New Channels

[Juan]

Happy Wednesday. How are the New Channels? Dio they Look Good? How many showed up today?

 

[nhey]

Happy Wednesday. How are the New Channels? Dio they Look Good? How many showed up today?

21 new channels are now LIVE.
See directv website for the list.

 

[joedekock]

They are up, they are in full resolution... and even though some people were saying channels like CNN would be in HD it is!

 

[Brewer4]

Sweeeeeeeeeeetttttt!!

 

[LonghornXP]

I just got up and checked them all out and am very happy right now. I checked all channels and everyone of them is coming in fine except for all the Starz HD channels. All the Starz HD channels gave me the channel not purchased (721) error message. So I made one phone call and got to a rep in about a minute or so and about two minutes later I was enjoying those new Starz HD channels. So if your not getting some of the premium channels you may need to call DirecTV to add a line to your account but it seems like a very simple thing. Its more likely to need a line added if you got some of the premiums for free in a promo. You will still get the promo with no extra charge so don't worry about that part. The rep told me that quite a few customers had to call to get the new Starz HD channels if they had a Starz promo. The reason the new Showtime HD channels and the movie channel HD came in is because they are part of the Showtime HD package which was added as part of the free Showtime promo because they always had the one Showtime HD channel.

I'm also told that once the Cinemax HD channels launch that you might also have to call again if you have Cinemax as a promo as the system for some reason doesn't add the HD line to all accounts on its own like it should.

So consider this your heads up on what might need to be done now and into the future as more HD channels get rolled out. Also picture quality is very impressive that is for sure and the ESPN channels etc are indeed offered in MPEG4 on the SD channel numbers so I'm happy about that.

Now Universal HD, HDNet Movies etc don't have new channel numbers so I cannot prove they are in MPEG4 or not but I can say that they looked very good this morning or at least much better compared to the last few days or so.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I just got up and checked them all out and am very happy right now. I checked all channels and everyone of them is coming in fine except for all the Starz HD channels. All the Starz HD channels gave me the channel not purchased (721) error message. .

All you have to do is Restart your receiver. That works too.

 

[DFWHD]

All you have to do is Restart your receiver. That works too.

I tried that and ended up having to call in to get them added. They said that they had problems with the system that added the new HD packages to folks accounts. Hmmm - Where have we heard that before...

 

[LonghornXP]

All you have to do is Restart your receiver. That works too.

I did restart the box but because I was on a promo things didn't get updated correctly so restarting a billion times wouldn't have solved it. They ended up having to use a new promo code for Starz customers with MPEG4 boxes. My boxes for whatever reason didn't get updated with the new promo code.

Edit...I checked the My programming section and the view last activity section of my DirecTV account before I called into DirecTV and didn't see anything different. Once I called DirecTV and they added it I saw one change under view last activity. It was a Starz-HD Starz listing tied to my primary box on the account. So it would seem that if this wasn't present a reboot wouldn't have helped me.

 

[ktk3438]

Got up this morning and they were all there, just friggin SWEEEETT!

OK, so does anyone have the resoltion specs on these new channels? Are we getting "HD-LIL" or are we getting full HD?

 

[LonghornXP]

Got up this morning and they were all there, just friggin SWEEEETT!

OK, so does anyone have the resoltion specs on these new channels? Are we getting "HD-LIL" or are we getting full HD?

We cannot prove it at least not yet but we are very sure its full rezz HD at a very good bitrate because simply put its easy to notice great picture quality when you see it. If these channels are proven to be HD-Lite than damn they have to be the best HD-Lite I've ever seen in my life. These channels look just as good and sharp as I remember Comcast and Verizon FIOS TV being so I'm quite happy now.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I did restart the box but because I was on a promo things didn't get updated correctly so restarting a billion times wouldn't have solved it. They ended up having to use a new promo code for Starz customers with MPEG4 boxes. My boxes for whatever reason didn't get updated with the new promo code.

Edit...I checked the My programming section and the view last activity section of my DirecTV account before I called into DirecTV and didn't see anything different. Once I called DirecTV and they added it I saw one change under view last activity. It was a Starz-HD Starz listing tied to my primary box on the account. So it would seem that if this wasn't present a reboot wouldn't have helped me.

Thats good .but never hurts to try,My HR20 didn't need nothing ,the channels appeard without a problem,But my H20 was showing the 721 message and if you hit more Info on the message screen it will even tell you to reboot your system. If your on a promo ,if its anything like E* you only get SD channels of the promo,Not HD. So now you added Starz to your package for real. I have Cinemax free for 6 months,but you wouldn't know it by looking in the change or add programming section on D*.com,because the box is always unchecked.If I check that box before my before my 6 months is up I will be billed for it from here on out. I wouldn't be surprised if your going to be getting billed for it as well now. just make sure your not.Because its only a computer,they don't know any better.

 

[ShaqDan]

Does anyone happen to have a list of which channels were added so I can check? One channel number would suffice.

edit: never mind, I found them. If you have your favorite profile set up, you will want to add the channels manually. Here are the new channels I have now (I may have missed one or two):

202
206
209
212
220
245
247
265
267
269
278
280
282
284
362
501
518
519
520
521
522
537
538
540
544
604

 

[spiderman865]

265: A & E HD
282: Animal Planet HD
220: Big Ten HD
202: CNN HD
278: Discovery HD
206: ESPN HD
209: ESPN2 HD
501: HBO HD East
269: History Channel HD
280: Learning Channel HD (TLC HD)
544: Movie Channel HD
212: NFL Network HD
284: Science Channel HD
538: SHO Too HD
537: Showtime HD
540: Showtime HD West
267: Smithsonian HD
519: Starz Comedy HD
520: Starz HD East
521: Starz HD West
522: Starz Edge HD
518: Starz Kids and Family
247: TBS HD
245: TNT HD
604: Versus HD / Golf Channel
362: Weather Channel HD

 

[scottie_h]

I feel a headache coming on - I may have to go home... :

I thought I read Food Network was going to be in this release - the gal is going to be disappointed!

 

[maxamus1975]

What happened to The National Geographic channel?

 

[LonghornXP]

Thats good .but never hurts to try,My HR20 didn't need nothing ,the channels appeard without a problem,But my H20 was showing the 721 message and if you hit more Info on the message screen it will even tell you to reboot your system. If your on a promo ,if its anything like E* you only get SD channels of the promo,Not HD. So now you added Starz to your package for real. I have Cinemax free for 6 months,but you wouldn't know it by looking in the change or add programming section on D*.com,because the box is always unchecked.If I check that box before my before my 6 months is up I will be billed for it from here on out. I wouldn't be surprised if your going to be getting billed for it as well now. just make sure your not.Because its only a computer,they don't know any better.

All current premium channel promo offers from DirecTV include all available HD channels from said premium channel. I didn't ask but was still told by the rep that soon I'll see a line on my bill that will say Starz-HD - Charge but you will see a charge of 0.00. She also said "once" my promo runs out I'll still get all the current and new Starz HD channels as part of a Starz SuperPak subscription which of course I'll have to pay after the promo.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

All current premium channel promo offers from DirecTV include all available HD channels from said premium channel. I didn't ask but was still told by the rep that soon I'll see a line on my bill that will say Starz-HD - Charge but you will see a charge of 0.00. She also said "once" my promo runs out I'll still get all the current and new Starz HD channels as part of a Starz SuperPak subscription which of course I'll have to pay after the promo.

Yea I saw on my account the new HD charge for 0.00. Why does mine say Cinemax too?Its says Showtime and Starz 0.00,But not HBO,I wonder why?

 

[LonghornXP]

Yea I saw on my account the new HD charge for 0.00. Why does mine say Cinemax too?Its says Showtime and Starz 0.00,But not HBO,I wonder why?

If you had HBO on your HD box for a month or more it won't be listed under view last activity. Or if you get HBO but aren't getting HBO HD they forgot to add the HBO HD billing line. If your a Cinemax subscriber and had to call to add the Starz HD line I bet the CSR added the Cinemax HD line to reduce a second call from you next month.

 

[Plywodstatebum]

Don't worry new channels will be popping up all next month.

 

[jappleboy]

next month

Ok now that we have the first 21 hd channel lets try to find out the next launch date.I see that half the new hd channels are pay channels ie starz, hbo,show time.Wife like HG, FOOD, kids like cartoon net, National Geograpic, Ilike RSN.I CAN live without the weather channel.Besides it look like sd to me.