September 7th, 2008 
joel Deep Background is created for an off-topic, random discussion of media issues that you want to weigh in on. Because we want The Press and Tower to be a constructive and civil forum, let me quote from the Chamber of Business & Industry of Centre County (which in turns quotes our own Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership, where I tried to get information on the Civility Initiative from a few years ago, but they apparently removed it from their website).
What is Civility
Civility is defined as “to bring to a technically advanced and rationally ordered stage of cultural development”. The Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership has developed a strategic initiative on community civility and has defined civility as follows:
- Being inclusive
- Listening
- Showing Respect
- Being Open Minded
- Taking Responsibility
- Celebrating Ideas
- Knowing the Facts
- Getting involved
When posting or reacting to a post, please keep these values in mind.
So in the spirit of civility, let’s have at it. If you really want to go “deep background,” don’t hesitate to email me at joel@nataliemedia.com.
Embrace the chaos!
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So is Sarah Palin getting fair treatment by the press, or not?
Discuss…
OK, I’ve been waiting for a media blog to start up again so that I can get some of your opinions on digital cable vs. satellite. Even though I know a little something about this stuff, I admit to being completely confused by the wide array of hardware, options and packages!
I apologize in advance if this seems too personal for such a public forum, but maybe this is on a lot of other people’s minds too…
Here is my current media setup:
– Basic (analog) Cable (Time Warner– Erie City)
– One HD TV
– Two SD TVs
– Two TiVo brand DVRs
Like everyone, I want the most HD and most service for the least amount of money. I am torn between digital cable and the Dish Network (DirectTV is out because of no local channels). I would love to keep genuine TiVo, but I know that is impractical at this time (TiVo does market an HD TiVo, but it doesn’t work with satellite and you need a “cable card” for it to work with cable), so I will probably end up with company-supplied DVRs.
It sure looked like the Top-200 on Dish was the best buy for the price until I discovered that while Dish carries the local channels they don’t have even one of them in HD. Ouch! Too bad, because I found their prices and packages completely understandable.
With digital cable I’m not clear on how many “boxes” and how many DVRs I would need. Time Warner’s selection of HD channels is also lacking by comparison to the satellite services (for instance, no SciFi HD). If I go with them, does their DVR playback through different receivers, or do you need a DVR for each set?
Arrrghghgh!
I would greatly appreciate opinions from the smart people on this list.
aj
Not sure if I’m one of the “smart” people – if I was I wouldn’t still be a TW customer! In any case, the usual setup is to have a separate DVR for each TV you want to record on. I suppose you could connect one DVR to multiple sets, but you’d have to wire it that way and you’d just be watching the same thing on each set. One other thing to keep in mind – even though the selection of HD channels is lacking (almost nil), the hard drives on their DVR’s do not hold much HD content. I have an external hard drive attached to each of my DVR’s, and this makes life much easier, since TW is not continually deleting my recorded shows because of the lack of space on the hard drives.
Tom P.,
I have the same problem with my shows getting deleted from my TWC digital box. Is there a brand of external hard drive that you’ve found that is compatible with the TWC DVR?
I have 2 of these drives. They come in different sizes, but they recommended the 300GB one, and they do work well.
http://discountechnology.com/8300HD-eSATA-Hard-Drive-for-Scientific-Atlanta-8300HD-DVR-300GB?sc=2&category=4277
I noticed WSEE had a crawl on their screen during yesterdays NFL game that they were broadcasting over the air in HD. I could not pick it up using antenna. I live in SW Erie. Does this mean it wont be too long until it appears on TWC HD Tier?
TW is taking FOREVER to get WSEE HD up. It ws supposed to be on weeks ago. You should be able to pick it up OTA though – it’s on full power. I think it’s on 35.1.
WENT SIX DAYS WITHOUT PHONE,INTERNET AND DIGITAL TV BECAUSE TIME WARNER COULDN’T FIT IN MY SERVICE CALL. HOW OFTEN DOES THIS HAPPEN? ARE THEY SO INTERESTED IN GETTING NEW UPDATES IN LINE THAT THEY HAVE NO SERVICE PEOPLE FOR EXISTING CUSTOMERS, OR A SCARIER THOUGHT IS THEY HAVE SO MANY PROBLEMS THEY DO NOT HAVE ENOUGH SERVICE PEOPLE? ANYONE ELSE HAVE WAR STORIES SUCH AS THIS? I’D LIKE TO HEAR THEM.
Just a suggestion for the blog – I know it’s new, but it seems like this open comment section is not being found by many people. Maybe you could give it a more prominent place at the top of your page, with more of an explanation of it’s purpose.
Here’s an update I received from WJET regarding their switch to HD:
“No promises before Feb 2009…but could likely be much sooner. However, we for sure won’t be full power on JET until February because we can’t put our digital antenna up on our tower until the FCC allows us to turn off our analog transmitter and take the analog antenna down. That will happen in February. “
Re: WJET-HD…it begs the question: how did everybody else put their digital antennas up while their analogs were functioning (I don’t mean that they didn’t power down while the climbers were on the tower to limit RF exposure)? Is this a matter of too much RF on the ground with both JET antennas on?
Joel, or how about a better question. Why can’t WJET pass their HD signal through cable like WICU does. 12 does not broadcast it. They put it on cable. That way viewers will at least have some HD option from WJET.
I have recently posted this on pbrtv.com and thought I would share it here.
On September 1, 2008, Pittsburgh AM radio station WPTT 1360 switched from a news-talk format to business news and information with the WMNY call letters.
Here in Erie, we already have a business news format on WPSE 1450, which is owned and operated by Penn State Behrend as a commercial radio station. The business news format targets a very limited audience, therefore, WPSE rarely appears in the Arbitron ratings.
And this got me thinking:
“WMNY does seem like Erie’s WPSE. 1450 has a pretty good non-directional, 24 hour AM signal. It’s a shame that it isn’t being put to better use.
Since WRIE AM 1260 switched from adult standards to sports on Jan. 29 2007, the local area has been without a “Music of Your Life” format. Often, this format would produce about a four share in the Arbitron ratings, making WRIE the top rated AM station in market 168.
Would it be a smart move for Penn State Behrend to adopt an adult standards format? There was once a loyal audience out there in the Erie market. Plus, WPSE would likely appear in the ratings, too.” (http://www.pbrtv.com/blog/entry_704.php)
The only possible problem with my idea is the ability to sell advertising for a format like this. Many advertisers usually do not want their ads to target an audience that is old in age. However, WRIE was able to make it work, so why can’t WPSE?
The only possible problem with my idea is the ability to sell advertising for a format like this. Many advertisers usually do not want their ads to target an audience that is old in age. However, WRIE was able to make it work, so why can’t WPSE.
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I can tell you that while WRIE had very respectable Arbitron numbers under the MOYL format, sales wise it was always a tough road getting the local/direct and agency buys. However, since they switched to ESPN, the Arbitron numbers may have come down, but the amount of local/direct advertising $$ has increased significantly. And in the end, those are the “numbers” that really count.
APARENTLY WJET IS NOT INTERESTED IN RATINGS OR VIEWERS, IF THEY CONTINUE THE LAME EXCUSES POSTED ABOVE AND/OR POINT FINGERS AT EVERYONE ELSE’S FAULT EXCEPT THEIR OWN.