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HDTV and Time Warner Cable Basic Questions

Basic cable doesn't include Food Network, so it's possible you are receiving channels that you aren't paying for. That would also be the reason many channels have a weak signal. Many areas of NYC now require a cable box, instead of basic direct hook up. If you took off the boxes, then you would need to rescan the tv remote to add or subtract channels. Also, how would you be receiving HBO and Showtime without a box?

It is possible that your bulk building has an agreement with reduced rates for TWC, but that should be noted on your lease or mortgage.

(con.)

reply to quickguide1
Con, Since you have internet access, go to www.timewarnercable.com/nynj and look up your channel lineup. In NYC, customers can upgrade or downgrade from basic to digital without a tech coming out, and channels are probably filtering through. It's not clear if the boxes are connected to the televisions right now. If not, hook them back up and reboot, and then recheck the available channels.

You are probably better off calling billing or technical support, since you have so many specific questions.

Hi. Yes i rescanned my channels multiple times. Isn't the cable box i have... its the black one... is that the cable box you are talking about?

I have HBO and showtime. I do not understand why. I also have Encore and the movie channel EXTRA. I do not know why i have these channels. Also, if i plugged in my cable box back in... what does that do? The only reason why i unpluged the cable box was because last time the picture quality in my CRT TV actually had a better picture.

There is no way to give exact answers to your questions without specific account info. Really you should call Customer Service or post in the TWC Direct Forum with your personal info. Many multiple dwelling unit buildings in NYC include premiums but again that requires verifying your account. Asking questions on a general forum can only generate possible scenarios and most likely incorrect replies.

reply to quickguide1
It sounds to me like if you live in a building with bulk rate with TWC then you have Standard Analog not basic. Standard Analog has Food. As for the movie channels, I suspect the filtering in your building is not very good so you are getting those when you shouldn't.

Analog on Samsung HD TVs is poor...particularly if you have a 6000 series Smart Samsung TV. Professional reviews warn to not buy it for Analog but ONLY for HD. I have one of these since September and I live in a building with bulk agreement with TWC. We get Standard analog (basic plus value channels) which is about 70 channels without a rental box from TWC. Then if you have an HD TV with a tuner (all newer HD TVs) then you also get broadcast channels like ABC, Fox, etc. and some digital channels via clearqam in HD. You also get the same channels in Analog where they look bad.

I too was puzzled at first by why the HD channels and the digital ones have no channel numbers and the TV has no information on the channel as to what channel it is (it does tell me whether the channel is broadcasting in 16:9 HD or 4:3 480i Digital or says nothing at all if it is one of the 70 Analog channels. Only the analog channels correspond number wise to TV-Guide.com for my town for TWC. Even the analog ones do not correspond to TWC channel listings on my local Oceanic TWC website which makes no sense since you don't need a rental box in this building to get the Standard 70 analog channels. The digital channels and HD channels that I get are like you describe - CBS is on 116-1 and ABC is 116-8, etc. I get about 30 channels that are not analog but either HD or digital seen via clearqam. Oceanic TWC lists just a handful of clearqam channels but I get quite few more.

TWC moves the channels around. That is why they disappear and without the TWC converter box you will have this happen. But TWC in your area should have somewhere on their website the ClearQam channel listing and if they change that then they should post the change there. I found the ClearQam channel lineup for Hawaii in the last spot I would have looked. I stumbled on it after looking many times on the channel line up pages on Oceanic.com. »www.oceanic.com/products/televis···-hookups That listing though doesn't list the other digital channels that I get via clearqam with this new Samsung. I can't use the feature on this TV to have it turn on at a particular hour on a particular night every week to a specific channel because the TV has no channel information since I don't rent the TWC box. I also can tell the TV to delete all weak and scrambled channels from memory which I did when I first turned on the TV and let it find all the channels that it could detect. But the weak and scrambled ones don't stay deleted as I click up on the channels on the remote every channel is added even though it may be weak or scrambled. That would not happen if I rented the box but I can't afford to add $50 a month to my bill nor do I care about having 200+ more channels. But I sure would like to have the TV able to know where the channels are that I get via clearqam.

All those weak and/or scrambled channels are the ones you would need both the digital rental box (or HD box) to get and/or they are part of separate packages beyond standard digital package and they also require the rental box.

I am confused about what "boxes" you have. Basic TWC TV doesn't need the rental boxes at least not here UNLESS you want to also receive premium channels like HBO in Analog then you would need the box. But I don't know your arrangement. Are you in a building with a bulk agreement with TWC and what does that agreement provide? It difficult to answer your questions when you give vague, confusing information. As I said, I live in a building with a bulk TWC agreement and I am required to pay for analog TWC TV whether I use it or not. I pay a bulk rate each month. That gives me the 70 Standard (not basic which is only about 13 stations) analog stations. I also get, because I have an HDTV with a qam tuner, the stations that TWC is required to carry over clearqam (the FCC is about to kill this but it won't affect TWC for 4-5 years because TWC is not all digital...it will affect Comcast immediately because they are all digital and if the FCC does rule then the current requirement that the broadcast stations be carried as HD via clearqam will not apply unless the cable company still has analog like TWC for a few more years. When TWC goes all digital, if the FCC proposed ruling is made official, then you will have to rent the box just to see the broadcast channels in HD).
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When governments fear people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. Thomas Jefferson

I have no idea about bulk. We use to have TWC internet where we paid $72 a month and had those 2 table boxes. I think it was $67 but if we want cable in the other tv... it cost $5 extra? This was many years ago and we had like 70+ channels including ESPN, TNT, MTV etc. However, during this time we had those big and bulky TVs.

Then after that, we canceled my $72/month cable with TWC and switched to Basic Cable and paid 21.99/month. We lost all our espn, tnt, mtv etc but we did have those channels such as local channels and TBS, Food Network and NY1. Those are the basic cable channels i assume.

Then last year i bought an hdtv from samsung and then plugged it in. Basically we had all the same channels like basic cable. I then unplugged those 2 boxes from the 2 old tvs and didn't even connected the box to my samsung tv because i was told it was not required by someone. But recently, i see when browsing channels, we have HBO and Showtime.

But sometimes channels like TBS and FoX just loses signal and sometimes... we cant even see it. There are many channels that are weak signal but those channels we are not suppose to get which is not the problem. My problem is some channles like TBS HD and Fox HD sometimes cant even be seen b/c of the weak signal so i have to keep rescanning channels. And when i do this, its time consuming and i need to add favorite channels each time and its very frustrating.

I wanted to know... if getting those antennas would solve this problem i have. And if say i get rid of TWC basic cable... that would mean my food network, tbs and ny1 would be gone right? And if yes... would that mean i still get HD channels on CBS, NBC and Fox? Or would i need to buy some HD box for it assuming i get rid of even basic cable from Time Warner. Because i'm paying 21.99/month... so basically i'm just paying for 3 channels? NY1, Food Network and TBS?

Were you able to get information in the direct forum? You definitely should be receiving more than 3 channels. Again, you should call customer service. Basic TV at the rate you are quoting, for Manhattan, (not sure what area you live) includes these channels:

Basic Service
1 NY1
2 WCBS
4 WNBC
5 FOX (WNYW)
7 WABC
8 TBS
9 MyNetworkTV (WWOR)
11 CW11 (WPIX)
13 Thirteen (WNET)
21 WLIW*
25 NYC TV Life (WNYE)
31 WPXN
33 QVC
34 MNN2
35 Leased Access
39 HSN*
41 WXTV (Univision)
47 WNJU (Telemundo)
55 WLNY
56 MNN3 (Manhattan Neighborhood Networks)
57 MNN (Manhattan Neighborhood Networks)
63 WMBC
67 MNN (Manhattan Neighborhood Networks)
68 WFUT (Telefutura)
70 C-SPAN
71 NYC TV
72 NYC TV Drive
73 NYC TV World
74 NYC TV Gov
75 CUNY NYC TV
91 WRNN*
92 RISE*
96 WFME*
97 The NET
98 TBN*
99 Remote Control Setup*
135 RT (Russia Today)
147 C-SPAN*
148 C-SPAN-2*
149 C-SPAN-3*
156 BON TV
160 Kids Thirteen
161 nbcNY (NY Nonstop)*
163 ABC News Now
164 World*
165 NJN1*
168 Vme
169 Create*
176 Universal Sports
182 Shop Zeal 2
183 Shop Zeal 3
184 Shop Zeal 4
185 Shop Zeal 5
186 LATV
199 DTV Preview
411 TWCable Info Channel
502 CNC World
507 The Arabic Channel*
525 RT (Russian)*
531 The Korean Channel*
532 Media Korea TV (MKTV)
589 New Tang Dynasty*
812 VMe*
825 Univision/WXTV
826 Telefutura/WFUT
827 Telemundo/WNJU
854 NY1 News
855 RT (Russia Today) (Spanish)
864 Food Network
873 Shop NBC
874 QVC: Quality Value Convenience Network
879 LATV
1914 Food Network
HD Basic Service
679 WGN HD
687 Live Well HD
701 NY1 HD
702 WCBS HDTV
704 WNBC HDTV
705 WNYW HD
707 WABC HDTV
708 TBS HD
709 WWOR HD
711 WPIX-HD
713 Thirteen HD*
731 WPXN HD
733 QVC HD
739 HSN HD
747 WNJU HD (Telemundo)
768 WFUT HD (Telefutura)
770 C-SPAN HD
776 C-SPAN 2 HD
777 C-SPAN 3 HD

(edit) See a couple of Food Networks on this lineup. You should also check your bill as you probably are paying a monthly rental fee. I understand this is very frustrating, but there is technical support available, you just need to call and request assistance. In NYC, there is no additional charge for HD boxes and possibly you just need to exchange your converters and get the right signals.

Thats a hell of a lot of channels for 22 bucks!

Hob

It is a good value.

reply to hobgoblin
Not really. Look at the channels offered. Locals, public interest, shoppings channels, leased access and community access channels. Food Network, TBS and WGN are the only real channels on the list. As we all know the shopping channels pay to be carried, the C-SPANs are public interest channels that cost nothing, and I believe ABC News Now and the international news channels are the same. Other than the retrans fees for the locals, and TBS, WGN and Food, this package costs TW nothing to provide. Profit margines on this $22 package that probably costs TW a whole $2 in programming fees, must but insane.

DirecTV used to offer something similar called the Limited Pack. Nothing but shopping channels, public interest channels, religious channels, Bloomberg and HDNet for like $8 bucks.
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2011 Time Warner Cable Forum @ DSLReports Poster Of The Year!
Voted Unanimously on by ChillyCat and Elyria!

I would be happy just to have WGN-America HD in my lineup. I can't understand why TWC doesn't carry it in WNY?

If one is not interested in Chicago sports or news, what kind of cool content is on WGN America that is not available on other channels?

reply to Steve Mehs
"Not really. Look at the channels offered."

Its a very good deal if that's what you want. For someone whose life does not revolve around TV it provides a decent mixture of channels.

Hob
--
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

reply to Steve Mehs

reply to hobgoblin
Three of which that actually cost money. The rest can be had with a combo of OTA, unencrypted QAM and an FTA satellite set up. Again, the package is a rip off. It should not go for more then $10 bucks.

Don't know, don't care. If I desired only such programming I'd have an OTA antenna and a FTA satellite set up and pay exactly nothing and get more content to boot. How much does TW pay for Food Net, WGN and TBS combined? A dollar or two? Add a few bucks to make a profit. Again, any more then $10 for a package of mostly free channels is a COMPLETE AND TOTAL RIP OFF.

You might want to look at your Bill and see what piece of it is the basic package that you are paying for anyway.

Hard to discuss anything with a person that is very self centered and can't see a big picture.

Out

Hob
--
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

reply to hobgoblin
Once again there is no regard here for those on very limited budgets. I will not call the lineup listed above for $22 a rip off. In fact, that looks like a nice little variety of channels. The basic (sometimes called lifeline) package in Rochester is somewhere around $11 or $12. I do believe that it only includes channels 2 thru 19. But of course, those with the QAM tuners can get the locals in HD.
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DirecTV is pretty neat. If you want a referral ask me.