I noticed the other night that we had a couple of new HD channels. Not sure exactly when they were added but it looks like the new channels are: Planet Green, Nick HD, E! HD, Lifetime HD, Spike HD, Cartoon Network HD, NFL Redzone HD and MGMHD. This brings the total HD lineup in our area to 63 channels.
Our current channel lineup is:
784 - Travel Channel HD
788 - LMN HD Lifetime Movie Network
791 - QVC HD
792 - DXD DisneyXD *
794 - Bravo HD
795 - CNBC HD
796 - ESPNW HD*
797 - Biography HD
800 - HDPPV
802 - PBS - WGBH
803 - ION HD - WBPX (formerly PAX)
804 - CBS HD
805 - ABC HD
806 - FOX HD
807 - NBC HD
808 - CW HD - WLVI
809 - ABC - WMUR (New Hampshire Affiliate)
814 - WSBK 38
815 - GRN HD Planet Green * new
818 - MLB Network HD
821 - National Geographic HD
823 - Discovery Channel HD
824 - Disney HD
825 - Nick HD new
826 - ABC Family HD
828 - Palladia HD
830 - FX HD
831 - TBS HD
832 - HGTV HD
833 - TNT HD
834 - E! HD new
835 - USA HD
836 - Lifetime HD new
837 - A&E HD
839 - HD Theater
841 - Fox News HD
842 - CNN HD
845 - WeatherScan HD
846 - Univeral HD
848 - Golf HD
849 - ESPN HD
850 - ESPN2 HD
851 - NESN HD
852 - Comcast Sports Network HD
853 - NFL Network HD
854 - Food Network HD
855 - Spke HD new
859 - American Movie Classics HD
860 - Cartoon Network HD new
862 - SciFi Network HD
863 - Animal Planet HD
865 - Versus HD
866 - Science HD
867 - TLC The Learning Channel HD
868 - Cinemax HD *
870 - HBO HD *
872 - History Channel HD
875 - Starz HD *
877 - Showtime HD *
878 - Showtime 2 HD *
883 - The Movie Channel HD *
899 - NFL Redzone HD * new
904 - MGMHD * new
* Pay channels
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Weekly Verizon Fios Advertisement
I think I have mentioned it here in the past that I get a letter or postcard just about every week from Verizon FiOS trying to get me to switch from Comcast. Usually these letters tout some new feature that "Cable" does not offer. This week the new features they are advertising have me a bit intrigued.
FiOS has something called Widgets which traditionally allow you to access local information like traffic or weather in a ticket under the program you are watching. The new widgets apparently allow you to view Twitter, Facebook or ESPN Fantasy Football. I am not a big Twitter or Facebook user but it would be pretty cool to check my Fantasy Football scores while I am watching the game. Right now I either have to run into the other room to check my scores or wait for my extremely slow Blackberry Fantasy Football App to update.
The Gizmodo blog has a few screenshots here if you are interested.
FiOS has something called Widgets which traditionally allow you to access local information like traffic or weather in a ticket under the program you are watching. The new widgets apparently allow you to view Twitter, Facebook or ESPN Fantasy Football. I am not a big Twitter or Facebook user but it would be pretty cool to check my Fantasy Football scores while I am watching the game. Right now I either have to run into the other room to check my scores or wait for my extremely slow Blackberry Fantasy Football App to update.
The Gizmodo blog has a few screenshots here if you are interested.
New Smartzone Features - email and digital voice
When Comcast switched over to Smartzone one of the biggest complaints that many people had was that you could no longer see all of your email boxes in one place. Comcast apparently has been listening and has recently added this functionality to Smartzone. They went a step further as well and you can also add third party accounts like Yahoo and Hotmail.
I tried adding my secondary accounts last night and it worked great. My accounts showed up in my Smartzone homepage and also show up in the folders section of the email page. My only complaint is that when I imported the accounts all of the messages in those mailboxes showed as unread so I had to go in to mark the as read in order to easily tell that I have new messages. No big deal though. For instruction on how to add additional email accounts go here.
Comcast has also recently launched a feature that allows secondary account users access to check voicemail in Smartzone. Unfortunately it isn't completely working for me. I was looking forward to this as I have access to messages online and but my wife does not. In order to listen to messages online she needs to log onto my account, kind if a pain. I was hoping that this new feature would solve our issue but it does not seem to be working. After going through the instructions here, I had my wife log into Smartzone and the voicemail messages still do not show up. She can see the messages if she clicks on the voice tab on Comcast.net and logs in but it does not show unheard messages and she can not access voicemail from within Smartzone. If anyone else has successfully set up secondary access voicemail access or is having similar issues post a comment to this post
And just to keep us interested Comcast promises a couple new Smartzone features coming soon:
I tried adding my secondary accounts last night and it worked great. My accounts showed up in my Smartzone homepage and also show up in the folders section of the email page. My only complaint is that when I imported the accounts all of the messages in those mailboxes showed as unread so I had to go in to mark the as read in order to easily tell that I have new messages. No big deal though. For instruction on how to add additional email accounts go here.
Comcast has also recently launched a feature that allows secondary account users access to check voicemail in Smartzone. Unfortunately it isn't completely working for me. I was looking forward to this as I have access to messages online and but my wife does not. In order to listen to messages online she needs to log onto my account, kind if a pain. I was hoping that this new feature would solve our issue but it does not seem to be working. After going through the instructions here, I had my wife log into Smartzone and the voicemail messages still do not show up. She can see the messages if she clicks on the voice tab on Comcast.net and logs in but it does not show unheard messages and she can not access voicemail from within Smartzone. If anyone else has successfully set up secondary access voicemail access or is having similar issues post a comment to this post
And just to keep us interested Comcast promises a couple new Smartzone features coming soon:
- A Smartzone calendar tab
- Additional Comcast Digital Voice online calling features
- Reading pane preferences
- Ability to send email to multiple contacts directly from your address book
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Verizon FiOS vs Comcast
At least once a week now I get a mailing from Verizon trying to get me to switch to FiOS. I do know a couple people with FiOS and from what I have seen and heard there are pros and cons for each service. I have no desire to switch to FiOS but I usually browse through the mailings just out of curiosity. An insert in the mailing this week was touting some of the FiOS features that Comcast does not provide which kind of piqued my interest.
PC meets TV
Use your TV to share photos and music on your computer.
Record it here, watch it there
The Home Media DVR allows you to record a program on one TV and watch it on up to six additional TVs in the house.
While neither of these features are compelling enough to lure me a way from Comcast they are pretty cool. Especially the Home Media DVR, Comcast has a similar feature with ON-Demand where you can start an OnDemand program on one TV and finish it on another. I think in order to do this with a DVR you need a centralized server of some kind so it may be a while before Comcast offers something similar.
PC meets TV
Use your TV to share photos and music on your computer.
Record it here, watch it there
The Home Media DVR allows you to record a program on one TV and watch it on up to six additional TVs in the house.
While neither of these features are compelling enough to lure me a way from Comcast they are pretty cool. Especially the Home Media DVR, Comcast has a similar feature with ON-Demand where you can start an OnDemand program on one TV and finish it on another. I think in order to do this with a DVR you need a centralized server of some kind so it may be a while before Comcast offers something similar.
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