TWC HD Channel changes

[kjnorman]

Today, TW changed their channel line up.

WTMJ-DT and WISN-DT are at 504 and 512 as before.

HBO-HD is now at 500 (was 721)
Showtime is now as 501 (was 731)
PBS-HD is now at 510 (was 710)

The following are no HD but I'm listing them anyway.

WMPTVDT is now 550
WMPTV2 is now 551
WMPTVK is now 552
WMPTVU is now 553
WMPTVE is now 554
WHA (PBS Madison) is new(?) at 559
TBN is new(?) as 560

[Joseph S]

The pops are still there and now they moved some of the very few digital channels available to analog only and added Dumb move.

[veyj]

Negotiations took too long. CBS lost out on 501.  Yippie for Rees.  558 is still available.  

[kjnorman]

I would guess that CBS, as and when they finally turn up, would be at 505, similar to how they are currently on channel 5 analog.

[gyoung]

Why do they still advertise it as "digital cable" when the first 99 channels are analog?

[Gregg Lengling]

Because it is no longer sent as an analog signal down the pipe (the cable), it is done 256Quam and that is why to get digital cable you are required to have their decoder box as there are no TV's that are digital cable ready...YET!

------------------
Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
(Built in DTC100 w/Directv)
HiDTV Pro 2 computer reciever card
glengling@ameritech.net

[gyoung]

So it is transmitted as digital?  But channels 1 - 99 are still analog right?  I guess I don't understand.

[Gregg Lengling]

If you have standard cable you have analog...if you subscribe to digital cable the box then decodes the data stream and creates the channels....however even though all the channels are digital it is only encoded and again decoded at 480i.......Digital cable is just a way to distribute more channels on the same cable assy already coming in your house.  The digital is typically distributed via Fiber Optic Cable...however it is then changed to RF format and sent to the viewers home as either analog RF channels or encoded data on a rf carrier in the cable.

[kjnorman]

Lummox,

You actually have this wrong.

With the TW system in Milwaukee, even with digital cable the first 99 channels are still broadcast as analog.  It is only the channels 100 and above that require the digital set top box to decode the QAM256 signal.

I have digital cable driving my big screen in the living room, but for the TV in the family room, we just plug the cable coaxial into the back of the TV and we get the regular 99 channels of analog like we did before.

Therefore the TW "digital" signal is a hybrid signal that get piped to the home.  

[borghe]

2-99 are still analog. Hence why my father-in-law needs both the digital audio and analog audio connections hooked up. 2-99 the box will only send out on the analog audio outputs, 100 or higher will get sent out digital. Which really leads me to wonder if the new DVR system coming to TWC will just dump the digital stream to HD (a la DirecTivo) or actually recompress it (a la standalone Tivo).

[Gregg Lengling]

Not being a TWC customer I guess it looks like they aren't actually using the Digital Capabilities of their network.  Yes they do multiplex both the old analog and digital channels on the same wire...and if you have digital cable you also have analog cable.  However the specs for digital cable are supposed to provide you will all channels via the digital link even though the analog link is still there.  It sounds like they aren't encoding the sound so you can recover it via a digital link from the STB on the conventional channels through 99...but without actually viewing it all I can say..is the industry as whole is providing all the bottom channels on the digital link...thus you get slightly better picture quality on the lower channels (I guess TWC doesn't get it).  TWC may be doing this but not providing a digital audio signal after decode..thus you still have to use the analog output of the STB for those channels.



------------------
Gregg R. Lengling
RCA P61310 61" 16x9
(Built in DTC100 w/Directv)
HiDTV Pro 2 computer reciever card
glengling@ameritech.net