dslreports logo
 
    All Forums Hot Topics Gallery
spc
Search similar:


uniqs
5465
JimmyK814
join:2010-12-29
Altoona, PA

JimmyK814 to redpenguin

Member

to redpenguin

Re: ABB Altoona PA - HD Channels

That would be nice for sure. They should at least fill up the available space they have when possible. If they only utilized the bandwidth they have efficiently, they could get a lot more out of the system.
Os
join:2011-01-26
US

Os to JimmyK814

Member

to JimmyK814
Some of that would be for increased internet speeds, most likely.

But going all digital is the only solution. Because they don't carry all the international programs Comcast does, their bandwidth can go a lot further.

ABB in Cumberland just added WUSA's The Justice Network on channel 154. Slowly, but surely, ABB seems to be adding the subchannels for the first time, which suggests that either the networks are forcing them to add them, or someone new is in charge that is putting a greater focus on this programming. They also finally got WJLA's sister station News Channel 8 down there on channel 314, but not in HD. Oddly, it's in Digital Plus.
redpenguin
join:2010-06-17
united state

1 edit

redpenguin

Member

said by Os:

Some of that would be for increased internet speeds, most likely.

They already have DOCSIS 3 with 8 channels (101-108) so why do you say it's somewhat for Internet?
said by Os:

ABB in Cumberland just added WUSA's The Justice Network on channel 154. Slowly, but surely, ABB seems to be adding the subchannels for the first time, which suggests that either the networks are forcing them to add them, or someone new is in charge that is putting a greater focus on this programming. They also finally got WJLA's sister station News Channel 8 down there on channel 314, but not in HD. Oddly, it's in Digital Plus.

Also that's a strange place to put a semi-local channel. Their website claims it's basically a cable channel yet run by a local station as far as I can tell.

Also looks free online via Livestream.com LoL.

Though I agree with you on the SLOWLY......LoL
redpenguin

redpenguin to JimmyK814

Member

to JimmyK814
ABB agents have told me again that more HD channels are for a fact coming but we have to wait for something in the mail to notify us. (For a data company they seem to love snail mail.....)

Anyway I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

ABB seems incredibly slow at adding things LoL
Os
join:2011-01-26
US

Os to JimmyK814

Member

to JimmyK814
A recent change has updated the Get Digital page. It now is set up to go beyond the markets on the page originally (Shippenville, PA and South Carolina), but says for people who have received letters to enter their Atlantic Broadband account number to order digital equipment.

As for where letters were sent, I don't know. But somebody's about to go all digital, and since it's not market specific, it may be everyone. As far as I know, the Eastern Shore units, Clearfield, Uniontown, South Florida and South Carolina are down to basic channels only in analog. So that to me would suggest Altoona/Johnstown or Cumberland.

For those of you who still have ABB accounts, try entering them in there and see what comes up.

The old get digital page did not display on all regions, but does now.

So it might be coming, guys. It might finally be coming.
JimmyK814
join:2010-12-29
Altoona, PA

JimmyK814

Member

I tried entering my account number, and this is all that I got back.

"Your digital equipment is current and no action is required."

We almost need someone with analog only to try it. Maybe they don't give the extra free DTA's to people who have another STB.
Os
join:2011-01-26
US

Os

Member

There is a support page titled Digital Channel Migration. When using all the zip codes, the only one I get any success on is Uniontown. Apparently they are moving 6 limited basic channels to digital (TBN, EWTN, C-SPAN, C-SPAN 2, PCN and a public access channel).
redpenguin
join:2010-06-17
united state

1 edit

redpenguin

Member

I tried entering my buddy's analog only account (though he has a CableCard) and it gave me the same message as JimmyK814 got.

Same with another number I tried.

I tried all kinds of random zip codes like Mifflin, Bradford, even Salamanca, NY. Nothing.

Here is an interesting article as to things to come:

»www.screenplaysmag.com/2 ··· r-2-ops/

This statement alone:

“We’ll continue to move on bonding channels to get to 16, 24 and 32 QAMS on a path to one gig over the next several years,” Holleran says, noting the company’s use of DTAs (digital terminal adapters) has been essential to freeing up analog bandwidth for broadband use. The company is investigating both DOCSIS 3.1 and EPoC (EPON Protocol over Coax) as the path to one gig on the HFC plant. “We’re definitely wanting to be Internet led in getting towards one gig either of those ways with the goal of continuing to offer video off that platform,” he says.
redpenguin

2 edits

redpenguin

Member

I just spoke with ABB on Live Chat just to see what they would say.

They told me the only thing they know about is that Uniontown apparently converted some analog channels they had to digital, making it even "more digital" so to speak.

c-span, c-span2, PCN,CUTV, EWTN, TBN are no longer offered in analog at all.

Johnstown should actually do that to C-SPAN, PCN and EWTN. Maybe even Conerstone and the shopping channels.

I think ABB is only doing this to get more people using boxes and then they are more likely to upgrade packages.

I say that because we had EVINE, CSPAN2, World, and others converted to digital and were not offered any free boxes, just have a ClearQAM TV or get a full STB. LoL.
JimmyK814
join:2010-12-29
Altoona, PA

JimmyK814 to redpenguin

Member

to redpenguin
That article was a good find, redpenguin. I just finished reading it. It sounds like at least there's some hope that we will eventually see some advancement in services. I have a feeling we are talking five years or more before we see it begin to come together.

They aren't well known for expediting anything that they do, but at least there is a plan.

Even if they eliminate most of the analog, when you start bringing gigabit speeds to the table, I think static HD channels as we know them are still going to be limited.

Comcast is starting to invest in MPEG4/H.264 in some areas, and now there's HEVC/H.265 that has that is an even better bandwidth sipping algorithm. DirecTV has been using H.264 for years to expand it's HD lineup. They're already delivering their On Demand programming in HEVC and 4K for a limited number of movies.

I think being stuck in the world of analog and MPEG2 in 2015 means that we will continue to stay limited in the ways that we are for some time. Even moving HD channels to MPEG4 and getting rid of the older 2006-2007 HD STB's that don't support it would allow them to double their HD channels and provide better quality. They should have an even better incentive to do so, trying to get the TiVo experience in more homes.

I should say that they should be given credit for doing what they've done so far. I just wish that it wasn't going at a snails pace.
redpenguin
join:2010-06-17
united state

1 edit

redpenguin

Member

said by JimmyK814:

I should say that they should be given credit for doing what they've done so far. I just wish that it wasn't going at a snails pace.

That should actually be ABB's slogan!

"We do things but at a snails pace!"

I believe Cogeco lit a fire under them because they seem to be doing insanely more than under "Abry Partners and Oak Hill Capital Partners".

I never realized until I started messing with the ABB website how many areas share our lineup that are not even close like Mohnton, Croydon, and Parsons, PA.

They are all like 3-4 hours away and closer to Philly than JTown/Altoona....
ABBJason
join:2010-06-03
Altoona, PA

ABBJason

Member

Cogeco is making more capital investments in Atlantic Broadband than the previous ownership. They're just focusing on things that make more money like internet. I am not privy to financials (man I wish I was) but TV is a market that everyone is super shy about. It is obvious to everyone everywhere the current business model isn't going to continue along as is, but what will it become, that is the billion dollar question. I think Tivo was probably one of the best moves, instead of trying to fight against alternative video services like Netflix we integrated them. People like it, and are willing to pay for 95 channels when they want 15 to get a better overall experience. The t6 and Tivo box really is a cool piece of tech, its is nice to have on demand, dvr, Netflix, and live TV all lashed together.
JimmyK814
join:2010-12-29
Altoona, PA

1 edit

JimmyK814

Member

I agree, the TiVo was a genius move. That old Scientific Atlanta DVR interface was late 1990's tech that somehow survived all this time.

I think if they can get the content to catch up with the technology, they have the perfect product. The underlying analog to satisfy those who are milking out the CRTS of yesteryear will only stunt the growth of the services many others want. ABB has done great with the HD channels in competitive markets, exceeding and besting the competition. In Altoona/Johnstown you have a great UI now with the TiVo, but many great channels are still transmitted in over-compressed pixelated 480p Mpeg-2. Since nearly every TV on the market in the past half-decade or longer is HD or FHD or better, there doesn't seem like there is a reason to simulcast a digital and analog version of same low quality channels. Right now the analog versions look better, because the pixelation is not there.

I think we are just in a transitional period, but one that is doomed to last a decade or longer from it's starting point. 4K will probably be the next big thing in the next few years, and this area hasn't even caught up with regular HDTV.

Up until the latest snafu with the Internet congestion, the internet has been hands down the best service one could ask for with above provisioned speed and low ping times, and rarely an outage. The embracing of Netflix and integration of it rather than fighting it was a smart move as well, but that's probably what has overloaded the internet.
redpenguin
join:2010-06-17
united state

3 edits

redpenguin to ABBJason

Member

to ABBJason
What I don't understand about ABB though is the "secrecy" they appear to have.

Like people on this board can almost never find out information as to when their congestion will go away.

I can't nor can local TV stations get accurate information as to when their subchannels will be added after ABB has agreed to carry them. As others obviously know I want Antenna TV in Johnstown and WATM and I keep getting told "Coming Soon", "Soon", "Not Yet", etc for 2 months now. What is soon to ABB? I just hope they are not waiting for the 2016 Presidential General Election.

I can't even figure out why ABB answers Twitter bi-weekly (every other week), they literally answer anything for a week, disappear for a week, then come back the following week.

I just feel like ABB has this "We'll do "it" whenever we are in the mood" type of mentality.
JimmyK814
join:2010-12-29
Altoona, PA

JimmyK814

Member

That whole "secrecy" thing has been a complaint of mine for years with them. I can see if they are in a competitive market, and they don't want to divulge their plans in advance.

I sincerely doubt the satellite providers, the only competition in town, give two hoots when Altoona or Johnstown may see a new sub channel or two.

The one time that really got to me was when I went into the local office and was told about the 100+ HD channels coming soon. They even put it in the local newspaper. It wasn't long until that was cancelled or put on the back burner... but no one would tell you anything. As far as anyone could tell you, those plans never existed, and no one heard anything about it. Rather than tell you what ever changed or happened, it remained and still remains a secret.

To this day, we've only had a couple HD channels added since then.
redpenguin
join:2010-06-17
united state

redpenguin

Member

I just don't understand why they can't go "It appears it will happen in two weeks" or "May 1st" or what have you. I'm just so sick of this "Coming Soon", it makes me feel as if they don't truly care.
redpenguin

redpenguin to JimmyK814

Member

to JimmyK814
ABB has moved channels around again.

They have moved Ch 111 to Ch 76 and Channel 109 to Ch 97.

So now Ch 109, 111, and 112 are dead. Hopefully next Tue they "plug those holes" with some good channels
JimmyK814
join:2010-12-29
Altoona, PA

JimmyK814

Member

Did they change back to Analog as well?!
redpenguin
join:2010-06-17
united state

redpenguin

Member

said by JimmyK814:

Did they change back to Analog as well?!

No all the channels I mentioned are digital.

When I say dead I mean it's space they could put 3HDs or 12SDs or a mixture.
JimmyK814
join:2010-12-29
Altoona, PA

JimmyK814

Member

Oh that's good then. I thought by moving to 76 and 97 they made them analog.
redpenguin
join:2010-06-17
united state

redpenguin

Member

said by JimmyK814:

Oh that's good then. I thought by moving to 76 and 97 they made them analog.

I still do wonder if they will convert C-SPAN to digital as it's all alone at in the 90s and really doesn't need to be analog. (Not that any really do....)

Also let's convert EWTN, Conerstone, PCN, and some others like Uniontown
redpenguin

redpenguin

Member

Not sure why but analog Channel 113 or the channel that always had grey/colored bars and had a weird audio track is now showing C-SPAN on it now.

Maybe they really are going to digital C-SPAN or something major is going to occur channel wise in the area.

ABB seems to be moving tons of stuff around to not be planning something somewhat big.
bluthme
join:2015-04-21

bluthme

Member

.
redpenguin
join:2010-06-17
united state

redpenguin

Member

AtlanticBB is moving CSPAN from analog Ch 98 to analog Ch 113.

They stated it's in an attempt to increase the Internet speeds in the area.

I pretty much can guess what they will do based on their previous maintenance:

Move Ch 98 to 113 (done)
Move 110's digital channels to 98.
Then use 109-112 for Internet.
Damion1986
join:2015-05-01

Damion1986

Member

I'd like to have the LOGO channel whether in HD or not...
ABBJason
join:2010-06-03
Altoona, PA

ABBJason to redpenguin

Member

to redpenguin
For reasons unknown to me, even though DOCSIS 3.0 supports 8 x 38mbchannels, we only use 4 in Altoona/Johstown. This is most likely because of the systems being analog/digital hybrid vs. all digital in most other places. In other regions we use all 8. Reallocating space to add the other 4 channels will probably do quite a bit to fix bandwidth issues, it essentially doubles every nodes available bandwidth.
JimmyK814
join:2010-12-29
Altoona, PA

JimmyK814

Member

My modem shows 8 downstream and one upstream channel whenever I go into the configuration screen. Are you saying 4 of them are just inactive right now?
JimmyK814

JimmyK814 to Damion1986

Member

to Damion1986
My cousin and some of his friends were asking to have that added for a couple years. He was given all kinds of carefully worded reasons why we likely won't have that station anytime soon.
redpenguin
join:2010-06-17
united state

redpenguin to JimmyK814

Member

to JimmyK814
We do have 8 DOCSIS channels already in the Johnstown/Altoona area.

Channels 101-108.

Just for some reason ABB handed out SB6121's that are only capable of 4 channels.

ABB oddly is working on Channels 109-112 now, which would make it a 12 channel DOCSIS 3 system.
ABBJason
join:2010-06-03
Altoona, PA

ABBJason to JimmyK814

Member

to JimmyK814
Intersting, entirely possible I missed the memo on that, so to speak. We started out with 4 channels and handing out 6120's, which are only 4 channel modems.