when I go to channel 515 is a 4:3 image letterboxed. I'm connected with an HDMI cable so my TV does not support any kind of image zoom except "wide fit" that stretches out the images horizontally making everyone look short and fat - not what I'd like to see on an HDTV.

Richard

ssetta

Wow, this really is amazing. It almost sounds like Verizon is ripping you off. It's actually like that here with the Rhode Island PBS channel on 518. Not a single program they show is in HD.

Keyboards

OK, you caught my interest enough to look at WHYY HD (channel 512 from VHO8) since I thought I had seen programming in HD in the past. I am watching the Nightly Business Report (7:00 PM) now and it is in 16:9 HD. The promos for NOVA are also running in 16:9. My guess is that what you are seeing is shows that are only shot in 4:3 letterbox which would come across on the HD channel with pillars (left and right) and bars (top and bottom). Remember, not all shows are shot in HD and probably a lot of PBS shows are much later to the HD game due to non-commercial funding.

Just my quick observation.

drrich

Keyboards,

Thank you for cross checking this situation. It's good to know you are seeing 16:9. If you are seeing this then I should be also. Quite possibly I have had the bad luck of always tuning in to these channels during times when non HD material was being broadcast. Guess I'll need to watch more frequently.

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