Fall 2009 HD channel number changes

The 3 "new" HD channels are the "former" SuperStations...and yes...they mainly broadcast older shows in SD :rolleyes:
 
I saw something the other day which indicates Bell will cut off the HD in the 800's, in Feb 2010, with the exception of the NHL Centre Ice, due to a contractual issue.
 
The regular Pay-Per-View channels, and the Hockey Pay-Per-View channels have not yet been added to the 1000's range.
 
So I do subscribe to the newer HD packages, so I should receive these channels? I don't have to be subscribed to the movie networks to get them?
 
Just finished setting up all my new timers. What a pain.

Anyhow, if you've got timers for FOX primetime shows you will want to hold off deleting your old ones and setting up new ones until after the World Series is over (early November). Until baseball is done the Fox primetime schedule is all screwed up.
 
I think they have spread these channels over too many numbers. Seriously, why such a large range? Right now Bell can fit all of the HD channels in the 800 series. I know they plan to add more HD content by why add so many new numbers that are so far apart. This looks like it will be a big pain in the ass as part of a 20 year channel re-numbering system. Having to use 4 digits will hopefully be dropped down the line.
 
During the first couple of days into the 1000 series channels I had some disappear. I missed some recordings because of it. However they came back and they seem to be back to stay. I have not lost any that I know of since the first week.
 
1450 - 1453 are now showing in the guide. They're the 4 CI HD channels. The originals on 866 - 869 are still there as well.
 
I had an odd problem today. I turned on the PVR and pressed the PVR button twice to see the schedule. There was only one show - the news - programmed to record. CSI:NY and Glee were missing. So were several others. I thought the new channels disappeared again but when in the Guide, all were there. The 800 series were still there too. I noticed "Not Available" was listed next to the shows. Huh?

I'm new to Bell - less than one month. What's going on? I had to pull the plug from the wall for 5 minutes then plug back in to get the guide to download. It's programmed to auto download at 3 AM. I always shut the machine off when I finish watching TV. All lights were off when I went to bed. Does this happen often to you guys? Maybe it's because of the new channels. Most of the SD channels had the guide info.
 
Moving timers creates a number of issues. For one, new timers are skipped if the shows are duplicates of previous timers. Deleting the old timers can leave the new ones inactive and shows will be missed. Priorities can also create a problem. New timers always have the lowest priorities so the old ones are used. Then the channels disappear. Oops, more missed programming.

So here is what I did.... Created a new timer for each old timer. Then changed the priority of the new timer to be above the old timer. That way, the old timer is still active but new scheduled events will be created using the new timer. Once the old events using the old timers and/or the old channels are gone, the old timers can be deleted. It's a PITA but should avoid causing any missed programming.
 
I agree. Rather annoying that they could not have started this transition in August. Oh well, time to start updating my timers.
 
If you look back a few months you'll find that they did attempt to do this earlier in the year and it failed miserably. I like that they've been attempting to phase in a few channels at a time over the last few weeks to make sure that its working property this time rather then dumping them all on at once like the last attempt and then promptly removing them due to a lot of issues.

Most ppl knew it was comming, its nice that the corrisponding SD and HD channels will have similar numbers so that ppl can find them much easier.
 
I know this thread is about HD changes, but I see Silver Screen Classics is on ch. 285 on the 91 bird and ch. 337 on the 82. Making some room on 82 soon I guess ?
 
It does indeed seem unwise to change all your HD timers at this point, based only on the speculation/predictions found in this thread. However, the information on channel 887 and in the Guide's programming descriptions for the English-language networks is official, "in writing" information from Bell, which suggests that one should go ahead and update your timers for those, and only those, specific channels. It also makes sense to frequently check that those changed timers are working properly during this transition period, and let Bell know if they screw up.

I personally haven't seen any of the officially-documented channels (i.e., the English-language networks) disappear from the 1000s since the phase 1 start date of Oct 14, but I only watch/record from a few of them, so I probably wouldn't have noticed. For what it's worth, my updated timers have been working properly since Wednesday, recording half a dozen shows from four of the channels in the 1000s.

Granted, Bell could definitely improve its communication, in particular telling us when the moved channels will disappear from the 800s, and whether our PVR timers will be updated automatically (like TiVo timers are) or need to be manually re-done.
 
It's lots of good information guys - thanks. Although I don't know what "descriptive video" is. Something to do with closed captioning maybe?

I will reprogram the timers leaving both there. I did need to play around with the priorities and had to restore some that were dubbed duplicate. That being said, if the PVR is set to record from a 1000 series channel, and the channel disappears, would the 800 series kick in again after being marked SKIP DUPLICATE? It seems once the PVR marks something skipped, it stays that way regardless.
 
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