TV Guide Interactive:

[LonghornXP]

I've just got word from one of my contacts at BHN that hasn't always been right but I thought I'd share this anyway but I could be wrong.

Now BHN in the Tampa Bay Area will soon this summer be rolling out many new interactive TV services. Now beyond that so that customers can navigate it all with ease and to address complains with their guide and recording software they will be moving everyone in the Tampa Bay Area over to Gemstars TV Guide Interactive.

I did find the interactive offerings listed in a BHN press release for this area but I haven't seen any mention of the guide change. Also it seems that BHN Tampa Bay has ordered some new switched video hardware and the only reason I see the benefit for this is if they want to increase bandwidth and I'm hearing that digital customers will eventually be getting an all digital channel lineup. That would be one of the uses for the switched video system. All analog channels would be on a different channel but every digital box would be mapped to tune in the digital feed when you goto the analog channel.

I hope all of this is indeed true and only time will tell. Going all digital is really a must considering that D* and Verizon will be coming to compete very soon so they would need to have this in place ahead of time.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Brighthouse seems to be one step ahead of everyone for all the new technologies. I wish I lived in a brighthouse area.

 

[LonghornXP]

Brighthouse seems to be one step ahead of everyone for all the new technologies. I wish I lived in a brighthouse area.

If you lived in my brighthouse you wouldn't be saying this that is for sure. Bright House Networks in TampaBay hasn't been very customer centric for quite a long time and most Time Warner Cable areas have new services before the Tampa Bay Area gets it.

Over 50% of TWC areas had HBO On Demand before our market. Over 70% of TWC markets rolled out Cinemax, Showtime and TMC On Demand before BHN in TB did. Free On Demands were added in many TWC areas months before here.

Both SD and HD DVRs came months after most TWC areas rolled theirs out.

The only thing this area was good with when it was TWC was the rollot of high speed internet and digital cable. Those were the very early days. Since that time everything new has come far too late and their excuse is always because this is a bigger market we need todo more testing.

Mark my words that BHN in Tampa Bay will be one of the last areas to offer free AOL to Road Runner users. A few TWC areas have started offering free AOL and many others will follow but this area will be last of course.

 

[korsjs]

i wonder if the new guide will be an improvement over the one they are using now. most of the inhd listings are wrong now.

 

[LonghornXP]

i wonder if the new guide will be an improvement over the one they are using now. most of the inhd listings are wrong now.

I've done a little research and viewed a demo of the TV Guide and maybe its just me but this new one sucks quite a bit. You can view in at the link below...

The link below will show two TV guides and ask you to pick the one your cable company has and I've viewed both and the one with the blue guide is the one you will look at because its the only one with DVR features and I see no reason why BHN would go with the other with DVR support.

My opinion is that I hate it and for most it might be harder to use and I wish the guide would extend out further into time.

http://www.tvguideinteractive.tv/frameset_kickoff.htm

 

[korsjs]

i don't like either one either.

 

[LonghornXP]

Well a poster on Tampahdtv.com posted about some upcoming rumored changes with BHN in Tampa Bay and I've talked to a few of my contacts and I was told that nothing is final on this and that it could change at any moment so please don't quote me on any of this.

It seems that BHN is gearing for some changes to better compete with both DirecTV and Verizon. They will as said be moving to switched video hardware. This will allow them to just send the top 20 or so most watched channels down the cable 24x7. Right now every channel they offer is sent down the pipe. After the top 20 switched video would kick in and only send a requested channeld down the pipe. This would increase their bandwidth by three to four times while having unlimited channel capacity (only limited by how many channels they encoders can handle).

The benefit for this would be greatly increased bandwidth to offer new VOD features in the future. One of these features will work with all digital boxes and would allow any channel to be started again. Now nothing can be fast forwarded or rewound but from what I hear as long as the show is currently playing you can press one button and start over and finish playing it back. Now the show has to be currently airing for this to work but once you start over it will finish even if the live show itself is over. Again you can't fast foward, rewind or pause but this isn't designed to replace DVRs.

Also some of that new bandwidth would be used for NDVR features which would allow a customer with any digital box to order DVR service and record anything (upto four live shows at a time) and the recordings will be stored on the cable companies head-end for all boxes under the account to access at will. Again this is designed for different users which means some will like this idea while others won't. Now the benefit for this is that no new box is needed and customers won't have to worry about losing recordings if a box goes bad.

Also some of that bandwidth will be used to greatly increase both download and upload speed for their internet customers all again at no extra cost. Also talk is occuring about having tiers like this below.

29.95/month= currently Road Runner Light
Current Speed = 1-2Mbps down/256Kbps UP
New Speed = 5Mbps down/512Kbps UP

44.95/month = currently Road Runner
Current Speed = 5Mbps down/384Kbps UP
New speed = 15Mbps down/1.5-2.5Mbps UP

59.95/month = current Road Runner Premium
Current Speed = 8-10Mbps down/384-768Kbps UP
New speed = 20Mbps down /3-5Mbps UP

Again everything I'm saying here is pure rumor but is what is being talked about.

Also because of various reasons BHN will be moving both SD and HD DVR boxes over to Motorola hardware. Also it seems that Moxi software will be shipping with the new Motorola boxes as well.

In addition to all of this it seems that switched video will also allow digital cable customers again to get all analog channels in digital.

So digital customers with digital boxes will finally be getting a 100% digital lineup like satellite has today.

 

[korsjs]

very very interesting. would the download speeds still vary depending on how many people are on the internet in your neighborhood? i have had no problem with fios and love it.

even though i don't watch a lot of VOD, i guess enought people do for them to focus on it.

any word on more HD?

 

[LonghornXP]

very very interesting. would the download speeds still vary depending on how many people are on the internet in your neighborhood? i have had no problem with fios and love it.

even though i don't watch a lot of VOD, i guess enought people do for them to focus on it.

any word on more HD?

Nothing on that because those would be national deals while most of these upgrades are local based upgrades.