For those Georgians who miss MeTV because it moved last year to a low power station inside Atlanta, it is back on a major station (high powered WUPA) at 69.4 as of Nov 1. Now receivable outside the city (I’m in Cumming). I’ve asked Tablo to update its ATL guide for MeTV.
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Me TV is one of my favorites. Up until a few months ago (before I cut the cord), I’d never heard of it. I’d forgotten all about most of those great programs and have had a lot of fun reacquainting myself with them.
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The company (Weigel) that owns MeTV has purchased a TV station and also is building their own ATSC 3.0 antenna tower. It owns several OTA franchises such as MeTV, Heroes & Icons, etc. It appears that they want to consolidate all their broadcast channels to eventually use their own facilities rather than simply renting sub-channels from others.
It’s fun watching people like Robert Redford getting their start on shows such as Route 66 (there’s a young Jack Nicholson on an Andy Griffith episode). MASH was originally shot in 16:9 and is getting remastered and restored to 16:9 without artificial stretching. Some people have seen it and say it looks great! Our LG TVs do a good job of upscaling these old programs to look fresh.
Weigel does issue their MeTV programs in 720 BUT they are broadcast as 480 on the sub-channels by different stations that allocate the sub-channel bandwidths. So we’re not seeing these programs as well as they can be shown. Perhaps that is also why Weigel wants their own broadcasting facilities. Perry Mason and Hawaii 5-0 look a lot better on CBS All Access than they do on MeTV as distributed by local stations. I think Weigel wants to improve how their programming is carried…
Hogan’s Heroes was originally filmed in 1080; I’ve seen it in 1080i and the picture quality is terrific.
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That’s great, it’s fantastic to think of a channel such as MeTV stepping to the forefront and wanting to wrest quality control from the frailties of whatever entity they’re subcontracting to. I did not know Mash was shot in 16:9 aspect ratio and definitely knew nothing of Hogan’s Heroes having been in 1080.
Someone was planning ahead. I think the original 1965 episode was in black and white. The last episode was 1971 when the broadcast standard was NTSC at 525.
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Do you have proof of that? I can’t find it.
Again, do you have proof? Everything I’ve read says it’s zoom and crop.
Hogan’s Heroes was filmed in 35 mm which in terms of digital resolution can equate from 2K to 4K and beyond (several web sites do the calculations for equating or resolution comparison). Several episodes were shown in 1080i on CBS. 1080p wasn’t around then - I was relating the resolution of the film source in contemporary terms to indicate that what we are currently being shown is a downscaled version of these older shows. The original films allow for 1080p and beyond. The first Hawaii 5-0 can be shown in HD without any trickery from the original prints.
From contacts in the industry, I heard that the original 35 mm film print for MASH is wider than the televised 4:3 aspect ratio. They are remastering MASH from these films using more of the original frame area. But since the original intent was not a 16:9 release when filming, the wider frames have to be edited for unwanted scenery. Hulu is not showing what is being remastered since it is not yet fully available.
35mm in 4:3 a wide frame does not make.
Actually many films and TV series were done in 35 mm with frames that were too large for television and had to be cropped for 4:3 televised viewing (television sets being so much smaller decades ago). MASH suffered from such “reframing” and editing. Top, bottom, left and right strips were cut out for television that can now be restored for a widescreen effect.
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Does an aspect ration of 16:9 equate into a resolution of 1280x720 lines of resolution? Not a photographer, doesn’t film also rely on lens quality and various settings… beyond just being 35mm film to justify it’s HD?
It’s been a month and it looks like there’s still no Tablo guide. Is there any way to get a status update from the Tablo people?
** UPDATE ** The guide has now updated to include this channel!!
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I cannot tell you how estactic I am, that MeTv is back. It was the primary channel I watched. I have been upset for the longest, and Saturday is my favorite day. I would watch my Westerns, then at night Star Trek. Wonder Woman! I would spend hours on Saturday, trying to watch it on line. All I can say is THANK YOU!!!
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There are several Me TV fans in these forums. I also enjoy their website, where they have fun facts, trivia, music (Me TV FM and others) and promo products.