 | reply to Jed1
Re: Service Electric Cablevision News Yeah that's pretty slick. Anyway SECV has to offer Multi-Room with a user experience for this decade (not last) for me to think about it. As long as I can hide the SD channels, or even re-map them so if you enter one it auto tune's the HD feed, then we would be good to go.
If they do some new system maybe its worth trying in tandem with DirecTV for a month just to see if I like it. I was checking out the lineup at my dads house yesterday and its really good. There's a lot of HD that DirecTV will never carry (Like shopping, religious, government, etc)... not that I watch that stuff but its a testament to the dedication to HD.
The only thing that really sucks about the lineup is that there's only one HD of each premium. We are HBO and Showtime subscribers and its great having all of those multiple screens in HD with DirecTV. That would be kind of hard to overcome, but you never know. SECV can sometimes really surprise you. Blue Ridge has all the multi-screens in HD and they are owned by Pencor, whom owns PenTeleData, which runs SECV's internet... so maybe there's some kind of relationship there. Those are two really good providers, one top Moto platform (SECV) and one top Cisco platform (Blue Ridge) both tied to PTD.net.
There are a lot of the new RNG set tops being issued at SECV, so maybe they could run the premium HD multi-screens in MPEG4 like Blue Ridge does. Blue Ridge also runs SDV (but they also have a lot of analogs still) and they are on the tried and true Cisco platform. |
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 Bonka join:2002-12-05 Tamaqua, PA | I just saw this on PTD's ticket system and figured it's worth posting as maybe it gives us an idea of when the Mahanoy City upgrades could be done.
SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE: Hazleton/Mahanoy City cable upgrades 06/04/2013 01:00 - 06/04/2013 06:00
Although Mahanoy City isn't listed as having any interruption of service.
Brief interruption of service during scheduled maintenance window. Hazleton (HZL) |
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 Jed1 join:2012-01-14 Frackville, PA | reply to cypherstream
I have suggested to them about the auto tune HD channel option because they have a big problem with people watching the SD channels thinking that they are in HD. Currently if you tune to a SD channel that has a HD channel equivalent you will see a "watch in HD" message pop up but the user must hit the ok/select button before the message goes away. Most people ignore it or do not know how to do it or think that the channel they are watching is HD.
I do know they are going to add more HD channels and I have been asking them repeatedly to add the premium sub channels in HD. They add the new HD channels as they go through the retransmission agreements.
It is pretty much likely MPEG4 is going to be the norm soon because all the source feeds coming to them is in MPEG4. I have the RNG200 and it is MPEG4 and 1GhZ ready. I do believe all the upgrades to the head ends will allow them to do this.
I am hoping that the Arris Whole Home setup brings a new guide and interface as it will be ruined with the old I Guide software. |
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 | Yeah I noticed that at my Dad's house. But there was a weird glitch with it. Some channels it didn't come up - despite there being an HD equivalent available. Some showed the button but then it disappeared.
Also some people see watch in HD and don't think its a button. They think its just telling you that it is in HD.
I don't think i-Guide has the ability to Auto map HD channels. Only Passport Echo / Passport 3.5 and later have this feature. Passport is a much better, faster and smoother guide platform.
The only thing they could do is roll out new software or do a reverse map, where ch 2 and up are mapped to the HD feeds. SD feeds could be made available higher up (like ch 1000+ the number).
Arris software may handle this better. I think in Tivo you can remove channels from your guide too. |
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 Jed1 join:2012-01-14 Frackville, PA | I don't think the I Guide does. If I recall correctly the last update to the I Guide was in 2009 and was A28 or A29. I would have to look at the diagnostics on the Pace to make sure. We had the Passport Echo guide from Aptiv Digital when we were with SECO, but I don't think it had HD auto tune enabled on it. I know shortly after we got Passport Echo, Gemstar bought them out and the TV Guide logo showed up on it. Of course Gemstar was bought by Rovi, aka Macrovision. The change to SECV and the I Guide resulted in the most complaints and transition problems. People still want the Passport Echo guide back.
I have postponed my TiVo purchase until I get a look at the Arris system and test it. If they are not going to update the software then I will purchase the TiVo's. Yes TiVo does give you the option of removing channels in the guide that you don't need or want. |
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 | said by Jed1:I don't think the I Guide does. If I recall correctly the last update to the I Guide was in 2009 and was A28 or A29. I would have to look at the diagnostics on the Pace to make sure. We had the Passport Echo guide from Aptiv Digital when we were with SECO, but I don't think it had HD auto tune enabled on it. I know shortly after we got Passport Echo, Gemstar bought them out and the TV Guide logo showed up on it. Of course Gemstar was bought by Rovi, aka Macrovision. The change to SECV and the I Guide resulted in the most complaints and transition problems. People still want the Passport Echo guide back. Passport Echo 3.5 and later supports HD Auto Tune. Its a user configureable option in the settings. The headend must configure the channel maps for HD Auto Tune service. Blue Ridge has this option in their Passport Echo 3.7, but they did not configure it, so despite being set to "on", it doesn't do anything. Though I did bring it up to them and one of the reps in the Blue Ridge thread made it sound like they will work on that configuration later in the year.
Passport is really nice. It just runs very smooth and quick. Though I was surprised about how fast I-Guide A28 changes channels with the Ch Up/Down buttons on my dads Motorola 6200. I'm just used to DirecTV. While DirecTV has so many features, it really slows it down. I-Guide is so dead simple and there's really nothing to the thing, so its quick. |
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 Bonka join:2002-12-05 Tamaqua, PA | I was told today that supposedly ground was only just being broke recently for the Delano construction to do the Mahanoy upgrades. Sounds like the upgrades won't be done any time soon. |
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