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MarvinMagic
@comcast.net

MarvinMagic

Anon

NJ- Weather Channel HD Local on the 8s and other local info

Hello-

I live in Ocean County, NJ and was wondering if there are any plans in the works to bring the Local on the 8s and other local information (watches, warnings, advisories) to the Weather Channel HD (ch.815)?

Dan A
join:2008-01-03
Kendall Park, NJ

Dan A

Member

HLN HD on 816 was nice change of pace before they got around to adding Comcast Newsmakers and Seeking Solutions with Suzanne. They make you want to change the channel.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

Huh?

I really wish they'd push the Local on the 8's in HD, I mean judging from what I've seen on youtube with the watches and warnings, it really looks amazing.

mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV

mikedz4

Member

as i posted on the comcast forums I think they are having problems with the equipment Plus they have to order a new intellistar for all of the thousands of headends they have.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

And Comcast makes how much off us each year? They can afford it.

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper to mikedz4

Premium Member

to mikedz4
said by mikedz4:

... Plus they have to order a new intellistar for all of the thousands of headends they have.

I doubt it was a surprise to Comcast that they grew into a very large cable company. Indeed, I suspect it may have been their goal.

How long has it been since TWC had a HD channel?

If Comcast is unable to handle being so large, and uses it as an excuse to provide poor customer service; maybe Comcast should be broken up.

Just sayin'.....

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

TWC began studio HD programming on June 2, 2008. Also lets not forget that The Weather Channel is owned by NBCUniversal which is owned between Comcast at 51% and General Electric at 49%

andyross
MVM
join:2003-05-04
Aurora, IL

andyross to mikedz4

MVM

to mikedz4
I think one issue is that most national HD channels are compressed and bundled into sets of 3 at a central location, then sent out for local distribution. It uses aggressive variable bit rate compression to shift the bandwidth between the 3 as needed.

They could probably do an insert for Local on the 8's, but it may not look good as they would probably need to configure it to be at the minimum bandwidth, to be safe. Going to the normal bottom-of-the-screen overlay would require to always be running at the low bandwidth, which wouldn't look good.

Basically, not only is it the cost of the new Intellistars, Comcast may have to break out TWCHD and have each local area process it on it's own, probably only doubled with another HD.

mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV

mikedz4

Member

We won't see the weather channel hd local on the 8s til next year sometime is what I am hearing. They might as well just remove the weather channel hd as it is useless with local on the 8s.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

True, however I must say that the system they do use looks really pretty. Sometimes it goes by region and othertimes its a full overlay. Reminds me of aero glass.

motorola870
join:2008-12-07
Arlington, TX

motorola870

Member

said by Mike Wolf:

True, however I must say that the system they do use looks really pretty. Sometimes it goes by region and othertimes its a full overlay. Reminds me of aero glass.

I was actually surprised that when Time Warner Cable added the IS2 here the city listed is my city instead of say Dallas Texas. The main problem that The Weather Channel is having with the IS2's is the video board is having issues where the local weather goes away and it returns to the national feed and they have to reset the IS2 at headend.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

Sounds like they need to upgrade to Windows 7
ak3883
join:2005-08-20
Marlton, NJ

ak3883 to MarvinMagic

Member

to MarvinMagic
I'd take the more HD that Comcast has anyday over HD LOT8's. We have it in HD up here in RI on Cox, but we have a lot fewer HD channels than Comcast(and yet my area is 870mhz too!!!). After having Comcast for 6 years in the suburbs of Philly, it's interesting to see things on the other side of the fence with Cox. Some better, some worse. Still have full analog lineup, probably with the extra room, they push up to channel 130 I think it is here, a lot more bandwidth than standard 750mhz Comcast in Philly burbs.

Agree that TWCHD is kinda useless without local on the 8s. I get my weather forecasts on other devices, but if I want to see an up to the minute radar though with more clarity than on an iPhone screen, i'll go for the TV remote.

andyross
MVM
join:2003-05-04
Aurora, IL

andyross to motorola870

MVM

to motorola870
said by motorola870:

said by Mike Wolf:

True, however I must say that the system they do use looks really pretty. Sometimes it goes by region and othertimes its a full overlay. Reminds me of aero glass.

I was actually surprised that when Time Warner Cable added the IS2 here the city listed is my city instead of say Dallas Texas. The main problem that The Weather Channel is having with the IS2's is the video board is having issues where the local weather goes away and it returns to the national feed and they have to reset the IS2 at headend.

By me, Local on the 8's is a bit intermittent. Sometimes the overlay on the bottom doesn't go away when it should (you can see it covering up ads), or is gone when it should be there. I think LOT8 only triggers about 1/3 of the time. Even more odd, it may still be running the bottom overlay while the national feed is going!

mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV

mikedz4

Member

use to have that problem with the original intellistar. They finally fixed it.

motorola870
join:2008-12-07
Arlington, TX

motorola870 to ak3883

Member

to ak3883
said by ak3883:

I'd take the more HD that Comcast has anyday over HD LOT8's. We have it in HD up here in RI on Cox, but we have a lot fewer HD channels than Comcast(and yet my area is 870mhz too!!!). After having Comcast for 6 years in the suburbs of Philly, it's interesting to see things on the other side of the fence with Cox. Some better, some worse. Still have full analog lineup, probably with the extra room, they push up to channel 130 I think it is here, a lot more bandwidth than standard 750mhz Comcast in Philly burbs.

Agree that TWCHD is kinda useless without local on the 8s. I get my weather forecasts on other devices, but if I want to see an up to the minute radar though with more clarity than on an iPhone screen, i'll go for the TV remote.

ak3883 Cox is 1GHz in all of their systems. There are numerous HD channels on your system that are not on the Motorola boxes in your are but instead on the whole house DVR as they are in the 867MHz-1GHz range.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

I think some of the intellistar systems run older versions of windows as I've seen the program crash and show the desktop and watched the mouse move over to the start button and relaunch it, some are Windows 2000 Professional where others were XP Home, which was really wierd because I would have thought that they'd at least use XP Pro or even XP Embedded. According to this site »weatherchannel.wikia.com ··· elliStar they use FreeBSD for the OS.
Mike Wolf

Mike Wolf to motorola870

Member

to motorola870
Man I'd totally love to get content in the 867 to 1GHz range.
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678 to Mike Wolf

Member

to Mike Wolf
I think that was TV guide channel.

or NBC Weather Plus / NBC Plus

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

mmm no, I don't think so, maybe it was Weatherscan?
gt1racer
join:2008-11-19
Fall River, MA

gt1racer to MarvinMagic

Member

to MarvinMagic
847 here in MA still shows National Info and Satellite Forecasts, i was told by both TWC and Comcast New England that it might be awhile (2013) until NE sees the IntelliStar 2.

cast sucks
@dsl.net

cast sucks to Mike Wolf

Anon

to Mike Wolf
said by Mike Wolf:

mmm no, I don't think so, maybe it was Weatherscan?

weather channel stars do not run windows.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

1 edit

Mike Wolf

Member

Most don't but some do. Not important anyway.
Mike Wolf

Mike Wolf

Member

You know what I've been thinking about this topic all week and I've come to the conclusion that although I do wish to get the Local on the 8's in high definition, I certainly do NOT miss the computer voice cutting into the music played durinng the segment like is done on the standard definition version. If they could get rid of the damn voice in the HD version then this will be a good thing.
deannnnn
join:2011-07-12
Fort Lauderdale, FL

deannnnn to MarvinMagic

Member

to MarvinMagic
I just moved out of an apartment in Manhattan that I lived in for two years. Manhattan is of course a Time Warner Cable area, and when I moved in I did have Local On The 8s on the HD feed, but after a few months it went away -- no idea why. It was never true Local On The 8s though anyway. It didn't give nearly as much information as the SD version gives. Then it just switched to the national feed, which is also what I get on Comcast here in South Florida.

DaveDude
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey

DaveDude to MarvinMagic

Member

to MarvinMagic
Im sure if they told Dell the specs to make them, Dell could produce them in 2 days.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

It really doesn't take much hardware horsepower to do this task either in a small/ultra small form factor desktop or even in a rack server.
Mike Wolf

Mike Wolf

Member

Guess nothing has occurred yet? I still think that Comcast should try harder to give more customers the Local on the 8's in HD but without the voice over telling the viewer what the heck is on the screen when obviously they can read the description

motorola870
join:2008-12-07
Arlington, TX

motorola870 to Mike Wolf

Member

to Mike Wolf
said by Mike Wolf:

You know what I've been thinking about this topic all week and I've come to the conclusion that although I do wish to get the Local on the 8's in high definition, I certainly do NOT miss the computer voice cutting into the music played durinng the segment like is done on the standard definition version. If they could get rid of the damn voice in the HD version then this will be a good thing.

haha no the voice was not computer generated on the intellistar actually it was an employees voice that was working the weather channel back in 2002-2003 time frame.

The new intellistar uses Jim Cantore as the Intellistar 2 Voice AKA Weather Channel HD grapic overlay.

andyross
MVM
join:2003-05-04
Aurora, IL

andyross to Mike Wolf

MVM

to Mike Wolf
said by Mike Wolf:

Guess nothing has occurred yet? I still think that Comcast should try harder to give more customers the Local on the 8's in HD but without the voice over telling the viewer what the heck is on the screen when obviously they can read the description

Not everybody has good sight and can see the video. Also, many just have it on in the background, and the audio is very helpful.