The Akron Beacon Journal from Akron, Ohio • Page 6

The Beacon Journal Page A6, Sunday, April 17, 1994 Will terminal be interminable? 0 oi a question Many customers are still waiting for new terminal about cable If you want to watch a cable channel on TV while you tape another cable channel on your VCR, you will need: Two Warner terminals with remotes (Cost: $7.20 a month) A two-way splitter and an AB switch to direct the signals This is a road map to hook it up so that it comes out right Two-way splitter Terminal Here's a primer on what's what so you'll know how to order when the Warner installers arrive iPut rJw. a I Out I I in LL I TV 13,000 of Warner's 103,000 customers have the new box. Here's timetable for the rest Warner Cable of Akron has installed 64-channel interactive terminals in 13,000 of its 103,000 subscriber homes; about 7,000 homes are up and running. Warner employees must go into each home to install the terminal that will make the expansion possi-. ble.

Without it, you cannot get cable channels. Warner schedules appointments to install the terminals. Before you see the Warner installers, you can expect to see your channel numbers change to the "Warner (new)" list inside the back cover of the Beacon Journal's Channels magazine. The only area that has been finished is bounded roughly by Howe Avenue North Street, Brittain Road and Main Street. The areas that should be up and running by the end of May are bounded by: North Street, Interstate 76, state Route 59 and Brittain Road.

Exchange Street, Steiner Avenue, state Route 59 and state Route 8. Akron-Peninsula Road, Exchange Street, Portage Path and downtown Akron. Cuyahoga Falls Avenue, Cuyahoga River, Furnace Street and Main Street. Steiner Avenue, U.S. 224, South Main Street and Interstate 77.

Here are the remaining areas that Warner plans to upgrade, including approximate street boundaries and tentative starting months: MAY Interstate 76, U.S. 224, Interstate 77 and Hilbish Avenue. Wooster Avenue, East Avenue and Manchester Road. West Market Street, Frank Boulevard, Greenwood Avenue and Wooster Avenue. JUNE Exchange Street, Opportunity Parkway, Wooster Avenue and Greenwood Avenue.

Frank Boulevard and Hawkins Avenue. Hawkins Avenue, West Market Street and North Portage Path. Kenmore Boulevard, Manchester Road, Bartges Street and Firestone Parkway. JULY Interstate 76, Brittain Road and Eastwood Avenue. North Hawkins Avenue, Sand Run Parkway and Fairlawn.

Interstate 76, Seiberiing Street and Triplett Boulevard. SEPTEMBER Fairlawn. OCTOBER Cuyahoga Falls A. NOVEMBER Cuyahoga Falls Munroe Falls, Silver Lake and Stow A. DECEMBER Barberton, Stow and Tallmadge.

JANUARY 1995 Coventry Township, Doylestown, Norton, Lakemore, Mogadore and Springfield Township. ON HOLD Wadsworth, city and township, until the dispute between the City Council and Warner is resolved. Here's what's on each tier and the cable channel numbers for Warner Cable of Akron's expanded lineup: BASIC TIER 2 WKYC (Channel 3) 3 WDU (Channel 17) 4 WAKC (Channel 23) 5 WVTZ (Channel 25) 6 WUAB (Channel 43) 7 -r- Local information 8 WBNX (Channel 25) 9 i-WJW (Channel 8) 10 'WNEO (Channel 45) WEA0 (Channel 49) 11 WEWS (Channel 5) 12 W0AC (Channel 67) 13 W0I0 (Channel 19) 14 QVC shopping channel SATELLITE TIER 15 Black Entertainment 16 VH-1 17 CNBC 18 CM Headline News 19 USA Network 20 Nickelodeon 21 CNN 22 Lifetime 23-MTV 24 ESPN 25 TNT 26 Arts Entertainment 27 Family Channel 28 Weather Channel 29 Nashville Network 30 SporteChannelOhio A LA CARTE 35 Discovery 36 American Movie Clas sics 37 Atlanta WTBS EXPANDED A LA CARTE 38 Chicago WGN 39 ESPN2 40 Comedy Central 41 Cartoon Network 42 Entertainment 43 Country Music Televi sion 44 Learning Channel 45 Bravo 46 Court TV 47 Senate) 48 VTSN (Faith Values) 49 Local Prograrnming PREMIUM, PAY PER VffiW 50 Pay per view previews 51 Pay Per View 52 Pay Per View 53 Movie Channel 54 Cinemax 55 Disney Channel 56 Showtime 1 57 Home Box Office 1 58 Home Box Office 2 59 Home Box Office 3 60 Showtime 2 61 Flix 62 Pay per view .63 Pay per view 64 Pay per view Cable in in Matching transformer superhighway, right? Answer: Technically and technologically, you're right. But keep that enthusiasm in check. You're not getting rid of the box.

Cable programmers like Turner and Home Box Office want to protect their product, and that's what scrambling is all about. If you get a cable channel, you have to pay for it. And the way they make sure you're paying is by scrambling the channel. So, no matter what options will be available, you'll still need some kind of box to interpret signals and unscramble channels. The box is here to stay.

Question: But I'll have a choice then, won't Answer: Absolutely, and Warner's gamble is that its choice will offer the most services at the best price. That's more than big talk; that's the only way Warner will survive in an increasingly, competitive future. Question: So am I gaining anything with this new Warner system? Answer: Sure, primarily you're gaining choices lots and lots of choices. Some have been mandated by the 1992 Cable Act passed by Congress. Question: Like what? Answer: Well, choice one: You can get just a basic-basic 13-channel tier of service.

That includes the local broadcast stations plus QVC shopping channel and costs $8.75. It doesn't require the terminal. Question: Then what? Answer: You can add a lineup of 17 cable channels for $11.44. Question: OK, I'm up to $20.19. Now what? Answer: Now the choices really kick in.

There are 15 more cable channels that can be added on an a la carte (one by one) basis. Question: What if I want all 15? Answer: The entire 45-channel package with one terminal and one remote will cost you $27.05 plus the franchise fee that your city or township charges Warner and Warner passes on to you. Question: Why can't all the cable channels be a la carte? Answer: According to Fry, the cable services on Channels 15 through 31 forbid Warner from selling them a la carte. Most, like ESPN and Ted Turner's CNN, Some customers, the Kamien-skis included, are ready for an alternative. "We're going to buy one of those new 18-inch satellite dishes and tell Warner to forget it," Linda Kamienski said.

By October, area residents should be able to buy an 18-inch satellite dish for $699 plus installation and get up to 150 channels from a Direct Broadcast Satellite, which bypasses cable systems and comes directly to the home. (The dish can be mounted outside a window or on a roof.) Viewers will still need some sort of decoder for each TV and pay a monthly fee for programming. Fry, though, is convinced that subscribers will like Warner's new system when they get used to the changes: "We know there's competition on the horizon. So we need to have the premier communication system, and that means the best service, choice and selection at the best price. We think this terminal will allow us to provide that and expand services in the future." A happy subscriber Bonnie McGhee, a.

North Akron subscriber with the new terminal, agreed with Fry. "I don't know why people are upset," McGhee said. "I think it's just the idea that they need the box. But I don't fight new technology. With this type of technology, you need a box.

I understand that. Things can't stay the same. "There are so many more choices and so many more options. My Terminal I ITSSj oi f-J tjJ .1 -m7dI yjm i I kEi 0 VHF UHF 2 0 -In In Out UHF VCR Beacon Journal are powerful enough in the industry to force their sale as part of a package. Question: Are there channels I didn't get before? Answer: Eleven, including Chicago station WGN, the Cartoon Channel, Comedy Central, Court TV, the Weather Channel, and Bravo.

Question: Am I done making choices? Answer: Nope, you also have five premium services (Home Box Office, Showtime, Cinemax, the Movie Channel and the Disney Channel), a "mini-premium" (Flix) and the side services offered by the two major premium services (Home Box Office 2 and 3 and Showtime 2). Question: I want everything. How much will it cost me? Answer: With discounts but with one terminal and one remote the tab will be $77.80 plus the city or township franchise fee. Question: What else am I getting for my money? Answer: Among the features is a lockout capability that will allow you to block channels from getting onto your TV screen. The only way to get these channels will be with a four-digit pass code.

This is the parental control feature. If you don't want your kids watching MTV or Showtime or the evening news, you can block the signal. Question: Let's get back to the box. I bought a cable-ready TV to avoid this kind of thing. The salesman told me it would work with cable systems.

Answer: Remember the scene in Animal House where the freshman asks how his frat brothers could have led him astray? Their response, to paraphrase, is, "You screwed up; you trusted us." Cable-ready, a term that has been around for a decade, always has meant different things for different models of VCRs and TV sets. Whether we're talking satellite dishes or cable companies, you'll need a box of some kind for anything more than area broadcast stations. Cable has not always been readily used with cable-ready TV sets. Question: Will those 18-inch satellite dishes or the telephone companies offer me a better deal than Warner? Answer: Stick around. husband and I have two sets, each with a box.

Our monthly bill only went up $2. But, heavens, look at everything we've gained. With all the new channels, like Bravo and Discovery, I have something decent to watch. I'm extremely happy and my husband loves it. And after six weeks with the new system, my neighbors seem to be very happy with it, too." Among the features that the interactive terminals offer are onscreen program guides arranged by topics (sports, movies), pay-per-view ordering without a telephone and a parental lockout code that blocks specific channels.

Under the new system, Warner subscribers cannot get anything more than the broadcast stations such as WEWS (Channel 5), plus QVC, without the home terminal. QVC is a home-shopping channel that pays Warner for every area sale that QVC makes. Other area cable subscribers, including those with the old Warner lineup, don't need a converter box to receive nonpremium cable channels, but those systems are not yet interactive. A cable industry insider not affiliated with Warner said his big concern with the Pioneer 9500, the interactive terminal Warner is using, is its limited ability to work with a VCR. A Warner subscriber needs two interactive terminals, at $3.45 a month each plus 15 cents for the remote control, to have a full range of taping options.

A Warner subscriber with a TV, a VCR and one interactive terminal cannot record one cable channel such as the around that with a second terminal. Question: And another $3.45 or $3.60 a month? Answer: That's right. Question: Why all these boxes, uh, excuse me, terminals? Was there another terminal that could have done this? Answer: Yes, Warner Akron could have had the manufacturer (Pioneer) produce a terminal with two tuners (or, if you will, decoders). The first tuner would unscramble a cable channel you wanted to watch while the second tuner would unscramble a cable channel you wanted to tape. This would do the same job as two terminals.

Question: Was this too expensive for Warner to put into its system? Answer: According to Stephen Fry, president of Warner's Northeast Ohio division, a two-tuner terminal would have cost $2 more per unit if they were the system-wide choice. Question: Well, $2 more seems better than $3.45 for a second terminal. Why didn't Warner just go with the two-tuner box? Answer: Warner's explanation is that the company's research shows the "vast majority" of people use their VCRs to tape a cable channel while watching a broadcast channel. So, by Warner's reasoning, why buy a more expensive terminal for a small minority of subscribers? "Why ask the majority to carry the expense for a few people?" Fry said. "I need to gear the product for the masses, not the upper 1 percent with pic-ture-within-a-picture or the few people who tape cable channels while watching cable channels.

But for that 1 percent, I have an option: the second box. We think that's fair." Question: OK, what else am I losing with this new system? Answer: Do you use a splitter, a small metal device that takes the cable signal coming into your house and sends it to two or more TV sets? If you do, hold onto your splitters. If you want to watch different cable programming in different rooms, each TV set will need a terminal of its own. Question: You mean a box for every set in the house? Answer: And a $3.45 or $3.60 monthly charge for each box. Question: So if I want five TV sets hooked up Answer: Do the math.

Five times $3.45 equals $17.25 plus 15 cents for every remote. Question: Well, just wait until those 18-inch direct-broadcast satellites arrive or the government lets the telephone companies into the cable business. I'll have an option then. I won't need Warner, will There will be plenty of lanes on this information Charges anger many Yet Warner's introduction of the interactive terminals has sparked discontent. Subscribers are angry over the equipment charges.

Akron, Barberton, Mogadore, Silver Lake and Wadsworth councils and Springfield Township have been awash with complaints about the increased costs and the new system preventing subscribers from doing what they were able to do with their TVs and VCRs in the old system. The councils are threatening further regulation of cable companies. Leaders from up to 15 communities will meet at 7 p.m. April 26 at Fairlawn City Hall to plan their strategy. Fry's response is that Warner's satisfaction surveys are running strongly in favor of the new system.

But he also said company policy prohibits the release of those surveys. And, Fry said, he is providing an option for subscribers who have picture-in-picture TVs or those who want to tape one cable channel while watching another cable channel. That option is a second terminal for an additional $3.45 a month ($3.60 with the remote control). The drawings Warner provides for equipment hookups that make this simultaneous VCR taping and TV viewing possible must seem like hieroglyphics to the 80 percent of consumers who still don't know how to program a VCR, with or without cable. By Mark Dawtdziak Beam Journal staff uriler They're out there.

They're at your door. Well, if they haven't been, they soon will be. When the folks from Warner Cable leave a green and white' construction notice on your front door, it means your cable service is about to be upgraded. So you've heard the rumors and. you have more questions than a congressional committee drowning in Whitewater.

Here are answers to some of those questions: Question: I keep hearing about this scary new box Warner will be installing. Will I really not be able to tape one channel and watch another? Answer: Not exactly. Warner Cable's terminal (that's the fancy industry name for the box) unscrambles cable channels one at a time. Think of it as a decoder; if you order premium channels such as HBO or Disney, you've already got the old converter box. So, with the new terminal, you still can tape a cable channel while watching one of the 11 area broadcast channels, which aren't scrambled.

But with only one terminal, you can't tape one cable channel while watching another cable channel. Question: But I want to tape the Braves game on WTBS while watching ESPN. Is there any way to do this? Answer: Yes, you can have a second terminal hooked into a system that includes your TV, VCR and first Warner terminal (see illustration). The second terminal unscrambles one cable channel of your choice while the, first terminal unscrambles the other cable channel. Question: Sounds complicated.

Answer: To me, too. Warner says it'll help us out with the wiring, Question: I hear a "but" com- Answer: You're right. Each terminal carries an equipment fee of $3.45 a month. Each remote control is another 15 cents a month. Question: So I have to pay another $3.45 or $3.60 a month for the ability to tape one cable channel while watching another cable channel? Answer: Yes.

Question: I'm also hearing horror stories about VCR Plus not working with this new system. Answer: No minus here, Warner promises. Your VCR Plus still works. Question: I spent a lot of money for a fancy TV that gives me a picture within a picture. Is it true that this Warner terminal renders that useless? Answer: Yes, with one terminal.

But," once again, you can get Cable Warner boss says most subscribers enthusiastic Continued from Page Al forced on them by Warner's upgraded system fiber-optic cable, interactive terminals and more programming. Despite the protests, Stephen Fry, president of Warner's Northeast Ohio-division, said the Ka-mienskis are the exception. He said "one of the pleasant surprises we've had" is that subscribers had 15,000 interactive terminals installed in the first 13,000 homes the company contacted. "We've had to buy additional equipment. People have been calling us.

saying, 'We want another box, want another connection in my he said. Fry also said that Warner Cable's research shows most subscribers tape cable channels like ESPN or -Home Box Office while watching broadcast channels like CBS affiliate: WJW (Channel 8) and Fox affiliate WOIO (Channel 19). So, according to Fry, the Warner box is the. best and most cost-effective choice for subscribers. Fry said it would have been unfair for Warner to have purchased a more expensive box one that could unscramble more than one channel at a time for a minority of subscriber.

everything about this box, but what we're clearly talking about is an independent business decision by Warner Cable." Is it a smart business decision? Sawyer believes the answer will be provided in an atmosphere of increased competition an atmosphere that elected officials should De encouraging. Aitnough he welcomes this era, Sawyer warned that "it's not going to get simpler; it's only going to get more complex." Although Sawyer believes Warner is legally within the guidelines established by the Cable Act and the FCC, he said that "Warner's rates will have to pass federal review." He paused, then added, "They most likely will." But Sawyer said he thinks there will be more cable laws and regulations down the road. "T'vo stavtiH in fnimh tu Akron City Council," Sawyer said. "I know they'll be hiring an outside consultant. And I've told them I'll set up an FCC review if they want me to." Steven VanSlyck of Wilmot Street in Akron said he hopes some regulatory agency steps in.

"What Warner is saying is we're providing you with this cable service and now we're going to bill you for the ability to use the service," VanShck said. "It's like being charged $4 for parking and then to come to a gate where, now to let you in, you're See WARNER, Page A7 Discovery Channel while watching another cable channel. "The next generation of converters (terminals), or perhaps the one after that, will fix that problem," the cable insider said. People hoping not to have to wait that long may get relief from the Federal Communications Commission. The 1992 Cable Act requires the FCC to issue a rule to increase the technical capability of cable systems, TVs and VCRs to allow subscribers to use such functions as picture-in-picture while still protecting the systems against cable pirates.

Richard Kalb, senior attorney with the Federal Communications Conimission's Cable Services Bureau, said such a rule will be issued before May. Politicians involved The rumble of discontent also has reached the Washington office of U.S. Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Akron. "We're getting several calls and letters every day," he said.

"There's a very real frustration. I've taken a look at it from a distance, and largely from the point of view of the Cable Act of 1992, which does not prohibit or require upgrades like Warner's. In this case, the short term is to make sure that Warner is complying with both federal and local laws, and it seems they're not in any violation of any federal laws. "Warner's goal seems to be to get their box into homes before anyone else. Now I may not like.