This is not an easy task, by the way. Cable providers have struggled to offer more HD channels because their aging systems are near capacity.  Now,  thanks to new technology called switched digital video, they have figured out how to get more room: Stop broadcasting every single channel 24/7. 

By turning some of the least popular channels into on-demand channels, cable companies can use that newly opened space to squeeze in more HD channels. Channels that do go switched digital — or SD – are still accessible. Turn to the channel and there may be a slight delay as the cable box requests the channel. The full broadcast should be delivered within split seconds.

But one reader from Yorba Linda, who uses a CableCARD and TiVo to watch cable TV, alerted me that some switching might be going on because he woke up one day to find very few channels showing up on his TV — Food TV yes, but not the HD version; no Bravo and absolutely no HBO. A  Time Warner customer service representative mentioned the cable provider was switching to this new technology.

I checked with both local cable companies — Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications — and they do plan to implement this technology. But Time Warner has not yet. Cox, however, is already testing it out in Orange County.

“While our current network infrastructure is powerful, we know our customers want more from their Cox digital services,” said Cox spokeswoman Lana Ong. ”In order to provide our customers with new services and more HD channels, we’re currently using switched digital technology — this is transparent to our customers. Switched digital allows Cox to maximize our network capacity and offer more services including a variety of digital and HD channels to our customers.”

Time Warner, which has a special page dedicated to the topic,  has not started switched video in Orange County but is testing it in part of the San Fernando Valley.

It’s all good. Unless you’re a TiVo user who watches cable via a CableCARD, a thick credit-card-like device that slides into TiVos or other machines to decrypt the cable signal. Affected TiVos are TiVo Series 3 DVR, TiVo HD DVR and the TiVo HD XL DVR. (This may be a limited number of folks out there but their issue should be addressed.)

The problem with TiVo/CableCARDs and switched digital video technology is that switched video requires two-way communication — the user requests the channel, the cable company delivers. But cable cards are one way. If a cable system goes switched video, a TiVo user will see nothing on those channels, as was the case last year in Hawaii when Time Warner began testing the service.  (Read: Time Warner Cable plans more channels in O.C. despite fines. The fines, by the way, were later lifted).

Time Warner does offer free set-top boxes to subscribers with CableCARDs. But that would defeat the purpose of having a TiVo and CableCARD.

“It is just important that any customer requesting a CableCARD understand that some of our channels are being delivered using technology known as Switch Digital Video,” said Darryl Ryan, a Time Warner spokesman, said that TiVo customers could get a free set-top box.

“This means the current generation of devices like TVs and TiVos even though they have CableCARDs, they were not designed to receive any service delivered using the Switch Digital Video technology. So, it is best to set-top box to be able to access all the services and channels we offer such as Video On Demand, Pay Per View, guide channel and On Demand,” Ryan said.

But there’s an easy, simple fix from both companies: A free adapter, which became available last fall. Time Warner plans to offer them to TiVo users when the technology launches (You can order an adapter HERE). Cox also has an external tuning adapter that will be free to TiVo users with CableCARDs, but Ong adds, “we are currently in testing mode.”

TiVo’s Jim Denny, vice president of product marketing, said that TiVo has been working with various cable providers nationwide to offer a tuning adapter that turns a TiVo with CableCARD into a two-way device.

“If there are reports of it being out of stock, I will escalate that to our (cable TV) corporate contact,” Denny said. “What a TiVo subscriber should also do is call our customer support and say, ‘Hey, I’m trying to get a TiVo adapter.’ … Our motivation is to get (potential and existing TiVo subscribers) through this.”

Back to the Yorba Linda reader, we figured out that switched video wasn’t the problem. Time Warner told him it was auditing CableCARDs and sent a technician to his house to take the serial number and re-input the cards. It took 90 minutes to do four cards. Everything is now working, reports the reader.

(Images from TiVo)

Around the web:

Company sites:

• Switched Digital Video - Will it impact you? (TiVo)
• Switched Digital Video Tuning Adapter FAQ (CableLabs)
• How to install a Tuning Adapter for switched digital video (TiVo)
• Time Warner’s guide to Switched Video (Time Warner Cable)
• Order a switched video adapter from Time Warner (Time Warner Cable)

News: 

• Current State of Switched Digital Video (SDV) and CableCard compatibility (Green Button Forum for Windows Media Center users)
• TiVo and cable industry unveil Switched Digital Video workaround (CNET’s Crave)
• FCC Vacates SDV Rulings Against Time Warner Cable, Cox (Multichannel News)

More TV news:

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More HD channels coming to cable TV, TiVo users impacted

Club member, and former Internet Security group leader, Dave Keays, will speak about how to use Web 2.0 correctly. 

::Event Details::

What: NOCCC April meeting

When: Sunday, July 5, 2009

Where: Chapman University, 333 N. Glassell Street in Orange. Here’s a MAP. The room is the Hashinger Science Center and Irvine Hall, located near the Northwest corner of Center Street and Palm Ave.

Time: The main meeting is at 2 p.m. Earlier sessions on digital photography, Linux, beginner courses and more start at 9 a.m. Stump the PC Club contributor Ed Schwartz  will lead a session on Metadata, the best way to manage a collection of photos. 

More information: E-mail club president Jim Sanders at president@noccc.org. Also, more details are in the NOCCC’s monthly newsletter HERE.

Visit the Gadgetress’ PC Club page at ocregister.com/link/pcclub. To get answers delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE. Recent PC Club answers:

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Find out how to use Web 2.0 correctly

1. MTV
2. VH1
3. CMT (Country Music Television
4. Nickelodeon
5. Spike TV
6. Comedy Central

The channels were chosen because they are “some of the most watched channels on FiOS,” said Jon Davies, a FiOS spokesman.  That brings Verizon’s HD count to 127, making it Orange County’s TV service with the most HD channels.  Here’s my chart:

Not sure when FiOS started offering the channels, but according to a FiOS forum board, some subscribers spotted them this week, although some folks had problems tuning in.

The new Viacom channels also are showing up nearly one month ahead of the rollout by Cox Communications, which plans to add nine new HD channels on July 28 (Read: “Cox Cable adding 9 HD channels in Orange County“). Now that I’m typing this up, I noticed that two channels Cox plans to offer aren’t available to FiOS users — Viacom’s BET HD and Time Warner’s Cartoon Network HD. The third channel, News Corp.’s FX HD, is already offered by FiOS. I’ll have to get an explanation on this.

Of course, Verizon isn’t available in most cities in Orange County. But Davies, with FiOS, wanted to clarify to readers that the fiber-based TV and Internet service isn’t really slowing down, as I’ve reported in the past (read: “Verizon’s FiOS TV rollout slows in So Cal.”)

The point, he said, is that FiOS started in Orange County and parts of Los Angeles back in 2004, or well before the rest of the country. Because FiOS is further along here, it’s not doing as much construction in O.C. as it is elsewhere. In O.C., it’s focusing on marketing the service to homes within its built-out area. FiOS is still expanding, he insisted. His quote:

“As we discussed previously, we were indeed focused more on selling and marketing FiOS in the first quarter of 2009 but in the second quarter and throughout the rest of the year we are continuing to build fiber in other parts of California. Because we started building FTTP (fiber to the premises) in Orange County in 2004, we are farther along with our build there and so we aren’t doing as much construction lately as we have been doing elsewhere. As evidence of our continued roll out of FiOS, I can tell you we’re getting ready to announce FiOS TV availability in some more cities in San Bernardino County.”

Here in Orange County, Verizon is available in some parts of these cities: Brea, Cypress, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, La Habra, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Stanton, Westminster and certain unincorporated areas.

Recent Verizon FiOS news:

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Verizon FiOS adds 6 HD channels, says it’s not really slowing down in SoCal

Interestingly, I just checked Twitter and couldn’t find any of those 750 people tweeting about waiting in line for an interview. One guy did comment on this blog that he was there: “Was a LOT of people there. They updated the internal site showing all the listings last night / this AM. There were some sales spots and some in customer retention.”

I also noticed that Cox’s career page still has a few O.C. openings on its career site, with no mention wehther they’ve been filled. Likely, Cox is still browsing through 750 resumes. Some jobs advertised in its site (which could be the same ones from last week):

• Sales Solution Store Concierge, part-time, 30 hours/week, $12.69/hour
• Sales Solutions Specialist, part-time, 30 hours/week, $13.85/hour plus commissions
• Internet Manager in charge of product management, development and strategy. No salary posted.

Anywho…

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When 750 people show up for 60 jobs…

Stump the PC Club is a free tech-advice column written by members of the North Orange County Computer Club, which has been in existence since 1976. Visit the club’s site at noccc.org. And don’t forget to stop by the Gadgetress’ home for the PC Club, at ocregister.com/link/pcclub, to find out how to ask a question and read past answers.

QUESTION: My operating system is XP and my computer is a desktop with a 114 gigabyte hard drive. How often should I defrag and how do I go about doing it? Typical answer is when computer slows down but I’m not sure I can recognize this. Also, I leave my computer on continuously — is this good or bad?

PC CLUB: Hard drive maintenance is an important part of keeping your PC running smoothly and operating at peak performance. Defragging is one of the three major components involved.  This maintenance is not the only factor but the one we’ll address here. Other factors include controlling the programs that run when you start up your PC and the prevention of viruses and spyware from invading your system.

These three major components of disk maintenance include periodic Disk Cleanup  Disk Error checking, formally called Check Disk; and Defragging. Disk Cleanup was discussed previously in Stump the PC Club’s article “How to cleanup your hard drive” available at http://bit.ly/UWYlY.

These tasks should be performed in this order. You’ll want to clean up your hard drive prior to performing the other tasks so you don’t waste time processing unwanted files. Also, you will not be able to run a successful defrag if your drive has any errors on it — that’s why Disk Checking should be performed prior to defrag. The easiest way to run Disk Checking is to open My Computer, right-click the drive you want to check, usually the C drive, and select Properties. Select the Tools tab and click Check Now (see image on right).

When the next window opens place checkmarks in both boxes. Windows will inform you that this task will run the next time Windows starts up. Allow some time for this to take place depending on your hard drive size and speed.

Now, back to defragging.

Basically, files on hard drives can become fragmented. In plain English, this means that instead of a file’s contents occupying a contiguous portion of the drive, its contents are spread out in pieces or fragments. That forces the hard drive to spend time searching for all of the fragments of a file when reading it.

Defragmenting places the entire contents of a file in one contiguous location, thus speeding up your drive’s performance.

How often you need to do this depends on how frequently you add files to or delete files from your drive. Theoretically, if you never performed these tasks, you would never have to defrag.

But first, clean up the disk. Disk cleanup can be done frequently since the disk accumulates unnecessary files as a result of performing routine tasks, such as browsing the Internet. The more frequently you perform disk cleanup, the less time it requires to complete.

Defragging, on the other hand, can be performed less frequently depending on your frequency of adding and removing files. Installing and uninstalling of software are examples of activities that could fragment your drive. I typically defrag my drives on three- to six-month intervals. You can start the defragging process by clicking Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter. It will pull up a screen that looks like this:

If you click the Analyze button first, another window will open allowing you to view a report. If the fragmentation is above 10 percent, it’s a good time to defragment your drive. The directions above apply equally to Windows XP and Vista.

A free alternative to the Windows defragging tool  is Defraggler. This program was written by the same company that provides CCleaner at www.ccleaner.com. It can be downloaded from their web site at www.defraggler.com. Be sure to read all of its online help. There  is a portable version also should you be interested.

As far as leaving your PC on all of the time, it’s fine to do this provided you set up your PC to enter the standby mode after a period of inactivity to conserve energy.

To do this, go to your Control Panel and open the Power Options. Use the System standby drop-down box to select a duration of inactivity before entering the standby mode. See image below:

It’s also a good idea to turn off your PC completely and let it re-boot at least once weekly. This gives Windows an opportunity to cleanup after itself by removing some temporary files. ~Ed Schwartz, NOCCC member. View his blog at www.edwardns.com/blog.

Visit the Gadgetress’ PC Club page at ocregister.com/link/pcclub. To get this answer delivered to your computer automatically, sign up for the e-mail update HERE. Recent PC Club answers:

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When should you defrag your computer?

 This brings the number of Cox’s HD channels to 62, by my count, which is still above Time Warner’s approximately 55 HD channels (a number that is higher or lower depending on what city you live in).

Overall, Verizon FiOS still ranks at the top of the HD heap with 127 HD channels. DirecTV is a close second with124 HD channels (DirecTV’s number includes 20 “regional sports channels”). Anyway, here’s the latest tally, according to my research: 

For Cox customers, the new channels come from Viacom, which were also recently introduced to FiOS customers (and I haven’t mentioned yet). The new channels are:

Because of the additions, Cox is moving other channels around. Those are:

Past stories on HD channels:

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Cox Cable adding 9 HD channels in Orange County

As mentioned earlier, the Total Home DVR, which allows subscribers to access the same recorded TV shows from any room in the house where there is a U-verse receiver, will now enable any box in the house to record, delete or schedule recordings instead of relying on the main DVR box to do so.    

 Also, speeds for U-verse’s High Speed Internet Max will increase 20 percent to 12 megabits per second, from 10 Mbps.

Read about other changes and improvements at “New perks from AT&T U-verse sure to make cable users jealous.”

More U-Verse news:

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O.C., L.A. U-verse users get upgraded today

If you have questions about TV or mobile phone service in Orange County, I’ll do my best to get your questions answered.

I’ve also checked with Verizon FiOS and AT&T’s U-verse to get updates on how these alternative-to-cable TV services are doing. Check it out and join the fun:

When: 9-11 a.m. on Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Where: Twitter

Why? Hmm… because I was asked?

How to play: Get yourself a Twitter account and between those 2 hours Wednesday, tweet me questions or comments by adding @gadgetress within the 140-character update box and add #TwOrCo so the whole gang can follow along.

Recent stories I’ve covered:

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So Tweet me! Gadgetress to take questions at #TwOrCo

And these are people who can’t order FiOS, like most of us in Orange County, even if we dangled a $100 bill in front of a Verizon installer!

When it comes to buying a house, this speedy Internet, which requires a company to connect cables from its facility all the way to a consumer’s front door, was more important than having nearby jogging trails, 24-hour security, a community pool or a neighborhood fitness center, according to report commissioned by the Fiber-to-the-Home Council and conducted by Oklahoma consulting firm RVA Market Research and Consulting. 

Fiber lets companies like Verizon offer its speedy FiOS network of super-fast Internet (up to 50 Mbps downstream, 20 Mbps upstream to upload videos, photos), TV service, phone and pretty much anything else it wants to offer customers at home. Many in Orange County have been salivating for the service, or so it seems.

In reality, though, will people really buy a house because it has FiOS?

———————————

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Verizon recently acknowledged that it slowed FiOS expansion plans in Southern California because customers who could order it, weren’t. Said Verizon at the time, “… In order to get the return on our investment we need to focus on areas that we’ve already built.” (Read the earlier story, Verizon’s FiOS TV rollout slows in So Cal.)

Likewise, AT&T, which offers a similar service called U-verse, also pulled back on expansion plans. (Read the earlier story, “Oh no! U-verse rollout slowing down.”)

And places that do have FiOS are doing little to market the feature. Condos and apartment buildings that are wired seem to be doing little to entice fiber-seeking residents, at least here in Orange County.

When Verizon mentioned in January that 15,000 apartments in Orange County were FiOS friendly, it declined to list those locations saying it didn’t have clearance to release those names. My ensuing offer to those dwellings to tell me who they are in exchange for some free publicity has resulted in zilch. You have to use Google to search sites like Move.com for any sign of FiOS service, which shows up as an amenity at Carnegie Lane Apartments in Redondo Beach.

What gives?

Michael Render, president and principal of survey-conductor RVA Market Research, doesn’t believe FiOS or any other fiber-optic developer is losing steam. Rather, a pullback is probably due to the high cost of construction or increased competition from cable companies as FiOS enters new neighborhoods. 

“Companies like Verizon face a lot of competition in the areas they’re in. They tend to be up against competent cable companies that offer service as well,” Render said.

Based on his research, consumers want fiber, he said. “(Fiber services) have been meeting expectations. The fiber rollouts out there have reported very few failures. Satisfaction reports are very high.” 

Of course, people who have experienced fiber-based Internet really love it. RVA surveyed 600 more people who have fiber and 82 percent said they expect to also have fiber in their next house.

Click chart to enlarge

“The survey results make clear that once they have it, people really love their direct fiber broadband,” said Joe Savage, president of the Fiber to the Home Council, in a press release. “When we asked FTTH users whether they would consider disconnecting their service if economic conditions forced them to rethink their household budgets, 49 percent of them said their fiber connection would be the ‘last thing’ they would give up. Only 11 percent said it would be the first.”

More: Fiber to the Home Council-commissioned survey on consumer broadband: LINK

Recent AT&T U-Verse news:

Recent Verizon FiOS news:

Check out the Gadgetress Guide to local TV services. 

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Would you buy a house because it has Verizon FiOS?

Called “Green Perks,” T-Mobile’s coupon program is intended to promote the company’s “green” efforts by offering discounts on environmentally conscious products from Method, Jamba Juice, Volcom, Roxy and Quiksilver, according to the press release.

The point of a cell phone coupon is to pull it up on your phone’s screen, show it to the store’s cashier and leave with a discount on your purchase. No printing, no paper necessary — very green, get it?

As a T-Mobile subscriber, I downloaded this myself. Oddly, T-Mobile didn’t create an app for Google Android phones, so G1 users like myself need to go to the phone’s settings and allow “unknown sources” to install non-Android Market applications (scary!).  Full instructions are HERE.

Only six coupons showed up for me, including 20 percent off a Volcom V-Co. Logical item at Volcom Brand Stores. That was the only in-store discount. Deals for Roxy, Quiksilver, CatSwell, DogSwell and Method cleaning products were only available through official company Web sites, which defeats the purpose of getting the discount on the phone. No Jamba Juice coupon to be found, by the way.

Still, I like the idea of having coupons on my cell phone. I hate messing with paper ones because you either 1) have to print or cut them out and 2) remember to use them. Now, I just need to remember to use them. 

The whole mobile coupon trend news reminds me of a story I wrote in 2006 (see “Other things your cell phone can do“) about, well, other things your cell phone can do. I mentioned Cellfire, a mobile coupon service that is alive and well today, and teaming up with stores like Vons, Payless Shoes and Hollywood Video. 

Now, if only those coupons would pop up on my phone’s screen when I neared the store… 

Green Perks is free but available only to T-Mobile users with a data plan and must be requested by going to a web site:  www.t-mobile.com/mobilize. The software is downloaded to a user’s phone and needs to be launched to see what’s new. 

More on mobile coupons from the web:

• Verizon rejecting new standard-rate mobile coupon programs? (Mobile Marketer)
• Popeye’s, Borders, OshKosh B’gosh offer mobile coupons (Mobile Marketer)
• Vons offering digital coupons (OC Deals)
• Wienerschnitzel hooks up with digital hotties (Fast Food Maven)

Recent cell-phones news from The Gadgetress:

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T-Mobile adds printless coupons via cell phone