"New" HD Channels on Cable

[Graham Smith]

It seems that C0mc@st has a different definition of "new" than I do. They just announced that they had added something like 50 new HD and that they were all grouped in the 800 range of channels. "Oh boy", says I, "let's see what's been added."

A few minutes of searching later and I find that all but a a few of these are HD channels that I already had in the 200 range. So now, there are many stations that I can get a regular version and two HD versions. There are some stations that I can now get on 4 different channels (two regular and two HD).

Out of the Hundreds of stations they "offer", once I remove all the pay, on-demand, premium, information and public access, shopping, foreign language, music, and sundry channels I don't care about, I'm down to less than 50 channels that interest me and of that, only about 30 that I'm really interested in. This goes a long way to explaining why the cable stations structure their packages they way they do.

I understand that it's all in the marketing, but I'm really getting sick of being told what a huge selection I have when I'm paying to get the same station on 4 channels!!! I wonder how they would like it if I sent them an original check for 25% of my bill along 1 regular and 2 high-res photocopies of it?

Edited May 17, 2010 by Graham Smith

[3quartertime]

This might be more of a 'Hate Rant', but I'm gonna move it up to our TV discussion area for more exposure.

[Pat Miles]

It seems that C0mc@st has a different definition of "new" than I do. They just announced that they had added something like 50 new HD and that they were all grouped in the 800 range of channels. "Oh boy", says I, "let's see what's been added."

A few minutes of searching later and I find that all but a a few of these are HD channels that I already had in the 200 range. So now, there are many stations that I can get a regular version and two HD versions. There are some stations that I can now get on 4 different channels (two regular and two HD).

Out of the Hundreds of stations they "offer", once I remove all the pay, on-demand, premium, information and public access, shopping, foreign language, music, and sundry channels I don't care about, I'm down to less than 50 channels that interest me and of that, only about 30 that I'm really interested in. This goes a long way to explaining why the cable stations structure their packages they way they do.

I understand that it's all in the marketing, but I'm really getting sick of being told what a huge selection I have when I'm paying to get the same station on 4 channels!!! I wonder how they would like it if I sent them an original check for 25% of my bill along 1 regular and 2 high-res photocopies of it?

So why are you still a subscriber? Too many other things to do in life than sit in front of a TV.

CYa,

Pat

[Graham Smith]

This might be more of a 'Hate Rant',

Probably right. I had this discussion the other day with a friend on the west coast which got me looking to see just how many distinct channels there really were and I was appalled to find how many duplicates (and triplicates and even a quadruplicate) there were.

Please feel free to close it as it is probably better left alone.

[PC Geek Shooter]

Graham Smith, I didn't realize it's that bad with Comcast. Don't yet have the HD channels but have been thinking about it. Was also thinking of Dish or DirecTV but heard Comcast had more HD channels and when you said this, I'll have to look into it more. Or maybe just do Netflix since more and more movies and TV shows will be on BluRay.