Sharks/Predators Blacked Out in HD

[sdk009]

I can't understand why D* can't tell me why the Sharks/Predators game is on vs., but blacked out on Ch 95. Is anybody seeing the game in HD?

[durl]

I'm blacked out in Nashville, too. I can't figure this out at all. The GAME itself can't be blacked out because I'm watching the SD version on VS, so why would they black out the HD? It makes no sense.

I had a similar problem with a baseball game. I called D* and they couldn't figure out why I couldn't get the HD version. About 10 minutes later, the game started coming through in HD.

UPDATE: Just got off the phone with D* customer service and I can't fully accept their explanation. The rep said 95 is a test channel so not every program displayed will actually be broadcast. I thought 95 was their HD "special" channel, not a testing one. 98 and 93 seem to be test channels.

[pedavis]

I just got off the phone with D* tech support. They said the problem was with the Cubs/Braves game that was on from 4:30 - 7:30 (pacific time), which you would only get if you had MLB extra innings. They always add 3 hours or so to a sports game in case it goes long. The problem is that even though we see the game, the tech support guy I talked to still saw the Cubs/Braves game.

He was going to escalate the problem - didn't sound promising though that they would get it fixed in time.

Go sharks.

[Steve0296]

At the end of the first period, I rebooted my HR20 (which takes quite a while) and after that I could see the game in HD. It's frustrating that it's so difficult to get some HD hockey. Looked good though.

Another gripe - Versus airing back to back games exclusively. The Sabres-Islanders very nearly went into overtime. If it had, the Sharks game would have been joined in progress. There was no alternate broadcast available even for local viewers or Center Ice subscribers. CI subscribers pay for access to the games all year, if we were to get shut out in the playoffs it would be really annoying. Versus shouldn't be given exclusive access to games that might get pre-empted if another game runs long.

[fvmojoman]

I can't understand why D* can't tell me why the Sharks/Predators game is on vs., but blacked out on Ch 95. Is anybody seeing the game in HD?

I was extremely mad last night here in Nashville to not be able to receive the game in HD. Comcast had it, why can't Directv? The CSR's are freaking clueless and I spent the entire 2nd period trying to get a good answer. Never did. I'm considering changing to Comcast although the Sunday Ticket would be hard to leave.

[mhayes70]

I couldn't get it either. This is a major problem and Directv needs get resolve now. This should of never happened. Why didn't they put the cubs game on I think channel 94 MLBHD because there was nothing on that channel last night and left 95 for the VS HD feed?

[shmengie]

sorry guys. i finally got a game on 95, woo hoo! funny, it was on vs608 and hd95. now, if i could just get a freakin' ducks game in hd...

[sdk009]

I think that for some reason the HD telecast was blacked out in NorCal and the Nashville area, which makes no sense. I tried twice to call D*, the first CSR lied saying that blackouts of ALL sports were mandated by the various leagues, which we all know is not true. The second CSR telling me that the game just isn't on. She even put me on hold to allegedly check the TV at her location.
It's very frustrating as 99% of the CSRs at D* are clueless about these kind of issues, and some must take great joy in out-in-out lying to the customers.

[durl]

At the end of the first period, I rebooted my HR20 (which takes quite a while) and after that I could see the game in HD. It's frustrating that it's so difficult to get some HD hockey. Looked good though.

Well I feel lousy now. All it took was a reboot?? It never occurred to me that a reboot would help the situation.

[packfan909]

The cubs game did not end until towards the end of the first period of the sharks game. I never had to reboot but the broadcast opened up right as VS. went to their intermission coverage.

pf

[Steve0296]

The cubs game did not end until towards the end of the first period of the sharks game. I never had to reboot but the broadcast opened up right as VS. went to their intermission coverage.

pf

Ah, that's interesting. The guide didn't show the Sharks starting till 7:30. When I still couldn't get it after that time, I decided to reboot just in case it would help. Just a coincidence that the game came on then.

But it begs another question - why put both of these games on 95 when they are so likely to overlap? I don't think anything was airing on 94, which is listed as an MLB channel isn't it?

And why if it was a simple matter of waiting for the other game to end did others get such a runaround from CSR's?

[Steve0296]

sorry guys. i finally got a game on 95, woo hoo! funny, it was on vs608 and hd95. now, if i could just get a freakin' ducks game in hd...

The Ducks tv situation is sad. No HD, and many games relegated to the UHF channel KDOC which has poor picture quality. Though the sound has improved from early in the season when the announcers were apparently broadcasting from inside a tin can. With Center Ice, I have better coverage of every other NHL team than I do of the one that plays just up the road.

[sdk009]

The cubs game did not end until towards the end of the first period of the sharks game. I never had to reboot but the broadcast opened up right as VS. went to their intermission coverage.

pf

Well, this information blows my theory about the game being blacked out in Northern Calif.

[vansmack]

Walked into a bar last night in SF and there were three local games on. The "win or you're out" Golden State Warriors Game, Game 4 of the Sharks playoffs series, and game 17 of 162 of the Giants baseball season. Which one do you think the RSN had in HD?

That's right, only the Giants.

And which ones do you think the majority of the bar were there to see?

I would say 60% the Warriors and 39% the Sharks and 1% the Giants.

And the owner said to me - I pay how much a month for DirecTV to give me HD so that I can have unhappy customers ask me about the grey bars on the side of the TV for these games? No matter what happens with Vs. and the RSN's, D*TV will take the blame and the reason is simple - the customers are paying money to D*TV, they're not paying money to either team or either channel.

And for the record, Vs. HD has in the past always been blacked out in the Bay Area when the Sharks play because "FSN-BA has exclusive rights to the HD Sharks games in the Bay Area." When I ask how come I get HD NBC games then, I get no answer.

[packfan909]

Walked into a bar last night in SF and there were three local games on. The "win or your out" Golden State Warriors Game, Game 4 of the Sharks playoffs series, and game 17 of 162 of the Giants baseball season. Which one do you think the RSN had in HD?

That's right, only the Giants.

And which ones do you think the majority of the bar were there to see?

I would say 60% the Warriors and 39% the Sharks and 1% the Giants.

And the owner said to me - I pay how much a month for DirecTV to give me HD so that I can have unhappy customers ask me about the grey bars on the side of the TV for these games? No matter what happens with Vs. and the RSN's, D*TV will take the blame and the reason is simple - the customers are paying money to D*TV, they're not paying money to either team or either channel.

And for the record, Vs. HD has always been blacked out in the Bay Area when the Sharks play because "FSN-BA has exclusive rights to the HD Sharks games in the Bay Area." When I ask how come I get HD NBC games then, I get no answer.

FSNBA has always said that last nights game was going to be on Versus. I don't believe this was a blackout of HD. Channel 95 is the wildcard channel for sports in HD. There was an Extra Innings game on earlier that didn't finish until the Sharks game was finishing the 1st Period. Once that game was a final (I was checking ESPN.com) about five minutes later Channel 95 popped on with the Intermission Show and then the 2nd Period.

When the broadcast was not on, Channel 95 had the 721 message on it. If it were a "Black Out" it would of said "Program Not Availabile In Your Area." Can you confirm what message was showing? I am in the "local" area for Sharks games and I never had a problem. Now I can not get FSNBA-HD as I am too far out of the spot beam. I have been pleased that VS. is carrying the games. I have watched more Sharks in HD this week than I have all season.

Next season will be different as D* will have the bandwidth.

pf

[vansmack]

Can you confirm what message was showing? I am in the "local" area for Sharks games and I never had a problem.


You raise a good point - perhaps the playoffs would be handled differently. But I can assure you that there are countless other threads (in whatever forum they reside in now) of regular season games getting 608 SD broadcasts and the 721 message on 95 for the HD broadcast. And perhaps you living out of the FSN-BA may have an affect.

Unfortunately, I can only go by the word of mouth from the bartender, but he was on 95 and it was an SD broadcast (grey bars on the side). The same thing happend in SF for game 3. The Sabres/Islanders game was in HD on 95 and as soon as they did a lookin to the arena before the puck dropped for the Sharks game, I lost the HD feed for the Islanders game on 95 (it switched to SD) and switched to 96 to watch the HD FSN-BA feed of the Sharks game. The HD on 95 never came back.

[packfan909]

You raise a good point - perhaps the playoffs would be handled differently. But I can assure you that there are countless other threads (in whatever forum they reside in now) of regular season games getting 608 SD broadcasts and the 721 message on 95 for the HD broadcast. And perhaps you living out of the FSN-BA may have an affect.

Unfortunately, I can only go by the word of mouth from the bartender, but he was on 95 and it was an SD broadcast (grey bars on the side). The same thing happend in SF for game 3. The Sabres/Islanders game was in HD on 95 and as soon as they did a lookin to the arena before the puck dropped for the Sharks game, I lost the HD feed for the Islanders game on 95 (it switched to SD) and switched to 96 to watch the HD FSN-BA feed of the Sharks game. The HD on 95 never came back.

Was this Mondays game? FSN did not even broadcast the game yesterday. I remember Randy and Marty talking about letting their beards grow from the stands.

On another note, when Versus looked in to the Calgary game on Tuesday it was cool to hear Drew again. Never got to hear his "normal" comments like "head on a swivel" or "how can it be a hook and a dive at the same time." I like Marty but I miss the dynamic of Randy and Drew.

pf

[vansmack]

Was this Mondays game? FSN did not even broadcast the game yesterday.


I know - and that is what furstrates people the most. We get the RSN thing for local advertising dollars. But when the RSN is not broadcasting, and they blackout the HD feed but not the SD feed, it's just mind boggling.

[packfan909]

I know - and that is what furstrates people the most. We get the RSN thing for local advertising dollars. But when the RSN is not broadcasting, and they blackout the HD feed but not the SD feed, it's just mind boggling.

Now that there are three FSNBA channels: FSNBA, FSNBA+, FSNBA+2 all of these games should be able to be on the air. Or, is the new channel just for Arena Football games?

pf

[islesfan]

At the end of the first period, I rebooted my HR20 (which takes quite a while) and after that I could see the game in HD. It's frustrating that it's so difficult to get some HD hockey. Looked good though.

Another gripe - Versus airing back to back games exclusively. The Sabres-Islanders very nearly went into overtime. If it had, the Sharks game would have been joined in progress. There was no alternate broadcast available even for local viewers or Center Ice subscribers. CI subscribers pay for access to the games all year, if we were to get shut out in the playoffs it would be really annoying. Versus shouldn't be given exclusive access to games that might get pre-empted if another game runs long.

Don't worry, the league is aware of this problem, and they have taken care of it. On Monday, when the game looked like it might go to overtime, a puck got lost near the post, and the officials in Toronto decided to call it a goal anyway so there would be no OT. Then on Wednesday, when the Isles tied the game at 3, threatening again to take the game to OT, they waved off a goal that was so clearly good the officials in Toronto didn't want to take responsibility for a clearly bad call, so they got Leggo to make the call on the ice for them.

Either way, Bettman and co. are aware of this problem and have taken steps to prevent OT conflict in the Isles v. Sabres series.

Of course, the Sabers/Isles game was not available in HD on D*, since they had their most popular HD program on ch 94, "To Be Announced."

[islesfan]

Walked into a bar last night in SF and there were three local games on. The "win or you're out" Golden State Warriors Game, Game 4 of the Sharks playoffs series, and game 17 of 162 of the Giants baseball season. Which one do you think the RSN had in HD?

That's right, only the Giants.

And which ones do you think the majority of the bar were there to see?

I would say 60% the Warriors and 39% the Sharks and 1% the Giants.

And the owner said to me - I pay how much a month for DirecTV to give me HD so that I can have unhappy customers ask me about the grey bars on the side of the TV for these games? No matter what happens with Vs. and the RSN's, D*TV will take the blame and the reason is simple - the customers are paying money to D*TV, they're not paying money to either team or either channel.

And for the record, Vs. HD has in the past always been blacked out in the Bay Area when the Sharks play because "FSN-BA has exclusive rights to the HD Sharks games in the Bay Area." When I ask how come I get HD NBC games then, I get no answer.

I can tell you that all during the Isles Sabres game, they kept promoting their "exclusive coverage of the upcoming Sharks Preds game which WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE SAN JOSE AND NASHVILLE AREAS."

[vansmack]

I can tell you that all during the Isles Sabres game, they kept promoting their "exclusive coverage of the upcoming Sharks Preds game which WILL BE AVAILABLE IN THE SAN JOSE AND NASHVILLE AREAS."

Did they say it would be available in HD though?

We always get the Vs. exclusive SD broadcast in home market, but we don't get it in HD.

[Shuma13]

I am in San Jose and I got the "Not Available in your area" message all game on 95. I was really looking forward to watching the game in HD. At least versus SD picture was still 1000 times better than the FSN SD picture.

[sdk009]

You raise a good point - perhaps the playoffs would be handled differently. But I can assure you that there are countless other threads (in whatever forum they reside in now) of regular season games getting 608 SD broadcasts and the 721 message on 95 for the HD broadcast. And perhaps you living out of the FSN-BA may have an affect.

Unfortunately, I can only go by the word of mouth from the bartender, but he was on 95 and it was an SD broadcast (grey bars on the side). The same thing happend in SF for game 3. The Sabres/Islanders game was in HD on 95 and as soon as they did a lookin to the arena before the puck dropped for the Sharks game, I lost the HD feed for the Islanders game on 95 (it switched to SD) and switched to 96 to watch the HD FSN-BA feed of the Sharks game. The HD on 95 never came back.


I got the "...not available in your area 727" message on Ch. 95 , though the game was on Ch. 608 and I'm over the hill in Tracy. Why are we spending additional money to get HD programming, only to be denied it when its on.
I don't get it, and neither does D*. The blackout policy sucks whether its D*, the league, or Joe in Accounting laying down the policy. lt would be nice, however, if D*'s CSRs could offer a straight, consistent, and knowledgeable answer when you call.

[fvmojoman]

I got the "...not available in your area 727" message on Ch. 95 , though the game was on Ch. 608 and I'm over the hill in Tracy. Why are we spending additional money to get HD programming, only to be denied it when its on.
I don't get it, and neither does D*. The blackout policy sucks whether its D*, the league, or Joe in Accounting laying down the policy. lt would be nice, however, if D*'s CSRs could offer a straight, consistent, and knowledgeable answer when you call.

Bottom line for me is that cable obviously could show the game in HD in my market, but Directv keeps dropping the ball. On a side note being a Preds fan, it probably shouldn't matter too much anyway.

[shmengie]

me and my brother have scratched our heads over this for years, even before either of us went hd. like last year, when the ducks went to the conference finals, for example. the game was supposed to be on ci, but was blacked out. furious, i called d* and the csr directed me to channel 56 (a local uhf channel). (needless to say, i never forget to check for ducks' games there anymore!) but my brother, who lives in vegas, got the game on ci.

and of course, last night, the ducks game was on 95, 654 and 76x. except of course, it was blacked out on 95. so here's what i think the solution is (of course, i'm probably on crack):

get a petition together addressed to the nhlpa. in it, we explain why blacking out hd games is hurting the fans and that if every game that was broadcast in hd was not blacked out, regardless of market, that move might actually attract new fans. continuing, if the nhl/nhlpa can make their current fans happier and attract new fans, that will certainly lead to a more prosperous league. to that end, we ask each and every player in the league to accept a voluntary 2-3% pay reduction for 3 years, to offset the cost of licensing hd content to every market. after 3 years, there will either be more hockey fans and the lifting off the pay cut won't hurt, or, the fan base will be the same, in which case you just go back to the status quo. except...now we've got a bigger compliment of hockey programming in hd. and, as you know, it's always harder to go back than forward, so it would be tough for d* or fox or cbc or whoever to take away our hd.

what do you think? am i smoking crack?

[Steve0296]

and of course, last night, the ducks game was on 95, 654 and 76x. except of course, it was blacked out on 95. so here's what i think the solution is (of course, i'm probably on crack):



I completely agree with your point of view. I guess there are a few issues:

The blackouts. I know contracts call for them and DTV has to enforce them, but the league and teams should think about whether they're a net positive. Unless they bring in a lot of extra money - which I doubt - I suspect they aren't.

The Ducks. It's sad that they can't command a better presence on local TV. The Kings are always on Fox Sports and there were quite a number of games in HD, though not always available on DTV. Even though we have two Fox Sports channels the Ducks seem to be the lowest priority. It's sad. The Ducks, if they can, ought to dispense with the blackouts given that they can't provide fans with decent coverage.

Directv's handling of HD hockey. It's been poor throughout the season and it's not gotten any better in the playoffs. Games that could be on 9x aren't, even when nothing else is airing on any of the 9x channels, the guide claims that games are going to air and then they don't, games appear in the guide at the last minute, games on 9x but in SD (I guess this is Versus' fault not DTV's), blank screens, games showing up late because of conflicts with other sports (and no way to tell because the other sport is subscriber-only), clueless CSR's - it's been a mess.

Not related to your issue, but as I complained in another post, Versus being given exclusive rights to two games that might overlap is really dumb. Islesfan, I'm really sorry that the refs had to screw the Isles over just so the Sharks-Predators could air on time.

I hope things will be better next year, when DTV will have more HD capacity. Maybe there will be more games in HD or an HD add-on to CI. Though maybe there won't be because hockey's not popular enough and they won't bother.

As for this year, I guess all we can do is keep complaining.

[bbq-allstar]

I completely agree with your point of view. I guess there are a few issues:

The blackouts. I know contracts call for them and DTV has to enforce them, but the league and teams should think about whether they're a net positive. Unless they bring in a lot of extra money - which I doubt - I suspect they aren't.

The Ducks. It's sad that they can't command a better presence on local TV. The Kings are always on Fox Sports and there were quite a number of games in HD, though not always available on DTV. Even though we have two Fox Sports channels the Ducks seem to be the lowest priority. It's sad. The Ducks, if they can, ought to dispense with the blackouts given that they can't provide fans with decent coverage.

Directv's handling of HD hockey. It's been poor throughout the season and it's not gotten any better in the playoffs. Games that could be on 9x aren't, even when nothing else is airing on any of the 9x channels, the guide claims that games are going to air and then they don't, games appear in the guide at the last minute, games on 9x but in SD (I guess this is Versus' fault not DTV's), blank screens, games showing up late because of conflicts with other sports (and no way to tell because the other sport is subscriber-only), clueless CSR's - it's been a mess.

Not related to your issue, but as I complained in another post, Versus being given exclusive rights to two games that might overlap is really dumb. Islesfan, I'm really sorry that the refs had to screw the Isles over just so the Sharks-Predators could air on time.

I hope things will be better next year, when DTV will have more HD capacity. Maybe there will be more games in HD or an HD add-on to CI. Though maybe there won't be because hockey's not popular enough and they won't bother.

As for this year, I guess all we can do is keep complaining.

I agree 100% with what you said about DirecTV's handling of HD Hockey...Ch95 is hit and miss - and is a joke -- so many times I schedule a recording to record a game that is listed in the guide just to come home and have a black screen recorded.

Take tonight for example...they are showing the Yankees vs Red Sox game on Ch95 and it is also being showed on ESPN HD -- WTF?? If you have the HD package, then you have ESPN HD -- no need to be showing the same game on two channels -- especially when there is playoff hockey -- Buff vs Isle and Sharks vs Preds could be on Ch95!!:mad:

If I had a choice of providers I would dump DirecTV....