Wichita, KS - HDTV - Page 12

I think it was on channel 3 (forgot call sign) during the morning local news. It's an ad for their digital service and says "HD coming soon" or something like that. No indication as to the time frame of "coming soon" of course. I'd guess by winter or next spring at the latest since they're advertising it now.

I went into the downtown Cox office back in May, and the Customer service rep. told me that they would have HDTV in June. Is this June?? I've emailed them several times and all I get is we dont know. I am really frustrated with Cox. I dont understand why all these other citys have it and we dont. If anyone gets more info please post it.
Thanks!

I also talked to a Cox rep downtown in late May. He told me that he received a letter that day from the Cox management stating that the June date for HD had been pushed back a couple of months and that the goal was to have it available in time for Monday Night Football in September. My neighbor (who works for Cox laying cable) told me that they were in the process of upgraded the cable for increased bandwidth. He said that Cox is currently laying cable in southeast Wichita (south of Kellogg) and that our neighborhood (northeast Wichita) wasn't scheduled until late 2004. He did not know if the upgraded cable was required for HD. But if it is, HD maybe become available but not in all areas immediately. I give no guarantees on the accuracy of this info. Just passing on what I was told. Time will tell.

Vern,

What you say has the ring of truth. When cable Internet service rolled out, not every neighborhood could get the service. It wouldn't surprise me for the rollout to take a year. This is pure conjecture on my part as well.

David

Why really shoud it take that long? I believe the rule is pretty much if you have access to cable internet, you would be able to have access to HDTV. Is not all of Wichita 750mhz?

You guys down there are in a top 100 market, which Cox told Powell they would have up and running by the end of last year. And we keep waiting.

The thing about me is, I cannot get the OTA HDTV stations, so I am going to have to rely on Cox to provide them. Alot of you guys are pretty luck in the number of channels you can receive.

tim

Well, hopefully it comes soon. With D* screwing up their HD channels, I'm ready to try something different. I guess this is off topic, but does anyone know how the cable providers around the country are working the HD cable box deals? For example, are they making people buy them, renting them, or simply providing them with the channel package??

Doh, should have done a better search.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...cable+box+cost

talon95,
I know in OKC, Cox is making people buy the boxes. I think around $499. They seem to be making people buy them in all the new markets they start HDTV service so I would imagine that would continue.

Take a look here, it is OKC's HDTV page, they have a few networks, Discovery, and ESPN-HD, HBO, and SHO
http://www.cox.com/OKC/hdtv/hdtvchannellineup.asp

Thanks Tim.

Well, that just plain sucks though. If you read that thread I posted, there are a lot of other places around the country that are getting the boxes for low rental fees, or even the same fee as the SD cable boxes. Might want to look for my TS-160 on EBay in the coming weeks/months!

Tim,

I hope you are correct, that the upgrades COX did to support their Internet service has prepared them for HDTV. I know they installed a lot of fiber a couple of years ago, and new cable where it was required. It's probably a good bet that if you have Internet service, you may well be good to go for HD.

Prices on the cable boxes should come down pretty quickly. Remember cable modems were expensive at first. It wouldn't surprise me to see the boxes rent for $10 a month like the first cable modems, with an offer to purchase the box a year or so later. It seems reasonable to me that COX will invest in a few thousand boxes to (1) guarantee a supply, and (2) provide an option for people who don't have $499, or whatever the price of the boxes are. As availability improves and prices drop, people will start buying the boxes at CompUSA and returning the rentals, at which point COX will start offering them for sale.

Don't be TOO hard on COX for not offering the service yet. Mostly it has been larger markets that have rolled out the service, standards have only recently been set, prices for cable boxes have been high and supplies short, the first generation boxes are now being replaced by 2nd gen boxes which will have a longer "shelf life", and therefore be a better investment, and so on.

Up until now, DirecTV has offered only three HD channels, with two of those being extra pay channels. Now that they are offering ESPN, Discovery HD, and HDNet Movies, they start offering some competition to the cable companies. That's one factor. Consumer awareness of HD is improving to the point that most people know what it is, and are beginning to damand it. Prices on TV's have come down to the point where a critical mass of consumers can afford them. I don't KNOW anything, but I'm pretty comfortable in suggesting we will see COX roll out HDTV this fall. As has been suggested, September seems reasonable.

Now, if we could just get COX to share their plans with us instead of keeping it all a big secret...

David

Well, I haven't visited this forum for a while but had to put in my 2cents.
I tried to pick up digital channels OTA a couple of months ago with very limited success, and I live in NW Wichita (21st & Tyler area). I tried the Samsung something-151 box with a rooftop antenna in my attic (purchased from Radio shack, the second to the largest "traditional-style" antenna's they offered - for $60 I believe it was). I spent a couple of days trying to tune in digital channels and was only able to get 2 - 3 channels.
Not EVEN worth the investment. So I returned all the equipment and said the hell with it. Just for the heck of it I decided to checkup on this forum and it sounds like a lot of you ARE having real good look receiving channels (even from the EAST side of town)!!!! Even though I can't afford it right now, I was real close to giving this whole experience another shot (I'm on vacation 1st week of July and would have time to mess around with fine tuning antenna choice and orientation, etc) until I got to the last 2 pages of this thread. Sounds like Cox MAY have plans for HDTV sooner than later. I'm sure there would be no headaches trying to pick up signals and at least for me this would be more economical (especially if they don't make you buy your own equipment and just rent the equipment). I have cox high speed internet and digital cable now and I'm sure they would offer a decent package deal. Also, did you know they are offering telephone service in some areas of Wichita, soon to be all areas. I will be jumping on that bandwagon also!!! Again, package deals = discounts (hopefully). I've been talking to Cox about the phone service and pricing is going to be VERY competitive.

K, enough rambling....

Interesting about your experience with OTA HD. I was able to pick up several channels with a $2.99 Radio Shack bowtie pushpinned to the wall near my computer on the main floor of the house. I am within a mile of 21st and Tyler.

Hey, Somebody here who is chomping at the bit for cable, call Cox and try to speak with someone who KNOWS something about their plans. Not a salesperson, or even a "supervisor", but someone higher up. I don't know how you DO that, but there has GOT to be someone at Cox willing to talk about their plans.

David

The COX people were in doing a presentation at my office downtown on Friday discussing internet service. Since I have been waiting on buying an HDTV until they started carrying the channels on their system, I brought it up over a break. The VP that was there is part of the business services group but seemed to know what was going on. He indicated August is pretty much set in stone at this point. Said we'd get ESPN/Discovery/HBO/Showtime and most likely KWCH and KSNW to start with. The other local channels would show up later. Didn't have any details on the receiver yet other than the model has been decided on and they are working on getting them ready. This may change later but I'll be working with them through at least the end of July so I'll keep on them for details.

Now if they can just get their digital phone service in more areas of town!

Gee... only took a year and half for my first post!

I wonder why they would not include KAKE or the WB station??
If you get a chance, could you ask about the rest of Kansas, meaning Topeka and Manhattan?

thanks!

My prediction: It won't take long for them to have all the local stations. They'll be in hot water with the FCC if they carry just some of the local stations and not others.

David

Even if they do get those HD stations, I probably won't switch to cable. That is unless the address the picture quality of other stations, such as TBS, TNT, USA, etc. The quality of those stations on cable is so piss poor compared to satellite. If they could add those stations digital (and not what they are calling digital currently), then maybe I'd think about it.

In case you guys haven't heard, thought it would be appropriate for me to post :

Today (6-25 press release) Fox announced that it would begin 720p HD network broadcasts for the fall 2004 season. These broadcasts will include at least 50% of prime time shows.

Something new to look forward to.

jon

Surely this isn't news to anyone here, but I didn't see anything posted so I thought I would put it out there.

Cox is slated to start offering HDTV service on September 1. I talked to someone at Cox this morning and confirmed that, at least this is what their sales people are being told.

I got on a list of people who are 'interested' in the service, so apparently they will be contacting me with more info.

I'll wait and see.

It's news to me XRay, thanks for the heads up.

David

What they replys I have gotten back from Cox are saying early September also. I asked about which channels they would carry but they didn't say.

COX HDTV - A friend of mine called last week and they said it would be next summer at the earliest. I wonder who is confused over there.

Anyone know of a good ISF certified projection tv technician. I'm looking at getting mine cleaned and tuned up.

Who ISN'T confused at COX, when it comes to High Definition Television? If there is anyone with a CLUE, they are in hiding. Come out, come out wherever you are.

David

Well as of this morning... HD channels have started showing up on the digital cable channel guide.

610 = HBO East HD
615 = Showtime East HD
620 = ESPN HD
621 = Discovery HD

Showtime has program data while the other channels do not. Obviously if something is there it isn't viewable with the current non-HD Motorola boxes.

Looks like we are getting close!

I wonder if they will carry the 2 HD Net channels. That would be sweet. I've heard that HD Net is carried in some other cable markets - not sure which ones, but the HD Net Movie channel would be nice.

Let's hope they carry all the local digital channels. Especially PBS. I can't get PBS digital and can only get 3-1 if I sacrifice 12-1. Cable could cure that!

AWESOME!

That would be a nice start...those 4 channels plus local. I would still probably pass because the picture quality is so poor on the other stations (USA,TNT,TBS,WGN).

First thing I'd like to do is thank all of you who have posted and made this thread informative. I have been viewing it for quite some time and used it extensively in making my recent HD decisions.

I just got DirecTV hooked up Monday with the Samsung TS160 HD receiver, and all I can say is WOW!!! It's everything I'd hoped for. Monday nights football game was glorious. I'm picking up all of the locals digital signals quite well with a 5 ft. old style boom antenna. I'm about a mile south of the Kellogg and Maize intersection.

My only bummer is that Tivo cannot see and record the digital signals Even though Tivo could not record them in HD the digital signal is quite clearer and I would have liked to take advantage of this. I'm hoping that the HD Tivo, hopefully released later this year, will fix this little snafu.

As far as Cox is concerned, I have never been able to get a straight answer out of them and decided enough was enough and punted them for DirecTV. So far, I'm not disappointed.

A friend of mine says he has seen ads on TV for Cox HD "Coming Soon". They wouldn't be wasting their money on advertising if it weren't coming within 60 days. you'd think the fall season would be a good time to introduce it.

David

I finally saw the elusive Cox Hd ad also. And I agree, if it weren't in the somewhat near future they probably would not be running the ad.

I'm still stoked about my DirecTV setup though. I can't help but think Cox is going to stick it to the early adopters of the HD package.

Can you tell I'm somewhat dissatisfied with Cox. I'm not bitter though :O

Doug:
If Cox makes us buy the box instead of renting, I would not go with them except I cannot get the locals OTA. I think it wrong they will make us buy, citing they own ad saying they are cheaper than satellite becasue no no equipment costs.