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Ditch SD already...

Isn't it about time all of the cable companies ditch the confusing (to most people) system of having 2 sets of channel #'s - one for SD, other for HD?

Consumers haven't had the ability to buy a SD-only television in years. It's about time we gain back the bandwidth wasted on SD by forcing everyone to either watch only HD or letterbox the signal for the minority of users still sticking with older sets.

Comments

CRobGauth

There are still a significant number of people out there with either an SD STB or digital adapter.

And a fair number of the digital adapters are free.

So to replace all of those with HD boxes would be very expensive.

And for every 10 SD channels dropped, you only get 2-3 HD.

pdroth

I can't tell you how confusing it is for so many people that there are 2 sets of channels. I'm not one of them, but I do wish that the HD channels were the first set, and not the 500+ channel assignments.

Auto HD is not what it's cracked up to be either. If you select 2, it jumps to 502, which is nice. However, if you are on the real channel 2 in SD, and hit channel + or -, it does NOT jump to the HD channel.

Is summary, the system stinks, and is more suited for the convenience of the minority of viewers with SD sets and not the mainstream.

gs0b

@pdroth wrote:
Is summary, the system stinks, and is more suited for the convenience of the minority of viewers with SD sets and not the mainstream.

FYI, you're talking to customers here.

Changing a system like this is non-trivial. Not only does it involve real costs as CRobGouth noted, it requires changes in people's behavior. There are lots of people who will complain about such a change.

For example, Verizon dropped TWC as most people use Internet devices to get weather info these days, yet there is quite a vocal minority complaining about this change. I dare say that wholesale moving HD and SD channels around would upset way more paying customers than dropping TWC did.

Oh, and there still are a fair number of SD only channels. All of the "local access" channels are SD only and I've even got some "normal" channels that are SD only.

Anyway, it's currently a bit of a mess, but we all know how to deal with it. Changing it would create a new mess that would upset a lot of people, particularly those who don't want to change anything even if it makes it better.

Enjoy.

ansky201

@gs0b wrote:

For example, Verizon dropped TWC as most people use Internet devices to get weather info these days,

Do you honestly believe that was the reason they dropped TWC? If so, why would they replace it with another weather channel? The real reason is they did not want to pay TWC's fees.

I can get my news from the internet too, but we still have CNN and about 10 other news channels...

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