Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD - HDTV - Page 18  

Chantilly Highland/Franklin Farm

Yes, they are laying down those bright Orange Conduit just like what Cox was doing 2 years ago. Even without looking at the cables, I derived my conclusion from following facts:

(1) Verizon FIOS is fiber to your house. Other baby bells are doing fiber to curb and coper to home.

(2) My area already capable of DSL. So there is no need to DSL upgrade. Besides, DSL does not need to lay new wires to your house.

Verizon FiOS is indeed fiber into the house.

Anyone who has been following the Brambleton thread during the past fifteen months knows that our community (located northwest of Dulles International Airport) is already fiber-to-the-house. We will soon be switching over to Verizon (our current telco provider, Gatehouse Networks, has been booted out on its ear), so we're slated to become one of the first communities in the area to actually go live with Verizon's service.

Here is the Verizon FiOS FAQ that was recently posted on our community's intranet. The details may change for other communities, but this should give you a general idea of what to expect:

Verizon FiOS Frequently Asked Questions

• What type of set top box will FiOS video require? The FiOS video system utilizes Motorola Set Top Boxes (STBs), which will be available in three styles: 1) basic video, with stereo outputs, along with composite video and S-video outputs, 2) same as above, with HDTV capabilities, and 3) same as above, with DVR capability.
• Will DVR boxes for FiOS Video be extra? Yes, the DVR set top box is currently priced at $12.95 per month and is HDTV enabled. The set top box with HDTV is currently priced at $9.95 per month, and the basic set top box is currently priced at $3.95 per month. One basic set top box is included in the HOA fee.
• What type of programming will be available with FiOS Video? The FiOS Video service is designed to offer the following: approximately 16 HD National channels and 9 Local Broadcast HD channels, approximately 400 digital channels, approximately 20 PPV channels, and approximately 1800 on-demand titles.
• How will the transition occur from Gatehouse to Verizon? Will there be a specific date when everything is changed over? Will it happen in phases or by streets? For Legacy Park residents, Verizon is currently upgrading the network to prepare for the service transition from Gatehouse to Verizon. The transition to FiOS high-speed Internet service is planned starting in August/September 2005. It is anticipated that the transition to FiOS Internet service will occur over several months and will be done by street locations. More details are to follow regarding specific transitions by street.
• Will residents be getting FiOS Internet first then FiOS Video later? Legacy Park: FiOS Internet Service will be made available to Legacy Park residents during the planned August-December 2005 transition period. FiOS Video service is planned for deployment in late 4th quarter 2005. Prior to FiOS Video service being available, residents will receive Verizon FiOS Internet Service and continue to receive Gatehouse Video service. Once Verizon FiOS Video service is available, residents that have received the Verizon FiOS Internet Service upgrade will be transitioned to the Verizon Video service. Those that have not yet been upgraded to the new network will receive both Verizon FiOS Internet Service and FiOS Video service once Verizon Fios Video is available. Sky Meadows: Verizon FiOS Internet Service will be available to Sky Meadows residents from the date of home occupancy. Once Verizon FiOS Video service is available, Sky Meadows residents will be then be transitioned to the Verizon Video service.
• Will residents continue to pay for video and Internet through the HOA? Yes
• Will Verizon bill upgrades directly? Yes
• What happens to the new headend that was just built? The headend will remain in place, until such time as all residents are receiving Verizon FiOS Internet Service and Verizon FiOS Video service. At that time, the headend electronics will likely be transferred elsewhere.
• Will residents continue to be able to get static IP addresses? Verizon is currently evaluating the ability to deliver static IP addresses to current and future residents. Static IP is currently not available to Brambleton residents.
• The preparation of the pedestals in Legacy Park neighborhood (Phase I) will require Verizon to complete construction work that requires digging up to 15 feet from the pedestal. Is this 15' around the pedestal or 15' to the house? Around the pedestal. The fiber optics that run to/into the home will not be affected.
• Who do Sky Meadows residents call to set up their data and voice services? 888-GET-FIOS
• Will the brambleton.net email formula change to verizon.net? Currently, all new Verizon FiOS Internet Service customers will receive the verizon.net email address. However, Verizon is investigating the feasibility of keeping the existing brambleton.net addresses.

You can rest assured that as we start gearing up for Verizon FiOS that there will be more posts in the Brambleton thread on this topic.

They (Verizon) have been doing quite a bit of digging in the Herndon area.

16 national and 9 local HD channels? Nice. This is a no-brainer when it hits Baltimore, unless Comcast can squeeze in that many channels by then.

WJZ will air the Masters Golf Tournament on Thursday and Friday at 4:00 on the HD channel only. SD will show the local news. They announced it during their news broadcast.

But it's 25 HD channels total, and still better than Comcast already. How many did Comcast have when it started?

I'm seeing the NFL Game of the Week on HD Special Events channel 208. Haven't seen it since before the Superbowl.

Have we heard if WUSA is showing the Masters Thursday and Friday on the HD channel?

Big mess up tonight on The West Wing. I was watching on Ch11 Balt and they did a nearly 2 minute stay-on-black after one commercial break (about 25 mins into the show). It may have been a network problem, as I switched to Chan 4 and it was black as well (although my Chan 4 reception is pretty iffy), so I switched back to the Baltimore feed. About 10 minutes later I heard severe audio distortion and switched to Cox cable for the Ch4 SD feed. Very frustrating as it was the season finale and we missed some crucial moments of the plot...

Per masters.org web site...

Thursday, April 7
4:00 - 7:00 pm USA Network
8:00 - 11:00 pm USA Network
11:30 - 11:45 pm CBS-TV

Friday, April 8
4:00 - 7:00 pm USA Network
8:00 - 11:00 pm USA Network
11:30 - 11:45 pm CBS-TV

Saturday, April 9
3:30 - 7:00 pm CBS-TV

Sunday, April 10
2:30 - 7:00 pm CBS-TV

Also you can get live Video Feed on their web site ...
April 7 - 10, 2005: Live Video of hole Nos. 6 and 12


I was watching live feed of the practice tee ( the video was excellent
quality)

Charlie

Yes, I had seen the general TV schedule, but many CBS affiliates who have HD channels (including WJZ in Baltimore) are showing the HD/USA Thurs/Fri coverage on their HD channels, with regular CBS programming on their SD channel. So I was asking if WUSA has said that it would do the same as WJZ, show the HD Thur/Fri coverage on WUSA-DT.

--jd

That's very strange, Heather, because I didn't notice any problems at all on WRC's over the air HDTV channel. (Cool West Wing finale, I must say... lots of intriguing cliffhangers for next season.)

Hmm...Thursday's Orioles game is on CSN, ESPN, and INHD. INHD will probably be blacked out, but will there be two HD broadcasts of the same game on Comcast? I guess two channels will be blacked out (ESPN and INHD).

I didn't see any problems with WRC-DT either.

-Chris

The HD feed on Thursday and Friday will be on Universal HD.

ESPN will either be blacked out or you will see alternate programming, usually the second/backup game in SD.

Finally got an answer from WETA................

Audio is being broadcast on all our Digital Channels. However, since the recent update to our systems (mandated by FCC rules) a small number of receiver/decoders have experienced some problems. Apparently an early
model of Zenith receivers, including some built-in some Zenith brand
projection systems, are not decoding the audio on 26.2, and possibly not
on 26.3 and 26.4

We are checking our systems here to assure that audio is not accidently excluded in some obscure language or parental control setting of our systems.

Regards,

Ed Kennedy
Director, Engineering & Technology
WETA-TV/FM


I guess this problem was also manifesting itself in Samsung STB's (like mine). A few days after I fired off a e-mail to the station the problem was fixed. So anyone out there having problems with WETA, e-mail them they seem to be receptive to their viewers.

OK for you DC area golf fans, I got the below off Channel 9's website just now.

"4:00pm-7:00pm Masters Coverage (W*USA 9 DT only)"

For all the Nationals fans with the extra innings package. MLB has waived the blackout rule for all the National games that will be on the package from out of market networks. Got this from DCRTV.COM.

Sorry, I know this has nothing to do with HD but it is nice to know.

I had the same problem w/WBAL-HD (11-1) last night. It happened right when it came out of a commercial break at 11:22 PM. I put my VCR in a PIP window and tuned in the WBAL NTSC signal, and it was there, so I just swapped over to it. Then I tuned to 11-2 in the PIP window, and that was there, too. When I went back to 11-1, it was back.

I'm not positive if tuning off of 11-1, then back solved the problem, or if it got fixed at the same time...

Sue Baldwin, from WUSA, confirms this.

If an RSN falls in the forest and no cable or DBS company picks it up, does it make a sound?

CycloneGT, when are WUSA's HDTV news broadcasts supposed to start? I thought it was going to be this spring.

Free Starz preview on Comcast right now, including HD.

We also have all Starz channels free on COMCAST for the next four days ... EXCEPT Starz HD !

I'll have to at least take a peek at Honey tonight on Starz - Jessica Alba in HD!