[James Long]

How will local ads be inserted?

They will be recorded as part of the combined feed. The feature records the big four networks in HD in your own market. Local commercials included.

 

[James Long]

Who really like primetime TV this much? Serious question, I just don't get it..

The 20th ranked TV show Dec. 26, 2011-Jan. 1, 2012 had 7,117,000 estimated viewers. Someone is watching.

And as much as I pay for satellite TV it is embarrassing how many of my timers are set for free OTA programming (delivered via satellite). This looks like a good way of catching conflicting shows on competing networks as well as catching the end and beginning of shows that don't quite fit their timeslot (epilogs airing as the next show begins) without needing to choose in advance what program to watch. It will free up the other tuners for non-big 4 and "cable" channels.

 

[James Long]

I was told today that part of why we don't have CW included is that there is some special flagging added to the satellite stream, so I wouldn't expect to find that on the channels that you or I choose.

I can see the flags, and have been reporting their addition to channels for the past few months (in Uplink Activity). So far only "abc", "nbc", "cbs" and "fox" tags are added. There should be no technical reason not to be able to add a "cw" tag, but it would require the channel to be on the same transponder as the big four for each market and depending on if they are recording the whole transponder or just the streams needed for the big four it would take up more space on the hard drive.