Washington, DC - Verizon

Now that Brambleton, VA is FINALLY about to start testing cable HDTV service next month (February 2004), I am starting this thread to concentrate all Brambleton HDTV news and gossip in one place.

As some of you in our community may know, for the past several months I have been in touch with Jack Buckhorn, the Director of Information Systems at Gatehouse Networks (our community's telecommunications overall provider), trying to find out information on HDTV cable TV deployment in our area. Here is everything that I know as of right now:

• A temporary antenna has been erected to capture local OTA HDTV broadcasts. The permanent antenna will be located atop the water tower currently under construction on Belmont Ridge Road.
• As I mentioned above, HDTV service will begin initial testing next month on two channels, with the official rollout set for late Q1/ early Q2 2004. The two test channels have not been decided upon yet--see below for important information on this.
• Gatehouse will not be renting HD-DVR boxes for the foreseeable future. This is, in my opinion, an ill-advised decision by our cable provider, and may drive many HDTV owners in our community to erect ugly satellite dishes and rooftop aerials so that they can avail themselves of forthcoming HD recording/timeshifting solutions from Echostar and DirecTV.

VERY IMPORTANT: There will be a meeting of the Brambleton Technology Club at the Visitor's Center (42645 Regal Wood Drive) on Wednesday night, January 7 at 7:00 PM. At this meeting one of the agenda items will be the upcoming HDTV tests, and there will be a vote on which channels will be tested. If you're an HDTV owner in Brambleton and you want a say in which two channels should be tested first, I strongly urge you to attend this meeting. This would also be a good opportunity to let The Powers That Be know that HDTV-savvy owners in Brambleton aren't going to settle for sub-par service that doesn't include a way to record/timeshift HDTV... I will certainly be bringing this up as an issue at the meeting.

We pay a LOT of money in our homeowner's association dues for our first-in-the-country FTTH service, and HDTV has been a long time in coming to Brambleton. Please come to the Tech Club meeting Wednesday night and let's make our voices heard! Also, please keep all HDTV-related discussions for Brambleton here in this thread from now on, so that we will all have a central go-to point for news and discussions on HD service in our community.

See you Wednesday night!

Edit: Updated information below... some of the above info was inaccurate/incorrect.

Brambleton is a largish unincorporated community (big enough for its own high school, not big enough to be an incorporated city) of about a dozen different developers located in Loudoun County, Virginia northwest of Dulles Airport. If you're driving north towards Leesburg on the Dulles Greenway toll road, we're the second exit off the toll road on the opposite side of the freeway from Ashburn.

Brambleton is the first community in the country where every condo, townhouse and single-family home has fiber optic to the house (FTTH). Although a lot of communities in the United States have fiber optic cables snaking by their houses, ours is the first where the optical connection goes right into the house. We get all of our telephone, internet and TV service over this single connection, but as I mentioned above our telecommunications provider has been very slow to take advantage of this big fat pipeline into our homes to roll out HDTV service. It's finally coming to pass, but unless the folks in our community start complaining and showing up at meetings, we'll never have the kind of HD cable service that many AVS members with dreary old copper cable service are already enjoying.

As far as I know, they're still going with 8VSB over cable for the initial deployment... hopefully I'll be able to get some clarification at tomorrow evening's meeting. (EDIT: They are NOT doing 8VSB over cable... see below.)

The problem is that when they eventually start offering HBO and other premium channels in high definition, those channels will almost certainly be scrambled 256 QAM or 64 QAM which DVRs like the LG won't be able to record. Of course, that's still a ways off--their satellite channel provider doesn't even offer HD channels anyway (or at least they didn't the last time I asked Jack--another question that I'll try to get resolved tomorrow night). Also, I don't want to buy a DVR. That model you showed me probably will retail for at least $500. Comcast is renting similar boxes for $10 a month. It would take over four years to realize any savings by buying my DVR vs. renting--and by the time four years is up that DVR will be antiquated technology. At least with a DirecTV box I'm getting TiVo instead of LG's antediluvian Gemstar guide.

It's just frustrating that with our advanced fiber optic distribution network we have the potential to have a killer HDTV system... I want my hundred channels of HDTV now, darn it!

Uh, no. It's not enough that we already pay over $200 a month in HOA fees... if you want HBO, Showtime, etc. you have to pay extra for it. And to add insult to injury, Gatehouse has already announced that once the test phase is over, HDTV channels will also be a premium service. TANSTAAFL!

Local telephone service is not included in the HOA package. Also, we have to pay $10 a month for the ancient NTSC Motorola digital cable boxes that Gatehouse is currently using. The set top boxes are so old, in fact, that they don't even have S-Video or digital audio outputs... only composite video and L/R RCA audio. Bleccch.

Whoa... it's even worse than I originally speculated. Another AVS member got a eye-popping quote of $899 for that LG HD-DVR... which would mean that it would take almost 7-1/2 years to realize a savings vs. renting a DVR for $10/month. Still think buying is a better option than renting?!

It's looking more and more like I will be erecting a DirecTV dish and an OTA antenna this Spring, unless Gatehouse buys a clue and rethinks their HDTV deployment strategy.

Oh, there is only one conduit... that single thin fiber optic cable carries my phone, cable TV and high-speed Internet into my basement where a splitter box the size of a fat laptop computer splits the signal into its three component parts. From there the three signals are distributed throughout the entire house... pretty neat.

But... I still have to pay for the phone service, the cable box for the TV service, the fixed static IP address for the 'net (needed for telecommuting), and (coming soon!) the paltry few HDTV channels that they'll be offering. They nickel and dime you to death here in good old Brambleton, except that it's more like $10 and $20 instead of $0.05 and $0.10.

OK, here is a little more info gleaned from last night's meeting. Jack Buckhorn (the Director of Information Systems at Gatehouse Networks) was actually at the meeting and I got a lot of clarification on several issues.

• The test for local HDTV channels will begin in March, not February.
• The two local channels to be initially tested were voted on at last night's meeting but the results are not available yet. EDIT: The two channels are WJLA-DT (ABC) and WRC-DT (NBC) on Gatehouse cable channels 91 and 93, although for the Super Bowl this weekend the test channels will include WUSA-DT (CBS).
• Gatehouse will be sending 8VSB over the existing cable for the local channels being tested, so all that you will need is an HDTV tuner to get the signal. EDIT: This information is incorrect; see below.
• Premium HD channels (HBO, Showtime, etc.) will be offered eventually when HD service is officially rolled out (hopefully Q3 2004, in time for the 2004-05 TV/football season). These channels will be probably be 256 QAM scrambled (waiting for clarification on that point), which means that a Gatehouse-supplied box will be required for those channels.
• Once the "version 1.0" service is rolled out, Gatehouse will be offering some sort of HD-DVR solution. (When Jack told me earlier than no HD-DVR would be offered, he meant that no DVR would be offered for the initial tests commencing in March.)
• When the full HDTV service starts, it will be an upgrade to the basic cable package that is included with our HOA fees. Pricing and the channel lineup are TBD.

If you haven't done so already, I suggest that you contact Amanda Jensen, the telecom director for Brambleton, and sign up for the next Technology Club meeting. Her number is 703-542-2924.

Two new bits of news:

• The two stations to be tested are WJLA-DT (ABC) and WRC-DT (NBC). Personally I think these are excellent choices, since it lets us test both 720p (ABC) and 1080i (NBC) as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 (ABC).
• Gatehouse Networks will be moving into their new head-end facility on February 25th.

Well, now that Gatehouse has started the HDTV tests it is clear that the information we were given at the January 7 meeting was inaccurate. Gatehouse is not using 8VSB over cable as originally planned; you must use an HDTV tuner that is QAM capable (e.g., the Samsung SIR-T351). Regular over-the-air 8VSB tuners like the RCA DTC-100 and most HDTV televisions with a built-in tuner that were built before the 2003-04 model year will not work with Gatehouse's cable HDTV.

My advice for now would be to forgo hooking into Gatehouse's cable HDTV if you don't already have a QAM-compatible ATSC tuner. Why spend $500+ on a QAM tuner for two channels when you can get almost all of the local channels over the air with a cheap 8VSB tuner like the DTC-100? This is only a stopgap measure anyway until this fall when Gatehouse rolls out its full-blown HDTV cable service with premium channels and DVR offerings; why waste the money on a QAM tuner that will be obsolete by the end of the year?

D'OH! I assumed that WJLA was broadcasting the DD 5.1 signal from ABC... silly me; I should have known better.

Obviously if WJLA isn't passing through ABC's superior sound, Gatehouse won't be cablecasting it either.

Yeah, that'll happen! They were originally supposed to offer 8VSB over cable and they didn't do that, so I highly doubt that they will go out of market to get a Baltimore station when the local ABC affiliate is alive and kicking.

Hmmph. Even though we are in the 703 area code it's still a long distance call for any of my friends in the District to call me, so I'd say being in 571 isn't so bad, especially if the POTS line is included in your HOA fee.

Now then, forgive me for trying to steer this thread back onto the subject of Brambleton HDTV service, but here's the summary of what we know so far:

• Cable HDTV service has begun a free testing period on channels 91 and 93. The stations being offered are WJLA-DT (ABC) and WRC-DT (NBC), but for Superbowl weekend only WRC-DT is being replaced with WUSA-DT (CBS).
• Modulation is QAM, not 8VSB as originally envisioned. This means you must use a QAM ATSC tuner, and there are very few of those out there. One box that a Brambleton owner has successfully used is the Samsung SIR-T351, which retails for about $450.
• Since Gatehouse will be offering a set-top box this fall when full HDTV service begins, there's not much point in spending a lot of money on a QAM tuner that will be obsolete by the end of the year (Gatehouse will almost certainly scramble premium HD channels, rendering your $500 QAM tuner useless).
• Gatehouse has stated that an HD-DVR will be available when full HDTV service begins this fall. No word yet on whether this means one will be available for rental or purchase, or at what price.
• When full HDTV service begins, it will be an upgrade from the existing service--and again, no word on pricing yet.
• Several Brambleton homeowners have had great success with cheap 8VSB tuners like the RCA DTC-100 and a $10 indoor UHF antenna from Radio Shack (including me). If you want local HDTV channels right now, skip the two measly channels Gatehouse is testing and get yourself an el-cheapo tuner on eBay. You'll still be able to use it for a backup tuner once full-blown cable HDTV service begins this fall, and you'll spend half as much as you'd pay to buy one of the new QAM ATSC tuners.

We are. We're at the top of a hill northwest of Dulles Airport, which enables me and my neighbors to get away with cheap $10 UHF antennas from the rat shack for our OTA broadcasts. The only stations I cannot pick up are WETA-DT (PBS) and WDCA-DT (UPN). I don't know why I can't pull in WETA, but some of my neighbors with attic antennas receive it just fine. WDCA, of course, "transmits" with the radiated power of a dental x-ray machine, so there's no hope for HDTV Enterprise. (But not to worry; UPN is apparently killing that show anyway. By the end of this season, there may not be any reason to tune in WDCA at all.)

Hey Sasha! Long time no hear.

Unfortunately, there is not much news to report on the Brambleton HDTV situation. The only change from my January 28 post is that Gatehouse Networks is once again showing WUSA (CBS) on channel 92, bringing the HDTV channel count to a whopping three stations (WUSA, WRC and WJLA). All three channels are cablecast with unscrambled QAM modulation, which means that most existing OTA HD tuners won't work. I don't know of anyone who has gone out and bought a $500 QAM box for three measly stations... what's the point? All three are easily pulled in with a cheap DTC-100 and a pair of wabbit ears.

There is still no word on when we will be getting more channels, a QAM STB, or a DVR. Gatehouse's Jack Buckhorn keeps gamely showing up at our monthly Technology Club meetings, but he always reports the same thing, that more channels and gear will be offered "sometime this fall". I was hoping the FCC April 1 firewire deadline would speed things up... this is the text of Code of Federal Regulations Title 47, Part 76, Section 640:


Unfortunately, the key here is that Gatehouse isn't leasing anything to us right now. They are calling the three HD channels that they're offering right now a free "promotion" (and only viewable if you go out and buy your own QAM HD box), so it is their position that they are exempt from Title 47.

So that's where things stand right now... only three local HDTV channels that aren't viewable by 99% of Brambleton residents. Whoopie.