Topic 'Re: NJ- Weather Channel HD Local on the 8s and other local info' in forum 'Comcast Cable TV' - dslreports.com

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

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 12:02:35 EDT

gt1racer posted : Reply from The Weather Channel's Local On The 8's Support.

"Unfortunately, the Comcast rollout of HD locals continues to be stalled. No dates for implementation yet."

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

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:07:51 EDT

gt1racer posted : i'll try and contact the Xfinity Boston Director of PR and see if he has any new info for me regarding local information in HD.

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

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 05:53:33 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : Any word on when we're getting the local 8's in HD? Any updates anyone?

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

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 03:15:12 EDT

motorola870 posted :

said by camper:

said by motorola870:

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

His voice is not good for that. He does not know how to tone down the drama in his voice when things are calm. He always seems to talk as if there were a weather crisis in progress.

have you even heard the channel audio on the LOT8's in HD his voice is not dramatic.

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

Sat, 22 Sep 2012 01:45:03 EDT

Gerard1234 posted : YEP

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

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:52:50 EDT

gt1racer posted : I think either Mike Bettes or Carl Parker should've been used instead of Cantore.

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

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 10:42:21 EDT

camper posted :

said by motorola870:

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

His voice is not good for that. He does not know how to tone down the drama in his voice when things are calm. He always seems to talk as if there were a weather crisis in progress.

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

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 11:03:16 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : Hell no.

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

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:24:02 EDT

Joe12345678 posted : Get directv if you want that.

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

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 10:23:26 EDT

Joe12345678 posted : WOW has the IntelliStar HD?

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

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 23:07:39 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : Should be optional? :p

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

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 23:06:53 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : Your right. I know that the voices were recorded by TWC staff announcers Allen Jackson and Amy Bargeron, but what I meant by computer voice were the recordings themselves. »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherscan
»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_on_the_8s
»weatherchannel.wikia.com/wiki/Lo···n_the_8s

But still, I don't like the music being cut off, especially when they're good songs. At least with the national feed its a good solid 2 minutes of pretty visuals and uninterrupted music.
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Re: NJ- Weather Channel HD Local on the 8s and other local info

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 12:31:41 EDT

Gerard1234 posted : I just switched from Comcast to WOW after 15 years. Have their Ultra TV. The weather channel has Local on the 8's in High Definition. Also ultra has the Arris media system with 6 tuners.

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

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 10:19:10 EDT

gt1racer posted : Now that TWC is playing vocal music on the locals the HD Feed is unbearable to watch.

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

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 08:26:53 EDT

andyross posted :

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 :p

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.

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

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 08:13:41 EDT

motorola870 posted :

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.

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

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 04:59:59 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : 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 :p

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

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 20:32:50 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : 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.

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

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 19:29:48 EDT

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

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

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 02:20:14 EDT

deannnnn posted : 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.

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

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 22:22:49 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : 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.

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

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:10:08 EDT

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

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

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:49:09 EDT

anon posted :

said by Mike Wolf:

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

weather channel stars do not run windows.

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

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:31:19 EDT

gt1racer posted : 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.

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

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 22:26:24 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : mmm no, I don't think so, maybe it was Weatherscan?

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

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 21:13:20 EDT

Joe12345678 posted : I think that was TV guide channel.

or NBC Weather Plus / NBC Plus

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

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 17:28:26 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : Man I'd totally love to get content in the 867 to 1GHz range.

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

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 17:16:42 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : 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/wiki/IntelliStar they use FreeBSD for the OS.

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

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 16:14:38 EDT

motorola870 posted :

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.

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

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 14:27:06 EDT

mikedz4 posted : use to have that problem with the original intellistar. They finally fixed it.

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

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 13:27:23 EDT

andyross posted :

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!

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

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:48:31 EDT

ak3883 posted : 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.

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

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:19:13 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : Sounds like they need to upgrade to Windows 7

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

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:24:44 EDT

motorola870 posted :

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.

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

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:52:28 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : 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.

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

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 17:37:37 EDT

mikedz4 posted : 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.

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

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:06:22 EDT

andyross posted : 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.

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

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:06:50 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : 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%

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

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:00:05 EDT

camper posted :

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'.....

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

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:47:30 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : And Comcast makes how much off us each year? They can afford it.

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

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:04:22 EDT

mikedz4 posted : 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.

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

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 02:29:33 EDT

Mike Wolf posted : 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.
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Re: NJ- Weather Channel HD Local on the 8s and other local info

Wed, 15 Aug 2012 01:34:54 EDT

Dan A posted : 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.

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

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 21:12:47 EDT

anon posted : 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)?