Why Isn't Tom Sharp?

Semi-scientific example. Webcast screencap from my laptop computer, cropped.  Tom looking kinda soft.  Imagine what this looks like on a 31 inch HDTV screen. 

(C) 2016 Luke T. Bush


No, you don't need an eye exam. Tom Messenger, WPuTZ-TV/Channel 5 weatherman, is blurry during the local newscast.  And so are the other forecasters.

Why?  Because while other programs on the station are in HD the local newscast is only in standard definition.

Pay attention when the Messner stands in front of a weather map.  You'll notice he looks soft.  Maybe there's also a  problem with the chroma key.  The old Dumont Network equipment that cheap WPuTZ bought at a yard sale doesn't work well with modern tech.

Fox 44 in Vermont says its newscasts are in HD and they sure look like it.  With all of its incessant bragging about having the best local reporting Channel 5 never boasts it has HD.  SD is waste of your HDTV's potential.  All WPuTZ has done is stay with SD but dressed it up to look like HD.  It changed the aspect ratio of the image from square box to wide screen.  Equivalent to putting a merkin on a diseased prostitute.

One of the station's subchannels, 5.3,  runs the MeTV network in SD.  But somehow Raymond Burr starring in an old black and white Perry Mason rerun looks sharper than Tom.  And Gomer Pyle is sharp in color.  Then again, Gomer is sharper mentally speaking than WPuTZ bloviators.

I view Channel 5 OTA (over the air) and too many times I can't watch any of the station's three channels.  My screen goes black except for the words NO SIGNAL.  Blank screens infrequently happen with a real TV station like WCAX/Channel 3.  Must be those old Dumont tubes at WPuTZ ain't holding up.

What a sharp Tom looks like.  Photo from Stuck In Vermont.

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Addendum:

No Perry Mason for me tonight. All three WPuTZ channels NO SIGNAL.  Checking the signal strength the station is in the bad zone, maybe 40 percent.  And Channel 3?  Up around 90 percent.  Note that both stations broadcast from the same location, Mount Mansfield in Vermont.