TV GUIDE NETWORK moves from Analog Cable to Digital Cable.

[fybush]

Everything becomes stupider and stupider......

Unreal!

Aside from progress - and we know how you feel about progress - what exactly is stupid here?

The cable companies have only a fixed bandwidth (800 MHz worth of 6 MHz channels, give or take) to fill with content for their subscribers. An analog SD channel is the least efficient way to use that bandwidth, taking up the full 6 MHz to deliver a single 480i program. Moving those SD services to digital lets the cable company pack half a dozen 480i programs into that same 6 MHz, and frees up channel capacity for the additional HD offerings that customers are clamoring for.

(Don't believe me? Note how many of the sales pitches from cable, FiOS and the dish providers now focus on which one offers the greatest number of HD channels.)

If I've read the latest stats correctly, a majority of US TV households now have HD sets, and that number is only going to grow. I'm down to one channel that I watch regularly (Comedy Central) that's not available to me in HD via Time Warner here in western NY, and when it goes HD in a few months, I won't be using *any* of TWC's SD services and wouldn't care if they went away completely.

That's the future...and while you're certainly welcome to sit here and mourn the "good old days" of 28-channel analog cable, the industry, and the viewers, have moved on and they're not looking back.

 

[DToTheJ]

In Atlanta, Comcast moved TV Guide Network to digital, both using the old Channel 27, as well as adding a Channel 177. Why they do this I don't know...

This will all be moot soon...TV Guide Network will eventually be ditching the listings.

And then join the ranks of cable networks straying from the original intention of their branding...

 

[imhomerjay]

Because that intention has next to zero relevance in today's world. Seriously, why would you keep something that isn't practical anymore, that people aren't using? Business 101 anyone?

 

[Joey1986]

By year's end here in the L.A. area, Time Warner Cable will be in an all-digital format, except they're leaving six channels in analog/digital form: KWHY (NBCU's Spanish indie), Oxygen, AMC, ABC Family, truTV, and ShopNBC. They're adding more than 20 new HD channels by December 11th (some of which are already available via a free preview), and plus several local digital subchannels (most of them are foreign language, and still no This TV from KTLA). As it currently stands over here, the only current channels still available in analog form are the local stations, WGN America, TV Guide, C-SPAN, and the community access channels. The basic networks had already migrated to a digital-only form just over a year ago.

Are you on a former Comcast headend? Because I'm in Westwood, which is on the Santa Monica headend (a former Adelphia headend), and we still have a bunch of cable channels in analog, with KWHY, Oxygen, AMC, ABC Family, truTV, The Weather Channel and ShopNBC to be digital-only effective December 8. My understanding is that the former Comcast areas were the first to go all-digital and that the former Adelphia areas will soon follow. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Mario500]

The TV Guide Channel (Network) has renewed its carriage agreement with Comcast. Here is a link to the rest of the story:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/389980-TV_Guide_Network_Renews_Comcast_Carriage_Agreement.php

 

[ShawnHill1]

By year's end here in the L.A. area, Time Warner Cable will be in an all-digital format, except they're leaving six channels in analog/digital form: KWHY (NBCU's Spanish indie), Oxygen, AMC, ABC Family, truTV, and ShopNBC. They're adding more than 20 new HD channels by December 11th (some of which are already available via a free preview), and plus several local digital subchannels (most of them are foreign language, and still no This TV from KTLA). As it currently stands over here, the only current channels still available in analog form are the local stations, WGN America, TV Guide, C-SPAN, and the community access channels. The basic networks had already migrated to a digital-only form just over a year ago.

Are you on a former Comcast headend? Because I'm in Westwood, which is on the Santa Monica headend (a former Adelphia headend), and we still have a bunch of cable channels in analog, with KWHY, Oxygen, AMC, ABC Family, truTV, The Weather Channel and ShopNBC to be digital-only effective December 8. My understanding is that the former Comcast areas were the first to go all-digital and that the former Adelphia areas will soon follow. Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Yep...the South Los Angeles/Inglewood headend. I probably misread it, but my understanding is that the six aforementioned channel will stay in analog (and the only one of the six I can get in analog is KWHY), while everything else (the local majors included) will be digital-only. When the Comcast-to-TWC transition was taking place back in '06, it look them to about the end of that year to convert the local stations from analog to digital form, although they were already carrying the HD feeds of KCBS, KNBC, KABC and KTTV. Two of the upcoming additions to TWC's HD package upcoming are Univision's KMEX and its Telefutura sister KFTR. With the exception of KWHY HD, they will have every local HD feed in the market.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Now with the over-the-air channels on digital TV, that might work. But this is cable in a motel. How am I supposed to know what I am seeing? How am I supposed to know what will be on? I've seen some really good movies while in a motel just because of this.

And you want to deprive me of that just because I didn't bring along my newspaper's TV section?

Wich has Heather Locklear on the cover this week. Yum.

No one is depriving you of a single thing. If you're unwilling to do anything for yourself, that's your choice. It ain't rocket science--if something catches your attention, watch it; if not, don't. Being too lazy or spoiled doesn't mean someone needs to expend money and bandwidth for such isolated incidents.

I was not lazy.

It's simple. If they had a movie I wanted to watch, I had no way of knowing about it once I got there and once I was in the room for good. They should plan for such things.

 

[imhomerjay]

Choosing not to take advantage of the multitude of options available to you? Yeah, it's pretty much the definition of laziness. Lack of preparation on your part does not constitute a pressing business concern on the motel's part.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Choosing not to take advantage of the multitude of options available to you? Yeah, it's pretty much the definition of laziness. Lack of preparation on your part does not constitute a pressing business concern on the motel's part.

I'm not going to back down on this. Motels need to have a listings channel. Period.

 

[imhomerjay]

And who is going to provide it? If the satellite or cable company serving the hotel doesn't have one because it's not profitable, it ain't gonna happen as the saying goes. You can not back down all you want, but they aren't going to waste money on someone who can't refuses to figure out something for themselves.

 

[kenrayc]

And who is going to provide it? If the satellite or cable company serving the hotel doesn't have one because it's not profitable, it ain't gonna happen as the saying goes. You can not back down all you want, but they aren't going to waste money on someone who can't refuses to figure out something for themselves.

Most Hotel/Motel lobbies have a vending machine with the local newspaper, that would at least have the evening listings for that area. Back when TV guide had local listings for each market when I was going to stay in a Motel ,I would pick up a copy for that area before checking in and kept it for a souvenir.

 

[imhomerjay]

Or do what I understand to be a very popular motel/hotel room activity in your bed.


Reading the free bible, of course....what else could there be?

 

[DToTheJ]

The phone book?

 

[imhomerjay]

Or perhaps the room service menu and fitness center hours.

 

[Bill_W]

Don't most hotels get their TV from DirecTv and then have a box convert the DirecTv signals into analog signals throughout the hotel/motel? The TV Guide network on DirecTv (channel 237) DOES NOT carry TV listings.

 

[vchimpanzee]

And who is going to provide it? If the satellite or cable company serving the hotel doesn't have one because it's not profitable, it ain't gonna happen as the saying goes. You can not back down all you want, but they aren't going to waste money on someone who can't refuses to figure out something for themselves.

Will it make you happy if I take my newspaper's listings from home?

That doesn't help everyone. I know papers that don't do a week's worth of listings. And what if I went down on the weekend? Mine is delivered then and I wouldn't have it yet.

Don't tell me to do something else. I want to see these movies if they're on. There's no other way I know what'll be on. It's not a matter of what's profitable. It's what people need.

That's right, I'm a liberal.

 

[imhomerjay]

No, it would make no difference to anyone whether you brought your listings from home except to you. And if you can't print out listings from an online site, that's a c-h-o-i-c-e on your part.

Liberalism isn't an excuse for laziness and outright ignorance of basic realities.

 

[vchimpanzee]

No, it would make no difference to anyone whether you brought your listings from home except to you. And if you can't print out listings from an online site, that's a c-h-o-i-c-e on your part.

Liberalism isn't an excuse for laziness and outright ignorance of basic realities.

When exactly would I have printed out listings from an online site?

We're talking about something that has existed for years. People expect it. If the nearest place to get a paper is out, you want people to run all over town looking while, meanwhile, they're missing shows.

There's one channel at the beach that has tourist information. Here's an idea! Put listings there! Whoever's advertising on a tourism information station can supposedly make it work.

 

[imhomerjay]

A lot of things existed for years, but no longer. Hmmmm, wonder if there's a reason why a scrolling listings channel is soon to join that list? :

As for the 'beach channel' issue, who, exactly, is going to pay for the low-budget channel--basically subsisting on low-end commercials--to get that guide data? It isn't free--TV Guide (or whatever the corporate parent is this week), Tribune et al charge for access to their data.

 

[vchimpanzee]

A lot of things existed for years, but no longer. Hmmmm, wonder if there's a reason why a scrolling listings channel is soon to join that list? :

As for the 'beach channel' issue, who, exactly, is going to pay for the low-budget channel--basically subsisting on low-end commercials--to get that guide data? It isn't free--TV Guide (or whatever the corporate parent is this week), Tribune et al charge for access to their data.

All I'm saying is that the concept has existed for years, and the average person isn't going to be thinking about such things ahead of time.

But it is true that I look a week ahead at what I'll be watching when I get the to look at the TV section and if I get it before a trip to the beach or mountains, that should include all the cable channels showing movies and not just the networks. You are correct about that.