TWC gets official with HD expansion in the Carolinas

Hot on the heels of TWC's Greensboro expansion announcement comes some official word from the carrier itself on how it'll be handling new HD rollouts in the Carolinas at large. For starters, many Raleigh-area customers received an e-mail proclaiming that 20 new high-def stations would be coming soon, though it mistakenly claims ESPN2 HD as a newcomer. At any rate, the director of digital communication at Time Warner Cable chimed in to clear things up, noting that the company is "rolling out up to 20 HD channels over the next several months, depending on the division." From the looks of things, Raleigh and Charlotte will be getting just about everything TWC has, while Greensboro, NC and Columbia, SC will receive smaller allotments. Curiously enough, the Wilmington area wasn't mentioned at all, but here's hoping they'll be on the same wave as Raleigh. For the full report from Jeff Simmermon, jump on past the break. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

Hi -- I'm the director of digital communication at Time Warner Cable, and I'd like to clarify a few things here.

We're rolling out up to 20 HD channels over the next several months, depending on the division. Different technical issues apply to different divisions, preventing us from doing a massive simultaneous channel deployment. Hence the staggered rollout times -- but rest assured that we want to give everyone as many HD channels as we can as soon as we can. It's part of staying competitive in this business, and it's important to us.

Here are the channels that will roll out over the next several months. Some will appear on Wednesday, and the entire list should be completed by sometime in January --

Greensboro:

Speed HD
BIO
FSNS HD
Cinemax E
cinemax W
Starz!
TMC
PPV
Weather Channel HD
FX HD
Hallmark HD

We're also adding Sprout and MLB in Standard Definition.

******************

Columbia, SC

Speed HD
BIO
Weather Channel HD
FX HD
Hallmark HD

We're also adding Sprout and MLB in Standard Definition.

*****************

Raleigh, NC

Speed HD
BIO
Discovery Channel
ESPNU
Planet Green
CNN
Disney Channel
History
Animal Planet
ABC Family
Lifetime
ESPNews
Learning Channel
FSNS HD
Cinemax E
Cinemax W
Starz!
TMC
PPV
Weather Channel HD
FX HD
Hallmark HD

We're also adding Sprout and MLB in Standard Definition.

*****************

Charlotte, NC

Speed HD
BIO
Discovery Channel
ESPNU
Planet Green
CNN
Disney Channel
History
Animal PLanet
ABC Family
Lifetime
ESPNews
Learning Channel
FSNS HD
Cinemax E
Cinemax W
Starz!
TMC
PPV

******************

[Leicaman Posted Oct 28th 2008 10:40AM]

This Time Warner which is about to cut off a bunch of us cable card users (TiVO HD) in a few days? The Time Warner that is being fined by the FCC for breaking the law by not supporting cable card users as mandated by law?

This is the same Time Warner who's decided to go ahead and throw the digital switch on Switched Digltal at the end of October, and leave us out in the cold until they deem us worthy to get converter boxes? Supposedly some time before the end of the year? They couldn't wait for switched digital until then?

The same TW that has buggy support for cable cards for the past year, promising to fix them in five months (a year ago) and has yet to fulfill that promise?

Indeed, whoop dee do.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2008 10:51AM]

Is this why my QAM tuner no longer picks up any of the Sub Channels (or even some of the .1 channels) of any of the OTA channels over the cable anymore?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2008 12:05PM]

you may need to rescan on your tv... i had that problem last week. The tech support team had no clue and wanted to do a truck roll.... pretty costly to tv watchers in the end.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2008 11:21AM]

This is good news in terms of competition, etc, but I fear us HD TiVo users won't reap the benefits for quite awhile. So how about those SDV adapters already?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2008 11:26AM]

Does anyone know what the asterisk next to Fox Sports Carolinas HD means? I got the email from TWC and of course there is no explanation at all of what the asterisk means.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2008 3:27PM]

maybe its gonna be like Big10HD and you have to subscribe to the sports tier........

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2008 12:50PM]

Seriously, TWC is a joke. In Eastern Washington I get like 9 HD channels comapred to hundreds on the Telco and Satellite carriers. If I wasn't stuck is a damned aparment with trees blocking my view there is no way in hell I would keep TWC. I had DTV and Dish come out and neither could get a signal. Of course no FiOS or UVerse here! Gotta love the no-competition stranglehold these @ssclowns have on us!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2008 1:25PM]

Finally!!! We Have been waiting over a year for this

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2008 1:27PM]

Were getting Speed, Bio, Discovery, and ESPNU on wed.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 28th 2008 2:04PM]

Still switching to DirectTV or Dish within a week....

[TexRob Posted Oct 29th 2008 9:08PM]

I can't begin to tell you how excited I am for Speed HD in time for the Formula 1 finale this weekend!!! Discovery HD is a great add too. I know so many must be happy about all the other sports channels, but man, enough is enough, do we need that many?