New HD channels coming!

[satjay]

For those who have "good" cable systems as a choice, be happy you do as you can choose them as a alternative if you choose so and they meet your needs. In my area we have comcast, and if you are a person who has more then one TV with HD the fees are just to crazy for aditional boxes

Still hopefull that some new HD will be added later this year for Direct, I guess we shall see....

 

[am7crew]

Thankfully U-Verse came available in my area last week and got it installed Friday. Nothing against Directv at all just like the HD channels UVerse offers for my viewing habits over D*'s.

 

[chipvee]

I am not here to bash D* at all. I am for the most part satisfied with their service. But in November my contract is up but will probably go back to Comcast. They have added alot of HD in my area and D* is doing exactly what Comcast was doing when I left them. By not adding HD they will start seeing subscribers start slowly going away just as Comcast did. I pay $74.00 a month for my internet and pay D* $140.00. It will be much cheaper to bundle my internet and tv. D* was a luxury because when I got it D* they had alot more HD and now they don't so it is hard for me to justify the expense.

 

[CK SatGuy]

Thankfully U-Verse came available in my area last week and got it installed Friday. Nothing against Directv at all just like the HD channels UVerse offers for my viewing habits over D*'s.

I just got a letter the other day saying that U-verse was finally available in my area. Wish it would have been available two months ago before I signed my 2-year with Dish, but then again U-verse is getting quite a bit expensive in my opinion. Also I don't know if you're also getting U-verse internet but I read this article that starting in May, AT&T is now going to put monthly data caps on U-verse internet and landline DSL. I think the limit is 250GB/month for U-verse Internet, 150GB for DSL. If you go over that, they'll charge an extra $10 for every 50GB you go over. Here's the article. AT&T will cap DSL and U-Verse internet, impose overage fees (update) -- Engadget

 

[am7crew]

I just got a letter the other day saying that U-verse was finally available in my area. Wish it would have been available two months ago before I signed my 2-year with Dish, but then again U-verse is getting quite a bit expensive in my opinion. Also I don't know if you're also getting U-verse internet but I read this article that starting in May, AT&T is now going to put monthly data caps on U-verse internet and landline DSL. I think the limit is 250GB/month for U-verse Internet, 150GB for DSL. If you go over that, they'll charge an extra $10 for every 50GB you go over. Here's the article. AT&T will cap DSL and U-Verse internet, impose overage fees (update) -- Engadget

I got phone and TV because in my area only 12 meg was available so I stuck with Charter for the internet. I dont want to highjack the thread and make it about U-Verse but Ill just say Im personally happy with my choice to switch.

 

[CK SatGuy]

Cool. Glad that everything is working out for you.

 

[Islandguy43]

MOST of those channels are there already, so you can watch them if you like, just not in HD.

Like you said theres only a few that interest most people, so I see that list as being not that important, sure,the more in HD the better, but I'm not gonna lose sleep over any of them not being in HD.

On another not, the only one I do watch is BBCA and the show I do watch on the station will not be in HD even if they do go HD.

I suppose you would pay "Top Buck" for B/W TV in a Hotel? This is the 21st. Century. The Best Buys and Walmarts are pushing HD and HD3D TVs out the door. Directv has the capablities to do so. There is no reason for Directv not to have more real (NOT PPV) National HD Channels than local cable company; and right now they trail, time warner, comcast and it seems hemi's blue ridge too.

 

[cypherstream]

I was at my dads house yesterday and he has Service Electric Cablevision [ Welcome to Service Electric Cablevision ]. I checked out some of the HD channels to see how they looked, since we don't get them on DirecTV.

DIY HD - Looked just as crystal clear as HGTV. It was really refreshing to see that program in such pristine quality.

BBCA HD - They were showing some black and white stuff (sherlock holmes?) and I couldnt really gauge the picture quality. It looked like a 35mm transfer to HD, so at least the aspect was good and the clarity was good considering the age of the material.

Reelz HD - The Kennedies miniseries was crisp with sharp lines and solid color reproduction. The quality was pretty good.

TruTV HD- 4:3 content stretched to fill the screen. While it looked better than TruTV SD, this was not a true 16:9 HD native program.

TCM HD - Really good 35mm transfer of some classic movies. Filled the screen and the clarity was outstanding for the era of the content played.

E! HD - Wow those Kardashians look hot when you can see their pretty faces in crystal clear HD. There are a lot of other nice looking woman on E! all the time. Good eye candy here. The cable company had E! in HD for well over a year or 2. Not sure why DirecTV doesn't have it.

G4 HD - They had some game show on and the clarity was amazing.

GSN HD - Black bars on the sides of the screen. Waste of bandwidth IMO.

PBS Sprout HD - Black bars on the sides, but thinner than the usual (like when Discovery networks used to slightly enlarge their SD content so the pillar effect wasn't as bad).

CSPAN2 HD - Bars on the sides with blue graphics and the CSPAN logo. (Like ESPN puts custom bars on the sides during certain commercials).

NASA HD - Pretty good crystal clear shot of some astronaut interview at the time.

SWRV HD - Crystal clear music videos, but lots of rap and quickly turned it off.

Nat Geo Wild HD - This looked just as good as the regular Nat Geo HD channel. 720p signal.

There were some other channels I couldn't check, like Style and Cooking HD because they are in a higher package that he does not subscribe. Overall it was really nice to be able to see these HD channels when visiting my dad. The same cable company serves my area, so I'm contemplating switching in order to get more HD. The Video on Demand selection also had quite a few HD movies and also HD content from Showtime, Starz, ABC, and HGTV.

I'll give DirecTV the benefit of the doubt, because their software and equipment is much nicer to use. So they have some time yet to get the ball rolling. But knowing that these HD channels are just a phone call away is pretty tempting. I just can't afford to roll with 2 service providers at the same time. I know some do it for the sake of Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia... but I have other uses for my money.

 

[DetFan]

Too many limitations with uverse.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I was at my dads house yesterday and he has Service Electric Cablevision [ Welcome to Service Electric Cablevision ]. I checked out some of the HD channels to see how they looked, since we don't get them on DirecTV.

.

Service Electric has a good HD line up.
Better then Blue ridge which is quite good!
What DVR's do they use?


Satellite guys and DBS talk scared me off from Cable HD PQ for years, and then I got it and the PQ is just as good if not better on a few channels then Dish or Directv.

Cable has come a long way!

Seems like Satellite is the same old story, Channel disputes, Missing channels, Slow HD addtions, and D* was supposed to be the King of HD. Well, I guess!

 

[CK SatGuy]

I agree that cable (in some areas) has pretty much caught up with Satellite when comes to HD channels. When it comes to DVRs, it still varies depending on the cable provider.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I agree that cable (in some areas) has pretty much caught up with Satellite when comes to HD channels. When it comes to DVRs, it still varies depending on the cable provider.

I've Yet to use a HD DVR that compairs to the Vip's.

So I'll give that to Dish. Thats about it!

 

[cypherstream]

Service Electric has a good HD line up.
Better then Blue ridge which is quite good!
What DVR's do they use?

They use Motorola and Pace DVR's. The Motorola ones are huge silver boxes with 160GB hard drives. The Pace Aspen (their latest) has a 250GB hard drive and it's in a slim nice looking unit. You can connect an eSATA drive to the Pace, but not the Motorola.

The software stinks. It's the blue I-Guide that displays 5 channels in the grid with a big banner ad at the bottom of each screen. There is no multiroom DVR, and no way to program the DVR from the web or a mobile app. There's no way to hide SD Duplicate channels, and no way to specify default favorite lists. Similar DVR recordings are not put into folders, and it's one giant mess of recordings in the list. Search is very archaic and tends to bring up SD content first... you have to be smart enough to scroll down and select the "HD channel number" to get series in the proper quality. They just released caller ID on tv, and you can't configure it at all on the Motorola (it's always on), but on the Pace DVR you can view the call history and even disable it.

Thats the big issue with many of these cable companies. They claim these DVR's cost them big bucks, like $500 - $800 per unit, but then look at the amiga like aesthetics in the user interface, and the complete lack of features, interactivity and internet connectivity. There's more graphical power and features in my phone, which fits in the palm of my hand... yet these pizza box sized behemoths can't even display their graphics full screen on an HDTV (it's all centered and pillarboxed).

 

[Mr Tony]

For those who have "good" cable systems as a choice, be happy you do as you can choose them as a alternative if you choose so and they meet your needs. In my area we have comcast, and if you are a person who has more then one TV with HD the fees are just to crazy for aditional boxes

yep same here in Minneapolis. And right now they are running a promo of "HD free for 3 months"....uh no thanks.
I've seen it at my grandmas and D* looks crisper in my mind (and I set up her TV when they moved). They are missing some channels that D* has and vise versa. What annoys me on there is the HD channels are all over and weird channels. Some are in the 400's, some are in the 800's, some in the 900's. Very confusing.

 

[Islandguy43]

yWhat annoys me on there is the HD channels are all over and weird channels. Some are in the 400's, some are in the 800's, some in the 900's. Very confusing.

Time Warner does that here too. You got HD in 700's..800's and some in the 900's and higher. They did add an enhancement though; if you tune into a SD channel and then push the select button; a menu will pop up, where you can select that HD version of the Channel, go to the On Demand Section for that Channel or activate the startover or lookback features. However once you are in startover or lookback status, you can not fast forward like you can if you are recording a program on the dvr.

 

[jwgreen68]

yep same here in Minneapolis. And right now they are running a promo of "HD free for 3 months"....uh no thanks.
I've seen it at my grandmas and D* looks crisper in my mind (and I set up her TV when they moved). They are missing some channels that D* has and vise versa. What annoys me on there is the HD channels are all over and weird channels. Some are in the 400's, some are in the 800's, some in the 900's. Very confusing.

My cable company was expensive for HD also. For each additional room there was the same $30/month charge plus $150 deposit for each HD stb. Crazy expensive!

 

[DS0816]

Cable systems apparently can't assign HD channels the same number as the SD location. Number of systems are a mess. Some attempt an order, like starting the HDs at 1000 + SD's location. (For example: CNN on ch. 202. CNN HD on ch. 1202.) What you, Iceberg, mentioned in scattering them is terrible; a realignment would help.

 

[Mr Tony]

DS0816
I know they can't but the numbering system is just whacked. Your point on the numbering would work fine but sadly they havent figured it out. The reason they give is that we are on the old Time Warner network (before Comcast and TW did that whole swap thing)

I just checked their list and it looks like for the locals they are **kinda** set up that way. Of course they're duplicated in 2 different channel ranges.
The locals are 2,4,5,9,11 and some are mapped like 8 (23), 10 (29),and 12 (45). Looks like the HD version for the 1st 5 are 802,804,805,809,811 so at least they are starting to do that. Like I say the HD locals are also in the 430's area so it makes no sense

 

[MLBurks]

Cable here (Charter) in West TN sux to the max. They only have a small handful of HD and what they do have looks like it's pulled off the internet. The big networks (CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX) look better than what you get with DirecTV, but that's it (I wonder why that is?). USA, SYFY, ect...look extremely pixelated.

 

[Big Dawg 23]

DS0816
I know they can't but the numbering system is just whacked. Your point on the numbering would work fine but sadly they havent figured it out. The reason they give is that we are on the old Time Warner network (before Comcast and TW did that whole swap thing)

I just checked their list and it looks like for the locals they are **kinda** set up that way. Of course they're duplicated in 2 different channel ranges.
The locals are 2,4,5,9,11 and some are mapped like 8 (23), 10 (29),and 12 (45). Looks like the HD version for the 1st 5 are 802,804,805,809,811 so at least they are starting to do that. Like I say the HD locals are also in the 430's area so it makes no sense

Charter does the same thing in the south metro with using the last digit on the channel in the 700's. Charter's HD will make anyone stop complaining about D* slow HD expansion on D12.