Best HD PQ on a Toronto-Hamilton-Buffalo OTA Station?

[decew]

I find CTV Toronto gives the best picture despite its not my strongest signal. Omni would rank 2nd with Fox29 from Buffalo third. CBC would be fourth. The big three American networks although they broadcast in HD it does not compare to what the Canadian networks put out. I know this is one opinion from someone in Niagara.

[PPL4GOLF]

I think it depends on the program a lot.

I am always fairly happy with CFTO-HD, the Winter Games PQ is pretty decent. There is nothing wrong with CBLT-DT. Have you seen Monster, Inc on CBC or other Disney cartoons ? Absolutely stunning PQ. You cam't get a sharer picture on their news either.

OMNI1 is visibly worse simsubbing Letterman. Flip the channels back and forth, focus on Dave's mug and you know what I mean.

All the 720p channels blow because my TVs are 1080p Samsungs which overscan 720p OTA ever so slightly...enough to look slightly inferior.

[Jase88]

I concur that it depends on the programming, and how it was orignally recorded/captured.

Note that CBC records many of their programs in 16:9 standard definition. It is cheaper than upgrading all of their facilities with HD camera equipment, and fools the viewer into believing that it's true HD.

Some of CityTV's remote news segments are also captured using standard definition 16:9 aspect ratio. Whereas CTV's local news segments (Toronto) exclusively use a true HD capture.

[little-infinity]

CBLT's newscasts are horrible. The newsroom footage isn't that bad, but the reports are horrible. They don't even fill my full screen.

It could just be my Sharp Aquos. I hear they aren't that great.

CFTOs and CITYs newscasts are brilliant.
WKBWs newscast blows, and looks like something worse than 480p, WIVBs are 480p but don't blow as much. WGRZ newcast I can't see right now because I'm not getting it, but I recall they were 480p with sidebars that say HD to make it 16:9.

The actual HD programming out of WGRZ and WIVB are awesome (national feeds), and WKBW looks really good even though it's only 720p.

WNED, WNLO, WUTV, and WNYO don't really offer much in HD, but when they do they're pretty good (like WKBW). I can barely tell.

The OMNI channels are the worst IMO.
CHCH too.
And ION :P

[Jase88]

None of the local Buffalo newscasts are in HD. Nor is Hamilton's CHCH news.

[goforit]

HNIC on CBC HD, Golf on WIVB HD is something to see, nature shows on WNED HD are stunning.

[Marbles_00]

What I find somewhat frustrating is that CHCH has the capabilities of broadcasting movies in HD, yet fail to do so most times. Except for the Star Trek marathon, and the occasional Sunday night movie, they seldom take advantage of their HD capabilities, which would set them out from everyone else, and they just broadcast 4:3 SD material .

Hopefully after the transition, they'll get their act together, and truly become "Canada's Superstation".

[ota_canuck]

Most of those CH movies are low budget, low resolution productions to begin with. You can't make a junky quality movie turn into HD out of thin air.

I do think that Channel Zero could do a much better job with the quality of their programme feeds into CH though.

[Marbles_00]

I know...the kung-fu fest, though entertaining...and takes me back, is awful in PQ. Just wishing, since they show they have the capabilities (look at their call sign), they would take advantage and show some newer movies that are better in quality. I know they wouldn't be able to play the most recent, or ones within the last two years, but even something like the re-mastered Star Wars or something...

Just wishing, that's all.

[stampeder]

Several off topic posts deleted. I've also clarified the title to mean HD since that's what the OP meant.

As several people have mentioned, a big issue when comparing HD picture quality is the source video. Comparing upscaled 480i to native 1080i is completely unrealistic, even if the two stations take that material and broadcast it in 1080i and your HDTV further processes it to display in 1080p. Another complicating factor is how the station got/gets the signal, as degradation may or may not be happening. How old or new is the station's equipment? What was the weather like? We could go on and on with reasons why 2 stations broadcasting the same live HD sports event or first run HD movie might appear differently.

Having said that, if you have a favourite station for HD PQ please let us know.

[ota_fan]

all the digital HD OTA channels I have seen have been in 1080i

are there any for this area in 720p or even 1080p

I would like to compare there quality

I have read that some consider 720p better than 1080i

[stampeder]

The ATSC standard allows for 1080p but with so few HDTVs out there that can process it the broadcasters have not implemented it. I can foresee that in the next 5 years as new HDTVs all arrive with 1080p capability some of the broadcasters will consider it.

720p is often used by ABC and FOX network stations in the U.S. but can someone confirm/deny if WKBW and/or WUTV originate in 720p?

[dsspredator]

Originally Posted by stampeder

WKBW and/or WUTV originate in 720p?

Both are 720p.

WKBW is the best 720p - with no sub-channel.

CFTO / CBLT / WIVB are the best 1080i stations.

[parity123]

Favourite Channel is NBC for picture quality and program selection. Favourite HD channel period is PBS. Nova and Nature are amazing.

The best program I have ever seen on HD are the 2 white house specials....Christmas and a meet the Obamas. Didn't care for hearing what they had to say but boy was the picture quality excellent! I think I saw a few dust bunnies in the White House watching that show.

[ota_canuck]

I'm not sure if this is a good analogy of 1080i vs 720p ?

720p has a full 720 lines of active info scanned onto each line.

1080p has a full 1080 lines of active info scanned onto each line.

whereas:

1080i only has 540 lines of active info and the other 540 lines being interlaced [filled in] with info overflowing from the active lines.

So, if that is a correct analogy, then 720p should then be a greater quality than 1080i.