DennyG
join:2007-04-23
North Attleboro, MA
|  2 HD channels from Providence missing for over a week
I live in southern Massachusetts, and the local HD channels we get are mostly from Providence stations. Both the ABC and NBC HD channels (806 & 810) have been out for over a week. When I happened to visit my local Comcast office (a few miles away) to exchange a remote, I asked the clerk to bring up these stations on the lobby tv, and they were out there too. This certainly confirmed that the problem wasn't local to just me.
Phone support can not shed light on this. Anyone know if there is some kind of broadcast legal snafu between Comcast and these stations, or anything that may explain this? |
|
sonofjay
Mission Accomplished - Bush May 1, 2003
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-14
North Attleboro, MA
 ·Vonage
 ·Earthlink Cable Mo..
1 edit | During the wind storm last Monday the tower that the local affiliates WJAR-DT and WLNE-DT use was damaged. Both stations use the same shared tower. Due to continued bad weather throughout the week they did not get a crew up to inspect the damage and as of now the plan on sending crew up today to evaluate and repair if possible.
FWIW, DirecTV have had a screen on those 2 channels since Tuesday with a message saying that the local stations are having problems and to please tune to the SD channel as there is no estimate on when it will resolved.
It is amazing given that these local stations depend on one single tower that they do not have a backup to turn on. I guess we won't see the these local affiliates take their DT programming seriously until they are forced shutdown the analog channels.
So bottom-line is that it is a problem from the source station and not Comcast. But I'm surprised that they did not have a message on the screen or be able to tell you this when you called.
--
Mission Accomplished |
|
DennyG
join:2007-04-23
North Attleboro, MA
| Thank you Sonofjay for that information. I guess Comcast would have to first understand the tower problem in order to put a slate up on the screen. Instead they must have gotten a ton of calles, yet kept replying with "We don't know. Do you want a tech to come to your house?"
Out of curiosity where would be a good source of into to follow the repair status? |
|
sonofjay
Mission Accomplished - Bush May 1, 2003
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-14
North Attleboro, MA
·Vonage
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
| Some of the station engineers post over in the OTA forum on AVSForum. Take a look at the following thread and post from WJAR Engineer (the tower they are working on is also used by WLNE)
»www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre···10314337
--
Mission Accomplished |
|
DennyG
join:2007-04-23
North Attleboro, MA | Thanks. As of 5PM, Comcast still is not rebroadcasting these 2 channels. There is probably a signal quality spec that may not be acceptable yet from Comcast's point of view. Hopfully the channels will return soon. |
|
sonofjay
Mission Accomplished - Bush May 1, 2003
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-14
North Attleboro, MA
·Vonage
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
| From the WJAR Engineered in the AVS thread I linked too above.
quote:
We had a crew up on the tower today and the news was bad the power divider that feeds the RF to the antenna burned up. We will be ordering a new power divider tomorrow and hopefully find out why this happened.
It looks like it will be a while before those channels are back on the air.
--
Mission Accomplished |
|
DennyG
join:2007-04-23
North Attleboro, MA | I am sure that Comcast and DirectTV will be issuing refund/credit for the downed stations... not!
Oh well, I guess I can put up with Jay Leno in SD. |
|
b1gdr3
I Blame Your Mother
join:2001-07-28
Pittsburgh, PA
| said by DennyG  :I am sure that Comcast and DirectTV will be issuing refund/credit for the downed stations... not! Why would they? It's a provider issue, not a Comcast outage.
--
I wasn't born with enough middle fingers. |
|
DennyG
join:2007-04-23
North Attleboro, MA
| True... it is not Comcast's fault.
But in effect Comcast is acting as a middleman or reseller of the transmissions. They charge customers extra $ for a few HD channels, so if they can't deliver those channels they "should" not be paid for services they aren't actually delivering.
If you bought a ticket to an event from Ticketmaster, and the event was canceled for any reason, it is not Ticketmaster's fault but I bet you would expect them to return your payment. |
|
Mallego
@metrocast.net | Comcast doesn't charge you for the HD channels, there is a charge for the STB. If you have a QAM tuner TV set, you can get the off-air channels for no additional charge of any kind.
Mallego |
|
jp0469
JP
join:2000-12-13
Rochester, MA
| reply to DennyG
My parents live 10 miles away from me and they called me last weekend to see if I was missing those channels as well. Looking at my guide, I realized that I have the Boston affiliates instead, WBZ (804) and WHDH (807). I wonder if it's possible for Comcast to switch over temporarily for those areas that use the Providence affiliates.
|
|
DennyG
join:2007-04-23
North Attleboro, MA
| reply to Mallego
Actually Comcast charges an upcharge for HD service, the required HD box, and a very small number of HD channels (which includes the 2 that were knocked off the air due to that storm.)
I wish they could temporarily sub out the channels with the Boston NBC and ABC HD channels (like they used to have in the lineup) but I believe there is a contractual issue that must take place for Comcast to add any channels, and unfortunately that takes a deal of time to happen. |
|
rody_44
Premium
join:2004-02-20
Quakertown, PA | nope, local hd channels will come in even if you dont subscribe to any other hd channels. thats if you have a qam tuner capable of picking it up. |
|
DennyG
join:2007-04-23
North Attleboro, MA
| I see. I have the DCT6200 and I've been paying the $5 monthly "HD Box Upgrade." Am I getting stiffed? If I go back to the non-HD digital box and still subscribe to all the digitals and pays, what is the best way to also receive the HD channels? I was led to believe by Comcast that I needed to have the DCT6200? |
|
