SC HD !!!!

[Jenna]

I have not used my 201 in a couple of months. After reading The complaints and HiDefBobs stuff I was a little worried about my visitors and what they would see. Well I was very surprised. First there was Y&R on at 3:30 ET which is perfect for my(not in IPG though). X-Files (even though not true HD) Enemy of the state. Dinosaurs(which was the best HD I have ever seen.)
Absolutly outstanding weekend of HD.

[Arthur]

Great idea to show X Files, how was it, problem free?

[pauldryan]

Things are definitely looking up for SC HD. It was a good weekend, and by the looks of today's schedule, they're trying to sustain the momentum....

The Young and the Restless 290/291 ET 12:30:00 PM
JAG 290/291 ET 8:00:00 PM
NYPD BLUE 290/291 ET 9:00:00 PM
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 290/291 ET 3:00:00 AM
Chicken Run MC MST 8:00:00 AM
Evolution 292/293 ET 9:00:00 PM
The Sopranos (Fortunate Son) MC MST 9:00:00 PM
Band Of Brothers (ep.4: The Replacements) MC MST 10:00:00 PM
Chicken Run MC MST 11:15:00 PM
Bridget Jones' Diary TMN ET 2:38:00 AM
American Psycho TMN ET 4:15:00 AM
Smart Travels 290/291 ET 12:00:00 PM
The Aleutians: Cradles Of The Storms 292/293 ET 1:30:00 PM
American Family 290/291 ET 2:30:00 PM
Smart Travels 290/291 ET 4:30:00 PM
American Family 290/291 ET 5:30:00 PM
The Aleutians: Cradle Of The Storms 290/291 ET 6:30:00 PM
Smart Travels 290/291 ET 7:30:00 PM
Tracks Ahead 290/291 ET 5:00:00 PM
The Aleutians: Cradle Of The Storms 292/293 ET 1:30:00 PM

How does that compare to BEV's HD offerings for today ?

Maybe, just maybe, the concerns expressed last week have influenced StarChoice to take advantage of their higher bandwidth capability.

Paul

[Steve_Winkler]

Maybe Star Choice is finally getting it. People are fed up with the mistakes & glitches. I think it's great they are re-broadcasting HD programming at later times as well, everyone doesn't live on Eastern Time. For example, they replayed Dinosaur & The Practice Sunday evening, and CBS primetime last night. Wasn't in the guide, but at least it was on. I hope they continue to do repeat broadcasts when nothing else is scheduled.

Steve

[Geoff]

Urban Wild: New York - May 21, 22
Desert Peaks - May 23

21st - Chicken Run
Band of Brothers
Young and Restless
Becker
Urban Wild - New York
NYPD Blue( season finale)
Jay Leno
A.I.

[Arthur]

From MrVH's forum
http://www.virtualhelpelectronics.com/forum/viewthread.php?TID=498&pagenumber=12

1. "Tracks Ahead" PBS telecast on 291 - 2:00-2:30pm PDT
- Still not on IPG
- No serious problems (sound blips at 2:07 & 2:10pm; extremely short picture sound drop at 2:23pm)
- Otherwise excellent picture & sound
2. "The Desert Speaks" PBS telecast on 291 - 2:30-3:00pm PDT
- Still not on IPG
- No serious problems (sound blip at 2:45pm)
- Amazing picture quality
3. "Dinosaur" ABC movie on 291 - 4:00-6:00pm PDT
- There were numerous very brief picture & sound blips during the movie - nothing serious, but a little annoying
(Sound blips - 4:08, 4:39, 4:40, 4:55, 5:09, 5:11, 5:27, 5:37, 5:39)
(2 picture & sound dropouts at 4:42pm)
(Picture breakup at 4:36pm)
- Otherwise excellent picture & sound
4. "The Practice" 2 hour ABC season finale on 291 - 6:00-8:00pm PDT
- Again there were numerous very brief picture & sound blips during this telecast - nothing serious, but a little annoying)
(Sound blips - 6:14, 6:25, 6:49, 7:01, 7:47, 7:54)
(Picture breakups - 7:01, 7:24, 7:45, 7:51, 7:54)
- Otherwise excellent picture & sound
5. "Evolution" PBS telecast on 291/293
- Not on IPG
- I did not watch this program, but I checked it during commercial breaks - the first time it had no dialogue, the second time that problem had been fixed. I later notice that it was being telecast on both HDTV channels - one had dialogue, the other did not! Star Choice may have fixed the major problems with ABC, but still have a problem with some of the PBS programs. This is an old problem that has existed since I first became a subscriber in January of 2001.

Generally a good day for HDTV on Star Choice, but they still need to do so work to clean up the picture & sound blips on ABC telecasts and to fix the dialogue problem on some PBS telecasts.
************************************************** ***********
Thanks HiDefBob
Looks like they still have a long way to go before I switch off the 6000 and let *C be my main HD supplier.

[mowitch]

Holy Cow!. Check out the HDTV schedule over at Star Choice web site.
https://secure.starchoice.com/english/whatsontv/hdtv.asp

it 's a marathon lineup today. I think this is the meatiest lineup ever ever.

[Dede]

Today's line up sure looks busy. But if you look closely, you'll see that a lot of the PBS shows were previously being listed as "HDTV promo". It's nice to see that they are now taking the program listings seriously. Today's IPG also reflect this new approach.

Thanks to Detroit PBS for running an HD server.

[JohnnyG]

Have they switched PBS feeds to Detroit? That would explain why all the PBS stuff is itemized.

[Dede]

Yes Geoff, *C has indicated that they are now trying to get the feed from Detroit. They will switch back to the PBS national feed when (or if) they have problems with the Detroit feed. Detroit PBS is making good use of their HD server.

[Satellite_Expert]

Isn't there an unwritten rule that positive posts about SC HD will NOT be tolerated? /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

[Dede]

OK some negative feedback then... Last night, on PBS Evolution, no dialogue!

And due to lack of transponder space (still more than Bevu), they didn't show "The Guardian" (CBS) or "Judging Amy"(NBC).

Time to fire-up a third transponder for the East?

[JRB]

Hey don't leave out the west!

[Mr_Niceguy]

It's good to see SC finally getting it's HD act together. They'd better be prepared to offer at least 10 HD channels by this time next year.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

It would be nice if they could simply get the two channels they've got running smoothly first.

[MTOTech]

Yes, but the the more channels there are, the less switching they have to do, thus less chance for screw-ups!

[buchrob2]

I bought my HDD decoder when the pricing was over $1000 Cdn and the demo loop on the one available SC HD channel was 90% PBS and NGK (Japanese network with a definite PBS flavour).

Very glad to see that some quality programming is finally making it over to 291.

Even though there's obviously a long way to go, the new programming is a definite step in the right direction.

If you check another thread, you can see that *C and BEV are doing this for a VERY small number of customers. Just don't expect the same amount of attention that you would get if say "The Simpsons" had a major sound dropout. 50 or so of us complaining is not going to flood the call center.

[Arthur]

Why don't they take advantage of their dual sat bandwidth and add another channel now? Why wait for bell to launch Nimiq2 and be one upped again?

[Dede]

JRB, I don't think the problem is as serious in the West. *C is going above and beyond by rebroadcasting HD programming from their new HD server. So they could easily re-arrange the programming schedule to fill the 2 Western transponders.