Shaw HD introduces new channel! - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Thor · 07-30-2008, 09:34 PM

I s h i t you not.

"The Frame" HD, a 24hr channel that shows beautiful images in glorious HD to a elevator music sound track.

It can only go up from here.

BlackArcher101 · 07-30-2008, 09:56 PM

Wow.... makes me want to buy a HD box!

Prototype · 07-30-2008, 09:59 PM

I'm actually impressed by it. Sure, it's not full motion, but it's definatly something I'd watch in short segments, or have on in the background.

Think of it as one of those LCD picture frames... but in my case... 37' big.

Thor · 07-30-2008, 10:14 PM

Don't get me wrong, its pretty.

But if this isn't rock bottom I don't know what is, shaw HD introduced 1 new channel in the last year prior to the recent ones.

photon · 07-30-2008, 10:26 PM

It'd be a great party channel!

Prototype · 07-30-2008, 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

It'd be a great party channel!

Your post, and your new avitar... work well together.

ikaris · 07-30-2008, 10:37 PM

Could they not have used this bandwidth for say... I don't know... Another actual channel??

Thor · 07-30-2008, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by photon

It'd be a great party channel!

Long as everyone has popped some E, we'll be golden!

SebC · 07-30-2008, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ikaris

Could they not have used this bandwidth for say... I don't know... Another actual channel??

Yeah, so do the HD channels people actually want to watch get more compressed now?

jammies · 07-30-2008, 10:47 PM

I'll undoubtedly watch this more than most of the other channels currently available. With the sound turned off, of course.

Still, other than sports and movies, why watch TV anyway? You just don't get the entertainment value per hour that makes the investment worthwhile: you can learn more or be told a better story by reading a book; you can find better humour, news, and political commentary on the web; and if your tastes run to mindless entertainment there are hundreds of video games that allow you at least the illusion of participation.

I probably watch maybe two or three hours A YEAR of television outside of the two aforementioned reasons to watch. People say newspapers are dead, I think they will outlast television myself, at least in relevance. HD for TV is like FM was for radio - it's better quality, but the medium itself is being superseded by something else entirely and the gain in quality isn't going to matter in the long run.

OilKiller · 07-30-2008, 11:19 PM

No 225 on my box. I'm in Edmonton. Wonder if it has made it's way to Edmonton yet or the box simply needs to be reset to remap the channels. I'll try that later and see.

ricosuave · 07-30-2008, 11:25 PM

Lame. The pics are nice, but they are stills!

I was expecting those cockpit view shots of aerial scenery over mountains and through valleys and stuff, like that program on one of the higher (100+) channels! where the scenery is excellent, and they play music over these stunning scapes.

This is just boring, I would sooner see some real HD channels added (without cost!) to the package!!

HOOT · 07-31-2008, 09:01 AM

Geez what a waste of an HD channel!

I could see this being good if they had maxed out on HD channels and just needed filler, but why not add a channel that people will actually watch?

It seems to me they are adding it for the fact they can claim to have some more HD content now, they never said it was going to be good content

photon · 07-31-2008, 09:47 AM

I doubt that a channel of still images takes up much bandwidth, they probably compress extremely well compared to a moving image. Maybe that's the reason for it; they don't have room for a full channel? Or maybe they haven't secured the rights for additional channels yet?

troutman · 07-31-2008, 10:03 AM

Come on Shaw! After 2 years you still have 20 HD channels when other providers offer 60!

Russic · 07-31-2008, 10:08 AM

I didn't think you could add an hd channel that would make me angry. The fact that time went into this venture that could have been spent anywhere else is really annoying.

fredr123 · 07-31-2008, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troutman

Come on Shaw! After 2 years you still have 20 HD channels when other providers offer 60!

It's all about bandwidth my friend. Satellite providers have it. Shaw doesn't.

The only way to get more HD on Shaw would be to spend beaucoup bucks to upgrade their infrastructure or to compress channels even further.

The former option would no doubt result in a giant loss for Shaw or an increase in prices to consumers, either of which would likely lead to a mass exodus of subscribers to other providers.

The latter means you're going to see more artifacts and less "H" in your HD.

ken0042 · 07-31-2008, 11:32 AM

For everybody complaining about this; think of it as an ends to a means. I've seen this channel used in businesses; a way of having something nice in a waiting room to look at and listen to. So here's Shaw's (possible) thinking:

- We need more bandwidth for residential HD service. That costs money.
- We have all these business internet customers. If we could get them to sigh up for HD TV service, that would increase our cutumer base significantly.
- Once we have that extra money coming in from those business customers, we can increase our general HD bandwidth.

With one extra channel that as Photon said couldn't use significant bandwidth they have expanded their customer base. The channel is not for Joe Homewner. But it could end up helping him.

troutman · 07-31-2008, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredr123

It's all about bandwidth my friend. Satellite providers have it. Shaw doesn't.

The only way to get more HD on Shaw would be to spend beaucoup bucks to upgrade their infrastructure or to compress channels even further.

The former option would no doubt result in a giant loss for Shaw or an increase in prices to consumers, either of which would likely lead to a mass exodus of subscribers to other providers.

The latter means you're going to see more artifacts and less "H" in your HD.

Shaw better do something soon, or they will lose all their subscribers.

fredr123 · 07-31-2008, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by troutman

Shaw better do something soon, or they will lose all their subscribers.

I get the feeling that HD is an afterthought for Shaw. Their core demographic (is that the right word in context?) is the average cable subscriber and internet users. In the last few years, they've been pushing hard to promote their digital phone service to the possible detriment of it's television division too. Although the size of the group is increasing, it is a relatively small number of people that demand a wide variety of high quality HD channels.

At the end of the day, it's cheaper for Shaw to focus on its strengths (regular cable, internet, digital phone) and risk losing troutman than it is for Shaw to dump money into upgrading their infrastructure to compete with Starchoice and Expressvu (notwithstanding that Starchoice and Shaw are practically one and the same).