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ION adds another shopping channel

Q

quadraphonic

HSN.
That makes 6, at least in our area. I imagine elsewhere it's the same.
That makes 3 shopping subchannels now. Just in time for the Christmas season, I guess.
 
I just checked WHPX-TV 26-6 of New London, CT (Hartford/New Haven). I am indeed getting that here. They have the HD picture for HSN windowboxed into 4:3. Smaller picture, but still very watchable. It actually looks better than QVC over-the-air on channel 26-5, to be honest.
 
I don't know how many more subchannels Ion Media can place on their stations, & have Ion TV in 720p HD (crappy looking already on WCPX 38.1). I have to believe that the Airbox service either never got off the ground, or didn't generate enough business to keep it going (the proposed Airbox service was utilizing some of the bandwidth of Ion Media stations in MPEG4 format). If WCPX in Chicago did in fact add HSN, I wonder if that means that Marcia Cohen's W25DW-D could lose HSN as well, since it's on the main channel of that translator. Her translator already lost QVC, & dropped Punch TV after only carrying it for 4 months (I wonder if Punch TV is still on the air). If Ion Media is planning to carry a bunch of subchannels, they might as well make Ion TV widescreen SD, just to make it look a bit better. Sometimes, Cozi TV on WMAQ-TV 5.2 & sometimes WTTW Prime on WTTW 11.2 look better in widescreen SD than Ion TV does in 720p HD (picture quality & not necessarily programming).
 
I checked this morning before I went to bed and found it on KPXD/68.6, although it wasn't automatic--I ended up manually entering it and it came up that way. Some pixellation for me, but that's likely because I'm still indoor (waiting on the $$ to try to do something small but adequate outside) for now. Hard to believe I can see both major shopping channels without cable/dish now.
 
HSN is airing on KPPX channel 51.6 in Phoenix also, giving HSN two affiliates in the Phoenix market, as KAZT continues to air HSN on channel 7.3, using the same feed.
 
I just checked today, & WCPX Chicago did in fact add HSN to 38.6. I'll have to run TS Reader to see if the Airbox service was eliminated from WCPX's bandwidth. Even so, that's too many subchannels to have an HD channel. Even the subchannels look like crap. Glad they're not trying to run 38.1 in 1080i, or it would look worse. I'm just wondering what'll happen with HSN on W25DW-D 25.1. QVC used to be on W25DW-D 38.4, until Ion Media added QVC to their stations, including WCPX 38.5.
 
The next will be TBN on ION subchannel. But maybe it'd have a branch of TBN subchannels from a root subchannel.
 
I rescaned this morning and WPXX 50 in Memphis now has it on 50.6 Just one year ago, .4 went on as ShopTV, then this past spring .5 came on as QVC, and now .6 is on as HSN. What's strange about this one is many years ago, WPXX in Memphis actually was an HSN channel before switching to PAX sometime in 1998.
 
kingskip said:
I rescaned this morning and WPXX 50 in Memphis now has it on 50.6 Just one year ago, .4 went on as ShopTV, then this past spring .5 came on as QVC, and now .6 is on as HSN. What's strange about this one is many years ago, WPXX in Memphis actually was an HSN channel before switching to PAX sometime in 1998.
Click to expand...

HSN was started by Bud Paxson, so in a way, they've come back home.
 
KWPX, back when it was KBGE 33, was Home Shopping Club if I recall - here in Seattle, before the PAX launch on 8/31/1998.

-crainbebo
 
WOPX has it. KPXE doesn't have it yet but already has a channel in KC area on OTA but it's low power because no Cable System picks it up because HSN is a national channel. Next is Jewelry TV,SHOPHQ,or one of the others out their or turn ISHOP into like HSN or so on. Maybe a Sports or News or Movies or so on.
 
Getting back to Ion stations adding HSN to their subchannel offerings, you can put KPXN 30.6 San Bernardino/Los Angeles on the list.
 
anotherguy said:
So what is the maximum number of subchannels that a station could put on? Six is the most I've heard of.
Click to expand...

There is no hard-and-fast limit. It depends on how far you're willing to compress the video. The more you compress, the poorer the picture quality. SD subchannels require less compression than HD subs.

Trinity Broadcasting Network runs five SD subs on their stations - IMHO they look pretty good but that's about the limit. Here in Nashville two stations run one HD sub and two SDs - in each case the HD and one of the SDs look pretty good, the second SD not so much so.
 
dougw9wi said:
There is no hard-and-fast limit. It depends on how far you're willing to compress the video. The more you compress, the poorer the picture quality. SD subchannels require less compression than HD subs.

Trinity Broadcasting Network runs five SD subs on their stations - IMHO they look pretty good but that's about the limit. Here in Nashville two stations run one HD sub and two SDs - in each case the HD and one of the SDs look pretty good, the second SD not so much so.
Click to expand...

Yup, it all depends on the equipment and how it's used. In Milwaukee for instance, WDJT/CBS runs 4 subs; two in 4:3 SD with full-screen video, one in 16:9 SD, all with a 1080i main channel, and somehow the HD channel still looks great because they vary the bitrate on the other three depending on the programming. Admittedly though their sister independent WMLW carries a 720p main signal, Bounce on the 2nd, widescreen Movies! on the third, and SD Telemundo on the fourth; that struggles a little more for some reason.

Compare that to WTMJ/NBC though. Three subchannels, one Local AccuWeather (data/small video) and one Live Well (widescreen full video), and then the main channel in 1080i. In that case though, it's universally agreed by many DTV followers in Milwaukee that their video quality is pitiful because they have consistent bitrates across all three channels, so that Live Well is pushing bits it doesn't deserve during its inexplicable hours of infomercials, one of which is in primetime. Somehow, NBC there looks worse than 720p in my eyes.

Then the public TV stations; the main one runs 720p on their main signal, two full-screen 4:3 video feeds, and then a data-only weather station. Looks OK. Same with the other sister station, which has a 720p main signal, a 480i widescreen rebroadcast of the first station, Create on the third, two audio channels with a still card of song/artist, and the last and sixth channel airing a traffic camera channel which is sent in the lowest video bandwidth permissible. It just seems to depend on how you push and shape the bandwidth in every case, so six subchannels can be done, but carefully.

Also don't forget a few years back, some of the ION stations were pushing the failed USDTV service out under contract along with several other failed 'pay over the air' systems, so they know already how to push out multiple signals.
 
mrschimpf said:
Yup, it all depends on the equipment and how it's used. In Milwaukee for instance, WDJT/CBS runs 4 subs; two in 4:3 SD with full-screen video, one in 16:9 SD, all with a 1080i main channel, and somehow the HD channel still looks great because they vary the bitrate on the other three depending on the programming. Admittedly though their sister independent WMLW carries a 720p main signal, Bounce on the 2nd, widescreen Movies! on the third, and SD Telemundo on the fourth; that struggles a little more for some reason.
Click to expand...

"Statistical Multiplexing" they call it. It's a software option and one that's surprisingly expensive.

I might guess WMLW gets the hand-me-down equipment from WDJT. (although according to RabbitEars both stations have statistical multiplexers. Maybe WDJT has newer MPEG encoders that do a better job in a smaller bandwidth?)

Then the public TV stations; the main one runs 720p on their main signal, two full-screen 4:3 video feeds, and then a data-only weather station. Looks OK. Same with the other sister station, which has a 720p main signal, a 480i widescreen rebroadcast of the first station, Create on the third, two audio channels with a still card of song/artist, and the last and sixth channel airing a traffic camera channel which is sent in the lowest video bandwidth permissible. It just seems to depend on how you push and shape the bandwidth in every case, so six subchannels can be done, but carefully.
Click to expand...

Those "radio station" channels, the weather channels, and the traffic camera channel all compress VERY well.

Our station has two HDTV towercams. We have a private digital network that delivers their signals over the five-mile path to our station. We normally run them at 6 megabits' bandwidth (MPEG-4) and they look REALLY GOOD even with motion.

Just as a test, we tried running one at only 192 kilobits' bandwidth. It looked every bit as good, *providing* neither the camera nor anything in its field of vision moved!
 
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