HD Channel Availability

stalemate said:

I just got DirectTV with the HD Tivo box ...............Anyway, when I ordered the service the rep on the phone told me that I would not have my local channels in HD for CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX, but there would be alternate versions of these channels that I could watch for HD programming, they would just not be my locals.

A

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There is an HD group within DTV that might be able to help you. I had the exact HD commitment that you describe and was furious that I couldn't get the waivers for the national HD feeds out of LA.

I called and complained about the situation and got pushed around from person to person until I spoke with a woman who told me it was in my records that the waivers had been requested and that she could turn on CBS immediately. She told me that the waivers to the other three networks were still pending and the stations had up to 45 days to respond.

Shortly thereafter I got ABC and NBC, never got FOX and really don't care.

However, since that incident this past October, DTV has turned on the local HD feeds for my area and I know for a fact that DTV is not requesting waivers. So, call DTV and tell them you were misled and that you want out of the contract and will return the equipment. You will get the following response (in order of probability):
1. No way
2. Offer to request waivers (which will do you no good, but will keep you off their backs for 45 days)
3. Offer to trade the HR10-250 for an H20 and 5LNB dish (this will give you the HD broadcast but no recording capability)

Outside of the above, you do have the option of spending some money to get the OTA HD signal. I did that while waiting to see if I would get my other network feeds and I find that we tend to watch those signals for live TV more than the network feeds.

It's a shame that your experience has been so rotten, but DTV does a very poor job of training their personnel and in some cases they're just kids looking to get a commission from a sale. Either way, it makes for a bad experience.

Hope things work out.

I am new here, been browsing for a few weeks and registered yesterday. I'm a 12/05 convert from very bad local cable. I too was dissappointed after getting our hr10-250 hooked up to find that our locals (far no cal) were non-hd. So I found out about the waivers and received nbc and fox immediately (while on the phone) and d* sent in waivers for the other 2. A week later abc showed up, then a month + and 2 calls and two faxed letters from the cbs affiliate, I finally have cbs! All the hd feeds originate in LA. Finally yesterday I recieve a postcard from d* that I am denied cbs (yet is remains on since I faxed it last saturday to a # the csr gave me). What a fiasco. What I learned is as a subscriber you have to call your locals and get them to waive. Then make sure they put your name, account and location address on their letterhead and fax it in to d*, mail you the original and then you have it when you will invariably need to re-fax it to get the channel. Getting the network hd feeds has been the most difficult and unplesant part of my change to sat tv. Attempting and failing to get my due date moved a week forward ranks a close 2nd...
peace

srt said:

What I learned is as a subscriber you have to call your locals and get them to waive. Then make sure they put your name, account and location address on their letterhead and fax it in to d*, mail you the original and then you have it when you will invariably need to re-fax it to get the channel.

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SRT, you obviously have powers of persuasion that I don't have. I also contacted D* about this and got nada. Like you I just joined the forum yesterday, and started a thread which essentially deals with this same subject, you can read it here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=284163

I contacted the D* HD-DNS eligibility division yesterday and all I got out of them was the request for the waiver and was told it would take 45 days and I would in all likelihood be turned down. Bummer! And my local stations won't even be broadcasting HD through the sat feed until later this summer! And when they do it will be in MPEG4 which will require an equipment upgrade and here I've just invested in a new HR10-250 I purchased from Newegg.com.

I assumed from speaking with the D* CSR that the decision regarding the waiver would be made by the network head honchos and not the local stations themselves. But your post would indicate that the final decision is up to the local stations, so evidently contacting the local stations is the way to go.

Question:
When you contacted your local stations did they refer you to a specific department that handles these requests? If you could elaborate on the process you went through in this regard I and others here would really benefit from your experience. I'm planning on following your lead by contacting my local stations come Monday and any advice you can give regarding this would be most appreciated...

--
Wirelezz

Here's how I received the waivers. d* put in their standard request for waivers immediately after getting my service turned on. Right then they gave me fox and nbc as we have no off-air AND the locals are not broadcast in hd. abc and cbs locals are not broadcast in hd either. D8 said they would put in a request and I should check every couple days to see if it is "turned on". After about 10 days I received abc, and a couple days later I received a postcard that said waivers approved on all but cbs. So I call the local affiliat and they asked where I live and said that they do not have pland to broadcast here in hd anytime soon and offered a waiver. It was faxed to D* @ 208-363-6444.
HOWEVER there was some problems on this fax. They did not put my account number on the letter. Physical address, account holder name, and telephone # also have to show. Bigggest problem was that the station is a cbs and a nbc station and they accidently sent the letter as a nbc waiver, that took a couple weeks to identify and straighten out. By now I was an old hand at this and I asked the lady as the staiton I talked with to make sure all of the requested info was included on their fax, AND TO MAIL THE LETTER, AS FAXED, TO YOU. <-- you WILL need this for use later. Also ask them to "BOLD" that the waiver is approved. After a few days I did not get the service and they said denied again. What a PITA. I called Pakistan 2x, got cut off once after 25 min +, then another 45 min call, and fax to another # the csr gave me with attention to a specific person, and within 2 hours had the hd, finally!
Try the first fax #, and give it 7 to 10 days to get service, If it does not work, call csr, go through the rigormorow and then demand to immediately fax the waivers to the person you are talking with. If you do not have luck, contact me, and I will give you the second fax # and an "attn. name.
Good luck, applying pressure does seem to help...

It was nice seeing ONE afc playoff game in hd...

Hm.

I live in a remote area of LA where we can't receive any OTA signals. I already had gotten waivers in writing from all the local stations, which had been approved by D** before HD programming started (maybe about 5 years ago now). With those, I used to get both the West and East affiliates, as well as the national PBS channel.

But then I moved and had cable for awhile... then turned the D** back on. They still have the record of all my waivers, however, refuse to turn on any but my own local HD channels (ABC, Fox, CBS and NBC), the ones which don't require any waivers. The East stations D** refuses to provide because -- they say -- despite the fact of my not being able to receive *any* local channels OTA, those channels can still claim me as part of their "area", and so, despite having all the proper waivers on file from all the local stations, they can't turn on any East or PBS National HD or STD stations.

No way was their only answer, and they said this was because of new Federal rules that apparently, the local broadcasters had gotten pushed through Congress.

Anyone had any luck getting around this?

All My Best,
Jeffrey