Major COX Channel lineup Changes 8/3/11

[mescutia]

The subscriber has the option of having the receiver box show both the SD and HD channels or just the HD channels with no SD duplicates. It makes finding HD programming easy because every HD channel has the same number as the SD channel so one does not have to learn two sets of channel numbers. [...] However, all full time HD channels, about 170 of them, have the same channel numbers as their SD counterparts. I have wondered for a while why cable can't do this - it is very convenient to those of us who have DirecTV and I think it would be equally convenient for cable subscribers as well.

I love this idea. I remember being at a Hilton Garden Inn in Danbury, CT, last year, and my room had an HD TV. I checked out some of the NYC channels, only to discover that the SD channels, which were the easier channels to go to because they had the lower channel numbers on the hotel's cable system, looked like utter crap as the TV blew them up to fit the screen. The HD channels, though, looked much better but were buried farther up the dial.

The experience made me realize that people who are less technologically-inclined, like my parents1, would be very confused and frustrated by crappy-looking SD channels on their newly-bought HD TVs. Not having to remember new channel numbers would help a lot.

1 My parents don't currently own an HD TV. For that matter, neither do I. Yet.

 

[BRNout]

The channel positioning of HD channels leads to a lot of people needlessly watching shows in SD when HD is available. We have HD service through Comcast and the HD channels start at 174 or so. The HD locals are from the 180s to the 200s; the SD locals are in their customary places.

If I had $1 for every time I came home and my wife or mother in law was watching an SD channel that we also have in HD, it would pay 10 years worth of cable bills. Comcast even has a system where you can hit enter again and it goes directly to the HD version. My wife knows this and usually opts for that - but it is show by show and without the prompt, she's on SD channel 7 rather than the HD version on 189. I realize why the channel lineups are the way that they are, but they are also not helpful.

 

[radiolives]

Would be awesome if it could automaticlly go to the HD channel of the SD channel. This would only work if your TV was HD and using a HDMI cable from the digital box.

 

[WPPCProductions]

Later this month Comcast {Branford}CT.will go all digital.The lineup as I know of will be the same.So all direct fed tv's and vcr's now need a box to receive channels.

 

[Kenny Atkinson]

Later this month Comcast {Branford}CT.will go all digital.The lineup as I know of will be the same.So all direct fed tv's and vcr's now need a box to receive channels.

I know COX is eventually going to go in that direction.Right before the switch to digital.A Customer Rep told me they going to keep the anologe with just the lin going to tv without the box for about 3 years.Personally, I dont know why they just can't switch the feed to digital.

 

[qunewsguy]

Later this month Comcast {Branford}CT.will go all digital.The lineup as I know of will be the same.So all direct fed tv's and vcr's now need a box to receive channels.

I know COX is eventually going to go in that direction.Right before the switch to digital.A Customer Rep told me they going to keep the anologe with just the lin going to tv without the box for about 3 years.Personally, I dont know why they just can't switch the feed to digital.

Maybe Cox is trying to coax more people into getting digital cable so there's not a huge wave of complaints from analog-only customers? Even the latest changes from analog to digital have led to debates during Enfield town council meetings.

 

[WPPCProductions]

I find out the DUPC is useless.They do nothing to hold down costs.nevermind things about lineup changes.