Four new high-definition channels went live on Time Warner Cable this morning. Sorry Olympic fans... not those channels.
After receiving an anonymous report of a handful of NBC Universal channels including USA Network and SciFi coming to the lineup on July 29th, the crop of four that was announced in a recent TWC e-mail to customers turned out to be the correct ones.
You can now view CNN HD (731), Fox News Channel HD (745), Science Channel HD (772), and Hallmark Movie Channel HD (774) on your high-definition receiver as of today. As of this writing, Time Warner had not yet updated their online channel listings. We experienced issues with missing guide listings for Science Channel and audio sync on Fox News Channel this morning.
After hearing of the impending addition of channels, we had gotten questions on whether Science Channel HD would be available to all customers, or just those who subscribe to its SD counterpart. In Northeast Wisconsin, Science Channel appears in the digital cable lineup, so basic/standard customers with a cable box don't receive it. As of this morning, I was able to tune the channel successfully and I am only a basic/standard subscriber. This is likely a result of their "Home of Free HD" marketing campaign, so one would hope we would keep this channel for the foreseeable future.
There is no word on whether the previously rumored NBC Universal HD channels will be added in future, if at all.
Fox Cities TV is an independent blog and member-driven community based in Green Bay, Wisconsin and serves the Northeast Wisconsin area, including Green Bay, Appleton, and Oshkosh. TV lovers can come here to learn about what's happening in local (and national) television, interact with other TV viewers and express their opinions.
Wow! More great news from
Wow! More great news from TWC. Although Hallmark and news don't interest me too much, I can't wait to check out all the programming on the Science Channel that I've never seen before. I'd better clear some space on my DVR for whats about to come!
Big deal. When are they
Big deal. When are they going to get some real HD channels like WLUK-HD, Big Ten Network-HD or NFL Network-HD. They have until September or I'm heading to U-Verse.
I have WLUK Bin Ten Network
I have WLUK Bin Ten Network and NFL Network all in crystal clear HD on DirecTV.
New channels look great.
New channels look great. I've gotta give credit to HallmarkHD to showing 4x3 movies/shows in their correct aspect ratio and adding bars to the left and right of the screen. Although I'd prefer the bars to be darker, less obtrusive, it's still tons better then distorting the hell out of the movie like most other HD networks do.
I really don't dig the way
I really don't dig the way certain channels like Hallmark and ESPN use the godawful "logo" style banners to fill unused portions of the screen. It's very distracting, and I'd much rather see black there instead. I'm still torn a bit on how I feel about Discovery Networks' non-HD treatment on HD channels, where they half-zoom into the picture to reduce the black bars' widths. Portions at the bottom do get cut off, but I don't otherwise notice those shows as "non-HD" unless cutoff graphics are blatant.
Aaron, are you seeing any audio sync issues on Fox News Channel HD? I've had it since they added the channel yesterday and nothing I do seems to fix it.
I've had audio-synch issues
I've had audio-synch issues with Fox News and have yet to have CNN come in.
Am having the exact
Am having the exact experience as Brian- and the audio sync issues on Fox are really, really bad- like a full second or more out of sync.
I watched it for about 30
I watched it for about 30 seconds yesterday and it seemed fine. All channels worked well. I do agree that black bars would me MUCH better than the current Hallmark/ESPN sides, but I still appreciate that they're trying something to keep OAR intact.
I am glad to see that some
I am glad to see that some folks see the value of programming in it's correct aspect ratio regardless of if it is std def or high def. I hate the crappy stretch or zoom mode when wathcing 4:3 on a 16:9 screen. It is the worst. Black bars on the sides is not heaven, but its better than a distorted image.