TWC Milwaukee adds TBS-HD

[mhz40]

I don't see why they couldn't do it now.  They do it for channels 4-6... those are SD digital, yet the analog versions still exist.  The analog versions are only used on TVs directly connected to the coax.

You are asking the channel map to be driven by hardware type.  I don't think any cable op can do that yet.  Not even sure if any want to pursue it.. I am surprised that Direct TV can do it, as posted earlier.  It would be nice, as Spanish language channels could use the same technology and eliminate the need to select SAP audio on Spanish tiered channels.

[kevbeck122]

I guess I wasn't thinking HD vs. non HD hardware... If all customers had HD boxes it wouldn't be an issue.. right?  I know that's way too expensive for the cable cos.. so it won't happen.

[mhz40]

I guess I wasn't thinking HD vs. non HD hardware... If all customers had HD boxes it wouldn't be an issue.. right?  I know that's way too expensive for the cable cos.. so it won't happen.

Right.  IMO, as long as SD is around, its a nice backup in case something goes wrong with the HD feed during the last inning of something like... the World Series.

[LoadStar]

I think the others are on the right road. Map both the digital and the analog to the same cable channel number (i.e. WITI-DT and WITI-TV would both be channel 6), and either:
- the viewer could set a preference on the cable box which one they want to tune in by default (i.e. "View digital version of channel if available"), or
- the viewer could toggle between the two by using the A-B-C buttons on the TV remote
Or a combination of both would be ideal, I suppose. Say you tune to channel 6, and you have the preference "View digital version of channel if available" set on, you would automatically get WITI-DT... but you could switch back to WITI-TV by pressing the A button, for instance.

When the analog version of the channel goes away, the viewer would just automatically get the digital channel, and they wouldn't be able to toggle.

Those with non-HD boxes could still get this preference on their boxes, but if they select to receive the digital channel, the box would automatically downconvert it to standard resolution and letterbox it if necessary.

[SugarRay]

So how come I can get the other HD ch on my TV with a cablecard but not TBS-HD on TWC?

[kevbeck122]

TBS HD, ESPN2 HD and 5-10 SD digital channels are all switched digital video, meaning that the device has to request the channel in order to view it.  In the case of cablecard, it can only receive (1 way), so it can't send a request to view the channel.  You will only see a preview channel for on demand.  It's a way for them to add more HD channels because they are running out of bandwidth to broadcast all channels.