TBS had has HD games available since June 2004...They also supposedly distribute the HD feed to cable operators throughout the Turner South footprint, which I think includes Charlotte. Why TWC chooses not to show the games in HD on a special events channel or something similar (assuming that Charlotte is, in fact, part of the Turner South footprint), I do not know.

How can TBS broadcast games in HD when they are a SD channel?

TBS broadcasts in HD in Atlanta and supplies those same HD productions to various cable companies for carriage. It's a separate issue from the TBS (SD) cable channel.

I moved my OTA troubles over to the OTA thread. If either of you could take a look and offer some advice, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance for any help.

While this issue has been discussed on this forum before, it's nice to see it confirmed. This is an email response from Raycom Sports. It also gives me some hope that we will see some HD from them in the next season or two.

"Thank you for your email and your interest in the ACC. Raycom/JP owns
the rights and controls the production elements of a package of football
and basketball games each season. For example, we will produce
approximately eleven Saturday (12:00n) R/JP football telecasts and about
28 R/JP basketball telecasts this year.

As of today, we do not have any firm plans in place to produce R/JP
football in HD, and we are currently exploring the feasibility of
producing a few R/JP basketball games in HD. There is one main
underlying problem to HD as it relates to syndicated (or non-network)
telecasts. The technology is still very new and not all local TV
stations have the ability to receive an HD feed from R/JP. They are
equipped to handle their network HD feeds (from CBS, ABC, etc.), but a
feed coming from a non-network source has many moving parts. This is
why there are currently no syndicated HD shows available yet (shows like
Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy, Oprah, Montel, Live w/ Regis and Kathie Lee,
etc.).

Hopefully, the lack of universal equipment will only be an issue for us
for one more season."

That is correct for most stations, however it's not an issue for:
.. WCCB-WOLO-WBBJ-WAKA-WABG...
we can take the games in HD once provided by JP..Not a problem for us :)

Comcast in Atlanta actually has a special 24/7Braves Channel from TBS that they use to shwocase the HD. They show footage even before the game like batting practice and stuff like that. In HD.

http://www.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/content/printer_friendly/atl/y2004/m09/d21/c865772.jsp

Yes..The Braves have in house hd that's 1080i..they use it to feed the BIG SCREEN,as well as distribute it throughout the ballpark..and use some of the same cameras to feed the live tv production..
They have a pretty sharp operation down there at Turner Field..

hey Mhorn theyre really behind, did you see the show they mentioned at the end of the response, Live with Regis and who??? heh

This article is from the Charlotte Business Journal. This could lead to some good competition and innovation from TWC here in Charlotte. See below.


EXCLUSIVE REPORTS

From the September 2, 2005 print edition

BellSouth wants a share of cable TV in Charlotte
Company tried maneuver around local regulation

David Mildenberg
Staff writer

BellSouth Corp. wants to start offering TV service in the next year or two, without being regulated like its cable TV rivals.

So the company, along with its major peers Sprint and Verizon, recently tried unsuccessfully at the N.C. General Assembly to gain exemption from municipal regulations.

Phone company backers included the proposal in the "technical corrections" bill that is filed in the final days of legislative sessions to fix outstanding issues on previously debated matters.

The tactic is often used at the end of sessions to avoid debate on controversial issues.

But N.C. Sen. Dan Clodfelter plucked the item from the bill after hearing protests from lobbyists for N.C. cities and the cable industry. Clodfelter chairs the committee that considers technical corrections.

"It was pretty clear that this was more than a technical issue, based on the pro-con debate," Clodfelter says.

The effort involved a clever maneuver by the big telephone companies in Raleigh, says Andy Romanet, general counsel for the N.C. League of Municipalities. "We saw this as a backhanded way to take away our ability to regulate video programming," he says.

But Clodfelter says BellSouth was entitled to propose additions to the corrections bill, while expecting a protest. "This shows the process works," he says.

BellSouth hasn't set a date to start offering TV services, but it wants to compete against Time Warner Cable, which sells telephone and Internet service. The digital service would be provided over BellSouth phone lines and require a multimillion-dollar investment.

Signing franchise agreements with every city could delay BellSouth's TV launch by years or permanently, spokesman Clifton Metcalf says.

BellSouth wants to provide competition to the "monopoly video market" as quickly as possible, he says.

"We think the telephone company ought to be treated the same as the cable industry was when it entered the telephone business," he says.

Cable officials counter that they already compete against satellite TV providers, which have a 20%-plus market share in North Carolina.

The Federal Communications Commission permits cities to regulate cable TV and typically collect a franchise fee of up to 5% of gross receipts.

Local telephone service is regulated by the N.C. Utilities Commission and is already heavily taxed, Metcalf notes.

Doris Boris, the Charlotte/Mecklenburg cable administrator, predicts negotiating a franchise agreement with BellSouth would take only a few months because of Charlotte's desire to promote competition.

Boris, who met recently with a local BellSouth executive, says the company may conduct a TV service pilot test in Charlotte in 2006.

"If they want an early rollout, we are ready to give it to them," she says.

Cities and telephone companies have squared off over the issue in several states. Earlier this year, the Texas legislature passed a law exempting SBC Communications and other telephone companies from municipal regulation and instituted a statewide franchise. Gov. Rick Perry is expected to sign the bill.

BellSouth has started offering digital cable TV service in limited areas of Alabama, Florida and Georgia, and officials have said they expect a bigger rollout in mid-2006. It is offering introductory rates of $43 to $45 a month, including the Showtime premium network.

Verizon and SBC Communication have announced plans for major digital TV launches late this year.

Clodfelter says the legislature plans a study commission to look at municipal regulation, taxation and other cable and telephone issues.

"The old regulatory structure presumes the cable companies and telephone companies all do separate things," he says.

A federal bill to prohibit city regulation of a telephone company's entry into cable is also pending.

The telephone firms appear to have an ally in FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who recently told USA Today he wants to enforce a provision in the 1992 Cable Act that says local governments "may not unreasonably refuse to award an additional competitive franchise" for video.

Go Bellsouth!!

I just read this over in the HDTV hardware forum.

I actually asked a contact at TWC about this. He is in a position to be fully aware of these rules too. He said that as of today, if a customer wants 1394, he's got SA 3250HD boxes available for them.... After July 1, all set-tops manufactured do need both and that they'll be receiving compliant boxes in mid-July.

Does anyone know if TWC has started receiving these firewire compliant boxes yet? I don't want to give up my 8300 HD-DVR, but I would like to have an active firewire connection.

Thanks!

Does anyone know if TWC has started receiving these firewire compliant boxes yet? I don't want to give up my 8300 HD-DVR, but I would like to have an active firewire connection.

Thanks!

I've had one (SA3250HD w/ active firewire) for about a year and a half and have posted my thoughts and observations here from time to time; a search for my username will lead you to them. I've compiled quite a nice collection of pristine HD movies and concerts during that period with my D-VHS tape deck that will serve me well as the years go by, especially when I upgrade to a FP system. I'm continually astonished that I appear to be the only person in the Charlotte TWC that has requested one of these STB's with active firewire. I had thought we had a more technically savvy group here who would appreciate the opportunity to archive HD material.

Right now, TWC is having trouble with the two HDNet channels, and that just popped up in the last couple of weeks. Can't get a firewire "lock" on them, but all other copy-once flagged channels are fine. I hope TWC is working on this, but can't be sure. We never did get the "copy-freely" flagged channels (local network HD) working with firewire and TWC never seemed to have any interest in solving the problem, as much as I begged and pleaded. But I have the 8300DVR for those. The movie channels (flagged copy-once) are where you need firewire to work properly.

I know they have said that they intend to activate the two firewire ports on the 8300, but there is no timetable for rollout that I've been able to glean from them and they clearly have the glitches with the 3250 that I've described; don't know if the problems would transfer to the 8300 but don't know why they wouldn't.

All the issues with firewire here are directly related to those stupid copy protection flags that TWC insists on turning on even though no studios, especially Mark Cuban's HDNets, have requested it. If they would simply turn off the flags, everything would likely work perfectly. I see no reason at all for the flags on "copy-freely" material (what's the point?). Keep 'em for copy-never stuff (PPV, VOD) and everybody's happy.

I've had one (SA3250HD w/ active firewire) for about a year and a half and have posted my thoughts and observations here from time to time; a search for my username will lead you to them. I've compiled quite a nice collection of pristine HD movies and concerts during that period with my D-VHS tape deck that will serve me well as the years go by, especially when I upgrade to a FP system. I'm continually astonished that I appear to be the only person in the Charlotte TWC that has requested one of these STB's with active firewire. I had thought we had a more technically savvy group here who would appreciate the opportunity to archive HD material.

Right now, TWC is having trouble with the two HDNet channels, and that just popped up in the last couple of weeks. Can't get a firewire "lock" on them, but all other copy-once flagged channels are fine. I hope TWC is working on this, but can't be sure. We never did get the "copy-freely" flagged channels (local network HD) working with firewire and TWC never seemed to have any interest in solving the problem, as much as I begged and pleaded. But I have the 8300DVR for those. The movie channels (flagged copy-once) are where you need firewire to work properly.

I know they have said that they intend to activate the two firewire ports on the 8300, but there is no timetable for rollout that I've been able to glean from them and they clearly have the glitches with the 3250 that I've described; don't know if the problems would transfer to the 8300 but don't know why they wouldn't.

All the issues with firewire here are directly related to those stupid copy protection flags that TWC insists on turning on even though no studios, especially Mark Cuban's HDNets, have requested it. If they would simply turn off the flags, everything would likely work perfectly. I see no reason at all for the flags on "copy-freely" material (what's the point?). Keep 'em for copy-never stuff (PPV, VOD) and everybody's happy.


So there's no way to archive the network shows (ABC, NBC, FOX) via firewire to a DVHS deck? I really would like to have episodes of Lost and ER on DVHS. So HBO-HD and Showtime-HD will be able to transfer via firewire?

Thanks for the info. I did read a lot of your posts and saw the original post you made about the fact that you were the only person in town who had ever asked for an active firewire connection. Maybe if there's 2 of us, they'll do more with it!
Supposedly all boxes made after July 1st are required to have active firewire anyway, right? So the situation should improve soon?

So there's no way to archive the network shows (ABC, NBC, FOX) via firewire to a DVHS deck? I really would like to have episodes of Lost and ER on DVHS. So HBO-HD and Showtime-HD will be able to transfer via firewire?

Thanks for the info. I did read a lot of your posts and saw the original post you made about the fact that you were the only person in town who had ever asked for an active firewire connection. Maybe if there's 2 of us, they'll do more with it!
Supposedly all boxes made after July 1st are required to have active firewire anyway, right? So the situation should improve soon?

Please do it! If you do, then the number of firewire-equipped 3250's in the Charlotte area will double! There is no way they will then be able to ignore us, for our numbers will make us mighty! :D

Seriously, they could "fix" the local-HD via firewire problem as it has been well identified and documented here on AVS, mainly in the HD Recorders Forum, for well over a year. Plenty of other MSO's have done it. At the very least, they could just turn off the damn flags - again, what's the point? - the OTA networks aren't supposed to have copy protection, hence the "copy freely" designation. Somehow, I don't seem to be able to make any progress in getting them to understand this and help me, nor explain why they won't. Perhaps you will have better powers of persuasion!

I've come to the realization that the only way to archive the network locals is OTA via HTPC. That's my next challenge; I've bought a screamin' new computer and am trying to research HTPC's, but it's extremely complicated and they're not too interested in helping "newbies" over in the HTPC Forum.

Finally, we currently have no problems with HBO-HD and SHO-HD via firewire, but I've found the most valuable channels are the two HDNets, which we've just lost. I hope that's only temporary, but I'm having a hard time getting anywhere with TWC in solving that problem. You are correct in that FCC mandate requires them to offer even the HD-DVR's with active firewire by July 1st, but they've missed that deadline now by 2 1/2 months and counting. And nobody at TWC-Charlotte seems to care. But now that our numbers are going to double, maybe they will! ;)

please forgive my ignorance- what do you mean by firewire?


On another topic- things could be worse. I lived at the lake for a few months and had Charter HD. Misery I tell you, misery.

They had horrible content and service. I was so happy to be a TWC customer again.

please forgive my ignorance- what do you mean by firewire?


Firewire is the colloquial term for IEEE 1394 - a high-speed, high bandwidth way to transmit digital signals. High definition (even compressed with MPEG2) has so much data coming at you so fast, the only way to transmit it effectively to a tape deck or computer is via a 1394 connection. Regular ol' RCA or USB cables just can't cut it. Chances are your computer, if it's a newer model, has a couple of firewire ports.

Firewire also allows the manufacturer of these machines to install copy protection protocols that require a "handshake" to establish a permitted connection between devices. D-VHS decks are "approved" devices for HD transmission via firewire; computers are not.

Firewire is the colloquial term for IEEE 1394 - a high-speed, high bandwidth way to transmit digital signals. High definition (even compressed with MPEG2) has so much data coming at you so fast, the only way to transmit it effectively to a tape deck or computer is via a 1394 connection. Regular ol' RCA or USB cables just can't cut it. Chances are your computer, if it's a newer model, has a couple of firewire ports.

Firewire also allows the manufacturer of these machines to install copy protection protocols that require a "handshake" to establish a permitted connection between devices. D-VHS decks are "approved" devices for HD transmission via firewire; computers are not.


I just had an aneurysm. That was wayyyy over my head! :D

No HD broadcast for the OSU Texas game tonight? That's pitiful ABC (or WSOC if they're the responsible ones).

No HD for Panthers tomorrow either..

Is anyone else having problems timeshifting the HDnet channels? I have the SA 8300HD dvr. I saw the comments about problems gettting a firewire lock on them, but no mention of DVR problems. I can't pause, rewind, or record them. If I try, the screen goes blank gray, and I have to cycle the channel to get a picture back.

OK folks, there is a possibility I may be moving to your area of the woods (from CT) sometime next Spring. From what I can tell you have the following HD channels:

ESPN & ESPN2, INHD1 & 2, HDNet & HDNet Movies and use SA equipment. No DiscoveryHD?

Are you running SARA or Passport software on the SA boxes?

What premium HD channels are available? Showtime, HBO or Cinemax?

From what I am reading here very few of you deal in Firewire recording. As in, just archiguy. That's good, since I know you are knowledgable on this subject. Please don't hate me for disagreeing with you from time to time. :D Are you able to talk to actual local engineers in regards to your HD problems, or do you have to talk to the teenagers at the 1-800 number?

Right now I have an SA3250 with Firewire and I record to D-VHS a lot, but my local cable company compresses a bit on a few channels and the signals can dip below 14mbps, which means my Mits decks keep switching between HS and STD modes while recording. This causes massive dropouts during playback on my JVC decks, so I am forced to record everything on the JVC's (you can force the 40K's to stay in HS mode), which is something I hate doing since they are such poorly built machines. I prefer to use them as decoders only, that way I can avoid the constant repairs needed to keep them going (some of you may have read about my troubles with these decks in the HD Recording area).

Do you experience this problem? Or are your signals typically well above 14 mbps?

What local Networks are available in HD?

From looking at the TWC website I am thinking I need to subscribe to all of the basic tier garbage in order to get HD? I truly abhor paying for stations I will never, ever watch. I'd give anything to be able to just have locals and the HD stations.

Thank you for your help

OH!!! P.S. Which OTA stations/Networks are broadcasting in HD (note I ask HD and not just sigital).

The HD channels that TWC-Charlotte carries are: ESPN, INHD/INHD2, HDNet/HDNET Movies, DiscoveryHD, TNT-HD, HBO-HD, and Showtime-HD - AFAIK, they do NOT have ESPN2-HD. In addition, they also carry all of the local HD channels (and all of the major networks in Charlotte broadcast in HD, including CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, WB, and PBS).

TWC-Charlotte also uses the, IMO, superior Passport software on the SA boxes. As with just about every company I've ever dealt with for support, unless you have an in, you have to deal with the tier 1 support when you call.

I can't really comment on bit rates, but TWC-Charlotte does not compress the HD channels...but that is still not guarantee that bit rates won't drop below 14mbps.

I do believe that you have to subscribe to a cable package to pick up the cable HD channels (Discovery and TNT), but you will be able to receive the locals without a full cable package...Also, I doubt they will let you add the HD pack which includes INHD, HDNet, and ESPN, without first subscribing to a regular package, but I don't really know.

Finally, I'll just say that I think Charlotte is one of the best HD markets in the nation, with all of the networks available in HD, as well as TWC carrying a decent number of the HD channels and running on the Pioneer platform... I've since moved out of Charlotte and into Madison, WI, which is Charter territory and where the local Fox is owned by SBG (Sinclair). While Charter does use the Moxi DVR (Probably the best cable HD DVR software available anywhere at the moment), the 80gb hard drive is absolutely painful and, while it isn't really Charter's fault, the inability to record Fox in HD is annoying. Also, we JUST got TNT-HD this week, and we do not receive either of the INHD channels.

Is anyone else having problems timeshifting the HDnet channels? I have the SA 8300HD dvr. I saw the comments about problems gettting a firewire lock on them, but no mention of DVR problems. I can't pause, rewind, or record them. If I try, the screen goes blank gray, and I have to cycle the channel to get a picture back.

Other channels started having trouble too, a few reboots seem to have, at least for now, solved the problems that I was having...

Wow. Thanks, guys. That lineup kills anything that can be had here in CT. Good God. :eek: It's too bad about ESPN2 though. I always watch Friday Night Fights on it. Yeah, it's just upconverted, but it looks better than the SD version. It's also a shame they do not have Cinemax. They have numerous older flicks each month that are of note.

I'm glad to hear you have Passport. SARA sucks. It's been a constant source of agitation for me.

Is anyone using Mitsubishi decks to record? What are you using, Archiguy?

It's also a shame they do not have Cinemax. They have numerous older flicks each month that are of note.

Yeah, considering TimeWarner owns HBO/Cinemax, it's quite a conundrum. Nobody from TWC has ever offered an explanation, of course. Still waiting on UHD and Starz-HD as well.

I'm glad to hear you have Passport. SARA sucks. It's been a constant source of agitation for me.

Well, not being able to expand the hard drive space is a major PITA, and SARA allows you to do that; Passport does not. Other than that, I guess it's a pretty good platform. My 8300 is just a beautiful machine.

Is anyone using Mitsubishi decks to record? What are you using, Archiguy?

I use the Marantz MV8300 version of the JVC 40k, Matt. As I've mentioned before in the recorders forum, it's been a real champ, just a flawless performer for me. If I can see it (via firewire), I can record it. I'm sure looking forward to welcoming a fellow D-VHS recording affectionato to the area! If Heelphan comes through, that will be three of us!! :D

hmmmm....the local Fox station has a HD station but the Panthers game wasn't available on cable in HD.

Was it because
1. The network did not broadcast it in HD
2. the local FoX affiliate didn't broadcast it in HD
3. or Time Warner cable didn't pick up the local Fox HD feed?

It was Option 1.

Fox can do 6 games a week in HD, but since CBS was covering Tennis, Fox had 7 games, leaving 1 in widescreen SD...it happened to be the Panthers game.

hmmmm....the local Fox station has a HD station but the Panthers game wasn't available on cable in HD.


http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=579280

Is anyone noticing that MNF on ABC HD keeps freezing up? It then switches to SD for a second or two. What's up wit dat?

Is anyone noticing that MNF on ABC HD keeps freezing up? It then switches to SD for a second or two. What's up wit dat?

I noticed this too...On the HD Programming forum other folks in other part of the country had the same problem.

Looked like to me a problem with the HD feed from Atlanta to New York. I would be willing to bet they had two video paths from the game site to network control, one SD and one HD. One mostly likely is on Satellite and the other on fiber via Vvyx.

They way it looked to me the when the HD feed froze master control switched over to the SD feed. I noticed that the ABC bug on the right hand side of the screen remained as it is inserted at master.

I am sure Bob Davis who has an ABC station under his watch would know more about it than I do....

t123

Well..yea...3 of them to be exact..

I haven't heard from ABC, but we did have the same problem with WOLO (which comes from the same room as WCCB)..so I'd say your asessment is correct there Harrill..

I just got a new Sony 42A10. In the setup, I had it scan a TWC signal with its internal tuner. When it finished there were a lot of channels with bot a NTSC version and a 480i version. My Mitsubishi dd not discover duplicates when I set it up after my move a couple of months ago. Is this a step towards an all digital setup like Raleigh has?

Awwwwwwwww.....................

I have a Dish network HD receiver that gets the OTA locals also. I haven't watched my TV for about 3 weeks. This past Thursday, 9/15, I tuned in to watch Survivor on WBTV digital. I had no signal strength so I tried other channels with the same result. It was working 3 weeks ago and now "poof" - nothing. I called Dish Network and they said that the equipment was working fine because they had me do a scan for DTV locals and it found none. They said it must be local interference. I replaced the antenna too. Still nothing. I was getting a channel from Columbia, SC and one from Asheville too. I'm in Shelby, 47 miles from Charlotte. Does anyone know of anyone elso having this problem?

Which station from Columbia?

1. When is ESPN2HD going to be available? not in 2005

2. How about the NFL Network? same

3. Any local news going to be broadcast in HD? (WRAL in Raleigh is, why aren't any other stations available?) news 14 carolina maybe next year, if the budget for equipment goes through.

Other forums are saying that TWC is telling customers they are very "close" to an agreement for ESPN2HD. Is that just BS?

Other forums are saying that TWC is telling customers they are very "close" to an agreement for ESPN2HD. Is that just BS?


I hope not... where did you hear that?

I picked up WOLO out of Columbia, SC and also WDSU out of New Orleans. Thats odd considering I live in Shelby, NC.

Other forums are saying that TWC is telling customers they are very "close" to an agreement for ESPN2HD. Is that just BS?

What are they "telling" about UHD? Cinemax-HD? Starz-HD? IMO, any or all of these should be added before ESPN2-HD.

What are they "telling" about UHD? Cinemax-HD? Starz-HD? IMO, any or all of these should be added before ESPN2-HD.


I agree with this statement. Cinemax-HD would be a big plus for me. Honestly, I could not care less about ESPN1, 2, HD, SD or any variety for that matter. I know lots of you do though so lets hope we all get what we want eventually. :)

What are they "telling" about UHD? Cinemax-HD? Starz-HD? IMO, any or all of these should be added before ESPN2-HD.

Fortunately, you are in the minority. Sports drives HD. Bring on ESPN2-HD. :D

Fortunately, you are in the minority. Sports drives HD. Bring on ESPN2-HD. :D

Actually, I doubt that Judge. ESPN can't even fill all their primetime slots on their flagship channel with HD programming; what on earth do they even need a second HD channel for? Far more value would come from adding the available movie/variety channels I listed. Not adding UHD by now is particularly egregious. I'm pretty darn ticked at not being able to see the new Battlestar Galactica (best show on TV, bar none) in HD like everybody else can. :mad:

Fortunately, you are in the minority. Sports drives HD. Bring on ESPN2-HD. :D

I can only think of one thing more boring than baseball. Baseball in HD so I can see it even better! If sports is driving HD then I weep for the future of this technology. I have seen many many more quality HD broadcasts of movies than I have sporting events. Everytime I flip by ESPN-HD they have those bars on the sides and the picture looks like total crap.

Actually, I doubt that Judge. ESPN can't even fill all their primetime slots on their flagship channel with HD programming; what on earth do they even need a second HD channel for? Far more value would come from adding the available movie/variety channels I listed. Not adding UHD by now is particularly egregious. I'm pretty darn ticked at not being able to see the new Battlestar Galactica (best show on TV, bar none) in HD like everybody else can. :mad:

Hmmmmmmmm.......Battlestar Galactica..........say, why don't you come back when you are old enough to vote and then maybe someone will care. :)

you mean "BaddleStar Gastonia" dontcha??

Hmmmmmmmm.......Battlestar Galactica..........say, why don't you come back when you are old enough to vote and then maybe someone will care. :)


Oh, I do enjoy a spirited game of "what I like rules and what you like sucks!"

One thing we can all agree upon is the need for more HD and better HD. Well, it's not really a "need" but rather a desire which according to Hugh will only be met if I'm interested in HD sports since that is what "drives HD". Snooze....

Yep count me in on Cinemax HD! Movies alone drove me to buy an HD set. I love sports but only sports that involve steering wheels. I know I'll get flamed :rolleyes: but Nascrap is not a true sport! Let the flame war begin! Nascar does look damn good in HD though. I watch it just to see the pretty cars!

Woooo Dale!! Lookit That Two-four Car Go!!!

Anybody else having problems with ESPNHD this morning? The baseball game last night was blacked out on the HD channel and it seems that they haven't switched it back on this monring.

Oh, I do enjoy a spirited game of "what I like rules and what you like sucks!"

One thing we can all agree upon is the need for more HD and better HD. Well, it's not really a "need" but rather a desire which according to Hugh will only be met if I'm interested in HD sports since that is what "drives HD". Snooze....

Oh please, I was just kidding with him. :)

But on the subject of sports driving HD I am afraid that is correct. That statement has been made by too many televisions executives to not be true. Guys love big screen televisions to watch football and to have a HDTV to watch the Super Bowl on drives the sale of HDTVs as any retailer will tell you. And I think NASCAR looks great in HD. Gary Bettman has said many times that the NHL will benifit greatly from HD.

Hugh

Aptiv Digital (that is now the name of the former Pioneer team that is responsible for the Passport software) has announced the cool new version of Passport Echo that they expect to release to cable companies in November. Of course there's no guarantee that Time Warner will distribute it to it's customers in November - or ever. May be someone on this forum has knowledge?

Here's the news release:

"
APTIV DIGITAL PIONEERS VIDEO MOSAIC AND iSUBSCIBE™ FOR THE CABLE INDUSTRY
Exciting New Features in Passport Echo™ and Passport DCT™ Give Cable Operators the Long Awaited Capability of Interactive Mosaic Video and Impulse Subscription, in Addition to a Variety of Other Integrated Applications and Enhancements

Burbank, California, October 3, 2005- Aptiv Digital, Inc. (formerly Pioneer Digital Technologies Inc.) today announced new and more powerful versions of Passport Echo™ and Passport DCT™, the cable industry proven suites of interactive navigation software enjoyed by digital cable TV customers throughout North America, the Caribbean and Latin America. The company today unveiled a series of new features and applications representing significant product improvements and exciting user-friendly features.
The new Passport Echo DVR IPG version 2.7, and the new Passport DCT IPG version 2.7 boast two new primary applications: Interactive Video Mosaic and iSubscribe™.
The Interactive Video Mosaic enables the cable operator to launch custom video venues that present multiple thumbnail video insets on one screen. Viewers will hear the audio for a channel simply by highlighting a video inset with their remote. They can also get more information about the channel and program, or in the case of Passport Echo, record the highlighted show.
iSubscribe is a very powerful new impulse subscription application enabling the cable operator to create a library of service offers such as VOD or premium channel packages. Customers will be able to use their remotes to view the subscription services, descriptions and pricing, and then purchase them with just a few button presses on the remote control.

In addition to Interactive Video Mosaic and iSubscribe, Passport Echo's enhancements continue with a variety of new integrated applications: Remote Wizard provides a unique step-by-step interactive tool enabling customers to program remote controls for multiple devices all by themselves, Passport Weather offers local and multi-city weather with on-going 5-day forecasts from Accuweather™, PassTime™ Games includes a package of three solitaire style card games in high resolution including traditional Klondike Solitaire, Twenty One or Bust, and 5 Card Stud Poker.
Passport Echo also provides customers with powerful new enhancements such as, sorting features in the IPG and improved management of saved programs on the DVR. For example, with Passport Echo, customers can watch all of the recorded episodes of a series in one sitting by grouping a show's episodes together in one folder and then selecting the new Auto Play feature. All of the episodes will then be played back-to-back.

"Aptiv Digital is committed to giving cable operators the competitive advantage over alternative video service providers," remarked Neil Jones, President and COO of Aptiv Digital. "With over 10 years of experience in the cable video market, our clients have come to expect timely innovations and outstanding customer support. At the end of the day, our clients will provide their video customers with a richer television viewing experience, allowing them to quickly and easily navigate their digital offerings to get the most value out of their television experience."

Upgrades to the Passport Echo IPG include a redesigned settings menu now with high-resolution graphics, settings organized in expandable folders for improved navigation and a ¼ screen video inset displaying the current channel. New sorting and filtering options along with a variety of new features ensures a more engaging TV experience.

Passport Echo 2.7 includes:


DVR Saved Shows List has expanded informational and usability features. One new option, "View Disk Info," displays a summary of DVR disk space usage (like a gas gauge) including the amount of hours of "Estimated Free Space", "Saved Until Manually Erased", "Automatically Erased as Needed" content. Sorting and grouping options have also been added. The Saved Shows List allows viewers to arrange the DVR recorded programs alphabetically or by erasure date. Unseen shows are displayed with bolded titles while viewed shows are in standard font. Episodes of a series can be grouped into expandable and collapsible folders. When a grouped folder is selected, pressing the info button will display summary information such as the number of new recordings and play and erase options for episodes in the group, including: "Play All", "Play All New", "Erase All", and "Erase All Viewed"
Upcoming episodes List option is a new option when selecting a future program in the IPG. Currently when selecting a future title in the Guide, users have the options of recording the show, setting up a series recording, tuning to that channel, or setting up a reminder timer. This new option, when selected, will open up the Title/Keyword search page automatically displaying all the episode titles of the selected program for the week
New sorts and filter options in the Time View of the guide simplifies the user experience allowing the viewer to browse a more targeted set of listings. Passport Echo's IPG has been enhanced to include advanced sorting and filtering functions allowing the viewer to sort by channel number (standard view) or call letters. The Time View can also be filtered to display or hide any combination of Favorite Channels, Music Channels, On Demand Channels, PPV Channels, or HDTV Channels
Parental Control lock by Content Advisory is the latest addition for discerning parents. Locking by the new Content Advisory system has been added to the ability to lock by rating, channel, time and title. Content advisories are broken down into categories and then more specific warnings within those categories. For example, parents can choose the 'Violence' category and then block by 'Intense Violence'. Additionally, from the MSO's headend, certain channels can be automatically parental control locked as a default configuration on all set-tops. Users will have the ability to change these settings with a PIN
Automatic Favorites will set a channel as a favorite based on how often a channel is viewed. The viewer can easily turn off this feature from the settings menu
QuickTips interface is automatically displayed to provide the viewer with information about, and instructions on the use of new features. QuickTips can also be accessed directly in the Guide or DVR list, and can be turned off by the viewer from the settings menu
DAC Messaging support, a feature present in Passport DCT since version 2.5, has been added to Passport Echo in this latest version to support messaging from the headend to all set-tops in the field
"

Learn more at http://www.aptivdigital.com/

<sigh> Thanks for the press release gjlp, but it doesn't address - not even one word - about the stuff we really want to know, i.e. support for SATA expansion drives and firewire functionality, as well as addressing existing bugs.

But Interactive Video Mosaic and iSubscribe™ ...? - whoopie. I'm sure that's got all us TWC customers doing cartwheels. :rolleyes:

Will this include ESPNHD2 and UHD? :D :D :D

Exactly, where's the SATA support?

From another AVS Forum:

I was concerned enough about that question that I e-mailed Dan Ward (the marketing VP at Pioneer Digital) about whether 2.7 would have eSATA, and I got this discouraging reply:

Quote:
Thank you for your email. The press release you read is for Passport Echo on Motorola set-tops. SATA support is on the roadmap for Passport Echo on the SA set-tops, but I can’t give you a release date for that.

Please stay tuned to the web site for upcoming releases.

Best regards,

Dan Ward

=======================
So in other words we may never see the 2.7 upgrade on our SA boxes but we should (at some undefined point in the future) get eSATA support

=======================
So in other words we may never see the 2.7 upgrade on our SA boxes but we should (at some undefined point in the future) get eSATA support

Which, of course, means absolutely nothing. :mad:

Hey All,
I just joined this forum. Interesting stuff in here. I tried my best to search and read all the posts, but I still have a question concerning our area.

I live in Matthews, NC. Have TWC, SA 8300HD box with all channels. My question is that I consistently have issues with CBS football, especially college. I can switch from CBS-225 and go to HDNet and HDNet is primo, picture perfect (in the same 1080i that CBS is in), then go back and will still notice the same issues.

Anybody else have some degredation/pixelation issues on CBS-225 when watching football? The degrdation or slight pixelation tends to happen when they are switching camera angles. Its not real bad or anything, but i can see it. I think its the TWC outboound-broadcast, but if it is other people should see be able to see it.

This HD set is brand new and blows the doors off our old one, and has a native resolution of 1280 x 720, in stunning, stunning clarity & quality. Also a weird thing is that CBS HD normal programming(like Cold Case and CSi) is perfect too, it seems to just be mainly college football, and sometimes NFL on CBS.

The Panthers on Monday Night Football was absolutely perfect, as have the majority of HD programming been.

Any input would be appreciated

What you are seeing is caused by insufficient bandwidth allocated to the HD by WBTV.
You can't run 1080i with high-motion content and 2 Sd channels. There just isn't enough room. It's NOT a TWC issue.

Makes perfect sense to me....

I had a problem last Monday night when my TWC just went out around 7pm. Didn't come back on until about 8:45. I called in about it and the rep said, Oh I think they might be doing something in your area, but I'm not sure. Then, after that my digital channels on one of my TVs was really pixelated for like 1 or 2 days afterward (mind you, I was getting perfect pictures on it before the cable failure).

Then, tonight at about 12am it happened again, watching a show off the box and boom, gray screen. It was only off for like 20 minutes or so this time with other short sporadic outages afterward, now both cable boxes on 2 TV's are not pulling in lots of digital cable channels, like 52-69 and HBO HD & Showtime HD and several of the high showtime channels. BTW, my Roadrunner was out when this happened also. Does anyone know what TWC is doing to me? Or is this a common problem?

BTW, I got a cable card installed today, and I like it a lot so far...except for the pixelated channels!

I have the digital package from the TWC and upgraded it to HD and asked for the cabelcard, since I have the media receiver which has a cabel card slot. The technician came today and put the cabel card in the slot and thing works fine. But he took my digital cabel box. I have planned to use the digital box receiver in bedroom but he said that , you have to pay addition cost for the box every month.

I think as TWC advertise as followes in there website.

"In order to enjoy all the available HD programming you must first have digital cable with an HD set-top box and an HD-ready or capable TV."

I must have a digital cabel in order for the HD programming. So I should not be paying extra for the digital box receiver? So TWC should not charge me for the digital receiver box?

Has any one experience this. If they give you the HD receiver or cabel card they normally take away your old digital reciver box?

Well, doesn't TWC include one DCT as part of their digital packages? If yes, shouldn't you just be able to pay the extra $2 (or whatever it is) for the CableCARD?

Greetings,

I am a long time AVS Forum member living in St. Louis, MO. My family and I are moving to Charlotte in the next few months. As a HD junkie, I wanted to check with the 'locals' to see what they recommended we use as our HD television provider.

We have had Charter Cable for the last 3 years, which has its ups and downs. Previous to that, we were with E*.

Basically our needs are this: 1) as much HD as possible, especially sports and networks, 2) an HD PVR, and 3) being able to purchase the premium sports packages like NHL Center Ice in order to still see the STL sports teams.

Any advice on chosing between TWC, E* and D* would be greatly appreciated.

I look forward to contributing to this thread in the near future.

-------------------
Bruce

hello everyone,
i switched to digital cable a couple months ago and i have a question about the sa8300 dvr that i got. i was told by the technician that the sata port is activate in the back. so my question is how can i access all the recorded shows on the harddrive through my computer? someone told me i could get a esata cable to access the shows, but i don't really know how. so please, any help is appreciated.

thanks

hello everyone,
i switched to digital cable a couple months ago and i have a question about the sa8300 dvr that i got. i was told by the technician that the sata port is activate in the back. so my question is how can i access all the recorded shows on the harddrive through my computer? someone told me i could get a esata cable to access the shows, but i don't really know how. so please, any help is appreciated.

thanks

The technician told you that? Did you get his name? He's mistaken. :rolleyes: Both the SATA ports and firewire ports (IEEE1394) are inactive on the 8300's being distributed by TWC. We have no idea when, if ever, they will be activated. It doesn't seem to be a priority with them, to put it mildly.

But it's irrelevant to your question. You wouldn't be able to move anything from your DVR to your computer even if the ports were active; they don't speak the same language.

The technician told you that? Did you get his name? He's mistaken. :rolleyes: Both the SATA ports and firewire ports (IEEE1394) are inactive on the 8300's being distributed by TWC. We have no idea when, if ever, they will be activated. It doesn't seem to be a priority with them, to put it mildly.

But it's irrelevant to your question. You wouldn't be able to move anything from your DVR to your computer even if the ports were active; they don't speak the same language.


According to the diag screen on my 8300, the Firewire port is active. I don't have anything to plug into it to confirm.

On the Passport 2.7, I've got a call into TW about the issue. Waiting for a call back from David Krueger.

According to the diag screen on my 8300, the Firewire port is active. I don't have anything to plug into it to confirm.


I do, and it's not active regardless of what the diag screen says. They have problems aplenty with the active firewire on my SA3250HD STB, and they are exasperatingly unresponsive when it comes to fixing, or even acknowledging, those issues.

The way this works is, Pioneer makes the changes to the base software package (Passport Echo), then the individual TWC outlets must do further customization to make it all work with their local systems. So far, the first part of this equation has yet to happen with SATA and firewire, much less the second part.

abcward,

I ended up choosing TWC based on many of the same considerations. TWC has every available local HD network and a good HD line up otherwise, except for ESPN HD 2 and StarzHD. The satellite services are catching up with the number of HD channels (not necessarily the quality), as it's been awhile since a new HD channel was added to TWC. In the end, l didn't want to have to buy two HD DVRs, when I could just rent and replace as new models came out. TWC offers NHL Center Ice, but not NFL Sunday Ticket of course (which D* offers exclusively for the next year or two). Although we've had E* before, my wife didn't want a dish hanging off of our new house if we could avoid it. To me, the biggest downside is TWC is not the cheapest provider in town, although it is more competitve if you get highspeed internet and digital phone service (which we have and are happy with). Also, it's hit or miss as far as the knowledge of the phone reps and in-house techs, but I think that is universal problem.

anybody on her tried a TWC cable card sith a Sony A10? If so, what is your experience?

abcward,

I ended up choosing TWC based on many of the same considerations. TWC has every available local HD network and a good HD line up otherwise, except for ESPN HD 2 and StarzHD. The satellite services are catching up with the number of HD channels (not necessarily the quality), as it's been awhile since a new HD channel was added to TWC. In the end, l didn't want to have to buy two HD DVRs, when I could just rent and replace as new models came out. TWC offers NHL Center Ice, but not NFL Sunday Ticket of course (which D* offers exclusively for the next year or two).

Thanks for the input - I was leaning towards TWC so your thoughts have helped. We currently have cable tv, internet and phones thru out Cable Co. so we would probably do the same thing with TWC. I also like the fact that cable doesnt force you to sign a long term contract, so once we get to Charlotte I have the option to switch to satellite at a later time.

QUICK QUESTION: Could you give me some details on the HD-PVRs that TWC offers? How many tuners are in it? Is it a 1-room only option, or is it multi-room? How large is the HD? etc. Our current provider, Charter, offers the Motorola Moxi which is ok, but the hd space is pretty weak at 160gb.

Thanks again for the input!

Bruce

QUICK QUESTION: Could you give me some details on the HD-PVRs that TWC offers? How many tuners are in it? Is it a 1-room only option, or is it multi-room? How large is the HD? etc. Our current provider, Charter, offers the Motorola Moxi which is ok, but the hd space is pretty weak at 160gb.

Thanks again for the input!

Bruce

Only one is offered - the SA8300HD. It's a dual-tuner machine w/ 150 GB hard drive. Doesn't have multi-room capability; your pre/pro or A/V receiver should handle that function.

Only one is offered - the SA8300HD. It's a dual-tuner machine w/ 150 GB hard drive. Doesn't have multi-room capability; your pre/pro or A/V receiver should handle that function.


160GB ;) And why can't they make a COOL DVR? Like, with 1TB and 6 HD tuners?


And I'd disagree a little with Mhorn by saying "competitive" and "Time Warner Digital Phone" don't belong in the same sentence. But that's probably off topic.

I had a TWC tech at the house the other day and asked about ESPN2-HD and NFL Network. According to him, both were going to happen in the not-too-distant future. Nov./Dec. for ESPN2-HD and maybe first of the year for NFL.

As for any other new HD offerings, no updates.

Take it for what it's worth, just sayin's all...

Hopefully, this means Universal HD is coming soon:

TWC Reaches Agreement with Universal (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=596936)

Hopefully, this means Universal HD is coming soon:

TWC Reaches Agreement with Universal (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=596936)

Woo-hoo! 'Bout frackin' time!

Hopefully in time for BSG S2.5

Thank the gods! :D

Thought you were a DirecTV man, CP, and thus needn't worry about TWC and their painfully slow addition of new HD channels...?

Oh, He's not a TWC guy..doesn't even live in their service area..He's a BIG Comporium guy tho!

That's a public service announcement for my neighborhood Charlotteans - doesn't affect me. Like Bob said, I'm stuck with Comporium - if I were to be stuck with cable anyway.

Cable is so 20th Century. ;)

Cable is so 20th Century. ;)

Technically, so is DirecTV, launching service in the summer of 1994.

Fiber to the Home, now THAT'S 21st Century stuff! :D

I had a TWC tech at the house the other day and asked about ESPN2-HD and NFL Network. According to him, both were going to happen in the not-too-distant future. Nov./Dec. for ESPN2-HD and maybe first of the year for NFL.

As for any other new HD offerings, no updates.

Take it for what it's worth, just sayin's all...
Did this tech seem like he/she knew what they were talking about? Unfortunately, it's my experience that most TWC CSR's don't know the difference between ESPNHD and ESPN2HD, or the NFL Network and NFL games on other networks.

I've been e-mailing them forever about these 2 channels and ESPNU. Of course, I always get the standard reply back. TeddyTV- are you in the Charlotte area?

It's been about a year since I switched from DirectTV to Cable - a very depressing day indeed, but I needed my HDTV! While I've been "satisfied" with Twc (isn't satifiscatory a C in grade school?), it still amazes me that with (a) no new channels since ESPN HD (b) no major changes in that piece o' crap DVR box, (c) the horrendous customer service (d) the CBS HD issues (I could go on, but I won't), that TWC is STILL the best thing in town . Goes to show you how low the bar has been placed and makes you wonder what happened to DirectTV - definetly asleep at the wheel during the HDTV rage.

CBS-HD issues are NOT the fault of TWC...

It's been about a year since I switched from DirectTV to Cable - a very depressing day indeed, but I needed my HDTV! While I've been "satisfied" with Twc (isn't satifiscatory a C in grade school?), it still amazes me that with (a) no new channels since ESPN HD (b) no major changes in that piece o' crap DVR box, (c) the horrendous customer service (d) the CBS HD issues (I could go on, but I won't), that TWC is STILL the best thing in town . Goes to show you how low the bar has been placed and makes you wonder what happened to DirectTV - definetly asleep at the wheel during the HDTV rage.

We have had great HDTV from TWC for the last four years. You should hear people in other parts of the country talk about no HD from their cable company. TWC has led the two sat. companies in channels available in HD. My box works great and I have no complaints with it at all. And their customer service has always come to my house and fixed any problems I might have had. All in all I would give TWC an "A" when compared to everything else.

5.1 question here. I've had all my equipment in the closet for over a year and moved it to the livingroom this past weekend to get ready for moving. All shows that are supposed to be in 5.1 are showing up on my receiver as dolby pro-logic? I checked all 3 CSI shows, The Chronicles of Riddick and a few other movies and it shows pro logic on the receiver. Is everyone else's receivers detecting true 5.1? I checked a dvd and it does default to 5.1 with dvds so I was wondering what's up here. Thanks!

Use your receiver to check WCCB-DT..We're always 5.1, if you don't show 5.1 on us then you have your receiver mis-configured..

We have had great HDTV from TWC for the last four years. You should hear people in other parts of the country talk about no HD from their cable company. TWC has led the two sat. companies in channels available in HD. My box works great and I have no complaints with it at all. And their customer service has always come to my house and fixed any problems I might have had. All in all I would give TWC an "A" when compared to everything else.


I am a walking example of your point. We currently live in St.Louis [but moving in Charlotte in January] and we have Charter Cable. Our current HD lineup is still missing ABC-HD, ESPN2-HD, Universal-HD, TNT-HD, Starz-HD and both INHD channels. Also, our VOD offerings pale in comparison to what TWC offers. TWC will actually be an improvement for my family when we arrive!

Quick Question: CBS-HD issues were mentioned earlier. Can someone elaborate on what those issues are?

Thanks!
Bruce

Did this tech seem like he/she knew what they were talking about? Unfortunately, it's my experience that most TWC CSR's don't know the difference between ESPNHD and ESPN2HD, or the NFL Network and NFL games on other networks.

I've been e-mailing them forever about these 2 channels and ESPNU. Of course, I always get the standard reply back. TeddyTV- are you in the Charlotte area?

"Seem" being the operative word, yes he did. (He did hold one hand behind his back, I wonder if his fingers were crossed...). I've noticed the same thing with CSR's.

Me: "When will TWC get ESPN2-HD?"

CSR: "We have it, it's on channel 285!"

Me: "When will you guys get the NFL Network?"

CSR: "We can't. It's only offered on Direct TV."

Me: "Aren't you due for a cigarette break?"

CSR: "Oh yes!!! Thanks for reminding me!!! Bye!"

Me: "Hello... hello..."

I'm not in the CLT area, I'm in Concord.

I read another thread in the hdtv recorder section about my 5.1 problem. They said if you were using hdmi all the sound outputs would be in prologic which is what seems to be happening to me. I've got a call in to TWC to see what phil says...

I read another thread in the hdtv recorder section about my 5.1 problem. They said if you were using hdmi all the sound outputs would be in prologic which is what seems to be happening to me. I've got a call in to TWC to see what phil says...

I haven't experienced this problem. I use the HDMI with an HDMI to DVI cable and coax digital audio to my reciever and I receive 5.1 audio.

Oh, one other thing. I was looking around in the diag mode to see if maybe a test channel for UHD was up. I didn't find it. But I did find the free preview of Showtime and HBO starting on channel 620. The free preview doesn't officaly starts until the 4th.

So what's the deal?!?!?! Where can we get a firm answer about ESPNHD2, ESPNU, NFL Network?

So what's the deal?!?!?! Where can we get a firm answer about ESPNHD2, ESPNU, NFL Network?

Do you really think a corp their size is going to let you know before their local people know anything? They are in negotiations with ESPN and you'll find out when something is definite. ESPN wants a lot of money and in order to keep the cost to you down they are trying to lower the price. The more they pay the more we have to pay.

It's not so much ESPN2; most of us who keep up with these things understand the extortion tactics ESPN uses with providers. The infuriating thing is that there are at least 3 major HD channels that they could have added, literally, years ago: UHD (formerly Bravo-HD), Cinemax-HD, and Starz-HD. Where are they? In the case of Cinemax-HD, it's particularly galling because they own the dadgum channel! The silence from TWC is deafening...

It's not so much ESPN2; most of us who keep up with these things understand the extortion tactics ESPN uses with providers. The infuriating thing is that there are at least 3 major HD channels that they could have added, literally, years ago: UHD (formerly Bravo-HD), Cinemax-HD, and Starz-HD. Where are they? In the case of Cinemax-HD, it's particularly galling because they own the dadgum channel! The silence from TWC is deafening...

Why should they be in a hurry? No one around here to compete with...

I don't get too worked up over what TWC does and doesn't do. But I agree with the poster as to their silence. Especially in regard to Cinemax. That one doesn't make a lot of sense considering that it's in-house.

"Seem" being the operative word, yes he did. (He did hold one hand behind his back, I wonder if his fingers were crossed...). I've noticed the same thing with CSR's.

Me: "When will TWC get ESPN2-HD?"

CSR: "We have it, it's on channel 285!"

Me: "When will you guys get the NFL Network?"

CSR: "We can't. It's only offered on Direct TV."

Me: "Aren't you due for a cigarette break?"

CSR: "Oh yes!!! Thanks for reminding me!!! Bye!"

Me: "Hello... hello..."

I'm not in the CLT area, I'm in Concord.

___________________

Doesn't it make you feel great when the tech doesn't know the difference between ESPNHD and ESPN2HD? Well, there goes any hope of getting ESPN2HD any time soon.

Remember, If It's not on the answer card they don't know what to say..not all are that bad, but in general most seem to be sad to say. But then again, they aren't in all the mgmt meetings to know the latest, either.

Showtime (except Show-HDe) is available for free this weekend (11/4 through 11/6). Starting on channel 620.

It's a MOD purchase, but a $0.00 one.

My new HD TV should arrive Tuesday. TWC is coming Wed to give me digital cable and I also asked for the HD package. Will they bring the cable to hook the set-top box to my TV? If I have a HDMI port on my TV will they use that and have a HDMI cable with them? What should I make sure of before they leave the house? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Stacey, you will need to provide the HDMi cable..and you can get them on ebay much cheaper than anywhere else. There is no quality difference. I got my HDMI cable for $10.

dvdguru,
i havent been here in a while but in reading thru the posts i notice you were calling my brother about an hdtv issue. if no one informed you phil really is gone. he left twc in october and moved to los angeles! just fyi.

Thanks for the info and tell him Steve said hello! He'll remember me. Yeah, the rep took my number and said she'd have Phil or David Kruger call me and I never got a call ;( I still only have prologic coming from the box but I'm moving to shelby in a few weeks anyway now so I'll probably have to get a new hd dvr anyway. So did phil finally get an hdtv to play his Soul Calibur2 on? ;) He was the only rep I ever wanted to talk to as he actually knew about stuff like hdmi, 5.1 surround, HD, etc. He will be missed that's for sure...

I haven't really kept up with this thread lately... has there been any update on when we will be able to connect an external hard drive? I'd like to keep a lot of these concerts that come on INHD and INHD2, but they fill up the HD pretty quick... Is there anyone I can email to request that this be activated sooner rather than later?

I haven't really kept up with this thread lately... has there been any update on when we will be able to connect an external hard drive? I'd like to keep a lot of these concerts that come on INHD and INHD2, but they fill up the HD pretty quick... Is there anyone I can email to request that this be activated sooner rather than later?

Until then you can always save to a DVD recorder. Not HD but it works.

I can't seem to get through to a rep a TWC that can help me, so I'll try here.

I had digi cable plus HDTV tier installed along with a 8300HDTV box. Unfortunately I wasn' there when the technician was so I wasn't able to watch him set up the box. When I got home the box was set on 1080i (my TV supports 1080i, 480i, 480p, and 720p). I tried to pull up the set up wizard by pressing the "Guide" and "Info" buttons on the box but the wizard will not come up. My intent was to set the box to "pass through". Since I could not get to the wizard, I used the settings button and added the other"formats" . Is that the right thing to do or do I need to get a technician out to the house to set the box to "pass through"? Or is there a way to get to the set up wizard? (Do I need to disconnect TWC cable from the box before I can get the wizard to come up??)

Thanks for any advice.

I can't seem to get through to a rep a TWC that can help me, so I'll try here.

I had digi cable plus HDTV tier installed along with a 8300HDTV box. Unfortunately I wasn' there when the technician was so I wasn't able to watch him set up the box. When I got home the box was set on 1080i (my TV supports 1080i, 480i, 480p, and 720p). I tried to pull up the set up wizard by pressing the "Guide" and "Info" buttons on the box but the wizard will not come up. My intent was to set the box to "pass through". Since I could not get to the wizard, I used the settings button and added the other"formats" . Is that the right thing to do or do I need to get a technician out to the house to set the box to "pass through"? Or is there a way to get to the set up wizard? (Do I need to disconnect TWC cable from the box before I can get the wizard to come up??)

Thanks for any advice.

Adding the formats (480p, 720p, and 1080i) in the settings will allow the formats to "pass-through".

I tried to pull up the set up wizard by pressing the "Guide" and "Info" buttons on the box but the wizard will not come up.
Thanks for any advice.
I'm sure if I'm wrong that someone will correct me but I don't think the "Setup Wizard" is available to us on the TWC system here in Charlotte because we have the Passport software instead of the SARA software. Like meteor3 said activating them all under the "Settings" button accomplishes essentially the same thing.

Adding the formats (480p, 720p, and 1080i) in the settings will allow the formats to "pass-through".

Please excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by "pass-though"? What happens if you just have 1080i selected?

Hugh

Please excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by "pass-though"? What happens if you just have 1080i selected?


Pass-through means the cable box will output the channel at its broadcasted resolution. So, ABC is 720p, and if you have 720p selected, the output from the box is 720p. If you only select 1080i, channels broadcast in 720p or 480p will be up-converted to 1080i.

The choice of pass-through or not is a personal one. Some choose to pass-through (480p, 720p, 1080i selected) so that their display will scale the resolution. Some choose to set the box to display on 1080i and let the cable box do the scaling.

Pass-through means the cable box will output the channel at its broadcasted resolution. So, ABC is 720p, and if you have 720p selected, the output from the box is 720p. If you only select 1080i, channels broadcast in 720p or 480p will be up-converted to 1080i.

The choice of pass-through or not is a personal one. Some choose to pass-through (480p, 720p, 1080i selected) so that their display will scale the resolution. Some choose to set the box to display on 1080i and let the cable box do the scaling.

Thanks, that is what I thought. I also thought the television, assuming it is a very good one, would do a better job of processing the signal. I'll have to go in and see how it looks with the box doing the work.

Hugh

My TV does a lot better job of processing the signal than the box

Anyone having problems with channel 225 CBS HD? For the last week the picture & sound keep breaking up. It does not happen all of the time but when it does it seems to screw up the box and I have to reboot it.

Anyone having problems with channel 225 CBS HD? For the last week the picture & sound keep breaking up. It does not happen all of the time but when it does it seems to screw up the box and I have to reboot it.

No, but when I put it on channel 4 (WSOC) it (a 8300HD) shows a gray screen, locks up, and then eventually reboots. It has been doing this since Thursday.

hmmm.....I was going to post a similar question. I bought a new TV last week and had TWC install digital cable and HDTV package with the 8300HDTV cablebox/DVR a couple of days later. The first day all was fine but since Friday, I have had instances while watching the network HDTV feeds when the sound would go out or the picture would go out.. I'm not sure if it's my TV or the cable system, or my cable box??!! How can I islolate the problem??

Offer of $6.9 Billion Is Likely As Set-Top Box Demand Spurs Market Position Race
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
November 18, 2005 8:14 a.m.

Cisco Systems Inc. agreed to purchase cable-television-technology concern Scientific-Atlanta Inc., paying $43 per share in a cash deal valued at about $6.9 billion that comes as equipment makers respond to evaporating lines between the Internet, television and telephone industries.

Long a cornerstone of big corporate and government data networks, Cisco is now pushing its products directly to consumers. It is doing that just as the nation's big telephone companies begin rolling out fiber-optic systems to send television to homes using Internet technology.

The deal, announced Friday, offers Scientific-Atlanta stockholders a 4% premium over where the shares traded Thursday. The price represents a premium of about 20% since rumors about a potential sale first surfaced in early November. Cisco said the net cost of the purchase would be $5.3 billion when taking into account Scientific-Atlanta's existing cash balance.

The transaction highlights the cash that is sitting on corporate balance sheets. Throughout the 1990s, Cisco used its high-priced stock to buy a host of companies. To fund the Scientific-Atlanta purchase -- its second largest ever -- Cisco would pull from its cash hoard of $13.5 billion. Scientific-Atlanta, which was founded in 1951 by a group of engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, has a cash pile of $1.55 billion, or more than $10 per share.

Cisco has made no bones about its ambitions to be the leading equipment supplier as the Internet evolves to take over functions that were long carried out by separate entertainment, voice and data networks. But in doing so, it has to penetrate an area that has been dominated by a duopoly of Motorola Inc. and Scientific-Atlanta.

Set-top boxes play a key role in determining what features can be offered on the TV screen. Scientific-Atlanta has about 40% of the U.S. set-top box market, or roughly 56 million cable devices in U.S. households. Its largest customer is Time Warner Inc.'s cable division.

Demand for set-top boxes is expected to intensify as competition heats up in the TV distribution business and technology makes possible a wide array of advanced TV features. Roughly 300 million analog televisions will need some form of converter to work with the digital broadcast signals required by the government by 2009. At the same time, telephone companies, like SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., are racing to provide television service, opening a new market for set-top boxes.

Demand also is increasing for set-top boxes that include digital video recorders, which record and collate hundreds of hours of shows. Satellite TV operators, cable companies and phone companies are preparing to introduce still more features -- such as a huge library of on-demand programming -- to hold on to customers.

Other consumer electronics makers have had limited success in breaking into the business. That is because most cable systems have layered on networking, encryption gear and set-top boxes from the two dominant companies. For set-top boxes to work they have to be able to communicate with this other gear.

Wall Street Journal reporters Dennis K. Berman, Peter Grant and Don Clark contributed to this article.

Offer of $6.9 Billion Is Likely As Set-Top Box Demand Spurs Market Position Race
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
November 18, 2005 8:14 a.m.

Cisco Systems Inc. agreed to purchase cable-television-technology concern Scientific-Atlanta Inc., paying $43 per share in a cash deal valued at about $6.9 billion that comes as equipment makers respond to evaporating lines between the Internet, television and telephone industries.

Long a cornerstone of big corporate and government data networks, Cisco is now pushing its products directly to consumers. It is doing that just as the nation's big telephone companies begin rolling out fiber-optic systems to send television to homes using Internet technology.

The deal, announced Friday, offers Scientific-Atlanta stockholders a 4% premium over where the shares traded Thursday. The price represents a premium of about 20% since rumors about a potential sale first surfaced in early November. Cisco said the net cost of the purchase would be $5.3 billion when taking into account Scientific-Atlanta's existing cash balance.

The transaction highlights the cash that is sitting on corporate balance sheets. Throughout the 1990s, Cisco used its high-priced stock to buy a host of companies. To fund the Scientific-Atlanta purchase -- its second largest ever -- Cisco would pull from its cash hoard of $13.5 billion. Scientific-Atlanta, which was founded in 1951 by a group of engineers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, has a cash pile of $1.55 billion, or more than $10 per share.

Cisco has made no bones about its ambitions to be the leading equipment supplier as the Internet evolves to take over functions that were long carried out by separate entertainment, voice and data networks. But in doing so, it has to penetrate an area that has been dominated by a duopoly of Motorola Inc. and Scientific-Atlanta.

Set-top boxes play a key role in determining what features can be offered on the TV screen. Scientific-Atlanta has about 40% of the U.S. set-top box market, or roughly 56 million cable devices in U.S. households. Its largest customer is Time Warner Inc.'s cable division.

Demand for set-top boxes is expected to intensify as competition heats up in the TV distribution business and technology makes possible a wide array of advanced TV features. Roughly 300 million analog televisions will need some form of converter to work with the digital broadcast signals required by the government by 2009. At the same time, telephone companies, like SBC Communications Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., are racing to provide television service, opening a new market for set-top boxes.

Demand also is increasing for set-top boxes that include digital video recorders, which record and collate hundreds of hours of shows. Satellite TV operators, cable companies and phone companies are preparing to introduce still more features -- such as a huge library of on-demand programming -- to hold on to customers.

Other consumer electronics makers have had limited success in breaking into the business. That is because most cable systems have layered on networking, encryption gear and set-top boxes from the two dominant companies. For set-top boxes to work they have to be able to communicate with this other gear.

Wall Street Journal reporters Dennis K. Berman, Peter Grant and Don Clark contributed to this article.

I heard about this on NPR this morning. I hope something good comes out of it.

I've recently noticed a couple different things on TWC. I'm sure this is old news for most but I thought I'd post it anyway.

First, I just noticed that Fox Sports World is now Fox Soccer Channel. When did that happen? Not that it matters, the old channel was all soccer anyway but the name is new I think.

Second, something is different with the audio. I've noticed lots of analog channels are now passing DD digital audio through. Not all but most. The only reason I even noticed this that one one of my TV's, I used to have to pause when I changed channels to get the PCM sound from the digital out. Now I don't have to do this.

On another topic. Is there any technical reason that TWC can't do a complete channel re-order? As they transition to a larger digital offering I'd love to see them do this. Group channels together in a much more natural order like D* and E* do. You know like all the news channels together in the 30's or something.

I was thinking about this the other day as I once again "rediscovered" the VOD channels. I forget about those all the time. I was watching them yesterday and couldn't help but think that they should move these channels out of the ghetto they are in and mix them in amongst the other channels. I'd love to see the TBS on demand right next to TBS and so forth. I think they would get a lot more use and exposure that way.

I've had my SA 8300 HD/DVR box now for about a week and the damn thing is driving me crazy with how loud it is. I think it is the hard drive in there that is constantly running since it is continuously recording what you are watching. It sounds like a combination of rain and maybe baby crickets. Is everybody elses' box loud??

I never hear mine unless it's dead quiet in the room and I'm within 2 or 3 feet of it. If you tune both tuners to one of the On Demand preview channels, which aren't recorded, it will stop any drive activity.

I've got two 8300s. Never hear either one of mine (in contrast to the first really noisy 8000s).

I would call and get a replacement.

Thanks

On another topic. Is there any technical reason that TWC can't do a complete channel re-order? As they transition to a larger digital offering I'd love to see them do this. Group channels together in a much more natural order like D* and E* do. You know like all the news channels together in the 30's or something.

I was thinking about this the other day as I once again "rediscovered" the VOD channels. I forget about those all the time. I was watching them yesterday and couldn't help but think that they should move these channels out of the ghetto they are in and mix them in amongst the other channels. I'd love to see the TBS on demand right next to TBS and so forth. I think they would get a lot more use and exposure that way.

I think having the simple ability to lock out channels you don't want to have on the guide or click through because you don't like, or don't subscribe would go a long way in helping this. But a channel renumbering would be nice if they ever switch over to digital/analog simulcast.

For what it's worth - the DD 2.0 signal has been coming with a lot of the "analog" channels for many months now. I noticed it some time back. There are still a few that come down as PCM.

As far as loud 8300s - mine has picked up this very high pitched squeel. But I don't want to take it in because I've got a few shows archived on it, and I really do not want to lose them.

For what it's worth - the DD 2.0 signal has been coming with a lot of the "analog" channels for many months now. I noticed it some time back. There are still a few that come down as PCM..

this is an indication that your box is re-mapping to a digital channel.. There are quite a few of the analog channels that are duplicated digitally.. :)

Thought you TWC guys might get a kick out of this - we OTA guys get no respect.
********************************************************

Just got a phone call from WBTV. They were very concerned about my email regarding poor HD PQ and said that they've never received any complaints about their HD broadcasts - if there's a problem, they want to fix it.

WBTV: What's the problem you were seeing yesterday?

Me: Extreme pixelation whenever there's movement, and I'm seeing it now during the NFL and for the past few months (actually longer) during any HD broadcast from WBTV like CSI.

WBTV: How are you getting WBTV HD?

Me: Over the air.

WBTV: No, I mean who is sending you our channel?

Me: You are, I'm getting it over the air.

WBTV: I think you're confused, like, I get mine from Comporium, some get it from Time Warner Cable - somebody has to deliver our channel to you - you'd need to find out how you are getting the channel before we can help.

Me: I'm using an antenna and picking it up from your broadcast tower.

WBTV: I'm not sure how you are managing that.

Me: The same way people have been picking up WBTV for 50 years; you guys broadcast a signal and we pick it up using an antenna.

WBTV: Well, I'm not familiar with all that, that must be something special. I'll forward your comments to the engineers, but nobody else is having any problems.

:rolleyes: Like I said, don't hold your breath on any improvements.

Sadly, many have never seen what it should look like - but PLEASE - contact WBTV via their web "Contact Us" tab and let them know that the HD picture quality is horrendous. CBS should have the best HD out there, and WBTV doesn't think anyone notices how much they are degrading the signal.

:)

Thought you TWC guys might get a kick out of this - we OTA guys get no respect.
********************************************************

Just got a phone call from WBTV. They were very concerned about my email regarding poor HD PQ and said that they've never received any complaints about their HD broadcasts - if there's a problem, they want to fix it.
[b]
[color=limegreen]WBTV: What's the problem you were seeing yesterday?

Me: Extreme pixelation whenever there's movement, and I'm seeing it now during the NFL and for the past few months (actually longer) during any HD broadcast from WBTV like CSI.

WBTV: How are you getting WBTV HD?

Me: Over the air.

WBTV: No, I mean who is sending you our channel?

Me: You are, I'm getting it over the air.

WBTV: I think you're confused, like, I get mine from Comporium, some get it from Time Warner Cable - somebody has to deliver our channel to you - you'd need to find out how you are getting the channel before we can help.

Me: I'm using an antenna and picking it up from your broadcast tower.


That's your problem, Panther. There's no such thing as a silly tower. It's all fiber opitcs man! You can't get TV without fiber! ;)

I felt like I was describing the Internet to Betsy Ross

I felt like I was describing the Internet to Betsy Ross

Now that is funny!

BTW, it was awful during the SEC Championship Saturday night. I won't bother letting them know.

Here's an idea, maybe we start a grassroots campaign telling them there's a lot of pixelation during Eric Thomas' weather forecasts, then they'll get on top of it right away!

Here's an idea, maybe we start a grassroots campaign telling them there's a lot of pixelation during Eric Thomas' weather forecasts, then they'll get on top of it right away!

Why don't you just email Eric. He'd know what is going on and who to talk to about it. I have a feeling that it's probably something in the encoding to MPEG that is doing it and not the graphics machines.

lol... pure comedy.

The problem is the two additional digital channels they are sending out that are robbing the HD feed of its bandwidth. Call/write and complain or they will have no motivation to correct the problem until the analog shutdown which will be 2009 at the earliest. That's 3 or 4 years of crappy CBS in Charlotte while the rest of the country is using NFL on CBS as their preferred demo for HD's capabilities. :(

I am using my Mitsubishi WD-62725's internal ATSC tuner along with Cable card service from TWC. I run the digital audio coax out from the set to my receiver to decode dolby digital programming. The problem that I keep running into is that whenever I turn to any HBO channel, HD or SD, the digital audio feed lasts for about 15 seconds and then is lost, forcing me to revert to my 2-channel analog audio outs, which the receiver then converts to a pro-logic feed (as opposed to dolby digital). The drop in audio ONLY OCCURS when watching any of the HBO channels....all other channels are ok. This leads me to believe that it is a broadcast issue as opposed to a receiver or TV tuner issue. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks

I am using my Mitsubishi WD-62725's internal ATSC tuner along with Cable card service from TWC. I run the digital audio coax out from the set to my receiver to decode dolby digital programming. The problem that I keep running into is that whenever I turn to any HBO channel, HD or SD, the digital audio feed lasts for about 15 seconds and then is lost, forcing me to revert to my 2-channel analog audio outs, which the receiver then converts to a pro-logic feed (as opposed to dolby digital). The drop in audio ONLY OCCURS when watching any of the HBO channels....all other channels are ok. This leads me to believe that it is a broadcast issue as opposed to a receiver or TV tuner issue. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks


I'd say the problem is local to you, DLPKID. I've never had this issue coming off of the SciAtl box. And I watch HBO - A LOT. Maybe something in the CableCARD not just right? Sound&Vision has had several horror stories about CableCARD and premium channnel problems.

I'd say the problem is local to you, DLPKID. I've never had this issue coming off of the SciAtl box. And I watch HBO - A LOT. Maybe something in the CableCARD not just right? Sound&Vision has had several horror stories about CableCARD and premium channnel problems.

Thanks. At least this confirms that it isn't a broadcast issue. My cablecard has pretty much been flawless since my install over 8 months ago.....aside from the issue outlined above. It may be better to "not mess with success".

quick question - need to add another STB to my house for high def. Already have the 8300HD for HD and DVR (works reasonably well although I still don't get 5.1 decoding to my receiver )

Question - if I add another box (non-DVR) - - what connection options do i have . Can I go HDMI like I do for my 8300? or is it DVI?

I'm using hdmi and don't get 5.1 as well. See my post in the hdtv recorders section on this. I've called SA and TWC on this already and nothing has been done to add the "audio digital out" function to the more settings option in the box. This option IS on the hd8000 however which makes this even more frustrating. The hd8000 also has the option to delete unused channels from the guide! Why an older box has better functionality than the new dvr is beyond me.

I called SA this week and they said this could be added by a firmware update to the 8300 but I've called before and nothing has happened. If you're not getting 5.1 because of using hdmi I suggest to call SA and twc and maybe if they get enough complaints someone will do something.

The hd8000 also has the option to delete unused channels from the guide! Why an older box has better functionality than the new dvr is beyond me.


It does? When did they add that? Wasn't there when I was using it. Keep in mind that SA and TWC are limited by what Pioneer does with their Passport software (course, I guess TWC could always up and deploy SARA here).

But I wouldn't look forward to much in the way of changes until Cisco gets their hands all the way around SA.

Yeah, here in shelby there's a SKIPPED CHANNELS option. I just checked and I was wrong. It does show the channels in the guide but if you're channeling up or down it will skip past them if you have them selected.

I'm using hdmi and don't get 5.1 as well. See my post in the hdtv recorders section on this. I've called SA and TWC on this already and nothing has been done to add the "audio digital out" function to the more settings option in the box. This option IS on the hd8000 however which makes this even more frustrating. The hd8000 also has the option to delete unused channels from the guide! Why an older box has better functionality than the new dvr is beyond me.

I called SA this week and they said this could be added by a firmware update to the 8300 but I've called before and nothing has happened. If you're not getting 5.1 because of using hdmi I suggest to call SA and twc and maybe if they get enough complaints someone will do something.

good info - back to my original question..sounds like the 3250 is the latest and greatest box for High Def (non-DVR)? correct? if so, what are the connection options? HDMI, DVI?

Its not showing on the guide but WSOC will have the animated George Lopez special in HD and SD following nightline tonight at 12:05. Its prempted at 8pm by some local show on mental health.

I hate when they do that.

TWC has reportedly added UHD to their channel lineup. Has anyone around these here parts heard anything about when it will show up on our local system?

Is it up on any TWC system?

Is it up on any TWC system?

Yes, several, including Columbia, SC!! There used to be a girl from that TWC system that would post here from time to time; that was the only way we would get any oblique info about our own system here since nobody from Charlotte TWC ever posts here with any information. I know a couple who lurk, but they never contribute anything; it's a shame.

Ok, I'll watch for it. I poked around the Diag mode but I didn't see it. I did find some new On Demands hidden. Exercise TV at 865 and SportsSkool at 866. 864 is going to be NBC Olympics On Demand.

You know, I'd give Cisco ten bucks if they'd fix the 8300 up so that you could plug a USB memory dongle into the USB port so that it would backup your DVR's settings (*ALL* of them).

Twenty if they'd give me a way to archive shows to a firewire attached hard drives for playback on any 8300.

My 8300 died Wednesday. "The harddrive appears to have a failure. Would you like to reboot?". Sure. It IPLs and then dashes go across the display on the DVR.

Ugh. Many shows lost.

I feel your pain in a similar way..surfing pc cpu fan failed killing cpu..changed it out now XP is mad.. so much for the lost material..

What the heck was up with TWC and/or Fox just now? I missed Deshaun running up the middle (although I could hear it). What a time to go on the fritz!

...stepping up onto the soapbox....TWC has the WORST service, PERIOD! Their volume on channel 4 ALWAYS SUCKS. Not only did the football game go south (on both hi-def as well as standard cable), but THREE other channels also went black, 4, 6 & 8 at the same time. I might speculate that the problem is with the holiday operators but TWC has OVER AND OVER PROVEN that they "can't get it right" 95% of the time. I have mixed emotions about the upcoming olympics. I want to see them but realize that the odds of actually doing so on a TWC system is only about 50/50. ....Stepping back down off the soapbox.

No Problems with the game via OTA on FOX here at my house..

No Problems with the game via OTA on FOX here at my house..

Thanks for the contribution. This just CONFIRMS that it is Time Warner is the screw up (once again). Not surprising.

Happened to me as well. Both the wife and I scrambled to our other HDTV, but FOX was still down on analog and digital. We shifted to our 10 year old 19" TV and channel 11 picked up fine while both my SA 8300 and Pioneer 3210 were out. Very odd.

I've come to realize that CATV is always going to be a crap shoot...There are sooooo many variables that can go wrong and mess up what you want to see. I've had so many lost days the last several months that TWC had stopped charging me for CATV and Road Runner for a couple of months.

From the "Take It For What It's Worth Department"... a TWC Tech told me just the other day that TWC already has ESPN-2 HD. They are currently working on freeing up bandwidth so as to be able to release it. I guess that means squeezing more analog channels down the same path...

I know not everyone is a sports fan, but at least this might be an indication (albeit slight) that Sue B. and TWC corporate-types realize they cannot just rest on their laurels regarding their Hi-Def offerings.

From the "Take It For What It's Worth Department"... a TWC Tech told me just the other day that TWC already has ESPN-2 HD. They are currently working on freeing up bandwidth so as to be able to release it. I guess that means squeezing more analog channels down the same path...


Any word from them on UHD or Cinemax-HD? I'd certainly want them before ESPN2-HD.... and so would most HD viewers, I'd suspect.

From the "Take It For What It's Worth Department"... a TWC Tech told me just the other day that TWC already has ESPN-2 HD. They are currently working on freeing up bandwidth so as to be able to release it. I guess that means squeezing more analog channels down the same path...

I know not everyone is a sports fan, but at least this might be an indication (albeit slight) that Sue B. and TWC corporate-types realize they cannot just rest on their laurels regarding their Hi-Def offerings.

Please don't lay the blame for no ESPN2 HD on Sue Breckenridge. She is a very nice lady who has absolutely nothing to do with what programing we receive. Hopefully ESPN2 HD will be coming shortly as sports drives high definition as everyone knows who is familiar with the business. TWC knows with the competition from DirecTV and Dish that they cannot wait sit around and do nothing. Keep in mind that in this area you can't get your local stations in HD from DirecTV or Dish. The sats have a lot of catching up to do.

Hopefully ESPN2 HD will be coming shortly as sports drives high definition as everyone knows who is familiar with the business. TWC knows with the competition from DirecTV and Dish that they cannot wait sit around and do nothing. Keep in mind that in this area you can't get your local stations in HD from DirecTV or Dish. The sats have a lot of catching up to do.


What is it about watching remote controlled dinasaur derby in HD makes it worth adding ESPN-2 HD to the line up?

And DirecTV is doing a lot of catching up. 4 new birds in two years (Spaceway F1, and Spaceway F2 in 2005 and DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11, in 2007) should give DirecTV all the capacity it needs to get TW up off its butt and give us more HDTV. Too bad it won't do anything about the cost.

I am hearing that within 30 to 45 days DirecTV will offer the four base locals in HD via the sat without the OTA antenna. This is big for them since that is a big reason some people have not moved over (myself included). Although OTA is an option for some, it is not for someone as myself due to terrain issues (even though I am 1 mile from the Fox tower).

Having the ability to get Locals in HD, ESPN2HD, UHD and the NFL Sunday Ticket? C-ya TWC.

I can tell you that there has been no agreement reached with DirecTv on our part..

Bob...

He said four base locals...That would be WBTV, WSOC, WCNC and WTVI right?

Good question there Harrill.. where ya been? I'm sure that not having FOX and the NFL would work well for duhwreckedtv !

Seeing the relationship between news corp and directv, I doubt the wouldn't have FOX..

Please forgive me if this question is in the wrong forum.. it's just this place has been so helpfull in the past.


I have a SA 8300HD box from TWC. I just bought a new Denon AV Receiver and need to program the remote to control the volume. Where can I find the manual online? I looked on TWC's website, but no luck.


Again, I apologize if this is the wrong place... just need a little direction.


Thanks!

Cratch, I found the manual once, I believe those remotes are made by universal-(UEI), as I did that to program my cable remote to control my sony TV..

Sorry Bob, I don't understand your post.


Does anyone know how to program the remote control? I looked everywhere in my house to find the manual, but no luck.

My REC is a Denon AVR 1905.

Look on the web at Universal (UEI)'s web site..they make the TWC remotes and should have the manual there that will tell you how to program it. Worked for me..

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/explorer_8000/ << They have the manual for the AT8400 in the files section. You have to join the group to access the files.


edit: list of all of the TW Charlotte Remote manuals:
http://www.timewarnercable.com/CustomerService/FAQ/TWCFAQCategories.ashx?CatID=73&MarketID=10

speaking of manuals. TheTWC installation dude did not leave a manuel with my SA8300 when he installed it. The SA web site has a online manuel but that manuel uses different software (TWC uses Passport software) ...any ideas??

Sorry, there is no manual for the SA8300 beyond what you'll find on the Scientific Atlanta web site. The full-color brochure they left with you is all the info you'll get on the Passport system. They don't want customers to know too much - for instance, how to get to the diagnostic screens. They'll tell you it's not possible (but we know it is ;) )

Visit the HDTV Recorders Forum where you'll find a sticky thread about the 8300 w/ Passport on TWC systems. You can find a great deal of info there.

Not HD, but TWC has added a couple new nets to the digital build.

1) Current TV, 175, appears to have replaced News World Intl. http://www.current.tv/studio/
2) Slueth TV, 174 has replaced Trio. Old Homicide LOTS episodes at night.

Still no UHD in Charlotte even as it comes online in other markets. Very frustrating. I need some HD BSG.

Tar Heels played Va tech last night on ESPN2 in HD....but not on Charlotte TWC!! GRRRRRR!!!
If you can't watch the Heels in HD in the town with more alumni than any other city in the country....you might just start losing customers!

Still no UHD in Charlotte even as it comes online in other markets. Very frustrating. I need some HD BSG.

I hear you! It's ridiculous they haven't added this one yet when other TWC markets, including Columbia SC are adding it now. Cinemax-HD, also owned by TWC, is another one that's floating around out there on other systems but mysteriously hasn't made its way to ours - been at least a couple of years now that it's been available. Can't get any info out of them either on new HD channels. Not. One. Word.

Sure does make one wish for a little competition in the local cable market, doesn't it? :(

SHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Would you guys be quiet?! I'm watching Current TV!!! ;)

Sorry Hugh, I know it's not necessarily Sue's fault and she's a nice chick and all... but she's the person whose name is in the paper when TWC is downplaying ala carte programming (BTW, I agree this is not the piece of cake great save all some folks portray it to be...) and explaining why their WCCB feed went out during a Panthers game. She's the one explaining why rates go up.

If she'd a get a quote in front of me that said something to the effect of: "Yes we are cashing your payment check every month, and we do realize that it's been a while since we offered anything new in HD, and in fact, we are working on it." Then I'd be happy (er).

You know, if they'd just get rid of that promo with the cat hacking up a fur ball I'd be happy... :eek:

Cinemax-HD, also owned by TWC, ... :(

Not to get technical, but Cinemax isn't owned by TWC. It is owned by Time Warner. Just like Time Warner Cable is owned by Time Warner. They're different groups with the same parent. And since each TWC market pretty much runs their own show....

If you're unhappy with TW, give Doris Boris a call. Ask her what they're going to do about the franchise agreement they gave to Carolina Broadband who's now gone *POOF*. Maybe another overbuilder (or even our own Muni-broadband solution) could build out here.

If you're unhappy with TW, give Doris Boris a call...

And who might the alliteratively named Doris Boris be? Actually, programming wants are the least of my problems.

I do need a name from someone from TWC-Charlotte who's in the engineering department because I need someone to look at the 5C flags they're applying to channels downstream. I've been having problems with the flags being set incorrectly now for going on 2 years and can't get anyone to look at the problem. (My 40k D-VHS deck won't hold a firewire lock from the SA3250HD on certain HD channels because of these 5C issues.) Neither Ron W. nor Dave K. has been much help in that department, although Ron did listen politely and humored me for awhile. Dave basically told me that since I'm the only guy with a D-VHS/SA3250 w/firewire setup (hard to understand with all these HD addicts around here), my problems don't rate an investigation. I refuse to accept that as I've been paying for this capability and, silly me, feel it ought to work properly.

Does anyone have a name/number I could call who would be willing and capable to help on this issue? Sure would appreciate it..... :)

And who might the alliteratively named Doris Boris be? Actually, programming wants are the least of my problems.


Doris (and yeah, her last name is Boris, I kid you not) is/was the city cable franchiese czar.

I only know of Dave K, so I cant help much there. I should get around to investing in a DVHS deck, but I've got other things to spend on first. Heh.

Tar Heels played Va tech last night on ESPN2 in HD....but not on Charlotte TWC!! GRRRRRR!!!
If you can't watch the Heels in HD in the town with more alumni than any other city in the country....you might just start losing customers!


I want ESPN2HD just as bad as everyone else, but I would be willing to pay a little more if TWC would remove all tarhole games from the signal they send to my house.

:p :D

Doris (and yeah, her last name is Boris, I kid you not) is/was the city cable franchiese czar.

I only know of Dave K, so I cant help much there. I should get around to investing in a DVHS deck, but I've got other things to spend on first. Heh.

I also have an 8300, like most everyone else, and that's a great machine for time-shifting HD content. (It would be even better if they would activate the SATA expansion port and/or the dormant 1394 ports.)

But having a D-VHS deck means I can permanently archive HD movies and concerts for later viewing. I've managed to get a few dozen done, mostly from HDNet Movies, but have missed countless opportunities to archive content from HBO, Showtime, and PBS-HD because of these #@%!* 5C issues. I figure it will be a few years before HD-DVD is a practical and cost-effective reality, but D-VHS is here today. Plus, I have about 8 D-Theater tapes, which is the most pristine HD content there is, so the D-VHS deck is worth it to me.

If I could only get someone, anyone from TWC to look at the firewire problems! Other (more responsive) cable companies have demonstrated that it's not a difficult fix; they're just applying the 5C flags incorrectly here. It's amazing how well they insulate the engineering department from their paying customers. It's not right, either.

I'm sure having ESPN2-HD is a cost issue for TWC. I can solve if for them.....get rid of all the channels from 100-199 and give us ESPN2HD!!

I would be willing to pay a little more if TWC would remove all tarhole games from the signal they send to my house.

:p :D

Mee Too! I'm a big "A-B-C" fan myself!! :D

TWC Raleigh will have UHD on Feb. 1st. ESPN2 sometime in the Spring according to this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6942467#post6942467

That may mean nothing for Charlotte, but its still a good sign.

BTW, the Exercise On Demand is now in the clear. Check out the Bellydancing!

I noticed a LOT of channels were clear last night..

I noticed a LOT of channels were clear last night..

:p

Any more news on getting some of the new channels?

ESPN2HD
Cinemax HD
Starz HD
Universal HD
National Geographic HD
MTV HD
ESPN-U
CSTV


TW really seems to lag behind other providers on adding new stuff.

I've recorded a bunch of concerts on my DVR (SA8300HD). Any idea how I can get them off my box and onto something else like a DVD in order to archive them and play again??

I've recorded a bunch of concerts on my DVR (SA8300HD). Any idea how I can get them off my box and onto something else like a DVD in order to archive them and play again??

Sure, just get a DVD recorder. It works for me. Of course the picture quality sucks and the audio is not as good.

High's right..that's the only option, D-VHS won't work at this point even tho it should..

Any more news on getting some of the new channels?

ESPN2HD
Cinemax HD
Starz HD
Universal HD
National Geographic HD
MTV HD
ESPN-U
CSTV


TW really seems to lag behind other providers on adding new stuff.

NFL Network??!!

Is there a big football coming up or something?

So, after 9 years as a D*TV customer, I am going to switch to TWC, until at least D*TV has local channels in HD as well as a HD DVR (that is MPEG4 capable). The fact that TWC doesn't demand your first born is nice as well. Did anyone else make the switch from D*TV to TWC for their HD content? Was it worth it? Am I making the right choice?

I made the switch from E* to TW about two to three years ago, and I have been generally quite happy. I am only now getting frustrated with the lack of recent HD channel additions. It used to be a slam dunk with respect to who had more HD content for Charlotte customers, but D* and E* have made some great strides (although there are still plenty of complaints about HD Lite). Also, the lack of a big investment for a HD DVR was the main reason I went with TW.

I've been a TWC HD subscriber for about 3 months. I love it but like Mhorn says in his post, the lack of more HD channels is frustrating. How many times can you watch the "Chasing Lance" program on INHD 1 before you get tired of it?!! I culdn't find anything to watch Friday night :(

I made the switch from E* to TW about two to three years ago, and I have been generally quite happy. I am only now getting frustrated with the lack of recent HD channel additions. It used to be a slam dunk with respect to who had more HD content for Charlotte customers, but D* and E* have made some great strides (although there are still plenty of complaints about HD Lite). Also, the lack of a big investment for a HD DVR was the main reason I went with TW.


I might as well just say ditto. Your comments match my own feelings exactly. :)

I am switching from Dish to TWC to take advantage of the TWC package deal including Digital Phone, RR, an HDTV DVR, and 2 digital boxes for over $30 per month less than I was paying for all that with no DVR. I know, the price will increase after the initial 12 months, but I will deal with it then. What model of HD-DVR am I likely to get from TWC? The Dish 811 looks great in HD,and terrible in SD, and suffers from all manner of lockup, EPG, etc problems. I am hoping the TWC equipment will be better. From what I can determine, there is about the same amount of HDTV programming available with each currently.

I am switching from Dish to TWC to take advantage of the TWC package deal including Digital Phone, RR, an HDTV DVR, and 2 digital boxes for over $30 per month less than I was paying for all that with no DVR. I know, the price will increase after the initial 12 months, but I will deal with it then. What model of HD-DVR am I likely to get from TWC? The Dish 811 looks great in HD,and terrible in SD, and suffers from all manner of lockup, EPG, etc problems. I am hoping the TWC equipment will be better. From what I can determine, there is about the same amount of HDTV programming available with each currently.

You'll get the Sci-Atl 8300HD box. Which has plenty of issues on its own.

I must be missing something here, but what other provider offers more HDTV channels than TW? That serves *OUR* area?

You'll get the Sci-Atl 8300HD box. Which has plenty of issues on its own.

I just moved into the area and just got the box you mentioned. What do you mean by "plenty of issues" ? I'm curious to see what I'm in for.

;)

Anyone else in the Charlotte area having issues with CBSHD? (225) It refuses to come in at my house, despite a two-hour visit from TWC yesterday. I'm in the Elizabeth neighborhood.

Anyone else in the Charlotte area having issues with CBSHD? (225) It refuses to come in at my house, despite a two-hour visit from TWC yesterday. I'm in the Elizabeth neighborhood.

No problems here in Matthews (just checked now, granted, I don't think that "The Price Is Right" is HD ;)) so that might not be the best indicator. If they didn't hard-boot the box, give that a try.

I'm sure having ESPN2-HD is a cost issue for TWC. I can solve if for them.....get rid of all the channels from 100-199 and give us ESPN2HD!!

Stacey:

Asking for it in this forum will not do any good. Let your local TWC reps know. Unfortunately, many of them (like ours here in Raleigh) are totally clueless and defer to corporate Time Warner. You can e-mail the man (Fred Dressler) responsible for programming at the corporate level:

fred.dressler@twcable.com

He does respond ... usually with fairly vague information, however.

Anyone else in the Charlotte area having issues with CBSHD? (225) It refuses to come in at my house, despite a two-hour visit from TWC yesterday. I'm in the Elizabeth neighborhood.
I assume by other providers they mean E* and D*.

With respect to the 8300, I've been pretty satisfied. I've never had Tivo, so maybe I would be disappointed if I did.

I rarely have problems with the 8300, even recording two HD programs and watching another HD recorded program at the same time. Every couple of months, one of my 8300s will freeze and I'll have to reboot. It could be more elegant with respect to telling me how much disk space I've got left. For example, it will tell you when it's running low with respect to anticipated scheduled recordings, but once or twice, I've not had such warnings (i.e., enough room) and then I try to record two or three HD movies in the same evening, and it's erased my oldest programs that I haven't marked save. It would have been nice if it warned me in advance of deleting those older programs (i.e., given me a choice of not recording the new programs or deleting the old programs). Since I'm only paying 8 or so extra dollars a month for it, I view it as a great value.

IIt could be more elegant with respect to telling me how much disk space I've got left.

If you go into the diagnostics menu, there is a screen (second from the bottom) that gives you the hard disk space used and available. Bearing in mind the buffers are using about 17 gigs, and an HD recording uses roughly 5-6 gigs and an SD recording uses roughly 2-3 gigs, you can get a pretty good idea about the amount of disk space you have left and plan your recordings accordingly.

I just moved into the area and just got the box you mentioned. What do you mean by "plenty of issues" ? I'm curious to see what I'm in for.

;)

Where to start (scroll back and you can see my tirade on this a dozen pages back or so)?

You cannot lock out channels you don't subscribe too or otherwise don't ever wish to view.

If you schedule a SD and HD recording (of the same show) it won't record either show (though, granted, I've not tried this since I got a new 8300 - the HD died in the old 8300 a month or so ago).

A crash or reboot happens atleast 1 to 2 times a week. The lastest 8300 I have seems to do this a *LOT* when the 2nd tuner is about to become busy and it prompts you to change, or not record. Usually, when I tell it not to record it just dies, right then and there.

SATA ports don't work.

The guide data blitzes (this happens on the new 8300 too) atleast a half dozen times a month.

If your HD dies you've got to start over from scratch. No way to save your information (preferences/scheduled shows) to a USB keyfob.

From time-to-time it just flat out refuses to record a scheduled show. You've got to delete the show and re-add it (not seen this on the new 8300 yet).

Channel changing is slow.

No gas guage.

With all that said, I've been a HDTV TW customer since March of 2002 and this is the best HD box (I got one of the very first, hand built boxes back in the day - and then it was like, 4 HD channels) TW has in its inventory.

I'm also afraid that we won't be seeing -any- software updates for the next 18 months or so while Cisco eats up SciAtl.

SATA ports don't work.



That is the only one that bothers me. I would LOVE to be able to hook up a big ass hard drive to this thing to get more storage. I like to keep lots of stuff on the box to choose from.

Other than that I don't really have any problems with the box. I do get an occasional reboot (one every couple of weeks or so) but it isn't that big of a deal. The 8300 is a thousand times better than the last HD-DVR box TW had (can't remember the model number).

I do find the lack of being able to block out channels that I never watch from the guide and channel surfing to be annoying. I remember that was probably the hardest thing to get used to in switching from E*.

Good point archiguy about being able to use the diagnostic menu.

I do get an occasional reboot


I think I cursed myself. I've had 2 reboots just tonight. It crashed changing channels and reboot itself. Came back up, ran for about 3 minutes and bam, crashed again. I gave up and shut everything off for the night. Its got plenty of cooling, so I don't know what this one's problem is.

Stacey:

Asking for it in this forum will not do any good. Let your local TWC reps know. Unfortunately, many of them (like ours here in Raleigh) are totally clueless and defer to corporate Time Warner. You can e-mail the man (Fred Dressler) responsible for programming at the corporate level:

fred.dressler@twcable.com

He does respond ... usually with fairly vague information, however.



After seeing this post, I sent Fred an email asking about what channels they are planning to add. Here is his response:


you'll have to check with the local management on timing of launch, but corporately we expect to/or already have deals with espn2, cinemax and universal. the others are in the works.

So at least they are working on it... hopefully they will get some of them up and running soon.

Is anyone else not getting INHD, INHD2 and HDNM?

ESPNHD and TNTHD work great.

Tried rebooting the box, but that did not help.

Thanks
Eric

Is anyone else not getting INHD, INHD2 and HDNM?

ESPNHD and TNTHD work great.

Tried rebooting the box, but that did not help.

Thanks
Eric


I had the same issue when I first signed up for TWC - it turns out it was a reception issue that was fixed by a service call.

It's still 2 weeks until my TWC install appointment. I gotta say WSOC's OTA HDTV Super Bowl broadcast I am watching with my Dish 811 is absolutely stunning without question. I hope I am not disappointed with TWC's HD :)

It's still 2 weeks until my TWC install appointment. I gotta say WSOC's OTA HDTV Super Bowl broadcast I am watching with my Dish 811 is absolutely stunning without question. I hope I am not disappointed with TWC's HD :)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. ABC *SUCKS* on their sports coverage. Something went very, very bad just prior to half time and from that point forward they couldn't keep the 5.1 mix straight. I for one am glad they're giving up. It'd be nice to see Fox do the Superbowl next year.

I do have to give ABC props for showing a lot of the commericals this year in HD/5.1 though. That was nice.

And the DVR died, again, during the game. Tried to replay the Cars promo and the DVR didn't respond to any input. Didn't even respond to the power button being pressed down. Oddly enough, it kept playing the channel it was on, though the program it was recording had stopped. Even though it indicated it was recording. Think I need to take this one back.

I am not yet 5.1 capable, so I cannot comment on that aspect of the broadcast, but, again, I think the video ABC broadcast was as good as it gets. I think it ranks up there with Fox's Daytona 500 HD broadcast last year which was so awesome even the Observer sports people wrote about it.

I am not yet 5.1 capable, so I cannot comment on that aspect of the broadcast, but, again, I think the video ABC broadcast was as good as it gets. I think it ranks up there with Fox's Daytona 500 HD broadcast last year which was so awesome even the Observer sports people wrote about it.

Maybe you need to keep your Dish box then. Because ABC Sports never has the "pop" that the other networks have (maybe something TW is doing, I don't know). And I wasn't very impressed with the video feed of this year's game. It looked good, but I've seen better, from other networks. And it CERTAINLY was not on par with anything Fox does, ever (CBS comes in a very very close second on football). Of course, I could be jaded.

I wish ABC would give the Indy to Fox too.

I personally thought ABC's HD looked fantastic yesterday - no complaints from me.

[QUOTE=ke4pym]Maybe you need to keep your Dish box then.


Yikes! I have a 6.1 receiver on order, but it appears I should maybe keep my 20 year old Pioneer VSX-5000 Surround Sound receiver too. The audio was fine here as well as the video for the game. I am thinking OTA might render a better product than satellite or cable. Another topic for sure :)

I had no problem with the Dolby 5.1 sound on my DVR (still using the old 8000HD with no problems) for the game here in the University Area.

[QUOTE=ke4pym]Maybe you need to keep your Dish box then.


Yikes! I have a 6.1 receiver on order, but it appears I should maybe keep my 20 year old Pioneer VSX-5000 Surround Sound receiver too. The audio was fine here as well as the video for the game. I am thinking OTA might render a better product than satellite or cable. Another topic for sure :)

It was ABC's problem. Several other co-workers here commented about the poor 5.1 mix, especially after half time.

Personally, I though it was bad the whole time. Out of nowhere the surround channels would drop. Then, they'd come back at 110%, scare you half to death. There was a time, I think in the 3rd qt where everything went to the right channel. Eventually, it all balanced out. Halftime was the worst though. The fake crowd noise was so loud in the 4 primary channels that you could barely hear Mick in the center channel. The drums and guitars were all forced to the right channel.

I was online chatting real time with other folks during the game and they noted how bad the audio was on their normal TVs, let alone having a nice surround system.

If you guys really think ABC's coverage was that great, keep mental notes about what you saw. Then, watch NBC's Olympic coverage (if it is anything like it was in 2002 and 2004...) and compare the two. You'll see exactly how much better NBC's quality is. Though, NBC supports 1080i. ABC is only offering 720p. But so is Fox, and Fox has a better PQ.

Yep, I have been reading elsewhere as well that the 5.1 audio sucked last night. An issue I have noticed during Fox's Panther HD broadcasts is they don't always seem to have ALL HD cameras in place. For instance a midfield shot might look great while an endzone camera shot would appear to be SD. I noticed none of this nonsense with ABC last night.

I have a sammy DLP at 720p and there has been no comparison over this football season, ABC hands down has the better picture quality. FOX often seems soft. Your right the 5.1 sound did drop a few times last night. The commercials sounded very good in 5.1.

I was looking at the NBC Olympics schedule, and a good chunk of the programming (at least the early days) is on Universal HD.
The NBC schedule page says it all:

The following network is not available on your selected provider

Argggghhh...

Well, I'm still hopeful that UHD will be up by this weekend. But the problem definitely appears to be a local issue as a lot of TWC markets are rolling out UHD, including Raleigh. So complaints on this issue need to be addressed to somebody down on Arrowwood and not Fred Dressler up in NY.

I really don't get what the issue is here in regards to UHD. If corporate has signed the agreements then what is the holdup in Charlotte? I can't belive that its a system or bandwidth issue here. Charlotte is supposed to be a fairly advanced and robust cable system right?

OK, its up. UHD is testing on Channel 289 with a channel label of Olympics. Must be in diag mode to see it. I bet its on for real tomorrow. The first Olympic event is 6pm tomorrow and then they have womens hockey most of the day on Sat and again on Sunday.

OK, its up. UHD is testing on Channel 289 with a channel label of Olympics. Must be in diag mode to see it. I bet its on for real tomorrow. The first Olympic event is 6pm tomorrow and then they have womens hockey most of the day on Sat and again on Sunday.

Thanks, now remind me which two buttons I press on the box to get into diag. mode.......................old age is heck. :o

Exit and Select on the front panel. Hold 5 sec.

..old age is heck. :o

Getting old is not for sissies.... :)

UHD is now up on channel 289 out of diagnostic mode. Only time will tell if this is a permanent channel.

Wonder if that will work given my problems with 225. <sigh>.

First cable tech screwed it up, have to meet another one tomorrow.

Any thoughts about D*?

UHD is now up on channel 289 out of diagnostic mode. Only time will tell if this is a permanent channel.

To heck with "time"; I would like a TWC employee to let us know if they'll be joining the TWC outlets around us in Raleigh and Columbia in permanently adding this channel! But then the earth might stop spinning on its axis. :rolleyes:

I feel ya on that archi....

On another note, I recently got a reply from Fred Dressler saying they had a few HD contracts and channels lined up but I would have to check with local management in order to see when the rollout of those channels would be in charlotte?

Anyone know emails or phone numbers of some mgmt over on arrowood road?

It's showing up in the regular guide now...

On my TV now, too.

Now...when do we get ESPN2?



And a second thing, why did TW have ESPN blacked out for the UNC-Duke game? Watching the SD JP Sports broadcast sucked knowing that the rest of the nation was watching it in HD on ESPN!

According to Charlotte's TWC website UHD is Temporary! Guess we did not have to wait long for that answer!

NBC Universal HD
(Channel 289 - Temporary)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: We will provide, on a temporary basis for Olympics coverage, the feed for NBC Universal HD. Again, this will be temporary for the Olympics. This channel will go down after February 26, 2006.


If anyone cares twcarolina website, go to programming, then Olympics Coverage.

They just said that this was the first Winter Olympics broadcast in HD.

Did they forget the 2002 games? Cause I sure watched a WHOLE bunch of it in HD back in March of 02. Granted, there was no 5.1 Surround sound with it. Maybe that is what they were refering too.

Please contact WCNC and ask them to fix their horrible HD Olympics delivery. Sound was awful, macroblocking was typically (for WCNC) bad. Without multiple complaints, they'll give the standard "must be your equipment" reply.

I was going to try to find the head of programming here in Charlotte and write a thank-you note for adding the channel and expressing my hope that it will stick around. I would suggest everybody here do the same. It will be fun to see Battlestar Galactica in HD (Sunday night), and they have some other interesting programming as well. In any event, it's another HD choice and that's never a bad thing.

If they see that there's a demand for this channel, and a little schmoosing on our part, maybe the chances of keeping this channel go up.

And a second thing, why did TW have ESPN blacked out for the UNC-Duke game? Watching the SD JP Sports broadcast sucked knowing that the rest of the nation was watching it in HD on ESPN!

Fret no more. ESPN is required to black out the game locally in favor of the JP broadcast; they have the rights. And the UNC/Duke game was not on HD anywhere, hard as that is to fathom. The next one (home at UNC) will be.

I was going to try to find the head of programming here in Charlotte and write a thank-you note for adding the channel and expressing my hope that it will stick around. I would suggest everybody here do the same. It will be fun to see Battlestar Galactica in HD (Sunday night), and they have some other interesting programming as well. In any event, it's another HD choice and that's never a bad thing.

If they see that there's a demand for this channel, and a little schmoosing on our part, maybe the chances of keeping this channel go up.
Agreed. Beggars can't be choosers at this point, but maybe a little more begging can't hurt. When I read that Universal HD was going to have a bunch of Olympic HD coverage, I was like, "Well, does us a lot of good." I'm sure glad they worked out something with NBC (or vice versa) to show this, and we should consider ourselves quite lucky. I'm certainly going to go out of my way to let someone know that "we, your loyal TW customers, appreciate this, and gee, wouldn't it be great if we could get this full time?" That certainly would push me over the edge to fork up the extra $6.95 for the HD Tier.

I wonder if TW is showing this in other markets? Did you guys know that all the NBC Olympic feeds come from Torino to Charlotte (the NBC Newschannel facility off of Billy Graham) before it goes out to all affiliates nationwide? Maybe that's why were getting this temporary channel?

I wonder if TW is showing this in other markets? Did you guys know that all the NBC Olympic feeds come from Torino to Charlotte (the NBC Newschannel facility off of Billy Graham) before it goes out to all affiliates nationwide? Maybe that's why were getting this temporary channel?
I just read in another forum that TWC picked up Universal HD in all their markets for the two weeks of the Olympics. In fact, it looks like all major cable outlets did so except Adelphia. Glad I don't live in Lake Norman....

That certainly would push me over the edge to fork up the extra $6.95 for the HD Tier.


I would certainly hope they don't put a commercial pushin' HD network into the HD tier.

Am I the only one experiencing video breakups on channel 220 tonight? The video is dropping out for as much as 5-10 seconds. This is on my 8300HD and on another TV using it's internal digital tuner. You'd think they could get it together for something as highly advertised as the Olympics.

Am I the only one experiencing video breakups on channel 220 tonight? The video is dropping out for as much as 5-10 seconds. This is on my 8300HD and on another TV using it's internal digital tuner. You'd think they could get it together for something as highly advertised as the Olympics.
Yeah, I had it, too. Both on the 8300HD and on my OTA tuner. Definitely an NBC thing. Sound did the same "echo-ey" thing it did last night, too. Maybe they'll have it figured out over the next two weeks....

Yeah, I had it, too. Both on the 8300HD and on my OTA tuner. Definitely an NBC thing. Sound did the same "echo-ey" thing it did last night, too. Maybe they'll have it figured out over the next two weeks....

Called in for another issue and they've got an annoucement talking about this issue and that they're working on it.

They just said that this was the first Winter Olympics broadcast in HD.

Did they forget the 2002 games? Cause I sure watched a WHOLE bunch of it in HD back in March of 02. Granted, there was no 5.1 Surround sound with it. Maybe that is what they were refering too.

Actually they said it's the first Olympics *simulcasted* in HD, the 2002 Olympics were not. The SD and HD coverage were seperate, often the HD coverage came a day late, I assume because they had to encode it properly, live HD encodings were more epxensive in 2002 I think.

I remember the '02 Olympics very well. Often you would have the same event going on in both SD and HD at the same time, except on SD it was the finals from that day and on HD it was a preliminary heat from the day before. :(


Actually they said it's the first Olympics *simulcasted* in HD, the 2002 Olympics were not. The SD and HD coverage were seperate, often the HD coverage came a day late, I assume because they had to encode it properly, live HD encodings were more epxensive in 2002 I think.

what was up with the sound on greys anatomy tonight? How in the world did the extreme home makeover audio track end up one the feed at the most dramatic part of the show?!!! The bass would have been unreal!

I've had the same problems on 220.

Did anybody else lose HBO HD and SHO HD Saturday night or is it an isolated problem with my feed?

According to Charlotte's TWC website UHD is Temporary! Guess we did not have to wait long for that answer!

NBC Universal HD
(Channel 289 - Temporary)

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: We will provide, on a temporary basis for Olympics coverage, the feed for NBC Universal HD. Again, this will be temporary for the Olympics. This channel will go down after February 26, 2006.


If anyone cares twcarolina website, go to programming, then Olympics Coverage.

Well that stinks. Maybe what they are talking about is providing UHD on a free basis with it going to the extra $ HD Tier after the 26th.

Well that stinks. Maybe what they are talking about is providing UHD on a free basis with it going to the extra $ HD Tier after the 26th.

Already being a subscriber to the HD Tier, I would welcome that. Anything to get that channel added to the system permanently.

But the wording of the announcement doesn't give me much hope.

Yeah, WSOC had audio problems all weekend on thier HD Feed. They had no audio during The Green Mile.

Here's a crazy question. I have 2 TWC Pioneer digital boxes that appear identical except one of them has red figures in the display, and the other has green figures. The box with the red figures pixelizes on some of the digital tier channels. What's up with the color difference? My A/S 8300 works great, and the HD video is as good as my Dish 811 was.

I received one of the first SA8300's as a beta tester for TWC so I've had it for quite some time. Does anyone know if a newer version of this box is being used by TWC?

I received one of the first SA8300's as a beta tester for TWC so I've had it for quite some time. Does anyone know if a newer version of this box is being used by TWC?

That's it. And with Cisco buying the farm, I wouldn't hold my breath looking for updates anytime soon.

There is a multroom version of the SA8300(HD). I've not heard if our market is handing that one out or not...