TWC adds 11 HD channels in Dallas, Texas region
By Darren Murph 
posted March 27th 2008 11:26AM
posted March 27th 2008 11:26AM
Considering that Time Warner Cable has been beefing up the HD lineups in San Antonio, Austin, Waco and other areas of Central Texas, it's about time the slighted Dallas region got their due. As of today, TWC is dropping 11 high-def newcomers in Dallas, Plano, Richardson and Mesquite, and we're told that other local cities "should get the new feeds, and more, in the next nine months." According to company spokesman Gary Underwood, North Texas "should have around 50 HD channels, not counting HD video-on-demand, by the end of the year." These 11 bring the total in the area up to 31, which catapults it above FiOS TV but still situates it well below U-verse and the two sat providers. Still, you lucky North Texas folks are some of the few enjoying March Madness on Demand in high-def, so click on through for the list of newbies and hush that complaining for at least, oh, a [Thanks, Len]
Time Warner Cable HD additions in Dallas, Texas -- effective March 27, 2008:
- CNN HD
- TBS HD
- History Channel HD
- Food Network HD
- A&E HD
- HGTV HD
- Discovery HD
- Animal Planet HD
- National Geographic HD
- Versus / Golf HD
- Fox Sports Southwest HD
What is up with Time Warner Cable's pathetically slow roll out of HD? If *any* of the HD providers should be capable of bestowing us with HD the fastest, it should be cable right? And Time Warner is supposed to be one of the biggest yet they seem to be dead last in the HD game... What is the hold up? It's not like they have to launch new satellites or anything???
http://www.tvpredictions.com/twhd060507.htm
"We'll Have 'Unlimited' HD Capacity" - HA, you guys have the capacity, what you lack is the will.....
NINE MONTHS?!
TWC can roll out HD channels area-wide in San Antonio/Austin in one fell swoop, but it takes NINE MONTHS to do it in Dallas/Ft. Worth?
Do they seriously expect us to believe that it takes an equal amount of time to push the "Ok" button on a piece of software as it does to conceive and gestate a human life? Do they think we're stupid?
Still, it's about damn time we got something to watch in HD other than Mark Cuban's favorite passtime and wrestling.
I was thinking the same thing!
If it is available anywhere, why not everywhere?
There must be licensing deals, but still it shouldn't be this hard.
M
I agree as well. It is especially torturous for me, as I live next to one of the cities that will get the programming, but I might not see it for 9 months???
I'm not too mad about it. I have a TiVo now, so I'm glad I won't be paying for channels I can't record until the tuning resolver comes out. Now, if the tuning resolver comes out and the channels don't come to my side of town for another three months...then we'll have a problem.
Their strategy is to only add HD channels in areas that have actual competition. If you can NOT go OTA or either satellite provider, you get zip, nothing, nothing
Just look at NYC, big urban jungle that it is. Satellite and OTA are available in the outer boroughs, but the central one, Manhattan, has virtually no access. So those outer boroughs get up to 11 MORE HD channels AND they pay less per month.
I think they have added 3 HD channels in the past two years to Manhattan. They are also counting on Verizon needing many years to run fiber to apartments, so again, no possibilities, stick it big time to their customers!
The problem is, most likely, the new channels will be SDV (switched digital video) which means those of us who use cable cards will not receive them.
this is such BS...I live in McKinney which is maybe 15-20 minutes from "Dallas" and I still have the pathetic HD lineup we've had for years now. 9 FU**ING MONTHS?
I'd switch but there are NO other options here and I dont want a dish. FIOS WHERE ARE YOU?
I know. I actually just got married and moved from North Dallas/Addison area to the boarder of McKinney and Frisco and I lost all 11 of the new channels with the move. Needless to say, I was quite pissed.
I had recorded the first half of the Andromeda Strain remake in Hi-Def on Monday and on Tuesday, after the move that day, I could only record the standard-def second half because I lost A&EHD. Granted, the movie kind of sucked, but I might have liked it more had I seen all of it in Hi-Def.
No freakin' Verizon in the area, and the satellite options are too expensive if you want the internet included.
On another note, I have had the 10mbps service through TW (Road Runner) but no matter how I have it set up, what computer I use, or whether in N Dallas or McKinney, I've never tested speeds above about 4mbps. Why the deuce am I paying more to get slower speeds? I hate that I'm backed into a corner with Time Warner.
Too little and WAAAYYY too late. TWC lost me 4 months ago.
Still no NFL Network I see.
Yeah, me too. I finally gave up on TWC North Texas last month. Switched to DirecTV and haven't looked back since. TWC (at least in Dallas) is so far behind the satellite providers in HD it's not even funny. Sucked losing my TiVo, but the increased HD (like Speed, Center Ice, etc) makes up for it.
I'm in Irving, no go on the new channels. Fios is available in my area so I know it has nothing to do with competition on where they throw they switch. Arent Dallas, Richardson, Plano, and Mesquite on the a/b cable system still?
I'm in way north Irving (out of fios area, or I'd have it instead of TWC). TiVo says I get the new channels now, after all, but they're apparently switched so I can't see them.
Man, if you live in a fios area, switch, switch now. There are zero reasons to stay with TWC over fios. I live on the AT&T side of town, and even if we had U-Verse up here yet (we don't), it's pretty crappy when it comes to HD.
TWC's first major change when they took over from Comcast was to remove the A/B setup that has plagued the Dallas area for a long time. After that, they began working on the switched delivery. If memory serves me correctly from following this for a while, Austin/San Antonio was their test site for switched delivery, and why they got extra channels ahead of most others. Also, those upgrades were a lot more difficult and cost them a lot more than they expected, which contributed to the delay.
My interpretation of the 50 channels in 9 months is that other areas will be changed to switched delivery with 31 channels over the next 9 months, and once everyone has been changed over, they'll start adding channels to take us from 31 to 50. So I doubt any given city will have to wait until the end of the year to see the change, but perhaps the last city will have to wait 6-7 months.
Not to defend them too much, this has been a very long time, but I think their challenges in the DFW market have been a lot more than other markets.
A/B ended in East Dallas last fall. TW doesn't have a separated "Upgraded" channel listing anymore on their website, so I would think everyone has been upgraded by now.
I don't know about the rest of the area, but Richardson was converted away from the A/B system in 2006 and I know Dallas and Plano were planned for later than that, but they probably have been converted by now.
This is bullshit. I live in Garland, exactly 500 feet from Richardson. I am NOT getting the new channels. I also live in the one block that is NOT wired for Fios around here. I am pretty sure I live in a fucking space-time anomaly.