News and information of interest to the Seven Fields Borough area including Cranberry, Mars and surrounding towns.
Yesterday, three more stations popped up on the HD guide - Weather Channel HD (117), Disney HD (140) and the Hallmark Channel HD (150). They are all on the basic HD listing. This is in addition to the local channel WPCW HD (110) and the NHL Network HD (173), although the NHL channel is on the Advantage package.
The full listings can be found here.
Those of you out there with an Armstrong DVR box probably have noticed it doesn't have the one feature that TIVO users love -- the 30 second skip button. This gives you the ability to neatly skip over each commercial on your recording rather than trying to time your fast-forward abilities. Thanks to a tip in PC World magazine, this can be fixed. It takes just a minute and can be programmed to one of those A, B or C buttons on your remote that typically are not used.
Press the Cable button at the top of the remote. Hold the Setup button until the Cable button flashes twice. Enter 994 on the keypad. The Cable button will flash twice again. Push the Setup button once. Enter 00173. Finally, push the button that you want to use as the 30-second skip; I chose the A button since I don't use it for anything else. The cable button will flash twice.The tip was specifically for Motorola brand DVRs, but it worked just fine with the Pace one I have.
To restore the original functionality to that key, follow the first steps described above, but after entering 994, push the remapped key twice. The Cable button will blink twice if your input has been accepted.
Fox News Channel HD has become the 28th channel added to Armstrong's basic HD lineup. It was added today to channel 116 alongside CNN HD. Fox News is one of the last major HD networks not available on DirecTV.
Two more channels have been added to Armstrong Cable's HD lineup - Home and Garden Television (HGTV) and the Food Network. They can be found at channels 135 and 136. For once, Armstrong Cable is keeping its site up with the new channels as the channel guide already has them listed.
With these additions there are now 27 standard HD channels plus another eight in their HD Advantage lineup. There are also four premium channels.
This update was in the Post-Gazette today (bottom section). With the NHL playoffs get ready to start, the timing of this move isn't too surprising.
Armstrong cable systems have moved Versus (Channel 485) from its Television Plus 10 package to the more costly Television Plus 40 package, effective this week. Current Television Plus 10 subscribers will receive two months of Armstrong's Television Plus 40 package for free in addition to their current level of service. This month, Armstrong will add the NHL Network to its Television Plus 10 lineup.
My latest bill from Armstrong shows my cable going up $3 from the current month. There's no mention on Armstrong's website or any details of which features had a price increase on their rate sheet (pdf link). Maybe there's someone out in the web world that can point me in the right direction.
A news article and press release confirms that Armstrong Cable will add the MGM HD channel to their lineup. What's the MGM HD channel, you ask?
Backed by the world’s largest modern film library, consisting of more than 4,100 film titles and winner of 209 Academy Awards®, MGM HD has a distinct advantage over the competition in the expanding HD marketplace. In addition to classic MGM theatrical hits, MGM HD will be the ultimate resource for serious movie fans, offering viewers an array of original programming and new content.We'll have to wait and see if this is part of the regular package or the extra-fee Advantage option.
Audiences can look forward to exclusive behind the scenes coverage of red carpet events, sneak peeks at new films in production, seasonal promotions and world premieres of newly re-mastered hits from the MGM library.
I've been holding out from getting Armstrong's HD Advantage package with the hope that the ESPN channels would move to the basic package (like most other carriers), and it finally happened. Not sure when this occurred, but it's already listed on Armstrong's lineup page. ESPN HD (channel 185) and ESPN2 HD (channel 184) are now available to everyone with the basic HD package.
More new HD channels continue to roll in from Armstrong Cable. I'm not sure when they were introduced, but there are now three more channels than what is currently listed on Armstrong's site.
Those three are:
122 USA HD
123 Bravo HD
132 SciFi HD
Just a few days ago we mentioned that Armstrong added three channels to its basic HD lineup. I suppose that was a premature announcement as now Armstrong pulled The Outdoor Channel from the basic HD lineup to their HD Advantage package. The current channel lineup now appears correct on their website.
Armstrong Cable quietly added a few more channels to its basic HD lineup this week. In addition to others that were added last month, these three channels have popped up:
115 CNN HD
131 AMC HD
171 The Outdoor Channel HD
With this addition, the lineup of basic high definition channels has risen to twenty from just twelve about five weeks ago. The lineup page on Armstrong's site lists only lists AMC among the newest trio.
Maybe it is to make amends for dropping the Steeler game last Sunday, who knows.
Today's Steelers/Patriots game went out for almost an entire quarter on Armstrong Cable today. The problem was isolated to Armstrong's KDKA signal. From the KDKA website:
Armstrong Cable had an equipment failure at their head-end which affected KDKA-TV's signal during the Steelers/Patriots game.
The equipment failure took KDKA-TV and other stations off the air for much of the first half of the game.
No other cable systems, satellite providers or our on-air signal were affected.
Armstrong Cable is investigating to find out what happened.
In a statement released today, the cable company now says "equipment failure at the central facility in Zelienople" is to blame for the outage that occurred at 4:40pm.
The company says the outage, which affected about one-third of its channel line-up, lasted about an hour.
All the channels were restored after a technician managed to re-set the equipment that had failed.
For those of you with Armstrong Cable's HD service, you may have noticed like I did that there's a few more channels. In addition to the ones listed on their website, they've since added the following channels:
