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23.5
- Thread starter skiwest
- Start date
Looks like they converted it to MPEG4. Most TVs/tuners made after 2015 are able to decode MPEG4, as anything older is strictly MPEG2. Since it's been mentioned that 23.5 will be dropped in order to host WBNX 55.2 once they transition to ATSC 3.0, perhaps converting to MPEG4 will provide enough bandwidth to keep it and host 55.2.
On another note, my neighbor lost 23.3 from his Roku TV. Re-scanning his TV did not bring it back. I contacted Inyo about this as I doubt that it's his TV. Not to change the subject, but can anyone else here verify if 23.3 is missing from their Roku TV?
The real goal is to make all OTA channels pay for view something in the future. Mean while within 5 years you have to have an Internet connection to watch on the air "free" tv on tv sets that haven't been manufactured yet. Also the TV stations will share transmission facilities and save money.
I agree. There is no great public demand for the modest "improvements" 3.0 offers and certainly no appetite to buy all new TV sets again. Rights holders are salivating over the chance to paywall all their product.
But aren't most people watching TV from the internet now? Cable companies are pushing their Roku like converters to get customers off their boxes and onto their internet feeds.
The era of free OTA video has already been surpassed. Blame it all on when we were first duped into paying for TV by the cable companies. 3.0 is just another trick to milk more dollars from an established industry.
Scripps station engineer here. All Scripps or Scripps adjacent stations (like the Inyo stations) are switching GSC to MPEG-4 encoding. I'm not sure it's to allow for any additional channels or to reduce the bandwidth used by GSC (although that might be a welcome result), I believe that it was done more to improve the video quality of the channel. It previously had and odd "shadow" or "ringing" quality that the MPEG-4 encoding seems to have eliminated.
And I'm not sure that a Scripps/Inyo station would drop GSC (which we distribute via satellite) for 55.2 which, according to Rabbit Ears, is Buzzr- a station that is not owned or distributed by Scripps. Is 55.2 something other than Buzzr?
The small TV I have that is dedicated to monitoring GSC went blank when this transition happened. Turns out that none of the TV's on my monitoring wall would pull in an MPEG-4 signal so I had to get a very small, hide-it-behind-the-TV OTA tuner box. TV works just the same now except it powers up on the HDMI input and powers up the tuner from the USB port with the tuner coming up on the last channel it was on.
And I'm not sure that a Scripps/Inyo station would drop GSC (which we distribute via satellite) for 55.2 which, according to Rabbit Ears, is Buzzr- a station that is not owned or distributed by Scripps. Is 55.2 something other than Buzzr?
The small TV I have that is dedicated to monitoring GSC went blank when this transition happened. Turns out that none of the TV's on my monitoring wall would pull in an MPEG-4 signal so I had to get a very small, hide-it-behind-the-TV OTA tuner box. TV works just the same now except it powers up on the HDMI input and powers up the tuner from the USB port with the tuner coming up on the last channel it was on.
If you open the channel plan PDF on WOIO's NextGen filing, there's a note stating that Game Show Central (incorrectly listed as GSN / Game Show Network) on WVPX is going to be dropped, along with Nosey on WKYC, the latter was already dropped back in April. This probably has to be done in order to free up enough bandwidth to host WBNX 55.2 as WVPX shares spectrum with sister station WDLI 17.1. Both WDLI 17.1 and WVPX 23.1 are in 720p HD, and along with 6 480i SD subs on the same broadcast, hosting another one will likely be too degrading. Originally I thought converting 23.5 to MPEG4 would allow WVPX to keep that sub and provide enough bandwidth to host WBNX 55.2. We'll have to see what happens.
WBNX 55.2 is indeed Buzzr, a carry over from the station's previous ownership. The head scratcher is that Nexstar opted to renew their contract at the end of last year, making it the only Nexstar O&O station to affiliate and to continue to affiliate with the network. Also interesting is that Nexstar also opted to renew their contract with H&I on WBNX 55.4 at the end of last year, making it one of the very few Nexstar affiliates to carry a Weigel network. If H&I wasn't renewed, it would simply slide over to Weigel owned WOCV-CD, located on the same tower as WBNX. Dropping these two affiliations at the end of last year would have meant 2 less stations to host their ATSC 1.0 channels on, all with the assumption at the time that WBNX would be an ATSC 3.0 lighthouse and that the subs that these affiliations are carried on would be deactivated. WVPX, unfortunately, is located about 20 miles south of the Cleveland transmitters, but still covers enough area to qualify as a host. For me, this means that all of WBNX's subs except for 55.2 will come in fine. WVPX's transmitter, being in a completely different direction, suffers from a weak and multipath prone reception since my antenna is aimed away from them. I guess this isn't no big loss, as the Buzzr feed over the air looks horrible compared to their online stream. Thank goodness it isn't one of their other subs being hosted there.