Greensboro, NC - HDTV - Page 14

The rumor is that they will 720p by the fall. No hard date yet. But they have been a little busy with the 45 analog transmitter. It got hit by lightning last weekend and literally melted down. Something happened to the interlocks and instead of the transmitter shutting down, it burned itself up. So they have been working on getting it back to normal.

Thanks, Pam. Crap, I guess I have to get back there and double check my connections to make sure I didn't knock my digital connection loose and if not, I guess I need a new box from TWC. Pam, dare you getting 5.1 regularly? And it is the HD channel, right?

Regularly?
LOL! You have to realize I haven't had my receiver hooked up for over 8 months. Just got it together last night. I'll keep checking and if I find any irregularities, I'll let you know. It is HBO HD E and W. All others are giving me 2 channel right now. Just hooked the computer up in the theater, too. I'll be programming the remote over the weekend (MX 700). As far as boxes, I have the 3100 and they told me the only "upgrade" is the DVR version. $4.95/month. Add HBO I control for another $4.95. I don't think that one is in HD tho...

Let me know how things work out - I hope it's just a loose connection!

Pam

No, I knew there was no upgrade box yet, I just meant a replacement. Because I know I had 5.1 for the grammy's but it's been a long time. Tell me how you like the MX700. I have the MX500, and I've replaced all my remotes except for my Pioneer Elite 45TX remote, which I'm sure I could do if I just spent some time doing it. But I haven't been dedicated enough to go for macros yet. I don't have discrete codes for my projector, so that throws things off.

Good News!

Pam, thanks so much for checking. As usual, it was operator error (ME!). Somehow the digital input on the Pioneer had gotten changed, I remember having a power outage one day and I'm wondering if the Pioneer reset itself to the defaults. So all I had to do was go back into the menu and change the input assignment. Really appreciate your help. I guess I should have been smart enough to check it, but I just assumed that it wouldn't have changed. No more assuming with electronics.

jacksonian,

You are welcome. Glad to be of help. I just finished a bit of baking and I'll be spending the rest of this glorious day in the theater programming the MX700. I'll let you know how it turns out. I may have to break away and go swimming this afternoon, though!

pam

PamW,

Last night I found that Discovery HD had been added on channel 550 on TWC.

This morning, I was watching a documentary showing a large leopard stalking its prey somewhere on the Serengeti plains.

Our house cat was fascinated by the HD image and watched the screen intensely from the middle of the theater floor. When the leopard crouched down to move closer to its prey, it looked so real that our cat crouched down in a defensive posture.

It was hard to keep from laughing. In any case, it is a change from the PBS demo channel... and apparently... a new cat toy.

Joe L.

That's great news about the Discovery Channel, but I'll never understand why we have to stumble on these things--why TWC Greensboro doesn't publicize these things...

J.L.,

Thank you for the info! I know what we'll watch tonight. I wonder how my dog will react...

era,

I agree with you. I hate the fact that we have to "discover" (no pun intended) the new stations on TWC.

Pam

Agghh! I've emailed TWC 3 times in the past month asking about Discovery and each time they replied with "there are no plans at this time." And they even asked me if I'd like to be on a mailing list for any new developments and I said, "ABSOLUTELY!"

So frustrating. Did you just find it by scrolling through the channel banners?

I just sent the following email to DK McLaughlin at TWC - It's pretty female, but hey - it's what I am.

Pam


We noticed this morning that Discovery HD has appeared on channel 550. Thank you! But my friends and I with TWCHD have some questions - Why is it no one at TWC knew this channel was going to pop up? We have asked the customer service folks several times about this and no one knew anything. Same thing happened when the locals went digital/HD a few months ago. We had to discover it by channel surfing.

Who is in charge of notifying (read - advertising) these wonderfiul new channels? Obviously the word isn't getting out. If my friends hadn't told me today, I probably woudn't have found out for quite some time (favorite channels set on the remote). What a shame it would have been, too. My husband and I are putting the finishing touches on our very own dedicated Home Cinema room. We'll be doing a lot of entertaining in there and really love showing off the TWC HD channels. Discovery HD (from what I've read) is a doozy! Could you imagine NOT showing that channel off ! Please let the people in charge of advertising that they aren't letting the good people of Greensboro in on their best kept secret. Digital is good, but High Definition is incredible!

Thank you for your time.

Dear Greensboro and Triad area DTV viewers;
Please be advised that UNC-TV will begin HD broadcasting regular programs on August 3rd 2003 Instaed of the PBS Loop. Also for over the air viewers we will have HD broadcasting every evening from 8PM to 11PM. The first show will be an original UNC-TV HD production "Carolina Preserves". I think you will enjoy the excellent HD video quality. For viewers with an antenna, 3 of the SD channels -3, -4, and -5will go away when we come on with HD. On TW digital cable the SD channels will be simultaneous with the HD programming as it is now.
Thanks for watching UNC-TV Digital !
Wayne Estabrooks, Chief Engineer - UNC-TV

Thank you Wayne!!!

This IS exciting!

Pam

BTW, Is the Carolina Preserves show the about the paintings of Bill Mangum?

Pam,
Thanks for writing to TWC, I did the same today and asked them to start an email list of us folks if they didn't already have one. Heck, I'll advertise it for them!

Good news about the PBS stuff.

Now, come through with ABC and ESPN for football season and I am set!

jacksonian,

You nailed it... I was just surfing through the channel guide last night and noticed the new HD channel. (No... I don't have the entire lineup memorized)

I was just looking for something good to fall asleep to. Isn't it amazing... over 500 channels of late night commercials.

Joe L.
I did not look for HD-ESPN.... perhaps I should... ya never can tell...(apparently TWC can't/won't tell either)

I surfed them tonight and didn't see anything new, but I guess I'll have to make it a habit to check. You guys will be the first to know if I find anything.

Here's the reply I received from TWC:

"The Discovery HD Theater channel will not be officially released until August 1st. If you are able to view anything at this time, it is not guaranteed until the release date. Announcements are normally printed with your cable statement. We hope that you enjoy Discovery HD and want to be able to offer you more high definition channels in the future. Please let me know if you need further assistance. Have a nice day."

Oh my goodness, it's not guaranteed until tomorrow! What if it goes out tonight? Those tiny little sentences printed on the bill are probably the absolute worst way of announcing anything in my opinion. How hard is it to update a web page? Isn't that instantaneous quality of the web what we all love so much? Especially if you have RoadRunner? Oh well, I guess that would make too much sense.

All I had time to catch last night was "Sacred Monuments of Asia" which was fairly boring and not the greatest HD, couldn't stay up to watch Insectia.

When it is "guaranteed" catch Aurora. It is awesome!

My response from TWC:

"Like any new product, we test them before we officially launch them. That is the case of Discovery HD. We are officially launching on Friday and there will be the appropriate marketing effort accompanying that launch. Thanks for you interest.

D.K. McLaughlin
Vice President
Governmental/Public Affairs
Time Warner Cable"


Pam

Pam,
Thanks for your nice comments.
Yes, the Carolina Preserves show is the one with the William Mangum paintings. I have the book and the DVD that we did related to this. We did this production with only 1 HD camera. You may have seen the Standard Def version.
I agree with your post that TW and UNC-TV are missing the boat by not promoting these wonderful channels. I look forward to comments from anyone on the DTV channels. Thanks
Wayne Estabrooks Chief Engineer - westabrooks@unctv.org

I did get an email today (official launch day) announcing Discovery HD. Maybe they're catching on.

I did get an email message from TWC a couple of days after Discovery was up and running. (I had agreed that I'd like to be on their emailing list for new HDTV developments.) So, that's good. Probably, they were in the "testing" phase until now and didn't want to make it public just yet. I hope they can get Mark Cuban's HDTV offerings soon...

I tuned in a 8 tonight to watch the first official (non-demo) broadcast on TWC of the PBS channel (501).

Imagine my chagrin. There, in the upper left corner was their stupid logo UNC TV. Some vugarians in the programming or marketing department must have decided that we need the burn-in problems and the ugliness of the logo bug.

I didn't have the heart to watch any more of the show. It's too depressing when clods have enough power to spray their little logo, their little graffiti, onto an otherwise beautiful picture.

Don't support PBS until they stop defacing their picture. I refused last year and this year to send them any money.

era,

Just email Wayne Estabrook (see address above) with your complaint. I'll also mention it to him.

BTW, I just saw Trading Spaces on Discovery HD - way cool!

Pam

The HD was on the second channel (502?) It was on 26-2 and it looked stunning!

HD was on 501 - It WAS stunning, but I think era has a point about the "loud" logo bug. I already emailed Wayne to see if he could pull some strings.

Pam

It is in the upper right coner now and it is MUCH smaller than the one they used at the start.

Cool -

My family is firmly entrenched into "X-Men" right now, so I cannot recheck it. I did hear from Wayne and he's going to pass along the logo bug info to the proper folks.

Pam

Anyone get Monday Night Football in HD tonight? I just got hooked up to Greensboro's TWC HD and am disappointed MNF is not being broadcast in HD, at least I am not getting it.

WXLV is not transmitting HD at this time. They are rumored to be going HD shortly due to MNF.