Filing with the state for misleading press release by BHN:

[LonghornXP]

I'm in the process of filing a claim with the City of Largo which would also cover all of BHN service areas based on their misleading press release which states they carry all local affiliates when they don't. This is a blow to both WB and UPN and is misleading customers into thinking that BHN carries those two networks when they don't. Their press release is posted below and if you read it it does indeed say they carry all local affiliates.

http://tampabay.mybrighthouse.com/site/AboutUs/PressReleases/WFLA_BHN_HD.cfm

[Bschneider]

Your absolutely right. It is misleading. I would follow you but I don't really have BHN to complain about.

[FTBoomerIII]

You might have an issue with the word "affiliates". I believes that this implies that they are affiliated with a major network.

[LonghornXP]

A local affiliate is considered by law to be a local tv station that isn't an operated and owned station and in our area only one station is an operated and owned station and that is WTVT or Fox.

We have these local affiliates listed below that do HDTV.
ABC WFTS - Scripps
CBS WTSP - Gannit
NBC WFLA - Media General
WB WTTA - Sinclair
UPN WTOG - Viacom local networks

Now WTVT isn't considered a local affiliate because the station is owned by the network itself. I hope this helps you all out and I wouldn't have bothered with this if it wasn't for the fact that BHN writes a press release acting like they are the good company and offering everything. If this was BHN Orlando they can say this but not here in the Bay Area with their history.

[FTBoomerIII]

In that case, go for it. Maybe we are getting WB and UPN and they just wanted to get a jump on the media PR.

[millerman101]

longhorn, you need a hobby...give me a break... that crap drives me nuts..

[LonghornXP]

longhorn, you need a hobby...give me a break... that crap drives me nuts..

I'm doing this because of how many lies I've been given by BHN about various HDTV issues and it seems that someone should stand up and demand BHN to stop this crap. I just can't help that you aren't able to see outside of your own box and look at the bigger picture here and yes there is one indeed but you should figure this out on your own which should be no problem if you have read this thread. Also try and read a newspaper and you might grasp many other events and practices that have been going on that are related to this and that should give you an idea of what we allow to happen and we also do nothing to stand up for our rights. Yes this is a very small aspect of this but when something is wrong its wrong period and you my friend are the reason americans are getting screwed left and right. You sit there and complain when others fight back while you bitch when you get screwed and always wonder why.

[DSquare]

I totally agree with LongHorn. There is no reason to sit back and be lied too. If BHN issues a press release they should make sure thier facts are right. I appreciate everything millerman brings to this forum but Im very disappointed in his response. Having a conflicted interest in the subject he really should have stayed out of it.

[FTBoomerIII]

D, that's a bit harsh! Millerman is intitled to his opinion.

[DSquare]

yea you are right. sorry. he has every right to post his opinion

[LonghornXP]

I only said what I said because I don't like people bashing my own opinions when they clearly stated their own opinion was a bash and not an opinion and that is one thing I will not allow. If I was stating fact and my facts were wrong that is another story. But IMO this is a big deal because it shows that a company can lie to its customers and get away with it and the fact is no matter how small the lie is its still wrong.

The fact is millerman could have said his opinion without bashing involved such as saying hey longhorn I don't think this is that big of deal. Its not a nice thing to tell someone to get a life when they are starting their opinions and actually acting upon them for others good.

If D* said in a press release that they carry Tampa HD LIL channels but they fail to say in their press release that you still need an OTA antenna should that be right for D* to mislead a customer thinking they carry them on a satellite. What BHN did is no different than that example but I'm sure that D* would get bashed like crazy while BHN would get what my thread is getting today and that is get a hobby its no big deal and BHN can lie even in their press releases because its not that big of a deal for BHN to lie. Do you see how bad this looks where its fine for a company to lie as long as someone doesn't get hurt too bad.

[LonghornXP]

D, that's a bit harsh! Millerman is intitled to his opinion.

Also just to clarify that wasn't an opinion but a bash.

[millerman101]

wooopeee..... you are the complaint master...thanks for that insight...

god Im glad I got better things to do

[LonghornXP]

wooopeee..... you are the complaint master...thanks for that insight...

god Im glad I got better things to do

What is really funny is that I very rarely ever complain about anything and sometimes people fight for something based on nothing more than principal. Maybe your just mad because I unlike you have a life and you just can't stand that I stand up for whats right based on principal while you seem to always allow everyone else to fix what is wrong in your life.

You have no idea how many people always complain to me about their healthcare problems with their providers and I always tell them to fix it by voting in Dems in the house and senate but their excuse always ends up being it wouldn't make a difference and they always expect everyone else to fix their problems while they can fix them on their own by spreading the word. They also make jokes along the lines like I'm the political master and that reminds me of what you said.

Now maybe I'm wrong about you but I'm willing to bet based on this thread that your the exact mirror of these people and sometimes I piss them off because they know I'm right but could never say it to my face.

[gmclaughlin]

I'm confused here...are we complaining that BHN isn't carrying the HD signal of WTTA (WB)? Exactly what HD programming are they carrying? (I specifically mean HD not Digital).

I only ask because I just ran through the Titan TV listings and couldn't find a single HD program listed on WTTA for the next three weeks.

With regard to WTOG, the same search only shows Kevin Hill, Veronica Mars, and Star Trek Enterprise. Hardly a HD lineup.

Am I missing something here?

[Bschneider]

Greg,

With WTTA, WB, you have these shows that are all in HD. Some of them don't have new episodes until 3-4 weeks from now. www.thewb.com for that info as to when "fresh" episodes begin. I know my wife knows when they start up again.

7th Heaven
Everwood
Gilmore Girls
One Tree Hill
Reba
Smallville
Starlet
Summerland

Regarding WTOG, UPN, besides the shows you mentioned they also show these :

One on One
Cuts
Girlfriends
Half and Half
The Friday Night Movies -- Sometimes
IMAX -- (I believe the IMAX show is shown on Saturday afternoon.)

So these two stations do have enough HD programming to be on BHN, IMO.

~Bryan

[Dknow]

Wow I need to visit the BHN pages more often. You guys are are going nuts in here! Over in the OTA/Sat area it's pretty boring. We basically talk about jointennas, Mpeg-4 and when WB is going to power up. In here you guys are throwing each other under the bus and talking politics. Good stuff. By the way, I think everyone eventually benefits from somebody standing up for what they believe is right even if they're dead wrong. It at the very least keeps everyone on their toes.

[LonghornXP]

Greg,

With WTTA, WB, you have these shows that are all in HD. Some of them don't have new episodes until 3-4 weeks from now. www.thewb.com for that info as to when "fresh" episodes begin. I know my wife knows when they start up again.

7th Heaven
Everwood
Gilmore Girls
One Tree Hill
Reba
Smallville
Starlet
Summerland

Regarding WTOG, UPN, besides the shows you mentioned they also show these :

One on One
Cuts
Girlfriends
Half and Half
The Friday Night Movies -- Sometimes
IMAX -- (I believe the IMAX show is shown on Saturday afternoon.)

So these two stations do have enough HD programming to be on BHN, IMO.

~Bryan

Wow about WB I didn't think they had that much but I knew they had enough to warrant being carried by BHN and for both networks I only see more shows being shown in HDTV in the future. Now with all that said it still bothers me how BHN can warrant carrying channel 632 that uses the same bandwidth as existing HD channels but shows nothing in HDTV while they won't carry UPN that actually does something in HDTV. That is something I just can't understand.

[LonghornXP]

Wow I need to visit the BHN pages more often. You guys are are going nuts in here! Over in the OTA/Sat area it's pretty boring. We basically talk about jointennas, Mpeg-4 and when WB is going to power up. In here you guys are throwing each other under the bus and talking politics. Good stuff. By the way, I think everyone eventually benefits from somebody standing up for what they believe is right even if they're dead wrong. It at the very least keeps everyone on their toes.

You have the right idea about what I'm saying even though I'm not dead wrong because a PR should be accurate resulting in my cause being correct but their is a big difference between being dead wrong and not worth the effort for the gain and I think that is the problem that millerman is having. He doesn't see much gain for the effort and I won't deny that but I'm not doing this for a gain but because someone should make it known that it isn't right to mislead customers like this. HDTV is so new that people who watch the analog UPN feed would see the banner that says available in HDTV and they still think that by buying an HDTV set that show would come in in HDTV from now on. When they see no difference some would call BHN and they would say its on another channel and the customer than finds out that its not available at all.

Heck if the state of Florida makes laws to protect seniors with extended warranties than how is this any different than protecting millions of people in any age group from buying an HDTV set because BHN misleads them into thinking they carry all the locals in HDTV when they wouldn't know any better.

[millerman101]

yeh...gilmore girls in HD ...barf....

[amheck]

I don't think it matters whether these locals have 1 HD broadcast, or a bunch. If BHN says they carry all of the locals in HD, then they better. Simple enough.

[FTBoomerIII]

I would love to see just one Star Trek in HD before thay take it off the air.

[millerman101]

I think Bhn is already better...what provider can you get right now with all the HD that they carry? Sat...no INHD...or the hd locals that they carry unless you do over the air!

[bdraw]

I have been staying quite till I heard millerman talk about Sat.

Don't forget that Sat has one thing BHN doesn't A TIVO!

INHD, and INHD2 are the worst HD channels with HDNM a close third.

Press releases should be accurate period! And when you express an opinion you should try to do it without flaming someone.

Until BHN gets WB, UPN, and most of all a HD Tivo, it won't be an option to me.
The lies in the PR don't help either. I would complain but like I said I am not a customer. I am sorry if I turned this into a BHN vs. Directv thread.

[FTBoomerIII]

Hey bdraw, BHN does have a DVR, it works great and does everything a TiVo does. It may not have the same features but it records HD signals to a hard drive same as a TiVo.

[CANDY76MAN]

I have been staying quite till I heard millerman talk about Sat.

Don't forget that Sat has one thing BHN doesn't A TIVO!

.

I've said this before but thats exactly why i won't be going back to directv anytime soon...I want to be able to record hd but I can't afford a hdtivo, I can however afford to rent a 8300hd (3 of them actually).....I wouldn't even be able to record hd if it weren't for BHN....just an interesting twist on you're point of view bdraw :wink:

[LonghornXP]

I have been staying quite till I heard millerman talk about Sat.

Don't forget that Sat has one thing BHN doesn't A TIVO!

.

I've said this before but thats exactly why i won't be going back to directv anytime soon...I want to be able to record hd but I can't afford a hdtivo, I can however afford to rent a 8300hd (3 of them actually).....I wouldn't even be able to record hd if it weren't for BHN....just an interesting twist on you're point of view bdraw :wink:

Now that this talk has started I'll chime in and say that D* will be renting both their HD DVR box by NDS and their HD multiroom DVR when they come out. So things should change again. Oh and I'm saying it now but if I were you I wouldn't act so suprised when you see the InHD channels on D* before the end of the year and mark my words on that.

[CactusJack]

Gotta throw in my $.02 worth here. I agree with LonghornXP because I've had problems with BHN on two occassions over the past few years. The last one was when they first offered the Premiums On-Demand. A newsletter included in my bill announced the service, and stated that if you have a package of three or more premium services, the On-Demand service for those channels would be free. Since I subscribed to four premium services, I immediately called to order the service, and was told that no, it's NOT free. I asked to speak with a supervisor; same answer. I finally was able to speak with a higher-up manager, who graciously explained that because their fees for cable service in Pinellas County were already lower than in surrounding counties due to competition (there is no competing cable service available in MY area!), they could not offer the On-Demand service for free in Pinellas. When I countered that they had sent me a flyer stating it was free, she said that the same flyer goes to ALL their service areas. After going back and forth for a while, she finally offered me the service for free for one year. Would it have been too much trouble to include in the flyer a disclaimer or footnote stating that the free offer was not available in Pinellas County?

I don't remember what the other incident was, but it also was about some service that they offered in the mail, but then said was not available in my service area.

Jack

[amheck]

Jack, funny you should mention that. I had a similar experience 2 weeks ago. I found out I had missed the start of Deadwood on HBO. I read a blurb on HBO.com about how the back episodes would be on HBO In-Demand. I wanted to get the service so I called BHN and asked to add it. The CSR said that because I was already subscribing to 2 pay services (HBO and SHO) that the in-demand was free. So, I went to channel 200, and it said I still had to order the service, so I did. And I watched the episodes I missed.

Well, bored one day last week, I decided to call and make sure I wasn't getting charged for this. And apparently I was. The CSR explained that I was still under the discount "Time Warner" pricing and in-demand was NOT free for that price. But....if I wanted to pay the BHN price for the primium channels, I could get in-demand for free. God...you think with a $155 cable bill, they'd cut you a little slack.

I honestly can't wait for Verizon to get their cable TV service up and runnning on fiber. Hopefully a little competition will be good for BHN and then I can get rid of them.

[gmclaughlin]

Amheck,

I find that conversation very odd. Please PM me with your account information and I'll look into it. I can't think of a situation where this wouldn't apply.


Greg

[teampozer]

Nice to see some spirited conversation here. It's been a bit quiet for a while. Now... first on the original post, BHN has and continues to be misleading ALL of Tampa Bay. The WB and UPN networks both carry progamming available in HD, and I've seen them both broadcast on "local affiliates" WTTA and WTOG via OTA. If BHN says they carry all local affiliates' HD programming... they're lying. End of story. And if they think that finally agreeing with WFLA after a year of BS makes everything ok, they're wrong again. BHN will consistantly nickel and dime ya to death and the same was true with TWC before them. Now the same can't be said for Orlando where I know they carry both WKCF-18 (WB) and WRBW-65 (UPN). As far as the DirecTV vs. BHN argument... both have positives and negatives that have been covered over and over. However, although D* doesn't offer an "affordable" DVR solution ($999 is WAY to expensive), they still lead the way when it comes to HD content. They also allow me persoanlly to receive the most HD content for the money.

[LonghornXP]

Nice to see some spirited conversation here. It's been a bit quiet for a while. Now... first on the original post, BHN has and continues to be misleading ALL of Tampa Bay. The WB and UPN networks both carry progamming available in HD, and I've seen them both broadcast on "local affiliates" WTTA and WTOG via OTA. If BHN says they carry all local affiliates' HD programming... they're lying. End of story. And if they think that finally agreeing with WFLA after a year of BS makes everything ok, they're wrong again. BHN will consistantly nickel and dime ya to death and the same was true with TWC before them. Now the same can't be said for Orlando where I know they carry both WKCF-18 (WB) and WRBW-65 (UPN). As far as the DirecTV vs. BHN argument... both have positives and negatives that have been covered over and over. However, although D* doesn't offer an "affordable" DVR solution ($999 is WAY to expensive), they still lead the way when it comes to HD content. They also allow me persoanlly to receive the most HD content for the money.

You got it and I for one will be getting more involved as the summer rolls around because for the first time between summer and the end of the year so many good things will happen for both D* and BHN customers. I say this because D* by the end of the year will have a multiroom HD DVR that would be a rental with no upfront costs. They also will carry PBS HD, NBC HD, CBS HD, FOX HD, ABC HD and WB HD and if they carry all of that I'm sure they would carry UPN HD as well. They also have a deal for ESPN 2 HD and I'm very sure they would have TNT HD as well. I'm also hearing rumors that InHD 1&2 will be in D*s HD package before years end as well.

I see a great change by D* when it comes to HD and HD DVRs and as a result I see BHN customers getting more channels and maybe cheaper prices because they now can lose customers all accross their areas not just in Knology and for the first time in a while DirecTV will be a very real threat to BHN when it comes to their high end customers and nearly all HDTV customers are high-end. Maybe just maybe BHN might have to considering offering analog channels in digital for digital cable customers like Comcast is doing all across their areas.

With all that said I'm not bashing any provider but just stating that for the first time in a long while BHN customers would benefit out of force which would be BHN losing customers. Look at how they react to Verizon FIOS internet just think how they would react if they lost tons of high end cable subscribers which is where they make their biggest profit. All I can say is the second half of the year will be very fun for everyone in the Tampa Bay Area and that is a great thing.

[wallinbl]

Hey bdraw, BHN does have a DVR, it works great and does everything a TiVo does. It may not have the same features but it records HD signals to a hard drive same as a TiVo.

Yes, and a Yugo does the same thing as a BMW - it drives. I switched to BHN because I didn't want to pay for the HD Tivo. Yes, the DVR is mostly functional, but it is nowhere near as good as a Tivo. It's basically just enough to pacify customers and that's it.

[millerman101]

I guess people must do research before buying a product.