WMLW upgrading broadcasts next year?

[battlekow]

I don't think I can watch WMLW games ever again. It's so dark and blurry it's ridiculous. I seriously can't believe they have such a terrible broadcast.

The picture quality combined with Shaun Marcum's...odd hat style made me thinking I was watching a circa-1997 Behind the Music during the pre-game.

[PrinceEatMeat]

WMLW sucks and doesn't deserve to broadcast Brewers games with how crappy the picture quality is. It's hard to watch, and ruins the enjoyment of the game. For home games that are on WMLW I seriously try to go to the game instead of watching on TV.

[danzig6767]

I don't think I can watch WMLW games ever again. It's so dark and blurry it's ridiculous. I seriously can't believe they have such a terrible broadcast.

The picture quality combined with Shaun Marcum's...odd hat style made me thinking I was watching a circa-1997 Behind the Music during the pre-game.

When i watch games on WMLW, it almost feels like i should be watching the game on a TV when i was a kid that had no remote control and you had to go and change the channel buy turning the dial to one of four stations.

 

Not only isn't it broadcast in HD, the WMLW version of analog is worse than a normal analog picture. Are they aware that it's now 2011?

[PrinceEatMeat]

Apparently not. Might as well make it black and white too then. If the picture is gonna be this bad, why not go all out?

[Invader3K]

Yeah, I guess they didn't make good on their promise to go HD this season, huh?

 

Caught part of the game last night on my parents' Philips HD 26" LCD TV. It's not a spectacular set, but gets the job done. Even on that, you could tell the picture was blurry.

[BrewCrewForever]

No improvement whatsoever. Just awful. It was fun reading all the WMLW jokes on my twitter feed last night though. The Brewers should be embarrassed that they broadcast their games on that garbage channel. If they can't broadcast in HD, okay fine, but at least make your standard def picture normal.

[Invader3K]

No improvement whatsoever. Just awful. It was fun reading all the WMLW jokes on my twitter feed last night though. The Brewers should be embarrassed that they broadcast their games on that garbage channel. If they can't broadcast in HD, okay fine, but at least make your standard def picture normal.

Yeah, I like this one I just found from @tonykaestner: @jdondlinger I just picked up the camcorder that I borrowed to WMLW and they didn't even rewind the VHS tapes.

[BrewCrewForever]

No improvement whatsoever. Just awful. It was fun reading all the WMLW jokes on my twitter feed last night though. The Brewers should be embarrassed that they broadcast their games on that garbage channel. If they can't broadcast in HD, okay fine, but at least make your standard def picture normal.

Yeah, I like this one I just found from @tonykaestner: @jdondlinger I just picked up the camcorder that I borrowed to WMLW and they didn't even rewind the VHS tapes.

Ha, that was my friend Tony replying to me. I thought that was great.

[razzzorsharp]

You guys can whine all you like, at least you get to watch the game.

[brains and braun]

Picture is not good, but as a guy without cable, WMLW is my only chance to watch the Brewers on tv from home.

[jeffy]

Same old crap from WMLW, I just don't get why the picture is so dark. I had brightness up to 100% and it was still dark.

 

My standards are not real high, we still have an 8 year old SD tube TV.

[Paul77]

I couldn't stand it. I turned it off and waited until after the game, then fired up my Samsung MLB.tv app on the TV and watched it demand. It was in HD (or as close as MLB.TV can get). Sucks that I had to wait until almost 11pm to watch a Brewers loss...

[1992casey]

jeffyscott, have you followed up on the e-mail you received that stated that this year's games would be in HD?

 

WMLW really has to get with the program here. What's frustrating is that FS-Wisconsin produces the games and has the HD equipment. I suppose the issue is that even if HD games were offered over satellite and cable, Channel 41 itself isn't HD capable. If the games were offered on an alternate channel in the Milwaukee area, there wouldn't be people continuing to watch WMLW after the game ends.

 

This isn't similar to the WYTU (Telemundo) games. Those are produced by the station on a limited budget. Even though WYTU has HD broadcasting ability, I can see why SD is chosen for the games.

 

I called Time Warner today about absolutely none of the Extra Innings games being in HD. The customer service person was pretty much clueless. Needless to say, I left a recorded message at the end of their satisfaction survey saying that they're presenting a pretty good argument for switching to DirectTV.

 

Adding to the Extra Innings standard definition issue is that it appears that most of the games are now letterboxed. Letterboxing is fine on 4:3. But when watching on a 16:9 screen, letterboxing either means that your picture is "super-stretched," or if you don't stretch, you have a little "postage stamp" picture in the middle of the screen.

[jeffy]

jeffyscott, have you followed up on the e-mail you received that stated that this year's games would be in HD?

 

Not on that, since I do not have an HD TV, but I did complain again (to both WMLW and FSN) about the terrible quality of their picture.

[crewcrazy]

WMLW really has to get with the program here. What's frustrating is that FS-Wisconsin produces the games and has the HD equipment. I suppose the issue is that even if HD games were offered over satellite and cable, Channel 41 itself isn't HD capable.

I'm 90% sure this is the issue. Even though they're using HD-capable equipment, if the station isn't broadcasting in HD yet, there's nothing they can really do to improve the quality.

 

Not being from Milwaukee I don't know WMLW's situation, but switching to an HD signal is expensive and takes a lot of time for a station. If they are in the process of switching to HD, it's entirely possible they missed their target date.

[danzig6767]

Picture is not good, but as a guy without cable, WMLW is my only chance to watch the Brewers on tv from home.

Why don't you have cable? There are cheap basic packages for like 25 bucks a month that include FSN.

[brains and braun]

Picture is not good, but as a guy without cable, WMLW is my only chance to watch the Brewers on tv from home.

Why don't you have cable? There are cheap basic packages for like 25 bucks a month that include FSN.

I don't have cable because I can't afford it. I can't swing another $25 a month for television. Also, that figure seems low. Everyone I know with cable pays in the $75-100 range.

[danzig6767]

Picture is not good, but as a guy without cable, WMLW is my only chance to watch the Brewers on tv from home.

Why don't you have cable? There are cheap basic packages for like 25 bucks a month that include FSN.

I don't have cable because I can't afford it. I can't swing another $25 a month for television. Also, that figure seems low. Everyone I know with cable pays in the $75-100 range.

I only asked because for the price of going to say one Brewers game, i thought you could get cable and watch 28 games a month on FSN if you just got the most basic of cable TV packages.

 

Yea, most people pay 75-100 plus, but it's because they have more than the very basic cable package. For example my cable package is 107 a month, but i have the digital variety cable package, high speed broadband internet, and phone service bundled together.

 

That said, i was wrong in my first post. I just went on Time Warner and the Digital Access package which is required to get FSN is actually 40 a month, not 25 as i thought. I said 25 because when i was on their site a month ago when deciding if i wanted a different bundle package, i saw basic cable for 26 a month, but looking at it closer that doesn't include FSN. My bad.

[jeffy]

I have digital access and with one converter box plus taxes and fees the bill is $66.64. They may offer discounts for 6 or 12 months if you are new, though.

 

Getting the Brewer games is not the only, but is probably the top reason why I spend $800 per year on cable. There are a lot of alternative ways to get much of what is on TV, but not for getting the Brewer games in the local market.

 

For my wife and I, we'd spend that much going to about 8 games in person (club level and a beer or two each). Not that having the games on TV means that we don't go, I just mean that the amount we pay to see them on TV is a relative bargain.

 

But, of course, I certainly understand that this is a luxury that some can not afford.

[Paul77]

Is it just me, or does WMLW look MUCH better tonight?

[SteveAA]

its much improved in sd out here in Eagle off Dishnetwork.

[bensheeps]

What channel for Dishnetwork?

[endaround]

For those who can get it, the signal for 58.2 is much better than the regular 41 signal.

[chadomac]

Still blurry, but not as dark as usual. Although tonight it looks like there is a thick layer of fog across the field... which I'm pretty sure is only seen by WMLW viewers.

[Invader3K]

I found the picture tolerable last night. Still fuzzy on the far away shots, but watchable at least. The biggest thing I noticed was that the picture wasn't all dark like it was on Saturday.