The end of HD at OETA?
I have a bad feeling about this…
As DoubleJ reported in Tulsa, OETA has switched to multicasting four channels again, but this time it looks like it might be for good. I was going to record and watch the American Masters special on Gore Vidal on KETA-DT in Oklahoma City, but instead they are showing the normal PBS analog Friday night schedule with OETA station breaks.
On its digital television pages, OETA now lists four channels — OETA Main, OETA Okla, OETA You and OETA Kids. OETA Okla and OETA You have cards up saying coming soon. This statement would also seem to indicate that OETA will be permanently multicasting:
Why you’ll get more programming choices:
DTV will make it easier for OETA to send out much more information. Signals can be compressed to squeeze more data into our transmissions without losing any picture or sound detail.
OETA HD is listed, but it’s not clear when that will be on and it could be that you’ll have to have Cox cable to get any HD programming from OETA.
This is very disturbing as OETA was leaving the market in terms of offering quality HD programming; I guess now they’ve bought into the quantity is better argument. 75 percent of the programming I had scheduled to record in the next week was on OETA and I guess I’ll just switch to the drivel the rest of the world is watching on the commercial channels.
OETA’s website does say that OETA Main will provide HD programming. I assume that this would be in prime-time.
I agree that many of PBS’s HD programs are very high quality. I wish Cox would hurry up and add them to the HD lineup, since I no longer have an OTA tuner.
With four sub-channels, it won’t really be HD except at the PBS level. It’s clear from their statements that PBS Kids will be on permanently 24/7, but it’s not totally clear about the other two sub-channels. I might also add that PBS Kids and PBS U are available through other sources, especially satellite. So, in my case, I get much, much less programming on OETA with subchannels than I do without them.
I guess this means they’ve finally fiished thei Master Control project, right? I offer all the subchannels on my cable system, so everyone can see the extra programming. But if they offer all 4 subs all the time, that doesn’t leave room for good quality HD programming on the main channel at all, it wlll be severely compromised, quality-wise.
Yippee, now we can watch childrens programming at 8 oclock at night.
What a huge leap backwards for OETA and Oklahoma.
With the local digital transmitter shut down on Saturday morning in OKC, it does appear that major changes are underway.
I will miss OTA PBS-HD as a major alternative to the poor quality picture on SD channels. Thank goodness there is a plan to offer PBS-HD through COX cable. Hopefully DirecTV and DISH will add PBS-HD at some time in the future.
The ultimate solution would be for OETA to retain both the channel 32 and 13 broadcast tower when analog goes away. Then PBS-HD could be transmitted OTA on another full bandwidth digital channel!
Mark Z
The transmitter is back up Saturday afternoon. OETA MAIN and KIDS are operational with OKLA and YOU showing coming soon announcements.
While we have lost PBS-HD, it is the first time that the plug could be pulled on analog with all local content appearing on OTA digital.
Saturday night, primtime, OETA has 50 year old B&W re-runs of the
Lawrence Welk show on.
Sighhh
The Kids channel on air 24/7??? That is sick!! What idiot came up with that? This is a waste of bandwith! OETA has gone down the drain. The stuff on there now is SO not interesting, why don’t they just shut it down!
Well, thank god I still have DiscoveryHD. it was hard before, finding the schedule for PBS-HD. I guess now I don’t have to worry about it.
I can’t say I have any reason to watch OETA now.
Isn’t PBS programming supposed to be free to the public? PBS HD was good while it lasted here but I’m not going to shell out money to get cable just to watch it. Funny thing is, they had a nature show on tonight and the analog looked better then the digital. The DT had a lot of the artifacts that usually occur when you divi up the bandwidth like that. So I guess that watching any of the oeta DT is out of my future. What a shame. over half of our HD viewing was PBS HD. I can’t stand watching standard programs knowing that it is in HD elsewhere, especially if I am used to watching it in HD anyway. I emailed them to complain but there are probably too few of us who are even aware of whats going on. Sigh, turn off the tube and take a walk.
I sent them an email too from their “contact us” link on the website
oeta.onenet.net
I can’t figure out what kind of incompetent moron would think it was a
great idea to broadcast childrens programming at 11pm when children
are supposed to be in bed asleep.
Only a government subsidized, isolated, beauracracy would do something
like that.
This is the response I received from programming at OETA ( at least I received a
response, never did before )
Thank you for your email and for sharing your comments with us about our digital programming. We always appreciate hearing from our viewers. The feedback we receive, whether positive or negative, invariably provides us with a better sense of our audience’s expectations.
OETA-HD is no longer available over the air in the way you’ve become accustomed to it. The problem comes down to bandwidth. For the past several months, we’ve been digitally broadcasting the PBS HD loop. It’s a direct satellite feed from PBS. It takes up nearly the entire digital bandwidth allotted to us by the FCC. We had to decide whether to continue showing this feed of limited programming or use the bandwidth to appeal to a wider audience. We opted to broadcast four standard definition channels most days and times and then go back to high definition during Prime Time when PBS is feeding the core programming in high definition (i.e. NOVA, Nature, etc.). We hope to have all four channels multicasting next week.
True, this plan means we will be broadcasting fewer HD pictures, but there will be far more programming. As a public television network serving the entire state, including viewers of all ages and interests, multicasting gives OETA the ability to provide the entire library of PBS programming, as well as Oklahoma productions and specials on our OKLA Channel. Because our main purpose in serving the public is first and foremost education, these multicast channels enable us to provide an abundance of quality educational programming, including college telecourses, children’s programs and countless history specials.
Cox Communications is impressed by OETA’s efforts to broadcast the wide variety of programming. They expressed a desire to add all of our digital channels to their Digital Cable service. They purchased and installed equipment at their facilities to receive OETA’s channels, and they plan to add them to their digital lineup in the next couple of months. Since Cox Communications isn’t limited by over-the-air bandwidth, they will also be able to receive the PBS HD loop that we were broadcasting. It will eventually be on Cox Channel 713. We hope other cable and satellite providers will soon follow suit. We hope to have all of Oklahoma watching OETA’s new channels in the near future, whether by cable, satellite or received via digital broadcast.
We sincerely hope that you’ll watch our multicast channels and find new programs to enjoy!
Thank you for understanding,
Holly Emig
Programming Assistant
NOT AS BAD AS Y’ALL THINK!
According to the programming lady at OETA, the nonstop PBS HD feed will not be back. It was a stopgap measure before the Digital Master Control was operational.
However, Hi-Def WILL BE TRANSMITTED mostly during primetime, NOVA is HD, NATURE is fairly much HD, it all depends how the show was produced before it was put on the PBS network.
I remind you that FCC requires DT stations to duplicate their analog transmissions.
Once in a while FCC allows exceptions, for example, NBC during the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Here is a flash: OETA has PROTECTED PBS Kids.
By that they mean PBS Kids will ALWAYS be on, even during HDTV broadcasts, just like those lame and unloved Weather Channels. The only time PBS Kids will not be on is very, very late at night.
Should it not be possible for OETA to “switch off” 13-2 and 13-3 to allow more bandwidth for a HD program such as NOVA and then switch them back on. The program guide could then show those channels off the air on the over air broadcasts. This would make the HD more like KOKH is doing now while OTA OETA-HD is on the air with OETA-KIDS still available. Also, when I got home late today I believe that OETA-HD was on the air, however it switched back to multicast about 1 minute after I tuned in. Did any one else catch this?
Considering the actual number of HD programs that were showing on the PBS-HD channel, this new situation isn’t all that bad. PBS doesn’t really have all that much HD programming in its library, case in point the airings of the Alaska Railway and Kilamanjaro programs that were on virtually every day several times. It was getting ridiculous.
Except that many shows, like History Detectives, which I really, really liked, that were upconverted SD looked very good and filled the whole screen. Now, they are about half the size on my 16×9 display and, IMHO, are unwatchable.
Before, when they would switch from one HD channel to four SD channels, the letterbox shows were at least sent from PBS with the 16×9 flag so they showed up in 16×9 instead of letterboxed. Plus, Nova was on last night and Nature was on the night before and they were defintely not on in HD or even widescreen SD. I’ll be able to watch the Soundstage shows in reruns on Voom, but Nova and Nature are PBS exclusives.
Oh, and, of course, there won’t be any Dolby Digital 5.1 broadcasts either unless you have cable.
[...] OETA has begun sending out canned responses to people who have contacted them about their new lack of HD programming. I just want to address a couple of points contained in the canned message… True, this plan means we will be broadcasting fewer HD pictures, but there will be far more programming. We will be serving more of Oklahoma with this wider variety of programming. [...]