One man's protest: No HD, then No NBC

waltinvt

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Supporting Founder
Feb 16, 2004
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One man's protest: No HD, then No NBC

[font=verdana, arial, helvetica]This probably still won't mean much to anybody but unless people combine action with protests, it's meaningless.

After a major expenditure in HD equipment, roof-top antenna system and HD programming this past year, I patiently awaited the coming of the Olympics in glorious HD, comfortably self assured that everything was in place for it to happen.

The first hint that I may have deluded myself came last Friday afternoon when I noticed that, although the guide on my 811 indeed listed the Olympic channels both on 9425 and 148, they both also stated that the program was "blacked out" in my area.

Must be some mistake, I live in Vermont - there is no digital OTA here (except PBS) and won't be for years. I qualify and receive the distant analog NBC & Fox and the distant CBS HD from NY. I'm as "signal white area" as one can get. Must be another Dish mistake, I'll just make a quick call.

After an hour long conversation with a Dish CSR and advanced tech Friday night, the harsh reality set in that I was not going to be allowed to watch the Olympics in HD.

The rhetoric will pile up on this and other lists for weeks about why this has happened to me and many others but the bottom line is greed triumphs over integrity.

When the smoke clears, this basically boils down to a clever attempt between NBC and Sony (with necessary compromises to the affiliates) to attract new customers into the world of HD (and Sony equipment of course). Nothing wrong with this - they are in business to make money. Clever, because it circumvented existing SHIVA / FCC regulations.

However while their left hand was luring the public's credit cards into the showrooms, they were shaking their right hand with all the affiliates that would close the door on any chance of many of these new customers ever seeing the Olympics in HD. As for the big DBS providers - they knew full well what was going down but greed prevailed and they signed on anyway.

Ask yourself, how many affiliates are likely to say:

"Gee, we're sorry but we don't do HD yet. In fact we may never do it, but you the viewer shouldn't have to suffer for that. What's the number of your satellite provider and we'll make sure they provide you with the NBC HD signal. After all your happiness is important to us - even more important even than all that local advertising money. Please watch the Olympics in glorious HD and don't worry about us, we'll limp along somehow."

Well, for what ever it's worth, I bite the bullet and so far have not watched ANY NBC - Olympics or otherwise. Piss on 'em. I'm feeding the CEO's of NBC, Sony, Dish Network and Channel Master by what I've spent this past year and they turn around and deny me the HD broadcast - a broadcast I might add that in no way threatens any of the concurrent analog broadcasts since what comparatively little coverage is available is so delayed, it's almost mote. My plan had been to watch my local for much of the up to date coverage and follow up with the HD coverage.

Now I'm watching none of it and you know what ? My face feels just fine with my nose missing. In fact I like this feeling so much, I'm seriously considering canceling 90% of my $130 a month Dish programming and just watch DVDs and PBS HD OTA.

WaltinVt
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You think that's bad....

I live within OTA distance of El Paso. I have been after NBC and ABC to increase their digital power so we can get it. (We live about 40-50 miles away) I get the 49% on ABC but NBC is non-existant. When I contacted them, they could have cared less, told me "nobody has HD, not much HD content, waste of our time"... Both said they would be increasing power "later this year".

So, I have a Dish/811 that blacks out the Olympics in HD and an OTA NBC affiliate that consists of booger eating morons (BEMS) who could care less if anyone sees the Olympics in HD or not.....
 
I guess somehow I ended up on the good side of this mess. I live in a genuine white area (qualify for distants etc.) but the area I live in also falls within the DMA of one of the enlightened affiliates that granted Dish permission to broadcast the HD feed. I have it, but I find the logic behind all this flawed.



NightRyder
 
The decisions made are a bit puzzling. I live in San Fran and I get both the digital OTA and the dish HD broadcast of the same footage. I guess getting it is a step up but honestly the quality is so bad (at least here) that I feel that NBC screwed up royaly. The only thing that actually looks like HD is repetative shots of greece everything else is just barely a step up from SD.
 
robotX said:
The decisions made are a bit puzzling. I live in San Fran and I get both the digital OTA and the dish HD broadcast of the same footage. I guess getting it is a step up but honestly the quality is so bad (at least here) that I feel that NBC screwed up royaly. The only thing that actually looks like HD is repetative shots of greece everything else is just barely a step up from SD.
IMHO NBC shot themselves in the foot with this one. It's becoming more and more obvious that the deal was so motivated by short-term money and sales that they totally over looked customer satisfaction. And as for production, how NBC actually thought they could swim with the big boys (HDNET and DSCHD) is what baffles me. They've probably set the whole move to HD back a year by this fiasco. I'd love to see a poll when this is done of people that purchaced HD equipment and programming based on the Olympics and left it feeling good about that decision.
WaltinVt
 
I'm not trying to rub anyones nose in this, but all of this has made me realize how lucky I am to be in the Charlotte area. The broadcasters here seem to make a genuine effort to get things right. I live almost 50 miles away (in another town actually in another state - Rock Hill, SC) from the broadcast towers of all the stations, yet the are powerful enough that I get ALL of them w/ good reception w/ only a small indoor antenna.

I can get the Olympics from the local affiliate over OTA, and still get the Dish HD channel too. Unlike RobotX, though, the PQ of the OTA has been nothing short of breath-taking...easily the clearest HD pictures I've ever seen...and the Dish channel surprisingly isnt much worst. Also, a few weeks ago, the local FOX affiliate was one of the few actually showing the MLB All-Star game in 720p as well.

All in all...nice to be in Charlotte! :yes
 
DWS44 said:
<snip.....> I can get the Olympics from the local affiliate over OTA, and still get the Dish HD channel too.
Not begrudging your good fortune and there are others in the same situation - getting the Olympics in HD both OTA and from satellite; yet there are many of us with NO OTA options that were denied the NBC HD feed via satellite. All I can say is BEWARE - it might be you next time.

It's this sort of thing that epitomizes why satellite viewers in rural areas need help via new legislation. NBC and their affiliates have just demonstrated for the country to see that the industry will not fairly regulate themselves. Too bad, because we all loose.

It wouldn't even surprise me if the NAB uses the part about some getting it from both OTA and satellite as a reason to sway legislation that's more favorable to the affiliates and we wouldn't even get analog nets from satellite if they got their way.

WaltinVt
 
Alot of the Olympics HD problems has to do with NBC man, however you should check out

Voom... at the very least, all the 2004 Olympic Programming will be on BravoHD later in case you miss the Olympics.

I'm enjoying the HD, however I have to ignore the web because they post scores/articles before even the standard D. NBC lineup posts it. My folks have Dish, and I could never stand it and their indifferent commitment towards bringing more HD to their customers. That's why when I went out and upgraded my home theatre, I made up my mind to give Voom a shot.
 
robotX said:
The decisions made are a bit puzzling. I live in San Fran and I get both the digital OTA and the dish HD broadcast of the same footage. I guess getting it is a step up but honestly the quality is so bad (at least here) that I feel that NBC screwed up royaly. The only thing that actually looks like HD is repetative shots of greece everything else is just barely a step up from SD.

What size is your set? You can't be watching the same HD that I am seeing. I have a 60" GWII and the NBC HD on both Dish and OTA is impressive and nothing close to the SD content that is being delivered. It is a night and day experience.

I think we are all getting the same HD Dish NBC feed so something is a miss here with a statement that the HD footage is barely a step up from the SD. Not on my 60" LCD. Night and Day big time.

This locals affiliates issue really mucks things up and is cause of a huge waste of bandwidth. This is just another example of it.
 

Costco - Dish Network

Splitting One Signal to Two TVs

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