HD Latecomers

Noticed this morning that the CBS Early Morning Show is now being broadcast in HD, it being the last of the network morning shows to do so (I don't watch them regularly, so I'm not really sure when this happened, just that it's relatively recent).

Also, came the news that NBC's "Meet the Press" will be aired in HD for the first time tomorrow morning. Seems a little strange that MTP, one of the longest-running shows in all of television, is so late in the day in this regard. Almost every major-network (and PBS) show I can think of is in wide-screen HD besides a couple of low-rent ones like the one on ABC with the British nanny. It has been almost two years since Tim Russert's death, and MTP's new host David Gregory had stuck with the old set until now. From what I saw of the new digs from the preview, it's not anything to write home about --- heavy on bookshelves (Books as props, likely. Wonder how many of them Mr. Gregory has read.... My guess: seven) and opaque blue-glow glass. Too many colors, which is something most people get wrong in design/decoration. If they had worked off of the historic MTP colors of medium blue, gold and white (which are used in the new info/identification bars) a very nice set could have materialized. As it is, the set is very empty and divided down the middle by a large black table (a very 'This Side vs. That Side' feel for a show about politics), and too busy around the perimeter. Not something to write home about, but I guess it is something to write a blog entry about.

With the leaves coming out once again, we've effectively lost WSBK-38 (real-channel 39) from the Boston line-up and WLVI-56 (real-channel 41) was pixelating a bit this evening. It's for just this purpose I went to such heroic measures with our antenna system. It's good to have a back-up for when things go wrong.

Winter Olympics

The Opening Ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is tonight.

This will be the first Olympics since we got the HDTV, and I'm eager to see how it will look. If it's anything like how every other sport has been, we're in for a show. The ceremonies are going to be less spectacular than the 2008 China games, but that's a given, and I'm not at all disappointed by that.

Long track speed skating is by far my favorite event in the Winter Games. I suppose you might tack this up to my Dutch heritage, with a nod to the story of "Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates." Going back, I remember our family watching and rooting for the Netherlands, which have been dominant in the sport. The province of Friesland --- where my mother's family derives from --- particularly has historically produced some of the world's best speed skaters. The geography of the Frisian region lends itself to this level of interest and dominance. In winters when the freshwater canals freeze --- which is pretty rare (the last was in 1997) --- skating competitions called the Elfstedentocht are held.

One of the more inspiring stories of previous Olympics was Gerard van Velde, who was highly touted but didn't medal in a couple of Games. He then had difficulty adjusting to a new skate design and retired in the late '90s and became a used car salesman. He re-entered the sport, mastered the clap skate and won gold in the 1000m in 2002. In the last Games, Ireen Wust was a surprise gold medalist in the 3000m. She's fallen out of the limelight a bit in competition, and revealed that she is a lesbian in the Dutch press last fall. We'll see if she can recapture her performance like many others who bring their career best at the biggest events. Of course, I don't just cheer for the Dutch. I am American through and through. Shonie Davis looks to continue strong performances in the mid-distance, and break down some of the perceived racial barriers of the Games. The tearjerker story of U.S. speed-skater Dan Jansen was recently the subject of a short Visa ad voiced by Morgan Freeman. These are the kind of stories that make the Olympics so great --- of ordinary people persevering.

It is a bizarre circumstance, though, that medalists are so lauded for what's often such marginal victories. But that is the nature of sport. Tonight is the biggest highlight most of the athletes will experience, but it's a huge personal accomplishment just to make it that far.

(Photo (c) Genevelyn Burke, 2007, of Ilanaaq, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics emblem.)

As a stone guy, I've gotta say that picture is close to my own heart. .... Not in the sense that I have a "heart of stone" or something.... Oh well. You know what I mean.

Painting the Past

© "Landscapes Through Time with David Dunlop" (Link)

When you think of the phrase 'got a new television' you instantly imagine a well-conformed derriere print on the couch. Since we got the HDTV, however, I've noticed a sharp decline in my viewing habits. Part of this may be the picture --- when you've gotten a taste of high definition, it's a real downer to have to watch programs in standard definition that often look hazy or washed out in comparision. Another part would probably be the state of programming these days. As a matter of record in this blog, we are an over-the-air-only house, so we get what passes for network television these days --- much of it being garbage/"ashes in the mouth." Much of the time when the television is on, it's tuned to PBS.

One of my favorite shows on PBS, though it isn't receiving airtime currently, is "Landscapes Through Time with David Dunlop." Now, I've enjoyed landscape painting shows for quite a while, with the late Bob Ross and some various others that have popped up on the PBS Create channel (in standard definition), usually in the 6:30 p.m. hour. Seeing a few episodes with Mr. Dunlop on the main PBS channels in high-definition was enough for me to see that he's working on a higher level. While he's painting at the same sites that famous artists created their works, (and when he meets with other artists/students nearby and makes some touches of his own on their work) he talks about the artist of the episode, gives a bit of history and focuses on their individual techniques. This is a relatively new series on PBS, originating out of our little state of Connecticut's PBS stations (CPTV), and so far has filmed 13 episodes in locations in this state, France, etc. Here's hoping that this series gets some run-time scheduled and produces more episodes.

19 June 2009

It has been a dreary June thus far, with only three days of full sunshine according to the weatherman last night. Stands in the way of much progress outdoors, but I suppose it's good for the lawn and garden. Today the skies don't know what they want to do. Woke up at about 2:30 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep with the rain on the roof and draining down the gutter on the side of the house just outside of my room. The hard rain stopped and it seemed to clear a bit this morning, but looking out the window a few minutes ago, it is drizzling. Looking out now and it's not.

For all that, yesterday was a good day for soup. So, I threw some potatoes, celery and baby carrots (all chopped) into the large saucepan, then added varying quantities of my staples --- Tone's sea salt, coarsely ground black pepper, dried garlic, dried onion, dried parsley and six chicken bouillon cubes. When the potatoes were nearing their readiness, in went some leftover rosemary chicken (diced) and some Manischewitz alphabet-shaped egg noodles. I had always gotten the straight thin noddles, but noticed the alphabet ones a while back and figured they'd be fun for my nephew and niece (as memory serves, they're slightly cheaper, to boot). We brought my nephew over to my brother's house down the road (we pick him up off the bus and watch him for a few hours until they get home from work. It saves them day-care costs), along with the soup. My nephew, Calvin minus Hobbes (name changed) is leaving Saturday to North Carolina for six weeks with his "far away dad." I'll miss the after-school time with checkers, Legos and homework, but it's also nice to have a break.

When we arrived at my brother's house, come to find out they got a 32" HDTV with a wall mount and a DVD with surround sound speakers. I'm a little miffed that he didn't ask me about the topic and what was the best set he could get for whatever he was looking to spend, but he's like that. He likes to do first (and do it fast, by gum!) and think later. Gave him a hand on the installation and set-up. They have cable TV without the HD package (yet), so the results for them weren't quite what he expected. Even compared to a basic-menu "hospitality" HDTV like ours, the set he got was very sparse. He also didn't seem to understand that he bought a DVD player (which is not Blu-ray, where everything is headed) that was packaged with the surround sound speakers. If it were me, I would have kept his previous up-converting DVD player and gotten an AF/FM/HD radio receiver that has surround sound, and the TV sound could also be routed through that. Oh well. I can't make his decisions for him. I can just be supportive of the decisions he does make, and hope that this attitude might be returned in kind.

Entering the Digital Age

So, the official DTV-Day has finally come. As I had anticipated, just as with the WTIC - WFXT situation, we've now lost WCVB --- channel 5 (real-channel 20) from Boston. This is, no doubt, because WTXX in Hartford was also allocated to real-channel 20. (I have written about this in further detail previously). We've lost FOX (not that we ever really had it) and the most reliable ABC. These situations represent an abject failure of the FCC to fulfill its original purpose, which was to stop people from broadcasting on the same frequencies w/in a specified coverage area. Sent a note about this situation to a New York Times reporter who wrote an article on the digital switch today.

I think I may try ganging the XG-91 antennas to see if it helps. Pain in the rear end to keep having to go up on the roof and tinker with things. All too often it doesn't do anything but waste my time.

On the plus side, WBZ 4 out of Boston is coming in again after being lost to us for the last couple of weeks. They increased their ERP (signal strength) from 825kW to 915kW, and that seems to have pushed us back over the threshold.

As of this writing, WHDH 7 broadcasting from Boston hasn't yet done their so-called "cold switch" of turning off their analog signal on channel 7 and moving their digital signal from real-channel 42 to channel 7. Many stations seem to have done their switching already, but perhaps their engineers are waiting until the midnight deadline for some reason.... Perhaps to show Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Pittsburgh just scored, increasing their lead to 2-0. For the record, I've been rooting for the Penguins in this series. Underdogs have to stick together.

10 June 2009

It was a pretty good day. Had a mental checklist of things I wanted to do, and while I didn't get it all done, I got enough of it done to earn my shower.

Tried tweaking the top teevee antenna by moving it up about 6" to the top of the mast pole and tilting it slightly to point over the leaves. This doesn't appear to have done much of anything, though this probably isn't the day to gauge its effectiveness, given the dreary weather. I tried this because since the leaves came out in full force, we've lost a reliable signal from WBZ-4, WLVI-56 and WSBK-38 (all out of Boston). The meter jumps willy-nilly from mid-20s to mid-60s, to 0, to mid-20s.... The above tweak has been recommended by the technologically-inclined in avsforum.com and the like in the 'Try it and see what happens' milieu. I will leave it as is until after the official digital conversion on Friday. But if it's still a problem then, I still have one item left in my bag of tricks. It's called double-stacking, and with my two XG-91 antennas (an earlier post about our antenna system is required reading to have a better understanding of what I'm saying), the idea is that I would point them both toward the target signal farm (Boston) and connect their two output wires with a good signal combiner (read: a signal splitter, inverted), then connect to the pre-amplifier and into the house. In theory, this would double the signal strength. We'll see if it comes to that. But then again, I'm getting Boston's iON station, 68 (real-channel 32) that has a lower reading than the drop-outs. I just don't know what to make of it other than my "Digital is a finicky b----" line.

While I was on the roof, I took off the lower antenna's pre-amplifier and took it to the campground because reports were that the teevee there wasn't getting good reception of the Hartford channels. Sure enough, 61, 24 and 30 weren't coming in, and channel 3 was spotty at around 50%. I took off the old Radio Shack pre-amp and put on the Channel Master 7778. Went inside, rescanned the tuner (the Best Buy Insignia model) for extra measure and suddenly they were all coming in at 90%+. Wasn't getting channel 59, MyN, which I also haven't have any success with here at the house. All the info I've seen says it should come in, but it doesn't.

Went to the small nursery in the next town over and picked up some nice herb plants --- lavender and sage --- in a buy one-get one sale ($3.50), and two bell pepper plants to finish out the garden. At the big box stores and most other places, $3.50 will get one of the smallest Bonnie seedling plants. And it's nice to support a small, local business. We also dropped off a few items for an annual fund-raising tag sale that the nursery does. The owner's adopted son was killed while serving a tour in Afghanistan a few years ago, and a fund has been set up to build and supply an orphanage in Honduras. This had been the intention of the son even before his death (he was adopted from that country). It's the least we can do to offer some support to someone who made the ultimate sacrifice. ... Got home and put those herbs, a largish rosemary plant, and some others I'd started from seed (dill, parsley and basil) into a strawberry planter that's been hanging out empty for a while. It just feels good to put your hands in the soil and know that your work and care is growing things.

Brought the trailer home and loaded on a pile of wood that I've been wanting to move out of the yard for a while. That will be delivered and burned at the aforementioned campground this weekend. We got it from a nearby house that had a tree (a red oak) cut down and for some reason or other, it was stacked against our woodpile under the deck. It's been sitting here for about two years because it's just slightly too long for our wood stove. Makes quite a difference now that it's gone, and I'm keen on doing something with the spot now. Also, raked up the debris that was under some of the pallets that we stack our wood on, and threw them in the trailer for burning as well... their bottom-side wood was badly deteriorated. We need to either get some new pallets or come up with a different rack system for firewood storage.

Soft Digital Switch Scheduled for Midnight

For anyone who's been living under a rock, the U.S.'s terrestrial digital switch will be occurring at midnight. Originally, it was planned to have all broadcasters (except low-power stations) cease their analog signals and broadcast digital signals only. Well, that simple plan got very muddied last week as Pres. Obama signed a bill delaying a mandatory digital switch until June 12. The reasoning is that some people will not be ready, including so-called vulnerable populations including the elderly and non-English speakers. This argument is not without merit, but it also means that progress is held up.

Now, there are eleventy-one caveats to the original legislation. Some stations that applied to the FCC will be going ahead with the analog shut-off. Some stations will be continuing analog at a cost of ~$20K-30K per month for electricity to the transmitter. There are a couple of dates between now and June that they can apply to cease their analog signal before the June date. This is just scratching the surface at the confusion and chaos the delay bill has caused --- chaos for the technical aspects of broadcasting, licensing and financing for stations who had expected the 18 February "date certain" to be more... well... certain and confusion for people who have been expecting the switch.

As near as I can tell, the federal government hates the KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) method of doing anything.

We are an antenna-only family in northeast Connecticut, and over the past year I've taken the necessary steps to upgrade our antenna system. I promise to go into more detail about the particulars of our situation (we live on the outer regions of 3 major media markets --- Providence, R.I.; Hartford, CT; and Boston, MA) and how I designed and set up the system. I am an over-the-air (OTA) proselytizer. I just don't see why we should pay $60+ per month for cable or satellite service for a lot of channels filled with trashy content that won't be watched. Nevermind that there is not an inclination to waste time in front of the TV as you try to justify paying that much. As such, we get clear reception (to say nothing of HD broadcasts!) on a variety of network and PBS channels. I really don't feel I'm missing out on anything.

Most of the Providence, R.I., stations are going to be switching at midnight. We'll see how it goes.