Chicago, IL - WOW - Page 23

Yes they were in HD - very nice, too.

Very cool - I saw yesterday that the 1/4 final games are in HD on ABC and ESPN - I can't wait!

My WOW remotes rewind feature seems to not work. All other buttons on it seem to work ok. Does WOW charge you for a new remote if it doesn't work?

Edit: They are sending me a new one free of charge.

Anybody else experience reduction of picture quality in the last 2 weeks....I went on vacation for a week, and came back to find the signal was so weak, I can only get NBC in HD....the others won't even come in. Basic channels (analog, no digital box) are fuzzy, where as they were very crisp b4 I left. I've already checked my connection from the house to the pole to make sure nobody jacked my signal; everything is fine there. Nothing has changed inside the house, so no reason why the signal should be so much weaker.

Good luck getting that fixed. I tend to get a lot of pixelation on PBS HD and The CW HD during the day and when I called a tech out, he basically told me it was as good as it was going to get.

On other note, does anyone know if I'll be able to get ESPN HD, TNT HD, and the other "basic" HD channels with Digital Value or would I need to get Digital Basic?

Yes, you will get ESPN and TNT HD with Digital Value

But from what I have read you will need an HD receiver or HD DVR - I don't think you can get it through QAM, but I could be wrong on that

The Cubs and O's game today looked very grainy. I was surprised. Usually the quality is right on, but this afternoon the game had a grainy/blurry look to it. It almost looked as if it was a digital picture rather than HD.

Yeah, you're right. However, I only have one HD tv in the house so that will get the box. The other tvs, as far as I know, will still get all the regular cable channels over analog. Considering this "upgrade" will save me $4 a month, I don't mind.


I noticed that too.

You say you will still get an analog signal "as far as you know." How do you know that? Have the WOW said so? I've been wondering about that possibility myself -- I have two analog TV's and I don't want to pay for extra set-top boxes for them if I can still get the old analog signal.

Yes the WOW said that. He said I will get all the channels I'm getting along with whatever channels I've been getting but only the tv with the set-top box will get the digital (scrambled) channels. I'm going to call tomorrow to set up an appointment for Thursday and will verify the above again; it won't be the first time one rep told me one thing and a different rep told me another.

*EDIT* Just set up an appointment and the guy I spoke to verified what the other had said; I would still get all the channels I'm getting with the basic analog package but it'll just be $11 cheaper a month.

WGN news is now in HD. I was wondering the other day when they were going to make the switch. That leaves FOX and CBS the only 2 stations left to make the switch over to local HD news. Here is some screen caps I found in the Comcast thread. Thanks to FSugino for the screen caps.

To be honest with you I thought their 4:3 standard news looked really good on the WGN-DT channel. I haven't seen their news yet in HD so I am looking foward to tonight.

I read in my WOW bill this month that they'll be removing some stations from basic analog on July 25th. TV Guide is being removed completely and GemsTV, Jewelry, and TBN are being moved to digital. I realize most people probably have a digital package and aren't affected, but there's still a few of us getting basic service.

I understand that moving analog channels to digital is necessary to free up bandwidth. So although I'm upset that I'm losing stations, at least WOW chose some that are probably the least watched in their lineup (they certainly are for me). Comcast has been removing channels like SciFi, Hallmark, and Travel from their basic analog package over the past few years.

Awesome. I'm going to check it out as well. Also, CBS is due to switch on the 28th to 1080i for the nightly news. No word on FOX yet as far as I know.


Any particular reason you're still on basic analog? With the new packaging, Digital Value + HD box was actually cheaper than basic analog for me, which is why I made the switch. Any tvs in your house without a box will still receive all the analog channels you're getting now.

Yeah, the reason they are moving them is to add more HD channels in the near future I am sure. I really think WOW should look into SDV. This way they wouldn't have to move channels out for the analog customers I don't think. You plan on getting an HDTV soon or upgrading your cable package to digital? They might even give you a deal if you call them up. Just tell them you were thinking of switching to DirecTV or Dish Network or something and they may give you a promotional price.


Chicago's CBS station is switching to HD news on the 28th? Is this local news or the news with Katie Couric or everything all together?

Here's where I read it:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/07/16...es-hd-july-28/

http://www.tvpredictions.com/cbs071508.htm

Yeah, I believe that its not for local news -- just for the Nightly News. CBS has to be switching soon though. It wasn't long ago (over the 4th) which I saw CBS news at Rib Fest in Naperville and out of curiosity I checked to see what kind of cameras they were using and they were Sony HD cameras.

Within the next couple of months, I believe.

I've got an HDTV and a TivoHD, so I get the locals in HD and all the digital music channels via QAM. To upgrade to Digital Value would be about $3 more per month for me than what I'm paying for basic analog. Not much, but not worth the hassle of getting a cable card for the Tivo. I'm not bundling the TV with any other WOW service, so I'm not getting any discounts.

As for SDV, as a Tivo owner I hope WOW doesn't go that route. Right now, Tivo can't pick up any channels that are SDV. They're working on a device that would allow the Tivo to pick them up, but that would just be another monthly fee to WOW (or any cable company). Seeing as how the cable card technology still seems to be unpredictable, I can't imagine what problems there will be with an SDV device.

I don't have Tivo or a cable card, but its a crying shame how technology changes to where people are screwed. There are many people who have bought Tivo's in the past year or less and now the same people are finding out about the SDV technology and know they will be screwed if their cable companies do indeed go with SDV. Its also a shame to where you would have to pay more a month. Technology is so great, yet, its so bad at the same time because it causes people to do a mandatory upgrade that they don't want to do which in turn adds more to their bill.

Odd. It could be that I have cable bundled with internet, which is why it ended up being cheaper for me to upgrade than to keep basic analog. On another note, the only reason I haven't gotten a TivoHD is because I'd have to pay extra for the cable card. Coincidentally, that's also the reason I haven't upgraded my internet speed; to get any higher I need to rent a modem from WOW and pay almost $4 a month extra. No thanks.

What does a cable card do exactly anyway? I have never had one before. Are they for people with Tivo boxes only or what? If someone has WOW's SA 8300 box, I wouldn't even see the need for a cable card, but I am probably wrong considering I don't know jack.

It allows you to unscramble premium content without the cable set-top box.

Last night (Tuesday), the Cubs / Snakes game was presented in 1080i with pillar bars (4:3) on WGN HD. I recently unhooked my OTA antenna, so I wasn't able to verify if it was 4:3 OTA as well.

Did anyone get the game in 16:9? Every Cubs game I've ever seen on WGN HD has always been 16:9.

Anyone else notice how comcast sports NET seems to alter or compress the heck out of a lot of their morning sports recap show? When the games are live, they look awesome, but the same footage looks horrible the next morning.

Even the PQ of the morning show newsroom looks bad - very soft.

I assume this is not a fault of WOW, it probably comes that way.

A cable card replaces a cable box (or dvr), so you'd only need one or the other. Some HDTVs have a slot built in for them, as do the TivoHD and Tivo Series 3. They allow the TV or Tivo to view digital and HD channels without needing a box (think back 20 years or so when they called TVs "cable ready").

There are single stream cards (which you would use if you put it into a TV) and multi-stream cards (that allow a Tivo's dual tuner to function). A cable card only works "one way", though, so it doens't allow you to access PPV or OnDemand.

A cable company will give you a card for free instead of a box when you sign up for digital service. If you want digital on two TVs, a card only costs about half per month what an additional box would, so you could save some money there by having one free box and then paying the monthly rate for the card.

The problem with them is their reliability. I've read countless horror stories from other Tivo owners about how the installers don't know how to install them properly, how it takes an hour to set them up, and how they'll often lose channels or need to be re-activated. Tivo even suggests that you ask the cable company to bring a few extra cards because so many are "bad" when they're installed. Because it takes so long for them to activate, the installer often leaves during setup and the customer doesn't realize they've gotten a bad card until its too late.

Personally, I like Tivo. I like that they exist and offer an alternative to throwing more money at the cable companies. I like how easy it is to use and I like the extras they provide (download movies and music videos, transfer shows to laptop or ipod, expandable hard drive, wireless, etc). A few years ago I had Dish Network for about a week and absolutely hated their DVR. From others I've spoken with, they agree that if you've had Tivo its almost impossible to go back to a regular dvr. Although if a regular dvr is all you've had, you're usually happy with it.

The only reason I'd get a cable card for my Tivo is if I wanted to go to Digital Value and get the couple HD stations that aren't available with QAM (ESPN, CSN, Discovery, etc). Other than Sox games, though, there's not much on those stations that I'm really missing in HD. So for now, I'm not going the route of a cable card.

The problem was with the feed. I switched over to OTA and it was in 4:3 there as well.

Thanks for the info on the cable card. I understand what its for now.

As for the Cubs game, I'm not sure what the problem was. As far as I know, the announcers never mentioned why the HD feed was out. Maybe it was due to the lack of Cubs playing good baseball. People got pissed and turned the game off and ratings slipped and couldn't afford the HD feed for that day.
*sarcasm of course*

They better start playing better ball though.

Just as an FYI, TV Guide, TBN, Jewelry, and GemTV stopped broadcasting on analog this morning at about 7:30 (at least that's when I noticed it). I'm going to try a scan this weekend to see if my QAM can pick up TBN, Jewelry, or GemTV on their new digital channels. Not that I really care about watching them, but more out of curiosity. I noticed on the new channel listings that they're not in the same category as other digital channels, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

UPDATE: No, none are appearing via the QAM tuner.

Sounds good -- now lets get those HD channels out and rolling!

*Crosses fingers for Sci-Fi HD*