The Whip's Best in HDTV For 2008

Well, it is that time of the year again and time to put together a list of the best in high def for 2008. In addition to the best, this list will also included some honorable mentions as well as some dishonorable mentions where appropriate. My list is not intended to be exhaustive so if you have any categories to suggest be included in a follow-up article, you know where to find me.

BEST FLAT PANEL
This one is a no brainer. The best flat panel is the new Pioneer Elite Kuro plasmas in 50” and 60” screen sizes. In the 50” category, the model number is the Pro-111. In the 60” category, there are two choices, the Pro-151 and the Signature line Pro-141. The Kuro panels produce the best blacks of any flat panel and rich accurate colors and are full 1080p panels. Of the two 60” panels, my favorite is the Signature 141. Is it significantly thinner than the 151 and the connections mount from underneath the panel making wall mounts easier to install. The 141 also comes equipped with an internet connection which allows remote calibration. The panel also has more options for calibration adjustments which in theory, should generate a more accurate picture. I say in theory as in speaking with calibrators I respect, I am informed that once calibrated properly, both sets look identical. The 151 is a fully equipped panel with built in amplifiers and speakers available and TV tuners. The 141 has the amplifiers and tuners stripped out. Therefore, to get a signal into the 141, you need a cable box or Blu-ray player.

While the Elites have the best picture, they are also very expensive. Whether the picture quality is worth the added cost is up to you. However, if you want the very best flat panel, the PIoneer Elites are the way to go.

Honorable Mention
1. The regular PIoneer Kuros are also excellent performers and are a little cheaper than the Elites. The Two models available are the PDP-5020 and the PDP-6020 and are less expensive that their Elite cousins. However, that lower price comes at a cost. While the non Elites have the same stellar black levels as the Elites, I found their color accuracy to be less than acceptable, even after calibration, looking too red overall. I also found the color green to be a bit lacking. However, I am sure that most consumers wouldn’t notice as most consumers will be more than thrilled with the performance of these panels out of the box. It is only the really anal retentive types like me who would have any objections with the performance of these sets which are truly top notch.

2. IMHO the best bang for the buck in the flat panel world remains the Panasonic commercial sets. These sets are sold directly to the broadcast industry and can be found at on line retailers. The latest incarnation of these sets are the 50” TH-50PF11UK and the 58” TH-58PF11UK. Both sets are full 1080p sets and are excellent performers. While the blacks on these sets fall a good bit short of the Kuros, with real world material, the blacks are quite good. Color accuracy on these sets is excellent as well, at least equal to the Elites. Calibrated via the service menu, these sets are capable of stellar results. Not quite up the the level that the Elite Kuros but more than close enough for more cost conscious consumers.

BEST BLU-RAY PLAYER
There is no question that the PS3 is the most popular Blu-Ray player and by a wide margin. It is an excellent performer with a great picture and excellent audio reproduction, supporting all advanced audio codecs, including DTS HD Master Audio. The PS3 is a bit future proof as it is upgradeable vis firmware upgrades. Some of the upgrades to date include full 2.0 profile functionality and the addition of DTS HD Master Audio decoding. However, the PS3 has one major flaw, namely the lack of analog audio outputs. If you have a Processor or receiver without HDMI inputs, you will not be able to enjoy the fantastic lossless audio tracks on Blu-Ray discs with the PS3. If you are like me, and have a Processor that you don’t want to replace and that has multichannel audio inputs and no HDMI connectivity, I would suggest that you check out the new Panasonic DMP-BD55 Blu-Ray player, which I have found to be the best standalone player on the market today. The video performance of the BD-55 playing Blu-Ray discs is excellent and as good as it gets. The player also internally decodes all advanced audio codes including DTS HD Master Audio and sends them out via its 7.1 channel analog outputs. The player incorporates excellent digital to analog converters that provide excellent audio reproduction. I have reviewed the prior flagship BD-50 (which retailed for $300 more than the BD-55 and had only 5.1 analog outs) as well as the older BD-10AK and the BD-55 sounds appreciably better than both. This a fantastic sounding player and for this writer, the standalone Blu-Ray player of choice. The only downside is that its performance as an upconverting DVD player falls short of several of the other Blu-Ray players. As I use the player exclusively for Blu-ray discs, that is not an issue for me but it may be for you.

BEST CABLE OR DBS PROVIDER
In terms of the availability of HD channels and picture quality, the top choice for me is Verizon’s FiOS service. I admit that I may be a bit biased here as I subscribe to their service, but it is fantastic. In my market, Verizon provides 105 HD channels including all the HD movie channels. Included is HD Net as well as Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia. As a result, FiOS is giving Comcast a run for the money in its own backyard.

A close second is Directv which has even more national HD channels than FiOS although not for long and excellent HD picture quality. However, when it comes to standard definition, Directv falls well short of FiOS in terms of picture quality. Directv may be the sports fan’s provider of choice with many regional sports nets available and of course, NFL Sunday ticket.

Dishonorable Mention
My choice here has to be Comcast, for their disingenuous ads that they have more HD “choices” than anyone, to their deteriorating HD picture quality squeezing 3 HD channels into spaces normally fit for 2 only to their continued refusal to offer Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia to Directv and Dish Network. As we say in Philadelphia, Booooooooooo to Comcast.

BEST BLU-RAY STUDIO
In this category, we have a tie between Paramount and Universal, both former HD DVD exclusive studios which in the past several months, have issued releases featuring stellar picture and audio quality. In the case of Paramount, we have releases such as Iron Man, Tropic Thunder, Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek 3, Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Godfather Collection and Indiana Jones and the KIngdom of the Crystal Skull. All have reference level picture quality and excellent audio with some, including Tropic Thunder, Iron Man and Sweeney Todd, having reference audio quality as well. As far as Universal is concerned, we have releases such as The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, The Mummy-The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Burn After Reading, all of which feature exceptional video and audio reproduction and among the best I have yet experienced. Both Paramount and Universal obviously are taking great pride in the quality of their product and are to be commended for their efforts.

Honorable Mention- Sony, Disney and Fox

Dishonorable Mention-
Warner Brothers gets the nod here for their failure to include lossless audio tracks on all of their releases, unlike all of the studios mentioned above. While Warners has included a reference audio track with the sensational The Dark Knight, their failure to include a lossless track with titles such as Speed Racer, Get Smart and Journey to the Center of the Earth as well as others, is simply unacceptable.

BEST BROADCAST NETWORK
It this category, the best is clearly CBS as they have, not only some of the best shows, but the best video quality. CBS’s sports coverage of the NFL features the best picture quality on a weekly basis with images that are sharper, brighter and better detailed than the competition. CBS also features the best looking shows on broadcast TV, namely CSI, CSI Miami and CSI NY. In fact, CSI NY is the best looking show on TV period.

Dishonorable Mention
The winner (loser?) in this category is clearly NBC which not only features some of the worst shows on broadcast TV but the worst looking picture which is often a soft and pixilated mess. NBC also features the worst looking sports broadcast on TV, namely Notre Dame football. Yuck.

As I have the time, I will supplement this release with new categories. if you have any suggestions, please let me know.

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Blu-ray Review: The Dark Knight

THE MOVIE: 4 1/2 stars out of 5
As a fan of Batman comics, I was thrilled with the release of the Batman film starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. I was less than thrilled with the sequels to that effort which totally lost the point of the first film which took Batman back to the character that was the basis of the original comics. That Batman was a dark and brooding character tormented by the murder of his parents as a child and fighting deep and dark psychological battles. This Batman is a far cry from the comical Batman as presented on the 1960’s TV series and the laughable Batman and Robin film starring George Clooney that almost doomed the franchise forever.

Thankfully, along came director Christopher Nolan who breathed life back into the franchise with the wonderful Batman Begins which is the best Batman film of all time by a mile, until the release of The Dark Knight that is! The Dark Knight is a spectacular film which is totally true to the original Batman comic, with a great script dealing with deep and dark psychological issues and an incredible performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker.

If Heath Ledger does not win an Oscar for this performance, there is no justice. His performance is completely riveting. You simply can’t take your eyes off the screen during his performance. The story picks up a year or so after Batman Begins. The Gotham Police and their new DA, Harvey Dent, along with Batman and Lieutenant Gordon, have been in the process of tracking down the remnants of the Falconi crime syndicate, eating into their profits. In comes the Joker, until then thought of as nothing more than an oddity and small timer, who confronts the mob with a plan to restore their dominance in Gotham by killing the Caped Crusader. Little do they know that he has other unspoken plans for the city.

Even if you don’t like films based on comic book superheroes, you will enjoy this film as it has a well written story with fleshed out characters dealing with the sacrifices that men of noble intentions are forced to make for the common good and the circumstances that can cause even the best of us to loose our way and go over the edge of morality. Wonderfully written with excellent performances by the entire cast and beautifully filmed, this is a spectacular film and one incredible release on Blu-Ray. Very highly recommended.

THE VIDEO: 5 stars out of 5
Encoded with VC-1, this is a beautiful looking film on Blu-Ray and in all respects, captures the look of the film that I saw in theaters. In something of a first, the film features a variable aspect ratio on this release going from 1:78:1 to 2:40:1 and back again repeatedly. The IMAX shots are presented in 1:78:1 and the rest of the film in its intended aspect ratio of 2:40:1. The transitions are seamless and at times not even noticeable. However, those with projectors with fixed screen sizes will find this to be an annoyance as the IMAX sequences will be larger than their screen. For those with plasmas, LCD displays and rear projection sets, you will have no issues at all.

This encode boasts a color palette of incredible fidelity, rich properly saturated color and excellent rendition of shadow detail. Overall detail is excellent as well, especially the scenes with the Joker, which show every fleck of white make-up on his face and each strand of his greasy green hair. The overall clarity of the image is excellent as well presenting an image of great depth and three dimensionality, even in the dark scenes with heavy shadows. Normally those scenes appear quite flat in comparison with the brightly lit scenes. That is not the case here as even the dark scenes retain an excellent sense of depth. The only negative here is that there is a bit of edge enhancement employed, resulting in some haloes. However, as far as I have been able to discern, the edge enhancement was added as part of the IMAX process and is not the fault of this encode and is therefore truthful to the source. That being the case, I see no reason to give this encode anything but a perfect score. In any event, the edge enhancement is very minor and will only be seen by those of you with really large screens. It really doesn’t get better than the picture quality on this release.

THE AUDIO: 5 stars out of 5
Unlike some recent Warner Blu-Ray releases, The Dark Knight features a lossless audio track using Dolby True HD which is reference in every way. This is one dynamic track that will give any home theater system a real work out. I know it did mine. The overall sound of the film is excellent with top notch fidelity. The sound is smooth and open with incredible imaging and transparency. Bass response is off the charts with a beautiful throbbing score that is a feast for the ears. Explosions, gun blasts and crashes have an amazing sense of heft and weight and just crash over you like a tsunami of sound.

Excellent use is made of the surrounds creating a totally immersive sound field that is simply one of the best I have heard on Blu-Ray. Dialogue is well recorded and always well placed in the mix. Despite all the crashes, explosions and cacophony, the dialogue is always intelligible. The dialogue track faithfully reproduces the acoustical environment of each scene, sounding different in each setting. In short, this is one of the best sounding releases I have yet heard on Blu-Ray and is darn near perfect.

EXTRAS
One would expect such a major release as this to have a plethora of extras and this release does not disappoint. The release includes a digital copy that is compatible with PCs and Macs. You can download this film to your IPod and watch it whenever you want. Other extras include Gotham Uncovered: Creation of a Scene in which the director takes you step by step through the planning and attention to detail involved in each scene in the film.

Also included on a separate disc from the film itself in HD is a feature Batman Tech which shows the gadgets and tools shown in the film, a featurette Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of the Dark Knight that delves into the psyche of Bruce Wayne and the world of Batman through real world psychological analysis, Gotham Tonight, six episodes of Gotham Cable premiere news program, galleries featuring the Joker cards, concept art, poster art, production stills, trailers and TV spots. All in all, it will take you several hours to run though all this material which most film fans will find very interesting and well worth their time.

IN CONCLUSION
In short, this is one great film and excellent release on Blu-Ray that will look and sound incredible on any home theater system. Highly recommended. This will make a great holiday gift for any home theater fans out there. Well done Warner Brothers and Christopher Nolan!

Note: The Dark Knight will be released on Blu-ray on December 9. Click here to pre-order from Amazon.com.

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Blu-ray Review: Kung Fu Panda

THE MOVIE: 4 out of 5
Film trailers can be funny things. We have all seen trailers and thought, wow, what a great looking movie only to be disappointed when we see the actual film. It is rare that the opposite occurs, where we think that a film looks lame in a trailer only to find the actual film to be wonderful. Thankfully. Kung Fu Panda falls into that latter category. When I saw the trailer in the theater for this film I thought it would be awful. How wrong I was! Kung Fu Panda is a wonderfully engaging film about a Panda that is a huge Kung Fu Fan who is picked to be the Dragon Master and train along side his idols, the real Kung Fu fighters and the world’s greatest Kung Fu master. It is almost like a kid being picked off the sandlot to lead his favorite team to a victory in the World Series. Great stuff and fun for the entire family. Highly recommended.

THE VIDEO: 5 out of 5
Kung Fu Panda is encoded with AVC and it presented in its original aspect ratio of 2:40:1. In short, this is an incredible looking encode and one of the finest, if not the finest looking animated film I have seen on Blu-Ray. The picture quality is astounding. The film features incredible color, deep rich blacks and detail that has to be seen to be believed. The image on screen is utterly three dimensional with a spectacular level of clarity and detail. The picture is nothing short of perfect and is yet another in a string of high quality efforts from the folks at Paramount. Absolutely amazing. Yes, it is that good!

THE AUDIO: 5 out of 5
Encoded with Dolby True HD, the lossless audio on this release is every bite as good as the video. It is rarely to have a release that has perfect video AND audio but we have one in Kung Fu Panda. There is nothing at all to find fault with on this release. The overall sound quality is of very high fidelity with a smooth open sound with excellent transparency and imaging. The placement of the sound effects in the sound field is perfect. Bass is deep and tight and really rattles the room. The film boasts some of the best use of surround speakers I have ever heard, creating a total sense of immersion. Just listen to the sound of the doors opening and closing in the Jade Palace. Simply amazing. This is a reference audio encode if I have ever heard on

IN CONCLUSION
Kung Fu Panda is an extraordinary release from the folks at Dreamworks, featuring a wonderfully engaging film with truly reference quality audio and video. Very highly recommended.

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Blu-ray Review: Tropic Thunder

THE MOVIE: 4 out of 5
Tropic Thunder is one very funny movie and is a film that is meant to poke fun at the entire movie industry from the actors to the directors, producers and pyrotechnic experts. The film finds a group of pretentious actors making a Vietnam era film lost in the jungle with real guerilla fighters that are part of a a heroin producing cartel. They have to use their collective film experiences to combat the drug cartel, rescue their friends and escape with their lives. The film features two wonderful performances by Robert Downey, Jr. as an actor who takes the concept of method acting to extremes and Tom Cruise in an over the top performance as a jowly movie producer with a penchant for rap and very foul language. This is a very funny film and highly recommended.

THE VIDEO: 5 out of 5
This is simply another stunning and reference level encode from Paramount. The film features a very natural and well saturated color palette with excellent fleshtones and greens. Set in a jungle and filmed in Hawaii, the film boasts about as many subtle shades of green as one can image and will test the ability of your display to display these colors accurately. Black level is deep and solid rendering an image of great clarity and depth. Detail is excellent as well with all of the subtle features and imperfections on the actors’ skin plainly visible as is the makeup applied to Tom Cruise to make him bold and jowly. Fans of this film will be thrilled with the quality of the video here as was I.

THE AUDIO: 4 7/8 out of 5
While not quite up to the level of the audio in Kung Fu Panda, the audio on Tropic Thunder is darn close. As was the case with Kung Fu Panda, the fidelity of the audio here is outstanding, being very smooth, open and transparent with excellent imaging. Dialogue is well recorded and well placed in the mix sounding very rich and lifelike. Bass is deep and tight with the numerous explosions and gunshots having the appropriate weight and heft sounding very lifelike. The sound design is top notch with excellent use of the surrounds generating a very immersive sound field, placing you right in the middle of the action. If I hadn’t just screened Kung Fu Panda, I would have given the audio here a 5. However, as it is almost but not quite as impressive as Kung Fu Panda, it rates a very solid 4 7/8.

IN CONCLUSION
Tropic Thunder is a very funny film and as seems to be the case with most Paramount releases, features reference level audio and video encodes. Highly recommended.

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Verizon Invades Comcast's Home Turf

As reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, a bill has been introduced before the Philadelphia City Council to award Verizon a 15 year franchise to provide its FiOS cable and internet service through the entire city of Philadelphia. The bill was introduced on behalf of Mayor Nutter and has been put on the fast track for passage by the end of 2008. For Philadelphia City Council, that would indeed be lightning fast. The bill contemplates the entire city be wired for FiOS by 2016 although a significant portion of the city would be wired within 3 years. This bill would represent Verizon's first foray into the City of Philadelphia with its FiOS service and represents a shot across Comcast's bow for dominance in Comcast's home market. FIOS has been available in the suburbs of Philadelphia and South Jersey for the past 2 years and has made significant inroads into Comcast's subscriber base in those areas.

Without a doubt, Comcast will lobby members of City Council hard to at least slow the passage of this legislation. It appears unlikely that Comcast will be able to kill the legislation entirely. Without a doubt, given today's economic climate, the introduction of this bill must be very troublesome to the folks over at the new Comcast Center.

It's passage will at least result in more competition in the City of Philadelphia which will have some downward pressure on cable rates, eating into Comcast's profits. At worst, it could result in a loosening of Comcast's virtual monopoly in the City of Philadelphia, eating away further at Comcast's bottom line. It will be very interesting to see just how Comcast intends to deal with this legislation and Verizon's inevitable foray in the City of Philadelphia. Will Comcast try to pull Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia from Verizon's line-up or at least not renew their carriage agreement once it is up? Perhaps they will raise the rates so high for that channel that it will make FiOS's rates uncompetitive with Comcast's.

I find it interesting that Major Nutter had this bill introduced so soon into his new administration. I believe that it represents a shift in Comcast's dominance in Philadelphia and a move toward opening up the City for more competition and a reduction in cable rates. Maybe the pols on the federal level like Senator Specter will back efforts to lift the terrestrial loophole that permits Comcast to withhold CSN Philly from Directv and Dish. After all, such an action will be pro consumer. Lower cable rates will no doubt please the voters and Senator Specter is coming up for re-election.

I did find one other note in a companion piece in the Philadelphia Daily News interesting and that is a quote from Comcast's spokesman, Jeff Alexander, calling Verizon a cable-later comer, trying to match his company's service claiming that Verizon is simply deploying technology that is essentially the same as Comcast's and that Verizon is trying to catch-up.

Sorry Jeff, but that is nothing but disinformation. Verizon's system is way ahead of yours in terms of technology. It is a 21st Century system rather than a cut and paste late 20th Century system that Comcast is deploying. As for catching up, maybe in terms of subscribers but not in terms of programming choices and picture quality. As of 11/17, Verizon will have over 100 HD channels in the Philadelphia DMA with superior picture quality across the board and as many if not more HD VOD "choices" than Comcast likes to brag about. Imagine, in suburban Philadelphia, we already have more HD choices than Comcast in their home market!

Catching up indeed! Let's see Comcast compete with Verizon and Directv in terms of channels, choices, picture quality and price rather than running misleading ads that would make politicians blush and trying to exert political influence to stifle competition.

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Blu-ray Review: Tinker Bell

THE MOVIE: 3 1/2 stars out of 5
Tinker Bell is a charming family movie that journeys into the world of Pixie Hollow and tells the tale of Disney’s most famous fairy. I must say that I was not expecting a whole lot from this release as direct to video releases tend not to be the highest of quality. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this release, which has a high quality story as well as a very high quality video presentation.

The film tells the tail of Tinker Bell starting from her birth arising from a child’s first laughter. That is how Fairies come into being didn’t you know. After being introduced to Pixie Hollow and after she is assigned to a community based on her talent as a “tinker” through a selection process not unlike the Hat in Harry Potter, Tinker Bell decides that she would rather be something other than a Tinker as Tinker’s don’t get to travel to the real world to put each season into motion. The real world BTW is London. However, her efforts to display any talent as anything other than a Tinker fail despite the efforts of her friends. However, there is one fairy who views Tinker Bell as a threat and sets Tinker Bell up for a failure that can result in a delay in the onset of Spring. It is up to Tinker Bell to master all of her tinkering talents to save the day so the fairies can usher in the spring season. The story, while having some derivative moments like the one noted above from Harry Potter, is quite charming and one that any family, with young children can sit down and enjoy. I know that I did. Recommended.

THE VIDEO: 5 stars out of 5
Encoded with AVC, Tinker Bell is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1:78:1 and looks amazing. Computer generated films are some of the best looking Blu-Ray releases and Tinker Bell is no exception. The image boasts bright and bold colors that look amazing. Black level is deep and stable resulting in an image of incredible depth. Clarity and detail are off the charts rendering a razor sharp image and one that is of reference quality. Frankly, there is nothing to nitpick at all with this release as it is one of the finest looking computer based films released on Blu-Ray to date. Another excellent video presentation from the folks at Disney.

THE AUDIO: 4 5/8 stars out of 5
While not quite up to the level of the video encode, the audio on Tinker Bell more than holds its own. The high res audio here is presented with uncompressed PCM at 48 kHz/24 bit/5.1. The overall sound is very smooth and rich sounding without even a trace of harshness. Transparency and imaging is good as well although falling a bit short of the better sounding mixes. The dialogue track is well recorded and well placed in the mix. Bass is deep and tight although not as deep as the best sounding audio tracks I have heard. The only real nitpick I have with the audio presentation is in the use of the surround speakers. While the surrounds are actively engaged throughout the film, they do not provide the total sense of immersion that is characteristic of the best sounding audio tracks. For the most part, the sound field is rather front heavy even though the surrounds do kick in enough to let you know there are there. All in all, this is a more than satisfying audio presentation, warts and all.

EXTRAS
Tinker Bell is replete with many extras most in high def. The release is also BD Live enabled giving you the ability to download additional exclusive material from the internet provided you have a BD Live enabled Blu-Ray player. The extras include the Tinker Trainer which allows you to hone your skills as a Tinker Fairy, a Magical Guide to Pixie Hollow that enables you to explore all aspects of Pixie Hollow, Ever Wonder which enables you to discover how fairies put the wonder into natural wonders, Creating Pixie Hollow a behind the scenes look at the creation of the film, an all new music video, deleted scenes and more. Your children will particularly enjoy the interactive Magical Guide to Pixie Hollow which is well worth checking out as are the rest of the extras.

IN CONCLUSION
Tinker Bell is a surprisingly strong release from the folks at Disney. It is a charming film that the whole family will enjoy and is one that features reference quality video. Recommended for families with children of all ages.

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FCC Diversity Plan Could Hurt HD Picture Quality

I came across a very interesting article today in Broadcasting and Cable which I believe will have a negative impact on the future of high quality over the air (OTA) HD broadcasts. In short, an advisory committee to the FCC has proposed allowing broadcasters to lease out their spectrum to disadvantaged groups and businesses to effect permit them to start their own TV stations, known as an S class station, to increase diversity of voices in a given market.

In essence, a group or company without funds to buy or start their own full fledged station will be permitted to piggyback their signal onto an existing digital TV signal, in effect, putting cable access channels on the airwaves, all for the sake of diversity, whether anyone wants to watch or not. Why should this get under my skin? It gets under my skin because this proposal, if enacted, will result, not only in a decrease of HD broadcasting, but the destruction of high quality OTA HD broadcasts. This proposal on its face only requires that a station broadcast 6 hours of HD programming a day.

The proposal requires that the S Class of stations lease back the spectrum to allow the station owner to broadcast 6 hours of HD content a day. Therefore, a station can sublease as much spectrum as they want to as many entities as they can so long as they get enough spectrum back to broadcast HD 6 hours a day. The proposal does not define what an HD broadcast must consist of in terms of bandwidth or bit rate. It is therefore possible for a station to sublease several subchannels so long as they retain enough spectrum to send out some sort of HD broadcast even if it is a pixelated mess that is almost unwatchable.

I am sure that many OTA broadcasters will jump for joy at the opportunity to do just that as a way of raising revenue. With the advent of the DVR, advertising revenue has been dropping as a commercial isn't worth what it used to be when it can be zapped out of existence by the push of a button. The net effect of this proposal will be less HD broadcasting a day and even worse, the reduction of the picture quality of the broadcasts that hit the airwaves. We have all seen what happens to the picture quality of an OTA HD broadcast when one subchannel is added. Imagine what it will look like with several. Imagine watching a NFL broadcast on your CBS affiliate while the signal is compromised with several subchannels!

Let's face it, the programming that this FCC proposal contemplates providing has a very, and I mean very, limited marketplace. It is the type of programming that would simply not exist were it not crammed down our throats by the FCC. Even worse, those S Class stations would be entitled to must carry under this proposal. By compromising picture quality, this proposal will only further dilute the OTA broadcasters' marketshare which continues to be lost to the ever increasing number of cable channels.

As someone who is concerned, not only with quality programming but picture quality as well, I will change my viewing habits and watch those channels which do not compromise picture quality which will increasing be only cable channels. If I were a content provider, I would want my product to look and sound its best and will want to put it on channels where it looks and sounds its best. Those channels will no longer be OTA channels if this proposal is formally adopted by the FCC. As a result, OTA broadcasters will find that their share of the viewing audience will continue to shrink to the point were they will no longer be relevant. Sure they will increase revenues temporarily but only for a short while and at the expense of stripping their broadcast license of any value whatsoever.

If there is a positive to take out of all this it is that this proposal will hasten the desire of the larger broadcasters to distribute their content exclusively through the internet in full HD quality. It will take years but as broadband speeds continue to increase, you will be able to download a TV show directly from the provider and cut out the cable middleman entirely. Live streaming of HD content may even be available. It may take 10 years but this is how TV will be distributed. OTA will for all intents and purposes be dead. In the event that this FCC proposal goes into effect, it may just hastened this outcome. In that respect, I may turn out to be a good thing, although that is clearly not the end result envisioned by the FCC. In the interim, we will have to suffer from inferior picture quality. All for the sake of diversity!

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