Fox News HD

[Normb101]

Why is Fox News HD not available on Rogers ?

I have been asking this question for quite a few years and have never been able to get an answer.

Fox News has been broadcasting in HD for years, yet for some reason, Rogers will not add the channel.

I'd much rather watch Fox News in HD than some of the other channels Rogers has, such as the Fireplace Channel etc....

***Edited labels***

[57]

@TinyTim : Check out posts 59, 60 of this thread on the previous page. It seems you just can't please everyone.  😉

[TinyTim]

I stand by my request...HELLO?! is anyone at Rogers listening? EITHER deliver the signal in its 480i originating format in 4:3 letterbox, OR give us the Fox News Channel HD standard 720p in full screen. It's idiotic to blow up the SD image (only 360 lines of horizontal resolution) and make it all blurry, but in the first instance above, anyone can blow it up (or "zoom" it) themselves if they want to fill their screen with a blurry, fuzzy image. I know the Fox News Channel is available in HD because I have seen it numerous times while travelling in the U.S. It is disgusting that we subscribers pay a huge premium for HD service while over 50 channels are still only delivered in SD.

[343sj]

It is disappointing that Rogers still doesn't have Fox News in HD, but I much prefer the recent change, which makes the SD feed look far better than just "zooming" did, so I disagree with TinyTim, as do others as indicated above.  This is not a sufficient change, but it's an improvement.

[jreeeiu]

So get this, Rogers made a change to one channel in their line up, 181

This channel was letter box just like cnn cnbc and msnbc, 183,184,185

Now it's full screen and looks awful in on a HD box but if you had a couple old SD 940's you'll miss about 1/4 of the picture.

The you can call CSR and find out they will do nothing for your problem. it worked a week a go now it dosen't. Go spend some money and upgrade your hardware.

I pay extra for this specific channel and really this channel alone. now they make a change to this specific channel and they want more money so i can watch like i did a week ago.

Can someone say extortion ? 

it's one thing if they removed the 480i source and put HD in it's place but this is not that.

I asked why they didn't do this with CNN or CBC

Because the outcry from people with SD boxes would be a mess. so lets just ignore the people that watch FNC.

Nice to watch JD cut in half.

[57]

@jreeeiu: Fox News is not in HD, as discussed in my recent posts in this thread. It's 480 x 720 with AFD to fill the screen on HD boxes. The 940 should react properly and not utilize AFD.  Perhaps you have one of the stretch modes enabled on the TV itself?  Cycle the TV through the various aspect modes.

If you can confirm that the TV is not stretching the image, then you should contact Rogers and have them rectify the situation, perhaps by supplying you with an HD box (for free)?  How does it look on other channels that utilize AFD like 707, 705, 703, that I mentioned previously?

[TinyTim]

I agree that the "zoomed" image for Fox News Channel (#181 in Toronto) may be fractionally better than if I zoomed it myself, but the difference is minimal and the zoomed image (640x480 letterbox SD zoomed to fill the 16x9 screen) still looks blurry and gives me a headache.

If anybody from Rogers is out there, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE give us the 720p HD feed for Fox News Channel (and 1080i for CNBC and MSNBC). We don't need HD garbage channels in Toronto like fireplace channel, barker channel or French channels. And while your at it, give us the HD feed for all the Canadian time-shift networks, which are all broadcast free-to-air in their home markets anyway.

[jreeeiu]

don't get 707, 705, 703
this is not a tv issue, it has been confirmed by rogers that the 940 will not adjust to the new format, like i said let them try it with CNN or CBC and see what happens.

[OLDYELLR]

I guess it's personal taste whether you prefer watching SD letterboxed or zoomed to fill the screen. I sit about 12 feet from my 55" 4K TV when the ideal viewing distance should be about half that and just a couple of feet to see the ultimate resolution at 4K. So I like to view SD full screen.  But if you're close enough, then filling the screen with a fuzzy SD picture would certainly be objectionable.  My personal preference would be to leave SD letterboxed and I'll zoom it if I want to. SD channels are only a small percentage of what I watch, but I certainly would watch Fox News if it was included in my package.

All that be that as it may, Rogers doesn't provide many channels in HD just to save money and help their bottom line.

[jreeeiu]

You know what their bottom line is?

Google it, I got in trouble a while back for posting the numbers they make. They are always trying to screw the people that make that bottom line.

I wish some big US company came up here to cut that bottom line in half. then we would see our problems addressed.

Anyways the CRS tier 2 said i would get a call from the presidents office to resolve my issue, no call today though,  guess they are too busy counting money

[Pauly]

I have been reading this post and yes there are some valid points, but at the end of the day its up to Rogers Cablesystems to determine if its feasible to add Fox News HD to their cable lineup, no matter how much public outcry or demand there is for it.

[Pauly]

Someone said a comment about how they want SD channels to be letterbox,  but did you know Widescreen SD is also very popular, maybe not popular in north america but in other parts of the world like europe its common for widescreen sd to fill your screen just like hd, but lower quality which makes sense cus its not hd.

I'm guessing not many people on here are italian but incase you guys are not aware, Rai Italia has been in widescreen SD for a LONG TIME now on Rogers Cablesystems.  At fist it was horizontally squeezed into a 4x3 frame but they must have turned on the AFD descriptor in the signal but only HD boxes can intercept this and stretch to fill it, but this only works on Rogers Cablesystems with an HD box, Rogers SD boxes and other providers like Bell TV boxes do not recognize this as a 16x9 signal and must manually be stretched via the box or tv.

[343sj]

Not really comparable, since SD in Europe is higher resolution  than SD in Canada (571 vs 480).   European SD is closer to DVD quality than it is the Canadian SD.

[57]

@343sj : You do realize that Region 1 DVDs are 480i?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code#PAL/SECAM_vs._NTSC

[trudoh]

while you all fight over regions and resolution, please remember we are asking Rogers to do what Telus does for our west coast canucks...Provide popular channels in HD, including FOXNews,and BBC world news! 1080 is what people want and it's what you should provide...why not?
We still haven't heard a good reason!

[57]

Several "good" reasons are outlined in the following post.

http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Community-Lounge/Fox-News-why-not-full-HD/m-p/415826#M1143

- Very few viewers (in Canada)

- Additional cost to the provider not worth it for very few viewers.

See also:  http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Community-Lounge/Fox-News-why-not-full-HD/m-p/415844#M1149

[trudoh]

thanks for the prompt reply,

I wonder if I can see those numbers, but I also wonder how many people don't even realize they have the option of watching Fox news, it's not available on basic cable, when for some reason CNN is… Even CP24 is not available on basic cable! Weird

[OLDYELLR]

---

@57 wrote:

See also:  http://communityforums.rogers.com/t5/Community-Lounge/Fox-News-why-not-full-HD/m-p/415844#M1149

---

"So, what you're saying here is that access and quality (HD vs SD) for tv viewers in Canada should be determined solely by American numbers, and determined and controlled by corperations in the U.S. "

For the last year so much Canadian MSM news has been devoted to Donald Trump that maybe it's time we also saw the U.S. perspective.

[OLDYELLR]

---

@trudoh wrote:
thanks for the prompt reply,

I wonder if I can see those numbers, but I also wonder how many people don't even realize they have the option of watching Fox news, it's not available on basic cable, when for some reason CNN is… Even CP24 is not available on basic cable! Weird

---

I think CNN was available on basic cable even before the CTV and CBC cable news channels existed. It's where we got our world and U.S. news. But today it's not your father's CNN, it's blatant left wing stuff. That's why Fox News is needed for balance.

[57]

Just remember that we can see Fox News.  It's just not in HD.

If you're talking about wanting it to be on basic, that's the topic of a different thread and is decided by the CRTC, not Rogers.  This thread is about whether the currently available Fox News should be made available in HD.  The reasons it's not in HD have been made relatively clear.

[trudoh]

Read about it here, guys: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/crtc/article23541572/

Rogers Picked CNN, not the CRTC. When I ordered skinny basic, I was told well, it doesn't have CP24! This is just silly, if you don't want to make it available to almost everyone at least make it available to the people who want to pay for it.

I see we're at an impasse 😕

[57]

According to the Rogers website, CNN is not on Rogers' most basic package (Starter), as was claimed by others in this thread.  Neither is CTV News, or CBC News, or CP24.

https://www.rogers.com/consumer/tv/starter-package#/starter-channels?sort=number