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It looks like some great Sci-Fi shows are going to be on that week too (I'm a big Torchwood and Doctor Who fan!). Would love to be able to watch them in HD.
Does Verizon say anything ahead of time on this stuff? Anyone seen an official statement?
@Trezl wrote: It looks like some great Sci-Fi shows are going to be on that week too (I'm a big Torchwood and Doctor Who fan!). Would love to be able to watch them in HD.
Generally Verizon is very tight lipped about any channel additions.
In the past, Universal HD has carried Torchwood (several weeks delayed from BBC) and Sci-Fi HD has carried Doctor Who (again delayed from BBC). Don't know if that is going to happen with the current round of new releases.
Yeah, I've been watching news closely. BBCA is the only network to announce them at this time.
Torchwood on HDNET last year was gorgeous though. Great HD show.
Figured I'd check though. Thanks for the heads up!
Is there any way we can encourage Verizon to add BBC America HD on its launch date?
@BritishTVfan wrote: Is there any way we can encourage Verizon to add BBC America HD on its launch date?
No. We have had a campaign to get NASA TV forever and still it is not on the list. They will add what they add when they add it
British-
A tip i was given is that if you log into to the FIOS TV Central website - you'll see a "Send Feedback" button. You can use that to request channels..
Do you have a link for that?
BBC HD is the channel I most want on my FIOS, so I can see the new Doctor Who Episodes in HD!
I've been dying for BBC America to be in HD since I first got Fios! I've actually called them a number of times and all they had to say is that they assume they will get it eventually.
If anyone has any thoughts on how we could organize to bring BBC America HD to Fios, count me in!
Add me to list.
I currently have the basic HD subscription but will upgrade if BBCA HD is added.
I talked with a Fios agent today,and it should be available by end of month.You must have Fios Tv Extreme HD plan to get it.
It has just recently been added, and is'nt assigned a #.as yet. So, I'm looking forward to BBC america programs in HD.
very
soon.Good luck to all of you who also into the HD BBC program.
@annabell wrote: I talked with a Fios agent today,and it should be available by end of month.You must have Fios Tv Extreme HD plan to get it.It has just recently been added, and is'nt assigned a #.as yet. So, I'm looking forward to BBC america programs in HD.verysoon.Good luck to all of you who also into the HD BBC program.
Let's hope that is accurate! I so want to see Doctor Who in HD when it comes on, and Torchwood as well. It ***** going from Torchwood in HD on HDNET to Torchwood in SD on BBC A!
@jonahlee wrote: Let's hope that is accurate! I so want to see Doctor Who in HD when it comes on, and Torchwood as well. It ***** going from Torchwood in HD on HDNET to Torchwood in SD on BBC A!
Well, the Doctor premiers on BBC-A Sunday (7/26) so we won't have it for the start - assuming the end of the month is even valid. Let's face it, Verizon CSRs aren't renowned for their accuracy of information .
@Keyboards wrote: @jonahlee wrote: Let's hope that is accurate! I so want to see Doctor Who in HD when it comes on, and Torchwood as well. It ***** going from Torchwood in HD on HDNET to Torchwood in SD on BBC A!Well, the Doctor premiers on BBC-A Sunday (7/26) so we won't have it for the start - assuming the end of the month is even valid. Let's face it, Verizon CSRs aren't renowned for their accuracy of information .
Well I have already seen Planet of the Dead, and have the Blu-Ray pre-ordered, but I would love Waters of Mars to be in HD. And maybe they can re-air Torchwood Children of Earth in HD.
@psumatt wrote:I can tell you there are no immediate plans to add BBC HD. Whoever that agent was is completely wrong.
Unfortunately, that is really BAD news!!!!!!
I live and breath BBC America, and it looks terrible on my HDTV in regular definition, my sister in NY has it on Time Warner and obviously the HD makes a huge difference, for the love of god, FIOS is supposed to be cutting edge, no?
BBC America HD is a must if verizon expects to keep me as a customer, I pay an arm and a leg for all the HD channels on FIOS and I expect new channels to be added as they become available, especially important ones like BBC America.
$.02
No BBC-HD here in Richmond, VA yet. I am hoping for Top Gear HD asap! The quality of the photography is perhaps the strongest element of that show and apparently household viewers here think their photography is on par with the Art Wolfe specials on PBS-HD (whose sole focus is excellent photography).
Anyone have ideas on how we can more effectively voice our desire to have BBC-A in HD? I admit it's less important to me at this very moment but I sure would like to see the Doctor Who specials later in the year in HD. Please, HD before David Tennant leaves the show! Pretty please!
IT turns out my agent led me astray. I signed up for the next tier,as I was told BBC/America/HD should be available by the end of Month.That was July.
That , did not happen, and I am as disappointed.,Especially since the new yr. of Robin Hood starts this week-end., as all of
you.
I just spoke to someone today and they said they don't have it yet.
I'm really disappointed. I love BBC America.
I just hope Verizon picks this up before the next Doctor Who special in November.
I wonder if they have the Sarah Jane Adventures, or does Sci-Fi still have them, as that starts airing in England Tomorrow, and next week has an appearance by the Doctor.
Come on VERIZON
WHERE IS BBCA in HD?
Won't be happening this year...unfortunately.
This should happen.. TWC has it live.. i need to be able to keep pointing out how fios is better
+1 for BBCA-HD. Unlike other channels that people are requesting that have next-to-no HD material (TCM-HD, G4-HD, etc), this channel actually has HD programming!
Yes. I loved Skins season 3 on BBC America HD on cable, I really hope FiOS picks BBC America HD in time for season 4!
+1 for BBC in HD from a Top Gear lover! Plus the 6 nations would be sweet in HD.
I just moved to NJ and went with FIos. I'm liking it so far but no BBC-HD??? My old cox service which was the worst has had BBC-HD for 6-9 months?? Most of what I watch is BBC so no HD is a BIG 😞
Any announcements upcoming? Nearly all BBC is HD or at least 480p 16:9.
Your likely in for a long wait as many on here have been requesting since BBCA HD was announced.
Verizon ***** at even letting you know if its planned
I hope that we can get BBC AM HD. Several favorite BBC shows will only be on BBC AM HD channel, and not on BBC AM, and I would hate missing them because Verizon didn't add such a popular station.
I tried to get information on this, yesterday, without any luck.
Are you sure?
Which programs? I don't think I've ever noticed a show that was on BBCA-SD and not on BBCA-HD (it's a simulcast, effectively, to the best of my knowledge).
I have BBCA-HD on Dish, it really is very nice; even though some of the shows aren't in "true" HD they are of much better quality than SD.
I've heard that BBC-HD might be coming in the first quarter of 2011. Nothing official, of course, but fingers crossed.
That would be amazing, the sooner the better.
Would LOVE to see BBC America HD on Fios...my hubs is British and we watch a lot of BBC America. When we saw it was coming out in HD, we were hoping Fios would pick it up.
@serahlee wrote: Would LOVE to see BBC America HD on Fios...my hubs is British and we watch a lot of BBC America. When we saw it was coming out in HD, we were hoping Fios would pick it up.
I, too, would like nothing better than to have BBC-HD. And I have zero interest in the next 4-5 channels that will be added. However, keep in mind that technology changes VERY fast these days. Certainly, Verizon might be able to jst shoehorn more channels in, as other providers do. But those channels would then have to be heavily compressed and suffer in picture quality and sometimes audio as well. I know that the company is working to expand the available space in order to be able to add channels...but without compromising picture quality just to get them. Right now, as most of us know, Verizon's PQ beats out DISH, COMCAST, and DIRECT TV. I'd rather wait for them to do what is necessary to get it right and continue to offer unaltered channel signals to us. It's worth it in the long run. Till then, there is MORE than enough HD viewing to keep even the most rabid TV watcher occupired.
In re-reading this, it almost sounds like I work for Verizon...I don't! I certainly have my issues with them (I'm still ticked-off at losing MGM-HD). But I can't fault their HD performance.
Until Fios fixes their QAM problem, that keeps them from adding channels, which they PROMISED a fix in Sept last year, Fios cannot add more than a handful of new hd channels. They are 3-4 months late fixing the QAM problem.
Another vote for BBC America HD, please.
Anyone heard anything on the QAM problem? They sure aren't adding any new HD channels without cutting some out. It is really starting to make me angry! I want BBC America HD!
Yet another vote for BBC Amercia HD please please please!. The year's dragging on amd still no sign.....
One more vote for BBC Amercia HD!
Another vote for BBC America HD, PLEASE.
Another vote here for BBC America HD...
Some of the most interesting shows on TV are on BBCA, imo....
This saga has been going on for years on FIOS, other channels slowly being added, but not BBCA/HD....
What is the "qam" issue referenced earlier in this thread, and is it still relevant?
Can anyone from verizon tell us how close is this addition, and why it has been taking so long?
I'm thinking the QAM issue refers to the fact that even though the FIOS signal is delivered to your house through fiber, it gets converted to the same signal format that everyone else's Cable boxes/Tivos/PC tuners can understand by the ONT.
The QAM spec has 38.4 Mbps of bandwidth on each frequency (vs. OTA ATSC which has 19.2, so a minimum of 2 HD channels per QAM frequency is possible without recompression).
Since I'm using an InfiniTV 4 CableCARD tuner in my PC as my primary DVR, I can see the channel map that lists what QAM each channel is delivered on in the web interface for the card. FIOS is currently using 122 of the 134 QAMs between 2 (57MHz) and 135 (861Mhz). Normal cable providers have much larger blocks of channels unused by TV for all the cable modems to use.
They could go up to 158 instead of stopping at 135, but this would most likely interfere with the MoCA network between the Actiontec and the set top boxes, and is also the upper channels might be flaky with a lot of amplifiers and filters.
What other cable companies are doing is either going to very buggy SDV, or overcompressing the channels to stuff 3-4 HD channels per QAM, introducing extra compression artifacts and lots of stuttering in the feed from their buggy recompressors.
A better solution would be to send the video as H.264 instead of MPEG-2 for many times better compression ratios without sacrificing quality on a lot of the channels, as is allowed by the ATSC 2.0 spec (although not used anywhere in North America yet other than by satellite providers), and has been the standard for Europe and Satellite TV for some time (I'd say 2x better for stuff with barely any motion, 11x for action videos). This would break a lot of older set top boxes, but I'm not sure FIOS has any. Maybe 1st gen CableCARD TiVos as well, but I doubt that. It would break my Linksys extender so I'd have to replace that with an XBOX. Many of the channels are already sent to the cable companies as H.264, and then converted to MPEG-2 for north american set top boxes.
BBC HD for NYC!!!!
30,000 views couldn't come soon enough
Don't think anyone is listening a VZ..... nearly 30,000 views and all these post it would seem BBCA HD was a no brainer!
I for one now get my UK content via other means!
yet another vote for BBC America HD - come on already.
@snosberry wrote: yet another vote for BBC America HD - come on already.
Can anyone cite any instance where Verizon added or corrected ANYTHING, based on customer voting, or polling? or is it all "marketing fluff"?
I'm just saying.......
If the QAM space is really so tight, why do we need all the Pacific time zone channels here in NYC? (although by my analysis of the channel map there is room for at least 24 more HD channels without getting rid of anything or tightening the compression or other means)
@jackmcgann wrote: @snosberry wrote: yet another vote for BBC America HD - come on already.Can anyone cite any instance where Verizon added or corrected ANYTHING, based on customer voting, or polling? or is it all "marketing fluff"?I'm just saying.......
Several channels were added that were being asked for by customers. Probably voting/polli does have some impact, but is not the only factor.
My CableCARD downloaded a new channel map today -- 40 new "channels", all named "Unknown". They are in only 4 QAMs though (10 to a QAM), so can't possibly be HD. I'm hoping this is a space now reserved to move SDs from other QAMs to to free up space for some more HDs.
Also, I think I pretty much verified the reason there is nothing above QAM 135 is because it would conflict with the MOCA networking. I had a problem where a MoCA adapter was causing problems on FX HD, Travel HD and a few others. It turns out the MoCA LAN between the Actiontec and the set top boxes (or in my case the adapter to get the network upstairs) is at the 3rd harmonic of the frequency for these channels so I need to add a low pass filter to get rid of the interference. These low pass filters are built into the set top boxes for the same reason. The MoCA connection between the Actiontec and the ONT is at only 1GHz instead of the 1150MHz used by default for the LAN, so the low pass filter they are using can't be too far above the in-use channels (Comedy Central HD is at 861MHz).
I just chatted with a rep. He informed me that BBCA is not available on Prime, but could not give me a reason or resolution. His only alternative was to go to a lower tear and lose syfy and other channels I like, or go up a tier for almost 20$ more just for one channel. I think this is either a huge over site on the part of Verizon or a gimmick to get you to raise your package tier. I am not interested in 30 sports channels I have. I barely watch the premium channels I pay for, they are just for the shows. I find it unbelievable that I cannot get SYFY and BBCA on the same package for less than $105? There is only one tier that does not offer it? Come on Verizon.
Every other video provider has packages like this too, so it would be the same anywhere else. Maybe someday providers will offer individual channel subscriptions, but that would probably cost at least $10 a channel. Who knows, but this is the way of multichannel video right now.
