HD locals for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, PA timeframe??

[Jim S.]

Since the satellites are pretty well loaded now, probably the only thing they could do is move the channels to 72 or 77. That's assuming that either of those satellites actually has a spotbeam that covers the entire DMA! For all I know, maybe they don't.

I really don't understand the problem with Fox. Dish doesn't seem to have a good relationship with Fox, but they still have the SD version. (I hope that isn't going to abruptly disappear on us.) People have said that WOLF wants them to carry WQMY, but I don't see why they couldn't squeeze it in since it's only SD. (I don't know whether that's going to change when it goes digital. The transmission from WOLF's tower presumably won't since it's a subchannel, but I don't know what's going to happen with the one from the old WILF tower out past Williamsport.) Is there a relationship between WOLF and WSWB? I think they're using the old WWLF tower, but I don't know whether the companies are still related. Maybe they are and Dish doesn't have room for WSWB in HD? Purely a guess there.

 

[Derwin0]

Since the satellites are pretty well loaded now, probably the only thing they could do is move the channels to 72 or 77. That's assuming that either of those satellites actually has a spotbeam that covers the entire DMA! For all I know, maybe they don't.

77 is conus. They can easily put the Scranton locals on there, same as they did with the Harrisburg locals.

 

[Derwin0]

I really don't understand the problem with Fox. Dish doesn't seem to have a good relationship with Fox, but they still have the SD version. (I hope that isn't going to abruptly disappear on us.) People have said that WOLF wants them to carry WQMY, but I don't see why they couldn't squeeze it in since it's only SD.

Fox has nothing to do with this. WOLF is owned by New Age Media.

 

[Jim S.]

Huh. Never heard of New Age Media. Hard to keep track of who's who these days.

Who owns WQMY?

 

[DebbyH]

Huh. Never heard of New Age Media. Hard to keep track of who's who these days.

Who owns WQMY?

I believe WQMY is a satellite of FOX, affiliate of WOLF TV, but owned by Pegasus TV, who own WILF.

 

[sdschramm]

Yea, now I have THREE worthless channels that do nothing!

Time to call and complain again (and go thought the whole process of them insisting on sending out an installer, then the installer arrives and realizes nothing can be done.....etc, etc.)

Dish, you have until Feb 19th after the DTV switch over. If I can get my locals in HD with an antenna (not currently possible, only SD can be picked up) then all is ok. But if March rools around and I still have SD locals then its time for a talk with the lawyer....or something!

You can't keep false adversting like this!

 

[Jim S.]

There's one problem with that idea: unless they've changed it back, they DID change their locals qualification page to NOT show HD for addresses in this area. I haven't really exercised it to see where it thinks the boundaries are though.

 

[Barry Erick]

Yea, now I have THREE worthless channels that do nothing!

Time to call and complain again (and go thought the whole process of them insisting on sending out an installer, then the installer arrives and realizes nothing can be done.....etc, etc.)

Dish, you have until Feb 19th after the DTV switch over. If I can get my locals in HD with an antenna (not currently possible, only SD can be picked up) then all is ok. But if March rools around and I still have SD locals then its time for a talk with the lawyer....or something!

You can't keep false adversting like this!

Dish does not use the analog SD's/. They downcoverted and center-cut the HD (DT) signals since November for the WB/Scranton market

 

[amoni]

So in reality, those in the Williamsport and surrounding area are paying the same price for their Scranton/Wilkes Barre locals with no HD as those in Scranton proper with three HD locals, with no explanation, or foreseeable resolution and Dish doesn't seem to care or find a problem with this?

 

[hopton]

I am a little hazy on the current status of the WB/Scranton locals since I moved a while back. Is it that only the HD channels are on the spotbeam that many of us can't get and the SD channels are still fully covering the full DMA? (Are those of you that are in the DMA, but don't get the HD spot (and haven't moved) able to still get the SD?

I thought a couple of the SD channels were removed in the uplink this week. How did that affect us?

Thanks in advance for clearing it up for me!!

 

[JohnH]

So in reality, those in the Williamsport and surrounding area are paying the same price for their Scranton/Wilkes Barre locals with no HD as those in Scranton proper with three HD locals, with no explanation, or foreseeable resolution and Dish doesn't seem to care or find a problem with this?

That is because they have never charged extra for the HD locals. They were given at no additional charge to certain subscribers of local channels. They certainly can choose to give "gifts" to whomever they want with no guaranty they will still get them tomorrow.

If they moved them to 77w, every locals subscriber in the market would need a 1000.4(EA) dish to get them and their National HDs.

 

[sdschramm]

So in reality, those in the Williamsport and surrounding area are paying the same price for their Scranton/Wilkes Barre locals with no HD as those in Scranton proper with three HD locals, with no explanation, or foreseeable resolution and Dish doesn't seem to care or find a problem with this?

That's correct! That's why I wanted get some people together to start a class action lawsuit, sue them - or SOMETHING because it's not fair!

 

[kman18]

Is Scranton/Wilkes Barre the only area in the country that the spot beam does not cover the full area?

 

[hopton]

Well, I was able to get on the Tech Chat show tonight and used the opportunity to ask about the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton DMA not covering all of the area. I asked if there were any plans to expand the size of the spotbeams to include all of the area since most of us outside the beam can't get OTA. They didn't have an answer and asked me to e-mail them with the specifics. I will let you know how they respond. I don't expect much, but it should be somewhat official at least. We'll see...

 

[sdschramm]

Well, I was able to get on the Tech Chat show tonight and used the opportunity to ask about the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton DMA not covering all of the area. I asked if there were any plans to expand the size of the spotbeams to include all of the area since most of us outside the beam can't get OTA. They didn't have an answer and asked me to e-mail them with the specifics. I will let you know how they respond. I don't expect much, but it should be somewhat official at least. We'll see...

Thank you so much! I DVR'ed the tech chat and didn't get a chance to watch it. I've always thought about calling in about this - so I'm glad someone did!

Thanks and I hope you get an email back with good news!

 

[amoni]

It truly is amazing how everyone is playing dumb. As if they don't know there is a problem or that they haven't received one complaint. Any CS I've talked to seem to have no idea what I'm talking about.

 

[hopton]

WOLF was uplinked today, but is still not available (even if you are fortunate enough to be in the spotbeam).

 

[fmanfr66]

Fox HD now Available, Uplinked this morning

 

[edpkp81]

Fox HD now Available, Uplinked this morning

WOLF 56 (Fox) now shows up in my guide but when I select that channel I get an error message stating "Your smartcard does not have authorization to view or order this program. Please wait or channel up or down."

Can anyone in the Scranton DMA (who get the other HD locals) confirm they are getting WOLF 56.

 

[edpkp81]

WOLF 56 (Fox) now shows up in my guide but when I select that channel I get an error message stating "Your smartcard does not have authorization to view or order this program. Please wait or channel up or down."

Can anyone in the Scranton DMA (who get the other HD locals) confirm they are getting WOLF 56.

I just spent 30 minutes with online chat to resolve this problem. After jumping through many unneccesary hoops, he sent an update to my receiver and I now have WOLF 56 HD.