Orlando, FL - BHN - Page 2

So, it's my first night with BHN after a couple of years of DirecTV.

I'm of course loving the HD channels, especially Discovery HD Theater, but is it normal that all the non-digital channels (i.e., the stuff in the 70s and below) looks so awful? I'm used to everything looking pretty much the same on DirecTV so the huge variance really stands out.

It's very... grainy. Makes me really wish the SciFi channel was digital.

Also, I was getting some pixelation and sound dropouts in HD, specifically Discovery that I can remember... Does that happen a lot?

Grainy picture is normal for any standard definition channel. It's a low resolution signal being displayed on a high resolution monitor. It shows all the imperfections. The higher digital channels I believe are upconverted to at least 480p, which is why they look "normal".

There absolutely IS a 1394 on the front of my 550HD, and after a follow-up call BHN said it is indeed active.

TopQuark,

Obviously we have at least two customer service representatives that need to admit when they don't know the answer to a technical question --

Despite what you were told in the second call, there is NOT a 1394 connector on the Pace 550HD set-top. The port that you're looking at on the front of your set is a USB connection, put there for potential future applications that may or may not ever be developed (future proofing). It is not 1394.

The mandate says we have to provide a 1394-capable box to any customer who requests on. It does not say that we have to make all boxes 1394 capable, nor could we retrofit the existing box population.
I posted in an earlier thread that we would be deploying a version of the S/A 3250 to meet this requirement.

Finally, I'm very disappointed in what this box will do, and if you swap your Pace for one, you'll want the Pace back. Trust me. But PM me if you want to get on the list to get one.


Others: ESPN HD -- still in the negotiators hands, so no further word. It could be next week, it could be a year from now. These things are impossible to speculate on. Fox Sports -- we don't carry it and probably won't.

Hey guys...just wanted to confirm with someone that you're getting the Orlando area locals in HD via Directv. I'm about to get the HD equipment and want to make sure I'll get the locals in HD using the OTA.

Thanks.

Wow! I'm glad I haven't spent any money on a 1394 card for my PC yet! (or worse- a DVR with firewire input). There is no way I'd give up the Pace box at this point in time- I'm just too in love with the DVI output. Thanks for the heads-up.

Something else the BHN rep said was interesting: "...high-def PVR is supposed to be out by the end of the year, but I can tell you that it may be out sooner. Like around the summer time...".

Of course I can't believe a word of it considering their recent accuracy, BUT she did say she was putting me on a list to be notified when it was ready- which they haven't been willing to do before yesterday.

All-in-all I have been very satisfied with BHN cable service. No sat dish for me just yet

TopQuark,

A high def DVR will be out in a matter of weeks. It WAS supposed to be out at the end of the year -- last year. But the vendors were late as usual.

We're creating a contact list of people who inquire about it so that we can contact them when it's ready.


Thats classified --

You can't get any cities locals via DirecTV (except CBS in NYC and LA as national feeds, but not in the Orlando market).

Check with http://www.orlandodigital.tv for all the information you need about HD in the Central Florida DMA. (Barry does good work).

In summary, though, you have two choices -- OTA (over the air, and a DirecTV box will accept an OTA antenna input for the locals), or Bright House Networks. BHN has 14 channels of HD without an antenna.

I'm pretty partial to the BHN service, but let the other folks here tell you their impression.

Speaking from experience, if getting the locals in HD is a priority for you, might want to make sure you can actually get OTA signals in your location. I live downtown and I couldn't. I ended up with BHN.

Greg, I am assuming that your answer on ESPN-HD (which just signed with Cablevision) applies to getting additional premium HD movie channels like MAX-HD, Starz-HD, etc. You can tell me to shut up, it's ok. I still think HD Net and In-Demand are pretty worthless channels.

Any hope of any of these premium movie channels in the near future?

Yeah I have to agree. What HDNet has done is great, and having it along with In-demand does create that initial wow by having content available, but as more and more "real" people get HD they don't just want to watch anything in HD, they want to watch what they normally watch in HD, and that's not the specialty HD networks.

HD for the masses will not be realized until HD has what the masses want to watch.

Hey, I saw this press release from CBS. Does this mean that WKMG will broadcast CBS' HD coverage of the Masters on a sub-channel on Thursday and Friday afternoon? Have they done this in the past?

CBS Sports will broadcast the 2004 Masters on the CBS Television HD Network on Thursday, April 8 and Friday, April 9 (4:00-6:30 PM, ET, each day) and Saturday, April 10 (3:30-6:30 PM, ET) and Sunday, April 11 (2:30-7:00 PM, ET) live from Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga. The third and final rounds of the Masters will be broadcast simultaneously in standard definition by CBS Sports on the analog CBS Television Network.

Thanks

Greg,

I emailed BHN to ask to be put on the list and this is what I got in return:

"Thank you for contacting Bright House Networks regarding your account.

We would like to thank you for your interest in Bright House Networks products and services. Other manufacturers have stated that they will have their HD capable DVR boxes available for release in the second or third quarter of this year. While products with that capability are currently being tested on our network, at this time there has been no public announcement as to a release date of these units. Currently we do not have a list in which our customers can reserve products when they are released, all that we can ask is that you keep checking our website for news and updates concerning Bright House Networks products and services."

Is there a list? I would like to get on it if possible.

Jim Moraseski

If there is a list, I would like to be able to get on it as well. The pace is wonderful but, I have put off getting the PVR until the HD version came out.

Steve Ginn

This is for Thess. Yes, the grainy picture on the analog channels is that bad and looks much worst on a better quality monitor.

Thess, if your digital channels are breaking up at all, especially the HD ones which require more bandwidth it sounds like you may have an overall weak signal. I would assume the levels were checked when your installation was done but I have seen it happen. The analog channels are not crystal clear, but there should not be any visible noise. If there is I would have BH out to fix your levels.

I disagreee. HDNet has hockey, MLS some racing and their world report as some good programs to mention + several high quality movies

Inhd has some good movies, 3 games of MLB weekly in HD.........NBA basketball in hd - ok so it helps that I love sport, but still some good programming and movies that you don't get to see otherwise.

Are either of the channels mainstream - No, but is that a bad thing??? Will we see more original programming as HD viewers gets measured and ad money comes in - I would definately say so.........

This is a very interesting take on what's going on, I also read a very different story at http://www.tvbarn.com/ticker/archives/020027.html which stated that INHD and USA would do the coverage (similar to last year with the main difference being the HD feeds of the early rounds).

If someone has a good connection at KMG, a call or email might be useful to see what they are planning, might be nice to make some use of that 2nd channel.

Miguel

Greg, With my BHN we get FOX SPORT WORLD... why not Fox Sports Net? I inquired about getting the MLB Ticket option, and was told that the Rays and Marlins games would STILL be blacked out (MLB's policy for the whole State of Florida). I am guessing MLB black's-out the games since they are broadcasted on TV, even though we cannot get them with BHN. In other words, I can't watch them even though I am willing to pay to be able to!

Why is Fox Sports Net not being considered an option in the future?

Glad to see I'm not the only one!!

Yep. 100 D-Rays games on TV this year. 25 on PAX (we can watch)... the other 75 on Fox Sport Net

I'm VERY pleased with BHN over all... but baseball season could be SOOO much better with that one channel.

I'm actually a Red Sox fan that is upset I can't see any of the times they play the DRays (which is obviously quite a lot since its the same division). However, I'd Love to be able to see these games, as well as the ones against the Yankees etc. It killed me last year missing that record setting games against the Marlins during interleague play when the Sox got something like 15 or 25 runs in the first inning or something crazy like that. Blacked out

I am a DISH customer with a 921 HD DVR. Due to some programming limitations, I am thinking about coming back to BHN. When the HD DVR is available, will it have a two-tuner capability to record two streams?

I am another one who held back on the 921 and I am happy I did considering all the problems Dish is having with it plus the 1000 cost was a factor also..
I went with dish the day the 6000 came out because there was not much HD content at the time in Orlando and none on BHN(TWC at the time)..
As soon as BHN comes out with their HD PVR I am making the switch..
Anyone who comes to me asking for HD advice I have been advising going the BHN route because of their decent HD content..

Even with the picture quality on the analog channels? I ask this because this seems to be a major issue. I'm also on Dish and I'm not tremendously happy with their PQ and was considering a switch to Direct when their HDPVR comes out (Dual Tuner and OTA HD). Even as bad as Dish PQ is, I'm really hesitant to make the move to BHN (which is where I'd prefer to be, both because of better HD content and simplicity) because I've heard so much kvetching about the PQ on the lower channels.

In other words, will someone who has an HD set that gets BHN (should be a couple of those here, right?) please give a realistic description of BH's analog PQ beyond "it sucks" or "everyone knows how awful it is." I don't know how awful it is and I'd like to know, especially in comparison to Dish or Direct. (Voom? Who's that?)

It's grainy. You also get used to it rather quickly, at least I did. It's a low resolution picture on a high resolution monitor. Ever watch TV on a computer monitor with a TV tuner card? Very similiar.

There are two types of SD channels. The analog sourced channels which have the benefit of no digital compression but suffer from the old problems of noise, chroma crawl and moire. The digital sourced SD channels do not have the analog problems with a much cleaner signal to start with but are heavily compressed MPEG2. BHN is now faced with the dilemma of compressed MPEG channels coming in from the cable networks and analog composite going out to the customer via RF. This causes a situation were we see both the analog noise problems and the digital compression. The best engineering in the world cannot overcome these fundamental artifacts.

BHN has some tough decisions to make if they hope to move more channels up into the cleaner digital tier. For every analog channel (6MHz) deleted 10 SD digital channels can be added. Two thirds of the entire BHN system bandwidth is now consumed by the analog channels so they need to do something to get more customers to move to digital. I would guess that right now the majority of the customers are analog service only and with such a large choice of analog channels those people are not going to pay more for additional digital channels.

If you were BHN what would you offer to get people to upgrade to digital service?

Well you should get a lot of them on inhd - so be happy

Have anyone compared the SD picture between D* and BHN? I have heard as much complaints about D*'s compression on lots of SD channels as well...........

The digital channels on BHN are pretty good - just the analog ones that aren't that great, but good enough and it hasn't stopped me from watching any shows that I want to see.

Pretty good summary, Barry.

I would just add one thing -- analog doesn't have to be grainy, noisy or ghosty. If it is, we may have a plant problem to your house that needs to be addressed. Admittedly, an NTSC signal is not going to look like a 1080i signal, even when run through the best upscaler, but it should still look decent.

But if you're seeing problems with your analog service from BHN, give us a call and have a tech come out and check it. It's amazing what one little nick in the cable, a loose fitting, or a bit of corrosion will do to an analog signal.


HD-DVR -- two tuner, with most of the same functionality of the SD- DVR.
I've started my own HD-DVR list, so if you want one, PM me with your name and account information and we'll have somebody call you to schedule an install when they're available. No info on pricing, but if you're interest in box capabilities, it will be the S/A 8000HD with a 160gb hard drive.

Fox Sports Net -- I'm not involved in the SD programming decisions, so it would be speculation at best.

When I got my Dish 921, I was actually disappointed in the HD picture quality. With such a subjective topic, I didn't know how to resolve the disparity in expectations - was it the 921, my monitor, the source content, or maybe just my mind's perception? After soliciting much opinion (subjective and asking people to measure their HDNET test pattern PQ), I had an ISF calibrator come out.

Our conclusion was that my HD PQ was as good as it gets. My expectations were too high, mostly because I was spoiled with a fantastic SD picture. The DISH 501 and DISH 921 SD picture were outstanding and the analog BHN was only slightly below that.

But, I still want my HD! I just need a DVR (either BHN or DirecTV) to go with it. I am growing to hate DISH (sorry to flame, but after eight years as a customer, I am seeing too many problems).

I agree with you on picture quality on the lower tier channels on BHN as I had digital BHN (TWC) at the time on my HD set before the dish 6000 was available..But that said I find my locals thru dishnetwork almost unwatchable as far as picture quality goes..Since I watch all my locals now on the locat DTV channel hd or not it really does not make a difference to me how bad the analog locals are no matter who the provider is..