“We’re doing the best we can,” Gwen, the CW TV affiliate general manager said in reply to my complaint that the video resolution of syndicated programming is “soupy” and unwatchable. I think I touched a sensitive nerve because Gwen and the chief engineer said they are broadcasting the syndicated shows in “standard definition.”
But in truth even “standard definition” would be a dramatic step up from the gauzy resolution on WUCW-23. It is as bad as the 100 resolution on some YouTube videos and I suspect that there is a lot of processing of the media that happens to account for this mess before it goes on the air. I would love to get a tour of their master control room. Could they be videotaping on an old RCA VHS recorder from the thrift store?
Apparently they didn’t get the memo that the Twin Cities TV stations switched to HD about six years ago. I tried watching reruns of the comedy hit “Community” and that prompted my mid-winter outrage.
Gwen claims that they will have HD in March. We’ll see. Presently the two hours of CW programs and the Arsenio show are the only HD entries on that channel.
The WUCW (owned by Sinclair) is reminiscent of the Al Yankovich movie “UHF,” about a dysfunctional low budget TV operation. Yet WUCW is a quasi-network affiliate in a major market so they need to step up and spend some money on new Japanese equipment.
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