Charter

[krauts]

I went to my local Charter office to pick up another HD non dvr box. 1st they were out of boxes until sometime next week. I can only call the 800# next week and speak to someone that doesn't speak english to see if they have any in stock or not. 2nd the lady said that the box will cost me another $5 a month which I was fine with and makes sense. She added that it will also cost me another $5 a month to pay for the HD programming. She stated that they charge $5 per month per box and $5 per box for hd programming so each additional HD box is really $10 a month. Anyone else run into that? I can't find anywhere information on how you have to pay $5 a month per box just for HD programming.

[mrschimpf]

That's what I get charged for my HD service and HD box, it's $5 for each terminal and then $5 for the service. Keep in mind that's for the channels you usually see on expanded basic but in HD; PBS, NBC, CBS and ABC are offered free of charge as long as you have an HD box or if you plug the cable directly into a digtal TV and scan for QAM channels (i.e. they appear as subchannels in the 100 tier).

She's definitely wrong on the $5 for each box's HD plan though; it's $5 flat, period for the HD expanded plan.

[Northern Fringe]

Has anyone heard of Charter's plans for adding new HD channels?  They're getting left in the dust by other providers.  They only have about 25 channels (Time Warner has around 40).  It makes that $10 per month harder to swallow when you can go with satellite for less money and more programming choices.  Maybe their bankruptcy is holding them back???

[Jack 1000]

Has anyone heard of Charter's plans for adding new HD channels?  They're getting left in the dust by other providers.  They only have about 25 channels (Time Warner has around 40).  It makes that $10 per month harder to swallow when you can go with satellite for less money and more programming choices.  Maybe their bankruptcy is holding them back???

Or more likely,

They do not have SDV (Switched Digital Video) enabled.  SDV allows the cable company to increase bandwidth for more channels and HD content.  You can call Charter and find out if and when SDV is scheduled to be rolled out.  Ask to speak to a supervisor if you get (or appear to get) someone who doesn't know what they are talking about.  When SDV is activated on your cable system, bandwidth is greatly expanded for more content.  If SDV is NOT enabled by your cable operator, there is often a limited capacity as to how many channels they can offer.

Jack