NEW HD channels......WHEN??!!!

[salsadancer7]

Well, it has been almost 3 months now and D* and E* have added new HD channels to their lineup and I have heard squat on whether Adelphia will add ANY HD channels in the near future. Does ANYBODY have a clue IF/WHEN any new channels will be added to their HD lineup?

 

[riffjim4069]

Unfortunately, you probably won't see any new HD coming from Adelphia until Comcast or Time Warner take ownership of your specific cable plant. That could be as late as March-June of 2006. Adelphia purchased numerous mom & pop cable companies over the years and their update/modernization plans were not consistent; it was either feast or famine. Likewise, I'm sure their bankruptcy and ongoing financial woes over the past few years prevented them from performing many critical updates to their cable plants.

A lot depends on your particular area. In my case, our local cable plant was just rebuilt. We has a fairly modern 750Mhz facility, but were only offering 12 HD channels while other Northern Virginia cable plants were offering 16 HD channels. The reason we were unable to add more HD channels was due to our being the regional backup facility for Northern Virginia and, I believe, the hub for Charlottesville VA as well. The improvements will allow our local plant to offer all 16 HD channels in the near future, but many of the enhancements were made for higher speed broadband and data services.

I have discussed the HD issue with Adelphia's regional manager and have been told not to expect additional HD channels (new programming licenses) until Comcast takes ownership. Lastly, Public Television and Cable announced a digital carriage agreement back in January. If your local Adelphia isn't providing PBS-HD, but may wish to contact your local office and/or local franchise authority to find out why. In my case, it's a bandwidth issue. http://www.ncta.com/Pdf_Files/FINAL_PRESS_RELEASE_1-31-05.pdf

 

[Hoopnoop]

Hey Riff!

Does this problem also apply to Loudoun County as well? I know that Winchester added Discovery HD, NFL HD and ESPN2 HD several months ago but it has not occurred in Loudoun. Is it likely that these channels will not be added in Loudoun until the Comcast takeover? If that is the case, I assume that Comcast will then put in its own HD channel line-up.

 

[riffjim4069]

I'm not sure about Loudoun County, but it is possible they may be able to offer Discovery HD, NFL HD, and ESPN2 HD in the future since Adelphia is licensed to carry these channels. However, don't expect to see anything else (VOOM HD, Universal HD, TNT HD, etc.) until Comcast moves in.

Right now, my local Adelphia is missing Discovery HD, NFL HD, ESPN2 HD and Cinemax HD. ...but then again, I dumped Adelphia months and am very happy with Dish HD and VOOM HD.

 

[Hoopnoop]

Thanks!

I tried to switch to Dish and the 942 but had no line of sight. I live in the historic district of Leesburg and have some very large, old trees around my house. I do have LOS for the 61.5 but not the other Dish satellites.

Perhaps I'll need to get out the chain saw!

 

[shaun-ohio]

hello from newark ohio, i have had adelphia cable for 6 months now and have everything they offer, no new channels at all have been added yet, and the only local channels we have in hd are channel 704 and 710 out of columbus, we do have espn hd, all 4 premium movie channels in hd, hd net, hd movies, inhd 1 and 2 and discovery hd, and i was even told that if i took adelphia we would have video on demand in the 3rd quarter of this year and i have not seen it yet, but i do like the hd channels that we do receive.

 

[shaun-ohio]

oh yes i did forget to mention that i have 2 hd dvr's also with the dual tuners, you know it doesnt make sense at all if you have a dual tuner hd dvr from dish or directv you need 2 inputs but with adelphia, you only need 1 input to use the dual tuner, go figure?

 

[Hoopnoop]

I have an HD DVR from Adelphia as well (a Moto 6412) and it works pretty well. However, the 942 from Dish does have multi-room capabilities and is considered an excellent product. Also, if you had an OTA antenna you would be able to get your other local HDs through Dish.

But that is an excellent HD line-up! I just hope that we will be able to soon add Discovery HD, ESPN 2 HD and NFL HD here in Loudoun.

 

[shaun-ohio]

yep i was one of the lucky ones who got to keep there voom receivers for local channels in hd i have 3 of them

 

[Wayne88]

Comcast and HD: only 4 Non-Premium Cable HD stations

Hey Riff!

......... I know that Winchester added Discovery HD, NFL HD and ESPN2 HD several months ago but it has not occurred in Loudoun. Is it likely that these channels will not be added in Loudoun until the Comcast takeover? If that is the case, I assume that Comcast will then put in its own HD channel line-up.

I'm a Comcast Cable customer since Voom went belly up on April 30th (went from over 40HD stations with Voom to 10 HD stations with Comcast). Comcast has not added even one national HD channel in the Baltimore area since April 22nd when they added TNTHD. So we still have 10 plus the 6 locals (affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS and WB). We don't have NFL HD nor ESPN2 HD. Let's see with Comcast I have TNTHD, Discovery HD, INHD 1 , INHD2, HBOHD, SHO-HD, Cinemax HD, Starz-HD, ESPN-HD and Comcast Sports Net HD. So without the 4 premium HD channels there would only be the 4 HD plus the 6 local HD channels that I can get without Comcast. I asked if there was anything new on the horizon and the customer service folks say 'not that they know of'. I need to check but I believe Adelphia may already have more HD than Comcast in Baltimore.
Wayne

 

[bytre]

My local adelphia offers a compelling 4 channels in HD (HBO, ABC, NBC, CBS). Whoopie!

 

[salsadancer7]

See....to me, that does not make sense that some cities have some channels and other cities don't...!! I have my locals, hbo, show, starz, discovery, inhd1, inhd2, espn, espn2, nflhd, hdnet and hdnet movies. Now if I didn't have the total package, it drops by 3. I would THINK that Adelphia would give EVERYONE that has the availability of hd the same thing throughout the US. But I guess if it makes sense...why do it right...?

 

[PaulieORF]

See....to me, that does not make sense that some cities have some channels and other cities don't...!! I have my locals, hbo, show, starz, discovery, inhd1, inhd2, espn, espn2, nflhd, hdnet and hdnet movies. Now if I didn't have the total package, it drops by 3. I would THINK that Adelphia would give EVERYONE that has the availability of hd the same thing throughout the US. But I guess if it makes sense...why do it right...?

I think there are a couple of things that would explain why certain Adelphia systems have more channels, in this case HD channels, than others.

1. Bandwidth: Some Adelphia systems may still be running on old, non-upgraded 600mhz head-ends, which can facilitate far less channels than an a head-end that has been upgraded to 860mhz. And because of this, many Adelphia systems want to offer as many SD channels as possible right now, since HDTV customers are still the minority, and thus the HD Tier is thin.

2. TV Market Ranking: This kind of determines the bandwidth issue. If your Adelphia system is in a large TV market, or is in the area of a high ranking TV market, Adelphia wants to spend more money upgrading you before they want to spend it on those systems in the smaller markets. I live in the Hartford-New Haven area, which is ranked at #28 in the country. Not to mention we live inbetween the #1 (New York) and #5 (Boston) markets. My Adelphia system is an 860mhz system, and we have every channel that Adelphia has available to it: HBO, SHO, STARZ, CIN, HDNet, HDNet Movies, INHD, INHD2, ESPNHD, ESPNHD2, Discovery HD, NFL HD, plus our local channels.

This is just an observation by me, and may or may not be true, but it seems to make sense to me in explaining why some systems are not getting all the channels that others are getting.

 

[riffjim4069]

It all goes back to Adelphia adquiring a number of Mom & Pop cable providers in the late 90s and then going bankrupt. Unfortunately, it's either feast or famine (few feasts) for many subscribers. I would not expect any major changes until Comcast/TW take ownership.

 

[salsadancer7]

COME ON FIos!!!

 

[mpd]

Just keep in mind that with HD the most profitible ones will happen first. Obvious the OTA ones have to be carried and the pay ones will and also the nature ones and the sport ones will draw an audience..like I can see someone staring at a hdtv at a best buy if it's on...

But it's going to be a long long time before everything switches over. I don't see demand for hdtv for say oxygen and g4 on the same level as hbo and espn etc.

The way congress wrote the laws and mandate made it seem to some that in 2006 everything had to switch over...it's not the case.

 

[Bscolvin]

New HD Channel Fox Sports Pittsburgh

Just got a new channel today Fox sports pittsburgh hd.

 

[djjsin]

Her in Hermosa Beach California (which is a suburb to Los Angeles), I currently have ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, FOX, CINEMAX, HBO, SHOWTIME, ESPN, and DISCOVERY. We do not have Starz, WB, INHD 1 or 2, HDNET, HDNET Movies, ESPN 2, but we do have the Moxi HD DVR. Whats really strange is that my parents live in Redondo Beach, which is the next town over. For some reason, they are not offered Discovery or Cinemax.