San Francisco DTV Information

Hesiod - San Francisco Digital Television Information

This page is going to hold information my observations of San Francisco DTV transmissions.

With the FCC not mandating that cable TV services carry all the digital channels a TV station may transmit, these channels may not live long. As listing are also in short supply I'm trying to document missing DTV information.

Most commercial stations retrasmit their high definition programming in lower 480i on a different channel.

I find I'm leaving 43-3 KCSM's Jazz TV on most of the time. It makes a very pleasant image and the sound is much better than their 91.1 FM signal. KNTV 11-2 weather information now has competition with KGO at 7-3, however both have commercials.

KBWB has converted from 1080i into 720p. Maybe 720p will become the main format as there is a lot more of it about these days.

KQED, a big PBS station, is interesting by having so many channels. However, their life channel shows many cooking shows and you can tell they are overcompressing their signal. Just watch some dish being stirred and you will see lots of block artifacts. KQED's analog station often has different content not on any of their digital channels. Most public stations have several digital channels.

KRON seems to have stopped transmitting HD-NET material in favor of their own productions or just their analog channel upconverted. KRON now has a decent amount of local HD material but it seems like special production stuff, not their news or any movies. KRON-HD changed format from 1080i to 720p. I guess since KGO managed two 480i channels in addition to a 720p, KRON might be planning that also. I've not heard of a 1080i and more than one 480i being sent together.