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

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

James

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Dec 31, 2007
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get a tivo and really screw them by not watching the commertials but still
watching their content.


"Walt Mather" <waltinvt@lostinvt.net> wrote in message
news:G5-dnfQOb5aL777cRVn-iQ@giganews.com...
> One man's protest: No HD, then No NBC
> 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
>
>
 

Chris

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Dec 7, 2003
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"James" <See.My.Sig@The.Bottom.com> wrote in message
news:n%SUc.250$CI6.11@chiapp18.algx.net...
> get a tivo and really screw them by not watching the commertials but still
> watching their content.

F' that, get a hacked card and watch whatever pleases you.
 

James

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2007
421
0
18,930
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don't those get fried with in a few months?


"Chris" <chr_remove_pai@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:NATUc.2154$9N2.1177@newssvr24.news.prodigy.com...
>
> "James" <See.My.Sig@The.Bottom.com> wrote in message
> news:n%SUc.250$CI6.11@chiapp18.algx.net...
> > get a tivo and really screw them by not watching the commertials but
still
> > watching their content.
>
> F' that, get a hacked card and watch whatever pleases you.
>
>
 

Mike

Distinguished
Apr 1, 2004
975
0
18,930
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"Chris" <chr_remove_pai@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:NATUc.2154$9N2.1177@newssvr24.news.prodigy.com...
>
> "James" <See.My.Sig@The.Bottom.com> wrote in message
> news:n%SUc.250$CI6.11@chiapp18.algx.net...
>> get a tivo and really screw them by not watching the commertials but
>> still
>> watching their content.
>
> F' that, get a hacked card and watch whatever pleases you.
>
>

More details on hacked card?




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Walt Mather wrote:
> One man's protest: No HD, then No NBC
> This probably still won't mean much to anybody but unless people combine
> action with protests, it's meaningless.
[snip]

Ok, I'm confused. Why, exactly, is this NBC's fault? Seems to me
it's your satellite provider's fault.

I've been watching the Olympics on NBC using OTA HDTV just fine.
What's even cooler is there are no commercials (apart from the Sony
one (which is in HD anyway), and then there are just cool shots of
Athens).

You said; "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." This makes no sense. Why in the
world would Sony and NBC actually want to deny you HDTV? That is
certainly not in their best interest.

I think Dish Network just screwed up and blacked out your NBC HD feed.
 
G

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Guest
Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

"Michael J. Sherman" <msherman@dsbox.com> wrote in message
news:2anev1-0jb.ln1@developers.dsbox.com...
> Ok, I'm confused. Why, exactly, is this NBC's fault? Seems to me
> it's your satellite provider's fault.

Maybe you didn't read my entire post and have not been following the threads
about who is eligible for the NBC HD feed and who isn't. It's also entirely
possible I'm not totally clear on this either.

As I understand it, the qualification proceedure for this special NBC HD
Olympic feed from satellite is completly different than qualifing for analog
distant network feeds and even the CBS HD feed.

First off, being able to get local affilliate network feeds and distant
analog network feeds from satellite is regulated under the current SHVIA.
Future eligibility for distant nets in HD by satellite may become regulated
under pending new SHVIA legislation still being worked out by congress.

However the special HD feed that NBC is providing for the Olympics
apparently does not fall under those regulations, so it's basically
whatever the copywrite holder wants to allow - which is NBC.

NBC however has contracts with all their indepentent affilliates (ones not
owned by NBC) so they did have to neogatiate with them. The bottom line was
that the local, independent NBC affilliates got to decide who could receive
the HD feed, even if they themselves were not capable of providing it.

That's why there was a list floating around here for a while of eligible
DMAs and it got upgraded a few times as more affilliates agreed. The DBS
providers really had little say in this other than they could choose to take
it or leave it. My personal opinion is if they couldn't be allowed to
provide the HD signal to ALL their HD subscribers, then they should have
told NBC to shove it. Given what I hear about many aspects of the coverage,
I suspect Dish may have more HD customers that are unhappy about this issue
than are happy - I know the ones that were denied the signal and had no OTA
options are pretty darn upset.

> I've been watching the Olympics on NBC using OTA HDTV just fine.

You may not be aware but there are many people in rural areas that have NO
OTA options - their only option is satellite. Thats what this was all
about.

> You said; "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." This makes no sense. Why in the
> world would Sony and NBC actually want to deny you HDTV? That is
> certainly not in their best interest.

I agree it's definitly not in Sony's best interest and I'm not sure why they
didn't push for better coverage.

In my opinion it's not serving NBC well either but like I said above, NBC
has affilliate contracts to consider and who knows what the fine print in
those say.

>
> I think Dish Network just screwed up and blacked out your NBC HD feed.

Well now you know the rest of the story :)
Walt
 
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Guest
Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Does NBC broadcast HD fulltime for the Olympics? I did a couple
spot check. Everytime (morning news time, evening news time before
8:00 pm), the HD channel is for Olympics. The picture quality
is excellent. I am surprised that I could not find compression
artifacts. Of course, this is all OTA. I am 40 miles from
transmitters.

In article <2anev1-0jb.ln1@developers.dsbox.com>,
Michael J. Sherman <msherman@dsbox.com> wrote:
>Walt Mather wrote:
>> One man's protest: No HD, then No NBC
>> This probably still won't mean much to anybody but unless people combine
>> action with protests, it's meaningless.
>[snip]
>
>Ok, I'm confused. Why, exactly, is this NBC's fault? Seems to me
>it's your satellite provider's fault.
>
>I've been watching the Olympics on NBC using OTA HDTV just fine.
>What's even cooler is there are no commercials (apart from the Sony
>one (which is in HD anyway), and then there are just cool shots of
>Athens).
>
>You said; "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." This makes no sense. Why in the
>world would Sony and NBC actually want to deny you HDTV? That is
>certainly not in their best interest.
>
>I think Dish Network just screwed up and blacked out your NBC HD feed.