
It’s been nearly one year since I spoke to Time Warner’s local president to find out what it was doing in Orange County. Essentially, the company was merging three different cable systems into one after previously acquiring bits of Adelphia and Comcast.
Unfortunately, the president is no longer with the company and the three cable systems haven’t been completely merged. But Time Warner continues to plow away to unify the different platforms, said Darryl Ryan, director of media relations for Time Warner’s West region. He’s not sure how much progress the company has made since acquiring Adelphia three years ago.
The benefit of having one system, like Cox Communications does in Orange County, means one cable TV system, one lineup of channels, one type of software and one billing system. This helps customer service employees stay focused and learn one system instead of three. Without the unity, customers are treated differently. For example, customers in Costa Mesa, or former Comcast territory, get 72 HD channels, while everyone else in Orange County, including Huntington Beach, are at 60 HD channels (see charts below).
“Right now we generally have two HD lineups, former Comcast (customers some parts of Orange County the South Bay area, Santa Clarita and a portion of San Fernando) and everywhere else. In the former Comcast areas subscribers have a few more HD channels. We are working to get subscribers all of our subscribers up to the same number of HD channels,” Ryan said.
The company is testing ways to squeeze more channels into its system using switched digital video, which turns some regular channels into on-demand only. Time Warner has previously said it is planning to move the least popular channels to this technology and fill the opening with channels more people want. I’m fine with that because that’s good news for almost all customers, although TiVo users with CableCARDs will need to get an adapter.
Here are the available HD channels in Costa Mesa vs. rest of Orange County:
| Orange County | Costa Mesa | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # of HD | Ch. | Channel | # HD | Ch.# | Channel |
| 1 | 401 | KVEA HD (Telemundo) | 1 | 401 | KVEA HD (Telemundo) |
| 2 | 402 | KCBS HD (CBS) | 2 | 402 | KCBS HD (CBS) |
| 3 | 404 | KNBC HD (NBC) | 3 | 404 | KNBC HD (NBC) |
| 4 | 405 | KTLA HD (CW) | 4 | 405 | KTLA HD (CW) |
| 5 | 407 | KABC HD (ABC) | 5 | 407 | KABC HD (ABC) |
| 6 | 408 | KOCE HD (PBS) | 6 | 408 | KOCE HD (PBS) |
| 7 | 409 | KCAL HD (Ind) | 7 | 409 | KCAL HD (Ind) |
| 8 | 410 | KPXN (ION) HD | 8 | 410 | KPXN (ION) HD |
| 9 | 411 | KTTV (FOX) HD | 9 | 411 | KTTV (FOX) HD |
| 10 | 412 | KCET HD (PBS) | 10 | 412 | KCET HD (PBS) |
| 11 | 413 | KCOP HD (myNetworkTV) | 11 | 413 | KCOP HD (myNetworkTV) |
| 12 | 414 | Palladia HD | 12 | 414 | Palladia HD |
| 13 | 415 | TNT HD | 13 | 415 | TNT HD |
| 14 | 416 | HD Theater | 14 | 416 | HD Theater |
| 15 | 417 | TBS in HD | 15 | 417 | TBS in HD |
| 16 | 418 | Discovery Channel HD | 16 | 418 | Discovery Channel HD |
| 17 | 419 | Universal HD | 17 | 419 | Universal HD |
| 18 | 420 | Smithsonian Channel HD | 18 | 420 | Smithsonian Channel HD |
| 19 | 421 | Crime & Investigation Network HD | 19 | 421 | Crime & Investigation Network HD |
| 20 | 422 | MGM HD | 20 | 422 | MGM HD |
| 21 | 423 | The Golf Channel HD | 21 | 423 | The Golf Channel HD |
| 22 | 424 | ESPN HD | 22 | 424 | ESPN HD |
| 23 | 425 | ESPN2 HD | 23 | 425 | ESPN2 HD |
| 24 | 426 | ESPNews HD | 24 | 426 | ESPNews HD |
| 25 | 427 | HBO HD | 25 | 427 | HBO HD |
| 26 | 428 | Showtime HD | 26 | 428 | Showtime HD |
| 27 | 429 | Starz HD | 27 | 429 | Starz HD |
| 28 | 430 | Cinemax HD | 28 | 430 | Cinemax HD |
| 29 | 431 | HD (Pay-per-view) | 29 | 431 | HD (Pay-per-view) |
| 30 | 432 | CNN HD | 30 | 432 | CNN HD |
| 31 | 433 | HGTV HD | 31 | 433 | HGTV HD |
| 32 | 434 | Food Network HD | 32 | 434 | Food Network HD |
| 33 | 435 | Disney Channel HD | 33 | 435 | Disney Channel HD |
| 34 | 436 | ABC Family HD | 34 | 436 | ABC Family HD |
| 35 | 437 | TLC HD | 35 | 437 | TLC HD |
| 36 | 438 | A&E HD | 36 | 438 | A&E HD |
| 37 | 439 | History HD | 37 | 439 | History HD |
| 38 | 440 | National Geographic HD | 38 | 440 | National Geographic HD |
| 39 | 441 | USA HD | 39 | 441 | USA HD |
| 40 | 442 | Bravo HD | 40 | 442 | Bravo HD |
| 41 | 443 | Sci Fi HD | 41 | 443 | Sci Fi HD |
| 42 | 444 | CNBC HD+ | 42 | 444 | CNBC HD+ |
| 43 | 445 | Live Well HD (KABC-DT2) | 43 | 445 | Live Well HD (KABC-DT2) |
| 44 | 451 | Animal Planet HD | 44 | 451 | Animal Planet HD |
| 45 | 452 | Travel Channel HD | 45 | 452 | Travel Channel HD |
| 46 | 456 | FX HD | 46 | 453 | Planet Green HD |
| 47 | 460 | Science Channel HD | 47 | 454 | The Weather Channel HD |
| 48 | 463 | FOX Sports West HD | 48 | 456 | FX HD |
| 49 | 464 | Prime Ticket HD | 49 | 457 | BIO HD |
| 50 | 465 | Fox News HD | 50 | 460 | Science Channel HD |
| 51 | 466 | Fox Business Network HD | 51 | 461 | Toon Disney HD |
| 52 | 469 | Versus HD | 52 | 462 | Cartoon Network HD |
| 53 | 470 | MLB Network HD | 53 | 463 | FOX Sports West HD |
| 54 | 471 | NHL Network HD | 54 | 464 | Prime Ticket HD |
| 55 | 502 | HBO HD | 55 | 465 | Fox News HD |
| 56 | 522 | Cinemax HD | 56 | 466 | Fox Business Network HD |
| 57 | 552 | Showtime HD | 57 | 467 | ESPNU HD |
| 58 | 572 | Starz HD | 58 | 468 | Speed HD |
| 59 | 732 | iN Demand HD Sports 1 | 59 | 470 | MLB Network HD |
| 60 | 733 | iN Demand HD Sports 2 | 60 | 471 | NHL Network HD |
| 61 | 473 | The Tennis Channel HD | |||
| 62 | 475 | Lifetime Movie Network HD | |||
| 63 | 476 | Hallmark Movie Channel HD | |||
| 64 | 481 | HBO HD (East) | |||
| 65 | 482 | Cinemax HD (East) | |||
| 66 | 483 | Showtime HD (East) | |||
| 67 | 484 | The Movie Channel HD | |||
| 68 | 485 | Starz HD (East) | |||
| 69 | 502 | HBO HD | |||
| 70 | 522 | Cinemax HD | |||
| 71 | 552 | Showtime HD | |||
| 72 | 572 | Starz HD |
Recent Time Warner Cable news:

i think i know what their problem is…i am with twc in the diamond bar area…this was jones intercable and adelphia country before…then twc took over…i can get espn on three different channels…i think the first one was from jones, the second one was from adelphia and the last one was the hd channel…this is true also for mtv and vh-1although they are not available in hd…if twc can just eliminate those duplicate channels, then they will have plenty of slots available…
Thanks! Getting ‘evidence’ from readers about differences between cable systems helps me when I ask Time Warner questions. By the way, I just tallied up the number of HD channels for Diamond Bar and got 58. Hopefully by eliminating duplicates you too will get to a higher number.
I don’t think the “duplicates” are actually duplicate broadcasts. That is, they are only sending one signal down the line, but the cable box is splitting it into all different channel numbers. However, that’s just a guess. It is terribly annoying if you use the Favorites function (which is already broken as it is) because if you select one duplicate, you get ALL the channels. I have 19 favorites, but I have to flip through 30 channels to see them. HGTV, for example, is repeated 4 times!
Good point. However, there is some duplication because Time Warner still offers analog and digital channels. I should verify this, but I believe the lower 99 channels are analog. Hence, at least 2 HGTV channels. And you’re right, I get 4 HGTV channels – 53 (analog), 173 (digital), 433 (HD), 891 (??).
I also get an HGTV on 1411! I am basing my guess off the behavior of the old guide software on my Scientific Atlantic box. If you switched between the dupe channels, the picture wouldn’t change and there would be no tuning delay. I’m not entirely sure, but is their some rule that requires channels on “digital cable” to actually be digital? If not, they could just be duping the analog signal and marketing it as digital, because you need a “digital box” to tune it. Somehow I doubt Time Warner will tell you!
Merging systems for 3 years and it still isn’t working half way decent. I hate Crime Warner.
Yea and I’m paying for all their expense
$65 a month for garbage basic!
They refuse to fix the too loud or too soft volumes on many channels like Weather and TV guide!
I am with TW in Costa Mesa. Since they took over my TV goes from normal color, to bright green, to purple, to black and white. This happens several times a day and the only way to fix it is to change the chanel a few times and then go back. It happens anytime you watch anything on demand that is longer than 30 minutes. To fix it then you have to stop it, go to a regular chanel and then start it again. I have called them several times and they send someone to look at it, he says he fiexes it and it happens again. Been going on for years.
It amazes me that people still pay for cable. I gotta tell you, the difference between cable and satellite is unbeleivable. I know a few peolpe have horror stories about satellite, but like any other business, you will get that. In the long run and for most viewers, satellite is much more reliable, a better picture, CHEAPER and MUCH MUCH easier to navigate thru. I have had both and woould go to over the air before I would ever let a cable guy in my house to install that over priced cr*p.