Switched Digital Video (SDV) now being used by TWC

[xzi]

allbenny said:

Absolutley, XZI, but for the 6 bucks or whatever the difference is from the card, to me its worth not having to deal with all the headaches and problems I keep reading about on here. Like I said, they basicall told me the card sucks, so it just saves me some headaches, aspirin isnt cheap either. To each their own right.

Yup... I went a different way, and figured if I had to get STBs again, I was going to do it for $5/mo and get boxes with 90 HD channels.

[Skaggs]

On February 26, 2008, Albany Time Warner Cable ran a new script on all cable cards. This script enabled all the SDV channels below channel 100, plus some additional SDV channels.

I checked the diagnostic menu on my 8300 DVR and found that it still listed 102 SDV channels and all the channels shown as SDV in post #2 are still SDV.

Here's a full list of channels now can be tuned with a cable card that were previously not able to be tuned because of SDV:

2 C-SPAN
7 Time Warner Television
20 ION Television
21 Home Shopping Network
22 Quality Value Convenience
34 The Disney Channel - East
44 Shop NBC
52 C-SPAN 2
58 Turner Classic Movies
61 Eternal Word TV Network
62 Univision - TV
68 Discovery Health Channel
110 The Disney Channel - East
215 Discovery Health Channel
375 EWTN: Eternal Word TV Network
434 TCM: Turner Classic Movies
570 C-SPAN: Cable Satellite Public Affairs Network
575 C-SPAN 2
677 NBA TV
1107 TWTV-MP
1109 QVC: Quality Value Convenience Network
1115 Home Shopping Network
1120 Shop NBC

[Skaggs]

masterfx1 said:

And yes, the FCC should be all over this. The onus is on TWC subscribers to gripe to the FCC and NYS-AG's office (in postal-delivered letters, not e-mail or phone calls.)

Here's the link to file a complaint with the FCC:
www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html

We want to file a Form 2000E Media (general) complaint.

You can file electronically, by postal mail, by email, by phone, or by fax.

[Deleted]

Time Warner is not playing fair. I just got off the phone from them and they have moved all the kids channels to SDV. Namely
103 - Nickelodeon
120 - Toon Disney
125 - Discovery Kids
142 - Boomerang
145 - Noggin
They did not seem to care that there are many kids that watch Boomerang and Noggin that don't necessarily have cable boxes. I said they should take away the channels that no one watches (Like the G&L channel). My main TV with cablecard that my grandchildren watch on a daily basis is no longer usable unless I "Cave" and rent another of their converters. I have submitted a complaint to the FCC (I might as well talk to the wall), but this just further proves to me that the "little guy" doesn't have a chance.

[Skaggs]

retired said:

Time Warner is not playing fair. I just got off the phone from them and they have moved all the kids channels to SDV. Namely
103 - Nickelodeon
120 - Toon Disney
125 - Discovery Kids
142 - Boomerang
145 - Noggin

I just checked the diagnostic menu of my 8300HD cable box and none of the channels you posted are SDV. Read the first post in this thread to determine how to check if a channel is SDV or not with a TWC issued cable box.

I also checked the channels in your post with my TiVoHD w/multistream cable card and was able to view all of them.

You may be having issues with your service, and the not-so-bright customer service reps at TWC heard "cable card" and read you the standard SDV message they were told to pass on to the cable card users. It may be a signal strength issue or some other problem not associated with SDV.

Check the second post in this thread for a complete list of SDV channels.

[Skaggs]

Starting on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008, Time Warner Cable will begin providing a number of our existing channels via SDV. The list is as follows:

TBS HD (channel 1805)
A&E HD (channel 1838)
Universal HD (channel 1860)

Tomorrow is Tuesday, March 18th. I still haven't received any word from Albany TWC they plan to take these channels away from me.

[Skaggs]

TBS HD, A&E HD, and Universal HD are not SDV as of 6:20AM today.

The diagnostic menu still lists 102 SDV channels (has not changed in a few weeks).

[maximumm]

I also wondering why hasn't tbs hd A&E hd and finally Universal hs are not sdv yet, I really wonder that time warner doesn't care about their customers if they did they would give us more hd channels and offer better cable boxes that work?

[Skaggs]

Channels added to SDV on March 20, 2008:

1805 TBS HD (previously non-SDV)
1825 Science Channel HD
1835 Animal Planet HD
1836 Discovery Channel HD
1838 A&E HD (previously non-SDV)
1844 TLC HD
1860 Universal HD (previously non-SDV)

[pmp]

I'm still receiving TBS, A&E, and UNI HD with my CC (3/21 @7pm). Shhhh... don't tell TW.

[xzi]

pmp said:

I'm still receiving TBS, A&E, and UNI HD with my CC (3/21 @7pm). Shhhh... don't tell TW.

Maybe your neighbors are watching em.

[Skaggs]

pmp said:

I'm still receiving TBS, A&E, and UNI HD with my CC (3/21 @7pm). Shhhh... don't tell TW.

I'm not. My TiVo HD can't tune these channels.

[dctivo]

Once again I am not happy but at least have some company dealing with the ever grown exclusion of content because I have a cable card Tivo HD. TBS, A&E and Universal HD are gone. they added 3 more HD stations(I have a STB also so I can watch what I paid for) however I can't use the Tivo functionality for those stations as well.
Is there a person at TWC that I can speak to directly that can address the 1000 or so customers that use this technology? We need to do something about this it is a growing issue and it goes unaddressed because maybe we are not bring the issue to the right person. The FCC is busy selling bandwidth for billions, no time for the consumers individual problems.

[xzi]

But they lowered the price of the STB by like 15 cents each. That should make up for it right?

[Skaggs]

dctivo said:

Is there a person at TWC that I can speak to directly that can address the 1000 or so customers that use this technology? We need to do something about this it is a growing issue and it goes unaddressed because maybe we are not bring the issue to the right person.

When I tried to speak to someone "in the know" about SDV at TWC, they referred me to their legal department. Actually, they stated the legal department would be contacting me. Guess what? That was on February 9, 2008. It's been 6 weeks and no call from the TWC Legal Department.

By the way, the Albany TWC supervisor of techicians told me there were 300 cable cards deployed.

I intend to call TWC and ask them how come I can't receive Universal HD anymore, since I pay $3.95/mo for the HD Tier. I know some people have said that they can get Universal HD without subscribing to the HD Tier, but the channel is still included on the TWC website as being included in the HD Tier.