Lookee here, it's all coming true. The bits we heard about a
massive HD rollout coming to Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, NY (not to mention New Jersey) are now being confirmed by Time Warner Cable. On April 30th, the three previously highlighted areas will have access to 50 HD channels, while those very stations will be available to all digital subscribers in Manhattan (!!!), New Jersey, the Hudson Valley region and Mt. Vernon "later this year." Additionally, TWC is gearing up to add over 250
HD VOD options, launch Enhanced HDTV (which includes
Start Over) and position itself "to carry 100 high-definition channels" in NY and NJ by the close of 2008. Progress is a wonderful thing, innit? Check the full list of upcoming HD channels in the read link. [
Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DeadPixel @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:28AM
the only reason to live in New Jersey
Dave @ Apr 5th 2008 2:30PM
or not, since the lower 1/2 of New Jersey is still controlled by Comcast :(
Joebnsd @ Apr 7th 2008 10:36PM
LOL!! I completely agree!!! Now I dont live in Jersey, my home town is San Diego, but I have been out here for almost a month now on a business trip and can honestly say this statement is soooo true. Not that I'm hating on Jersey, but talk about the sticks....shessh I now know how spoiled I really am in Cali except for the HD Love from TWC. Please Please Please...drop the HD bomb on the SD TWC!! And by that I mean HD channels I really want not shit like Lifetime and Nick @ night. I mean those two channels for people who watch them arent in the know with HD. Any women who watches Lifetime would probably get the shit beat out of her if she dropped the change on an HDTV by her husband and anyone who watches Nick @ Night is either too old to know what HD means or still has one of those TV slash Radio slash Record Player slash retro furniture combos and will never benefit from their black and white show in HD...LOL!!! Just quoting the demographics people :)
JimC @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:43AM
While those of us who do not live in those areas still get squat from TWC.....why is it that some markets get many HD channels and other martkets get so few? Is it that the various markets are not really equal in capacity? What is the limiting factor that prevents nationwide rollouts?
dredd @ Apr 3rd 2008 11:46AM
More importantly, are these going to be the crappy switched-HD that won't work with CableCard subscribers (e.g., Tivos), or will they be device-independent?
Achilles @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:07PM
I wish TWC was still in Houston. The area was taken over by Comcast (vomit). So sad....... Are they the ones squeezing 3 HD channels on one 6mhz frequency?
Dee @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:26PM
Hooray for NY'ers. Grumble, grumble, bitch, moan, spit for everyone else. ESPECIALLY in Los Angeles. And I don't count stretch-o-vision on alleged HD for TNT and TBS.
JJ @ Apr 3rd 2008 12:56PM
Damn, I wish I lived in an area that got Time Warner instead of crappy Cablevision.
riverside_guy @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:12PM
Great... so now everyone in NY EXCEPT MANHATTAN will get 50 to Manhattan's 18. "Later this year" means by 12/31/08.
Oh, don't y'all forget that the 10% discount the "50 channel areas" get does NOT apply to MANHATTAN. Oh, and MLB HD, NHL HD, Movie channel, HD PPV all of which one pays for are also NOT AVAILABLE IN MANHATTAN. So we get 36% of what they get AND get to pay a lot more for getting LESS. All because OTA and satellite are simply not an option for most of the borough's residents. AND the city gives them a license to do this total price gouging.
Guess that's why those of us living under that yoke can legitimately call them Crime Warner.
Jason @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:22PM
In other news, Comcast fucking blows....
DeadPixel @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:23PM
amen
Pipe @ Apr 3rd 2008 10:05PM
....Also, all other cable companies suck as well except for TWC in NY/NJ.
Ted @ Apr 3rd 2008 1:26PM
AAArrrrgghh! Someone please, please, please stem the growing number of "innit"'s that are coming from Americans!!! That word is an abomination! It's used enough by chavs in England already, the expression does not deserve to spread >:(
Nick @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:29PM
The user interface in the picture looks HD. Is this a new cable box from TWC (Scientific Atlantic)? Start Over seems like the beginning of a move to get people away from their DVRs. I hope TWC doesnt at some point in the future completely get ride of cable dvr boxes.
Cactus @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:40PM
It's not a new cable box -- it's TWC's home-made replacement for the Passport navigator software, called Mystro. And while it may look pretty in a still picture like this, in everyday use... it sucks serious balls.
Adam @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:46PM
Cactus is totally right... it sucked sooo much I had to swap out the boxes with the old Passport boxes.
Andrew @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:34PM
No, you don't even understand... it's HORRIBLE. Random freezes, horrible lag, only records when it feels like it, etc. It's a pathetic excuse for a DVR.
Phour ZwanZig @ Apr 3rd 2008 10:47PM
We arent on MDN (Mystro Digital Navigator) yet. MDN does have alot of issues yet, but thats expected when your building a new in-house OS for these boxes..
Rob S @ Apr 4th 2008 7:24AM
Just because they're going off to create something new doesn't make it acceptable to not work.
Users generally expect both New *AND* Improved. If your engineers can't figure out how to do both at the same time, then fire those engineers and get someone who can do the job. And improved needs to be from the user's point of view, not the engineer's. Too many engineers are willing to deal with all sorts of nonsense to get something to work, just because it's new (Let's see, if I stand on my head while twisting around on the third Thursday of the week while pressing this goofy key sequence, it works 30% of the time. Great, ship it!!). But your average soccer mom, accountant, florist, or whatever just wants the thing to work right, the first time, with no issues.
Dave @ Apr 5th 2008 2:36PM
if we are talking about the scientific atlanta explorer 8300HD I'm going to have to disagree with the majority here, because it is the first box I've used from TWC that I am actually happy with. Word to the wise though, the 8350 HDC sucks major balls...like it has so many problems you might as well just return it when you get it because it WILL have problems, like massive, massive problems.
Dave @ Apr 5th 2008 2:37PM
whoops i meant the 8300 HDC sucks balls...the regular 8300 HD is great
Adam @ Apr 3rd 2008 3:45PM
I have TWC - I hate TWC - and really wish there was a way to get a dish on my apartment building for DirecTV... but I'm stuck - at least Channel NY1 makes up for something right?
Paladin @ Apr 3rd 2008 4:33PM
Yeah, I have a friend who lives in Manhattan and he really complains HARD about Crime Warner. I think he need to get some neighbors together and try to get a multi-home system setup with DirecTV. DirecTV now has a new setup called MFH3 where they can run satellite signals through an IPTV system that runs the signals over Cat5 cable.
If you live in Manhattan it would be worth looking into. If enough landlords did this maybe Crime Warner would have to compete, then everyone could win.
leland @ Apr 3rd 2008 5:27PM
where can i get that sweet receiver that has a HD guide?
UnnDunn @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:06PM
It's not HD. It's SD with a nice-looking font, that's all.
Cactus @ Apr 3rd 2008 6:57PM
You can have the remains of my "sweet receiver" for free, just as soon as I finally give in to my urge to throw it out the window.
If you enjoy repeatedly having to wait for "Loading..." at every simple little command, as well as not knowing whether a scheduled show will actually record or not, this one's for you!
Pipe @ Apr 3rd 2008 10:07PM
Is it porn? If not then no.
MCP33Pants @ Apr 4th 2008 11:33AM
Gah, and STILL no Cartoon Network HD, a channel they friggin own. Some adult swim content has started to be produced in HD, and the new all-HD season on Venture Brothers starts in June... :,(
Evan @ Apr 16th 2008 11:46AM
Im up in Hudson Valley and just recently they started switching us over to Samsung Box's (non DVR) from the SciAtlantica. I swapped out alot of my previous SA boxes to get the new Mystro powered interface, and it did look pretty but it was slow as any thing and had glitches with wrong resolution over HDMI. I swapped out for Samsung which popped up recently and they are muchhh faster, interface wise and channel switching, and alot of the glitches are gone
TWXHater @ Apr 16th 2008 7:26PM
This is a step in the right direction for HD customers in the BK (big up to brooklyn). Unfortunately, upon reading the actual list of new HD channels, which includes the ones they already offer, making the claim of "50 new channels" a lie, I am not getting many of the channels I actually want (either ChillerTV or better, Monsters HD, Kung Fu HD, Cartoon Network, Bravo, SciFi - and wtf aren't AMC, TCM, Sundance and IFC in HD!???) tho I am getting Weather Channel HD - and Toon Disney ain't bad. And finally some HD PPV.
News flash to Time Warner: we want more MOVIE channels in HD, especially commercial-free movies. That's the reason to have HD -- not so I can see some MTV reality-hooker's age spots up close. Really, because SD looks SO BAD on HDTV sets, we need SD content broadcast over an HD signal just for it to look decent, and it seems that's what we're getting here: HGTV and VH1 in HD.
Again, I'm happy about the step in the right direction -- but I want movies first, sports second. HD video content (Food Network, Travel Channel) and SD content-over-HD-rez (like Lifetime Movie Network) should be down the list.
And no NBA? Ok, no biggie, but once the Knicks are better again, in like 7 years ...
whahaa @ Apr 30th 2008 12:08AM
nice try twc, espnnews is okay but come on.
WHERE IS MY NFL NETWORK?
i don't care who's right or wrong, you're both wrong as long as i don't have nfl network.
Brian @ Apr 30th 2008 7:22PM
I'm in Mt Vernon and just got a handful of new HD channels added. But the YES network in HD is GONE! This really sucks, anyone else having this issue? I can't watch the Yankees in standard definition!
RK @ May 5th 2008 8:39PM
These stations were added to my lineup in Manhattan recently. I noticed them over the weekend (did not watch much TV during the week)