Philadelphia / Harrisburg, PA - Blue Ridge

Hi Raymond - I'd posted a similiar question last month asking about folks' experiences. I've been BRCTV subscriber almost from day one, and my experience hasn't been the greatest. After my last bout of complaints, they replaced my decoder box with a newer model (because I'm an early adapter, the original model i had was woefully out of date). That cleared up quite a bit of the problem, but last night was absolutely horrible. The reason I checked back here was to see if others were complaining about the ABC feed, or if it was localized to BRCTV. I'd suggest checking to see if you['ve got a newer model box, but i'm also going to complain again. i'm simply not getting whta i'm paying for, and i've been more than patient i think (over 2 years).

Perhaps we should start a lancaster county support group 8-)

Raymond - I'll make this the "Official" Blue Ridge cable thread. Hopefully we can get more BR subs to come here to post. Could you edit the first post adding a brief summary of what HD channels are available through BR?

I'll have to check when i get home. It's the one with the new PVR built in that records HD as well. I just got off the phone with the CSR's, and apparently the ABC deal last night was system wide. They are taking names and numbers to contact us when they've figured it out, as well as offering $25 credits.

what i'm paying for - the quality's not there. I'm being fairly insistant this time that they need to be able to assure me that they're getting it under control and can give me a reason why I should stay with them (i'm loyal, but this is ridiculous) instead of going satellite.

My wife used to work at WGAL, and apparently WGAL's been insisting that in order to use their HD feed, they have to do so at full bandwidth. BR My point to them is that it's really not about the credit, but I'm not getting hasn't been willing to do that until recently, and apparently they've agreed to do so, so our NBC feed should be local as opposed to Philly, soon if not already (I don't watch much tv in the summer, it could have already happened). I find that I have most problems with ABC historically, and today it was explained to me that comcast has a fiber link to the ABC feed, while BR is getting it via transmitter, and taht the ABC transmitter has issues from time to time.

Those are all fine and dandy explainations, but I just want it to work. Explain it, but fix it. I'm paying $1500/year for programming for crying out loud.

Here's the answer recieved from the GM of BRCTV given as explaination for the ABC issues last night. I did record the game in HD, and still have it - just so I'd be able to show them what it was I was talking about. The supers can still watch the game 8-)

Last night we experienced atmospheric conditions that resulted in the loss of the newly launched ABC from Harrisburg. It was the first time we have experienced this type of problem on the new feed. The Harrisburg HD is broadcast on channel 10 over the air. As you may know their is an analog feed broadcast out of Philadelphia on the same channel which caused the loss of signal. In an effort to eliminate this problem we will be working on receiving the picture in our system closest to Harrisburg (Newberry) and transporting it over to Ephrata. We are hopeful this solution will result in a better more reliable HD ABC. I truly understand your concern and do apologize for the trouble. I have credited your account for a months worth of HD service.

Thank you for your patience.

Mark Masenheimer
GM
BRC

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For anyone who still reads this thread, I got some good news for you.

1. All analog channels should be digital simulcasted by June.

2. ESPN2-HD will be added very soon and they are considering TNT, OLN (outdoor world), PBS, National Geographic, and InHD 1 & 2.

They apparently are using a 1Ghz front end now so they should have the bandwidth for all this.

Does anyone have BRCTV in Etters area. I think we have the same HD channel line up. I will keep an eye on CBS.

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Is there any news as to when TNT HD will be added? It is very frustrating that I have to watch there sports coverage in SD when I know it is being broadcast in HD.

Good Luck! ESPN2 was 3 months late in being turned on and they still have not enable the digital simulcast like they told me they would and that was 3 months ago.

Anyone know if the HD receivers available from Blue Ridge in the Ephrata area have an HDMI output that will work with an A/V Receiver? I called them and they said that they are currently offering the SciAtl 8300HD box with HDMI output -- I have read other (old) posts that this box runs HDCP, which interferes with HDMI switching with an AVR -- is this still the case?

Try checking the Scientific website. Not sure, when I had it is was going HDMI to DVI.

I have contacted BRCTV and asked about additional HD content and haven't gotten any answers back. Any news? If it wasn't for Discovery HD I would cancel the "extended" HD package and save myself $12.95 a month.

Nothing that I know of! I was told that info in post #12 but they really dropped the ball on that one didn't they! Of wait! they have nbc8 in digital now. WOW!

Blue Ridge is horrible. I have them in Milford and I dont even get a local Basketball team because my segment goes into your area. So even though I am in Knicks territory, I dont get them.

As far as HD goes, I have noticed how terrible it looks and have called constantly call them to complain about the price. $12.95 is such a rip off.

Does anyone know how they intend to handle the cutoff for analog? I just bought two HD tv's with the digital tuners and I don't want to use another box to receive the channels.

When you say digital tuner, due you mean an ATSC tuner or Cable Card? If it is just an ATSC tuner then you will still need a digital cable box. As for the cutoff, Cable companies don;t have to cut it off, It really only applies to Over the Air broadcasts and seeing as about 80% of BRC customers still only have the basic cable package I don;t see them turning it off any time soon.

So even when everyone is brooadcasting digital. BRCTV is still going to charge me for analog and then charge extra for digital and HD.

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Hi everyone, I'm from down in Frederick, Maryland but have family in Ephrata (Clay actually) on Blue Ridge Cable. Does anyone have a list of the QAM channels on Blue Ridge? They have scanned and found some channels, but are not finding a channel for each of the broadcast networks. Plus, they have found A&E and a couple others. If anyone has a current list of the QAM channels for Ephrata Blue Ridge, I would appreciate your sharing it. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Again -- anyone have any idea what QAM is available from Blue Ridge in the Ephrata area? Do you get these channels with basic cable or do you have to have digital?

Really sad that this forum has been dormant for over 375 days now

To answer your question, I "had" the newberry flavor of Blue Ridge which I believe is similar to the Ephrata version, and I had 0 Clear Qam stations. I was using the Samsung DTB H-260F tuner during my test.

Due to the lack of programming available (no Big 10 Network among other channels) I decided to ditch BRC and get D*... Haven't looked back, but occasionally I do miss CSN- Philly. FSN-P, MASN1&2 along with B10 and CSN-MA sure make up for it though.