BHN Pinellas 1Ghz Upgrade:

[LonghornXP]

I just spoke with a contractor who today was upgrading all the boxes in my apartment complex with 1Ghz hardware. They went from box to box all morning and afternoon upgrading everything. Also I did see enough to say this was indeed an upgrade to a 1Ghz plant.

So this along with SDV should give us Pinellas County BHN customers much more room for HDTV channels. My contacts also are saying to expect a very large addition of HD channels within the first half of 2008. Also I'm hearing that Starz and Encore On Demand will finally show up on BHN at what was and still is a very long wait.

 

[stevenl]

They have been doing this VERY slowly in orlando I think I mentioned here before about the N+1 and segmented node systems they were installing. But its not moving very fast at all here in Orlando. All NEW build has been 870 - 1ghz for a few years now, but there still is hundreds of miles of plant still on 750 gear. But if they did a massive upgrade to 1ghz they could add 100 HD channels right off the bat and with SDV that could go to an almost infinite number.

Another note is they are working on upgrading plant as well and fixing the upstream for the Docsis3.0 so in 08 expect to see a huge increase in the bandwidth allotment for roadrunner.

 

[skottey]

I just spoke with a contractor who today was upgrading all the boxes in my apartment complex with 1Ghz hardware. They went from box to box all morning and afternoon upgrading everything. Also I did see enough to say this was indeed an upgrade to a 1Ghz plant.

So this along with SDV should give us Pinellas County BHN customers much more room for HDTV channels. My contacts also are saying to expect a very large addition of HD channels within the first half of 2008. Also I'm hearing that Starz and Encore On Demand will finally show up on BHN at what was and still is a very long wait.

Are you referring to a building box or an actual TV top cable box?

I fix computers for a living and know that neighborhood after neighborhood in St. Pete has had its share of cable and Internet outages lately. Every time RR is down my customers call me with computer problems. It is funny because I can always tell when there is an RR outage and what neighborhoods. Hopefully these outages are the upgrades you speak of.

One more thing--- you Brighthouse guys, tell BHN I am totally unhappy about the Lightning vs. Redwings game that was supposed to be broadcast in HD on Nov 29th giving me a black screen instead on 650. And before you guys tell me it was a Sun Sports problem, I'll let you know that DISH aired the SUN Sports HD version of that game just fine. With all this talk of BHN upgrades to HD and all the sexy new channels, I long for the day I can ditch Dish as my secondary. But when I go to watch a game in HD and it is black, it makes me think I'll have to keep Dish for much longer than I'd like.

 

[LonghornXP]

First I cannot help you with the black screen on channel 650 as I'm not aware of it. I will try and find out more though. As to your second question yes I'm talking about all the boxes outside of the homes that feed each home/unit. Just to make sure we are on the same page I'll say that no they didn't change anything at all inside any homes or apartments.

They just upgraded everything in the "field" needed for a 1Ghz network upgrade.

 

[skottey]

First I cannot help you with the black screen on channel 650 as I'm not aware of it. I will try and find out more though.

Yeah, They only have a handful of Lightning games per month in HD on channel 650. They don't carry regular Sun HD, but they carry all the HD games on that special channel 650. Unfortunately, they didn't air one of the 3-4 games aired in November, as there was an error on Brighthouse.

If I didn't watch the game in HD on Dish, I'd almost blame Sun and not BHN. but I know better.

 

[iceturkee]

Yeah, They only have a handful of Lightning games per month in HD on channel 650. They don't carry regular Sun HD, but they carry all the HD games on that special channel 650. Unfortunately, they didn't air one of the 3-4 games aired in November, as there was an error on Brighthouse.

If I didn't watch the game in HD on Dish, I'd almost blame Sun and not BHN. but I know better.

actually, the same problem happened with directv........they didn't broadcast two of the lightning's first hd games. the first one was fox sports florida problem. the second time, it was more of a whoops....directv screwed up and showed a college football game on channel 96 plus channel 95. no problems since i spoke with both parties concerned.

 

[stevenl]

Well without knowing the situation its hard to put blame anywhere. I mean just because its on one fine and not another does not mean the problem is not still at the source. So who knows what the problem was I surely don't. Being in the web industry its like dealing with DNS, Because joe can see a website but Fred cant see the same site it does not mean the problem is soley on freds end. It could be just that route is dead, or not resolving properly on that NS vs another NS.

 

[skottey]

Well without knowing the situation its hard to put blame anywhere. I mean just because its on one fine and not another does not mean the problem is not still at the source. So who knows what the problem was I surely don't. Being in the web industry its like dealing with DNS, Because joe can see a website but Fred cant see the same site it does not mean the problem is soley on freds end. It could be just that route is dead, or not resolving properly on that NS vs another NS.

Hey, if BHN and Sun could work out a deal to air every Lightning game in HD, I could live with the occasional mess up. But the fact remains, there are very few HD games per season broadcast. I cherish the HD games to the point where I mark all HD games on my Outlook Calendar so I won't miss it. All I can say is I sat down to watch my HD game and it was black. Channel 31, the normal Sun, had the game in SD. I switched over to Dish and found the game in HD and watched it there. I checked back often to see if BHN fixed the problem and the entire game remained black.

It just seems to be a BHN problem. Sure it could be Sun but since it worked on Dish it leads me to believe it was BHN having a problem.

 

[stevenl]

I thought it was that all the home games were in HD, the away games are the ones that are the problem. Has alot to do with them even recording them in HD.. Its expensive to rent HD equipment in far away places

It could very well of been a BHN problem, (just fyi though the two feeds HD and SD are seperate so you can have one work without the other.)

 

[skottey]

I thought it was that all the home games were in HD, the away games are the ones that are the problem. Has alot to do with them even recording them in HD.. Its expensive to rent HD equipment in far away places

It could very well of been a BHN problem, (just fyi though the two feeds HD and SD are seperate so you can have one work without the other.)

I wish all the home games were in HD. No such luck. There are only 20-25 games in HD this year and that includes Vs games in addition to Sun.

I realize the feeds are separate coming from Sun to BHN but from the arena to Sun it is all one feed. In fact, it is interesting because sometimes during the HD games they have shots that are SD, such as behind the goal. The main cameras are HD, such as the big camera that goes back and forth, but not all.

 

[stevenl]

Yea I think just last year the Orlando Magic and the Amway Arena had all their cameras upgraded so all magic home games are HD if im not mistaken.