Shaw HD Cable box.

[Ghost in the attic]

Im thinking of buying a shaw HD cable box for my new HDTV, but was wondering a few things.

I know Sportsnet's channel is HD, so does that mean all the shows on the channel are viewed in HD? Are all the hockey games viewed in HD, or only some of them? Is this the same kinda deal with TSN?

thanks for any replies.

[zarrell]

Shaw's HD channels are in the 300's

301 is Sportsnet HD
308 is TSN HD

You'll still have channel 27 but they don't show any programming in HD there.

[photon]

I have StarChoice but I'm pretty sure it's the same for Shaw.. The HD channels don't have HD content all the time. For Basketball and Football I find it's pretty common, but for hockey it seems more often than not to be standard definition.

The World Juniors were amazing though.

[Kybosh]

Originally Posted by photon

I have StarChoice but I'm pretty sure it's the same for Shaw.. The HD channels don't have HD content all the time. For Basketball and Football I find it's pretty common, but for hockey it seems more often than not to be standard definition.

The World Juniors were amazing though.

Just confirming this. Starchoice is owned by Shaw and have the same type of HD content.

[Buff]

Would a person have to buy the box from Shaw or could you buy them from the store as well?

[Ghost in the attic]

Originally Posted by photon

I have StarChoice but I'm pretty sure it's the same for Shaw.. The HD channels don't have HD content all the time. For Basketball and Football I find it's pretty common, but for hockey it seems more often than not to be standard definition.

The World Juniors were amazing though.

So this year, how many flames games have you seen broadcast in high definition? Are they mostly from TSN or Sportsnet?

thanks



as for buying the box, im not sure about that, but i know you can buy your own modems for internet connections.....you dont have to buy thiers.

[Incinerator]

Originally Posted by Ghost in the attic

So this year, how many flames games have you seen broadcast in high definition? Are they mostly from TSN or Sportsnet?

thanks



as for buying the box, im not sure about that, but i know you can buy your own modems for internet connections.....you dont have to buy thiers.

I can only think of maybe 2 Flames games in HD this year and only one was carried by Shaw (Devils in December). So if you're going HD for the hockey Shaw HD is not worth it.

[Vulcan]

I will see maybe six Flames games in HD this season on Bell. TSN carries a couple, maybe one on CBC and maybe three or four on Centre Ice. Centre Ice does have a lot of Colorado games and others in HD but the Flames are often blacked out in Alberta if Sportsnet is showing the game. Sportsnet doesn't have any NHL games in HD as this channel is national and all their NHL games are regional. They do have lots of Blue Jays games in HD thou.
HD is still slow to be adapted but next year should be better. So far on CBC the Leafs game is HD but the west game is still SD.

[Draug]

The worst thing about HD, now, is not how slow it is being expanded.

It is truly awful how compressed the HD streams are now. You can see constant Macro Blocking during any motion - CSI is especially bad when they do the flash back scenes. You can see it during hockey as well. Additionally, HD appears more fuzzy than it used to.

There was a time, about 3 years ago, when HD was way better. The first time I watched a football game on CBS HD, you could see the white stars on the american flag on the refs jersey. Now, you are lucky if you can read the nameplates on the players.

Yes, Granted, HD is better than regular SD. But, why should we be happy to accept something that is not as good as it can be? Especially when we are charged more for it (on Bell). We shouldnt be happy with this 'HD Light'.

Back on topic... As its been mentioned, there are not that many Flames games in HD. But, with Center Ice on Bell, there are a number of out of market games each week in HD.

[kootenayguy9]

One thing bad about Shaw HD is that you can't timeshift unlike what you can on Bell or Starchoice. Both Hockey games today are in HD and the SuperBowl is also so its a good sportsday for HD.

[ericschand]

Ok, perhaps someone can explain the Shaw time-shifting stuff.

I have read in their literature, that you can time shift
Canadian channels. Why can you not time shift all
channels?

ers

PS. I have a Tivo so I time shift regular TV. It is not
a HD Tivo, so everything is recorded in "normal" mode.
However, HDTV recordings do seem more clear.

[Draug]

Originally Posted by ericschand

Ok, perhaps someone can explain the Shaw time-shifting stuff.

I have read in their literature, that you can time shift
Canadian channels. Why can you not time shift all
channels?

Timeshift just means that shaw carries a East Coast feed for those channels. So CBS East shows things 2 hours earlier than here - you have a 2 hour time shift. You can then watch the exact same thing on CBS West 2 hours later.

[ericschand]

Originally Posted by Draug

Timeshift just means that shaw carries a East Coast feed for those channels. So CBS East shows things 2 hours earlier than here - you have a 2 hour time shift. You can then watch the exact same thing on CBS West 2 hours later.

I thought time-shift meant that I can record a program and then
watch it later?

As they describe here:
http://www.tv-cards.com/timeshift.php

Does Shaw allow that across all channels, or only select ones?

ers

[ken0042]

That's the first time I've heard of time shifting referred to that way. I've always heard it as having access to a different time zone.

Let's take "Lost" for example. I watch the East coast feed at 7:00 rather than waiting for 10:00 for it to come on here. There isn't a recording device in the world that can record a show that hasn't aired yet.

What you are referring to is commonly known as Time Slipping, or Chasing Playback. You won't find what we call Time Shifting on a US site, because there is no such thing as Time Shifting in the USA.

[ericschand]

Originally Posted by ken0042

That's the first time I've heard of time shifting referred to that way. I've always heard it as having access to a different time zone.

Let's take "Lost" for example. I watch the East coast feed at 7:00 rather than waiting for 10:00 for it to come on here. There isn't a recording device in the world that can record a show that hasn't aired yet.

What you are referring to is commonly known as Time Slipping, or Chasing Playback. You won't find what we call Time Shifting on a US site, because there is no such thing as Time Shifting in the USA.

Hey, not raggin' on you or anything, just trying to find an answer.

Here's an article from the 70's that describes time-shifting in
the USA.

http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/B/...etamaxcase.htm

"In its marketing strategy Sony promoted the [VCR's] ability to "time shift" programming--that is, to record a television program off the air ..."

"...the U.S. District Court ruled in favor of Sony, stating that taping off air for entertainment or time shifting constituted fair use;..."

Note how the TV and movie companies tried to stop it, but failed.

Now, does Shaw have the ability to stop time-shifting (or
recording) on US stations? Or are they using the definition
ken is using, coast-to-coast time differences?

ers

[ken0042]

What they are refering to there is something known as broadcast flags. Broadcast Flags are designed to keep people from skipping comercials. The issue is this: with my Bell PVR, I see none of the comercial; whereas with the old style VCR I would see a 30 second comercial compressed down to 4 or 5 seconds. That's why it has become an issue now.

As for Shaw, currently they are not employing broadcast flags, however all of their PVR's have the ability to use them; just waiting for Shaw to turn them on.

As for what Shaw is selling as "Time Shifting" is the definition as I had mentioned before. In the past one of the reasons I went with Satellite was because Shaw offered little or no channels from different time zones. Now that they have some bandwidth to play with they are using it.

Myself, I wouldn't be concerned about the broadcast flags. In fact I am looking at picking up Bell's HD-PVR at ~$600, so obviously I'm not worried.

The one thing I will caution you on; once you get used to using a PVR it's hard to use a regular TV after.

Oh, and no worries about the "apparent raggin' on me." I know that you are just trying to get answers to your questions; and that's what forums are for.

[Shazam]

The state of HD-hockey in Canada (i.e. just Canadian broadcasters):

TSN has one HD crew.
CBC has one HD crew.

That's it.

I'm fairly certain there's been at least one Flames game on TSN-HD games - Calgary-Detroit.

There was also one Flames CBC game in HD.

So two so far

[JBR]

1st Superbowl and US commercials in HD for me yesterday. Amazing!!

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by ken0042

What they are refering to there is something known as broadcast flags. Broadcast Flags are designed to keep people from skipping comercials.

Actually, those quotes are the Sony v. Universal Studios decision from the Supreme Court of the US.

The Motion Picture Assiciation of America attempted to sue Sony for selling the Betamax because it would allow widespread copying of copyrighted content.

The Supreme court agreed with Sony that the ability of the general public to record shows to watch at a later date (which they referred to as timeshifting) was allowed within the fair use provisions of the copyright act, and as such the VCR as we know it was allowed to be sold.

Its funny, the Studios make made more money of the sale of VCR Movies than they did for many theatre releases, yet at teh time it was introduced they tried to kill off the technology. Now they are once again trying to kill off the new technology.

And timeshifting is both the definitions previously listed, recording for later viewing OR for viewing a program in a different timezone not readily available. But the original meaning came from recording a show for later viewing.

As per Wikipedia:

Time shifting is the recording of television shows to some storage medium to be viewed at a time more convenient to the consumer.

In cable television broadcasting, time shifting may also refer to the availability of network affiliates from different time zones, serving a similar function of making television programs available at multiple times throughout the day.