Orlando, FL - BHN - Page 14

Maybe so, but it sure looked a lot better than ABC. It was marketed as HD on HDTV Galaxy and the TNT website. These indicated 1080i. Maybe it was upconverted, stretched, whatever. It still looked a lot better.

Sorry if I sound impatient, but has anyone successfully used one of the QAM PCI cards to record HD from BHN? I wanted to find out before buying a card and the phone reps don't even know what QAM is.

My understanding is that the PC cards will only record QAM that is not encrypted. Here's what Greg of BHN said in previous post regarding someone wanting to use their TV's builtin HDTV tuner with QAM capability:
This would imply that the PC HDTV cards will not work for recording HDTV on BHN.

Jay

That is how I would interpret it, all of Bright House's digital channels are encrypted, so unless the QAM decoder has a CableCard slot, and you get a card from BH (I don't think its even available yet), it will not work.

This provokes a question. I wonder if BH's policy will be to continue to encrypt the same channels that are unencrypted in analog. There is a lot of hardware coming out with clear QAM and CableCard capabilities, and many if not all of those customers are not going to be happy with the results, especially when they call customer service and the reps have no clue what the customer is asking about.

BTW, just to put things in perspective, it has been less than a year since the FCC, CE manufacturers and the cable industry agreed on a clear QAM standard. This is just the beginning.

Thinking about ordering the HD service through Bright House. Is there any tricks or magic words I need to use in order to get the SA3250 box? Want to use it to time-shift while we are waiting for the HD-DVR's. Thanks

Note: Went to BH office here in Orlando and they only had the 3100 available for me to take home. Can the 3250's be picked up in the offices?

You have to say you need the firewire output. Have the operator annotate the work order that you need the 3250HD. Do not schedule a weekend install. Weekends are covered mostly by subcontractors who do not seem to be as well trained as BH installers.( sorry Greg but that is my experience). The installer I had was the area supervisor who did a great job, but he said they only had a few in the warehouse and most people had returned them.

Note if you do not have a DVHS recorder with 5C this is a waste of time according to Barry almost all the channels are encrypted. Even with a DVHS / 5C I can not record HBO, Discovery, PBS, or UPN.

I'm a new Brighthouse HD subscriber, would anyone know why I'm not receiving Brighthouse HD channels in 1080i? My TV (a Mitsubishi 46" HDTV compatible) displays these in 480p, that's not correct, is it? The screen is displaying letterboxes and/or sidebars, depending on the channel. My TV's owners manual says that when it receives a 1080i signal it automatically displays full screen without the letterboxes or sidebars.

I checked the Central Florida Digital Cable website, they indicated that most of the local channels are braodcasting in 1080i, with the exception of Fox.

I also double-checked the installation, making sure the green, red and blue cables were in the right outlets, and they were. I didn't see a switch on the Pace box or anything in its settings menu that could help me.

Can anyone help me with this? My cable was installed by a BH supervisor, so I'm not too confident in having them back out here. He seemed to think everything was correct.

Howdy!

Odds are, the tech who installed your box did not go into the menu and do a 'setup' for the box. Here's the simple way to do this yourself:

1) Turn on box and TV so you can see a HD channel
2) Hold down the '#' button on your cable box remote control for approx. 5 seconds. A menu screen will appear.
3) Use the arrow keys and the select button to highlight the resolution settings, and change them to 1080i (or 'Pass' if your TV can display both 1080i and 720p). Also check your aspect ratio settings and make sure you are set for 16:9 vs 4:3.
4) Exit the menu.

That's all there is to it. Unfortunately, some of the Brighthouse subcontractors are, um, less then up-to-par, when it comes to HDTV installation (sorry Greg).

If you have any more questions, please feel free to post.

Don't forget to join us this Saturday for the CFHDS meeting!

Regards,

Fred Forlano
Higher Definition

Last night during "The Grid", did anyone else notice the sound was not sync'd to the video? After some commercials it seemed better than others, but never quite right. Sometimes the people were talking and I thought I was watching a dubbed movie!

Originally posted by Jonathan68
[b]I'm a new Brighthouse HD subscriber, would anyone know why I'm not receiving Brighthouse HD channels in 1080i? My TV (a Mitsubishi 46" HDTV compatible) displays these in 480p, that's not correct, is it? The screen is displaying letterboxes and/or sidebars, depending on the channel. My TV's owners manual says that when it receives a 1080i signal it automatically displays full screen without the letterboxes or sidebars.QUOTE][

Maybe it was set up correctly. If so all you have to do is press the # key and it will switch from 1080i to 420p, and back aagin when pressed again.

yeh, I noticed it too. don't think it was a BHN issue though. one of the threads in the HD Programming forum regarding The Grid had many individuals stating they were noticing lip sync issues. it didn' matter which service they subscribed to -- Voom, D*, cable, OTA -- it was noticed by many throughout the country.

Hi Fred,

Thanks for your help, you were right, both the resolution and aspect settings were not set properly. I changed them to 1080 and 16:9, and the display went fullscreen on some channels, but not on any of the broadcast network channels. I thought that the broadcast networks (with the exception of Fox) broadcast in 1080 HD during prime time? Is this not correct?

Not exactly. Depending on the broadcaster, the material they air in prime time may or may not be in HD. Not to mention, that programming may be broadcast in SD and upconverted to HD. If the source material is 4:3, then it will be broadcast on the HD station in 4:3 as well. Check out www.orlandodigital.tv to get additional information on what programs are being broadcast in HD.

If you are looking for all programs to fill your screen, you will have to use the 'stretch' mode either on your TV or on the cable box. To activate the cable box stretch mode, hit the "#" key to toggle between 'Normal', 'Stretch' and 'Zoom' modes. On your TV remote, the button marked 'Format' should do the same thing, but may not stretch the signals being fed as HD from the broadcast networks. If they are 4:3 upconversions, then the network or local station are adding the bars on the sides of the image before sending them to you, in essence, fooling your set into thinking the source image is 16:9.

If you have more questions, please do not hesitate to post.

Regards,

Fred Forlano
Higher Definition

You can't control the aspect ratio of 4:3 material inserted into a 16:9 widescreen by the network. In other words they are always transmitting a 1080i or 720p signal, however if they are not getting a HD feed from the network, they are inserting the original 4:3 image into the 16:9 field and filling the rest in with bars. The pace box and TV thinks it is full HD and there is not much you can do about it. Only thing you can do is zoom in, but that's not going to be perfect and will probably not look too good. I would suggest living with it or watching the SD version of the channel.

I don't know if that was your problem but I get that question often.

Should we all give up on BHN getting ESPN HD at this point in time? A few months ago Greg had hinted at some cool HD additions and TNT arrived. But there has been nothing since.

(TNT is ok, but I watched The Fifth Element last night and it did not look like the movie was broadcast in HD. It look like it was formatted for 4:3 and stretched to 16:9 as it seemed a lot of side info I am used to watching on the DVD was missing. )

Anyway, would love any rumors of ESPN HD coming to BHN anytime soon. I know the programming is limited but Sprotscenter and the baseball games they show look good and their HD schedule sasy a number of preseason football games will be in HD. So lets go, BHN!!!

Should we all give up on BHN getting ESPN HD at this point in time? A few months ago Greg had hinted at some cool HD additions and TNT arrived. But there has been nothing since.

(TNT is ok, but I watched The Fifth Element last night and it did not look like the movie was broadcast in HD. It look like it was formatted for 4:3 and stretched to 16:9 as it seemed a lot of side info I am used to watching on the DVD was missing. )

Anyway, would love any rumors of ESPN HD coming to BHN anytime soon. I know the programming is limited but Sprotscenter and the baseball games they show look good and their HD schedule sasy a number of preseason football games will be in HD. So lets go, BHN!!!

Do any of you leave your PACE box on when you turn your TV off? The directions "strongly recommend" that you set the remote to turn the box off when it turns the TV off. But having it set up this way, sometimes the TV gets the signal and the box doesn't, throwing off the sync; and I have to go and manually turn one off.

Is it safe to leave the box on all of the time?

Was hoping someone could help with a quick answer. My parents just got a Samsung DLP 50" HDTV. BHN just installed the Pace box, which I am not familiar with. IT is set up to output wide screen on the TV and 16:9 on the Pace, but all SD channels have bars on them, even the channels 0-200+. The Box is using a DVI input. Is this a limitation of the DVI input? If I run Component will the SD channels stretch to fill the TV like the SA box does?

Am trying to set this up now so any thought appreciated.

Try setting it to "PASSTRHOUGH" and "4:3" and let the TV control the picture. That's what I do. The Switcher and the stretching modules in the TV are most likely better than whats in the PACE. Also you won't have the lines that you are complaining about.

Leave the Pace box on. I don't think it really turns anything off internally when you do turn it off, it only turns off the video signal. Plus, I find it annoying for it to default to channel 3 when you do turn it off.

Peter, you can always go into the advanced menu and set the menu to turn the box on to the last channel, or a preset channel if you prefer.

Just a suggestion.

Fred Forlano
Higher Definition

Thanks LouK. Think I got it figured out. Pace box is nice. A lot smaller than the SA 3100 and I like how it shows if an HD signal is coming in.

Anyway, appreciate the advice.

Now for ESPN-HD!!

While I 100% agree with the need for ESPN... I still am happy overall with BHN. I was seriously looking into D*... and then found out... My friend has D*... and although he has ESPN-HD, he does not have ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, WB, or UPN in HD. With football season coming, I would much rather have my Sunday games, (most national games are) and Monday Night Football in HD then only ESPN's Sunday night game... if I had to choose. Sure, ESPN would be nice... but if I have to choose... I would pick all the networks in HD.

In a perfect world... BHN would have ESPN-HD and Fox Sports Net... but then, I would have no reason to post in here

ESPN HD
ESPN HD
ESPN HD
ESPN HD
ESPN HD

Greg hurry football season is around the corner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I second, third, fourth and fifth that! I'm tired of paying $40 a month to Voom for ESPNHD. Greg tell those corporate negotiators give in and give us ESPNHD.

^^ What they said. And hey, throw in Fox Sports Net while your at it. Come on, wave that magic wand and make us all happy

I just got an automated phonecall claiming to be from BHN. It urged me, as a High Definition subscriber, to watch the Democratic National Convention coverage on BHN. What the hell? First of all, the Caller ID information was screwed up on their call (no phone number... just the areacode showed up). Second of all, why does something like that qualify as an important subscriber announcement that had to interrupt my day?

I'd rather have them use that technology to notify subscribers of outages when they happen rather than as a tool for politicians to avoid certain aspects of campaign finance laws.

I got it too, I was a bit offended by it. Caller ID said Brighthouse Network, 407-838-2120, came in at 1134AM.

I got it this morning at 10:30, just said 407 for me.

All,

Sorry we offended anybody with the call. But as most of you will recall, we've always made phone calls to our HD subscribers when short notice HD programming became available. We did so again this time.

Programming like this just pops up sometime. HDNet offered us an additional channel with the coverage, so we signed up.

The good news is that it can't be consuming more that 2-3 Mbps, because we all know there's no fast-moving (or medium, or slow) action at a political convention. Of either party. :-)

I read everybody loud and clear about ESPN by football season. I'm hoping too.