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Re: Service Electric Cablevision News

Oh yeah I saw that on facebook with all of the mass comments from people about service being out. It was late that day but I checked PP&L online and it only showed 1 outage in the county where SECV's facilities are. However like I said that was later in the day.

Curious if there was an area wide power outage or if it just affected the building or business park they are in.

I hear ya about the prices. You could try DirecTV and get promo pricing there, then when that expires go to Dish and get promo pricing there, then when that expires go back to SECV. Annoying but I know some people switch every 2 years to get the new customer deals.

I think the outage was local to their facility as I didn't hear of any widespread outage. They were very vague about it so I wonder what the actual issue was.
There was no mention of an outage in the local newspapers or TV news. I hope they are not trying to cover up a weakness in their system because even their back up generators failed.

As for switching to different providers to save money, I am kind of tied to SECV as I own my two cablecards and I also own two TiVos. If I give up on SECV the cablecards are no longer valid so if I go back with them at a later date I will be stuck renting them as they no longer offer the option of buying them. They say the FCC won't allow it.
Also I won't be able to use the TiVos with satellite, so they will be useless unless I plan to go back with cable at a future date.
Regardless of which way you go the price is going to keep rising as the few corporations that won all the content demand ever higher prices. Eventually TV programming is going to be out right unaffordable for most average Americans.

If SECV would move the sports programming to it own sports tier then prices will drop by about $30 to $40/month for most subscribers. The sports addicts will then have to pay the real price for their addiction with out the subsidies from non sports customers.
Sports is the main driver in programming costs. Disney, Fox News Corp, CBS Corp, and Comcast own most of the sports channels and profit heavily from them.

Ah yeah you have some investment there that would make it difficult to justify switching. I guess you can only play with the packages to fine tune what you get.

On another note, I was at a resturant that had two very nice Samsung LCD's mounted to the wall. Above them was a little shelf with a Pace STB (green square lighted power button, no clock). The one had a card that said Services provided by: Service Electric Cablevision TV, Phone, Internet, SECV.com. Here's the issue... The TV's were tuned to SD feeds of ESPN and Golf Channel. If SECV is going to advertise that this is their service, they should enforce the showing of the HD feeds. With many employees in and out of the resturant throughout the days, why not make it easy and auto tune the friggin HD feed.

I know for a fact (because I have DirecTV) that if the resturant had DirecTV service instead, the patrons would all see much better pictures. This is evident by the fact if they tune ESPN or Golf in this case, DirecTV automatically shows the HD feed. This is the Default setting in the receiver.

So for SECV to advertise with a placard above the TV, they should enforce that their picture is shown in the best possible HD quality, like it would be if it was a DirecTV feed coming into the building. It's a shame to see letter boxed, stretch-o-vision versions of sports on Resturant / Bar area TV's in this day in age.

The box you describe is the Pace RNG 110, which is a non DVR HD box.
One of two things is happening:
1: Like you state they are paying for the HD channel package but they always tune the SD channels out of habit and Auto Tune will cure this.
2: They do not subscribe to the HD channel package which is a common problem because nobody wants to pay the $13 HD fee.
And SECV SD channels look horrible on large 1080P TVs.

I am starting my cutbacks tomorrow as I am returning the DVR. I will drop down to the Triple Play Pack Plus with HD from the Triple Play Pack Plus HD DVR. I will basically save only $8.43/month, which will cover the fine next year for not having health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
My next cut will be eliminating the digital Premiere channels by rolling back to the Triple Play Pack. This will save me an extra $4/month.
The next cut will reduce my internet from 20 meg to 5 meg and eliminate the digital variety channels which rolls me back to the Value Pack with Phone. This will save me $12.50/month.
At this point I am still paying for all four premium channel packages which cost me an additional $46.40/month plus $2.78/month in sales tax. 95% of my TV viewing is on the premium channels.
After this it is going to be difficult as I will be eliminating the bundles so I may end up paying more per month for less service. My only choice will be to eliminate TV altogether and just have the Access Pack which is $84.95/month without the fees. Once I can no longer afford this I will have to choose between internet or the phone or just no longer have any communications.

Like I stated earlier wages can not continue to drop or stagnate and prices continue to rise as I am being rolled under just to pay for the basics anymore. Also finding employment that is not part time or temporary is becoming difficult.

I returned my DVR to SECV yesterday and if you haven't visited one of their facilities you would not believe how they are set up. It reminded me of what it would be like if you visited somebody in a maximum security prison.
When you walk in you are in a small lobby and there is only a window and a chair to conduct your business. The girl talks to you through a speaker as there is no holes in the glass. There is a metal drawer, like at a drive through bank, that you pass things back and forth. I had a hard time fitting the DVR in it and they made no indication that they would come out in the lobby to get it.
It is apparent that they do not want to communicate with people in person anymore. I had a difficult time changing my account as the girl kept saying if I wanted HD I would need their box even though I said I have a TiVo. She had to keep going to somebody on the side of her to ask questions.
Then there was a middle aged women waiting behind me who seemed to be angry with SECV and on top of that in a hurry. She was loudly conversing with another guy, who seemed angry, about how SECV sucked.
Between being unable to properly communicate with SECV personnel and the customers behind me made this process very difficult and I knew if I left I would end up calling customer service when I got home as my cablecards would have been messed up.
It is apparent that the recent rate hikes and the power outage is causing them to loose customers as the people behind me where returning equipment and dropping services.

My sister said that the Comcast Service center in Shippensburg used to be set up like this but they recently done away with this as it created a lot of issues when dealing with customers. Now that the place has been remodeled it has a much more friendly atmosphere. The sad thing is SECV just remodeled their buildings.

HA, that's funny because Comcast in Reading PA is setup like a maximum security prison as well. Thick bullet proof glass and compartments for the equipment where both sides can't be open at the same time.

What are they afraid of? I know banks and credit unions that deal with real hard earned cash who don't have such extreme security. A camera and hold up alarm should be sufficient for any business.

I played with SECV at my Dads house on Sunday and it was just a kludgy system, slow to navigate and hard to read. I love DirecTV's interface. Now I'm almost thinking of getting their GenieGo box to take DVR recordings to my iPad. SECV doesn't have anything like that. Said it before, I'd love to invest in a LOCAL company, but they just can't deliver features that compete with the big boys.

I have to add this, the thing that struck me as odd is that at no time was I asked why I was returning their DVR. I mentioned the TiVo because the girl kept insisting that I needed their box to have HD service.
This morning my phone rang and it was the Hazleton SECV number. I answered as I thought that there was a problem but it was a robocall thanking me for choosing SECV and if I had any questions about my service to press 9 to speak to a representative now if I needed help understanding my services or press # to end the call. I ended the call as I got the impression that I just opened an account and not that I was reducing my service with them.

I really don't think that they are interested at all what the customer thinks because they easily could have asked me while I was there. I know they have meetings every Thursday morning but I have no idea what they discuss as they are not really taking any feedback from their customers at all, especially feedback that is critical of their current offerings.

I would have gladly told them how outdated their setup is especially compared to the TiVo. Before I disconnected the Pace I emptied off all of my recordings and navigating the guide was awful now after using the TiVo for two weeks. In fact I had to power cycle the Pace twice as it wouldn't fully delete my recordings even though it kept telling me I deleted them.

Anyone have news on the Mahanoy City upgrades? Been checking their site regularly for an upcoming rate card update but everything is still the same. Waiting for my bump from 12/1 to 20/2 since we only get internet through SECV right now, especially now that my internet problems seem to have been fixed once they became area wide after months of being supposedly just me.

They still have to start integrating Shenandoah. In the last seven months all they did was change ch9 from ch9 Chicago to ch9 new york.

I understand that they did break ground in Delano but I heard the hole they dug filled with water. They bought the property from SEDCO (Schuylkill Economic Development Corporation) and I think the property was reclaimed mine land. Once this fiber hub goes online those who have internet only will see their bill rise by two more dollars a month. My bill will rise by four dollars a month as I have the triple play.

Shenandoah is a mess. I think it will take quite a while to get that system changed over as it will be a total rebuild. They did hire a part time CSR to work in the Shenandoah office. That town is going to be an installers nightmare as the houses are really crammed together and have very poor access with out disturbing a connecting property.

They had a grand opening party for the new Sunbury office and somebody asked about the new DVR on their facebook page and SECV said they are looking at a fall/winter roll out.
»www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=···0&type=1

I am starting to have issues with my phone service. I tried to call my sister and I got a message that she is not receiving any blocked calls and I have to unblock my number. I never blocked my number so I just redialed my sisters number and I got two rings then a busy signal. I should never get a busy signal as she has Comcast for phone and I should have went to voice mail after 4 rings. This happened two more times then it started to have 20 seconds of silence then ring 4 times and go to a busy signal. After 4 times of this happening the call finally rang through and my sister picked up. She said that the phone never rang but as she was talking she started to sound like a robot and then I could hear her talking but she could not hear me. She hung up and called me and then there was no problems. My neighbor who also has SECV phone service is having the same issue with the caller not being able to hear her talking.
I even had this issue a few weeks ago when I had to get my cablecard paired when I got my TiVo and the CSR could not hear me talking but I could hear her.
The lady at SECV told me that I should not use a 1 for long distance calling as that causes the 20 second delay but I told her I always used a 1 for long distance and it never did this before. She could not explain why the caller can not hear me but she said if it happens again to note the time of the call and the number I was calling and call them right after it happens.
I told her that I have no cell phones as I can not afford another phone service and I have an 80 year old mother living with me and this service must work all the time if I ever have to contact emergency services.
If anybody has SECV phone service and you experience any of these problems please complain as I think this issue is happening at Ironton and possibly will affect all the Service Electrics.

Another thing I noticed I seen a SECV vehicle only once in my area since the Mahanoy office closed. I was bringing my mother back from a doctors appointment last week and I seen a SECV vehicle in Ashland late in the day. I was told that SECV is using the contractors more and more for tech calls. Hopefully this is not a bad omen of things to come.

No issues with phone here. Interesting fb comment. That proves its not TiVo since that is only 4 tuners. You must be correct about arris moxi (like WoW offers) as I do not know of any other 6 tuner solution.

SECV does use Motorola amps and LE's as well. Seems like in my area lots of stuff south of Rt 724 is Motorola, while north of that is CCOR (for the most part).

A mix of Moto and CCOR nodes though. My area is CCOR optimax node, but the shopping center 5 minutes from me (which is rather new development) is Moto SG2000.

I watched a demo of the i-Guide MR-DVR over at wave broadband and it looks really crappy. IF they release that, well I'll be ordering a DirecTV HR44 Genie and re-up my 2 year contract. Sorry SECV... my money goes where the innovation is.

I'm sure they have their vendor picked out already if a fall launch is imminent. I hope they considered the Cisco Videoscape 9800 platform running the NDS Trio suite. Cox is deploying this and branding it as Contour. It has some amazing ipad integration.

More info and videos here:

»contour.cox.com/

»www.engadget.com/2013/08/07/cox-···vr-ipad/

The NDS Trio software still has a nice traditional blue grid guide that would make it easy for end users to transition from i-Guide. It just looks nicer and is full HD showing 2 hours by 8 channels in the grid.

does anyone have any news about the Lehigh Valley unit im stuck on this whats going on theres never any news and the other systems are much better with more options and channels...

I am certain its going to be the Moxi setup. I really do not think there will be new software right up front, maybe down the road. I suspect we will just get the hardware for now which is just the main unit with a few satellite boxes. Hopefully I will get a chance to test it before they release it as I can put it up against the Premiere 4 TiVo's.
I do predict that this is going to be an installers nightmare as all the wiring in the homes will have to be replaced. I am glad I decided to put multiple runs of Cat 5e and RG 6 coax all through my home when I rewired as it is really paying off with the TiVo's.
They are saying that new TiVo's are coming soon and there is a 6 tuner model and possible cloud storage. If you get tired of Direct you can go this route if you do not mind the up front cost. SECV is really good with CableCards.

I am not really seeing much activity by SECV as it relates to installs and techs. I seen a contractor this week in Frackville but he was doing disconnects for non payment. That is the first vehicle I've seen in a while. The economy is really hitting people hard around here.

I suspect they will start doing Shenandoah when the fiber hub is finished. This way there will be one headend. Right now Mahanoy City is still at Bears head. They mentioned on their facebook page on Friday that they don't have an ETA when they will begin offering Wideband 50 here as they are still upgrading the Mahanoy infrastructure. I understand that they are looking at some small cable systems around the Pottsville area.

Of course once they get Wideband 50 here my rates will increase another $4/month, then Mahanoy will be inline price wise with the other systems.

The Mahanoy system completely surrounds the Shen heights system so they will eliminate the Shen heights headend and use the Hazleton headend for distribution. They will get Shenandoah tied in once they get Mahanoy City finished and upgraded.
The people in Shenandoah are going to be blown away when SECV gets done as they have very little in the way of service.
»www.shenhgts.net/
They will be going form that to this.
»www.secv.com/hazleton/index_hazl.html
It will be cheaper for them to rewire than to try tying into the old system.

I have no idea what is going on with the SECTV side of the business as it belongs to a different sibling or should I say the grandson of the sibling as John Walson recently passed away. You also had a lot of storm damage two years in a row in the Allentown area so that may have set them back unless they took the opportunity to upgrade the system while repairing it.

The SECV lineup, relating to CATV, is on SECV.COM. CATV was bought last year. As Jed1 said, Shen Heights, also bought last year, will have the Hazleton lineup. Allentown can be found under SECTV.COM (Lehigh Valley). All the ads on my message channel and cable feed (from Sunbury) show two logos - SECV and SECV-CATV.

»www.secv.com/catv/index_catv.html

As Joe stated CATV was a separate system that was purchased a little over a year ago. CATV was owned by the aunt and uncle of our systems owner (Rosalie) www.secv.com . Shenandoah was owned by the Brophy family who are not related to the Walsons.
The Allentown system (SECTV), www.sectv.com , is owned by the nephew of our system as the brother (John) just recently died from cancer.
Mahanoy City was owned by another brother (Edward) who still owns Sparta New Jersey which is SECO, www.secable.com .

I noticed recently that History HD was broadcasting in 1080i and not in 720p. I thought I made a mistake with my TiVo set up but when I checked every boxed was checked in my video output. I decided to call SECV and after being on hold twice they could not answer my question so they gave me a phone number to call at A&E Networks. It took a while for some one to answer the phone and they told me to call my cable company as they do not give that information out to viewers.
I contacted a old reliable source and told me that A&E Networks is switching their feeds to 1080i MPEG4 from 720p MPEG2 in order to conserve bandwidth on the satellites and lower their costs.

Right now A&E HD and History HD are changed over to 1080i and the rest will follow later.

1080i MPEG4 is less bandwidth than 720p MPEG4?

No. 1080i60 MPEG4 is less bandwidth than 720p60 MPEG2. The change to MPEG4 allowed them to increase the resolution and still save space. With 720p60 you are sending data for 921,600 pixel elements/second and with 1080i60 you are sending data for 1,036,800 pixel elements/second. There is not much difference between the two different resolutions during transport.

One big change that has happened over the years with 1080i is the fields are no longer occurring at different times for recorded content as the industry has mainly moved to progressively segmented frames. I think the only content that is still using the interlaced scan of the past is live action content.

Here is a good article explaining this. This article is from 1998 and is very interesting as it includes Sony's involvement.
»www.tech-notes.tv/Jim/Articles/24vs48sF.html

There is a couple of good articles from this individual.
»www.tech-notes.tv/Jim/homepage.html

It looks like its the end of analog broadcasting for SECV. I received a letter stating that they will remove the rest of the analog channels in two stages starting late October and finishing early November.
Analog channels 15 through 22, including 98 and 99, will be removed on the week of October 28th. Then the week of November 11th, channels 2 to 14 will be removed.
I suspect that they are going to move the other channels around as they state those who are using clear QAM must rescan for channels both times.

I guess the next phase after this will be encryption of the whole line up in the not so distant future.

Oh wow that's interesting. I haven't heard anything for Birdsboro system but I don't have the TV portion. I did get an e-mail saying they are offering TV free for 3 months if I sign up. I just negotiated my DirecTV bill down so I'm not sure I can take on SECV since they have inferior equipment and only one HD channel of each premium.

860 MHz of bandwidth minus a few analog's for amplifier agc is a lot of bandwidth. Wonder what they plan to do? I would hope a major HD channel expansion including the premiums. Also interesting they don't offer any foreign language packages or any latino packages. I was just playing with a Time Warner Cable in NY and was surprised how many channels are on that system.

So you think they are going to eventually encrypt everything? That will suck but I do understand. Their QAM channel numbers are weird anyway. They don't pass PSIP information so QAM tuners display them on the RF channel and they use strange mpeg program id's (instead of 1 through 12 its like 1000-9999).

QAM list for Birdsboro is here:
»www.secv.com/cdocs/qam_birds.pdf

I thought maybe the unique 4 digit subchannel was made the same as maybe the source ID, to make things easier for them, but when I compare the QAM chart from another system, Sunbury in this case »www.secv.com/cdocs/qam_sun.pdf No that's not the case, or else ESPN would have the same last 4 digits and it does not (xx.6202 vs xx.5605).

Other QAM lists
Hazelton / Mahanoy City
»www.secv.com/cdocs/qam_mah.pdf

CATV Service
»www.secv.com/cdocs/qam_catv.pdf
(Note nothing over 109. 750 MHz system perhaps?)

hmm I don't think they are going to encrypt if they are advertising the rescan of channels. I would think that they would say that you need to get digital equipment to continue viewing channels if they were going to encrypt. Heck TWC NYC is not even encrypting even though they are going 100% digital and are advertising digital without a box as an option.

CATV was merged with Sunbury last spring when they moved into their new building with a new head end. So CATV is a 865MHz system now. Sunbury and CATV have the same QAM channel map.
»www.secv.com/cdocs/qam_sun.pdf
»www.secv.com/cdocs/qam_catv.pdf

Hazleton and Mahanoy City share the same channel map but the Mahanoy City feed is still coming from Bears Head. Bears Head will be shut down when they finish the fiber hub in Delano. Mahanoy City customers will then be offered the 50 Meg internet and then the final rate increase to bring Mahanoy City in line with Hazleton.
I have not heard anything on Shenandoah yet. These customers are going to get the biggest step forward when they are integrated into SECV. Here is Shen Heights paltry lineup.
»www.shenhgts.net/digital-deluxe.php
»www.shenhgts.net/

I am wondering if they will move the downstream internet channels into the lower frequencies. They will eventually get the other premium HD channels. I am also expecting the slow change over to MPEG 4 sometime soon, starting with the HD channels as most HD STBs already in the field support MPEG 4 decoding.
The total encryption of the entire line up is being done industry wide as this will eliminate the need to roll trucks to do connects and disconnects. That is a big money saver right there.
I guess the target for the whole home system using the 6 tuner Moxi is set for sometime in the winter. I would like a chance to test it but I am pretty satisfied with the TiVos.

The four digit sub channels is being done on purpose as it makes it harder for customers to directly tune to their favorite channels. This way it forces them to get a STB and then SECV can hope they use the VOD feature. It is sort of like the Trojan Horse scenario.