Raleigh, NC - HDTV - Page 105

So it will never be like it is now? Buy a TV that only has a digital/QAM tuner inside, plug the Time Warner cable into the TV, and get 70+ "basic" channels?

If you mean "like it is now" as in how you do analog cable, then no. That's what the cablecard is for. You buy a TV with a cablecard slot, rent a cablecard from TWC (for a bit less than the cost of a cable box), put it in your TV, and get all the digital channels.

Digital cable has become a great way for cable companies to extort more money from customers by making them rent either a box or a card.

Encryption is a scheme where signals are altered so that they cannot be processed further without the support of external manipulation.

Conditional access is a scheme where channels are processed or not processed depending on how they are tagged.

A little different approach, but effectively the same result.

So the content is all there, it is just effectively hidden. Is that it?

Everything I'm reading about conditional access referrs to DVB-CA talks about
DVB-CSA (content scrambling algorithm). Am I reading about the right stuff?

Drew

\\Ex*tort"\\ 1. To wrest from an unwilling person by physical force,
menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise
of power or ingenuity; to wrench away (from); to tear
away; to wring (from); to exact; as, to extort
contributions from the vanquished; to extort confessions
of guilt; to extort a promise; to extort payment of a
debt.

Is this really what you mean? Sadly, we are prone to feeling entitled to things these days. I have yet to see a computer I can plug a wire into and get free high speed data. How about a satellite dish that I plug right into my tv and get 200 channels? Things can change of course: how many years did I rent a telephone from Ma Bell? All our luxuries cost money. I think it's unfair to indict for-profit companies; dish, cable, et.al. for charging for service - a service that I can choose to do without. There are entertainment services we still get for free - but they do require buying an antenna.

Its not about feeling entitled to get things for free. It is about paying more (service fee + box/card rental) for less service (can't record directly from cable without funky ir-blasters to change the channel in the dreaded set top box) and/or less control (have to rent a buggy, small capacity dvr from the cable company that won't let me archive shows to DVD or transcode them for my ipod).

Drew

That will take another selling point away from cable: free basic service on all additional outlets.

Hi, I'm newly subscribed to the thread. I put together an HTPC with an SDTV PVR, and am now looking into adding an HTDV PVR. Do folks around the RDU area (Cary in my case) get good receptions with just an indoor HDTV antenna, or you folks recommend an outdoor one? I'll of course get a card that's also QAM-capable. Hope this question is pertinent to the thread. Thanks.

Yes, as a matter of fact it is. Cable companies used the digital transition to pick a technology that would require customers to either rent a box or rent a card to get what they used to be able to get with no card or box. They could have gone with something combatible with the tuners shipping in HDTVs so we could get those channels without the additional "rental" fee. They didn't. Once analog is turned off everyone's cable bill will go up between $3 and $5 per month *per set* just to keep watching the channels they were watching before.

And if I happen to use an opensource DVR solution like Myth or one that doesn't get approved by CableLabs (a front for the cable companies), then I won't even be able to use it anymore when analog is turned off (except off the air content).

Did I mean extortion? *Absolutely.*

My indoor antenna works great in Holly Springs. It did not work well in the raleigh crabtree mall area when i lived there.

Did anyone else have issues last night with ESPN-HD on TWC in the Cary area? There were severe breakups in both audio and video. Is this being caused by testing of ESPN2HD, etc?

Testing ESPN2HD? Do you know something that I don't?

From a few pages back:

I'm near the corner of hwy 54 and Cary pkwy. I was unable to get stable reception with any plain indoor antenna I tried. I moved to a channel master 4228 in my attic, and that really helped. In fact, the lack of having to fine tune the antenna position for each station is what allowed me to build an HTPC.

I currently have a mythtv box where I'm using an old Air2PC for OTA, and a Dvico Fusion5 for QAM.

Drew

Dressler's response is the kind of vague answer we always get from TWC. That doesn't mean they are testing it in our market. Heck-- they signed an agreement for Universal HD weeks ago and they've yet to add it.

They should test ESPN2HD with the NC State bowl game.

I respectfully disagree. Usually the answer is "we will carry it soon". His answer was specific to a timeframe (end of the first quarter at the latest). I just wonder if the glitches I've seen are related to the testing. That would be my first (best) guess.

Believe me, I'd like to think that we will soon get ESPN2HD. But- they do not even have an agreement with ABC/Disney/ESPN yet, so they certainly will not test until then. Having some experience with TWC responses, I can translate Dressler's comment:

(Translated) We may strike a carriage agreement for ESPN2HD, and we may not. If we do, it will be in the 1st Q 2006 before our current agreement runs out in May 2006. Once the agreement is signed, it's up to the local TWC to add the channel to it's line-up. That could take days, weeks, or months (ex. Universal HD).

So, unfortunately, I don't think ESPN2HD is imminent.

I live near High House/Davis Drive corner. I just bought a Kworld ATSC-110 analog+digital card and a Terk HDTVa amplified indoor antenna, both for < $100 after rebates so I'll be curious how the antenna works. I may have to go to an outdoor antenna though based on you comment since I live in your vicinity.

Yes, here in Raleigh while skipping through (the Jimmy V). I have no clue why, but the Sportscenter replays this AM were perfect.

Anybody on Time Warner Raleigh (or cities served off the Raleigh Digital Hub) who is/has had problems with HDNets Movies (ch 294) freezing and/or being gone for several minutes at a time, please post a response here. I complained to Time Warner via e-mail and they e-mailed me back that a tech would show up at a certain time. I need to convince them that it's a headend issue (if it is, and I am 99% sure it is) so any verification I can get here will help. Thanks

I was watching Numbers last night and about halfway through the show it switched from HD/DD5.1 to SD. This lasted about 15 minutes and it "snapped back" to HD. I hardly ever watch a network (NBC, CBS, ect.) HD show that there isn't some audio or video problem. Is it THAT darn difficult to have a complete hour of network HD/DD5.1 without any problems? I never have this problem with TNT HD or INHD. What's the difference?

I haven't watched that channel in the last few weeks but the last time I did I saw the same type of problem (see my previous post from 11/26). However, almost everytime I watch 217(e.g. during ER Thursday night) there are many times the screen grows blank and the audio is gone for severa seconds--but then 217 has neve been reliable.

I've noticed it often the past couple weeks. Mostly 294, less on 293.

I couldn't get either of the HDNET channels to show up when i was watching this morning.

Has anyone used the INHD Tuneup that was shown this morning at 7am? They have a 5.1 surround test, but my receiver was only showing a Left and Right channel.

TWC customers and Engineers are reporting back my previous posts on good connections have resolved almost all drop outs on 217, and others. Even though the picture is digital, it is still transported as RF over the cable system, and our frequency on TWC is very vulnerable to common RF issues.

Make sure all cable is RG-6 or better. Make sure every connection is clean and tight, by looking for shiny center conductors, and good crimps on the connectors. Poor crimps or too tightly crimped connectors are the most common fault because at these bitrates, it acts more like waveguide than cable. Any splitters or amps in the system should be checked since each connection can have a 3dB drop in signal strength, and amps can amplify more noise than signal. The more direct connection the better.

Keep in mind your home builder may have put (cheap) wires in the walls instead of a qualified installer. If all this fails, and using a little patience, TWC can help you test signal strength using channel 999 and determine if your signal is borderline, and send someone out to help.

same here but it's been going on for a few weeks now it seems, although i only check intermittently.

Thanks for your reply, but perhaps the operative words are "have resolved almost all drop outs on 217." I doubt that at least in my case that it is a connection or signal level problem. Last week I had a line moved by TWC from one wall to another in preparation for getting a new LCD in the bedroom. He checked all connections and boosted my signal strength. My current connection that has the problem goes directly from the box on the outside of the house to the 3100HD box. The 3100HD is connected via component and digital out through my Harmon Kardon A/V receiver with component cable to my Pioneer Plasma.

As far as I can recalll, I never see the problem on 255 (maybe one in the last few years) or 211 or 293 or any other channel, only on 217 and 294 and I watch 293 a lot more than 294. I've seen the problem before and after TWC was here. Actually the TWC rep did not check the coax connector on the back of the 3100HD, but if that was a bad connection I'd think I'd have problems on more than a few channels.

I just bought my new LCD this AM (Panasonic 32lx50) and TWC is bringing out a 3250HD Wednesday. So Thursday night I will be able to check and see if the problem occurs on 217 on both sets during ER (assuming it's not a repeat and we're watching it).