No HD TV at AKLV

[twinklebug]

We only watched one ballgame on TV over our trip, but the clarity seemed to be pretty good (VWL). Sort of wish we had turned on the set when we were over at Kidani to see the quality.

I agree, as an entertainment company which has it's roots in film you'd think they'd offer better television, be it in quality or selection of broadcast, or just simply the size of the set. This has never made any sense to me other than trying to encourage folk to get out of their rooms.

 

[hannahr]

We arrived at Kidani on August 9th ( actually the 10th by the time we got to our room). We had a 2BR and the living room reception was awful. The kids bedroom was ok but the master was also bad. We called maintenance and she was there in about 10 minutes. ( I was hoping at 2:20am they couldn't be too busy).She made some adjustments to the TV's which made them a little better but she pointed out that there system switched over to analog the night before.She said there was a storm that took out Disney's satellite system for all the resorts and it's all the maintence workers were fixing as people called.She was hoping their system would be restored in a couple days. This was 16 days ago.

Isn't it funny how you can be told different things by different employees?! I was there from 27th July for a week and the TV in my studio and the one in the lounge were both analogue. I was watching a little more tv than usual due to the Olympics. Let's hope that your engineer was right and it is just a temporary issue.

 

[AlohaAnnie]

We have stayed at Kidani twice & have never had problems with tv.

We mainly watch weather & Disney Channel. Along with WDW stations.

No complaints here!

 

[ScottOKW2K]

HD-TV is a pretty standard amenity these days, so if true that WDW has eliminated this, it seems a little cheap. And begs the question, what cutbacks will we see in the future?

Regardless of whether one watches tv or not while at WDW, it's a bit troubling to see services and amenities downgraded at the supposed "deluxe" Disney accommodations.

I've been to many a hotel where the tv may have been HD capable but the actual tv service provided was not. As others have pointed out Disney has recently changed their tv provider for the resorts and have increased the channels provided, not downgraded the service. They may not be carrying as many channels as one would have at home or have a bunch in HD but as long as they have enough to be a minor distraction while getting ready in the morning or winding down in the evening I am OK.

We go to Disney for this
and this
or this

not this
or this

 

[fivetexans]

I have stayed at Kidani 4 different times and all of the televisions are flat screen HD TVs. My guess is they are 720p. So, that is not the issue.

The issue is when they switched from DISH to DirecTV. Their contract ended with DISH, and they gladly switched to Direct. If you know much of the history between DISH and Disney, it's not pretty.

DISH is a big pain in the butt when it comes to Disney. DISH dropped all of the Disney owned or related HD channels to standard def because they were not willing to pay the few extra cents to carry the HD signals for about a dozen different channels. So, Disney finished their contract with DISH and switched.

I dropped DISH myself about 4 years ago for this same problem. They did this with several different companies, not just Disney. It was very annoying.

With that said, it is disappointing that WDW is not subscribing to the HD signals with DirecTV. As much as WDW is a master of the details and doing everything to perfection... this one slipped a bit. I don't watch much TV while staying at WDW, but it is something that seems like it should be no brainer.

But, Kidani definitely has HD TVs everywhere... in fact 6 of them in the 3-bedroom.

 

[majortom1981]

I have been to kidani 3 times (its my home resort) and all 3 rooms were flatscreen hdtvs. kidani is what 2 years old? How would the rooms have non hd tvs?

Keep in mind a standard def picture on an hdtv will look worse then a sd picture on a sd tv.

 

[jarestel]

We go to Disney for this
and this
or this

not this
or this

That's good for you, and I'm sure you're not making the point "if I don't care about it, then nobody else should either". As we all know, many amenities are offered at the resorts that aren't universally enjoyed by all. Given that basic set of facts, whether or not any certain individual cares about television or pools or telephones or radios or internet, etc at WDW isn't particularly significant. Some do, some don't.

 

[twinklebug]

That's good for you, and I'm sure you're not making the point "if I don't care about it, then nobody else should either". As we all know, many amenities are offered at the resorts that aren't universally enjoyed by all. Given that basic set of facts, whether or not any certain individual cares about television or pools or telephones or radios or internet, etc at WDW isn't particularly significant. Some do, some don't.

Well said.
No one needs to justify to anyone other than themselves when and where is a good time to watch TV. The issue here is signal quality.

Disney is primarily an entertainment based company. To have anything short of middle of the line for TV quality in the rooms is very disappointing. To me as a DVC owner at AKV I'm a bit concerned about the report of poor TV quality in the rooms and around the resort (I assume it was everywhere). I will note that the sets at the bus stops were turned off last week (my feelings: yeah!) Not sure if this was due to technical issues or they decided it wasn't worth the energy to advertise out there.