Connecticut Locals?

[cmags]

HD locals had a tentative start date of june 20th i remember reading. anybody have any ideas about a launch.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The Connecticut HD locals have had so many start dates (going all the way back to January) that I dont even pay attention anymore.

My feeling is when they are on then they are on.

 

[Greg Bimson]

And if DirecTV's press release is to be believed, along with DirecTV's patterns for starting HD locals, they should be on June 28th.

 

[cmags]

if they would just give us significantly viewed HD channels it would solve most problems. still dont understand why we can get the sd feed and not the hd. DIRECT just turn the switch! knowing how things have been going hopefully will have hd locals by fall tv season.

 

[PaulieORF]

if they would just give us significantly viewed HD channels it would solve most problems. still dont understand why we can get the sd feed and not the hd. DIRECT just turn the switch! knowing how things have been going hopefully will have hd locals by fall tv season.

Right on. We should get the NY HD locals. Good news is that June 28th is written pretty solidly in stone for CT HD locals.

 

[Brewer4]

I will be on Vacation during the 28th. My slingbox hooks to HD Tivo so I will just have to take folks word when I check on satelliteguys.

 

[jpn]

Right on. We should get the NY HD locals. Good news is that June 28th is written pretty solidly in stone for CT HD locals.

Those of us in Fairfield county get the NY locals (SD & HD) but no CT locals. Significantly-viewed won't even give us the CT locals, even though every cable company in Fairfield county offers both NY and CT locals. It's beyond stupid.

 

[Brewer4]

My In Laws are in Lenox MA and its crazy there too. They officially get Albany locals on Dish but they are technically out of range for Directv so no locals. However Adelphia has locals from Albany, Springfield, Hartford and even Boston on their cable system. How is that a fair and level playing field?

 

[wes311]

Connecticut Locals

Does anybody know if all 4 major networks for Hartford's locals have signed on to start on the 28th??

 

[PaulieORF]

Does anybody know if all 4 major networks for Hartford's locals have signed on to start on the 28th??

I asked a CSR this question, and was told yes. Suprisingly, I asked the same CSR if we would get the significantly viewed NY locals in HD, and she did not know, instead of a flat out no. I also asked her why we don't get WABC for sign viewed, she didn't know. My guess is that WTNH doesn't want you watching WABC. Okay, I'm straying away from your original question now .

 

[hancox]

Those of us in Fairfield county get the NY locals (SD & HD) but no CT locals. Significantly-viewed won't even give us the CT locals, even though every cable company in Fairfield county offers both NY and CT locals. It's beyond stupid.

Agreed. We probably don't get CT locals through sig-viewed on cable (there are other means), so that's why the difference. As a UConn fan, it drives me close to insane

 

[cmags]

question? when locals are launched will D* contact me to upgrade to the 5lnb, do i need to call them, or am i better off calling someone like value electronics? i already have an h20 receiver.

 

[raoul5788]

question? when locals are launched will D* contact me to upgrade to the 5lnb, do i need to call them, or am i better off calling someone like value electronics? i already have an h20 receiver.

Call D* and ask for the AT9. Don't let them tell you it will cost you anything! You can get it for free. If the CSR won't help, call back and try another. Failing that, call retention.

 

[wyatt9696]

well, as of 7AM this morning, i only receive CBS(wfsb), and NBC(30) for mpeg 4 locals. this sorta sucks.

 

[PaulieORF]

well, as of 7AM this morning, i only receive CBS(wfsb), and NBC(30) for mpeg 4 locals. this sorta sucks.

Same here. Hopefully they're still working on getting WTNH and WTIC up today.

 

[wes311]

connecticut locals

I just got off the phone with a district manager from *D* and they said that ABC and FOX haven't come up with an agreementyet. Hopefully soon they will. Off course it took me 3 CSRs to get to the manager for an answer to my question!!

 

[wyatt9696]

well, if we get NESN on saturday as rumored, i'll be a little less soured about only getting 2 of the 4 locals

 

[games2K5]

As confirmed with wes311 I did some more digging around with a few CSR's from D* today and they were all giving me the same story: CBS & NBC are the only two for now, FOX & ABC still have yet reached an agreement to transmit HD out of the Hartford-CT area. (for D* customers).

What I find interesting is before I upgraded to the H20 sat & AT9 dish from D* I was told the new setup would give me all my locals in HD when the cut over took place on 6/28/06. Well here we are and only ABC & NBC are new for us. 2 out of 4 is very lame especially when the expectations were to get all 4 networks in HD.
The last CSR I spoke with was very nice, although she couldn't offer me much she did leave me with some helpful info:

(1) I was able put in a formal complaint with D* central office. (did this today)
(2) Should the agreement go through with to activate CBS & FOX in HD for the Hartford-CT area then our guides will be automatically updated, no need to call back. I was also told to check in about 3 weeks and if there is no change to call back and ask specially for the HI-DEF dept. and let them know that we are still not getting these channels in HD and you would like to get the feeds out of New York or Los Angeles area till then.
(3) Your D* guide will now show 2 channel 3's and 2 channel 30's One of these is the local 480i feed and the other is the 720p/1080i feed.

If you have not done so already please contact D* if you live out of the Hartford-CT area and issue a complaint ahead of time so this will push the issue to get these HD local channels activated.

--More to follow hopefully soon.....

 

[TulsaCoker]

Complaint...do you honestly think D* is deliberately dragging their feet. They very easily left hartford off until all affiliates are in agreement. Your complaint should be with your local stations and not D*.

 

[PaulieORF]

Complaint...do you honestly think D* is deliberately dragging their feet. They very easily left hartford off until all affiliates are in agreement. Your complaint should be with your local stations and not D*.

You are right. You need to contact WTNH and WTIC about this, not just DirecTV. I just want to point something out about WTNH and WTIC... I live in the Waterbury, CT area and my cable company offered us WFSB-DT and WVIT-DT initially. They negotiated for well over a year with WTNH and WTIC to try and get their HD channels, but WTNH and WTIC made ridiculous demands that they just logically could not agree to. So my cable company cut off negotiations with WTNH and WTIC, and were able to have WABC and WNYW out of NY up and running in our channel lineup within a matter of days from initiating negotiations. This should tell you something about WTNH and WTIC, along with their owners; LIN Broadcasting and Tribune Company, respectively. I really would not be surprised if we end up waiting a very long time to get these two channels, if ever on DirecTV.