Channel realignment!

JPL

You may not get them next week, though. From what they wrote on dslreports, NY is supposed to be the first market to get them, and they'll have them by, I think the date, was 8/4 for all of the NY markets. No telling when other markets will get them. Chances are you guys won't get them next week with your first roll-out.

JPL

Actually I take that back. That guy on dslreports posted a scan of the paperwork he received. It clearly says NY and Northern NJ. Looks like you guys may be getting it next week afterall.

Shark2k

Haha, it's all good. I was actually going by what he typed up (the list of all the channels). I still need to do this though (just cause I can, not to be a jerk lol) I actually didn't know he posted the scan up, now I gotta go check it out.

-Shark2k

Bob Walters

Folks,
Well...IT HAPPENED!!!!!!! as of 6:00PM 7-23-08 NOTHING!! As of 6:00 AM 7-24-08 channel 502 is CBS HD. Had to get to work so this PM I'll make a list of what is & what aint'. KUDOS to Verizon, they said they would and the DID!!!!!!!!

sweeeet

JPL, I'm right down the road from you so when are we getting the new HD stuff?

Bob Walters

Folks,
Does anyone know how the re-alignment with new channel no's will affect recordings & the series manager??? Is the STB "smart" enough to record by subject/title rather than channel #. If nobody knows I'll "play" tonight & report tomorrow!!!!!

RES4CUE

This may be a stupid question and I may have missed it ealier. What is supposed to happen with the channel reallignment? When a market goes digital how can you find out if it has happened? can I look at the stb settings? Supposedly my market went digital on the 21st of july, but have only seen the olympic channels and the usa HD channel.

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JPL

There are a couple things going on. First, each market gets converted to all digital. This takes time. They have to go cable office by cable office and upgrade equipment, and pull the plug on the analogs. Your conversion started on 7/21, but it'll take a couple weeks to be complete.

Once complete, the analog channels will have what some are calling 'the red screens of death.' Basically, the analog channel feeds will be replaced by a message by verizon (with a red background - hence the RSOD) telling you that you need to act NOW if you want to keep getting these channels. I guess if you missed their automated phone calls... the message on your bill... the messages on your My Account on their website... the e-mail messages... the scroll on WeatherScan Local... the letters you got in the mail... the message on your set top boxes... and the VOD feature giving info about the conversion - meaning if you were living under a rock somewhere... then that RSOD is meant to be your last ditch warning.

Those RSODs stay on for some time (a week or so), and then 'poof!' your analogs really are gone - they become all snow.

Now, how do you know if your analogs are gone? Well, if you have a set top box, you've ALWAYS gotten all your channels in digital (Verizon always simulcasted their locals - if you hooked up to a TV without a set top box, you got their analog feeds, and with a set top box you got their digital feeds). So, if you're hooked up with a set top box, you won't be able to tell if your analogs are gone.

The easiest way to tell - bypass your set top box. I have an old TV upstairs (complete with rabbit ears and dial). It was just collecting dust, and when Verizon started offering their free digital adapters, I got one for that TV. It's really easy for me to yank the cable from the digital adapter and plug it right into the TV. Do that, and then turn to one of your local channels, see if they still come in. If not - you're digital. If so, then they haven't hit your cable office yet (we were probably the last cable office in SE PA to get hit).

Now, as to what's coming next - in a few weeks you should get a notice about the channel realignments - telling you when the realignment is set to happen. When that happens, they'll totally move around the channels that you've gotten used to. The SD channels aren't moving far - they're just expanding some of the ranges to make more room (e.g. News currently starts on channel 80 - it will start on 100 when this reshuffling is done). Your locals won't move at all.

But the other channels are going all over the place. HDs will move to start at channel 500. The internationals are moving out near the end of the dial, and the digital music channels ARE moving to the end of the dial (starting in the 1600s if I remember right). Along with that you'll get your first roll-out of new HD, and a handful of SD, channels. The number of channels keeps increasing. Since starting this process with Ft. Wayne, IN a couple weeks ago, a few more HD channels have come on line.

Also if you dig around on these threads you'll see mention about 100 HD channels. That's another piece of news that people are trying to make sense of. NYC just offered a franchise agreement to Verizon. They want to start that with a bang - offering, literally, 100 HD channels in the NY market starting next week/early the following week. That seems to be pretty solid, from what I can tell. Now what does that mean for all other markets? Not sure. I THINK that means that as each future market gets converted, you'll get all 100 HD channels. I saw the list of channels, and I don't think, aside from Voom, there are any HD channels that are NOT on that list . We'll just have to wait and see on that, though. Although Verizon is promising 100 HD channels to every market before the end of the year.

Finally, what about USA HD and CNBC HD, and those other Olympics channels? Those were added as part of an agreement with NBC, dealing with olympics coverage. I believe all markets now have those channels in their guide (all five) and some markets have seen them turned on. Our's isn't one of those, yet. But they'll be on in time for the start of the olympics.

Shark2k

JPL, somebody on the DSLReports forums mentioned that these channels were not on the list:

AMC HD
WE HD
MSG HD
MSG+ HD

This was posted in the "100 Hi-Def Channels by 8/1" thread (page 6). The person mentioned that those channels are owned by Cablevision. I looked up to confirm and Cablevision does indeed own AMC. Anyway, the person said that it is possible that we won't get those channels because Cablevision owns them, but you never know. So I just wanted to point out those 4 channels.

-Shark2k

RES4CUE

Thank you for your reply, I always find your info useful. I figured I was already getting digital because of the boxes, but am glad to hear about the channel realignment and will start to look out for it.

I also read about the NY rollout in HOME THEATER magazine. they say between now and 2010 they will be up and running. Numbers indicated are 150 HD, 400 channels, and 10,000 VOD selections.

__________________
Samsung PN50A650A Plasma
Sony 7.1 reciever STR-DG1000
POLK speakers
PS3 BLU RAY
XBOX 360 W/ HD-DVD
Samsung upconvert DVD
Harmony "ONE"
Fios HD service
360 TAG= TRUCKY512
PS3 TAG= RESCUE4

Bowadoyle

To JPL,

You seem to know a lot about Verizon, I had Fios now for 5 months and as much as I love the picture and sound quality as it is 100% better then Comcast, if I got a call from them tomorrow and said they would eat my early termination fee if I wanted to opt out, I'd it in a second just on principle. I'm a pretty calm person who is not easy to loss his temper and I try to act professional in all my dealings, but dealing with their customer service has been a nightmare. billing screw ups, still calling two months later asking if I wanted to sign up for Fios TV, and lies about what they had in store for us. (I'm talking about MLB Extra Innings) have me really upset with them. I'm old school and I think we're treated like trash by therm. I told my wife if they call again, to set up an appointment to get installed and see what they do if they come out here.

Comcast has had its moments, but in the past couple of years, they've come a long way. At least you can talk to a human being there. At verizon you get stuck with a computer person.

Then I hear we have to wait until the end of the year for our upgrade in SE Penna. Enough is enough. Give me my money back and I'll go back to Comcast or DirecTv.

Thanks!

JPL

First off, I understand your frustration about the wait on the channels. I never take the sales person's word for when something is set to come out. As for the end of the year - again, that's not what I'm hearing at all. I keep hearing the end of August as the date for SE PA. If you are that unhappy, though, I'll bet if you called Comcast they would cover your ETF. A coworker was a FiOS customer for 15 minutes. He signed up (made an appointment), and then, for some reason, decided to call Comcast right then to cancel. They gave him such a good deal to stay that he couldn't refuse.

My experience has been very different on their customer service front, to be honest. I don't think I've had a bad experience with any of their CSRs or techs. Last year right after I signed up I had some issues with VOD pixellating. I would call, they would try something, and then tell me to see if that fixed the problem. I couldn't get angry at having to continually call back because the problem was intermittent - I couldn't produce it on demand (sorry, bad pun there ). One night I called, and I'll admit I was getting a bit frazzled from having to call so often. The rep I talked to just blew me away. He sat there reading for 5 minutes - what was he reading? The notes from all my prior calls! I can't tell you how much that impressed me.

He could have just given me a brush off, but he didn't. He spent alot of time on the phone with me. He read all the prior notes because he didn't want to repeat a step that didn't work before. And what he did did the trick (he reset my ONT).

Last summer, right around this time, when we came back from vacation, our router died. I called them, and talked to a rep. Again, the guy was awesome - sat there on the phone while I troubleshot the problem (bad power adapter). Then he said 'we see a problem with your battery back up.' I went downstairs and checked - no problem at all - everything was green. He then said 'well, if it's ok with you we'd like to send a tech out just in case - just to check things out.' I was off the next day anyway, so it didn't bug me. The tech showed up less than 12 hours after I called.

Their techs and installer just impressed the crap out of me too. Sure I've hit my share of snafus with them - I already had internet service with them for well over a year when I got TV service. The guy I called who took my TV order must have been having an off day. A couple days later I called to confirm my order - the ONLY thing the guy got right was the day of the install. Everything else was wrong on the order. Again, the reps took care of it right away.

I've never had much of an issue with their billing either (although I do know plenty of people who have). About the only real issue happened with this last bill. When I called to have them bump up my internet speed, the rep took care of that just fine, but must have also signed me up for their internet security package (noticed an $8 discrepency on my bill). Called right away - granted this was closing in on 5 in the afternoon, so I had to wait 10 minutes to talk with someone. But again, she took care of the problem right away.

I'm not saying all this to make light of what you've experienced. No company is perfect, and I know of a few people who've had lots of issues with Verizon. All I can say is that I'm not one of them. I know alot about their service because I really do love the service. I love the PQ, the number of channels, the price, hell I even love the IMG s/w. And I love the fact that they don't cut corners on expanding their service. They could have started compressing the crap out of their stuff to add more HD channels, but they didn't. They did it the hard, but right, way.

Bob Walters

Folks,
Here's MY list....re-alignment with NEW HD channels! Some surprises, some disappointments!!!!
502 WCBS HD
504 NBC HD
505 FOX HD
507 WABC HD
509 WWOR HD
511 WPIX HD
513 PBS HD
550 USA HD
551 TNT HD
552 TBS HD
567 Universal HD
569 HDNET
570 ESPN HD
574 ESPN2 HD
576 YES HD
577 SPORTS NET NY HD
581 NBC OLYMPIC SMPTE BARS ONLY
582 NBC OLYMPIC SMPTE BARS ONLY
585 BIG TEN HD
588 NFL NET
590 VS GOLF HD
591 OUTDOOR HD MUST SUBSCRIBE
600 CNN HD
602 CNBC HD
619 THE WEATHER CHANNEL HD
620 DISNEY HD
621 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HD
622 SCIENCE CHANNEL HD
625 SMITHSONIAN HD
628 HISTORY CHANNEL HD
630 ANIMAL PLANET HD
631 HD THEATER
639 THE LEARNING CHANNEL HD
640 LIFETIME HD
641 LIFETIME MOVIE HD
664 FOOD HD
665 HGTV HD
669 WEALTH HD
680 SCI-FI HD
681 A & E HD
685 BRAVO HD
711 MUSIC HD
746 HDNET MOVIES HD
840 STARZ HD MUST SUBSCRIBE
865 SHOTIME HD MUST SUBSCRIBE
885 TMC HD MUST SUBSCRIBE

899 & the 900 channels MUST SUBSCRIBE [premium channels]
Note: You do NOT have to re-do recordings or the series manager; the STP does it for you!!!!!!!!!!

sweeeet

I understand where you are coming from. Sometimes their billing system seems a little F'd up. When I moved into my house 3 yrs ago they gave me complimentary dial up for internet access and it was supposed to be turned off once dsl was up and running and I wouldn't have to do a thing. Well, like a month or 2 after my dsl was up and working I noticed a discrepancy in my bill. Guess what it was? A dial up charge for internet. It took over a year to get it resolved . Completely unacceptable!!! Well the first 3 months I was sooo pissed because I just got bumped here and there and it never got resolved and spending 45min to an hr on the phone didn't make it any better. Well one day I got a nice person and she/he said OH you should be calling this # since your an ENCORE customer. Well it still took several months to get it resolved but when I called this new # I always got a live person and that one person was able to do anything with my 3 services. The person told that this could take a while because they have to submit the problem to their internet service which was in CA. What a pain but that one person was always able to credit me on the spot and at times more just for the aggravation. Even though its a hassle Verizon, wants to make their customers happy and pretty much will give you a credit for anything.


I had them and I felt like they were the worst people to deal with. They just didn't care and had some of the most incompetent people that I have ever dealt with. As you can tell I'm like a chick and hold a grudge Hey I PMS too

John

sweeeet

Sure Bob, rub it in. Rub it in.

Enjoy the new stuff. I'm getting syked! Now when they show up in my neck of the woods, how do I get my wife to watch it in HD instead of SD I think they need to add some software to automatically default to HD