Portland, ME & Hartford, CT HD's now on!

The thread title says it all. I thought I would just point this out. Unfortunately Dish did not get a deal done with the Fox stations in both of these markets.

It's unknown where the rest that were supposed to go active are at this point although...

Dish is doing alot of playing around with 61.5 for something call "Eastern Arc". They are trying to create an all MPEG-4 service so everyone will only need 1 Dish and they want to start it very soon.

Not to worry if you have MPEG-2 receivers as that will not go away any time soon and before it does, Dish will swap out all MPEG-2 receivers.

All of this is so Dish will eventually have the capacity for many more channels in SD and HD using just one Dish for everyone.

Installations of this kind of system will begin to new subscribers this summer but again nothing is changing for existing subs any time soon.

Next year will see the start of the "Western Arc" which will do the same thing for the west.

Also, Dish is expected to discontinue giving out SD receivers to anyone soon. Everyone will get HD ViP receivers which is good as OTA TV signals will all be ATSC soon and the receivers will act as tuners for your NTSC analog TV's at the same time.

Again, all of this testing on 61.5 is what is slowing down the adding on of new HD channels right now. Everything is technical but it will get worked out soon.

I noticed them on yesterday, and plugged them into favorites. I also
noted that it was just NBC, CBS, and ABC and the Fox23 still a noshow.
I have talked to the people at Fox23, and for some reason, I understand it is unlawful to change over until the Feb2009 change
date. I am not sure if that is true or not.

I noticed them on yesterday, and plugged them into favorites. I also
noted that it was just NBC, CBS, and ABC and the Fox23 still a noshow.
I have talked to the people at Fox23, and for some reason, I understand it is unlawful to change over until the Feb2009 change
date. I am not sure if that is true or not.

Are you saying they said it is unlawful for Dish or anyone else to provide HD locals at this time?

That is total nonsense.

The only reason this would happen is when the channel wants more money than the provider is willing to pay.

What I was told when I asked Fox:

"WPFO FOX-23 will not be converted to digital before February of 2009. When the station was purchased in 2003, the time period when stations could file with the FCC for an additional digital channel position had expired.

Therefore, when we make the switch, our analog signal on 23 will become our digital signal on 23. If we were to convert before 2009, the large percentage of our viewers who pick up our analog signal over-the-air would be unable to receive our programming at all. It is the station’s decision to give all viewers the chance to make preparations with either a new set or DTV converter box."

So its not Dish's fault, I have no idea what the issue is in Hartford.
Tim

Yes I see that it isn't available OTA but the digital feed is available via TWC and D*.

Look here.. MyFoxMaineDigitalPage (http://www.myfoxmaine.com/myfox/pages/InsideFox/Detail?contentId=4944299&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=5.1.1)

Newscorp also owns this station just like the Hartford one and that is the problem.