Monday, July 13, 2009

WeatherScan on Comcast

About little over a year ago I noticed that Comcast had added channel 845 (Weatherscan) to the HD grouping of channels. At the time the channel just displayed a message stating that the channel required a subscription. I assumed that the channel was just not part of the package I am subscribed to. No big deal.

Then a few months later I started noticing that when I was scrolling through the 800 level channels when I got to 845 (WeatherScan) I would be automatically be redirected to 245 which was the digital version of Weatherscan. This was a little annoying as I could no longer just scroll through the HD channels. I called Comcast to report the problem and was told that a new version of the Guide software being released in the next couple weeks would fix the issue, which it did.

Just this weekend I noticed that I am now getting the live channel WeatherScan on channel 845. The channel is identical to Weatherscan on 245 so I am not sure why it is included with the rest of the HD channels. It is definitely not being broadcast in HD and since it is just a loop of the current weather, forecast, traffic, etc I am not really sure it needs to be in HD. With limited bandwidth being a concern with cable providers I would much rather have one of the many other HD channels that Comcast doesn't currently carry than this one.