CSN-Sacramento

[KingsFan 3030]

this is gonna sound like really dumb question, but is this channel available for people living away from sacramento. becuz im a kings fan livin in vallejo,CA and i want my kings fix. i cant watch nba tv for some reason. and yes i have comcast. wut channel is CSN-Sacramento?

 

[nebs]

34 But I think you are in Warrior territory.

 

[tubiscus]

Yep. I live in Fairfield and I have to throw for League Pass to get the games. I'm sure Vallejo is considered "Warriors" area TOO. I cannot believe I get CSN and they dub in ESPN News instead of the Kings games. It just STINKS!! Unfortunately LP IS not working so here I am listening to the radio tonight.

 

[KingsFan 3030]

yeah i AM in warrior territory. im ok with that tho, cuz theyre my second team. i might go to a kings-warriors game at the arena in oakland this season. i get FSN-Bay Area and they show all the warriors game. kinda sucks tho that they're not gonna show the kings-warriors game on sunday. so i guess the only time i'll get to watch my kings are when they play the warriors and when they have a nationally televised game on. oh well.

 

[insyder]

I don't know how this affects Comcast folks, but here's my $.02

I lived in Fairfield last season. I had(and still have) DirecTV satellite service. Fairfield is the first town that is "Warriors Territory", in Vacaville you are back in "Kings Country".
I called up DTV and asked what I needed to do to get CSN(ch 656). I had to order the "Sports Pack" that gives you regional sports channels like CSN. The cost was about $11, basically the same cost as buying a premium channel like HBO.
If I had lived in Vacaville, I would have got it for free as it's part of the basic service as a local regional sports channel. Living in Fairfield, FSN-Bay Area is was my local regional sports channel.

 

[6th]

I don't know how this affects Comcast folks, but here's my $.02

I lived in Fairfield last season. I had(and still have) DirecTV satellite service. Fairfield is the first town that is "Warriors Territory", in Vacaville you are back in "Kings Country".
I called up DTV and asked what I needed to do to get CSN(ch 656). I had to order the "Sports Pack" that gives you regional sports channels like CSN. The cost was about $11, basically the same cost as buying a premium channel like HBO.
If I had lived in Vacaville, I would have got it for free as it's part of the basic service as a local regional sports channel. Living in Fairfield, FSN-Bay Area is was my local regional sports channel.

Good info, insyder. It is nice to know where the Kings/Warriors "boundary" is. Thanks for sharing that with us.

 

[JoeGasm]

Does anybody know if Direct TV broadcast the Kings games in HD TV? I know COMCAST does. Thanks!

 

[GoSACtown]

just to let ppl know, going south of sac, i believe manteca is the end of kings territory...because when i used to live in Tracy, i recieved all of the Warriors games...the only kings game i recieved were the ones on News 10, against the Warriors, and on national tv...because tracy does recieve news 10

 

[VF21]

Does anybody know if Direct TV broadcast the Kings games in HD TV? I know COMCAST does. Thanks!

Your best bet is probably to call DirecTV directly...

 

[kingsfan52miller]

I have directv and the last home game was in HD, but i think DirecTv looks better in general than comcast.

 

[insyder]

It's kinda wierd. On the first(live) run, the game looks pretty good on CSN. But when it's replayed later that night, it looks -ick-. I think DTV or CSN alters the compression they use for different programs or something... I dunno.

 

[Bibby_Is_Clutch]

I don't know how this affects Comcast folks, but here's my $.02

I lived in Fairfield last season. I had(and still have) DirecTV satellite service. Fairfield is the first town that is "Warriors Territory", in Vacaville you are back in "Kings Country".
I called up DTV and asked what I needed to do to get CSN(ch 656). I had to order the "Sports Pack" that gives you regional sports channels like CSN. The cost was about $11, basically the same cost as buying a premium channel like HBO.
If I had lived in Vacaville, I would have got it for free as it's part of the basic service as a local regional sports channel. Living in Fairfield, FSN-Bay Area is was my local regional sports channel.

I live in the bay area and in warriors territory. I called DirectTV and they said order the sports pack. I did and the regular season games are still blacked out. I cancelled it and I get preseason games and the pregame shows but as soon as regular season games start it blacks out with or without the sports pack. If it works for someone else let me know so I can call DTV.

 

[quick dog]

Well, you guys down in the Bay Area may not get the Kings games, but we miss out on the Castro Street Parade.

 

[insyder]

I live in the bay area and in warriors territory. I called DirectTV and they said order the sports pack. I did and the regular season games are still blacked out. I cancelled it and I get preseason games and the pregame shows but as soon as regular season games start it blacks out with or without the sports pack. If it works for someone else let me know so I can call DTV.

Bizarre! I wish I could help you, but I've since moved to West Sac.... WELL within Kings territory.

But all I needed to buy was the Sports Pack last season and got ALL of the seasons games.

 

[Jose]

Does anybody know if Direct TV broadcast the Kings games in HD TV? I know COMCAST does. Thanks!

They don't - unless it's a nationally televised game on ESPNHD.

The Comcast channel on Direct TV (656) is broadcast on standard definition. No way DTV will make this an HD channel, but at least they're getting their act together. Last year they did fine, but this year the first game was broadcast in a horrible letterbox format (probably downconverted from the Comcast HD feed). Not so annoying for people with 4:3 TVs, but very annoying for those with 16:9 TVs, as you'd have to zoom in to avoid windowboxing and with the crappy downconversion it was simply painful to watch. The second game was broadcast in regular 4:3, so it wasn't as bad - but interestingly, the House Party Live program was broadcast in anamorphic 4:3, which stretched very nicely on a 16:9 TV...

Ideally, Comcast would send Direct TV an anamorphic feed for the games and DTV would simply set the anamorphic flag and let the equipment at home do the conversion. Unfortunately, it won't happen - DirectTV doesn't like to do anamorphic, even though their receivers support it (and who can blame them - they'll probably get 1000 calls from people whose receivers aren't set properly complaining that the image looks "stretched").

Sorry about the rant... bottom line is: NO CSN in HD, and we'll be lucky to get a consistent, properly formatted broadcast.

 

[Tomcat]

DirecTV did broadcast a few Kings games in HD on what is usually the NFL HD channels last season. I believe at least one of them was from the Comcast feed. I think the other one was a Denver game. Since I'm a NBA League pass subsriber, it was available to watch.

I'm just surprised how slow DirecTV is to adding new HD content. I've been a DirecTV HD subscriber for a year now and all they have added is ESPN2. I'm still waiting for DTV to add TNT-HD!!!

 

[macadocious]

I live in Discovery Bay which is 15 miles west of Stockton and Last year I got Kings games on CSN Channel 656, but half way through the season they started blacking them out. So I called DTV to see what the problem was. Nobody knew, finally after hours of research they told me that the NBA redrew its Zip codes for which area belongs to which team. Halfway through the friggin season. Then I tried to order league pass for I think it was something like 27 games left in the Regular season and they wanted full price, $160 Bones. I could not believe it.

This year I was just hoping they swithced it back and I have gotten the games so far, but if it is like another poster said, they will B/O after preseason that will suck because my wife isn't down w/ ponying up the dough for the Ticket.

Sucks leaving the Sac area, you take for granted the Fans, ease of watching games whether it was at Players or Bobby McGees (can't believe that place is gone), even though I am less than an hour from downtown Sac!

 

[TheLoneWarrior3]

Try getting NBA leaugue pass for kings and others.

 

[VF21]

Try getting NBA leaugue pass for kings and others.

It's not about getting league pass. It's about the overlapping coverage areas of the Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings, something I'm pretty sure you're probably not familiar with.

 

[slugking50]

The Kings gams that are local and HDTV are only on Channel 10's High Definition Channel. Comcast isnt in High Def.

 

[thebeaud]

I live in the Fairfield area as well and am a DirecTV / League Pass customer. I find it odd that DirecTV considers me to be in the Sac area, but the NBA considers me in the Bay Area - wish they had some standards! Anyway, I get Comcast on 656, but yes, last year they started blacking out the games, so I had to get the League Pass. But a couple quick questions before my "no cancellation" LP begins again:

-Has anything changed that would prevent 656 from being blacked out?

-With regards to a 16:9 TV, if I understand it right - all home games are in HD. The letterbox format looks terrible in SD, but that shouldn't impact the LP games right? It's usually the opponents feed anyway (which is tough! They usually rag on the Sac area and are pretty biased against the Kings).

-Are the News10 games in HD or just the CSN-656?

I'd love to drop the LP, but doing that means I'll only see 29 games! That sucks! Or is everybody else in this area pretty much in the same boat?

Any help you could provide would be much appreciated! Go Kings!

 

[x 213 x]

i live in milwaukee and i got csn-sacramento

 

[VF21]

i live in milwaukee and i got csn-sacramento

Yes, you can get the channel but what you will find is that, come game time, the games themselves are blacked out. The ONLY way you can get the Kings games (with the exception of those televised nationally) if you're outside the Kings marketing area is via League Pass. The NBA likes it that way and I strongly doubt if they're going to change in the foreseeable future.

--------------------------------

thebeaud - First, welcome to the board. Always glad to have another Kings fan around.

I don't know anything about HD, so someone else will have to answer that part of your post, but nothing has changed that would prevent CSN from being blacked out in your area. If you were blacked out last year, you'll be blacked out this year. This isn't 100%, of course, but the NBA hasn't announced any kind of revision to their blackout policy in overlapping markets.

 

[slugking50]

Are the News10 games in HD or just the CSN-656?

Only the News 10 games are in High Definition. NOT the CSN games. You have to go to Channel 10's high Definition Channel to see it in High Def on Digital Cable or your Sat provider.

 

[thebeaud]

thebeaud - First, welcome to the board. Always glad to have another Kings fan around.

I don't know anything about HD, so someone else will have to answer that part of your post, but nothing has changed that would prevent CSN from being blacked out in your area. If you were blacked out last year, you'll be blacked out this year. This isn't 100%, of course, but the NBA hasn't announced any kind of revision to their blackout policy in overlapping markets.

Thanks for the welcome! As you can tell, I've been lurking for a while....

Anyway, thanks for the info. Last night's game wasn't blacked out, but I remember last year started out the same way. The problem is that once the season starts, you can't cancel the LP. So, I'm stuck now! Can't take the risk of missing out on so many games.

I'm surprised that only the Ch. 10 games are in HD - I thought I saw somewhere that all home games were in HD, but Ch. 10 is only carrying a handful of those. It looks like NBATV might carry a few, but that information doesn't seem consistent.