Cuprisin: 12, 4 on TWC for a microscopic audience

[Tom Snyder]

JSOnline: Nov 12

THE PACE QUICKENS: Channel 12's high-definition programming will start appearing Monday on Time Warner Cable's Channel 512.

Channel 4 becomes the first local commercial station to have its high-definition signal carried by southeast Wisconsin's cable giant on Friday, as Channel 504.

And there's the beginning of an audience. Time Warner has distributed 1,983 high-definition cable boxes. Assuming one box per high-def cable customer, these programs currently are available to less than a quarter of 1% of the Milwaukee TV market.

That's the first measure of high-def viewing among southeast Wisconsin's 860,350 TV households

[Kevin Arnold]

Ironically that means than the registered membership here of about 200+ is a 10% sample of a provable HD audience. So the rant and ravings, boquets and roses here are very representative of what HD people think. And for advertisers, hmmmmm, upscale, enlightened, proven big ticket purchasers, vocal and not afraid to give feedback. What a demographic. If I'm a Flanners, Best Buy, or Circuit City I should look at specific ads on the digital only channels for accessories or upgrades. It cheap and about as targeted as you can get.

[Tom Snyder]

We really need to figure out the breakdown of our 227 people... how many TWC and how many Satellite and/or OTA. The assumption here is that everyone who watches HD gets it from cable.

My guess is that it's closer to 25% of the folks here... and with that math, the number of HDTV owners would be closer to 8-9,000. And that makes it closer to 1% share. Still not big, but something to build on...

[kjnorman]

Channel 12 on Monday?  That's pretty cool, but shame it is not Sunday so I could get to watch Alias in HD....

As for the number of HD cable boxes, I was wondering if we would be able to get that number.  It clearly gives an indication of the current potential market.

However, one also has to factor in that TW to date has only issued a HD box if a customer subscribes to one of the premium HBO or Showtime channels.  I would predict that there are many out there that do not want to get the premium channels but would like to see the local channels in HD.  

Also TW currently has not been promoting its HD boxes actively.  This may be that they do not have to many of them.  However, with the word out that locals (at least for now WISN and WTMJ) are in HD, I would therefore expect the uptake of the HD cable boxes to grow rapidly.

Kerry

[This message has been edited by kjnorman (edited 11-13-2002).]

[Ron Pollitt]

I agree with Tom's assessment.  I am located just outside of TW's territory (next town over) and I can only pick up the local HDTV channels over the air.
 As disappointed as some of you have been with TW, imagine how you would feel with Charter Communications (my carrier) who responded to my inquiry with a curt message that they don't have to provide HDTV till 2006.  I am starting to lobby the local politicians about change....slow process.
Ron


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SensoryScience HDT100 STB
NEC 42" Plasma Monitor
Lance 4-bowtieUHF Antenna
C/M UHF Preamp 7555
C/M Rotor with remote
Charter Cable(no HDTV)

[mr_yeti]

I have yet to purchase an OTA HD receiver, and am becoming more reluctant to do so with this new information. Does anyone have any opinions regarding the quality of TW's HD signal? If I can avoid the reception issues altogether and just get these channels piped into my home directly, I may be willing to pay for the rental of TW's box. Please, any thoughts at all on this would be both welcome and appreciated.

Also, about the quality of the box. How functional is it? I would hope it has component video outs? Anyone have any idea how much one costs to rent monthly? I think I've heard $10, but I may be wrong. And the channels available (or soon to be available) are what?

[This message has been edited by mr_yeti (edited 11-13-2002).]

[Tom Snyder]

I had one for about 2 days, and my issue wasn't with the HD picture quality, it was for the picture quality of the non-HD stuff.. weather channel, Fox News, all looked so crappy compared to DirecTV that even my wife couldn't watch it.  

I could see no real difference between TW HD HBO and DirecTV HD HBO, or TW vs OTA Channel 10 digital..

[AndrewP]

There is a difference between TW and Dish Network HD.
1. I agree with Tom about HD picture quality.
2. non HD TW picture is very pure.
3. TW does not have OTA tuner.
4. TW does not have 5.1 DD sound. Dish Network delivers sound in 100% quality.

Andrew

[mr_yeti]

Tom,

What is your setup like? I currently have good old-fashioned analog cable (the most abused retronym ever, considering what digital cable isn't)and the picture quality, while hardly outstanding, is watchable at least. Not that "digital" cable would be an improvement over what i have now, but i would hardly think i would experience a worse picture. I shouldn't assume, though. Maybe I'll give it a try and see what I think. If I'm not happy with it I can always give them a call and tell them where to put their box.

[mr_yeti]

So, first of all, I am now a "senior member." Does this mean I have posted 15 times?

Is TW incapable of sending DD 5.1 signals, or are they just not willing to?

What do you mean by saying that non-HD TW signals are "pure?" No artifacts?

Thanks, guys.

[kjnorman]

 

Originally posted by AndrewP:
There is a difference between TW and Dish Network HD.
1. I agree with Tom about HD picture quality.
2. non HD TW picture is very pure.
3. TW does not have OTA tuner.
4. TW does not have 5.1 DD sound. Dish Network delivers sound in 100% quality.

Andrew

I think (2) should be very poor, not "pure" which implies it is quite good - which it clearly is not.  

However for (4), I must say that I can get 5.1 sound from TW.  Mostly on films, but even on channels like Speed Vision I have picked up 5.1 surround.

I am presumming that I will get 5.1 from WISN-DT on Monday aswell.  I will let you know when I get it.

Kerry

[mr_yeti]

So who makes the boxes for TW, and what kind of outputs do they offer?

I would imagine that video component outs would be standard, but what about audio? Coaxial? Optical? Both?

[Joseph S]

I get DD 5.1 from TimeWarner HBO and Showtime HD. We shall see what happens with ABC but I do get DD from OTA and did also from channel 4's winter olympics. The cable seems to have taken the place of a second STB for the moment while I decide upon making the move towards a second HiPix and/or DVHS. There's too much good HD at the same time now. Sundays and Thursday's are a mess.

[kjnorman]

Yes Mr Yeti, now you have posted over 15 times, entitles you to the wonderful title of "old fart!" as we English like to say  

The box that Time Warner offers for their HD services is the Scientific Atlanta 3100HD.  

This box as coaxial (and I think optical) outputs.  I use the Coaxial into my amp.  It also has analog audio outs and you have to plug these into your amp as well.  The reason is that all channels below 100 are still analog and the box will not convert the sound to digital to allow you to use one connection.  Hence you get analog sound only below 100, and analog (not very good) or digital sound (much much better) above 100.

For video, there is composite (why bother), s-video and component outputs.  To get the high def picture you will need to use the component outputs.  Ths box will scale all non hi-def programming to 1080i.  I presume it will also scale WISN's 720p output to 1080i (unless TW themselves do this which I doubt) as the box can not output native 720p.

You have no aspect ratio control of the 1080i component outputs so a standard def letterboxed program like The West Wing will be displayed with black borders all around.  Normal 4:3 progamming is displayed pillarboxed and is slightlt stretched but is not too bad.  True HDTV is widescreen through and through.

If you run the s-video output to you TV, then you can get all non HDTV channels and use your TV's internal scaling/aspect ratio control to control the picture.  The 3100HD will not downrez the HDTV image to NTSC to allow recording from the s-video output.  This is a shame as I would prefer a standard def recording of a clean HDTV image than a poor analog one (for example recording Alias) but alas it can not be done with this box.

Kerry

[mr_yeti]

Alright, let's see if I've got it right.
This Scientific Atlanta box will require two audio inputs for my receiver, one analog and one digital. I would prefer to use the optical option, since I only have two digital inputs into my (in need of a replacement) receiver, and I use the coaxial input for my DVD player. Will TWC supply the necessary toslink cable, or will I have to get my own? I find it hard to imagine that they have a lot of those sitting around on their trucks.

Also, this box will take up one component video input on my telly (a nod to my new friend from the isles), and if I want to stretch the analog picture, a second S-Video input as well. Otherwise, all channels below 100 will be in that horrible 4:3 (read: unwatchable) format. Am I correct in my understanding that my TV will not stretch this signal? This means that I'll have to switch inputs when I want to switch between standard definition programming and HD stuff. That's a bit annoying, but I can deal with it if I have to.

Thanks for all the great feedback, guys. Makes me proud to call myself a senior member (old fart, even though I don't necessarily think of myself as old). Verbose, perhaps, but not old.