# question about the CW in HD



## tx.agg.96 (Sep 27, 2007)

i dont have a local CW affiliate, so E* is giving me WPIX, the CW from NY. my question is, since its a big time market, is it available in HD and if so, is it possible for me to get it in HD?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

WPIX HD is not available via Dish ... even in it's own market.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

In Denver, the answer is no. CW is the only major local that doesn't have an HD counterpart here. Oh ... and their PQ sucks!


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## Taco Lover (Jan 8, 2007)

There are no CW stations available in HD to Dish customers. OTA is the only option.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

Taco Lover said:


> There are no CW stations available in HD to Dish customers. OTA is the only option.


makes you wonder how that is, how they dont seal the deal with a local...

Charter had the same issue with ABC...couldn't get it in HD

you would think that ABC, CW ect. would be cheaper than the cable channels...maybe i'm wrong:shrug:


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Firstly bandwidth is always a concern... and honestly the CW is not that big of a network. UPN and WB (before they merged to become CW) did not qualify as "full" networks by many of the bean-counters... and I'm not sure the new CW has enough market to fully count either.

I do watch CW (Smallville) but that's pretty much it.


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## rey_1178 (Dec 12, 2007)

Taco Lover said:


> There are no CW stations available in HD to Dish customers. OTA is the only option.


correct.


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## LinkNuc (Jul 4, 2007)

CW out of Pittsburgh has the worst PQ I have even seen in the last 15 years. But its the same on Comcast aweful...has nothing to do with the provider.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

HDMe said:


> Firstly bandwidth is always a concern... and honestly the CW is not that big of a network. UPN and WB (before they merged to become CW) did not qualify as "full" networks by many of the bean-counters... and I'm not sure the new CW has enough market to fully count either.
> 
> I do watch CW (Smallville) but that's pretty much it.


I don't know... they shoot for the 18-34 age group...i would think that more people watch that than H&G, Food, or A&E, on a daily bases, which would give it more of an HD push. I figured they were asking to much money from charlie (being half owned by time warner). Thats what the deal was with Charter and ABC, they wanted too much money for it to be in HD.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

In my market, Cincinnati, DISH Network doesn't even carry the SD feed of the CW (via a satellite feed). The CW is on a digital subchannel of the local CBS station (in SD) and both DirecTV and the local cable companies carry it.

Looking at the schedule for the CW, what is worth seeing in HD? To me, they really don't have much (maybe an hour or two a week) that is worth watching in SD. HD seems a waste of bandwidth for something with the content that they carry.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

Bill R said:


> In my market, Cincinnati, DISH Network doesn't even carry the SD feed of the CW (via a satellite feed). The CW is on a digital subchannel of the local CBS station (in SD) and both DirecTV and the local cable companies carry it.
> 
> Looking at the schedule for the CW, what is worth seeing in HD? To me, they really don't have much (maybe an hour or two a week) that is worth watching in SD. HD seems a waste of bandwidth for something with the content that they carry.


weeeelllll...that goes into the whole subject of who likes what...some people say the same on VOOM channels...personally...Smallville and Reaper, are two i would like...we had it in HD at charter, and it's just nice to see most of it in HD...being a local and all, ya know...i need to get an ota anyway...so no biggie, but it just seemed weired.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

I'd love to see Life is Wild in HD for the South African scenery. But I want my SciFi and USA HD first.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

It is also possible that WPIX in HD would not be considered a superstation and could only be made available in the NY market too.

I have no idea on what will happen with the 5 superstations, WPIX, KTLA, WGN, etc. Will they still be available ater the analog cutoff?


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

TBoneit said:


> I have no idea on what will happen with the 5 superstations, WPIX, KTLA, WGN, etc. Will they still be available ater the analog cutoff?


Would it be reasonable to conclude that these stations will have to go digital by then if they intend to remain in business? I see no reason why they wouldn't - if they haven't done so already. And my guess is that they already have although some of them may not have thrown the switch yet.


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## bruin95 (Apr 23, 2006)

HDG said:


> Would it be reasonable to conclude that these stations will have to go digital by then if they intend to remain in business?


All those "superstations" went digital a long time ago. All have digital versions in their local markets.


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## ASN21 (Aug 17, 2007)

Rush HD, World, Animal, Treasure, Rave, Gallery, Equator........

all worthless HD channels. I would much rather have the CW in hd over many of the stupid HD channels we get right now....


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

They may have gone digital in their local markets however will they lose superstation status when the analog is gone?


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

ASN21 said:


> Rush HD, World, Animal, Treasure, Rave, Gallery, Equator........
> 
> all worthless HD channels. I would much rather have the CW in hd over many of the stupid HD channels we get right now....


Not for us. The wife likes ANTM ... other than that, we don't watch it at all.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

tx.agg.96 said:


> i dont have a local CW affiliate, so E* is giving me WPIX, the CW from NY. my question is, since its a big time market, is it available in HD and if so, is it possible for me to get it in HD?


It's not very good. It's geared to young teens & adults. Smallville is on HDNET or VOOM. I forget which.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

Paul Secic said:


> It's not very good. It's geared to young teens & adults. Smallville is on HDNET or VOOM. I forget which.


Smallville is on HDNet. They aren't showing the current CW season of course... but for folks that don't have a local CW or don't have it in HD, it's a good alternative to catch up on last year.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

HDMe said:


> Smallville is on HDNet. They aren't showing the current CW season of course... but for folks that don't have a local CW or don't have it in HD, it's a good alternative to catch up on last year.


It's not very good on HDNet...in HD yes, but it doesnt follow episodes correctly. We missed the last half of last season, so we set them to record on HDNet, and in 2 months we have only got 3 episodes, and only two were in the right order.

CW is well worth adding in HD...we enjoyed the HD shows on it when we had it.

but yeah its more teen to mid 30's targeted audience...unless your a Superman fan...then it's good for any age.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

HMM... I've been recording Smallville from HDNET and I have a complete set all the way back to season 1.

Maybe your recording priorities caused it to skip an episode here and there.


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## GNK75 (Jan 11, 2008)

I don't get CW 5 and KCAL 9 locals in HD either. I live in Corona, CA in Riverside county. PQ is so bad I hate to watch anything on those channels in SD at all. Can anybody recommend a OTA Antenna. My house is 38 miles from the tower according to Antennaweb.org.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

texaswolf said:


> It's not very good on HDNet...in HD yes, but it doesnt follow episodes correctly. We missed the last half of last season, so we set them to record on HDNet, and in 2 months we have only got 3 episodes, and only two were in the right order.


Maybe you are recording the wrong days/times?

The way it seems to work is... Monday night's 8pm episode is "new" to HDNet when it first airs there (assuming the start of last year's season) and then "new" episodes follow every Monday after that. When they reach the end of the season, then they will start back again (probably at Season 1) and show in order again.

HDNet does show Smallville at other times on other nights, and those may be semi-random... but the Monday ones always seem to be in order for me.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

Bill R said:


> In my market, Cincinnati, DISH Network doesn't even carry the SD feed of the CW (via a satellite feed). The CW is on a digital subchannel of the local CBS station (in SD) and both DirecTV and the local cable companies carry it.
> 
> Looking at the schedule for the CW, what is worth seeing in HD? To me, they really don't have much (maybe an hour or two a week) that is worth watching in SD. HD seems a waste of bandwidth for something with the content that they carry.


Niki and Steve Harvey made the WB.


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## Paul Secic (Dec 16, 2003)

ASN21 said:


> Rush HD, World, Animal, Treasure, Rave, Gallery, Equator........
> 
> all worthless HD channels. I would much rather have the CW in hd over many of the stupid HD channels we get right now....


 Equator is educational.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

Paul Secic said:


> Niki and Steve Harvey made the WB.


huh? Buffy the vampire slayer, was it's first "big" hit Dawsons Creek, 7th Heaven, then Smallville & Gilmore Girls all gave it it's biggest viewers...Harvey did well, but these carried (still carrying for Smallville) the viewers. Since it merged with UPN (cbs), the list of shows have been just....eh.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

Paul Secic said:


> Equator is educational.


Thats because they show so many repeats, you will have them memorized

j/k.... it has some ok stuff



> Maybe you are recording the wrong days/times?
> 
> The way it seems to work is... Monday night's 8pm episode is "new" to HDNet when it first airs there (assuming the start of last year's season) and then "new" episodes follow every Monday after that. When they reach the end of the season, then they will start back again (probably at Season 1) and show in order again.
> 
> HDNet does show Smallville at other times on other nights, and those may be semi-random... but the Monday ones always seem to be in order for me.


You know what, i was under the impression they were doing them like the premiums do...launch on Monday, then repeat it through the week...damn...now i have to fix it.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

texaswolf said:


> You know what, i was under the impression they were doing them like the premiums do...launch on Monday, then repeat it through the week...damn...now i have to fix it.


It took me a bit at first to figure out their schedule too! It helps that I was watching a couple of programs for a while (Enterprise, Smallville, then later Blade and Torchwood).

They do show most programs twice on Monday (Torchwood, for instance was on at 7pm and same episode again at 10pm)... but the rest of the week I never tried to decipher if there was a pattern or not.

TNT does similar sometimes too. I've been catching up on episodes of "Without a Trace"... and TNT has two different streams running. One "season" seems to be progressing M-F at 1pm most days (holidays pre-empted a few) in order and they just started over at season 1. I am waiting for them to get to season 3 as that is where I need to watch now.

Meanwhile, TNT also shows 1-2 episodes at 11pm or 12pm or sometimes 1am most weeknights. These are also in order, BUT from a different point than the daytime ones.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

HDMe said:


> It took me a bit at first to figure out their schedule too! It helps that I was watching a couple of programs for a while (Enterprise, Smallville, then later Blade and Torchwood).
> 
> They do show most programs twice on Monday (Torchwood, for instance was on at 7pm and same episode again at 10pm)... but the rest of the week I never tried to decipher if there was a pattern or not.
> 
> ...


I tried watching enterprise on HDNet, and couldn't do it...makes me to sad knowing that those rat bas***** canceled it.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

texaswolf said:


> I tried watching enterprise on HDNet, and couldn't do it...makes me to sad knowing that those rat bas***** canceled it.


I bought the DVD sets, so I didn't watch them all on HDNet... but I watched them here and there just to see the HD-ness of them.


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## unr1 (Jul 16, 2005)

Taco Lover said:


> There are no CW stations available in HD to Dish customers. OTA is the only option.


thankfully the OTA capabilities of the HD-DVR's by E* are pretty good. (Although having to pay for Guide info on OTA is..meh)


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## Vidfreek (Jan 4, 2008)

You would think that with the big following shows like Smallville and Supernatural have not to mention WWE Smackdown which constantly gets the channel top ratings on Friday you would see more trying to add the CW in HD, I mean both Smallville and Supernatural have been broadcast in HD for like 2 years now and Smackdown is going HD in a few weeks but almost no one can get the channel which definitely sucks because out of Pittsburgh, as was said, the PQ is terrible


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Vidfreek said:


> You would think that with the big following shows like Smallville and Supernatural have not to mention WWE Smackdown which constantly gets the channel top ratings on Friday you would see more trying to add the CW in HD


Maybe in YOUR market that is true. Around here, CW is a very small blip in the rating books and never wins its time slot. I really don't fully trust rating books but in CW's case I don't think the books get the numbers wrong by a great amount. Its shows are just not popular here.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

Bill R said:


> Maybe in YOUR market that is true. Around here, CW is a very small blip in the rating books and never wins its time slot. I really don't fully trust rating books but in CW's case I don't think the books get the numbers wrong by a great amount. Its shows are just not popular here.


However it does have HD programming...and if companies like Charter can carry it, the big boys should be able to also...as far as the ratings books go...i would have to put money on CW's main shows vs food HD, HGTV HD, History HD, and half of the Voom channels...in those time slots...yet we have them in HD...so the "ratings" thing isn't really an issue at all, from what i was told be E*.....negotiations are the issue....price wise...i think both sides are being bullheaded.


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## Gilitar (Aug 1, 2004)

bruin95 said:


> All those "superstations" went digital a long time ago. All have digital versions in their local markets.


Our local CW STILL doesn't broadcast a digital signal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WBPG

Smallville looks HORRIBLE since the PQ is so bad. I'm not sure if it is Dish or the feed that is causing the issue.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

texaswolf said:


> However it does have HD programming...and if companies like Charter can carry it, the big boys should be able to also...as far as the ratings books go...i would have to put money on CW's main shows vs food HD, HGTV HD, History HD, and half of the Voom channels...in those time slots...yet we have them in HD...so the "ratings" thing isn't really an issue at all, from what i was told be E*.....negotiations are the issue....price wise...i think both sides are being bullheaded.


Cable companies can carry locals much easier than satellite so that is not a fair comparison. Local cable companies only have to carry local channels for the area they service. Satellite companies have to carry all of them for every area on the same satellites, so the bandwidth becomes an issue eventually.

It may be a fair point that CW high-profile shows do well in ratings for their timeslot... but the rest of the day they are a blip if anything. It is still very much a fledgling newbie network which is why both Dish and DirecTV are more concerned about the big ones (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) and then PBS long before worrying about CW.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

HDMe said:


> Cable companies can carry locals much easier than satellite so that is not a fair comparison. Local cable companies only have to carry local channels for the area they service. Satellite companies have to carry all of them for every area on the same satellites, so the bandwidth becomes an issue eventually.
> 
> It may be a fair point that CW high-profile shows do well in ratings for their timeslot... but the rest of the day they are a blip if anything. It is still very much a fledgling newbie network which is why both Dish and DirecTV are more concerned about the big ones (ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC) and then PBS long before worrying about CW.


understood, but the WB and UPN were around long enough before merging into the CW....and if it wasn't as big of a channel as some think...then it wouldn't cost that much to light it up...obviously it hasn't been a big enough complaint or request so far for them to seriously look into adding it. I wish they would...better yet, i hope E* gets the sat up soon,so that it isn't even an issue of bandwith


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

To "light it up" for all the current HD locals would use up spotbeams that Dish does not want to use for this purpose.

Two hours of HD per day.


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

Gosh, I wish I could tell you that CW has legs in Denver ... but the truth is (at least in my household), it doesn't hold a programming or PQ candle to even the worst of all the channels we get on Dish - well, to be fair it's right up there with Altitude.  Maybe we're an aberration, I don't know ... but I can tell you, that we seldom watch it ... and when we do, it's with a grimace. 

I realize that each market is different, so if you're not only getting CW but you're also getting it in HD, then we're no longer talking apples to apples regarding PQ . 

Programming is another story/thread.


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## texaswolf (Oct 18, 2007)

HDG said:


> Gosh, I wish I could tell you that CW has legs in Denver ... but the truth is (at least in my household), it doesn't hold a programming or PQ candle to even the worst of all the channels we get on Dish - well, to be fair it's right up there with Altitude.  Maybe we're an aberration, I don't know ... but I can tell you, that we seldom watch it ... and when we do, it's with a grimace.
> 
> I realize that each market is different, so if you're not only getting CW but you're also getting it in HD, then we're no longer talking apples to apples regarding PQ .
> 
> Programming is another story/thread.


yeah...i don't think it's as bad as the three hour loop of repeats on half the Voom channels...the interesting thing on that network ratings, is the dvr ratings...a lot of the shows on there received 21 to 44% increases in it's target audience with dvr ratings...which i think they need to include with live viewer ratings also...and yeah there may only be HD a couple of hours a night, but it's every night in the prime slot...vs 3 hours a night by the rest of the local networks (thats counting the late night talk shows)...the rest of the day is syndicated stuff...like tbs, usa, ect. I know it's easier for cable to get channels like it, but sat providers should also provide it for the markets that can get it....at least there is more HD on it than there is on TBS and TNT


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## Henry (Nov 15, 2007)

texaswolf said:


> yeah...i don't think it's as bad as the three hour loop of repeats on half the Voom channels...the interesting thing on that network ratings, is the dvr ratings...a lot of the shows on there received 21 to 44% increases in it's target audience with dvr ratings...which i think they need to include with live viewer ratings also...and yeah there may only be HD a couple of hours a night, but it's every night in the prime slot...vs 3 hours a night by the rest of the local networks (thats counting the late night talk shows)...the rest of the day is syndicated stuff...like tbs, usa, ect. I know it's easier for cable to get channels like it, but sat providers should also provide it for the markets that can get it....at least there is more HD on it than there is on TBS and TNT


It does make we wonder ... if we can readilly get local HD on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, why we can't get the CW in HD? Denver is not exactly a small market, so I would find it hard to believe that CW is holding out.

Do any of you Denver D* subs get the CW in HD?


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