Phoenix area COX cable HD service questions

To whom it may concern :-)

We're looking at getting an HD TV, but wondering if there's any content
worthwhile on COX

The COX website, little card they send in the mail, and online guide all
list different lines ups. Sigh. I'm gonna assume the online guide is
the one to trust.

It *looks* like all the channels in the 700s are HD? Even though some
of them don't SAY HD in the name?

The big question would be this:

There are 3 premium channels in the HD section. HBO, Starz, and
Showtime. Do you get all those with the HD service? Because that would
be a good deal. Or do you for instance only get HBO HD if if you
already have HBO and add on the HD service as well? Because that would
totally suck.

Anybody got Cox HD in Phoenix? All help appreciated.

Bill Steele...

Not on Cox, not in Phoenix, but I'll hazard a guess. Time-Warner here
gives you HD HBO, etc. if you already have HBO, etc. Makes sense. You
pay HBO for HBO and you pay the cable company for HD service.

Anim8rFSK...

yep. Turned out that's how it works. Oh, well, I could dream. :)

Anim8rFSK...

Yeah, that's what I fear. If that's the case, then the HD line-up isn't
worth paying extra for.

Bill Steele...

It will be after you see how good it looks. You'll save a lot of money
on movie tickets.

Anim8rFSK...

Not since they don't have anything I want to see. Maybe if I signed up
for another service.

Except for local broadcast channels, the HD channels here all have HD in
the name. Discovery HD, UniHD, HDNet, ESPNHD, etc.

Anim8rFSK...

Yeah, we have a tier, and they're all in the 700 channel range, and
about half of them have the HD in the name, but they're interwoven with
other channels so I have no feeling for how many HD channels there
actually are. But I can tell from what is listed that the website and
the card-came-in-the-mail are wrong.

Bill Steele...

I'm still trying to figure out why "The Tube" music channel is in
between two HD channels. There are also a bunch of digital but not HD
channels from the local PBS station in there, next to the PBS HD
channel.

Anim8rFSK...

Yeah, we seem to have 2 PBS hd channels. One that's a mirror of the SD
channel, one that's 'other stuff'

Goro...

1 PBS-HD channel (81.1 KAETDT)
1 PBS-Digital channel (103.5 KAET)

I get HD thru my ATSC tuner and Cox analog cable so i only have the OTA
channels. My buddy has HD and constantly complains about the limited
HD offerings.

TNT-HD channel, for instance, is (unviersally) an mindbogglingly bad
implementation of HD. Stretchy-vision may make some measure of sense
(to me about as much sense as colorization, etc..) but not broadcasting
MOVIES in HD is awful.

Other HD channels (NFL-HD, a recent addition) only shows the GAMES in
HD. Studio content and GAME HIGHLIGHTS are in SD :P

I think there are 2 InHD channels. One seemingly often gets the
FoxSprots HD (as he lets me know about the college football games that
he watched :P ).

To me, it hasn't encouraged me to upgrade from $50/mo analog cable to
$100+/digital HD.

And another thing: my Samsung 50" DLP has dual tuner and PntP (Picture
next to Picture), which is excellent for Sat Afternoon College
Football. But the Cox HD tuner doesn't. The PiP is the normal smal
box within thelarger frame, but WITHIN the 4:3 window of the 16:9 HD tv
screen!

Bill Steele...

Well, that's easy. Put a splitter ahead of the cable box, and run the
other side to the antenna input of the TV (I assume the cable box goes
to an A/V or S-Video input). Now you can put the Cox output on one side
of the screen and any non-digital channel on the other.

Most of the online listings services have a button that shows you just
the HD channels.

Anim8rFSK...

LOL, that would be useful. Maybe we have that here if you have the HD
box, but not before.

Bill Steele...

I'm talking about the Internet listings. Titan TV will show you HD only,
and tell you which programs on the HD channels are actually HD.

Anim8rFSK...

Oh. Duh. Good suggestion. Thanks!