Los Angeles, CA - TWC - Page 220

I'm surprised no one else has posted this information yet.We are loosing the best oar uncut commercial free movie channel out there for what reason exactly?http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/05/18...onth-says-bei/

HDNet Movies is my favorite source of HD movies. I guess TWC wants more subs for premiums channels.

For me, with a single TV TWC is the most expensive of all offerings actually. Also I heard that the DVR of one of the Satellite providers is quite good, as good as a Tivo or close. May have been Dish. So if you do go for it, it may all work out for the better.

Rudy

i mean....are they TRYING to get us all to cancel?

this is ********.

anyone think its a ploy, like the contract is up and hasnt been renewed? or is it definitely gone? that movie channel was the best thing they offered in hd

Just in passing... looks like they've updated the Programming Alerts page.

It now at least leaves the door open a little bit, and says:

"Effective May 27, 2009, Smithsonian HD will be launched on the HD Tier (an HD box is required) on channel 420."

"Effective May 27, 2009, we will be required to cease carriage of HDNet and HDNet Movies unless an agreement with the programmer is reached. If an agreement is reached HDNet will move from channel 420 to channel 459 and HDNet Movies will move from channel 421 to channel 458."

No mention of whether or not the HDN channels would be moved to "free" status or would still be part of HD Tier as part of the channel number reassignment.

If they take away HD Net and HD Net Movies,
won't that just leave Smithsonian & MGM & Universal on the HD Tier? Certainly not for $5/month.

I Tivo most of my movies of HDNM, and hope TW decides to keep it,
otherwise it will be an easy choice to cancel the Tier and save the $$$



FCD

Let's all call and complain to Time Warner and let them know if they get rid of HDNET that we will get rid of them as our cable provider.

C'mon guys. HDNet isn't going anywhere. Contract/licensing negotiations are ongoing, and TWC's threat of dropping HDNet and HDNet Movies is being used as leverage. The same thing happened with the Viacom "scare" a few months ago.

Now if TWC rearranges the channel lineup and puts HDNet/HDNet Movies in another tier that involves an increase (modest, I would suspect) in monthly charges to recoup its loses, maybe that's a cause for griping. As it stands now, I refuse to believe TWC, as one of the largest cable providers in the country, would be so foolish as to drop the best HD movie source and leave us with the likes of MGM-HD and Universal-HD.

The new HD tier according to the news will be MGM, Universal, Smithsonian and Crime & Investigation HD. At least I can now dump the HD Tier in favor of the Variety Tier which will actually give me more HD channels.

I lived in Massachusetts last year, and the local Comcast cable provider dumped HDNet on us despite the constant AVS forum chatter to keep it on.

I would not be surprised if TWC does the same.

Officially, they've already dumped HDNet effective May 27, 2009. Whether Mark Cuban agrees to a price cut in the channel in the next 7 days is another story.

Well, that's not quite right, is it? TWC's current licensing agreement with Cuban apparently ends May 27th, and, if the two sides can't come to terms over a new deal, then TWC will not be allowed to carry HDNet. To say TWC has "already dumped HDNet" is a little premature.

Besides, if negotiations do fail, for all we know if may be Cuban who "dumps" TWC.

It's official enough that they've put out multiple press releases saying they're dumping HDNet.

There's a big "if" in there...

Here's a Copy/Paste from TWC Programming Alerts:

"Effective May 27, 2009, we will be required to cease carriage of HDNet and HDNet Movies unless an agreement with the programmer is reached. If an agreement is reached HDNet will move from channel 420 to channel 459 and HDNet Movies will move from channel 421 to channel 458."

I'm hoping they come to an agreement, losing HDNet would suck.

Referring to HDNet, T-W Cable's PR boss Robyn Watson said: "There's a limited appeal for the programming. In a world with more than 100 HD channels, being in HD is not enough. We are adding other channels in HD to give our customers more choice."

The way Mark Cuban is talking it is a done deal. No more HDNET for TWC. Instead we get to "enjoy" Crime and Investigation and Smithsonian both of which I am willing to bet won't even be in HD at least half of the time.

Is anyone with an HD DVR having pixelated and sound bleeps from recording from MGMHD? All that I've done so far is that way and I'm trying to determine if the channel or my cable box is the problem. Thanks.

Probably the channel last time I checked it the sound was out completely. It seems fine now, about 11:30pm Friday night.

Slow sometimes, ugly maybe, more reliable than cable company dvr's without doubt. You might want to try out the new MOXI also.

From the latest Programming Alerts page, it now looks like the two channels which will be replacing HDNet and HDNet Movies will be:

Effective May 27, 2009, Smithsonian HD will be launched on the HD Tier (an HD box is required) on channel 420.

Crime & Investigation HD will be launched on the HD Tier (an HD box is required) on channel 421 on June 19, 2009 with a preview beginning May 27, 2009.


I'm still going to cancel HD Tier and Choice Tier next week as my small protest to the fact that they could not resolve their petty disputes with Mark Cuban.

Per a personal email response from Mark to another forum subscriber on the national TWC HDTV thread:

"Sad. we reduced the cost of the networks by about 75pct and they said it was still too much.

"Unfortunately we dont have the leverage that big companies have so TWC thinks they can abuse us."


TWC apparently also had no problem coercing MLB into accepting a non-free distribution arrangement, placing MLB into Variety Tier for $5/month rather than "digital basic" (for free to all subscribers).

According to the MLB announcements on their web pages, the intent was to make MLB available FOR NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE to all "digital basic" subscribers. You had to at least be a "digital" subscriber to your content provider whatever service levels that required, but there would be no additional charge for the new MLB and MLBHD channels.

Of course, the cleverly constructed tier arrangement for TWC/LA has no such thing as "digital basic", so instead of just adding the MLB channel for free to every one of their optional tiers (which would define 100% of all "digital" subscirbers) they decided to add it to only one tier, Variety, which required me to pay an extra $5/month to receive MLB since I had previously NOT subscribed to that one... though I'd subscribed to several of the other optional digital tiers.

True, this was my choice, but TWC didn't have to distribute MLB in only one tier. It could have been in all tiers and then for sure it would have been "no additional charge for digital basic subscribers" as MLB had wanted. I think MLB got snowed and just ignored the issue, and we got screwed.

This latest HDNet and HDNet Movies story just makes me angrier.

On another matter...

Anybody else notice that the Internet download speed has gazoomed UP??? I'm paying for Turbo, which should be throttled to 10Mb... as it has always been.

And yet, speed tests run just now have confirmed what I had noticed of late, that download speeds are now much faster.

DSL Reports: 12Mb
Speakeasy: 15Mb
Speedtest: 24Mb

I honestly don't know why the three measurements vary so much (especially the Speakeasy and Speedtest sites, which I thought used the same measurement engines).

But the three measurements confirm what I'd suspected, that either they're doing some work tonight and they have removed the "throttle" (temporarily?), or they've boosted what the Turbo limit is and just not announced it.

I know I've received a card in the mail telling me that there might be a disruption in my area on May 27 because of infrastructure work (tied to the loss of HDNet????). But this increased download speed has been with me for a while now.

Anybody else??

Note that I'm not complaining about this one.

Well, further tests are a bit more consistent but again suggest something's changed:

DSL Reports: 15Mb
Speakeasy: 20Mb
Speedtest: 24Mb

It almost looks like they've for sure allowed a very high-speed burst for about 5 seconds, after which they seem to slow things down somewhat. But definitely not down to the old 10Mb I thought they had limited Turbo to.

That's exactly what it is (Powerboost).

Mark Cuban offers to cut the cost of HDNET by 75% to cheap TWC but they still say it is too much. They never seem to have any problem jacking up our rates while their costs GO DOWN.

Time to say no more to cheap, shoddy, lousy picture quality Time Warner.

I wasn't aware of this.

----------------------------------------------------

From a web description regarding TWC Dallas:

"Time Warner Cable North Texas has launched PowerBoost. PowerBoost is a new technology being deployed that allows Road Runner Turbo customers to temporarily experience download speeds significantly faster than their current speed of 10 Mbps. With PowerBoost, Turbo customers will see download speeds increase to 16 Mbps while downloading large files from the Internet when network capacity is available."

"We are very excited to be delivering the free, time-saving feature to our Road Runner Turbo customers," said Robert V. Moel, North Texas Division President. "PowerBoost will jumpstart a large file download reducing overall download time, and giving users more time to enjoy the multitude of media available online, including that made available through RoadRunner.com."

"The speed provided by PowerBoost is in relation to the level of Road Runner service a customer is subscribed to. An example of PowerBoost speeds are as follows; Road Runner Turbo customers with a current speed of 10 Mbps will enjoy PowerBoost up to 16 Mbps. Once a PowerBoost is completed, a download in progress will continue at the normal provisioned speed."

-----------------------------------------------------

My experience this weekend is that the "boost" is beyond 16Mb. I'm at 20Mb right now.

Anyway, no complaints here.

Thanks for the info.

Yes it has been exactly like this ever since this channel(422)was added and it is the only channel behaving this way so it's not the box.
(Hollywood Hills-Eagle Rock)

They made the changes a day early in West LA.
HDNet and HDNet Movies are both gone, Smithsonian and Crime are active.

I just got off the phone canceling the HD Tier.

Unfortunately, but true to form, the TW CSR didn't seem to care when I told him why I cancelled. So much for Customer concerns.

FCD

Crime and Investigation and Smithsonian are total jokes compared to what HDNET was. Both in content and PQ.

I'll be canceling the HD Tier as well. $5 for what they now offer is a joke.