Has your PBS station's quality gone into the dumper...

....after the digital conversion.
My local station (WPTD 16) has:

They often experience blackouts. It is not my end as my TV is getting a
strong signal, just no content.
Sound. They use some horrid auto level control like on cheap tape recorders.
If there is a loud passage, the sound drops down for a few seconds.
These and other glitches seem to indicate the production is understaffed or
undertrained.

Then there is the programing. I was hoping for fresh installments to some
series like Nature or Nova but it is feaking RERUNS!!

I guess the digital transition broke them and people are not in the mood to
donate.

I guess the digital transition broke them and people are not in the mood to
donate.

Perhaps they should reinvent themselves,
go back to covering local topics in a non big buck way
and not depend on multi million dollar shows and do-wop telethons.

Per JohnR66:

Then there is the programing. I was hoping for fresh installments to some
series like Nature or Nova but it is feaking RERUNS!!

I guess the digital transition broke them and people are not in the mood to
donate.

My take is that they're running out of money.
--
PeteCresswell

Here in Phoenix, AZ , I have noticed that PBS switched from 1080i to
720P last year, and although the picture is still in HDTVLand, when
I try to record a Great Performance Met Opera broadcast onto
my PCs hard drive in TS format, there is a audio and video skip
or temp interuption, every 20 seconds or so. This only occurs on
one network, PBS and the signal strengh is good and stable.
Its worse on my older HDTV pc card than on my other, HDTV USB GT
tuner for PC. It seemed to start when they switched to 720p.
Two years ago there was no problem whatsoever with the broadcast
stream. Strangly enough, my HDTVs built in tuner has no problem
with skips, its only on the PCs HDTV tuner.

On Jan 11, 10:03*am, "JohnR66" wrote:
...after the digital conversion.
My local station (WPTD 16) has:

They often experience blackouts. It is not my end as my TV is getting a
strong signal, just no content.
Sound. They use some horrid auto level control like on cheap tape recorders.
If there is a loud passage, the sound drops down for a few seconds.
These and other glitches seem to indicate the production is understaffed or
undertrained.

Then there is the programing. I was hoping for fresh installments to some
series like Nature or Nova but it is feaking RERUNS!!

I guess the digital transition broke them and people are not in the mood to
donate.

For years cable culture has been sucking the life out of PBS. Pay
couch potatoes feel they have already paid with their monthly cable
bill and don't feel a need to donate. Add to that fund drives have
become little more than infomercials starring pacing hucksters.
Ironically cable is also littered with paid programming but that
doesn't seem to bother the paytatoes.

Rick

On Jan 11, 12:58*pm, Rick wrote:
On Jan 11, 10:03*am, "JohnR66" wrote:

...after the digital conversion.
My local station (WPTD 16) has:

They often experience blackouts. It is not my end as my TV is getting a
strong signal, just no content.
Sound. They use some horrid auto level control like on cheap tape recorders.
If there is a loud passage, the sound drops down for a few seconds.
These and other glitches seem to indicate the production is understaffed or
undertrained.

Then there is the programing. I was hoping for fresh installments to some
series like Nature or Nova but it is feaking RERUNS!!

I guess the digital transition broke them and people are not in the mood to
donate.

For years cable culture has been sucking the life out of PBS. Pay
couch potatoes feel they have already paid with their monthly cable
bill and don't feel a need to donate. Add to that fund drives have
become little more than infomercials starring pacing hucksters.
Ironically cable is also littered with paid programming but that
doesn't seem to bother the paytatoes.

Rick
I forgot to mention I watch with an antenna and am a current WGBH
member. :-)

"Rick" wrote in message
...

For years cable culture has been sucking the life out of PBS. Pay
couch potatoes feel they have already paid with their monthly cable
bill and don't feel a need to donate. Add to that fund drives have
become little more than infomercials starring pacing hucksters.
Ironically cable is also littered with paid programming but that
doesn't seem to bother the paytatoes.

Curious how much money per cable subscriber the local PBS station gets from
the cable provider each month and how that compares to OTA only donors. I'd
rather just pay one TV bill and have it disseminated. Always ****es me off
to pay my taxes which support my local police and fire department and then
have them call me for contributions to the fireman's ball etc. I thought I
was already paying for the fire department?

"Charles Tomaras" wrote:
"Rick" wrote in message
...

For years cable culture has been sucking the life out of PBS. Pay
couch potatoes feel they have already paid with their monthly cable
bill and don't feel a need to donate. Add to that fund drives have
become little more than infomercials starring pacing hucksters.
Ironically cable is also littered with paid programming but that
doesn't seem to bother the paytatoes.

Curious how much money per cable subscriber the local PBS station gets
from the cable provider each month and how that compares to OTA only
donors. I'd rather just pay one TV bill and have it disseminated. Always
****es me off to pay my taxes which support my local police and fire
department and then have them call me for contributions to the fireman's
ball etc. I thought I was already paying for the fire department?

Not everywhere, certainly not in my hometown.
The fire department is all volunteer.

Chip

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"Charles Tomaras" wrote in message
...

"Rick" wrote in message
...

For years cable culture has been sucking the life out of PBS. Pay
couch potatoes feel they have already paid with their monthly cable
bill and don't feel a need to donate. Add to that fund drives have
become little more than infomercials starring pacing hucksters.
Ironically cable is also littered with paid programming but that
doesn't seem to bother the paytatoes.

Curious how much money per cable subscriber the local PBS station gets
from the cable provider each month and how that compares to OTA only
donors. I'd rather just pay one TV bill and have it disseminated. Always
****es me off to pay my taxes which support my local police and fire
department and then have them call me for contributions to the fireman's
ball etc. I thought I was already paying for the fire department?

That's because a lot of those calls come from hucksters who are looking for
easy marks, and aren't really from legitimate fire or police associations.