No Me-TV [ Edited ]

[alexirving]

Cox Cable and Time-Warner are now both carrying ME-TV in the San Diego area.

Boo Hoo.  It's getting rave reviews from all our friends and they are mocking us for being AT&T subscrribers.

Make our decision to witch to AT&T from Cox a great one and be the carrier that has great new channel offerings first in the market, not last. :-(

Thanks,

Alex {personal content removed for safety}

[akeg53]

It's a sub channel, If I want to watch ME-TV I watch it ota in Kansas City.

[skeeterintexas]

Different markets, different situations.

ME-TV is being carried on an independent station here in the Dallas area (Ch. 47 on Uverse).

ME is one of those goofy channels that's carried in some markets on different channels, some sub and some not.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

If it is a broadcast subchannel in your area, you can access it with an OTA antenna.

[sbriand]

If it's broadcast on a seperate channel, not a sub-channel, in a particular market, does the "Must Carry" rule apply?

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

Perhaps, but perhaps not.  Stations that qualify for "must carry" can opt out of carriage under that rule and elect to to enter into an agreement with a TV provider where they will be paid a retransmission fee for carriage in the same way that cable channels are paid carriage fees.  This is the reason that we now see so many disputes where a TV provider may lose the right to carry a broadcast channel when they are unable to reach a retransmission agreement with the broadcast channel.

[oufanindallas]

I've watched it a few times and didn't even realize what channel it was.  I watch MASH and Hogans Heroes on it.  It's a nice to have but not a must have channel.

[skeeterintexas]

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oufanindallas wrote:

I've watched it a few times and didn't even realize what channel it was.  I watch MASH and Hogans Heroes on it.  It's a nice to have but not a must have channel.

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DH is beyond thrilled that ME TV has The Fugitive...yes, the 1963 series starring David Jansen. 

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

In most cases if a station is an LP or a CA, which are types of Low Powered broadcast TV stations, U-Verse carries them.  If it is a sub-channel , U-Verse does not carry them at all.  Not sure why - I wish that they would.

[Stilgar73]

I just have to chime in here as well.  The Miami/Fort Lauderdale area is supposed to be getting ME-TV on WPLG 10.2 this week.  I would absolutly love if AT&T U-Verse would add this to our channel lineup.  I have already used the channel request form, but I had to add my voice to this thread.

I honestly have loved this channel when I got the chance to watch it while visiting family out of state.  I think it would be an amazing addition!

Thanks,

Bill

[aviewer ACE - Wizard]

Stilgar73 - If you really want to watch it you should get an antenna & watch OTA. You should have an antenna for back up should U-verse ever go out on you.

Channel 10 is located between MIami & Fort Lauderdale, so you are practically right on top of it.

Check out antennaweb.org for what stations you can receive. You only need a small UHF antenna similar to this -
http://www.solidsignal.com/pview.asp?mc=03&p=4220-HD&d=Channel-Master-4220HD-2Bay-HDTVUHF-TV-Antenna...
Of, course you need a TV with a digital tuner.

[Stilgar73]

Yeah that is my current plan.  However, I then have no DVR ability, which is sort of a big deal to me.  As it stands I'll have to set up a parallel DVR system in the house just for this channel.  Probably a HD tuner card installed in a Windows computer then use the my Xbox to view on the television... not really the most efficient means.  Not to mention not nearly as nice of an interface as U-verse offers -yes I'm not above a little brown nosing to try and get my request honored ;-)

In any case I really would appreciate U-verse considering adding some of these more requested subchannels to their lineup.  With all the local cable company's offering them, it only seems to make sense that U-verse at least match thier competitor's packages (even if there were a slight extra charge for the package... I'm thinking LOCAL-HD subchannel package)

Thanks,

Bill

[aviewer ACE - Wizard]

Stilgar73 - I am with you on adding to U-verse. On the other hand, if there is an alternative to fill the gap, I tend to do it.

Just so you do not have another disappointment - You mention LOCAL-HD subchannel package - The digital broadcast signal specifies only one HD channel - The .1 channel. Additional subchannels are digital, but lower definition. One of the local .4 channels is so low in quality that I cannot watch it.

[skeeterintexas]

ME-TV eventually came to the DFW area. 

It was supposed to take over an independent station in Feb., then March.   It was showing up on the UVerse guide but the programs were not being broadcast.   Then the scheduled programs showed up but only for a day or two then it went back to the religious programs.

Finally, around the middle of April we got the ME programming (on Uverse) and it has remained so ever since.

[CostaMesaCAGuy]

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alexirving wrote:

Cox Cable and Time-Warner are now both carrying ME-TV in the San Diego area.

Boo Hoo.  It's getting rave reviews from all our friends and they are mocking us for being AT&T subscrribers.

Make our decision to witch to AT&T from Cox a great one and be the carrier that has great new channel offerings first in the market, not last. :-(

Thanks,

Alex {personal content removed for safety}

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Last summer I gave up hoping that U-verse would add substations to the channel lineup and decided to install a roof antenna.  Now I get MeTV as well as Antenna TV, This TV and other substations.  I'm still unable to get the Retro TV Network though.

[Bob_Michaels]

I hear ya. Antenna TV and MeTV are great and are providing what TV Land abandoned for the garbage they broadcast today. The good thing about having the OTA setup is that you get the best possible HD signal (least compressed) for the main network channels.

[aviewer ACE - Wizard]

CostaMesaCAGuy - I see your post on not being able to get retro TV - KFLA?. Looking at their web site it seems like you should be able to get it.

Did you do a new scan with your TV (as the web site suggests)?

What kind of antenna did you get? You probably do not want to change antennas - but - the channel master 4-bay UHF is great for both UHF and channel 8.

[bugmenot121]

Isn't there a way to hook an antenna up to a U-Verse DVR? ... Maybe I thought wrong?

Anyway, if you do hook an antenna up, you get much better picture quality than most pay TV providers, considering almost everyone compresses their signal, some more so than others.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

Uverse tv service is delivered to the home in 4 streams of internet packets.  They are decoded by the Residential Gateway and then sent to the set top boxes.  Connecting an antenna will not improve the picture quality because this is not terrestrial television.

[CostaMesaCAGuy]

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aviewer wrote:
CostaMesaCAGuy - I see your post on not being able to get retro TV - KFLA?. Looking at their web site it seems like you should be able to get it.

Did you do a new scan with your TV (as the web site suggests)?

What kind of antenna did you get? You probably do not want to change antennas - but - the channel master 4-bay UHF is great for both UHF and channel 8.

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I probably did not get the right antenna for it.  I did do a rescan three months ago, no luck.  I was able to receive 120 channels though, including This TV, Antenna TV, MeTV, Live Well, qubo, ion life, NBC California Nonstop and Bounce.

[CostaMesaCAGuy]

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aviewer wrote:
CostaMesaCAGuy - I see your post on not being able to get retro TV - KFLA?. Looking at their web site it seems like you should be able to get it.

Did you do a new scan with your TV (as the web site suggests)?

What kind of antenna did you get? You probably do not want to change antennas - but - the channel master 4-bay UHF is great for both UHF and channel 8.

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I E-mailed the station manager of KFLA, he says his application to the FCC for the installation of a second transmitter is still pending approval.  These things take forever.

[kasey15335]

I love the solution that I can use an OTA antenna to get ME & Antenna TV.    Now I have to connect another cable to the TV, use a switch box or at a minimum, use two remotes to toggle from these channels to the cable channels. 

   When ATT states that they will give you all the local channels, they didn't qualify it.    ME & Antenna are local to Chicago.   Throw us a bone here.  The killer is that METV was on channel 23, in the AT&T channel directory and I received it for a month.   Now I get a message "Not available in your Area"

[snookpup]

Right, you can GET ME-TV and MeToo on the Antenna, but Uverse provides no way to record these channels on their DVR, as DirecTV does.  I know what I am talking about, because I am a former 12 year DirecTV customer.  They had a small flat box that connected the antenna on the roof in series to the DVR, so that the OTA channels would appear in the DirecTV guide.  Now that UVerse has cut these channels off their offerings, I am forced to go to OTA for all the ME-TV digital sub-channels, and no means to record them except VCR, which is not a real alternative.

We will jettison Uverse in August if they don't replace ME-TV and MeToo in our lineup, as, this comprises like 90% of our viewing.

Brian from Willowbrook, IL

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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snookpup wrote:

Right, you can GET ME-TV and MeToo on the Antenna, but Uverse provides no way to record these channels on their DVR, as DirecTV does.  I know what I am talking about, because I am a former 12 year DirecTV customer.  They had a small flat box that connected the antenna on the roof in series to the DVR, so that the OTA channels would appear in the DirecTV guide.  Now that UVerse has cut these channels off their offerings, I am forced to go to OTA for all the ME-TV digital sub-channels, and no means to record them except VCR, which is not a real alternative.

We will jettison Uverse in August if they don't replace ME-TV and MeToo in our lineup, as, this comprises like 90% of our viewing.

Brian from Willowbrook, IL

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In another thread, U-Verse hinted that they are working on a plan to make ME-TV available to all customers at some point, Nationwide

[jeremy1069fm]

Milwaukee, Southeast Wisconsin has had the luxury of having ME-TV on a full power station (Channel 49, WBME)

So in our case, we get it on Channel 19, same channel number as Time Warner Cable.

They are swapping frequencies with their sister independant LPTV station, WMLW. Sports coverage basically forced Time Warner to add WMLW to their system, and U-Verse came along for the ride. Both on Channel 7

Since they're swapping, I'm wondering if Me-TV will still be on U-Verse. It will be on Time Warner, but they're likely going to move it to the 900s where they bury all of the sub channels. 

WBME is one of the first ME-TV stations. It's owned by the company that syndicates it.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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jeremy1069fm wrote:

Milwaukee, Southeast Wisconsin has had the luxury of having ME-TV on a full power station (Channel 49, WBME)

So in our case, we get it on Channel 19, same channel number as Time Warner Cable.

They are swapping frequencies with their sister independant LPTV station, WMLW. Sports coverage basically forced Time Warner to add WMLW to their system, and U-Verse came along for the ride. Both on Channel 7

Since they're swapping, I'm wondering if Me-TV will still be on U-Verse. It will be on Time Warner, but they're likely going to move it to the 900s where they bury all of the sub channels. 

WBME is one of the first ME-TV stations. It's owned by the company that syndicates it.

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The bigger concern is that the FCC is wanting once again to narrow the OTA  spectrum by selling off RF channels 32-51 for wireless.  In some citiesthat mean that some OTA stations may go dark (and AT&T would not be required to carry them), others may go virtual only while others may go on another full power station as a subchannel only.  And AT&T may not carry any of those, in those situations.