Weather Network Wackiness

[robtoe]

Recently switched to Ignite TV, and for reference we have the package with the most channels possible.

Noticed that The Weather Network is offered on CH17 (which seems fairly standard, going back years), but is an SD feed, and looks terrible.

However, despite the SD, this channel offers a persistent forcast for our area on the bottom of the screen, whereas the HD channel we used to have (pre-Ignite) only cycled through a broad range of locales, which was far less useful.    

This prompts 2 questions:

1.  Why the SD channel for The Weather Network Ignite?

and/or 

2.  Why couldn't the HD channel for The Weather Network offer granual local information, as the SD channel does?

[Pauly]

this is an issue with the weather network not rogers. They only make local feeds for majority of communities, so the hd feed is a different feed its national feed, unless they specifically created one for your local area which they probably did not hence why u get the national one instead of local in hd

[robtoe]

Thanks for the reply.

There is a Rogers aspect to this, in that we could watch TWN HD and TWN SD prior to Ignite, so there's a package choice being made somewhere.   That said, as painful as it is to watch the SD version, it has the permanently local weather which is more relevant, and is the best choice of the two.

It is interesting that they (TWN) cannot produce the locally-relevant version in HD, i.e. offer the HD content, but add the local banner at the bottom.

[Gdkitty]

Weird.. i thought there was a channel re-allignment with Ignite, where more all areas were the same, but I guess not??

The Weather Network for myself on Ignite, is on channel 24.
It is in full HD.
I live on the east side of Lake simcoe, but we get the Barrie feed on it.

[robtoe]

Hmmm now I have even more questions.

We're near Orangeville, and pre-Ignite we had TWN HD (high 500s channel).   It cycled through a broad range of municipalities, i.e. Toronto, Unionville, Richmond Hill, Mississauga.   There was no permanent, locally-relevant banner, so it wasn't super-useful.

I've double-checked, and can't find an HD version, and even voice command only offers CH17 (SD).   At least it offers an permanent Orangeville banner.

[57]

On Digital Cable, here in Toronto we have channel 23 which stays on Toronto, channel 191 which is a remap of 23, while channel 586 cycles through towns/cities in Southern Ontario within about 100km of Toronto. All are HD for me.  I'm on Premier.

[robtoe]

Also Premier.   Just chatted with Rogers (Moncton).  

They indicate "no HD TWN on Ignite".    Unsure if just for our area, or some misinformation.

I don't want to overdo this, as this is a minor, minor thing, but would be good to get the correct information.

[Biollw]

London Weather network on my ignite is on channel 23 and is HD and is localized to my location.

[-G-]

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@robtoe wrote:

Also Premier.   Just chatted with Rogers (Moncton).  

They indicate "no HD TWN on Ignite".    Unsure if just for our area, or some misinformation.

I don't want to overdo this, as this is a minor, minor thing, but would be good to get the correct information.

---

The Weather Network's localized HD feeds are not available everywhere.  I'm not in Toronto but am in the Greater Toronto Area, and I currently do get a localized HD feed on Ignite TV.  (IIRC, a few years ago when I had Rogers Digital TV, TWN (on channel 22) was the Toronto feed and my local feed was also available in SD on another channel.  On Fibe TV, I had an HD feed that cycled through forecasts for all cities in the GTA, a (Toronto-only?) SD channel, and a Mediaroom (IPTV)  app for localized info that I could also customize.)

As for what BDUs are required to carry, have a look at the CRTC decision for TWN's licence renewal: https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2018/2018-342.pdf

Application

4. TWN/MM provides a national feed in both official languages and regional feeds in
British Columbia, Alberta, Atlantic Canada, greater Montréal and the extended
Greater Toronto Area, and custom local forecasts in more than 1,000 Canadian
communities.

Mandatory distribution in standard definition and in high definition
39. Pelmorex requested that BDUs be required to distribute TWN/MM in both SD and
HD formats, when available in those formats.

44. In light of the above, the Commission denies the licensee’s request to amend the
mandatory distribution order to require the distribution of TWN/MM in both SD and
HD formats.

Elsewhere in the document, it states that Pelmorex is committing to upgrading their localization equipment (installed in each BDU's head-end) to HD over time.  However, if you are only getting the localized regional feed in SD, the CRTC decision does not require the distribution of the National HD feed as well.