UCI Housing Network and Cable TV Issues

It looks as if HBO is now activated. I get a signal on channel 18, and while the video signal is snowy, it clearly is HBO (like other channels, they put their logo in the lower right corner.)
The audio, though, does not come through.

In the last couple of days, I have noticed quite a number of chinese-language flyers being posted around campus housing.
A fellow Chinese student, Jie, told me today that these flyers come from the Chinese student community, and they are trying to get the housing administration to put the Phoenix channel, which carries Chinese programming, back in the channel lineup.
There is also an English call for support posted to my blog.
So, if you are a Chinese student living in on-campus housing, please support these efforts.

Ok, UCI Cable TV is now using DirecTV...
Let's just hope that the channel freezes are a thing of the past.
The channel lineup is here.

Some impressions so far:

• Still no ESPN, but at least Spike TV and FX, and HBO hopefully coming soon.
• The pretty much useless UCTV and Research channels are gone. That's a good thing. I don't know who had the glorious idea to put these programs up in the first place...
  I am sure the people who produce these programs are sincere, but TV is the wrong venue for them. TV is entertainment, for heaven's sake.
• Audio normalization is still not done. When channel-surfing, the audio always has to be adjusted.
• The channel lineup lists 2 UCI channels, but they don't seem to be there. My suspicion is that they are going to be similar to the UCTV channel. If so, they should rather put some real channels there.

I hope that after this fiasco with Dish the UCI housing administration is more open to student participation. Without a number of students putting pressure on the administration, we would still be stuck with the crappy Dish service.

I just received this email:

Greetings,

We received information from the Housing technology office this morning regarding changes in the residential television services:

The cutover to DirecTV will happen on Tuesday November 23. There will be some down time while this is taking place.

Also, we have been receiving several questions about the channel lineup changing. For the most part the residents seem to like most of the new channels. One comment that I keep receiving is that the Phoenix channel is not being offered by DirecTV. The Phoenix channel is a Chinese language
channel. We are however providing KSCI, a multi-cultural channel whose focus is Chinese programming. It will be located on channel 64. Here is their web site for more information. www.kscitv.com

For information on the new channel lineup, please visit the housing website at www.housing.uci.edu/hit/cabletv/channel_lineup.asp

University California of Irvine
Director, Information Technology - Student Housing

This comes from the VP Gazette mailing list (why doesn't Palo Verde have such a list???):

Cable TV Update
Due to quality of service issues, the provider for cable television will change from DishTV to DirecTV. In this process, 12 channels will be discontinued and replaced with 12 different selections that DirecTV offers. The changes are listed below. This provider transfer goes into effect when the new equipment arrives. In addition, HBO will be installed very soon on channel 67 and the link to the web site for residents to subscribe will be posted on the website. See ResNet website for continuous updates.

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