Community Access Channels on Time Warner Changing

[Mark Giardina]

Starting the week of July 22nd Community Access Channels 12 and 15 are changing. Actually they are not if one either has a DVR box or an HDTV.

If one has a regular television set (not HDTV) without the cable box, then you have two options. Go to Time Warner and get a DVR box free of charge until 2015 (after which you pay $.99 cents a month more on your cable bill –which we know that rate will increase) or you won’t be able to view your local government and school board activities in your town.

The way the plan works is that owners of the DVR box can still see Channels 12 and 15. HDTV’s will have to be reprogrammed to include Channel 98.

If you have none of the above, you’re out of luck.

 

[therealjm12]

It really doesn't matter in the western burbs, Greece, Spencerport, Brockport, etc. All that is on those channels is a character generator graphic and generic guitar music. Once in a while a religious program. Ever since the town of Greece handed over the operation to the school district, that's all we've seen. And they told us it would much better! Gotta love those Greece Republicans.

 

[Mark Giardina]

It really doesn't matter in the western burbs, Greece, Spencerport, Brockport, etc. All that is on those channels is a character generator graphic and generic guitar music. Once in a while a religious program. Ever since the town of Greece handed over the operation to the school district, that's all we've seen. And they told us it would much better! Gotta love those Greece Republicans.

Quite a different story here in Webster.

Channel 12 broadcasts our town board, village board, town planning & zoning board meetings, plus numerous local productions. Channel 12 also re-broadcasts the annual "Webster Firemen's Parade" which this year was dedicated to the two men killed on Christmas Eve and the two other firefighters wounded.

Channel 15 is delegated to the Webster School District which broadcasts, among other things, their school board meetings.

Believe it or not there is an audience for cable access here in Webster and plenty of people are going to be upset when they turn on their TV's and see nothing.

 

[fybush]

A small correction...it's not a "DVR" box but a "DTA" box. The DVR box has a video recorder in it, can save many hours of programming, and rents for something like $15 a month. The DTA box is a much simpler digital tuning adapter with no recording capability.

What's happening here is a stop along the inevitable path to the end of analog cable. There's no reason to continue to devote 6 MHz of spectrum for an SD analog channel when you can compress a dozen SD channels or two or three HD channels into the same space. Within a couple of years, the only analog cable remaining might be the local stations - and in some markets, not even that.

And for every viewer who complains about not being able to use an old "cable-ready" SD set, there's one (or maybe more) like me who'll be happy to have new HD choices in the channel capacity that's no longer occupied by those legacy analog services. And guess which kind of customer is more profitable for a cable company to serve?

 

[therealjm12]

I gotta correct myself. Cable access in Greece does carry town board meetings and maybe school board meetings. It's been so long I haven't noticed.

 

[Mark Giardina]

A small correction...it's not a "DVR" box but a "DTA" box. The DVR box has a video recorder in it, can save many hours of programming, and rents for something like $15 a month. The DTA box is a much simpler digital tuning adapter with no recording capability.

What's happening here is a stop along the inevitable path to the end of analog cable. There's no reason to continue to devote 6 MHz of spectrum for an SD analog channel when you can compress a dozen SD channels or two or three HD channels into the same space. Within a couple of years, the only analog cable remaining might be the local stations - and in some markets, not even that.

And for every viewer who complains about not being able to use an old "cable-ready" SD set, there's one (or maybe more) like me who'll be happy to have new HD choices in the channel capacity that's no longer occupied by those legacy analog services. And guess which kind of customer is more profitable for a cable company to serve?

Once again I stand corrected. ( I was thinking of recording something tonight while writing this and my brain can't function doing two things at once).

P.S. And stop laughing at that last comment. ;D

 

[Mark Giardina]

The change went into effect Tuesday July 23rd. Now instead of being on Channel 98, as the Time Warner letter to subscribers indicated, I find the community access on Channel 5 on my kitchen HDTV Set. ???

 

[MarcB]

The change went into effect Tuesday July 23rd. Now instead of being on Channel 98, as the Time Warner letter to subscribers indicated, I find the community access on Channel 5 on my kitchen HDTV Set. ???

At least you still get them on a normal channel position. I live in Connecticut with my Mom and we have COX Cable. We have 3 HDTVs without a box from COX and these are our access channels:

Channel 117.170 Government Access
Channel 117.173 Educational Access
Channel 123.185 COX Public Access TV 15

COX switched the access channels to Digital a few years ago. If you have a box they're still on 14, 16, and 15 respectively. Now as of a few months ago CSPAN moved from 21 to 15 if you don't have a box. If you have a box it's on 76.

Channels 71-79 plus 82-87 and 89 are also digital. You don't get all of these if you don't have a box. If you don't have a box you get:


Channel 118.180 SonLife Bible Network (Jimmy Swaggart's Network)
Channel 119.179 Jewelry TV
Channel 119.182 WZME/43 Bridgeport, CT METV/Infomercials
Channel 121.182 Liquidation Channel - a reverse auction Jewelery and Gemstone shopping service
Channel 122.177 TVGN

If you have a box from COX it's 72, 71, 75, 73, and 87 respectively.

 

[azumanga]

A small correction...it's not a "DVR" box but a "DTA" box. The DVR box has a video recorder in it, can save many hours of programming, and rents for something like $15 a month. The DTA box is a much simpler digital tuning adapter with no recording capability.

When we went to Maine recently to see my wife's folks, the Time warner system there practically had many of its subscribers not on a standard converter on these DTA boxes, which is practically like a miniature digital converter, about the size of a deck of cards.. However, they're used only to tune in the standard "analog" channels, plus a few free digital extras -- if you needded extra channels beyond those, you still needed a full-sized box.