So Comcast is replacing HDNet, HDNet Movies, and INHD2 with TNT, an HD Music channel and a couple of sports channels? :(

I wish that they would have at least included UHD =/

Are you serious??!! Where did you get this info? I couldn't find anything on it. I know INHD2 disappeared a short time ago but I didn't know HDNET & HDNET Movies was going away. Do you have a date that this is supposed to take place? If this is true, all I have to say is, I knew it. I had Adelphia and it was awesome. (I'm in Boca) I've had Comcast before and they sucked. When I heard they were buying Adelphia I knew I was in for it. I spoke to them regarding the change back when I found out about it and they assured me that if anything they'd be added more HD channels. Yeah, right. With the removal of HDNET & HDNET Movies there's no reason to have their ridiculous HD Plus package anymore. If those channels are replaced by MTV, TNT, and more sports, I will definitly be canceling my HD Plus. Locals and HBO will be enough for me. I concur that they could have at least included UHD.

This is from a thread from a Detroit forum. It sounds interesting. Maybe we will be getting more rather than less HD. We can cross our fingers.
Mike

Considering Comcast has been on a mild HD-adding frenzy of late, it's not too much of a surprise to learn that the firm has added yet another run of high definition options to its (arguably) robust lineup. Motor City users over at AVS have confirmed the addition of A&E HD, Universal HD (it's back?), National Geographic HD, and Fox Sports Net Detroit HD, which brings their total HD selection to 21 channels. Additionally, it looks like the removal of INHD-2 has brought about a separate, new channel that will be used to simulcast The Golf Channel during daylight hours while queuing up Versus (formerly known as The Outdoor Life Network) content at night. This will presumably solve the quandary Comcast has with needing an additional outlet to showcase all that HD-quality hockey it owns without HDNet, and should be available for your enjoyment in January. So, any of you folks not in Michigan receiving any sweet bonuses from Comcast in terms of HD offerings?

This is from a thread from a Detroit forum. It sounds interesting. Maybe we will be getting more rather than less HD. We can cross our fingers.
Mike

Considering Comcast has been on a mild HD-adding frenzy of late, it's not too much of a surprise to learn that the firm has added yet another run of high definition options to its (arguably) robust lineup. Motor City users over at AVS have confirmed the addition of A&E HD, Universal HD (it's back?), National Geographic HD, and Fox Sports Net Detroit HD, which brings their total HD selection to 21 channels. Additionally, it looks like the removal of INHD-2 has brought about a separate, new channel that will be used to simulcast The Golf Channel during daylight hours while queuing up Versus (formerly known as The Outdoor Life Network) content at night. This will presumably solve the quandary Comcast has with needing an additional outlet to showcase all that HD-quality hockey it owns without HDNet, and should be available for your enjoyment in January. So, any of you folks not in Michigan receiving any sweet bonuses from Comcast in terms of HD offerings?

Even if that is true, is that supposed to be in addition to HDNET & HDNET Movies or in place of them? If it's in addition, I have no problem. If it's in place of then thanks, but no thanks. I would welcome UHD but, The Golf Channel and Versus? Gimmie a break! HD versions of digital channels I already have and do not/will not EVER watch. HDNET has some real cool shows on (original & reruns) and HDNET Movies could be counted on for at lease one good movie a month if not more. More sports is just more wasted space on the dial.

This is from an AVS post referenced on the forum I got the previous info from. It is the 21 HD channels Comcast has in Detroit as of Nov. 15. Lots of sports channels and no HDNET.
Mike

Confirmed on Comcast Detroit, as of today:

A&E HD
Universal HD
National Geographic HD
Fox Sports Net Detroit HD

This makes 21 HD channels available in the Detroit area from Comcast, including all the OTA channels, and 4 of the 5 premium movie channels available.

199 National Geographic HD
200 A&E HD
201 Fox Sports Net Detroit HD
202 ESPN HD
203 ESPN2 HD
204 TNT HD
205 Discovery HD
206 INHD (MLB, Versus NHL, NBA HD, NFL Network)
208 Universal HD
209 MHD
215 HBO HD
219 Cinemax HD
223 Showtime HD
227 Starz HD
231 ABC HD WXYZ-DT
232 NBC HD WDIV-DT
233 CBS HD WWJ-DT
234 FOX HD WJBK-DT
235 My Network TV HD WMYD-DT
236 The CW HD WKBD-DT
240 PBS HD WTVS-DT

Thanks for the info Mike. As you said, we'll have to cross our fingers and wait and see what happens down our way. I'll miss HDNET if it goes away but if they include UHD that may keep me quiet... for a while.

Panth1 originally linked to the ad on page 199 of this thread, but the ad is no longer there (seems to only show the more recent ads at the same link)

Fortunately I found the ad images in my browser cache.

I re-typed some of the more interesting parts of the ad here for people who are interested:

Comcast announces the following changes to the channel lineup effective January 16, 2007 for customers in the communities of Boca Raton / Delray Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Stuart, West Palm Beach, and each of its surrounding areas:

Attention: Your channel line-up is changing on January 16, 2007
Basic Service Channel Additions
------------------------------------------------------
OLD NEW
201 WXEL - PBS CREATE - B* NEW!
202 WXEL - PBS Florida
Knowledge Network - B* NEW!
212 WPEC-CBS Weather - B* NEW!
216 WPTV-NBC Weather PLUS - B* NEW!
183 220 WFLX - FOX Tube - B*

B* = Basic Service. Addt'l Equipment Required. Service
charges may apply.

Digital Basic
------------------------------------------------------
OLD NEW
101 WeatherScan NEW!
133 102 ESPNews
105 103 Discovery Health
105 C-Span 3 NEW!
107 107 Current TV
177 108 Fox Reality
111 109 National Geographic
102 110 The Science Channel
104 111 Discovery Times
106 112 The Military Channel
103 113 Discovery Home
109 114 BBC America
115 115 Biography Channel
116 116 History Channel Int'l
140 117 WE - Women's Entertainment
158 119 Lifetime Movie Network
118 120 SoapNet
119 121 DIY (Do-It-Yourself Network)
122 Fine Living NEW!
128 Sprout NEW!
154 129 Nick Toons
101 130 Discovery Kids
148 131 Noggin
153 132 Nick Too
152 133 Nick Games & Sports
117 135 Toon Disney
157 139 MTV Hits
137 140 MTV2
138 141 MTV Español
139 142 MTV Jams
144 143 VH-1 Classic
155 144 VH-1 Soul
143 145 CMT Pure Country
147 147 Great American Country
145 148 FUSE
129 162 G4 Video Game TV
170 163 LOGO
161 164 Independent Film Channel
162 165 Sundance
167 IndiePlex NEW!
168 RetroPlex NEW!
160 169 Turner Classic Movies
235 170 FLIX East
236 171 FLIX West
173 TV One NEW!
114 175 AZN Network
141 179 Game Show Network
120 180 NFL Network
130 182 FitTV
168 185 TV Superstore
112 242 TBN
113 245 Inspirational Life
135 246 Black Family Channel
166 248 Family Net
128 251 Bloomberg TV
163 259 Fox Movie Channel
121 635 Si TV
131 726 ESPN Classic
125 728 Fox Soccer Channel
126 730 VERSUS
127 731 Outdoor Channel
122 732 Speed Channel
174 737 The Tennis Channel

HD Basic
------------------------------------------------------
OLD NEW
766 403 ESPN HD
404 ESPN 2 HD NEW!
405 VERSUS/Golf HD NEW!
768 406 NFL Network HD
407 TNT HD NEW!
763 408 iNHD1
411 Music HD NEW!
765 412 Discovery HD Theater
701 431 WPBF HD (ABC-25 WPB) - B*
704 432 WPTV HD (NBC-5 WPB) - B*
702 433 WPEC HD (CBS-12 WPB) - B*
703 434 WFLX HD (FOX-29 WPB) - B*
706 440 WXEL HD (PBS-42 WPB) - B*

B* = Basic Service. Addt'l Equipment Required.
Service charges may apply.

HD Premium
------------------------------------------------------
OLD NEW
750 416 HBO HD
741 418 Showtime HD
752 419 Starz! HD

Channels moving to a different service level
F=From T=To
------------------------------------------------------
INHD
F 763 HD Plus
T 408 HD Basic

ESPN HD
F 766 HD Plus
T 403 HD Basic

NFL Network HD
F 768 HD Plus
T 406 HD Basic

AZN Network, History International, The Outdoor Channel,
Fox Reality, iFC, Sundance Channel, The Biography Channel,
and VERSUS are all moving from Digital Plus to Digital
Basic package.

Gol TV is moving from Digital Basic to Digital Sports
Package.

CSTV, FUEL TV, and FCS Atlantic/Central/Pacific are moving
from Digital Plus to Digital Sports Package.

FLiX East and West are moving from Digital Premium to
Digital Basic.


Channels no longer available
------------------------------------------------------
110 American Life TV Network
132 ESPN U
136 CNBC World
164 B-Mania
169 Colours
209 HBO Plus West
210 HBO Signature West
211 HBO Family West
212 HBO Comedy West
213 HBO Zone West
214 HBO Latino West
226 Showtime West
227 Showtime Too West
228 Showtime Showcase West
229 Showtime Extreme West
230 Showtime Beyond West
233 TMC West
234 TMC Xtra West
242 Starz! West
246 Starz! Cinema West
249 Encore West
251 Encore Love Stories West
253 Encore Westerns West
255 Encore Mystery West
257 Encore Drama West
259 Encore Action West
275 MoreMAX West
276 ActionMAX West
277 ThrillerMAX West
308 IN DEMAND 8
309 iN DEMAND 9
761 HDNet
762 HDNet MOVIES
764 INHD2

Note: I typed all this in by hand and may have made some mistakes or typos here and there.

so comcast is finally aking charge on 1/16 it seems

some nice changes :)

losing hdnet and movies sucks, but there is hardly anything I watch on them

I will have to see what offers they have and maybe I will ditch the dish since they will have most of the programming I want

would like to see them get a deal for hdnet back and find room for universal hd, which thy supossedly have a deal for

and I think they also shold be adding fox sports net hd somewhere, since they are carried by comcast above and below us

Oh yeah, those look like some great changes, if you're interested in sports or weather. C'mon, three new weather channels?? Am I reading that correctly? Isn't one enough? The thing that burns me the most about them removing HDNet and HDNet Movies (assumeing that's true, I don't see any HD info in joquarky's post) is that they seem (based on MVPinBoynton's post) to be replacing it with something that is not equal. The thing I liked about the HDNet channels is that you had to have HD to receive them. They were exclusive. Is the TNT HD not just an HD simulcast of standard TNT? If so, who needs it? It's just the same commercial riddled movies I already get and don't/won't watch on regular TNT. Same goes for A&E. These are channels that are ALREADY AVAILABLE on basic cable. Having HD versions of crappy channels hardly merrits having an HDTV. At least on HDNet Movies everything was uncut, commecial free, and in it's proper aspect ratio. Will TNT offer the same? I doubt it but if anyone knows different please let me know. Whenever I took a trip around the dial it was nice to know that there was HDNet & Movies, places where I'd find something different, that I didn't just see on the 200 channels before. Nothing on? Let's see what's on the HD channels. Now it will just be the same crap I already passed on the dial only in HD. Big deal. I know this all has to do with BS contracts and who can carry what but according to the HDNet website the channel is available on Adelphia and Comcast. Has the contract expired? If not, why are they dropping it in favor of inferior channels? Who's pockets are getting lined while our options are being taken away? At the very least they should offer packages, let us pick and choose which HD channels we want. (yeah, yeah, I know, bandwith) but I'd gladly pass on MTV HD, (another one I already have on basic cable and don't watch) FOX Reality, the Military Channel, and about a dozen others to get better HD programing. I'm all for TNT HD and A&E HD but only if they are in addition to the current line up, not in place of it.

joquarky,
Thank you so much for retyping and posting the info. I am not thrilled with the changes, but I do appreciate your letting us know about it.

How does this affect Florida comcast?

Was WPBF-HDTV unwatchable to anyone else last night during Dick Clarke's New Year's Eve? The video and audio both kept pausing. I had to watch the analog channel :(

WFLX-DT just stop broadcasting at around 9:57PM, the signal went from 20 db to 0. Other channels are unaffected.

WFLX-DT just stop broadcasting at around 9:57PM, the signal went from 20 db to 0. Other channels are unaffected.

Same here, and I was just praising the beautiful picture quality.

Same here, I lost WFLX-DT. Also, was anyone else not impressed with the USC-MICH broadcast on WPBF-DT? It almost looked like 480p to me.

WFLX-DT just stop broadcasting at around 9:57PM, the signal went from 20 db to 0. Other channels are unaffected.


I don't understand what in the world the people at WFLX are thinking.

I've been thinking lately about dropping the HD plus pack from Comcast. With those changes in their lineup, it seals the deal. I am going to drop it. I just dont see myself watching enough to make it worth it.

My OTA of PBF has been down for a few days now, telling me there's no signal. Anybody else getting this?

Did anyone notice how horrible PECs broadcast of the football games on sunday was? I tested both OTA and Cable on multiple TVs and multiple tuners and had the same results. Picture freezes, audio dropouts for seconds at a time, major pixelation on cable side. The Dolphins game was so unwatchable I had to switch to SD. Also, why is PECs audio like 10 decibels louder than every other station? Where is PEC Dave these days?

Was WPBF-HDTV unwatchable to anyone else last night during Dick Clarke's New Year's Eve? The video and audio both kept pausing. I had to watch the analog channel :(

I only had it on briefly but I noticed the same issues.

I've been thinking lately about dropping the HD plus pack from Comcast. With those changes in their lineup, it seals the deal. I am going to drop it. I just dont see myself watching enough to make it worth it. From looking at the new lineup that was posted in the paper last month, all the HD channels are in the HD Basic tier. I don't think Comcast has an additional HD tier like Adelphia had and one of the reasons why Comcast has been battling with HDNet over carriage rates.

I've been thinking lately about dropping the HD plus pack from Comcast. With those changes in their lineup, it seals the deal. I am going to drop it. I just dont see myself watching enough to make it worth it.

It seems we've yet to confirm exactly what the changes are going to be in our area. I spoke to Comcast and they said they'd be sending somthing out in the mail sometime this month. My fear is that they do away with the HDPlus "package" all together and instead integrate all the bad HD channels in to the digital lineup and just raise the price, sticking you with channels you don't want yet having no way to get rid of them in an effort to pay less.



Also, why is PECs audio like 10 decibels louder than every other station?

I've noticed this as well but don't really see it as a problem. In fact I wish the other channels were as loud. Many of them seem to be extra low. (especially in contrast to their Standard Def counterparts, not sure why this is) I've learned to just adjust the volume on my receiver whenever watching PEC but shows like The Unit really benefit from whatever it is they are doing. Explosions and gunfire always sound fantastic. (if you like that sort of thing)

I don't think Comcast has an additional HD tier like Adelphia had and one of the reasons why Comcast has been battling with HDNet over carriage rates.

Similar to what I was thinking (fearing). Thanks for that info about HDNet.

I've been thinking lately about dropping the HD plus pack from Comcast. With those changes in their lineup, it seals the deal. I am going to drop it. I just dont see myself watching enough to make it worth it.

My OTA of PBF has been down for a few days now, telling me there's no signal. Anybody else getting this?

PBF has been fine. Rescan your channels. They may have changed their Elec Program Guide encoding as I had a similar problem last week.

It seems we've yet to confirm exactly what the changes are going to be in our area. I spoke to Comcast and they said they'd be sending somthing out in the mail sometime this month. My fear is that they do away with the HDPlus "package" all together and instead integrate all the bad HD channels in to the digital lineup and just raise the price, sticking you with channels you don't want yet having no way to get rid of them in an effort to pay less.


There was an article in TCPalm (Treasure Coast Newspaper) about the lineup changes. The changes were posted above as the ad has since disappeared for newer versions of the ad. At the bottom of the ad it said "These changes are for Southern, Central, Northern Palm Beach County and the Treausre Coast areas of Comcast Customers." I can't imagine that the ad is a mistake or isn't representative of what we'll see come Jan 16. There was no mention of price increase or decrease (hah!).

The lineup seems to mirror the changes that Comcast wants to make (dropping HDNet, HDMVS, & INHD2 in favor of some not-so-great new HD channels). In that ad it did show all of the "old" HD Plus channels moving down to HD Basic which would imply that Comcast is doing away with HD Plus all together.

Does anyone know if Comcast will also be making the digital versions of the analog channels (currently in the 800 range) available on the 16th?

PS: Here's a link to the lineup ad that was on tcpalm, which I found in my cache: http://josef.org/temp/comcast-jan-16-2007.png

Does anyone know if Comcast will also be making the digital versions of the analog channels (currently in the 800 range) available on the 16th?


What channels are in the 800 range? I don't have any, it jumps from NFL Network in the 700's to the 900 (useless IMO) on demand channels.

Does anyone know if Comcast will also be making the digital versions of the analog channels (currently in the 800 range) available on the 16th?

PS: Here's a link to the lineup ad that was on tcpalm, which I found in my cache: http://josef.org/temp/comcast-jan-16-2007.png

Thanks for posting that lineup. I can officially go on record as saying that it sucks BIG TIME. HD basic has been reduced to HD sports. 4 out of 8 channels? WTF? I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I do not watch sports. EVER. We lost a good movie channel and a channel with some good original HD programing (not to mention some quality reruns in HD) for more f'ing football games and golf? HD golf!? Gimmie a break. Pardon my rant but I'm pretty steamed. Is there anyone else here who feels the same way? Is there anyone who knows what, if anything we can do about it?

Call up Comcast and let them know what channels you want. We need to create more demand.

Comcast can't carry HDNet because they don't have an agreement to do so. Time Warner got all of Adelphia's carriage contracts in the purchase. Comcast just got some of the systems so they can't continue to carry channels that they don't have contracts with.

What channels are in the 800 range? I don't have any, it jumps from NFL Network in the 700's to the 900 (useless IMO) on demand channels.I can currently see listed in the program guide channels 802 (WPBT) to 899 (PIN), and most of the channels between them have the same label as channels 2 (WPBT) to 99 (PIN), just offset by 800. However if I try to watch one of the 8xx numbered channels it tells me to call a phone number to order service on the channel.

I don't remember where I read it, but somewhere I read that the 8xx channels are digital versions of the analog 0xx channels that they are currently being tested by Adelphia/Comcast employees.

I can officially go on record as saying that it sucks BIG TIME. HD basic has been reduced to HD sports. 4 out of 8 channels? WTF?That's roughly my thoughts on the changes as well. I just hope they add UHD soon to make up for it; though I haven't read anything yet to indicate they will add UHD to our region.

I'm kinda upset about also losing HDNet, as they have some good stuff on--such as live coverage of NASA launches and other news events. I used to live further up the coast and would regularly go out to see the shuttle launch, but WPB is just a little too far south to see it well or drive up just to have it scrubbed. :(

Call up Comcast and let them know what channels you want. We need to create more demand.

Comcast can't carry HDNet because they don't have an agreement to do so. Time Warner got all of Adelphia's carriage contracts in the purchase. Comcast just got some of the systems so they can't continue to carry channels that they don't have contracts with.

HDNet had provided this link for us to do just that.

http://www.hd.net/nocarry_comcast.html

I'm going to give it a go. Hope you guys will too.

That's roughly my thoughts on the changes as well. I just hope they add UHD soon to make up for it; though I haven't read anything yet to indicate they will add UHD to our region.

That would be nice be it only for Battlestar Galactia and Firefly, but I still want HDNet. I used to live down in Hollywood (before I had my HD set) and I had Comcast there. When perusing the HD channels on the guide, UHD was there. I have no idea why it isn't here.

I'm kinda upset about also losing HDNet, as they have some good stuff on--such as live coverage of NASA launches and other news events.

Not to mention, Arrested Development, Star Trek: Enterprise, Dead Like Me, Oddessy 5, Nothing but Trailers, Higher Definition, Deadline... The list goes on. All I know is I didn't by my HDTV to watch golf and basketball. (though my brother will likely be thrilled, it is I who pays the bill)

I looked at their channel lineup for Broward County and it includes Cinemax HD, CW HD and FSN HD. I wonder why we won't be getting these as well. I also think they have some On Demand HD channels as well.

Anyone have any insight?

I looked at their channel lineup for Broward County and it includes Cinemax HD, CW HD and FSN HD. I wonder why we won't be getting these as well. I also think they have some On Demand HD channels as well.

Anyone have any insight?

Sorry, I don't have any insight but I concur. Why don't we get CW HD? At the very least I'd watch Smallville (now that I can't watch it on HDNet anymore) It's ridiculous. Their HD offerings are pathetic. You're right about the On Demand too. I remember having seen it on the menu when I lived in Broward. I was told by one of their customer service people (nearly a year ago) that we would have HD On Demand content. Don't ask me why I put any faith in what their phone support told me. I should know better by now.

If it wasn't for football, occasional golf, and a handful of what I consider good HD shows, and Discovery HD, I'd not bother at all. There's precious little good content out there. I'll watch CSI and CSI Miami, as well as Lost, Scrubs, My Name Is Earl, and Survivor (some of which are not even in HD) but that is pretty much it for me (oh, don't forget the occasional bout of VH1 Classic, ha!). TV is pretty much a vast wasteland filled with dreck.

Anyone else experience frequent pixelization and dropouts on the Comcast NFL (NBCHD) broadcasts last evening? I called customer service and as usual they didn't have a clue what was going on.

Anyone else experience frequent pixelization and dropouts on the Comcast NFL (NBCHD) broadcasts last evening? I called customer service and as usual they didn't have a clue what was going on.

I watched the first half of the Colts / KC game and it looked fine to me. But I recorded (DVR) the 2nd half and was watching it this morning and there were numerous drop outs. DVR dropped almost 4 minutes of the 3rd Qtr (missed the entire KC scoring drive).

Since I just got HDTV and the STB/DVR with Comcast, was going to ask if there was a problem with my DVR or if it was the NBC broadcast ....

I think it was NBC and not Comcast as all the other HD channels were fine at the time. NBC has had problems on a number of occasions with their HD games.

I watched the Colts /KC game on WPTV-DT 5-1 on OTA (antenna). I think it was the third quarter the picture just went black. It was out for about 10 minutes. When it came back it was fine for the rest of the game. Isn't NBC doing the Suberbowl this year? :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Actually I believe CBS has the Super Bowl this year.

I think it was NBC and not Comcast as all the other HD channels were fine at the time. NBC has had problems on a number of occasions with their HD games.

It's not just limited to games. NBC has problems all the time with their HD everything.

It's not just limited to games. NBC has problems all the time with their HD everything.

I agree. I've given up with WPTV. For the station that seems to have the biggest budget, WPTV has THE WORST HD broadcast of all of the West Palm stations. Thank goodness that I am able to get NBC6 (WTVJ) from Fort Lauderdale.

Please help a dumb blonde...

We've just moved back to Palm Beach Gardens after living in Australia for 3 years. I was looking forward to getting into HDTV (two new HDTVs) but now I am so confused I don't know what to do. Adelphia is going to Comcast? Should I just skip cable and go straight to OTA or one of the satellite providers?

I've got two TIVOs ... version 2 (including one with the DVD burner in it ... so much for early adoption). I realize these won't help me with HD content, so I've gotta find a solution for that too.

I'd like to use the cable card option on the new 71" Samsung ... but I've read about people having issues with it. Any advice ... and will I still need an HDSTB box if I do opt for a Version 3 TIVO? (As an added complication, I may just blow off TIVO and go for a media PC solution).

I know you guys are probably tired of answering questions from noobs, but I could really use some insight on which HD source to choose. My husband has little interest in TV, so it's up to me to make the decisions.

Thanks.

I now about dish and they have the most channels, but no locals via sat, so you'll have to use an antenna for those.

Dish Network has new promotions coming out february 1st, so wait until after that if you want to go with them...

DirecTV has 7 hd channels, plus the 4 major local affiliates on a huge ugly dish. They are hyping the ability to have the capacity of 150 national channels in September and have 60 agreements signed.

Adelphia is changing to Comcast on January 16 and is getting a bunch of hd channels added adelphia didn't have, but will be removing hdnet and hdnet movies since they don't have a contract with them...

There is no commitment with comcast, so I'd recommend waiting with them while the satellite providers can provide what they're hyping

I'll just add to BGALL's post. I have DirecTV and have had good service with them. DirecTV's DVR's (Digital Video Recorders) are, IMO, the best. Much better than what the cable company provides you with and cheaper too. You can still get the TiVo branded HR10-250 but you would have to get your local high definition channels over the air with an outside antenna. The other DVR's they offer will get HD Locals via the satellite. Also they announced at CES that many more HD channels will be coming this year. The HD channels that they currently carry are quality channels like HDNET and Discovery HD.

Don't forget that a great advantage of having satellite service rather than cable here in South Florida is that after a hurricane or tropical storm your cable service will be out for days or weeks. With DBS satellite you just bolt your dish back up, switch to generator power, and watch TV.

With the changes Comcast is making, I have been considering Direct TV. Are you saying that the normal HD DVR that you get from D will not receive the local channel HD broadcasts?

Please help a dumb blonde...

We've just moved back to Palm Beach Gardens after living in Australia for 3 years. I was looking forward to getting into HDTV (two new HDTVs) but now I am so confused I don't know what to do. Adelphia is going to Comcast? Should I just skip cable and go straight to OTA or one of the satellite providers?

I've got two TIVOs ... version 2 (including one with the DVD burner in it ... so much for early adoption). I realize these won't help me with HD content, so I've gotta find a solution for that too.

I'd like to use the cable card option on the new 71" Samsung ... but I've read about people having issues with it. Any advice ... and will I still need an HDSTB box if I do opt for a Version 3 TIVO? (As an added complication, I may just blow off TIVO and go for a media PC solution).

I know you guys are probably tired of answering questions from noobs, but I could really use some insight on which HD source to choose. My husband has little interest in TV, so it's up to me to make the decisions.

Thanks.

Go with Comcast, forget the cable card.

I was long time user of DirecTV, cable has a better picture for me ( New 61" Samsung).

I tried the cable card, it rebooted every couple of days erasing favorite channels. The Samsung TV Guide was also very slow with several hunderd channels.

If you can, put an antenna in your attic to provide TV when the hurricanes arrive. Also OTA HDTV has the best picture.

Next year D* claims expanded HDTV, perhaps they will catch up with cable.

With the changes Comcast is making, I have been considering Direct TV. Are you saying that the normal HD DVR that you get from D will not receive the local channel HD broadcasts?

DirecTV's newest DVR's now use MPEG4 and provides all HD channels via satellite. It's not a TiVo (brand) DVR but it works similar to it. Actually I think that you would have to specifically request the HR10-250 in order to get one.

Sure, after a hurricane when your cable is out for weeks you can certainly hook up an antenna to your TV and get a couple of local stations (if they are back on the air) vs receiving your entire satellite channel lineup minutes after the storm passes. I recently assisted someone with the installation of Comcast's SA-8300 DVR. What a dog it is compared to, well, anything else that I have seen. Add to that several calls to Comcast and getting the "sorry, we are too busy now to help you" message just adds to the experience. They had to re-authorize one of the units to get it working and then the guide service took days to completely load. Also they delivered the wrong remotes - there wasn't a "list" button so they have to use the button on the front of the receiver until Comcast sends them the correct ones. Oh yeah, now I remember why I left cable.

This is going to be a pretty silly question but I am new to the world of HD. I have Directv and recently had the 5lnb dish installed with an upgrade to the HD package. I noticed that I can't get the CW in HD, but I know it is offered in West Palm Beach. Do I need to hook up a separate OTA antenna to recieve this, or is their a way to "program" my directv receiver and dish to pick it up? Please advise and sorry for the newbie question. Thank you.

cw in hd can only be-received with an antenna

it's digital rf number is 50

A couple ? I pick up 72 digital channels (includes the sub-channels), with a simple bi-directional wing antenna on the roof.


Sure, after a hurricane when your cable is out for weeks you can certainly hook up an antenna to your TV and get a couple of local stations (if they are back on the air) vs receiving your entire satellite channel lineup minutes after the storm passes..

A couple ? I pick up 72 digital channels (includes the sub-channels), with a simple bi-directional wing antenna on the roof.

72 eh? Where are they from? Miami and West Palm Beach combined are less than that!

Thanks for the responses to my questions, folks. What I've decided to do for now is go ahead and stick with cable ... called Adelphia/Comcast this afternoon and I'm going to try one HDTV box and one cablecard for now, at a minimal cost increase to what I have now. I can evaluate that and then will likely switch over to satellite if I'm not happy with it. I realize the cablecard is chancy, but that's for the Big Screen, and I won't be watching much other than special events (e.g. sporting events) on it so the guide shouldn't be an issue.

I do have a small inside antenna hooked up now, and I can get most of the channels (except CBS) ... so we are also going to look into putting an antenna in the attic. The cable route gives me some time to evaluate our options. Again ... thanks for the help.

Combined Miami and West Palm. As I said, that number includes the sub-channels. Some channels have 4-5 subs (no HD, I guess)

I did a rescan on Comcast cable and there are some new QAM channels showing up, most are encrypted, but looks like they are starting to get ready for the digital lineup change on Tuesday.

I see that Discover HD is now encrypted :( I have DirecTV but no HD package, I get all the HD-locals via my basic cable line, and used to LOVE discovery HD, what kind of package/box do I need from Comcast and what are the costs? I am just wondering because the HD DVR from DirecTV would cost me $100 + $10/month so just checking it out.

Oh, and also 5.2 is not coming in anymore, is that a problem on my end?

Discovery HD still coming in for me. You on the former Adelphia system? Its on channel 106-351 now. Channel 5 still on as well.

I found my Channel 5 on 5.3 now, weird.

My discovery is channel 765, still says Discovery HD but after a few seconds says not authorized. Do you mean 106.351? or a dash, any idea how I input a dash? I am using a harmony 670 remote.


I am up in Stuart and yeah was formerly adelphia, I know Comcast is changing channels on the 16th here so I guess we'll see....

Errr.. yea channel 106.351 , at least thats what my tv says the QAM channel is. 765 would be the cable channel that it's remapped to on a cable box but my tv (LG lcd) doesn't pick that up. It does pick up the channel remapping for the local channels though.

I received a pamphlet with my Adelphia bill yesterday "Introducing your Comcast connection." In there it says that "High Definition television from Comcast offers: [...] 22 channels and growing all the time." From this post: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9280795&&#post9280795 I count 16 channels. Anyone care to share or is this misadvertising?

Errr.. yea channel 106.351 , at least thats what my tv says the QAM channel is.

Excellent! That worked, I did a re-scan on my TV and it did not find it, but punching it in finds it perfectly :-) I am using a Sony KDF-46E2000 and did a search for "digital channels" on my cable input.

So now I have 5 12 25 29 42 and Discovery, what other HD channels are there? I will try searching thru this thread to see, wonder why my TV isn't finding them all?

I received a pamphlet with my Adelphia bill yesterday "Introducing your Comcast connection." In there it says that "High Definition television from Comcast offers: [...] 22 channels and growing all the time." From this post: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9280795&&#post9280795 I count 16 channels. Anyone care to share or is this misadvertising?

perhaps they will be adding more than what's listed.

Comcast also has contracts for UHD, A&E, National Geographic, and Cinemax. Locally they could also add The CW in HD, and FSN-FL HD and that would make 22 :)

the post printed prices this morning for the advantage packs and i think they made an error

They don't really sell both high speed internet and digital cable for $49.95 do they?

So now I have 5 12 25 29 42 and Discovery, what other HD channels are there? I will try searching thru this thread to see, wonder why my TV isn't finding them all?That's about it for the unscrambled HD channels. I think the digital nick2, weather scan, cndc world, and music choice channels are the only unscrambled digital channels. We will have to wait and see what Comcast does with Discovery HD as they may end up scrambling it too but I hope not.



I only get the Sun Sentinel and they printed the new channel lineup in the local section today but it looks the same as the one from last month. Didn't see any prices though.

At least how Adelphia used to advertise the digital packages is that the price was on top of the analog service. So it would be $49.95 + whatever the analog service is = total price.

ok that's what i thought

50 bucks sounded a little low

Anyone want to tackle a few questions?

I am ready to leave DirecTV due to no future with TiVo, so now I am looking at getting a series 3 tivo and comcast in a few weeks.

My main questions are:

1) Does the TiVo monthly fee provide the guide information or does that come thru Comcast somehow?

2) Do I need a phone line or does the TiVo do networking to get the guide data, if so what do I need? I have a network jack by my TV already for my DirecTiVo.

3) Does it handle dual tuning from comcast and do I need 2 coax lines like the DirecTiVo does? Do I need 2 cable cards and will this be a problem to get?

4) Everything comes in over the cable line so I don't need an antenna for the locals correct?

5) what package do I need to get the locals and Discovery in HD? I have total choice plus so what is Comcast's equivalent?

Thanks so much!!

Does anyone know if/when Comcast will be making available the digital versions of the analog channels (currently in the 800s)?

I remember reading that they were being tested recently but as far as when they will roll this out you might trying call CS but good luck getting someone that knows anything.

Anyone want to tackle a few questions?

I am ready to leave DirecTV due to no future with TiVo, so now I am looking at getting a series 3 tivo and comcast in a few weeks.

My main questions are:

1) Does the TiVo monthly fee provide the guide information or does that come thru Comcast somehow?

2) Do I need a phone line or does the TiVo do networking to get the guide data, if so what do I need? I have a network jack by my TV already for my DirecTiVo.

3) Does it handle dual tuning from comcast and do I need 2 coax lines like the DirecTiVo does? Do I need 2 cable cards and will this be a problem to get?

4) Everything comes in over the cable line so I don't need an antenna for the locals correct?
d
5) what package do I need to get the locals and Discovery in HD? I have total choice plus so what is Comcast's equivalent?

Thanks so much!!


This review should answer your questions.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/09/27/review-series3-tivo/

I have provided answers based on reviews I have read.


1) Your Tivo monthly fee is specifically for the guide data.

2) The Series 3 Tivo supports updates over Ethernet.

3) You only need to connect one coax but it will require two CableCards.

4) This is based on your cable provider and not the Tivo. If all of your locals are offered by your cable provide in HD you will not need an antenna. The Series 3 Tivo provides seamless integration of OTA and cable channels. You will never notice the switch to the OTA tunner.

5) Don't know. I am still with DirecTV.

Maybe I'm way behind the curve ....Has 29 HD been offthe air for a while ?

Welcome to ComCast...

403 ESPN HD 411 MTV HD
404 ESPN2 HD 412 Discovery HD
405 Versus/GOLF HD
406 NFL HD
407 TNT HD 416 HBO HD
408 IN HD
418 Show HD
431 ABC HD 419 Starz HD
432 NBS HD
433 CBS HD
434 FOX HD 440 PBS HD

16 total ...

To get the new channels, reboot your box. Worked for me.

What happened to IN HD 2?

Maybe I'm way behind the curve ....Has 29 HD been offthe air for a while ?

WFLX-DT has a habit of disappearing from time to time.

It's back on now.

Walt

What happened to IN HD 2?

indemand shut it down and consoldated it into just inhd to give some bandwidth back to cable operators to add another hd channel

Welcome to ComCast...

403 ESPN HD 411 MTV HD
404 ESPN2 HD 412 Discovery HD
405 Versus/GOLF HD
406 NFL HD
407 TNT HD 416 HBO HD
408 IN HD
418 Show HD
431 ABS HD 419 Starz HD
432 NBS HD
433 CBS HD
434 FOX HD 440 PBS HD

16 total ...
Yeah, I noticed the change yesterday.
I get a "Not Authorized" for TNT for some reason...

Anyone have a list of the QAM tuner #'s (is that what you call it? like 29.1 for fox 29-HD?) for these stations?

Welcome to ComCast...

403 ESPN HD 411 MTV HD
404 ESPN2 HD 412 Discovery HD
405 Versus/GOLF HD
406 NFL HD
407 TNT HD 416 HBO HD
408 IN HD
418 Show HD
431 ABS HD 419 Starz HD
432 NBS HD
433 CBS HD
434 FOX HD 440 PBS HD

16 total ...

Yeah, far cry from the 22 it says in the latest mailing insert in your adelphia bill.

I was curious how VS/GLF was going to work with iNHD carrying HD NHL Games that are on Versus. I now see that when an NHL game is on VS and it is in HD like tonight's game, it is on both channels in HD. That is sure a good use of bandwidth. :)

Most of the HD channels are now unencrypted. Lets see how long this lasts.

QAM channel numbers:

ESPN's are on channel 83.
NFL on channel 85.
INHD on channel 85. - Looks to be encrypted.
TNT on channel 89.
MTV on channel 89.
Vs/Golf on channel 102.
Discovery on channel 106.

I don't get those channels on those numbers. I get them as above..400's
I also don't get VS/golf or PBS.
I also get CNBC World on a channel that has no number...

I do, however get NBC CBS Fox ABC on 5/12/25/29 plus the CBS and NBC weather feeds on adjacent channels to their broadcast (5-2?, 12-2?).
I also get a comcast weather channel at 101 and nic2E on 132.

The digital Music channels make my TV react s.l.o.w.l.y. (30 seconds to change the channel!)

I posted the channels numbers you would want to have your tv's QAM tuner scan. They may remap to the channel numbers that you would see if you had a cable box.

Different tuners will behave differently. For instance, the tuner card in my computer can't lock on the music channels while my tv's tuner can.

INHD is coming in how. Must have been offline last night when I checked.

Most of the HD channels are now unencrypted. Lets see how long this lasts.

QAM channel numbers:

ESPN's are on channel 83.
NFL on channel 85.
INHD on channel 85. - Looks to be encrypted.
TNT on channel 89.
MTV on channel 89.
Vs/Golf on channel 102.
Discovery on channel 106.

can you list the exact ones? its a pain for me to scan those.. my discovery is 106.351 FYI

thank you!

All the HD channels are now remapping to channels in the 400's for my tuners which are the cable box channels. Do a rescan and they should remap for you as well.

I had to capture the transport streams on my pc to get the program id's. Typing them in directly may or may not work.
TNTHD - 89.451
MTVHD - 89.452
DiscoveryHD - 106.351
INHD - 85.476
NFLHD - 85.478
VSGLF - 102.235
ESPNHD - 83.377
ESPN2HD - 83.376

zerostar, Before you dump DTV at least try the HR20 , I picked one up at Best Buy for $299 so I could see for myself ( I have 2 HD tivo's ) and while the Hr20 is not as good as tivo its not the end of the world either. DTV at least subsidizes the cost of the unit ($299) and you pay the 4.99 slave fee which is now called lease fee. Beats paying 900 bucks for one tivo and 13 a month for a guide.

The hr20 lack of 2 active buffers is what really cripples the unit but it may be changed with firmware. other thaan the different interface the picture is as good and you can add an extra hard drive at will ! You can even replace the internal one at will . no weird hack. the remote is not as nice but it does have 30 sec skip built in too....

For the price I was happy with the hr20. Its no tivo but its wayyyyyy cheaper.

Yeah, actually they gave me a deal of $100 and free shipping and install. The real deal breaker is the guide, my wife will not go back to a non-list style guide, the DirecTV style guide does not show you enough information. This is the first thing she changed on the SD DirecTiVo when we first got it... She flipped out thinking that it was gone from it, but luckily there it was...

You can get a S3 TiVo for $600ish and the service is around $9/mo when you sign for 3 years, since I expect to have the TiVo for around 4 this is not a huge deal.

Panth1> Thanks for the #'s punching them into my TV worked perfectly!

zerostar, Before you dump DTV at least try the HR20


Will they let me try it? I don't think they will let me test it, get the new dish installed and then return it for my $100 back, if that was the case I would give it a shot. Also, I think they want 2yrs out of me for the experience.

Also, do I need an HD package or will I get my HD locals with the Total Choice Plus package anyway?

Will they let me try it? I don't think they will let me test it, get the new dish installed and then return it for my $100 back, if that was the case I would give it a shot. Also, I think they want 2yrs out of me for the experience.

Also, do I need an HD package or will I get my HD locals with the Total Choice Plus package anyway?

You are correct on all of these points. Either way you go, you will have at least a 2 year commitment to it. It's a tough choice.

A lot has been made of these two year committments. Back when I was a child, 2 years was eternity. Now, they fly. I am on my 12th 2yr committment to Sprint, each time I ask myself if I realy want to commit to 2 years, yet I am always vastly surprised how fast that 2 years comes up. I am now on my 3rd or 4th 2yr commit to DirecTV, 9 months in (I looked it up just now), and I could have sworn before I looked that I had just triggered it.

I have no problem committing to 2 years, but 2 years stuck with a crappy version of TiVo when I can just spend a little more and get the real deal seems wrong... :-)

I'm (will be) paying more for my Cable Modem since I don't have Comcast TV so it may make sense just to switch everything to Comcast at that time.

Right, you have a good point, I am just talking about committments in general.

As for the Tivo\DVR issues - I have no interest in recording programs, so that's a non-issue for me.

As for the Tivo\DVR issues - I have no interest in recording programs, so that's a non-issue for me.

/RANT ON

I seldom record anything either and certainly don't want to send D* another six or seven bucks a month. When I do record, it's to my trusty VCR. BUT... to give you an idea of how much D* wants you to have their DVR, they do not offer the IR blaster for controlling a VCR even on their non-dvr boxes. My previous Sony HD100 and Samsung T360 boxes had it and recording was a one press operation. Now I have to tell the D* box when and what and I also have to tell my VCR when to record.

Pathetic, we are losing speed and functionality with the new boxes (at least my H20 is vastly slower than any of my previous STBs). I don't see it getting any better now that D* has removed competition by having all the boxes built to their specs.

/RANT OFF

Boy, you aren't kidding about the boxes - the speed and functionality on these new boxes is a huge step backwards from my old SIRS T160. I don't miss the IR blaster though, I never recorded even with VCR.

Well you can back out but they will charge you like $150. I agree about the guide , its very hard to get used to I like the tivo list style myself.

HD users tend to be more " out there " than normal viewers ... so when I say try the hr20 realize that I mean you will have to absorb the 150 hit on the return but lets face it our toys (hd stuff) is pretty expensive even the tivo your looking at is 600 bucks so I think its not all about the money what we want is quality - a quality receiver a quality signal and quality programming. I was disappointed in DTV that they did this to us by dumping tivo - it should have always been the high end choice. I always wanted tivo to come out with an ultra high end box with tons of ram so the index and hashing would fly and a faster processor with a quad tuner so I could hook a phase 3 dish and go hog wild. But I guess it would have never sold....
Being a tivo user since 1999 it has become second nature.... but I will say the hr20 is not as bad as people make it out to be for the price - if it were 800 bucks I would be fuming mad.... look at weakness they are getting 1200 buck for a hd tivo ! thats almost what I paid for my first unit! So the 300 dollar hr20 is quite a deal - not perfect but not as horrible as some make it out to be. Just a thought...

You are right, I wish the guide wasn't a deal breaker but it is, also not using the TiVo software is a step backwards in other things as well, I have my SD DirecTiVos setup for MRV, and HMO so I can use my iTunes with it. I can also pull shows off and edit/archive to DVD so that is great for the occasional need. I think going with a S3 TiVo would make it much more supported in the "hacks" department.

Although I have ready Comcast is in a deal with TiVo and they will have boxes out pretty soon (May?), that would be great to lease a TiVo box from Comcast and not deal with all this crap, I think they charge $14 for the service though.

Popped back in here to check on discussions regarding satellite service (Palm Beach Gardens). I had previously decided to stick with cable, but a bit ticked that Comcast missed their 1-5pm appointment today to upgrade my service to HD, and are now telling me it will be NEXT Friday before they can get here... Guess I'll think about it over the weekend. Just so tired of no one meeting their service commitments...another day wasted waiting for a No Show...arggghh.

what do you want to know about satellite?

what do you want to know about satellite?


I have read most of the posts in this thread, and posted last week. I could be wrong, but lots of people seem to think the HD PQ is better with Comcast ... but I'm not sure. All I really want is access to HD channels. I also want DVR capability, but willing to wait for an HTPC solution for that.

Since I have Adelphia (now Comcast) for internet and digital cable, I decided to upgrade to HD ( with a cablecard for the 71" Samsung DLP, and the HD-DVR for the 40" LCD). Both are 1080p, so HD is going to be my preferred viewing option.

I'm not particularly fussy, and like to play/learn about new tech stuff ... so I'm pretty open to options. (I've been living in Australia for three years, and just came back to the Florida last month, so trying to catch up). I appreciate any thoughts people might have.

i currently have dish and am relatively happy. I haven't upgraded to their mpeg4 receivers yet, cause i'd want an hd-dvr and they're finally making them free after a rebate for existing subs

I have to use an antenna to pick up my locals, and a use a silver sensor in my attic which works 90% of the time. It's kinda silly cause i watch locals like 95% of the time and i'm getting that for free

I was looking at comcast, but their packages are confusing me. and the website still hasn't added our zipcodes so we can get in and look

I was looking at comcast, but their packages are confusing me. and the website still hasn't added our zipcodes so we can get in and look

Ironically, I got my first official mailing from Comcast today which outlines all their packages ... I imagine it will be available on the website soon, as the Adelphia info was not too helpful. (My husband took great delight in "flinging" the flyer at me ... he's the one who waited all day for Comcast to show up :mad: )

I think its funny how there will be people mad as hell with DTV and going to comcast and then you read other people leaving comcast for DTV because they're mad as hell at comcast !

I think there is a lesson here....... they both are not hd eden .

I'd like to thank Comcast for the Royal Screwing I knew would be forthcoming when I first read about them getting our service area. I so hoped we would be taken over by Time Warner and was greatly dismayed upon reading that wouldn't be happening.

I am an Ultimate Advantage Pak subscriber with two HD DVR's and thanks to Comcast I can now look forward to paying higher fees for a much lower level of programming.

I have lost the following channels:

(these five are no big deal)

110 American Life TV Network
132 ESPN U
136 CNBC World
164 B-Mania
169 Colours

These three excellent HD channels

761 HDNet
762 HDNet MOVIES
764 INHD2

And all of these Premium channels

209 HBO Plus West
210 HBO Signature West
211 HBO Family West
212 HBO Comedy West
213 HBO Zone West
214 HBO Latino West
226 Showtime West
227 Showtime Too West
228 Showtime Showcase West
229 Showtime Extreme West
230 Showtime Beyond West
233 TMC West
234 TMC Xtra West
242 Starz! West
246 Starz! Cinema West
249 Encore West
251 Encore Love Stories West
253 Encore Westerns West
255 Encore Mystery West
257 Encore Drama West
259 Encore Action West
275 MoreMAX West
276 ActionMAX West
277 ThrillerMAX West
308 IN DEMAND 8
309 iN DEMAND 9

These few worthless additional channels below hardly make up for what is lost above.

201 WXEL - PBS CREATE - B* NEW!
Knowledge Network - B* NEW!
212 WPEC-CBS Weather - B* NEW!
216 WPTV-NBC Weather PLUS - B* NEW!
101 WeatherScan NEW!
122 Fine Living NEW!
128 Sprout NEW!
167 IndiePlex NEW!
168 RetroPlex NEW!
173 TV One NEW!

404 ESPN 2 HD NEW!
405 VERSUS/Golf HD NEW!
407 TNT HD NEW!
411 Music HD NEW!

I was a DTV subscriber from 1997 till 2002. I switched back to Adelphia because they had greatly enhanced their channel line up during the time frame I was with DTV and thus I perceived them to be a much greater value and convinced many of my friends and family to give up the dish.

I am truly one pissed off customer and far as I am concerned, the bastards at Comcast who are responsible for this can go lay down in a corner somewhere and lick themselves like the dogs they are.

It's time to go back to satellite and I sincerely hope many others customers do the same.

I think its funny how there will be people mad as hell with DTV and going to comcast and then you read other people leaving comcast for DTV because they're mad as hell at comcast !

I think there is a lesson here....... they both are not hd eden .


Agree with you 100% ! I was just frustrated yesterday because once again people failed to live up to a delivery commitment ... we had 3 other no shows during the week besides ComCast, so perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on them ;)

snip
It's time to go back to satellite and I sincerely hope many others customers do the same.

I have a different take on the new cable channel lineup.


1. The loss of two HDNET channels is a definiite negative.
2. The loss of numerous duplicate west coast time premium channels shouldn't be missed by many.
3. ESPN2 HD addition is a big plus.
4. TNTHD addition is probably good for many, I don't watch TNT
5. The two new SD movie channels ( Indie & Retro ) is a nice addition.

Bottom line, it's wash for most.

The impending change that could most affect the desireability of D* vs cable is the reported upcoming baseball D* exclusive package.

I would think that we will also be getting some additional HD channels soon as they carry Cinemax HD, FSN HD and some HD On-Demand content just south in Broward County. Can't understand why we didn't get these to begin with when they switched but I would hope we would be getting them soon.

I'd like to thank Comcast for the Royal Screwing I knew would be forthcoming when I first read about them getting our service area. I so hoped we would be taken over by Time Warner and was greatly dismayed upon reading that wouldn't be happening.

I have lost the following channels:
....
761 HDNet
762 HDNet MOVIES
764 INHD2
....
You should be mad at the Regis family for Adelphia's ultimate demise or we would still be their customers. They are the ones who destroyed the company. Comcast had to make changes since they have different contracts with programmers than Adelphia did. They can't carry channels when they don't have permission to. Read all the news stories about Sinclair broadcasting and their battle with the cable companies over programming contracts (money). The programmers would disable their IRD's anyway.

As for INHD2. It no longer exists. Complain to INHD for not broadcasting it anymore.


I am truly one pissed off customer and far as I am concerned, the bastards at Comcast who are responsible for this can go lay down in a corner somewhere and lick themselves like the dogs they are.I would say the same thing about the Regis family as they enjoy their jail cell.


It's time to go back to satellite and I sincerely hope many others customers do the same.Be thankful you have a choice. Enjoy your downresed and over compressed HD.

I too am an Ultimate Advantage subscriber, paying over $150 a month to Adelphia and now Comcast. I was definitely displeased that they killed a lot of channels. I can only hope that they replace the west coast feeds of the premium channels with some more HD channels with that newly available bandwidth. I was really annoyed that we didn't at least pick up some of the HD channels that Comcast has down south in Broward/Dade and further up north in Vero. I just don't get that at all. As far as FSN HD is concerned, I love watching the hockey in HD and it definitely annoyed me that we lost 2 HD games a week on HDNet. If we received FSN in HD, I'd consider it a wash especially since Versus is now the only channel that shows games in HD.

For those that may care, I E-mailed FSN about FSN HD in the West Palm area. The response is below:


No, although we hear Comcast hopes to be able to start providing those games that we produce in HD to their HD customers in that area sometime this year.

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 9:46 PM
To: AskUs@foxsports.net
Subject: Website Inquiry - FSN in HD

FSN Florida

Is there any time frame on when FSN HD will come to Comcast in the West Palm Beach area?

Have any Comcast users tried movies on demand since the channel lineup changes? This function no longer works for me. The box freezes/crashes when I try it.

anyone else having breakups with 29-1 during the Saints/Bears game? My signal is between 80 and 90 and then drops to zero and comes back, rinse and repeat. 5-1 is
steady on same antenna and HD Tivo.

I've got it on MyHD now with cable but want to make sure I don't have a problem for 24 and House this week.

29.1 is coming in fine here over the cable line, been watching the whole game no problem.

Yeah, it is fine on cable QAM for me too. Curious about OTA.

Looks good OTA here.

Walt

No problem here in RPB on 29-1 OTA.

I too am an Ultimate Advantage subscriber, paying over $150 a month to Adelphia and now Comcast. I was definitely displeased that they killed a lot of channels. I can only hope that they replace the west coast feeds of the premium channels with some more HD channels with that newly available bandwidth. I was really annoyed that we didn't at least pick up some of the HD channels that Comcast has down south in Broward/Dade and further up north in Vero. I just don't get that at all. As far as FSN HD is concerned, I love watching the hockey in HD and it definitely annoyed me that we lost 2 HD games a week on HDNet. If we received FSN in HD, I'd consider it a wash especially since Versus is now the only channel that shows games in HD.

For those that may care, I E-mailed FSN about FSN HD in the West Palm area. The response is below:

ManOfSnow,

In case you're interested and feel like jumping in, this is a post of mine in reply to somebody else in a new thread I started concerning the switch over to Comcast:



I'm quite aware this is a HD forum and I find it quite laughable that you think I should be happy with the loss of 24 SD premium channels so that I'll have more bitrate for HD. These were channels that I could watch at any time without having to waste space on my DVR's hard drive. I only use my DVR for saving HD content and it's almost full.

As for my HD channel loss/gain ratio:

I picked up ESPN2, Versus/Golf, MTV HD and TNT HD and I lost HD Net and HD Net Movies which were two of my favorite channels. I didn't realize that INHD 2 was dropped until I did a little search, so you got me there.

ESPN2 - I like sports so ESPN2 is acceptable but I'm an even bigger movie fan.

Versus/Golf - I like to golf and play whenever I can, but the only golf I'll watch on tv is the Masters and the other 3 majors plus the Tour Championship and all of those events are already broadcast in HD by ABC, CBS and NBC. This channel is a complete waste of available bitrate. They show golf during the weekday and switch to the Versus channel at night and on the weekends. Last night they were showing a lacrosse match. Need I say more!

MTV in HD. Give me a F'ing break.

TNT HD - Have you ever watched the garbage that is TNT HD? Last night for example, besides the multitude of commercial interruptions, they were showing Deep Impact in a 4:3 AR stretched to fill a 16:9 screen. Maybe you like watching vertically compressed movies with 30% of the films content missing from the sides. I don't. Really great use of available bitrate there.

HD Net Movies is an excellent channel for watching classic films like Serpico, Taxi Driver, Apocalypse Now etc., etc. These movies are uncut and in their OAR with no commercials.

HD Net has a lot of very cool original HD content plus some TV series that were filmed in HD. No more Bikini Destinations on a 120" screen.

I stand by my original post and will switch back to the dish. Hopefully, with the added capacity of the new birds soon to be in orbit, they'll increase the bit rate. That along with the new MPEG4 STB's and even more HD channels on the way, I don't think HD Lite will be such a bad option at all.



Here is a link to that thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=791084

Thanks, I'll go up on the roof tommorow.

ManOfSnow,

In case you're interested and feel like jumping in, this is a post of mine in reply to somebody else in a new thread I started concerning the switch over to Comcast:







Here is a link to that thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=791084

smithfarmer, what's interesting is that if you read the brochure that comes in the latest Adelphia bill it says there are "22 channels and growing all the time". It also said that in the full sized Comcast magazine I received in the mail a few days ago. Best I can count is 16 channels. It sure is a touch of false advertising.

I didn't receive any notification in my last bill that was due on the 10th of Jan. and didn't even realize that a change had taken place until Friday night when I fired up my projector. I wasn't to happy with I saw and later on that night I came on the HD programming boards to see the full extent of what had happened and that lead to my first post on this page.

I was rightly pissed when I received the magazine on Sat. and noticed the BS about 22 HD channels and all the rest of the marketing double speak about how great and wonderful these new changes are for us, their "valued customer". How convenient of them to completely have nothing to say at all about the programming that we lost. Do they think by being absolutely mum on the matter people won't notice the missing channels? It appears so.

What's most disheartening is to see the attitude of some of the folks posting that it's no big deal. It really makes me wonder why more people aren't bothered by this. We lost 24 premium channels. That's likely a good third of what was available before the switch.

"Pay more, get less" seems to be the new motto of many businesses today and most consumers, instead of speaking up on the matter and voicing their objections, don't really seen to mind getting bent over.

I for one, will vote with my wallet.


I just thought of a new signature for my posts -

"Pay more, get less. It's Comcastic."

I have no interest in more sports (we have 4 HD sports channels now?) or Music TV. TNT is wasted space as an HD channel due to inane scaling methods and annoying pop-up bugvertisments during the shows.

I liked the HDNet channels, and wish we had UHD (for things like BSG, Stargate, Firefly, various movies, etc).

I heard a rumor back in December that the analog channels might get a digital feed (supposedly they were being tested on the old channels 800-899); but that didn't happen on the switchover either, and i'm beginning to doubt it ever will if bandwidth capacity is already such a significant problem that they had to chop out many of the west coast reruns of the premium channels.

I can't think of a single positive change that came out of this.

If cable is already so limited in bandwidth that they have to swap and remove channels to make room for others, it looks like the only way to go in the long term is with satellite, where it seems like the maximum potential capacity is only limited by how many LMBs you can put on a dish.

Unfortunately, I live in an east-facing apartment, and therefore have no option to get satellite service or I would probably be looking into it right now. :(

Bandwidth will be used for "Digital Voice" and "Super-fast" Internet connection, forget about HD from cable. Comcats is trying to collect as much money from their "valued customer" as possible. HD channels is not a big money for them. You can get HD from dish, but you'll still be with Internet and maybe phone services from Comcast....

"Comcast is America's #1 provider!", not a cable company...

Well it's been a few days with the new channel line up and I don't have to speculate anymore. It officially sucks.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who's irate about this. (smithfarmer & joquarky, I'm lookin' at you) These changes are BS. Many of my complaints have already been listed here so it'd be redundant to list them again yet I do have a couple of special mentions.

Many people seem to be happy with the addition of ESPN2. I'm OK with that. I don't watch sports at all but I know I'm in a minority there. My brother however does and was very excited that we'd have ESPN2 HD in time for the Australian Open. Here's the thing though... not one iota of the Open has been broadcast in HD. The picture looks marginally better than on the standard channel (they must be doing some kind of up-converting) but it by no means looks as good as the stuff on ESPN HD. To boot, none of the Open was in a widescreen format. We could have watched that on ESPN 2! What's the point of having the HD equivalent of a channel if it's not broadcasting HD, all the time?? HDNet and HDNet movies broadcast HD all the time.

I knew going in that TNT HD was going to be a complete waste of time. (unless you want to watch reruns of "Law & Order" and "Without a Trace" all f'ing day long. if that's the case, it's perfect) It is worse than I thought. I flipped to it the other night and to my horror they were playing a 4:3 episode of "Charmed" stretched out to fill 16:9. It looked like complete crap. This is the quality HD they're delivering??? Good use of bandwidth there. Not only is it the same crap content from TNT but it actually looks worse!!

I just got the "Introducing Your Comcast Connection" flyer in the mail tonight. After looking though it I called Comcast with a couple of questions. I spoke to Merridith. She must have been having a bad day, or have been getting a lot of calls like mine because she had no patience and a really bad attitude. I asked her if my bill was going to go down since HDPlus had been taken away. "I was paying 5 extra dollars a month to get HDNet & HDNet movies and now they are gone. Everything else was rolled into HD Basic so I assume I my bill will go down by 5 dollars, right"? She said it would but I noted how it was nice that they raised the price Silver Pak by 5 dollars so in reality I wasn't getting a break at all. I was paying the same money only now for channels I didn't request and I didn't have a choice. She didn't agree. She told me that the raising of the rate of the Paks was announced weeks ago and one had nothing to do with the other. It was announced? I was never told. She said that there was an insert in the last bill that mentioned it. I figured I must have over looked it but I still have my last two bills (messy desk) and there was no insert of any kind in either of them.

I then asked where the other 7 HD channels were since they advertise 22. She said that this flyer goes out to all the Comcast customers in the world and that 22 covers everyone, everywhere. We all don't get them all. So, this flyer goes out to all Comcast customers everywhere? I guess that's why there's palm trees and a Latino family on the front cover. I'm sure that's the standard demographic everywhere they provide service. It would seem to me that if they're going to reprint the cover and the channel line up for a specific target area the least they could do is update any pages that do cross territories to at least include the correct info.

I knew it would be pointless but I complained about the quality of the new HD channels versus the stuff we lost. Her response was that people have been asking them for ESPN2 HD for 2 years and are happy about it. And it only took them two years to deliver. Way to go!! I told her that overall many people were NOT happy about it and offered to give her a link to this URL. She wasn't interested. She also went on to tell me that TNT and Music HD are two of her "favorite channels" so I guess that should tell me who I was dealing with. I was actually surprised at how bad her attitude was. She said she had worked for Adelphia for 5 years so maybe she's just figuring out that her life's just gotten worse being a Comcast employee. Who knows. I know it's gotten worse being a Comcast customer.

She ended the call by asking (in a very annoyed tone) if there was anything else she could do. No, I told her. I got exactly what I expected.

*sigh*...I'm staying with Comcast for awhile so I guess I'll get to experience what they have to offer ... assuming they actually show up this week to install my extra lines and HD stuff. I had the Ultimate Advantage Package with Adelphia ... so adding 1 CableCard (limited hopes it will work), 1 HD DVR, and the HD package is going to push me up to $120/mo. (I also have their premier Internet package, which isn't bad, and is the main reason I didn't switch to satellite).

Losing the west coast feeds on HBO etc. is a bit of a pain for me ... I liked the flexibility.

If we were able to get DSL, I would switch to Direct TV tomorrow. But the cost of the Comcast broadband is almost as much as the combo pack.

The funny thing is Adelphia had a contract to carry ESPN2 HD for a number of years but only added it to a few franchises. Not sure why they never did here and I had called and requested it quite a few times. Customer service is like talking to a bunch of robots but I'm sure they have to listen to the same crap from people every day while the marketing department tells us stuff that isn't true.

I figured the 22 number was based on the 7 broadcast networks and all the satellite networks they have contacts with.

While we have seen a big change. All the other Comcast franchise have or will have a similar lineup. What we have is supposed to be the standard for all their areas. Now it's time to keep calling and requesting HDNET.

Also Comcast needs to let INHD know that their IRD isn't owned by Adelphia anymore and to stop blacking out the NBA games since we now have NBA tv.

I still don't understand how Broward and Miami-Dade get Cinemax HD and FSN-HD and we didn't get those added. Makes no sense.

GigaShadow, great post. ;)

The only way to make Comcast take notice is to cancel your service and tell them why you are doing so. It won't happen immediately, but over time as more people show their displeasure for this downgrade in service by complaining loudly and letting it be known why you are canceling, they will take notice.

Switching to the dish is looking better all the time. I came home today to find an offer from BellSouth in the mail inviting me to switch over to DSL and get $225 cash back for doing so. After this rebate, internet costs come out to $14.25 a month.

These companies (telcos, cable and satellite) are all trying to become the one stop shop you choose for all of your home phone, cellular, internet and tv needs. That is why you see BellSouth teaming up with Direct TV and offering a bundled service. They are ultra competitive and are vying for our dollars and whoever provides the best product for the best price will get my money. It's as simple as that.

If Comacast gets their act together by this time next year I will consider coming back.

I certainly would not blame anyone for switching away from Adelphia/Comcast for the various reasons already stated but be aware that with the mergers of media companies you may end up switching to DirecTV and ending up with Comcast again.
John Malone's Three Part Plan For DirecTV (http://biz.yahoo.com/seekingalpha/070124/24973_id.html?.v=1)

Thanks for taking the time to read it. I know it was a long one. I was just so steamed when I wrote it. Concerning a possible switching to DTV... I'm in a townhouse which is of course wired for cable. I know I'm facing in the right direction to install a dish but getting it all wired up for 4 TVs on two different floors just seems like a logistical nightmare to some one whose never had to do anything like that before. I know it can be done as other people in my complex have DTV installed. I will tell you you this; If by years end DTV has been able to deliver on it's promise of 150 HD channels I will definitley switch no matter where I'm living.

I think the 150 HD channels depends largely on the content. Sure they are poised to launch 2 satellites to have the CAPACITY for 150 HD Channels, but whether or not they have content for 150 HD channels is another story. I hope at least the HD channels we have now are full res when these 2 new ones are operational.

You'll notice they say something like "the capacity for up to 150 HD channels" And that may include current HD channels and current HD locals from all around the country... In other words marketing BS perhaps....

GigaShadow, excellent post.

I couldn't agree more with what you guys are saying. I am extremely disappointed with Comcast's take over of Adelphia. I just don't get their HD stance....more people buy HD TVs...lets give our customers a couple of channels and then advertise that we're giving them 6 more than they are getting.

I don't understand why the south Florida region can't be similar, there is no reason why we shouldn't have FSN or Cinemax in HD. Comcast has the contracts and it is broadcasting them on their network 35 miles south of me and 50 miles north...

I also don't get why they added VS/Golf HD. The only thing that is broadcasted in HD on VS appears to be the hockey games. Well those games were on iNHD when available. Now it seems that whenever those games are on VS, iNHD goes dead as if it is blacked out. What the hell was the point of this dumbass network if the only thing that is in HD, was on the another network and that network isn't showing alternate programming now?

I don't understand why the south Florida region can't be similar, there is no reason why we shouldn't have FSN or Cinemax in HD. Comcast has the contracts and it is broadcasting them on their network 35 miles south of me and 50 miles north...They are still totally separate systems with different hardware. In the future the systems might be unified but it won't happen in a few months. Another problem could be available bandwidth.

I also don't get why they added VS/Golf HD. The only thing that is broadcasted in HD on VS appears to be the hockey games. Well those games were on iNHD when available. Now it seems that whenever those games are on VS, iNHD goes dead as if it is blacked out. What the hell was the point of this dumbass network if the only thing that is in HD, was on the another network and that network isn't showing alternate programming now?They added Vs/Golf HD because it was started by and is owned by Comcast. They are going to continue on INHD most likely due to a carriage contract with them.

The games are not blacked out. For example last night, INHD had an NBA game on at 8pm but we continue to be blacked out incorrectly now that the system is Comcast and not Adelphia anymore. Since Comcast has a contract with NBA tv, unlike Adelphia, we should be seeing the games. INHD must still think the satellite receiver we are served by is Adelphia and why we are still getting blacked out. This is something Comcast will have to fix. Also it doesn't look like INHD has been showing an alternate feed. They used to when NBA games would be on and we would get some skiing show.

They are still totally separate systems with different hardware. In the future the systems might be unified but it won't happen in a few months. Another problem could be available bandwidth.

Yeah, I understand they are different systems...but they obviously changed systems when they moved from Adelphia to Comcast last week. Why wasn't their initial package comparable to their offerings in the surrounding comunities? That is what doesn't make sense.

They added Vs/Golf HD because it was started by and is owned by Comcast. They are going to continue on INHD most likely due to a carriage contract with them.

Again, I understand that, I just have yet to see anything on VS HD that was not on inHD. Take tonight for example...NHL Allstar game on VSHD, NHL Allstar game on iNHD. Maybe this is Comcast's attempt at trying to save the NHL's rather pathetic ratings. They are broadcasting the game on 3 channels. VS, VS/GOLFHD and iNHD. Comcast, get some decent HD programing or at least upconvert the crap. Geesh!

The games are not blacked out. For example last night, INHD had an NBA game on at 8pm but we continue to be blacked out incorrectly now that the system is Comcast and not Adelphia anymore. Since Comcast has a contract with NBA tv, unlike Adelphia, we should be seeing the games. INHD must still think the satellite receiver we are served by is Adelphia and why we are still getting blacked out. This is something Comcast will have to fix. Also it doesn't look like INHD has been showing an alternate feed. They used to when NBA games would be on and we would get some skiing show.
Doesn't Comcast own iNHD? You'd think the folks over at iNHD would know to flip the switch now that this has been a Comcast owned network for 6 months and officially Comcast for about 2 weeks.

I think the 150 HD channels depends largely on the content. Sure they are poised to launch 2 satellites to have the CAPACITY for 150 HD Channels, but whether or not they have content for 150 HD channels is another story. I hope at least the HD channels we have now are full res when these 2 new ones are operational.

You'll notice they say something like "the capacity for up to 150 HD channels" And that may include current HD channels and current HD locals from all around the country... In other words marketing BS perhaps....

Yes, that's why I said "if" they are able to deliver on the promise. ;-)

Just received my latest bill in the mail. This is the one for service for 1/22 - 2/21. I looked it over and noticed that just as promised, the Silver Pak had gone up by 5 bucks. However the 5 dollar charge for the HD Plus was still on there. Yes that's right, if I wasn't paying attention, they were gonna charge me all through the next month for a service that vanished on 1/16. I find it interesting, however not a bit surprising that they were diligent enough to remember to add the 5 dollars to the Silver Pak yet somehow overlooked the removal of the HD Plus charge. How convenient for them. As you could have guessed it only took me about a minute before I was on the phone. I didn't really expect to get a hassle over this one, as they were 100% in the wrong and I didn't. The Comcast guy erased the $5 from the bill and I only paid what I actually owed.

So, needless to say, if you had HD Plus, scrutinize your latest bill before you pay it to make sure the $5 charge is gone. If not, call 'em up. I have a feeling that had I not called that charge would have been on there for many months to come. In fact, I won't be surprised if it's still there next month and I have to call again.

Just got my bill as well, and they've charged me for a week of HD service which I haven't even received yet. You gotta love these guys. If they don't make their scheduled appointment Friday, I will definitely go another way.

OK... at this very moment... VS and INHD are broadcasting the exact same hockey game. Two HD channels broadcasting the exact same thing. Even all the commercials are the same. How can this not be considered a waste of their finite bandwith? Is this of value to anyone? Ugh!

because not all cable systems have vs-golf hd yet, so those that don't can still get the hd game on inhd

because not all cable systems have vs-golf hd yet, so those that don't can still get the hd game on inhd

And when they do have it they too will see the same game on both channels. I still don't see that as a bonus to anyone.

Yeah, yeah, I'm back again. There's nothing on TV tonight. So, riddle me this....

Bro's downstairs watching the Australian Open on ESPN 2 HD. As I mentioned in my previous post, they have not broadcast a single frame of it in 16:9 HD. The entire open has been broadcast in 4:3 with the ESPN's lame HD stripes on the sides of screen.We chalked it up to the fact that it just must not have been shot for HD. (though I found that hard to believe) He just calls me down there and flips over to ESPN HD where they are showing highlights of the Open, of the exact match he is currently watching, in FULL 16:9 HD. WTF? So clearly, these tennis matches are being shot in a WS format and they have access to it. Why oh why oh why is it not being broadcast 16:9 on ESPN 2 HD? If anyone can find the logic in this please fill me in because I'm about to go out the window.

Bro's downstairs watching the Australian Open on ESPN 2 HD. As I mentioned in my previous post, they have not broadcast a single frame of it in 16:9 HD. The entire open has been broadcast in 4:3 with the ESPN's lame HD stripes on the sides of screen.We chalked it up to the fact that it just must not have been shot for HD. (though I found that hard to believe) He just calls me down there and flips over to ESPN HD where they are showing highlights of the Open, of the exact match he is currently watching, in FULL 16:9 HD.

Australian Open on ESPN 2 HD is a 16:9 picture. You can see it in few bottom lines that are not hidden by gray "HD" stripes

Australian Open on ESPN 2 HD is a 16:9 picture. You can see it in few bottom lines that are not hidden by gray "HD" stripes

I assume you are familiar with the "HD stripes" I am talking about. ESPN uses them in the place of the standard grey or black bars that appear on the left and right of the screen whenever they go to 4:3 commercials or highlights from games that were shot for 4:3. Obviously the Open was shot 16:9. That much is evident from the hightlight reel that was shows on ESPN HD. However, ESPN2 HD has broadcast the entire Open with the bars on the sides of the picture so even if it is 16:9 (and we know it is) it doesn't count because they are covering up the sides ALL the time. My question is, why in the hell would they do that? I shouldn't have to look a the "few bottom lines" to see that it's a 16:9 picture. It should fill the screen ALL the time.

It appears that it is upconverted not HD when in 16:9. Whole thread on this at:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=787674

It appears that it is upconverted not HD when in 16:9. Whole thread on this at:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=787674

Thanks for posting that. The fact that there's a two page thread on it already, it puts my mind at ease. I'm not the only crazy one. ;-) That said, they should have at least given us the 16:9 upconvert all the time. The 4:3 simply blows.

I think what SlashSl means is there is a 16:9 picture already in the signal to ESPN, but it's being covered up by those bars.

I saw this exact same thing happen on New Year's Eve on one of the HD networks (I think it was either NBC or ABC). They had the black bars up on the left and right sides, but I noticed I could see one or two scan lines at the very top of the screen where picture was coming through *above* the black bars. In other words, the black bars were there for no reason, as the picture was 16:9, but some moron put up black bars anyway.

You probably will not see this happen if your screen isn't mapped 1:1 so that all of the overscan is visible, as it happens right on the edges of the picture. I also see some channels (including DiscoveryHD) that show a vertical white line on the very first pixel column on the left edge when certain cameras are switched to, or when displaying any overlaid graphics (as when Discovery HD shows their channel logo).

Hard to understand some of the decisions these networks make, I sure would prefer a upconvert 16:9 to a 4:3 but then you have WPLG who stretches their SD 4:3 picture to 16:9. I think they believe we are all too dumb to notice.

I think what SlashSl means is there is a 16:9 picture already in the signal to ESPN, but it's being covered up by those bars.


Yeah, I understood what he meant. I'm just saying, don't cover it with the bars.

Hard to understand some of the decisions these networks make, I sure would prefer a upconvert 16:9 to a 4:3 but then you have WPLG who stretches their SD 4:3 picture to 16:9. I think they believe we are all too dumb to notice.

I get WPEC not WPLG so I've not seen what they do. I do know that TNT HD stretches 4:3 to 16:9 though. I can not fathom why.

...(as when Discovery HD shows their channel logo).

So Discovery HD is still there? What package do you get? Our community (in Boynton Beach) has the extended basic. I used to get Discovery HD over cable, now it is gone.

posted by Gigashadow..[QUOTE=
So, needless to say, if you had HD Plus, scrutinize your latest bill before you pay it to make sure the $5 charge is gone. If not, call 'em up. I have a feeling that had I not called that charge would have been on there for many months to come. In fact, I won't be surprised if it's still there next month and I have to call again.[/QUOTE]

I called on the 18th about this and billing gave me the runaround. I also called sales and they agreed HD Plus was no more. I suggested that he educate his
billing department as they were blowing people off.

I called billing up today and they agreed to credit me $5 for the HD Plus charge.

My bill period was 01/08/07-02/07/07, with the 16th January in the range.
If they give you grief about pro-rating HD plus, point out to them that they did not pro-rate
the extra $5 charge for the value packages. They can't have it both ways !

If you have a bill with an increased $5 for a value package and $5 for HD Plus they
should give you a $5 credit in all situations.

I think they believe we are all too dumb to notice.
As unfortunate as it is, this is more likely the reason and this will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Until consumers become better educated as to what constitutes an HD picture and rightfully demand that their providers actually deliver on these HD quality promises, these corporations will continue to take advantage of this situation.

As far as I'm concerned, any network that claims to broadcast in HD and then proceeds to take a 4:3 AR signal and stretch it to fill a 16:9 screen are guilty of false advertising.

Comcast is also guilty of false advertising by mailing out brochures to all of their subscribers stating they offer 22 channels of HD content. This is nothing more than a lie that should be retracted. Either that or they broadcast the channels that are promised.

I get WPEC not WPLG so I've not seen what they do. I do know that TNT HD stretches 4:3 to 16:9 though. I can not fathom why.

Don't even get me started on TNT-HD <Not>. This channel has destroyed so many good movies that it is a joke. Every once in a while they may actually show a HD movie but almost never OAR and most times a poor upconvert stretched to 16:9 that is just unwatchable. The only time I turn them on anymore is for the NBA games.

Calling all Directv users. Is there much of a wait for the new HR20 these days? I think one of the LNBs on my old dish went out and figured I'd see about getting the new dish/reciever for the HD locals.

Calling all Directv users. Is there much of a wait for the new HR20 these days? I think one of the LNBs on my old dish went out and figured I'd see about getting the new dish/reciever for the HD locals.
Call them and ask. Unlike your cable company monopoly, DirecTV actually wants your business.
Call
For existing DIRECTV® service
Home service: 1-800-494-4388
Hearing impaired customers (TTY): 1-800-779-4388
Business service: 1-888-200-4388
Hotel/dorm/hospital service: 1-800-388-2505

For new DIRECTV service
Home service: 1-888-777-2454
At your business: 1-888-388-4249

Hard to understand some of the decisions these networks make, I sure would prefer a upconvert 16:9 to a 4:3 but then you have WPLG who stretches their SD 4:3 picture to 16:9. I think they believe we are all too dumb to notice.

WPLG broadcasts on 10.1 and 10.2. I think that they stretch 10.1, but leave 10.2 go at 4:3 (I'm not at home now, so it could be visa versa).

Yea, it bugs me too that they do that!!!!

No wait for the HR20 but if you need a new dish there was a looong wait for me. YMMV

As long as I am here, I thought I'd let everyone know of that I just replaced my Terk 55 antenna with a Channelmaster Stealthtenna, with the amp. The antenna is at the apex of my roof (about 25ft), and it's pointed south. I'm off Yamato near 441.

I now get every channel under the South Florida sun, even the ones in the "red" pie zone, with the lowest signal strength at about 85%.

I know that I am not supposed to post prices here, but I could say that I got the antenna, and the amp from Stark Electronics for the price that Lowes sells just the antenna.

http://www.starkelectronic.com/stealth.htm

WPLG broadcasts on 10.1 and 10.2. I think that they stretch 10.1, but leave 10.2 go at 4:3 (I'm not at home now, so it could be visa versa).

Yea, it bugs me too that they do that!!!!

Yes, but I most of the time I am watching from Advanced cable and they use the 10-1 feed. Also I think it is stupid to waste channel bandwidth to broadcast the same content in 4:3 and 4:3 stretched to 16:9. I have not checked do they leave 10-2 running when they are in HD? If so even worse they are compromising their HD feed. Until all of the SD feeds are digitial 4:3 and the HD is 16:9 they will continue to confuse the majority of people on what HD is. Many people now think HD is bad because they watch stretched SD content or are watching analog SD from their cable provider on >40" screens which makes the content look like crap.

I think that we need to come up with a new term to describe what we want. I suggest HD-phile – conceived from the use of “audiophile”. One of the problems that we “HD-philes” face is that we are such a small percentage of the total television viewership. That makes us insignificant to television broadcasters and rebroadcasters. I have helped many “average” people install their new widescreen HD televisions and all of them say the same thing; “Get rid of the bars on the side – I want to use the entire screen that I paid for”. They don’t care about picture quality they just want the picture stretched to fill the screen. Now think of how many times these people have called their local broadcaster and complained about a show with “bars” on the side and you may understand the quandary. An HD-phile would want the broadcaster to transmit the picture in the format that it was originally produced, i.e. 4:3 broadcast on a digital channel would have bars on the sides, not stretched to fit the 16:9 aspect ratio. If the nonHD-phile doesn’t like it they can use their equipment (usually the TV) to distort the picture to their preference. If you don’t like the way that a broadcaster or rebroadcaster is distributing their content then you must make it known to them. As others have said the ultimate way to get their attention is to stop giving them your money or viewership. I hope that we, as Americans, do not settle for “HD-lite” or “Sub-channel fractionalizing” just so that we can have more content rather than quality.

www.wikipedia.com
Audiophile, from Latin audire "hear" and Greek philos "loving," is a person dedicated to achieving high fidelity in the recording and playback of music.
A videophile (literally, "one who loves sight") is one who is concerned with achieving high-quality results in the recording and playback of movies, TV programs, etc.
Similar to audiophile values, videophile values may be applied at all stages of the chain: the initial audio-visual recording, the production process, and the playback (usually in a home setting). As with audiophiles, videophiles are generally criticised with being able to recognize differences that are usually inperceptible to most other people; however, video has many more objective ways to measure quality (though one's opinion over what is more favorable can vary), thus eliminating the criticism to an "it's good-enough" standpoint.
Some of the aspects of video that most videophiles are concerned with include framerate, field frequency, color system, resolution, screen size etc.
High-Definition Television (HDTV) is a television broadcasting system with a significantly higher resolution than traditional formats (NTSC, SECAM, PAL) allow. Except for early analogue formats in Europe and Japan, HDTV is broadcast digitally and, therefore, its introduction sometimes coincides with the introduction of Digital Television (DTV). This technology was first introduced in the USA during the 1990s by the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance (grouping together AT&T, General Instrument, MIT, Philips, Sarnoff, Thomson, and Zenith)[1].
While a number of high-definition television standards have been proposed or implemented on a limited basis, the current HDTV standards are defined in ITU-R BT.709 as 1080 active interlace or progressive scan lines, or 720 progressive scan lines, using a 16:9 aspect ratio. The term "high-definition" can refer to the resolution specifications themselves, or more loosely to media capable of similar sharpness, such as photographic film. Currently, approximately 33 million American households have HDTVs.

So Discovery HD is still there? What package do you get? Our community (in Boynton Beach) has the extended basic. I used to get Discovery HD over cable, now it is gone.
I'm in Boynton Beach as well (just west of I-95), and it was working great last night. I have the Silver Pak plus all the basic/digital stuff. What does it say when you type in the channel number (412)?

Pickle, it is ironic the definition you give makes no mention of horizontal resolution, thus rendering the "HD-Lite" argument against 1920 vs 1440 vs 1280 moot.

Okay...I've been waiting for 3 weeks for Comcast HD to show up. They finally showed today. After much moaning and groaning, the tech did what was shown on the workorder, and I now have 1) a 40" 1080p LCD hooked up to the HD DVR, and 2) a 71" Samsung 1080p hooked up to HD cable via the CableCard. All is good so far....I'll be checking specific program availability later, but now I'm FINALLY a happy Comcast customer.

That antenna is quoted as having a 45 degree beam, medium directional. How can you receive both Miami and WPB stations from your location (that's about a 150 degree spread....) ? Will it pick up both 7 and 25 at the same time, for example ?

Thanks
Jeff

As long as I am here, I thought I'd let everyone know of that I just replaced my Terk 55 antenna with a Channelmaster Stealthtenna, with the amp. The antenna is at the apex of my roof (about 25ft), and it's pointed south. I'm off Yamato near 441.

I now get every channel under the South Florida sun, even the ones in the "red" pie zone, with the lowest signal strength at about 85%.

I know that I am not supposed to post prices here, but I could say that I got the antenna, and the amp from Stark Electronics for the price that Lowes sells just the antenna.

http://www.starkelectronic.com/stealth.htm

I think that we need to come up with a new term to describe what we want. I suggest HD-phile – conceived from the use of “audiophile”. One of the problems that we “HD-philes” face is that we are such a small percentage of the total television viewership. That makes us insignificant to television broadcasters and rebroadcasters. I have helped many “average” people install their new widescreen HD televisions and all of them say the same thing; “Get rid of the bars on the side – I want to use the entire screen that I paid for”. They don’t care about picture quality they just want the picture stretched to fill the screen. Now think of how many times these people have called their local broadcaster and complained about a show with “bars” on the side and you may understand the quandary. An HD-phile would want the broadcaster to transmit the picture in the format that it was originally produced, i.e. 4:3 broadcast on a digital channel would have bars on the sides, not stretched to fit the 16:9 aspect ratio. If the nonHD-phile doesn’t like it they can use their equipment (usually the TV) to distort the picture to their preference. If you don’t like the way that a broadcaster or rebroadcaster is distributing their content then you must make it known to them. As others have said the ultimate way to get their attention is to stop giving them your money or viewership. I hope that we, as Americans, do not settle for “HD-lite” or “Sub-channel fractionalizing” just so that we can have more content rather than quality.



I echo your statement.

One thing broadcasters and advertisers fail to realize is the "HD-phile" is the person who has the $10K (or even $20K) home theater and can easily afford to purchase the products they advertise.

A handful of people able AND willing to blow money like that is far outweighed by the great masses of people with more realistic budgets.

A handful of people able AND willing to blow money like that is far outweighed by the great masses of people with more realistic budgets.

Just want to make sure I understand this comment. Are you saying the masses don't care about image quality or are you commenting on the cost of a typical home theater?

Kind of both. I know a lot of people that are happy with their 4:3 SD TV sets, showing the local cable companies snowy best. They just don't care. I know also a fair number of people who do care, but are perfectly happy with any non-snowy picture, and middle of the road equipment, where your total investment is sub 5k. I'm just saying, the perspective on this forum is highly skewed, and the big money is in the big numbers, and "HD-philes" are not the same big numbers, as much as we would like to believe otherwise. For the record, I am in the category of having spent in the good 5 figures on my setup, including more than one room. However, I also look back at it and think, man, that was not really the best use of my income, so I am firmly on both sides of the fence (ha!)

Our household is a good cross section of the TV-viewing community, I think. We've got a 12 yr old rear projection set that was top-of-the-line at the time. My husband prefers to watch TV on that set, with basic cable. It's hooked up to a TIVO, and that annoys the heck out of him!

I've just added two 1080p sets in other parts of the house with HD cable and I'm getting pickier by the day about the quality of the HD channels Comcast broadcasts. The funny thing is, the 12 yr old setup cost about 5X as much as the new one (but then, I wouldn't have wanted to be without TV for 12 years :p )

I'm currently reasonably happy with Comcast, but that is probably aided by the fact that I'm still overwhelmed by the new TVs and my first real venture into HD.

Kind of both. I know a lot of people that are happy with their 4:3 SD TV sets, showing the local cable companies snowy best. They just don't care. I know also a fair number of people who do care, but are perfectly happy with any non-snowy picture, and middle of the road equipment, where your total investment is sub 5k. I'm just saying, the perspective on this forum is highly skewed, and the big money is in the big numbers, and "HD-philes" are not the same big numbers, as much as we would like to believe otherwise. For the record, I am in the category of having spent in the good 5 figures on my setup, including more than one room. However, I also look back at it and think, man, that was not really the best use of my income, so I am firmly on both sides of the fence (ha!)


Part of my view comes from being in the technology / marketing world. In our industry we have conducted significant analysis and found the 80/20 rule very much exists. By this I mean 80% of your profits (not revenue) comes from the top 20% of your customer base. When you perform analysis of the top 20% of customers and botton 80% of customers you find some interesting facts. Your bottom 80% of customers are the ones who do not care about the snowy image, they just want the product. Thus they should get the least amount of attention as focusing on this group will not yield additional profits. Your top 20% of customers are the ones who care about things such as picture quality, they want the most from your product. The top 20% of customers demand the ultimate in performance. In our example that would mean full resolution video with minimum compression, original aspect ratio broadcast, etc.

Part of what I do for a living is help companies identify who are the top 20% of customers and how best to maximize profits by catering to these customers. Unfortunate for me, the companies who seek our services are banks, credit card companies, and insurance companies. I wish we could get into the media and entertainment market as myself and others like me would benefit from more attention from MSOs who clearly focus on the 80% rather than the 20%.

I completely understand why MSOs do so. Someone at Comcast, DirecTV, Time Warner, etc see this large group of customers who just want TV evident by the lack of complaints stemming from constantly degrading image quality and general lack of premium content. When making decisions by strictly looking at the large group of customers who don't care about premium products, the logical move to increases profits would be to charge more for their service in general verses charging premium prices for premium services.

My intent is not to say if you don't spend thousand of dollars on electronics you are not worthy of watching television. I merely seek to acknowledge the existence and purchasing power of those who seek more than just an image on the screen without snow.

ANSEK,

You are correct in your analysis of the current corporate conundrum that we face with regards to companies like Comcast.

We like our HD and there is not enough of it. When they eliminated HD Plus and the charge for it and moved it to their regular HD tier of channels, those who did not subscribe to HD Plus saw this as an added benefit since they now have more HD channels. They've made more people happy but at the expense of their highest paying customers.

I would gladly pay a premium for extra channels of quality HD content and I'm sure there are others who feel the same. There still is a market for a higher tier of HD content. I want more HD content like HD Net and HD Net Movies and would readily pay for it the same way that I pay for HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc., etc.

There is the potential for added profit but it's an opportunity that Comcast is not taking advantage of and as a result, they will soon be losing me as one of their more profitable customers.

That antenna is quoted as having a 45 degree beam, medium directional. How can you receive both Miami and WPB stations from your location (that's about a 150 degree spread....) ? Will it pick up both 7 and 25 at the same time, for example ?

Thanks
Jeff

I saw as well that the antenna was directional.

After reading some comments about the Stealthtenna in one of the hardware threads http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=755170 they were saying that they were between 2 markets, and getting both. I thought I'd give it a try, and if it didn't work, I would do a rotor, or dual antenna setup to get both West Palm, and Miami, Ft Lauderdale signals.

To my amazement, they were right!!!! And yes.. I do get 7 and 25, both at about 86% signal strength.

FYI for all you D* folks...

NFL Network is broadcasting HD on channel 95 all week. Supposedly, they are doing this because there is some big game going on this weekend... ;>

Yea, I just love watching the highlights from the 1972 Super Bowl in high def!!!

I may have to give that antenna a try. I can't pick up 25, and 5 is hit and miss with my current positioning. It would be nice to add 25 to my options. Then again, my current bidirectional wing antenna is pretty wind resistant, it lasted through the last two hurricanes, and I get all stations from both markets, minus the aforementioned 25 and flaky 5. Hmmm...... Tough choice.

The success of the Stealthtenna is due to a combination of things.
-Being in Boca (particularly West Boca), you have everything in a north south plane and you are located at the southern edge of the PB County market and just outside the northern edge of the Broward Market. Almost perfect location for both markets.
-Its a minimal antenna with a little forward gain (without preamp) and backwards reflectivity due to the few elements. Better for dual reception off the front and back.
-Most important, the preamp at the antenna. Most people go to Radio Shack, and stick the amp at the end of the line near the TV, worst possible place. But the preamp at the antenna amplifies more signal, less noise that way.

So someone with many elements facing one way has the problem of considerably reflectivity off the rear.

Now the Stealthtenna won't pull Channel 7 into Central PB County but for Boca its probably a good location for it.

For anyone that wants to improve signals, I recommend a Channel Master Titan 2 model. I use the Model 7777 with 26db UHF and 23db VHF gain with a switchable FM trap to keep out narrow band interference. It's mounted outside at the antenna with 110v remote power stepped down to run up the coax. (If you use it, you can't have any other amps in line)

My current Winegard GS2200 allows me to grab both markets, less 5 reliably and 25 at all, as mentioned above. I see it is roughly the same as the Stealthtenna, judging by text at the SolidSignal website. I wonder if the Stealthtenna would be an improvement, or much of the same, for one, and for two, which would be better the 7777 preamp, or the preamp that comes with the GS2200, and/or the one that you can buy as an add-on to the stealthtenna..... In other words, I'm kinda asking the folks up here if trying the Stealthtenna is worth it in my situation.

Forgive me if this is already covered in one of 6100+ replies, but can anyone confirm that they can scan the WPB HD locals with a Dish 622 via Comcast cable. I have basic cable via HOA and would be interested in having a backup to the rooftop antenna if the local HD channels can be scanned (without additional equipment or additional Comcast fees)?

If so, has anyone tried merging Comcast with their antenna cable through the one "antenna" cable jack on the 622? Would this weaken the antenna signal?

Lastly, do you know if the 622 can pick up the embedded id info in the digital channel to give me the correct guide data? Or will it just have a generic "digital programming" or similar show up in the guide?

Thanks for any answers.

My current Winegard GS2200 allows me to grab both markets, less 5 reliably and 25 at all, as mentioned above. I see it is roughly the same as the Stealthtenna, judging by text at the SolidSignal website. I wonder if the Stealthtenna would be an improvement, or much of the same, for one, and for two, which would be better the 7777 preamp, or the preamp that comes with the GS2200, and/or the one that you can buy as an add-on to the stealthtenna..... In other words, I'm kinda asking the folks up here if trying the Stealthtenna is worth it in my situation.

Jeff, I think that it will be hard to answer until you try it. If your situation was like mine, you might want to give it a go..

With my situation, before the Stealthtenna + amp, I was able to get reliably 100% of the time all of the WPB networks stations (minus the WPTV occasional flakyness). The Ft Laud/Miami networks were hit or miss; it all depended on if it was night / day, or if the wind was blowing, etc.

With the Stealthtenna + amp, I now get all of the WPB and all FT Laud/Miami network stations 100% of the time.

I agree with the other post that the 7777 amp is also a good alternative to the built in amp if you want to go that way. But, I thought I'd do the package deal first, and upgrade later if needed.

I too was not happy about losing numerous HBO's and Showtime channels when Adelphia changed to Comcast. I was under the impression, however, that Comcast was going to provide a HI-Definition On Demand channel and that would somewhat make up for it. To date this On Demand channel has not showed up in my guide. My co-workers that live in Broward have had this for quite a while. Has anyone else in the Palm Beach area received Hi-Def On Demand yet?

I have been wondering when we will get the HD content that they have in Broward as well.

I wasn't that upset about losing the west coast feeds of HBO or Showtime as most of the channels show movies I have seen multiple times during their first run on the main channels. I always thought there were too many HBO & Showtime channels to begin with.

If it frees up space for them to add more HD its even better.

What direction did you point the Stealthtenna, to best split the difference ? As I recall, you are west of 441 by Yamato, I am just west of US1 just N of Yamato, not sure how much of a difference that makes...

Thanks
Jeff

Jeff, I think that it will be hard to answer until you try it. If your situation was like mine, you might want to give it a go..

With my situation, before the Stealthtenna + amp, I was able to get reliably 100% of the time all of the WPB networks stations (minus the WPTV occasional flakyness). The Ft Laud/Miami networks were hit or miss; it all depended on if it was night / day, or if the wind was blowing, etc.

With the Stealthtenna + amp, I now get all of the WPB and all FT Laud/Miami network stations 100% of the time.

I agree with the other post that the 7777 amp is also a good alternative to the built in amp if you want to go that way. But, I thought I'd do the package deal first, and upgrade later if needed.

What direction did you point the Stealthtenna, to best split the difference ? As I recall, you are west of 441 by Yamato, I am just west of US1 just N of Yamato, not sure how much of a difference that makes...

Thanks
Jeff

Got it pointed about 165 - 170 degrees.

PS-> Jeff, I like your avatar on dbstalk.com better than the one you use here!!!!!

Great, thanks - that's about the same I have my Sensar pointed. I may just give it a try later in the year.
Re:Avatar - that's my wife. For some reason, I never bothered with an avatar here, I guess you have to buy a membership to use one. Oh well. It seems a bit pricey at $35 a year, my personal web site at bowser.smugmug.com doesn't even charge me that, and they host my pictures with unlimited space and bandwidth.

Re:Avatar - that's my wife. For some reason, I never bothered with an avatar here, dunno why. Guess i should.

I don't know what the big avitar fear is here, but you are only allowed a head shot. No activities, cartoons, whatever... There were a number of avitars here when I first joined that were like that, so I used one of myself water-skiing. It was promptly removed by a moderator. Eventually, so were all the others that were not just straight head shots. Just an FYI...

Interesting. I joined up here after the big avatar stink I guess. Maybe they have bandwidth concerns, but at other sites, I host my own avatar, all they have to do is call the link.

<rant>
I don't think it's bandwidth. They just told me it was about keeping a professional image on this site.

Interesting that I can use non-headshot images elsewhere even on professional type sites like Fred Marranda's photography site where I use my skydiving avitar. Can't tell it's me any more than the water-skiing one I used here, but no one has questioned me there...

The rule just says something like no sexually suggestive avitars, nothing about just a head shot or whatever. You don't find that out until they catch you using something else.
</rant>

Fred Miranda, eh ? What a small world - I used to post up there with some frequency, but I got tired of the endless "sharpness" and "bad copy" threads up on Canon tech, so I have pretty much been absent up there for awhile now. I had posted to the people forums for a bit, but I took a break from that to work on my skills some more. I have a wedding shoot on the 25th, in fact.

Fred Miranda, eh ? What a small world - I used to post up there with some frequency, but I got tired of the endless "sharpness" and "bad copy" threads up on Canon tech, so I have pretty much been absent up there for awhile now. I had posted to the people forums for a bit, but I took a break from that to work on my skills some more. I have a wedding shoot on the 25th, in fact.

I thought I'd shot my last wedding back in the 80's, but my water-skiing partner talked me into shooting her wedding last year. I said no several times, but she just kept at it until I gave in.

It was my first major shoot with my 1D2N too. I "practiced" by shooting two club parties using the same settings I expected to use at the wedding and shooting light fill flash as I would there (outdoor wedding). The results were excellent and with the other photographer that took part, we provided her with more than 700 shots to select from for her album :p

I still don't recommend shooting weddings, but have at it if that's what you want to do.

Well, this one is for a friend that can't afford to pay anyone, so I'll see. It doesn't sound like a business I want to be in though.

My apologies, Roger - we have had this photo conversation before, it's right there in my private messages. I apologize for not remembering your name. You must have been wondering what the heck I was thinking.

NP :)

I think we've drifted a little off topic though, so that's all I'll post on photography or avitars in this thread...

Comcast: 'We're Not Worried About DIRECTV HDTV' (http://www.tvpredictions.com/burke020107.htm)
The cable op's COO says DIRECTV's plan for 100 national high-def channels will not change their strategy.
By Phillip Swann

Washington, D.C. (February 1, 2007) -- Comcast COO Steve Burke said today that he isn't worried about DIRECTV's plan to offer 100 national HDTV channels by year's end.

The cable operator now offers less than 20 national high-def networks in most markets. But Burke told Wall Street analysts that Comcast will not try to match DIRECTV's HD lineup which is expected to include a large number of variety channels.

"We're not going to radically change our game plan," he said in an investors conference call. "We think we offer a superior HD experience."

Burke instead said Comcast will focus more on high-def movies, sports and local channels, which he said are most popular among his subscribers.

"We'd rather allocate the (extra) bandwidth to what the customer wants," Burke said.
Despite the reluctance to match DIRECTV channel for channel, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts did say the cable operators would increase spending on high-def services in 2007.

DIRECTV says it plans to launch two satellites this year to expand its high-def capacity. Sea Launch, a consortium company that's scheduled to launch one of the satellites, suffered a setback this week when one of its rockets blew up on the platform. But the satcaster said last night that that would not affect its high-def plans.

Burke also said today that he's not concerned that CBS and some broadcast groups such as Sinclair, Belo and LIN TV are demanding fees to carry their high-def channels. To date, Comcast and other cable operators have agreed to buy advertising space rather than give cash for a local station's signals.

"We would assume that the current arrangements would continue until proven otherwise," said Burke.

CBS: Multicasting Hurts HD Picture Quality (http://www.tvpredictions.com/cbs020207.htm)

Network senior VP says it has no control over how the signal is transmitted.
By Phillip Swann

Washington, D.C. (February 2, 2007) -- A top CBS executive says the network's HDTV picture quality is diminished when a local station decides to add a subchannel to its digital feed.

Known as multicasting, many local stations today are broadcasting multiple feeds instead of just one high-def channel via their digital spectrum.

The extra feeds, which often include local weather channels, splits the digital transmission into parts, thereby possibly diluting the high-def picture quality. The local stations hope the extra channels will generate more advertising.

But Ken Aagaard, CBS Sports' senior vice president of operations and production services, tells the Syracuse Post-Standard that his network's engineers believe any digital subchannel takes away from the HD quality.
Aagaard also acknowledged that TV providers often fail to maintain the network's HD picture quality in their transmissions.

"We do as much as we can. But when it gets to affiliates or DIRECTV, or when it gets to some of the cable guys, it's hard to say what happens," Aagaard told the newspaper.
The issue of HD picture quality is a growing concern in the industry, particularly among high-def owners who often feel cheated by what they see on screen. On Internet message boards, HD enthusiasts often accuse local stations and the cable and satellite operators of purposely squeezing the high-def signal to make room for other channels and services.
Chris Geiger, general manager of the NBC affiliate WSTM-TV in Syracuse, told the newspaper that his station's decision to add subchannels hasn't hurt its high-def signal.

A Time Warner Cable spokesman in Syracuse agreed, saying it hasn't seen any degrading of the local NBC HD signal.

But the Post-Standard quotes a CE consultant as saying that WSTV's NBC HD signal is inferior to the high-def picture of other Syracuse local stations which do not offer multicasting.

Good, the more bad press on this the better. And really how many people do they think their reaching with these subchannels. Most of the time the cable/sat guys don't carry them so you have to be OTA. Most of the OTA people I know are using OTA because they want a better picture than they can get from cab/sat so your not appealing to those folks. Are the masses really going to be hooking their new HDTV to OTA and using antennas?

"We're not going to radically change our game plan," he said in an investors conference call. "We think we offer a superior HD experience."

A superior HD experience? Is this guy kidding? Guess he hasn't ever sat down to TNT "HD". Get me whatever pills this guy is on, cause they must be pretty good.

I'm in Boynton Beach as well (just west of I-95), and it was working great last night. I have the Silver Pak plus all the basic/digital stuff.

I just received the Comcast magzine. It has the Channel line-up, effective on Jan 16. Here is the HD Basic list:

403 ESPN HD
404 ESPN2 HD
405 VSGOLF
406 NFL HD
407 TNT HD
408 INHD1
411 MTV HD
412 DSC HD
431-434, 440: Local HD, such ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS *
* Basic services, additional equipment required

I don't know what package our community get. When I called the Comcast CS, the lady was cluesless. She told me that I just have basic cable. That can not be right: I know we are paying more than $30 per month, but the basic cable is only $14.65 (even order individually; the community must can get better deal than this). Anyway, the lady even does not have my name and address. Maybe Comcast just took over Adelphia, but I just can not believe they don't get my info from Adelphia....

Anyway, I just get Vizio 47' HDTV. I can get all the HD Basic channels except 412 - the Discovery Channel through the build-in QAM tuner. One possibility is they encrypt the DSC channle, but I can not believe it: why only DSC in all HD Basic channels? Is there anyone here get DSC HD through QAM (i.e. without the cable box)?

It is interesting to see the note about Local HDs ( Basic services, add'l equipment required): I am wondering whether it means you need Cable box so Comcast can get $8.5 per month just for the box . This is ridiculous considering that: 1) Comcast is required to offer Local channels for free by law; 2) most new HDTV has build-in QAM turner; 3) you can get a HDTV capture card for less than $100.

What does it say when you type in the channel number (412)?
Unfortunately, Vizio 47 only has auto scan, and no manual channel setup. I can not type in channel number that it does not scans :-) We are trying to get Vizio to fix this problem, but I don't think it will work even after the problem was fixed since they tuner can not find the channel.

Just to help clear things up. The biggest reason that some communities in the area have cable services built into their HOA fees was due to the fact that at one time both Comcast and Adelphia were providing service in this area. As a result, there was competition which led to a number of bulk discount contracts being signed between the cable companies and either the HOA or Developer of the community (once a contract was signed the competing cable company would back off as they would not over-build within that community). Now that there is no longer any competition (other than Satellite providers) there is no reason for cable to discount services. I suspect you will see that the cable companies will be resistent to renew any existing bulk service contracts in these communities. I know, because I used to work for Comcast during the competition years. Most HOAs or developers signed a deal for anywhere from 5 to 10 years. So I would expect over the next several years that a number of the HOA communities will end up loosing their bulk contract deals or at least will see a big reduction in the length of the contract term and the discount given. The only instance where this might not happen is in developments that are dense enough and large enough to support a private satellite service - but this is a rare occurence. The bottom line is they are going to do everything they can to get your money!

As for the OTA issue and HDTVs - just another reason to go Satellite - at least with the Satellite boxes you can hook your OTA antenna to the digital box - something that will never happen in the cable world. Now if we can just get Satellite operators to crank up their rollout of HD then they might stand a chance against cable.

It sure would be nice to get a level playing field so that pricing would get competitive again!

Thanks for the info, jupiter_joe.

You are right about the pricing competition. Now paying $100+/mo, but that includes the premium internet connection. So far, both the internet and TV/HD connections are exceeding my expectations (except for TNT HD !!! :) )

So I would expect over the next several years that a number of the HOA communities will end up loosing their bulk contract deals or at least will see a big reduction in the length of the contract term and the discount given.
Thanks, Joe. I totally agree that it sucks without compitition.

I think the cable company still have incensitive to get bulk contract: without the bulk contract, the cable company can hardly get 100% subscription rate in any community.

OK, I finally got DSC HD channel back! The incoming cable signal is splitted into 3 signals in my attic. I removed the one split that is not used: now one is for TV, the other is for cable modem. That gets my DSC channel back!

In fact, the cable signal split is a little complex than that. The signal to the TV is further split into two, one for my Vizio 47 HDTV in living room, one is for my old sharp tube TV in the bedroom. Since the living is next to the bedroom, the signal split was set up inside the wall by the builder. My above change also makes the TV slightly clearer:-)

Calling all Directv users. Is there much of a wait for the new HR20 these days? I think one of the LNBs on my old dish went out and figured I'd see about getting the new dish/reciever for the HD locals.

I've heard rumors about 2 month times to installation. However, you might want to call D* and find out from them. I know that when I first upgraded (right before Thanksgiving) I was put on a waiting list. I had the guy come out to install the 5LNB dish and a HD receiver (not DVR). WHen he got there he asked why I wasn't going with the HR20. I told him I was on the list.

It happened that he had an extra one in the truck. He called D* and they said that I hadn't cleared the list yet, so he couldn't install it. So then he called back, got another CSR, asked for the supervisor, and then next thing you know, I had the box.

So, it's all timing, and who you get on the phone. If you're dish is going out, they may expedite you.

Having served on the board of a HOA, please note that many cable companies negotiated 99 year contracts with the developers for the right of way on the private property.

Residents get a discount.
Original developer received 5% of all revenues for life of the contract. Some do go to current association but many go to original developers. That was part of the reason for the FCC to change the rules under the OTARD act.

Condo associations keep the prices high by not allowing sat dishes on common elements, which they can do.

HOA's with private homes leave residents with ability to put up the dish.
If the cable company doesn't compete with good quality and good prices, aside from the basic service in the fees, no one pays more for premium and other packages.

I am SO glad I do not have an HOA where I live (Hidden Valley are of Boca). They seem to be nothing but trouble.

Having served on the board of a HOA, please note that many cable companies negotiated 99 year contracts with the developers for the right of way on the private property.
So in case HOA has a contract with the cable company for 99 years, the HOA can not break the contract, but the cable company can increase the price as it likes (which is the case in my community)? I've like to know how this contract works.
Condo associations keep the prices high by not allowing sat dishes on common elements, which they can do.Sorry, I don't understand. Keep what prices high? I assume its the cable service price, but that's not the condo asso's interest, isn't it?

"which they can do" - you mean the condo asso can disallow sat dishes? but how about the FCC rule?

So in case HOA has a contract with the cable company for 99 years, the HOA can not break the contract, but the cable company can increase the price as it likes (which is the case in my community)? I've like to know how this contract works.
Sorry, I don't understand. Keep what prices high? I assume its the cable service price, but that's not the condo asso's interest, isn't it?

"which they can do" - you mean the condo asso can disallow sat dishes? but how about the FCC rule?


Okay - just to try and clear things up. The 99 year lease is in reference to having access to the private property as a right of way. This allows the cable company to insure it has access to the property if they need to change or do work to the cable plant. Chances are there is a second agreement in place between the HOA and the Cable company that dictates pricing of services to the members of the community. I suspect this is a much shorter duration contract that the cable company has with the HOA. The price increases are set in the contract for service. In a number of instances this cable service charge is passed onto the homeowners/residents as part of their recurring HOA fees.

As to not allowing dishes in common areas - I believe the gentleman is referring to the use of non-D*TV services - there are some satellite services out there that will install what amounts to a small cable system within the community to provide services. In this situation the HOA can dis-allow the service because many of these services require the use of a larger dish or a number of dishes and they have to be located near the providers equipment which is usually located in a central area (Rooftop of the condo building or some other "common" area in the community - clubhouse etc... ) They cannot stop you from putting up your own personal dish on your premises based on the FCC rulings. However, many people opt to stick with the communities service provider since they are already paying for it (directly or indirectly through HOA fees)

In most cases the condo association cannot do much until the current contracts expire and come up for renewal. At this point, as I mentioned earlier I suspect the cable companies will not renegotiate a favorable deal and may even revert back to non-contract based arrangements. This will really depend on how cheap the cable companies are offering services. I personally know that there are some communities that get cable services as low as $10 per subscriber per month. (Most of these are condos in Souh Palm Beach/Ft. Lauderdale) I suspect these communities will see a big change in pricing when contracts run out. As one person mentioned earlier he felt they would stay in place since the cable companies would not want to loose subsribers - this is true - but I am sure for some of these communities the cable company will re-assess their business model and determine that they will still make more money even if they loose a percentage of business and in some cases that percentage of loss could be quite high (40-50%).

Hope this helps....

Okay - just to try and clear things up. ..

Thanks, Joe, for your wonderful explanation. It does clear lots of things up.

In Joe's explanation, he references both HOA's and condos. There is a huge difference that confuses many.

A condo association usually (note usually) owns all exterior walls aka "common elements". So if someone lives in a condo where the outer walls and roofs are common elements, they can prevent any dish of any size. Even the FCC rule does not override common property. Essentially no one person has the right to drill into common surfaces. But they can allow dishes on common elements. And this is where cable companies know they got you. No dishes allowed, they have no incentive to lower rates as stated.

An HOA on the other hand is where people usually own their own home. So if the roof blows away, that's your problem, not the associations. On other hand, you want to drill into it, run wires, put up a TV antenna or dish, go for it. Here's the link with the rules and size limits etc.

http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html

Was wondering if anyone else in the area watching OTA HDTV lost part of Heroes right about 41 mins in til about 45 mins in? The video froze up and I still got audio. I am so Pissed. I had to watch that part in SD on my DirecTV Tivo. Locals suck for DirecTV.

Was wondering if anyone else in the area watching OTA HDTV lost part of Heroes right about 41 mins in til about 45 mins in? The video froze up and I still got audio. I am so Pissed. I had to watch that part in SD on my DirecTV Tivo. Locals suck for DirecTV.

mine froze up at minute 2. i didn't realize it, bc i was watching 24 on the other tuner on my tivo s3. i missed the entire episode.

I've heard rumors about 2 month times to installation. However, you might want to call D* and find out from them. I know that when I first upgraded (right before Thanksgiving) I was put on a waiting list. I had the guy come out to install the 5LNB dish and a HD receiver (not DVR). WHen he got there he asked why I wasn't going with the HR20. I told him I was on the list.

It happened that he had an extra one in the truck. He called D* and they said that I hadn't cleared the list yet, so he couldn't install it. So then he called back, got another CSR, asked for the supervisor, and then next thing you know, I had the box.

So, it's all timing, and who you get on the phone. If you're dish is going out, they may expedite you.

While not 2 months, I am going to have to wait a while. I haven't been able to get a firm date. I was able to get a good price, and was initially told the install was scheduled for Feb. 11. I was hoping for a Super Bowl install though, and kept checking the website for the install date so I could reschedule. Nothing there, it kept showing as "Unscheduled". I called a few days later and D* said they had no record of the installation being scheduled, though they could see the order was made. So, I got an install date of Mar. 17, but again it shows "Unscheduled" more than 4 days later. I'm going to have to call again. What a pain! I've been with D* for over 5 years, and have done a few installs with them. I've never had this kind of difficulty.

Was wondering if anyone else in the area watching OTA HDTV lost part of Heroes right about 41 mins in til about 45 mins in? The video froze up and I still got audio. I am so Pissed. I had to watch that part in SD on my DirecTV Tivo. Locals suck for DirecTV.

Yep ... same thing happened to me. Glad to know it was not my new TV or cable setup.

Same happened to me, 41-45 min, on Ch 5 HD MPEG4 (not OTA). Still not sending Dolby Digital either? eck.

Man....NBC sucks. Heroes is their go to show right now and they can't keep the signal up or send out DD.

I watched Heros for the first time ever last night, OTA, Miami channel 6, and I did not notice any problems. Not a bad show, but a bit confusing to pick up on the run.

Did it again tonight on Law and Order CI... What the hell is channel 5 doing??? :(

I watched Law and Order last night on 6, it was fine. brfish - do you live south enough to grab Miami 6 at all ? I get a 85% signal in NE. Boca...

Naw...I am in Wellington and it did not come up on my scan.

mine froze up at minute 2. i didn't realize it, bc i was watching 24 on the other tuner on my tivo s3. i missed the entire episode.

If all else fails, there's always iTunes. Trust me, you don't want to miss this one.

Man....NBC sucks. Heroes is their go to show right now and they can't keep the signal up or send out DD.

They haven't been sending out DD all season long. On the few times they attempted it, they've failed miserably. Because the quality of their HD broadcast is always a crapshoot I've taken to setting up a VCR in another room as a failsafe just so I don't miss anything. Believe me, it's paid off. Based on their constant foul ups, I'm left to conclude that the station is being run by poorly trained circus chimps.

I emailed Channel 5's Engineering Director and he sent me this link about transmitter troubles they are having.

http://wptv.com/News/020207_HDTransmitter.cfm

He said the parts they got in last weekend did not fix it fully and they have more parts and a tech should be out this weekend to finish repairing the transmitter.

Anyone have an audio dropout on Grey's anatomy on 25.1? It was early in the show and is really annoying when it happens! Anything I can check at my house or is this a adelphia/comcast transition thing?

I emailed Channel 5's Engineering Director and he sent me this link about transmitter troubles they are having.

http://wptv.com/News/020207_HDTransmitter.cfm

He said the parts they got in last weekend did not fix it fully and they have more parts and a tech should be out this weekend to finish repairing the transmitter.

So, does that account for the problems they've been exhibiting since last September? It's actually been a lot longer than that but I know for sure that it's been screwy since September.

zerostar, 25-1 has had those audio dropouts for a very long time.
They are about 3 secs long, about once per half hour. Its on their OTA signal during HD programming.

Perhaps if more people call their eng dept., they will fix it. It's been about a year.

Is anybody on the board close enough to WHDT to receive them OTA? I saw what appeared to be a HDTV infomercial - that must be a first! I'm saying "what appered to be" because the only way I get WHDT is via Comcast (cable channel 17 in most areas). The cable feed is letterboxed SDTV. HD programming is letterboxed, while SD programming appears as a rectangle in the middle of the screen.

I would like to hear others experiences for what I might expect with OTA HD reception in Coral Springs (Sawgrass & University area). I presently have an antenna in my attic which has served me well with the analog WPB stations for 20 years. Has anyone had good experience in Coral Springs picking up the HD channels from WPB? I plan to use my existing antenna.

Thank you in advance.

Red Pony in Coral Springs

acesk8er, WHDT used to have a strong OTA signal a few years ago. At some point though (I think it was a failure to force carriage on D* and/or E* as an HD-only "local" channel), they subsequently dialed the OTA signal down the minimum. I doubt anyone gets it OTA now.

It was an interesting legal case in which WHDT claimed to be an HD-only local channel. In theory, if D* & E* were going to do local "must carry" and this station ONLY did HD, they would have to carry it as an HD channel. Even though the channel didn't have a lot of great programming on at the time, they had apparently secured rights to a lot of "TV Land"- like programming and appeared to be vying to be a HD Superstation.

I was hoping they would be successful, because I thought it might inspire other stations to go HD-only creating a lot of little superstations (all in HD). However, the legal efforts apparently didn't win the must-carry argument (at least as a HD channel), so WHDT turned into a cable channel. I think there is still a very minimal OTA signal being broadcast, but so little I wonder if anyone can actually pick it up.

WHDT's "main transmitter" is on channel 59 in West Palm and they also have a "low power digital repeater" on channel 44 on the Dade / Broward line. According the the FCC database the channel 59 transmitter is 400 W and the channel 44 transmitter is 15 kW. Obviously the channel 59 transmitter has a limited range, however, the channel 44 signal is easily received anywhere in south Broward and north Dade. I wouldn't expect them to build out their main transmitter until they have secured a permanent "core band" channel to replace 59.

Most of the programming I've seen on WHDT's Comcast feed consists of a relay of DW-TV (in German) and lots of infomercials and other paid programming.

acesk8er, don't waste one bit of energy or time trying to watch WHDT.

It's claim to fame was the only pure digital channel but have never seen one HD program listed. No analog counterpart. Although I'm west of Lake Worth, I can receive the 44-1 signal from Dade with a rooftop yagi antenna. Its 18 hours/day of Ultimate Shopping Network, an hour so of kids programming at 7am, and some european shows in the evening. Alot of the DW network which is a german channel dubbed into english. I deleted it from my channel memory so the TV won't tune it with the channel up/down button.

I am located East of US1, south of Jeffery St, zip 33487. I have looked at antennaweb as a guide for selecting an antenna. My problem is that directly north, northwest and southwest I have 2 story homes around. I would like to able to get both the Miami and WPB OTA HD reception. Is this going to be possible with with 1 antenna or will I need 2? Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance....Mark

Absolutely - I live very close to you. Try either a Stealthtenna, or a Winegard GS2200. I currently use the Wineguard with great success, and will by trying the Stealthtenna next weekend to try and clear up some issues with the far WPB channels (25, mostly).

I'm on Adelphia (Comcast) in Jupiter, FL and getting tons of dropouts on almost all the HD channels tonight....

Trying to watch the 2006 Isle of Wight Festival with Coldplay on InHD, but it's almost unwatchable.

Anyone else having similar issues?

Anyone know where Discovery HD is on QAM, I have the rest I thought I had lost after the rearranging of the channels. Currently Music HD in on 89.?, but I need my Discovery HD, any ideas on where its lurking? Thanks in advance.

Same issues tonight....

WTF Comcast?!

I haven't noticed any dropouts via Comcast, but they are having some problems in Martin County also. QAM channels have been unreliable and often aren't available. The cable box clock is also in error by about a minute. The lower band analog channels are also very noisy.

Anyone know where Discovery HD is on QAM, I have the rest I thought I had lost after the rearranging of the channels. Currently Music HD in on 89.?, but I need my Discovery HD, any ideas on where its lurking? Thanks in advance.106.351

I to lost my Hd channels on built in qam. I was able to get back only the OTA channels. If the channels have new numbers is it possible I have a bad splitter? My sister to lost hd channels but im sure if she does a rescan all is fine where she is at because her place in the boynton lakeworth area of powerline (jog) is very new. I get about 150 channels found only 7 work i had 16 last week.

zerostar, 25-1 has had those audio dropouts for a very long time.
They are about 3 secs long, about once per half hour. Its on their OTA signal during HD programming.

Perhaps if more people call their eng dept., they will fix it. It's been about a year.


I emailed the engineering department about 5 days ago, got this back today:

>>We made some adjustments to our DTV stream, please let me know if this corrected
>>your problem. We will be upgrading our HD equipment in the next few months. This
>>should give you a more reliable signal. Please let me know if you experience any
>>more difficulty.

Looks like we may get FSN HD soon. I periodically check FSN's listings for HD to see if Comcast is on there. Sure enough, they updated the Marlins and Devil Rays listings on www.sunsportstv.com:


Florida Marlins

Comcast HD Ch. 200 in Dade, Broward, Keys
Comcast HD Ch. TBA in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Stuart
Comcast Ch. 401 in Tallahassee
Comcast inHD Ch. 206 in Naples
Comcast HD Ch. 199 in Vero Beach, Sebastian, Ft. Pierce
Comcast HD Ch. 181 in Jacksonville
Advanced Cable HD Ch. 656 in Coral Springs & Weston
Verizon FiOS in Tampa Bay region HD Ch. 816-2

there's no reason why we shouldn't have it now, along with cinemax hd

I to lost my Hd channels on built in qam. I was able to get back only the OTA channels. If the channels have new numbers is it possible I have a bad splitter? My sister to lost hd channels but im sure if she does a rescan all is fine where she is at because her place in the boynton lakeworth area of powerline (jog) is very new. I get about 150 channels found only 7 work i had 16 last week.
Your problem seems to be similar to the one I have recently had. QAM channels are there, but the channel number does not decode properly. I don't recall the numbers, but instead of the correct whole number that the STB uses it may show up on something like 106.35.

there's no reason why we shouldn't have it now, along with cinemax hd


Agreed. I was very disappointed in Comcast when they took over from Adelphia and didn't begin offering Cinemax HD and FSN HD. I just can't possibly understand it.

I guess the part that doesn't make sense any more is that I was reading an article on some HD forum yesterday and they said it costs about 20% more to film and produce a game in HD than in SD. You'd think that a regional network like FSN would try desperately to make sure the HD channel was in as many markets as possible to help offset the costs.

WPTV DT has returned to FULL POWER for 5.1 and 5.2 today. Manufacturer sent in "new" part for the transmitter repair, but it was warped on 3 attempts over 3 weeks, today we finally got one that worked, and no longer caused the tube to arc, and we were able to restore full power, both tubes now running at 100%. We did everything possible to have made the turnaround time shorter, we held a tech from manufacturer on site for a full week until we got system fixed. Dave

WPTV DT has returned to FULL POWER for 5.1 and 5.2 today. Manufacturer sent in "new" part for the transmitter repair, but it was warped on 3 attempts over 3 weeks, today we finally got one that worked, and no longer caused the tube to arc, and we were able to restore full power, both tubes now running at 100%. We did everything possible to have made the turnaround time shorter, we held a tech from manufacturer on site for a full week until we got system fixed. Dave
You guy's have an amazing signal in Palm City. I use an attic Yagi and never saw any signal problems when you were running reduced power.

I can't imagine how frustrating it must be. This is good to know, though, since I actually went out and bought a new antenna to, in part, stabilize 5's signal. Now if I can just figure out why 12.1 is so funky for me lately, I'll be in business.

Agreed. I was very disappointed in Comcast when they took over from Adelphia and didn't begin offering Cinemax HD and FSN HD. I just can't possibly understand it.

I guess the part that doesn't make sense any more is that I was reading an article on some HD forum yesterday and they said it costs about 20% more to film and produce a game in HD than in SD. You'd think that a regional network like FSN would try desperately to make sure the HD channel was in as many markets as possible to help offset the costs.

So far, I'm extremely disappointed with the Comcast takeover. They've reduced the number of channels by removing the West Coast feeds of HBO, Cinemax, etc., I have one digital box that will tell me if a program is new or a repeat, but my SA8300 HD DVR can't make a distinction between first run and re-run for recording purposes (unlike almost every other DVR in the world that will record first run only), HD channels are OK, but missing Cinemax and FSN HD and on top of it, pricing went up.

I talked to a CSR, and they really don't know anything... only that hopefully someday things within Comcast's service will get consistent. Originally I heard March would see some changes, but based on their performance so far, I doubt it.

Wish that we could get programming like all the other Comcast markets or at least get the same programming that they're offering everywhere else in the country, with the same channel layouts, On Demand Services, etc.

And, on top of it, when I go to the Comcast website to try to view my bill online, I get the message that the website doesn't cover my area in Boca.

Wish that they could get their act together :mad:

Pardon me while I drop into juvenile mode here for a moment: DUDE! That Stealthtenna ROCKS ! :D

Just got it up today in place of my GS2200 wing antenna, and you are right, it picks up both WPB and Miami without compromise. It even stabilized my old devil 5. Thanks for that heads up, it was well worth it, I haven't seen 25-1 in 2 years.


I saw as well that the antenna was directional.

After reading some comments about the Stealthtenna in one of the hardware threads http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=755170 they were saying that they were between 2 markets, and getting both. I thought I'd give it a try, and if it didn't work, I would do a rotor, or dual antenna setup to get both West Palm, and Miami, Ft Lauderdale signals.

To my amazement, they were right!!!! And yes.. I do get 7 and 25, both at about 86% signal strength.

Has anyone else noticed a signal strength drop on 34-1? I was getting 4/6 in Vista Media Center and this morning it dropped down to 2/6. It has been cocnsistent enough to record Smallville in HD for the past few weeks.

thanks

Yes, I have. I actually removed it from my channel list today (I get another out of Miami).

Yes, I have. I actually removed it from my channel list today (I get another out of Miami).

Noticed that you live in Boca... I'm at Powerline and Glades, and naturally the homeowners association doesn't allow outside antennas. Where in Boca are you, and is the antenna that you put up an outdoor or is it inside?

I was wondering what I could do to get an OTA signal from Miami and WPB and what might work either in the attic or inside the house.

Any suggestions?

Try the Stealthtenna, it's great. By Federal law, your HOA cannot tell you you can't have an antenna. Mine is outside, but I purposely chose to live where there was no HOA (Hidden Valley area - basically 2nd avenue, north of Yamato). I tried my attic, but I had very little luck, to much signal interference.

MartyS. if it's a HOA and not a condo, and you own the outside walls, they can't stop you.

Check out http://www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html#QA

Good Luck

Thanks to both of you for the info and for the link to the FCC guidelines.... I'll probably need that when they try to fight me.

34-1 came back to normal during the Saturday night showing of The Faculty.

I took the plunge and purchased a plasma 42 inch television. The price, only $999 by BiDesign. But after taxes, 5 year warrenty (extended) taxes and installation on the wall, the cost was over $2,000. This is what I picked up with the antenna (with an amplifier) in the attic. I was quite happy.

5.1 WPTV NBC
5.2 Weather Plus
25.1 WPBF ABC
29.1 WFLX FOX
29.2 TheTube
34.1 CW
42.1 WXEL PBS
42.2 Create (food)
42.3 Knowledge
42.6 Nothing right now
67.1 ION
67.2 Qubo
67.3 IONLife
67.4 Worship

All of the above came in with no reception problems. The problem: No CBS. But I get CBS locally on Directv.

Later in the evening I did another signal search. I picked up 4.1, 6.1 6.2 18.1 and 45.1-45.5 in Miami!! These signals were not reliable.

I'd love to live in Boca for better reception, but seeing that I'm 60 miles from the Palm Beach towers and my antenna is in the attic of a one story house, I think I did pretty good.

I'm thinking of turning the antenna around and shooting for Orlando/Tampa. CBS in Fort Myers is on 11, so that won't do any good for reception. Those VHF's are hard to pull in, unless you have the height.

If you can get 5, and 29, I am surprised you could not also pick up 12.x Still, that's not too bad, especially for an antenna in an attic.

I live very close to the beach and I'm afraid I would have to take the antenna out of the attic to pick up Channel 12. I really don't want to do that as the salt and wind will ruin the antenna and reception.

Correct me if I am wrong, but Channel 12's tower is only 1,000 feet, unlike Channel 5's, 29's, 34's and 25's that are over 1,300 feet.

I have picked up Channel 12's signal quite well when the antenna was outside years ago and the reception was pretty good. Channel 5 (analog) was always the problem. It looked like an am radio stations sounds during a thunderstorm. :D

I couldn't believe how strong Channel 6's signal in Miami was. Obviously, they are not broadcasting in Homestead. Does anyone know how tall their new tower is?

Has anyone picked up the Ft. Myers stations in HD?

These UHF stations are much easier to pick up with indoor antennas.

I've never managed to snag any Ft. Myers station, I go with small multi-directional antennas for wind resistance and aesthetics. I'd probably need a large fringe area antenna with rotor on a 50 foot mast to even have a shot at Ft. Myers. 6 is strong, I'v noticed that, but I have no idea how tall the towers anywhere are.