Still No news ,on new HD channels on Comcast.

I picked up a new DVR dual tuner last week and have noticed that a few times a day the box looks like it goes on Pause. Though when you hit live nothing happens. It appears to be a different freezing issue then the previous one that was so rampant. If I change channels (up and down) the box goes off of "Pause" and reverts back to live TV. Maybe its just a bad box but I wanted to see if anyone else had experienced this also?

I work at a local bestbuy(please dont throw stones,im quitting soon) and I talked to a comcast rep about new hd channels. He told me that they are adding 5-6 new hd channels in the upcoming months. He had no clue which ones,but he said he was going to find out tuesday.
If I had to guess, these 5 would be: ESPN2HD, TNTHD,WBHD,UNIVERSALHD,and possibly 1 or two premium movie channels for HD.

Originally posted by tennberg
Speaking of OARs, one bizarre thing I noticed was with Disney's "Brother Bear" on either HBO-HD or Starz-HD. It was shown as non-anamorphic widescreen . So, I got nice black bars on both sides and the top and bottom. on my 16:9 set. I didn't see it in the theater, but I am pretty sure it wasn't originally shown that way.

P.S. - I am not sure if Brother Bear was originally 1.85:1 or 2.35:1. Even on the DVD, the first few minutes of Brother Bear is this way. Then it changes to full anamorphic widescreen. Before the movie starts on the DVD, a message to this effect is displayed. Something about preserving the scope of the original release...

Originally posted by mgpt6
Still No news ,on new HD channels on Comcast. WB in April is the only confirmed add for now. same month that ADS will be completed, if all goes ok. it will be starting soon in the same order that 256 QAM is being deployed. so if u have 256 already, ADS isn't far behind. just keep in mind, for a number of reasons, it will be done in phases. meaning it will be a partial ADS to start, i.e networks, followed by the expanded basic channels then local access. and for those waiting on enterprise in HD, looks like the best we can do this season is watch the final episodes in 256 QAM. we'll have to wait for the '05 season for HD and by then UPN38 will also be broadcasting friday night home red sox in HD.

avic,
Thanks for the info. I wish I could trade them the WB for UPN. I wont even start to think about the SciFi chnl. Though it would be nice to see Galactica in HD.

Sorry if this is off-topic:

Having seen TNT-HD at my parent's home (they have TWC), I don't know if getting the channel is worth it for the small amount of HD content they have. Anything that was originally filmed in 4:3 was stretched to 16:9 on TNT-HD, and I'm no big fan of the NBA.

I'd rather see Comcast push more for the channels that will give us the most HD content, e.g. Universal HD, rather than giving us HD channels where only a handful of shows are in HD. I mean, what good is it getting UPN-HD if Enterprise is really the only show on there in HD? Even then, I'm not sure if Universal HD would take something like Battlestar Galactica and show it in on their channel (it doesn't really appeal to a huge audiance). Here's to hoping.

On a related topic, much like others on Comcast, I got a phantom recording on my DVR dated to 12/31/1989. On the Comcast/iGuide forum, one of the tricks was to unplug your 6412 for a minute or so and plug it back in. Did that several times, no go. So, the other trick was to delete all of your DVR content and then delete the phantom recording. If you try to just delete the phantom, it deletes whatever show was right above it. Good thing in my case it's just a bunch of Seinfeld episodes which will air again (and not something like Lost or Desperate Housewives).

I had heard that same thing. Never experienced it on my 6412. What my friend did was to delete everything else on the HD, then that 1989 recording was able to be deleted. Very strange...

hi: i have one question regarding the comcast HD package.

In order to get the HD movie channels (i.e. hbo hd, showtime hd, etc.) do you need to have the regular(non-hd) hbo/showtime/other movie channels packages? When i signed up for comcast, they had a deal to basically get all the channels, minus international ones and the speciality sports ones (basketball pass, etc.) for a very cheap rate, so I got that. However, it expires in a year, and I don't want to be paying $200 a month just to get all those channels, so I was thinking of cutting most of the movie channels, maybe just keep HBO. If I did this, would I lose access to channels like showtime HD and any other premium movie HD channels, or does the HD pack include all these regardless?

thanks.

Originally posted by steel102
hi: i have one question regarding the comcast HD package.

In order to get the HD movie channels (i.e. hbo hd, showtime hd, etc.) do you need to have the regular(non-hd) hbo/showtime/other movie channels packages?

Unless you subscribe to the premium package, you don't get the HD channel.

No 256 QAM yet in Burlington.

How OD I know what QAM mode is supported?

Thanks.

tennberg the 256 QAM update in Medford is going to happen */**

on 1/26 the new speed increase on internet will be in effect
$42.95-$45.95 price - 3mb/256k -> 4mb/384k
$52.95-$55.95 price - 4mb/384k -> 6mb/768k

L:

Thanks for that update. At least I have a possible date now. Others on this board were saying the rollout was only going to take a few days. Since people in Boston were saying they got 256QAM already, I figured Medford couldn't be too far behind. Guess I was wrong :-)

As for the internet speed increase, what is the practical limit on cable download and upload speed for residential customers on already-existing cable line infrastructure? Is 6MB down pushing it? I figured it could go as high as 6MB up as well, though Comcast probably doesn't want residential customers with that much upload speed.

Well from what I'm hearing some cable companies are topping @ 10mb so 6 mb is not really pushing it. Comcast is just effectively raising its speeds due to competition from dsl

Originally posted by L Supreme
tennberg the 256 QAM update in Medford is going to happen 2/16

on 1/26 the new speed increase on internet will be in effect
$42.95-$45.95 price - 3mb/256k -> 4mb/384k
$52.95-$55.95 price - 4mb/384k -> 6mb/768k
What are the comparable DSL speeds and prices?

OT:

Verizon offers the following for home:

1.5mb/384k - $29.95 for 1 year commitment
1.5mb/384k - $34.95 for month-to-month

Here are their comparable business offerings:

3mb/768k - $89.95 per month (dynamic IP)
7.1mb/768k - $204.95 per month (dynamic IP)

Suddenly, cable looks much better (though the majority of users don't get download speeds, they just get price).

Back on topic:

I'm slowly getting through all my DVR shows in order to delete that phantom recording. I'm not sure if having Comcast send a reset to the box may help. What exactly happens when Comcast sends a reset signal to the box? What does the box do?

MickeyGee
I just changed over to DSL from Comcast Cable. I pay the 29 a month with no year commitment. The one year commitment was only if you wanted their wireless modem/router. If you wanted simply the modem then the charge is 29 a month with no commitment. I push lots of traffic upstream and have notice very little difference. Another thing to keep in mind is that I had received a letter from Comcast when I had Cable saying I was pushing too much traffic. They threatened to cut off my connection if I didn't go to a Business class line. Verizon does not have those limitations and I save $15 a month.

Originally posted by Tsunamii
MickeyGee
I just changed over to DSL from Comcast Cable. I pay the 29 a month with no year commitment. The one year commitment was only if you wanted their wireless modem/router. If you wanted simply the modem then the charge is 29 a month with no commitment. I push lots of traffic upstream and have notice very little difference. Another thing to keep in mind is that I had received a letter from Comcast when I had Cable saying I was pushing too much traffic. They threatened to cut off my connection if I didn't go to a Business class line. Verizon does not have those limitations and I save $15 a month.
$29 sounds good. Is Comcast trying to push people to DSL by increasing their prices?

I just hate having to make these decisions (the least of two fools), but given the choice between dealing with Verizon and dealing with Comcast, I'd choose Comcast every day of the week.

Every dealing I've had or witnessed with Verizon in the last few years has convinced me that the sharpest knife in that drawer just fell off the turnip truck. Comcast, on the other hand, has at least one clue hidden away in the local office somewhere, and throwing vast amounts of money at them gives you intermittent access to it.

I'll also note that I have no problems getting the advertised download speeds out of my Comcast connection. On the occasions that I get lesser rates, I just try downloading from a different server, only to find that the download speed was limited by the server and not my connection.

The problem with dsl is that the speed decreases as you move farther away from the central office. I am at the end of such a run so the advertised speed would not be available for me. I must say that I'm very satisfied with the cable modem service, I've had it for six years with very few interruptions. I like Tsunamii like to upload, but I've never gotten a letter....I wonder how much uploading Tsunamii does ??? !!!!

-Ken

As for new channel offerings from Comcast, here's to hoping UniversalHD is on their list of priorities. Since it's an NBC channel, I don't see the negotiation wranglings that Comcast would have to go through when compared to something like HDNet/HDNet Movies.

The reason I want Comcast to make it a priority is that on UniversalHD's website, it mentions that they will be showing Battlestar Galactica in all of its HD glory. You can't imagine how painful it is to see the miniseries on NBC-HD and then to watch the series in 4:3 letterbox analog on Sci-Fi!

If Avic is correct only WB in April is on the radar for HD.

-Ken

Originally posted by MickeyGee
$29 sounds good. Is Comcast trying to push people to DSL by increasing their prices?
I would say Yes.
Here is a link for those who do not think this is somthing that has and is happening alot.
http://w*w.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,8737754~root=comcast~mode=flat
Im not sure about the linking rules so you will have to fix the link.

True if you are far enough away you will notice speed issues. When I had Comcast high speed I had no complaints other then service costs that continue to go up faster then the competition. For the average internet user DSL is fast enough. I push large data base files back and fourth from work and sometimes steam audio video from a server at work so yes its allot of traffic but threatening customers with termination of services did it for me. I don't hate Comcast or love Verizon, like I had stated previously I just want the best bang for my buck. There seems to be allot of cheerleading for one side and if your happy with what you pay then good for you have fun. Ill keep looking for the best deal for the best quality.

Originally posted by L Supreme
tennberg the 256 QAM update in Medford is going to happen 2/16 never give out specific dates! :eek:

Originally posted by avic
never give out specific dates! :eek:

ok, i'll keep exact dates to myself then. I'll be a little more general with that

DVR picture freeze? I just had a tech leave and said that in addation to the freezing that was happening on both dvr and non dvr boxes (the box not the picutre or audio) that the DVR boxes specificaly had the issue of the picutre and sound freezing, until you changed the channell. Again the tech said Comcast is waiting for new Firmware for this issue and no time frame. In addation he said swapping out the box wouldnt fix it and refused to. I talked to a CSR and said I can send a tech out to swap the box, I explained them the issue and was told that there is a patch they can push down to fix this.
I am waiting to see if it works now. Has anyone else had this happen to thier box?

For some reason, I picture both avic and L Supreme as Comcast employees (perhaps even engineers), sitting at their desks, talking to each other over their cube divider, as to what piece of information they'll drop next for us lowly forum readers to taunt us with since we don't have insider info :-)

One thing I noticed while channel surfing:

Channel 194 (ABC News Now) has quite possibly one of the worst pictures of any of the digital channels. I was under the impression it was an analog channel for some time until I checked a sheet from Comcast that shows it under Digital Classic.

Is this due to simply poor transmission from ABC or is it due to the fact that 194 is the first digital channel, so it has something to do with the frequency of the channel, yada yada yada?

ABC News Now is actually WCVB-DT2, being broadcast on channel 20 (5.2) as a secondary feed. Since channel 5.1 is HD I bet it doesn't leave much bandwidth for this channel.

-Ken

I'd think if it were due to the frequency (or some factor like that), it'd suffer picture break-ups.

I'm assuming that a poor digital channel picture is due to one of two factors:

1) Really crappy encoding
2) Really restricted bitrate

Seein' as how CVB is transmitting this along with their regular (presumably full-bitrate) HD programming, I'd strongly suspect the latter. On the other hand, some of the worst DTV pictures I've seen are the local stations transmitting their locally produced SD content, upsampled to the HD channel. I've always assumed they're just doing a poor job of encoding.

Originally posted by L Supreme
tennberg the 256 QAM update in Medford is going to happen */**

on 1/26 the new speed increase on internet will be in effect
$42.95-$45.95 price - 3mb/256k -> 4mb/384k
$52.95-$55.95 price - 4mb/384k -> 6mb/768k

Just to warn everyone, check your speeds... They screwed me up about a month ago where I went from 3mb/s down to 1.5mb/s (after being at 3mb/s for over a year.) I chatted with their tech support 3 times, all of them said "You are at the 3mb/s plan" and lied that they checked the cable modem config file. They then refused to support me because I bought my own modem. So I went out, rented their modem, 1.5mb/s still. Brought the modem over to my friend's house a mile away, he get's 3mb/s, I got 1.5 swapping out the modems. Chatted again with tech support, and they decided to send a tech. The tech brought out a tester modem and a new modem; his modem got 3mb/s, the new modem got 1.5 so he agreed it was a config file issue. He now calls tech support and got the same "3mb/s line" from them. Finally he gets thru to advanced tech support, and after a whole 30s conversation "Oh yeah, he's configured for 1.5mb/s.. *type type* all set now." So test 'em out with http://infospeed.verizon.net and http://bos.speakeasy.net to make sure you aren't misconfigured as well. Key indicator is no matter what you do, it will always cap at 1.6mb/s (even at 2am) ruling out most congestion related issues. Apparently from what the tech said, was they are reworking the tier system, so some people may have been messed up.

-Mike

ABC News Now is the multicast feed off WCVB-DT. That would account for its poor PQ.

Originally posted by Tsunamii
DVR picture freeze? I just had a tech leave and said that in addation to the freezing that was happening on both dvr and non dvr boxes (the box not the picutre or audio) that the DVR boxes specificaly had the issue of the picutre and sound freezing, until you changed the channell. Again the tech said Comcast is waiting for new Firmware for this issue and no time frame. In addation he said swapping out the box wouldnt fix it and refused to. I talked to a CSR and said I can send a tech out to swap the box, I explained them the issue and was told that there is a patch they can push down to fix this.
I am waiting to see if it works now. Has anyone else had this happen to thier box?

I have never had any freezing problems on my 6412. As far as I've heard, the freezing problem that was recently patched only affected Non-DVR HD boxes.

your tech was misinformed. there are no known issues (bugs) on the 6412's that result in the picture/sound "freezing." the only "freezing" issue recently was related to iGuide and new firmware and affected non-DVR's and DVR's alike which resulted in the box not responding. and IT has been patched.

Originally posted by avic
your tech was misinformed. there are no known issues (bugs) on the 6412's that result in the picture/sound "freezing." the only "freezing" issue recently was related to iGuide and new firmware and affected non-DVR's and DVR's alike which resulted in the box not responding. and IT has been patched.
avic,
Thanks what I had thought. Though after the CSR supposedly pussed the myster patch he was speaking of I have not noticed any more freezing. Though I have not had a good amount of time on the set since. When it is frozen and you change channells you see the original frozen channell for a second like it is commig off of pause and then it jumps to the station you changed the channell to. Weird. Sounds like a bad box.

avic or L Supreme, perhaps one of you can answer this:
When will rollout of the new iGuide resume? I still have one of the older Moto HD boxes (5100), and I was told last Nov. the iGuide for non-DVR boxes was on hold pending a bug fix (at least in my area- Salem MA). It appears the bug has been fixed with a new firmware rollout. Can we expect the new guide rollout to resume shortly?
If anyone has any info please let me know.

Shmee1

I got a lot of freezing on 807 (NBC-HD) last night with a lot of cutouts and such. I am not sure if this has to do with NBC's feed last night, an issue with Comcast's feed to me, or with a problem with iGuide that has not been resolved on my machine.

What version of firmware/software on my cable box would indicate that I should not have the freezing problem?

I was getting the same picture/audio problems on 807 for the last two nights. Observed both on a 6208 and 5100. Looked like a signal strength/reception problem to me, except that at least one point on Monday night, the picture went away completely. I could get other channels fine, and when the program on 807 came back, it was SD until after the next commercial break.

Almost makes me wonder if the issue was at the source.

I'm on Adelphia in NH, and we had the same problems w/ NBC last night - so it's not Comcast. It was very annoying.

Maybe after their day jobs at Comcast, avic and L Supreme moonlight at NBC :-)

Originally posted by tennberg
Maybe after their day jobs at Comcast, avic and L Supreme moonlight at NBC :-)

HA HA HA funny. :p


shmee1, dont expect to see the new guide in your area until Comcast is fully sure that the new version works perfectly on both HD & DVR boxes. So far the patch has only been applied to HD boxes not DVR boxes. IMO it wont be until the complete update is ready, so probably March or a lil later.

Same breakup problems here. Is it just NBC?

It's so bad have to go to SD NBC

I spoke to another CSR tonight and explained again my issue with the picture and audio freeze. The CSR seemed to know what I was talking about and said she knew it was not the same freezing issue and had an email from earlier asking her if they were receiving any calls with the same symptoms on dual tuner boxes. She asked if the tech who sent the eamil could contact me to aske more qestions. I should add she offered a credit to my acount. Ive never been shy to say when im not happy with Comcast so I have to say that I am happy with this response. The CSR seemed knowlageable about the probelm, didnt give me the run around and offered compensation. Text book customer service I wish all my interactions with Comcast were as nice.
Now I just hope I can get an answer to the freezing picture and audio.

Shrek 2 and The Terminal are now available in HD-VOD. $6 is too expensive for me. $3-$4 seems much more reasonable.

Originally posted by DaveFi
Shrek 2 and The Terminal are now available in HD-VOD. $6 is too expensive for me. $3-$4 seems much more reasonable.

I already have Shrek 2 on DVD and any Tom Hanks movie after "Big", I have no interest in seeing. When you start doing movies just to get an Oscar, it's quite the turn-off. I do agree though that $3.95/$3.99 would be much more reasonable (just like other OnDemand movies).

Too bad Comcast can't do HD-VOD for shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, or Battlestar Galactica. It would be nice to watch them during the week, but then get a chance to see them again in HD (esp. BG, since it's aired on Sci-Fi in analog *barf*).

On a couple other topics:

1. No freezing or skipping on NBC-HD last night, so all seems better (for now).

2. Last night on Lost, there was a scene with Charlie and Kate on the beach at either sunset or sunrise. I must say that the wide shot of them was jawdroppingly beautiful. I've never seen a more realistic, perfectly colored shot on my HD set until that. It was like I could have thrown a rock at Charlie's head and hit him. :-) Granted, I've seen some amazing things on INHD/INHD2, but never THAT amazing. Ah, the beauty of HD CRT technology.

Tennberg said:

"Too bad Comcast can't do HD-VOD for shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, or Battlestar Galactica. It would be nice to watch them during the week, but then get a chance to see them again in HD (esp. BG, since it's aired on Sci-Fi in analog *barf*)."

Isn't that what the DVR is for ?

Law and Order was breaking up so bad last night here in Chelmsford that I had to resort to the analog broadcast.

-Ken

HDH was horrible again last night via Adelphia, too.

Recorded West Wing HD on my 6412 (ch 807). It was a mess. Lots of breakups (half screen), freezes, blocking. Lost and Alias on ABC (805) had no problems). Was this Comcast, Ch 7 (Boston) or NBC?

kenvt:

Law and Order was breaking up so bad last night here in Chelmsford that I had to resort to the analog broadcast.

It wouldn't have done you much good; I was watching the SD Law & Order and there were a lot of A/V freezups. There were plenty during The West Wing, for that matter.

Speaking of last night's L&O: great ep, much better than last week's "Is it because I'm a lesbian?" horror. :-P

Check Boston OTA thread to see if it is the station or network itself that is the source of the problem instead of Comcast. It is disappointing that only WB-HD is the only channel planned to be added, and that in April.

Originally posted by kenvt
Tennberg said:

"Too bad Comcast can't do HD-VOD for shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, or Battlestar Galactica. It would be nice to watch them during the week, but then get a chance to see them again in HD (esp. BG, since it's aired on Sci-Fi in analog *barf*)."

Isn't that what the DVR is for ?

Law and Order was breaking up so bad last night here in Chelmsford that I had to resort to the analog broadcast.

-Ken

kenvt: Good point, however, the content on my DVR is *always* changing, so I usually delete the latest episode of those shows after a few days. Granted, I could use the guide to find when a certain episode may air again and record it, but it would be nice to just go to OnDemand and view the entire season (or at lease most of it), much like Carnivale or other HBO shows that are on-demand.

Though, the DVR doesn't help me with BG, which is filmed in beautiful 1080i HD but broadcast in analog non-anamorhpic widescreen. *blech* Again, here's to hoping Comcast can get Universal HD in the next few months.

Yes, it (HDH) was pretty much unwatchable on comcast (southern NH) last night.

Affirmative from Revere. Watching Jay Leno was rediculous- had to go by the audio to figure out what was happening. So- what IS happening Comcast???

It's NOT Comcast's problem...as I posted earlier, Adelphia's having the same problem.

I just heard back from WHDH - they say they're having problems with the HD feed from the Network...and they're aware of the problem and trying to fix it.

Hopefully, soon!!

Well, that would be a plus.

Thanks for actually calling and asking. Infinitely more useful and productive than my approach, which is simply to whine about it here.

not in time for ER it seems

Originally posted by perrycom
It's NOT Comcast's problem...as I posted earlier, Adelphia's having the same problem.

I Came on here to post something about Ch807 - and Suprise! I've been having trouble for at least a week with breakups cutouts, etc... Thankfully NFL isnt on NBC! :D

I have a TV with a built-in HD tuner so I can get my HD directly off the cable or OTA. In the past month or so the cable reception was pretty good.

I had a little bit of pixelization on channel 7 about 1 month ago but the problem appeared to be fixed. PBS-HD, Fox, and channel 4 were perfect. In the past few days PBS-HD has become terribly bad. There is so much pixelization that I cannot even get a proper image. Channel 4 is OK but I still get a little bit of pixelization but enough to be annoying.

My OTA reception of PBS-HD and channel 4 is good. At least I will be able to watch the Pats on Sunday!

Originally posted by avic
your tech was misinformed. there are no known issues (bugs) on the 6412's that result in the picture/sound "freezing." the only "freezing" issue recently was related to iGuide and new firmware and affected non-DVR's and DVR's alike which resulted in the box not responding. and IT has been patched.
Avic,
I spoke to yet another CSR after a night of Freezing. This CSR also said they got an Email letting them know of Picture freezing with a short term resolution of changing the channel up and down to bring back the Picture and video. He said that the Email had a subject line of "Dual tuner DVR video freezing". Have you heard of this issue at all, since posting last?

Originally posted by DaveFi
Shrek 2 and The Terminal are now available in HD-VOD. $6 is too expensive for me. $3-$4 seems much more reasonable.

I agree, the offerings are pretty weak and the price is not worth it. Heck for $12 you can buy the Shrek 2 DVD.

In terms of HD-VOD, if Comcast wants to charge $6 (or more), they are better off putting some HD porn out there:eek: Just kidding (I think!)

Question, maybe a stupid one that I have been afraid to ask:

What is 256 QAM ?? What are you talking about and how can I check if I have it?

It's the modulation technique used to encode the bits they're transmitting into your home. Comcast uses: Analog NTSC (for the < channel 100 analog channels), 64QAM for the older digital channels and 256QAM for the newer and HD channels. They're converting everything to 256QAM because it allows them to squeeze more bits through a 6MHz channel, which means being able to deliver more content.

You can see if you have it by searching the thread for the guy's Motorola STB FAQ, and following the directions for the setup/maintenance screens.

I was watching a movie on Encore last night (326) and it was 256QAM and looked pretty crappy. I'm not sure that 64 to 256 is going to help all that much.

-Ken

Originally posted by kenvt
I was watching a movie on Encore last night (326) and it was 256QAM and looked pretty crappy. I'm not sure that 64 to 256 is going to help all that much.

-Ken

kenvt:

I was just about to post a questions asking about that. I am in Medford and we aren't getting the 64->256 conversion until the second week of February. I was curious, though, to ask what kind of improvment, if any, those with full 256QAM saw.

On my set (Sony 34" XBR960 16:9 CRT HDTV), channels 194 and higher (not including the HDs) more often than not have a "haze" about them, from what I thought was the 64QAM encoding. I was curious to see if moving to 256QAM on those channels would mostly eliminate that "haze" and make the digitals look better. From your post, though, it doesn't seem like that's the case. However, I won't know for certain until the upgrade occurs in Medford.

tennberg:

I don't have full 256QAM yet either. But many channels already are. Check some of the more popular channels and you will see that you already have them at 256.

-Ken

I don't really see that it'd make any difference in picture quality at all. 256QAM just lets them push more bits down the pipe. The only way it'd affect picture quality is if:

256QAM is more noise susceptible, it'd cause more picture breakup

or

With the additional bit-bandwidth afforded by 256QAM, Comcast decides to encode the channels at a higher bitrate

I could see the former, but I doubt the latter. I'm assuming they're using the extra bit bandwidth to make room for digital copies of what's also being transmitted in analog, and/or new channels.

Originally posted by kenvt
tennberg:

I don't have full 256QAM yet either. But many channels already are. Check some of the more popular channels and you will see that you already have them at 256.

-Ken

kenvt:

I will admit that some of the digitals look OK, though none of them look really good. I know a couple others on here said we should look forward to much improved PQ once 256QAM arrives. I guess I'll find out for myself once it hits Medford.

Originally posted by tennberg
kenvt:

I will admit that some of the digitals look OK, though none of them look really good. I know a couple others on here said we should look forward to much improved PQ once 256QAM arrives. I guess I'll find out for myself once it hits Medford.

According to a Comcast Engineer I spoke to, the 256 QAM conversion will improve the quality of some of the channels. They will be pulling alot of the services from different providers that provider a higher bitrate stream. Higher bitrate generally means better quality... though if you compare it to an HD you are now comparing Apples and Rocks.

I have a 16:9 Sony set and had a question about Comcast's OnDemand movie selection.

Several are labeled as "widescreen". Now, if I were to watch one on my 16:9 set, are they anamorphic or non-anamorphic widescreen? Basically, will the movie fill up the whole screen (if it's 1.78:1 or 1.85:1) or will I get black borders on the top, bottom, left, and right?

Thanks!

The SD "widescreen" movies are 4:3 letterboxed. You'll need to zoom on your display to get them to fill the screen.

Too bad they don't do 16:9 for the widescreen movies. It shouldn't take that much more bandwidth either.

Originally posted by tennberg
kenvt:

I will admit that some of the digitals look OK, though none of them look really good. I know a couple others on here said we should look forward to much improved PQ once 256QAM arrives. I guess I'll find out for myself once it hits Medford. why wait? you ALREADY have 256 QAM on some of the digital sd channels. before your area upgrades the remaining 64 QAM channels do a comparison and see if u see a difference. comcast will also be using higher bitrate providers which will help as well. but nothing will be as dramatic as ADS going from analog to digital at 256 QAM and the use of better encoding equipment. that you WILL notice. it's still not HD and imo once u go highdef everything else looks like crap regardless. waiting for WB and UPN to come aboard, after that the 800 block is all i need.

Originally posted by Tsunamii
Avic,
I spoke to yet another CSR after a night of Freezing. This CSR also said they got an Email letting them know of Picture freezing with a short term resolution of changing the channel up and down to bring back the Picture and video. He said that the Email had a subject line of "Dual tuner DVR video freezing". Have you heard of this issue at all, since posting last? Comcast IS looking into it and might have identified the issue, but it's a RARE box occurence. best to get it replaced as it seems to only be affecting a certain and small range of 6412's.

avic,
Thanks M8!!! So far I have been refused a new box. The tech that came out refused my wife one even afer she explained what was going on and today the CSR said the notes told him to tell me to change the channell up and down but not a box swap. When I pressed he said he would send a tech if I wanted but the box would not be swapped. Not sure what to do at this point. I guess Ill call again and see what happens.

ask for a supervisor and tell them that comcast is aware of the problem and recommends a swap for your situation.

Will do, thanks for the advice.

Has there been a fix yet for the box being unresponsive to commands from the remote? If I'm flipping through the guide and the box freezes, it will remember whatever buttons I press after it freezes then execute them all in a row once it unfreezes. The picture and sound will continue to play as normal, even while the guide is frozen.

I believe someone posted that Comcast was aware of this and that it shouldn't be affecting anyone anymore. Am I completely wrong?

Also, what was the "mute bug" problem again? When I came home from work today, my box had turned on to do a couple scheduled recordings. I turned on my TV and pre-amp/amp. I noticed once the TV came on that the 6412 was on "mute" so I had to press the button on the remote to get any sound. Is this the "mute bug"?

Thanks!

well after a week of clear up my box is back to freezing and being unresponsive. what is up comcast ????????

there have been articles in newspapers and online about the comcast HD settop boxes "freezing", and unable to change channels. the article i read said there is no fix for this problem yet and it is happening to comcast customers everywhere. if i find the URL for the article again i will post it here. google search of "comcast HD freeze cant change channel" or some combination of those keywords may yield some of the press articles... good luck, comcast HD customers.

for once i'm glad i have adelphia instead of comcast !

Tveli, the article was from a NH paper, if I remeber correctly. Though it is a few weeks old and Comcast does have a patch for the freeze being described. I don't know if they deployed it to all boxes or just as needed when people are calling in. I have to find some time to call in for a box swap myself for a freeze issue but its the picture and sound not the box, for me anyway.
There do seeme to be alot of bugs but that is the way it is when new tech is rolled out. I just went through a roll out for about 400 laptops (D600's) and there were tons of bugs. So its not just cable its technology in general. Not that it helps your specific situation but it does happen and if you call in and get a decent CSR you may get a credit on your next bill.
Bugs and all I still ove the concept of OnDemand (Thanks to our Friends at SeaChange) and DVR (I got rid of my VCR years ago and its nice to record things again).

Storm hasn't even really started, and my cable is already out in Lynn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still no 256 QAM in Burlington.

thanks, Tsu. actually i have adelphia, with two non-DVR HD boxes... so i'm not subject to the comcast HD bugs. i hear you re technology in general and bugs. i work for a large computer/networking company and spent most of the last decade time fixing bugs. it's mostly a thankless task! and plenty of times i introduced a new bug when fixing an 'old' bug. :|

yeah, i think the article was from nashuatelegraph or maybe unionleader.

with all due respect... i see that you chose your handle long before 12/26/2004 and i expect the forum owners would accomodate you if you wanted to get a new handle - a "rename" while maintaining 'credit' for your 74 posts. would such a 'rename' interest you? surely it must not feel very nice to have that handle now? :( well, color me oversensitive, perhaps...

TTFN!

Originally posted by hammersfd
Storm hasn't even really started, and my cable is already out in Lynn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cable out in Melrose too. Anyone have any idea whats going on? If the cable isn't on by game time tomorrow, there are gonna be thousands of pissed off people, myself included.

Cable is still working here in Medford, although it seems the iGuide has cleared out much of its entries for the week. Anything past 11PM *tonight* is showing as "To be announced" and if I search over the next 5-7 days, it seems as if 80-90% of the shows are showing up as "To be announced." I have no idea if this is related to the storm or if it's an equipment problem somewhere. I did not unplug my box or reset it it any way.

back up in lynn :)

I’ve gotten that before about the nic on another forum. Unfortunately it’s a NIC ive used for years, not just here. I do thank you for your tone in asking though. It hasn’t been so nice on other forums. So it would be too difficult to change Email and various names on here and other place. I can respect your opinion and I hope it doesn’t bother you too much in the future. It was a tragedy and the name is not meant to cause any disrespect to those who have lost loved ones and friends.
You wouldn’t happen to have a Jr Network admin position available would you? LOL always in the market.

Robb

http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/high_tech/telecom/2005/01/17/boston_daily13.html

Wooo! I noticed in a thread in the HDTV forum that 19 Towns in the Boston area will be getting "Fiber to the premises" services from Verizon over the next few months, and Framingham/Natick is one of them.

Only problem is I live in a condo development and I doubt they will want to wire us up. Big job, RCN wouldn't do it either.:(

Comcast could be in serious trouble. 15mbps downloads for $50 mo and cable TV services for the same price.

Verizon will install most of its new optical fiber on poles, which is much quicker and less expensive than pulling fiber through the underground conduits that serve much of Boston and Cambridge.Oh well, so much for that...

Originally posted by DaveFi
http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/high_tech/telecom/2005/01/17/boston_daily13.html

Wooo! I noticed in a thread in the HDTV forum that 19 Towns in the Boston area will be getting "Fiber to the premises" services from Verizon over the next few months, and Framingham/Natick is one of them.

Only problem is I live in a condo development and I doubt they will want to wire us up. Big job, RCN wouldn't do it either.:(

Comcast could be in serious trouble. 15mbps downloads for $50 mo and cable TV services for the same price.

Oh well, so much for that...
Dave, I read the same thing the other week. I guess they were testing in RI and Cali.
Competition is never a bad thing :)

Anybody else experiencing severe audio dropouts and pixilatio about every 10-20 seconds during the NFC championship game on FOX. I'm in Nashua.

YES! My service has been a nightmare all weekend!

-s

Originally posted by travis33
Anybody else experiencing severe audio dropouts and pixilatio about every 10-20 seconds during the NFC championship game on FOX. I'm in Nashua.

Yes I had some pixilation problems. Just a little bit every few minutes. A little bit annoying but I still could watch the game. I am in Sudbury, MA.

Faux's PQ didn't seem very good to me (at least compared to CBS's PQ). Is that the result of my 30HS420 upscaling the picture to 1080, or is Faux just not very good? I'm inclinded to believe bad things about them.

But then, CBS did have a few pixel storms, but not very often.

Saviure, where are you in Sudbury? I lived there until a year ago, now live in Belmont.

There certainly does appear to be a perceptable difference between Fox' and CBS (& ABC) picture quality, but both were mighty fine! The Fox picture appears just a touch softer than the others.

I saw no pixelation problems here in New Bedford (Snow capital of New England!)....

Fox blows! they have terrible HD. I wish they would not handle the broadcast although I like listening to the analysts.

Originally posted by avic
ask for a supervisor and tell them that comcast is aware of the problem and recommends a swap for your situation.

Thanks for the advice but I have met resistance from both the CSR and Supervisor today, saying they have been advised not to swap the box or let me come in to swap the box with no exceptions.

Originally posted by Tsunamii
Thanks for the advice but I have met resistance from both the CSR and Supervisor today, saying they have been advised not to swap the box or let me come in to swap the box with no exceptions.

Tsunamii:

Are they not swapping the box for you specifically, or are they not swapping the box for anyone?

On another note, I may call them later tonight about the iGuide freezing when trying to input commands from the remote, then suddenly repeating all the commands that were input. Someone mentioned there was a patch that Comcast was pushing for this only to people who were asking for it. How should I describe this to a CSR? Can I say "I need the iGuide freezing when using remote" patch?

Thanks.

tennberg, the CSR gave me the impression that Comcast is aware of the picutre and audio freezing, as if Pause is pressed, and they will not swap the box for me or anyone else. I used to have the same issues you are describing until I changed over to the Dual Tuner now I don't have that one but have the Picutre and Audio freeze. IMHO id rather have the later issue. At least there isnt the chance it could cause burn in on my set. You can't leave the set on and walk away for awhile without running the risk it has frozen and hence burning in.

I'm curious what others have as their software and firmware versions on their 6412. I'm at work, so I can't check mine at the moment. However, if I recall correctly, it's:

Software: 74.11 - 1203 or 71.44 - 1203 (I forget what the combination of numbers was, though it's definitely one of those two)

Firmware: 09.12

Im not seeing as much freezing tonight and the Mrs said she cant remember any today. Was there a patch pushed down or have I just been lucky? Dunno...

I need to chop some monthly expenses and I was thinking of chopping off my digital tier stuff. I don't really watch anything on it. I do have a QAM tuner so I was hoping to still get my HD channels with that. I know this has been discussed, but I just want to verify that if I cancel my digital stuff, I can still get the local's with my QAM tuner.

Also, on a side note, what's a cheap cable modem that works? It's kind of OT, but if you know of one PM me.

Thanks!
Chris

WHDH is still having lots of problems. Lots of dropouts. Last night they lost the HD feed for the Tonight Show, which was particularly annoying (Carson memorial show).

not sure if anyone noticed, but the FSN via INHD high def broadcasts of Celtics games has been having audio issues, specifically, its not being broadcast in DD5.1.............its bad because mike and tommy's game call is not coming from the center channel, but rather the other 4 channels..the result is a nasty echo..........i wrote both FSN and Comcast alerting them , and both responded that they are aware of the issue and are working to resolve it.


Comcast's response:
I apologize for the delay in replying to you.

I have escalated this issue to our engineering staff who in turn
contacted FSN and they are investigating. It has been determined to be
an issue with their audio feed and they hope to have it resolved
shortly. We appreciate your bringing this to our attention and your
patience while the issue is addressed.

Thank you for the opportunity to assist you. If you need further
assistance with any of your Comcast services please reply to this email
and we will be happy to assist you. Thank you again for choosing
Comcast and we continue to appreciate your business.



FSN's response:
Thanks. we did get this from Comcast and we are looking into it. Thanks

Originally posted by caernavon
Faux's PQ didn't seem very good to me (at least compared to CBS's PQ). Is that the result of my 30HS420 upscaling the picture to 1080, or is Faux just not very good? I'm inclinded to believe bad things about them.

But then, CBS did have a few pixel storms, but not very often.

Saviure, where are you in Sudbury? I lived there until a year ago, now live in Belmont.

go to the HDTV programming forum.....everyone is up in arms over FOX-HD's PQ, specifically NFL football..........it appears to be a FOX issue, because it happens to cable, satellite, everyone...........

the NFC champ game did look better, with less swimming grass, but it was still a bit soft. anyway, look over in HDTV programming, there are a million threads on it.


wasn't the AFC championship game on CBS HD beautiful? both in results and picture!

Originally posted by macd23
go to the HDTV programming forum.....everyone is up in arms over FOX-HD's PQ, specifically NFL football..........it appears to be a FOX issue, because it happens to cable, satellite, everyone...........

the NFC champ game did look better, with less swimming grass, but it was still a bit soft. anyway, look over in HDTV programming, there are a million threads on it.


wasn't the AFC championship game on CBS HD beautiful? both in results and picture!

The CBS AFC broadast WAS stunning. It looked so nice that I'm sure Fox's "bargain basement" HD broadcast of the superbowl is going to leave many with a bitter aftertaste. You'd think that the idea is to show as great a picture as possible to sell more HD sets....

I saw a Meerkat show on Discovery HD the other day that was absolutely stunning.

(In fact, the SD version of it that I burned to DVD looked pretty dang good, too.)

I keep forgetting how good HD can look. I mean, I do watch the big three regularly, and often see movies on HBO and Showtime, but I often get the impression that the HBO/Showtime stuff is just upsampled SD, and that the prime time HD stuff on the networks really isn't that HD so much as it's widescreen with good sound.

Although watching Alias or CSI, I still tend to lose continence whenever they do a "flyover" skyline shot of the respective cities.

toots:

Try watching "Lost" on ABC-HD one night. Some of the shots are jaw-droppingly amazing. There was a shot the other week with two of the cast members on a beach during sunset. The clarity, the reflection of the sun on the waves, the sand.....absolutely stunning.

I think as long as the producer puts effort into making the show and Comcast's equipment is working well, the HD quality will be amazing. I do hope FOX figures out why their HD always seems very soft.

I'm sure though, once 1080p becomes standard, we'll laugh at how bad 1080i was :-)

oh no..... Fox doing the superbowl. how did they get that gig ? they do a terrible job in PQ!

for the guy who is complaining about celtic games on INHD........ its actually NESN doing the broadcast for FSN. email NESN on the NESN website. there is a email link for sports. it works! they have been doing a terrible job with celtic games. funny thing is INHD is suppose to be 1080i but the celtics look to be in 720p to me as the picture is much better in 720p. usually up or down conversions dont look better. but the celtics games do look much better in set to 720p.

the AFC champ games was beautiful. why would FOX get the nod for the superbowl. very upsetting and I guess I will watch the reg analog channel. :(

BTW: I dont find Fox soft in PQ. more like artifact problems. grass moving and the overall picture just horrible. can you believe with my HD box set to 4:3 letterbox and 480p it looks best. thats not HD!


I think I might be going the way of VOOM. sure maybe no celtics in HD and sox either but really.... as a long time celtic fan I really have a hard time watching them lose night in and night out. listen up comcast..... VOOM is looking pretty good right now!!!!!!!

Voom is very close to being liquidated.

http://www.hometheatermag.com/news/012405voom/

Originally posted by bruman
I think I might be going the way of VOOM. sure maybe no celtics in HD and sox either but really.... as a long time celtic fan I really have a hard time watching them lose night in and night out. listen up comcast..... VOOM is looking pretty good right now!!!!!!!

Hate to break it to you, but:

<http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2005/mft05012115.htm?source=mpmftlist>

Originally posted by Schlotkins
I need to chop some monthly expenses and I was thinking of chopping off my digital tier stuff. I don't really watch anything on it. I do have a QAM tuner so I was hoping to still get my HD channels with that. I know this has been discussed, but I just want to verify that if I cancel my digital stuff, I can still get the local's with my QAM tuner.

Yes. You will be able to get the major local HD channels with bare bone basic cable. The channel numbers are totally different from those published by Comcast with their digital service. And they are all in sub-channels like 82-1, 84-2, etc. You have to find them yourself. Just make sure you let the tuner finish auto channel scan.

Also. Comcast does not carry HD signal from WB and UPN currently. At least not in my town.

Comcast Local Stations Without a STB

My Sony xs60 internal tuner has the following channel numbers for the direct-in Comcast cable:

PBS HD 19.3
Fox HD 31.2
CBS HD 30.1
ABC HD 20.1

What would NBC HD be ?? Anyone?

WHDH-DT was having problems again tonight both with video and audio. In addition, it seems someone in their office forgot to flip the switch for the HD feed of "Committed".

Wow, Leno looks good in HD; practically a reference picture. Too bad there were so many breakups during the Carson retospective last night.

I've only had my 30HS420 since Friday, so I haven't had time to to see all the networks' HD broadcasts. So far:

CBS: awesome. The AFC champ game was stunning, but for a few breakups. Numbers looked great after that

PBS: ditto, awesome. Too bad New Yankee and This Old House aren't in HD too.

Discovery HD: blah, blah, awesome.

ESPN: what little there is, awesome. Even though my TV is scaling everything to 1080i, I can't tell the difference beween that and CBS's native resolution.

NBC: haven't seen anything yet (West Wing and L&O coming up), but Leno looks great, so I have great hope.

ABC: I only watch Lost, about which I've read great things. Since ESPN-HD looks great scaled, I suppose ABC will as well.

Faux: not good. I don't know why their scaled 720p looks so much worse than the scaled 720p from ABC & ESPN, but the NFC game looked horrible at times. There were visible jaggies, like a .jpg you'd enlarged too much.

Originally posted by Bapon
Comcast Local Stations Without a STB

My Sony xs60 internal tuner has the following channel numbers for the direct-in Comcast cable:

PBS HD 19.3
Fox HD 31.2
CBS HD 30.1
ABC HD 20.1

What would NBC HD be ?? Anyone?


I too have a Sony and my HD channels are in the 80-85 range. I guess the channel mapping depends on where you are? The low numbers are just plain NTSC. Just do an 'auto-tune' and scan all the channels you got.

Originally posted by Bapon
Comcast Local Stations Without a STB

My Sony xs60 internal tuner has the following channel numbers for the direct-in Comcast cable:

PBS HD 19.3
Fox HD 31.2
CBS HD 30.1
ABC HD 20.1

What would NBC HD be ?? Anyone?

Probably 42.1 or 42.2

Originally posted by caernavon
Wow, Leno looks good in HD; practically a reference picture. Too bad there were so many breakups during the Carson retospective last night.

I've only had my 30HS420 since Friday, so I haven't had time to to see all the networks' HD broadcasts. So far:

CBS: awesome. The AFC champ game was stunning, but for a few breakups. Numbers looked great after that

PBS: ditto, awesome. Too bad New Yankee and This Old House aren't in HD too.

Discovery HD: blah, blah, awesome.

ESPN: what little there is, awesome. Even though my TV is scaling everything to 1080i, I can't tell the difference beween that and CBS's native resolution.

NBC: haven't seen anything yet (West Wing and L&O coming up), but Leno looks great, so I have great hope.

ABC: I only watch Lost, about which I've read great things. Since ESPN-HD looks great scaled, I suppose ABC will as well.

Faux: not good. I don't know why their scaled 720p looks so much worse than the scaled 720p from ABC & ESPN, but the NFC game looked horrible at times. There were visible jaggies, like a .jpg you'd enlarged too much.

your assessment is pretty good..........PBS and NBC are very hit or miss....actually most of the NBC stuff isn't that great, just Leno.


ABC, CBS and ESPN are awesome. (mostly for live sports and shows) and discovery hd theater kicks ass

Originally posted by bruman


I think I might be going the way of VOOM. sure maybe no celtics in HD and sox either but really.... as a long time celtic fan I really have a hard time watching them lose night in and night out. listen up comcast..... VOOM is looking pretty good right now!!!!!!!


are you nuts? first of all, who cares about the celts, i agree, but no red sox? thats why i got HDTV!

second, as someone stated VOOM is going away.

Originally posted by macd23
your assessment is pretty good..........PBS and NBC are very hit or miss....actually most of the NBC stuff isn't that great, just Leno.


ABC, CBS and ESPN are awesome. (mostly for live sports and shows) and discovery hd theater kicks ass

Plus as someone else mentioned when discussing VOOM - the NESN Red Sox broadcasts are fantastic. Some of the night games last year were to me the best looking HD broadcasts I've seen yet!

Lost tonight is a repeat again. What's with all the repeats lately ?

Plus as someone else mentioned when discussing VOOM - the NESN Red Sox broadcasts are fantastic. Some of the night games last year were to me the best looking HD broadcasts I've seen yet!

That's what I'm really waiting for. I saw the football playoffs in HD a year ago, but I've still yet to see any baseball in HD. I can't wait.

Redsox do look great and prob why I never made the jump. someday though some co is gonna make me leave comcast when another co can offer more.

Sounds like comcast is doing just perfectly. Offering just barely enough services and charging so much you squeal, but not so much that you actually drop them.

Something they should be proud of.

more like they are lucky!

when a sat co comes along and offers more they will lose alot of customers. Voom was close.

Lucky?

You think it's accident that they're just barely preferable to any existing sat company?

Originally posted by toots
Sounds like comcast is doing just perfectly. Offering just barely enough services and charging so much you squeal, but not so much that you actually drop them.

Something they should be proud of.

Let’s see how long that business plan works when Verizon storms onto the Cable TV market, running fiber to the house no less. They are taking a chunk out of Comcast’s broadband and they are slated to take a chunk out of their Cable TV market. They will have to change the price tier to stay competitive. That being said it doesn’t seem to bother them too much with Broadband. Say what you will you can see very little difference in speeds between DSL and Broadband and there is no Bandwidth limit with Verizon unlike Comcast who will terminate your account if you go over it too much.

Yeah, if/when competition happens, Comcast will adjust to be just barely not worth the effort to change. That's maximizing their profits.

And, thinking that Verizon will be competitive in terms of service and support... well, I've had enough dealings with both companies to not expect this any time soon.

Make no mistake: Comcast has me ripped over how they've managed to hit me with a greater-than-cost-of-living increase every year, yet barely offer me any more services than last year (unless I want to pay more), but they still manage to just come up shy of pissing me off enough to change.

If/when Verizon actually offers some real competition that's actually available to my residence, I'll consider it. Even then, they'd have to do it in a fashion that doesn't involve them stepping on their own dick, which would mark a huge change in their way of doing business.

Originally posted by caernavon
That's what I'm really waiting for. I saw the football playoffs in HD a year ago, but I've still yet to see any baseball in HD. I can't wait.


you're in for a treat......the main pitcher's mound camera is eye popping. its like sitting at fenway.

Originally posted by macd23
you're in for a treat......the main pitcher's mound camera is eye popping. its like sitting at fenway.

Sitting at Fenway, in a seat suspended mid-air between center field and 2nd base that is!! Awesome stuff.

The Tonight Show on 807 is being shown in 4:3. I've noticed a lot of NBC shows over the past couple days that should be in HD are instead being shown in 4:3. Any reason? Perhaps WHDH taking equipment down to fix the issue they've had with bad audio and video?

true Tsunami! if I were to get broadband again it would not be comcast.... def Verizon. so there is a hint of what is to come toots!

Originally posted by toots
...If/when Verizon actually offers some real competition that's actually available to my residence, I'll consider it. Even then, they'd have to do it in a fashion that doesn't involve them stepping on their own dick, which would mark a huge change in their way of doing business.
I agree. But if Verizon is taking the trouble to run fiber to the house, then they should be serious about marketing a variety of services (telco, internet, TV, VOD, etc.). My recent experience with Verizon has been better then in the past. They may have reached the conclusion that they must either be a leader in these areas, or they will perish under the competition.

Mickey

When is the NFL Game of Week shown in HD on INHD1/2 ?

NFL Game of the Week in HD is shown Wednesday and Thursday nights beginning at 9:00pm on InHD-2. This gets pre-empted by the Celtics home games which are also broadcast on InHD-2. Last night, we only saw the last 15/20 minutes of the Falcons/Eagles game due to the Celtics/Pacers game.

Mickey

Originally posted by MickeyGee
NFL Game of the Week in HD is shown Wednesday and Thursday nights beginning at 9:00pm on InHD-2. This gets pre-empted by the Celtics home games which are also broadcast on InHD-2. Last night, we only saw the last 15/20 minutes of the Falcons/Eagles game due to the Celtics/Pacers game.

Mickey

Why would anyone want to watch the Celtics over NFL Game of the Week :) Thankfully the Celtics are not playing tonight !

Does the GotW or Celtics broadcast get listed in the guide or does it still show whatever INHD2 is showing ?

I get the Boston stations via Bell ExpressVu and the NBC picture is constantly breaking up. After reading some of the posts in this thread, it appears that the problem is at the station and not with BEV. Has anyone contacted the station?

Comcast Cable - Boston
WHDHDT - 807 ( NBC )

//rant on//
I have been a fan of West Wing and always tune in on Wednesday night to watch it.
I would have to say that for the last 3-4 episodes, a month?, that the signal from NBC has been terrible.
Half-screen break-ups, freezes, etc.
I turn to the analog channel and I can see plenty of noise, but at least the show continues.

What is their problem!!

There's not much on NBC that I believe is worth watching, and they're
really pushing me away once and for all with these technical difficulties!!
//rant off//

Don

Looks like the freezing issue is back on my set, again. I had a few good nights then last night the screen and audio started to freeze up again. Its too bad that Comcast can't get a story and keep it straight. Technical issues can and do happen its a fact of life but getting different answers from every CSR you talk to can be fixed. There is no reason a consumer should get the Varity of answers they do with technical issues. Avic, graciously advised me to replace my box and that Comcast recommends it but you talk to a CSR and they out and out refuse. Horrible customer service.

Originally posted by Al K
I get the Boston stations via Bell ExpressVu and the NBC picture is constantly breaking up. After reading some of the posts in this thread, it appears that the problem is at the station and not with BEV. Has anyone contacted the station? I did...about 2 weeks ago (I'm on Adelphia). They said they were having problems with the feed from the network, that they are aware of the problem, and that they're trying to fix it.

Obviously...it's taking them too long. :rolleyes:

Maybe if enough people call or go to their website to complain they'll step it up.

Originally posted by dozens
...Does the GotW or Celtics broadcast get listed in the guide or does it still show whatever INHD2 is showing ?
I don't think they are listed in the guide. I guess Comcast just takes the feed from the other channels and puts them on InHD-2 locally. Other regions see the regular InHD-2 programming. You just have to know that the Celtics and Bruins (not this year) home games will be simulcast there, and that the two NFL GOTW shows will be shown during football season. This is what some would call an "undocumented feature".

Mickey

Everyone cycle their cable modems. I got the the speed upgrade today and I'm d/l @ 4.2mbps now.

What is a good speed test to use ? I haven't been able to see more than 2 mbps, but i am seeing over 300kBps up.

-Ken

DaveFi, there are a million but if you want check out
http://www.dslreports.com/stest
or
http://bandwidthplace.com/speedtest/

I unplugged my cable modem for 60 seconds, and am now getting up to 4.3Mbps down and 533Kbps up.

A bit more on topic:

I am watching the 2004 World Series film on INHD covering the amazing season of the Red Sox. The reason I was watching it was because I recently received a DVD from Tweeter of the same film. I purchased an HDTV from them last year and all I got was this friggin' DVD :-)

Anyway, the DVD, for some reason, is in non-anamorphic widescreen and the picture quality is extremely poor. There is a lot of ghosting, it's very blurry, and my DVD player keeps switching between film and video mode to compensate for its quality.

I'm a bit eager for HD-DVD to explode onto the scene, though I'm sure I won't be replacing all of my current DVD selection anytime soon. That can wait. I still have 6 VHS tapes that I'm holding on to until they're released on DVD.

sports dvd's are the worst!!! the Patriots dvd's are the same way, horrible. I have seen $5.00 dvd's that look better than them.

tweeter also gave me a free patriots dvd's for my purchase also.

please HD-DVD get here. I would invest for the patriots dvd's alone. I watch them alot through the year. you know they are originally in HD.

Tennberg
, Kinda sucks that that’s all Tweeter came up with. When I got my set from them I made them price match a place in Chicago, they had to drop the price 1k and were not too happy about it. Funny how when you ask them to price match they have to get a mangers approval etc, etc. The next month I even got a check for a few Hundred saying it was on sale cheaper somewhere else :)
The next day the Authorized retailer changed their price tier on the web sight...
The next day the Authroised retailer changed their price teir on the web sight..

I didnt have to price match at tweeter. over a year ago they had a brand new boxed Sony Wega 36XBR800 HDTV for $1100. needless to say that was unheard of at the time and I bought it! even better was a month ago CC was clearing out the matching stand and I got that for $19.97

:) thats what I call sweet.

I need to stand up for Tweeter. All you got from them was a Patriots DVD? What do you think Circuit City and Best Buy will give you? (nothing) Tweeter price matches CC and BB but Tweeter is far superior in terms of product knowledge. I'd go so far as to spend a tiny bit more just to buy from Tweeter, rather than give my money to the know-nothing chumps at CC or BB.

Edit - After reading my post, it seems like I was complaining about those who posted here ... but that was not my intention. All I meant was that all my experiences with Tweeter have been great.

I bought my lcd tv from tweeter too after they pricematched circuit city. The experience was fine except that my sales guy was pushing me to buy everything under the sun, including a $150 DVI cable which I said no thank you (I bought a dell dvi cable off ebay for $8 and it works great). I did buy the extended warranty, I can't imagine a purchase of this magnitude without one.

-Ken

Oh, I'm not complaining. I bought my Sony 34XBR960 when Tweeter was having their Private Sale, which also happened to be Tax Free Day in Mass. I got 10% off via the PS and saved 5% via the TFD. So, I save over $300 on the set, yet it still cost nearly $2000.

I'm not saying I don't like Tweeter. I think their reps are knowledgeable and thay have a good selection of equipment. I'm just saying that for having purchased a $2000 set and a recently-purchased $700 DVD player, you expect something more than a poorly-made $10 DVD.

Originally posted by RScogland
I need to stand up for Tweeter. All you got from them was a Patriots DVD? What do you think Circuit City and Best Buy will give you? (nothing) Tweeter price matches CC and BB but Tweeter is far superior in terms of product knowledge. I'd go so far as to spend a tiny bit more just to buy from Tweeter, rather than give my money to the know-nothing chumps at CC or BB.

Edit - After reading my post, it seems like I was complaining about those who posted here ... but that was not my intention. All I meant was that all my experiences with Tweeter have been great.

I aslo like Tweeter. They stand behind their products better then any other retailer I have dealt with and usually with no questions asked. The only time I received a little resistance it was worked out to my satisfaction. Other then the smaller places like Goodwin’s Highend, that tend to carry less commercial products id buy @ Tweeter hands down. You may be able to beat their prices online but if you have a problem after you buy its alot easier to deal with a local place with a storefront then some online retailers. IMHO anyway.

DaveFi: I just recycled my modem and I am now running at 6mbs! I have the home network option which already had 4mbs so I guess they upped it to 6mbs when they moved everyone else to 4mbs. Cool! Ain't competition great?

Got my Sony 36" Hd set 2 years ago from Tweeter. For big purchases, they are best. Guess, no new HD channels form Comcast until ADS and VOD issues have settled out. Looking for UPN HD, WB HD, ESPN2-HD, NBC-Universal -HD.

Yeah, I had a sales guy at Tweeter that would personally deliver stuff to my apartment, and/or take care of any service issues for me.

The fact that I bought several thousand dollars worth of equipment from him probably helped, but I must say, with most places treating you like dirt even if you're an "A" customer, it's kind of nice to get some good old service again.

Originally posted by mgpt6
Got my Sony 36" Hd set 2 years ago from Tweeter. For big purchases, they are best. Guess, no new HD channels form Comcast until ADS and VOD issues have settled out. Looking for UPN HD, WB HD, ESPN2-HD, NBC-Universal -HD.

Not right away. Comcast is very slow. One new national channel in the past year. ESPN2HD is the most likely, maybe Universal HD also. Funny, how I want HDNET and that is not on the radar at all. Comcast is giving up any claim for HD leadership, and that is a shame. When they implemented the 6412 and added HD-VOD (very limited right now) they could have kept the momentum, but now even a small company like Adelphia, with money problems, is stepping out ahead of them.

Rich N.

Yeah, but they're still out in front in implementing new rate increases.

is this the new tweeter forum? ;)
listen comcast has a lot planned for the year so sit tight. you just got an internet speed upgrade and we're in the middle of getting switched over to 256 QAM and ADS. whether the work is internet or cable this all takes the same manpower and time and there is alot going on. yes we'll get more HD channels just not soon enough. don't forget some cable co's don't even have CBS and not too many others offer a dual tuner HD DVR. for those of us who hang out here nothing will ever be enough but for most customers comcast offers an ample amount of services and still for a good price. if u can get more and get it cheaper, why are u still a customer? but go ahead complain about services and rates, it's good OT discussion if nothing else.

avic has his pom poms out again...

"lets go comcast, let's go......"

I'd buy a cheaper service if Comcast didn't lobby congress to make sure they would have as little competition as possible.

DVR? Sure, if you want to pay extra. Just about any additional services I've gotten from Comcast in the last couple of years have had added fees associated with them, while the services I had last week just keep getting more expensive at a rate that clearly outstrips inflation. If the increases included the new services, then fine, but they don't.

I've had car loans that had smaller monthly bills.

On the other hand, Verizon threatening to eat Comcast's lunch does have some positive effects. I just got 4000 Mbps download speeds. I seriously doubt that'd ever happen without Verizon scratching at the door. This was an example of Comcast giving me more service to go along with their greater-than-inflation rate increase, although like I said, it had a lot more to do with Verizon than anything else.

And, like I said, comcast is doing an excellent job. They're charging as much as the market will bear, without quite charging so much as to cause mass defections. Good business sense for the bottom line, but I still reserve the right to feel gouged.

toots,

Amen brother ! I agree 100% . My problem is that I watch a handful of channels (mostly just the HD stuff now) and I have to pay for 100's of channels of crap that I don't want.

My friend in Maine with Time Warner has a dvr for $5 per month. Seems more reasonable. He has a better HD package too !

-Ken

Ok, I am a Comcast customer and have been for years. The point is there is no one else to get service from. Many towns only have one option and that is Comcast. Service is far from great major pixilation hardware errors up the butt. I still have not got a straight answer to why my box freezes, you (Avic) had said to ask for a new one on Comcast advice but that has not trickled down to the CSR's. Where is the communication, Comcast is in the communication business so why do their Customers have to come here to find out any answers? OnDemand is great and it’s SeaChange that makes that run. DVR is great but so is Tivo and they are not having any freezing issues that I am privy of.
So I think we are well with in reason to not be the happiest customers. Before all these great things just around the corner how about making the stuff that is already here work.
This is not intended to start a Flame war with Comcast techs. You guys have provided and do provide tons of insight and I for one am much obliged. Its too bad Comcast wouldn’t provide a forum board, in a offical capacity, so issues can be worked out rather then the he said she said when you get to a CSR. I can’t even leave my set running and go and take a long phone call or what ever with out fear that my DVR box is frozen and the image is burning into my Plasma.

I'm not exactly flaming Comcast. But I pay around $100 per month for TV from Comcast. They have good features, such as VOD (HD-VOD has no compelling content yet, but it will soon, I'm sure) and the DVR.

But there are 9 national HD channels (HDNET/Movies, INHD1&2, ESPN1&2, TNT-HD, Discovery-HD, Universal-HD) and Comcast only carries 4. For those prices I just feel I should be getting the maximum, not the mininum service level for HD.

They are content to be near the bottom, rather than the leader, in HD content and that's a shame because they are the biggest cable company.

I'll be with them even if they don't add any HD channels while raising digital prices (a good gig, huh), but I'd suppose some others might be more likely to churn.


Rich N.

Tsunamii:

Your situation reminds me of my previous situation. When I had the 6208, I was getting HEAVY pixelation, cut-outs, dropped audio, etc. I had about 6-7 Comcast techs and 1 TriWire engineer come out to my apartment to check over everything. About 50% of the wiring in my apartment and 50% of the wiring in the hallway was replaced. I also had the 6208 replaced several times to no resolution.

Luckily, when I called one day, the call was being recorded and listened to by someone in Comcast's executive complaing department. She called me back about 10 minutes later, apoligized to no end, threw credits at me like there was no tomorrow, and put in a high priority for me to get the 6412, since there was always the thought that the 6208 in general was simply bad.

I think I was one of the first people in the state to get one. In the end, it was the 6208 that was bad as I've had no problems with pixelation or dropoffs with the 6412.

I hope your situation gets resolved. Perhaps you can ask to talk to someone in their executive complaint department. I'm sure avic knows the number :-) He just needs to look at the corporate directory pinned up in his cube...*tee hee*

LOl, thanks Tennberg. Mine is pretty much freezing like Paused has been pressed. I never experienced the amount of pixelation I have now with my non-DVR HD box. Ive been told the party line they are the same box with a harddrive but I know what I am seeing and the quality is much worse. to tell a customer that they will not replace the box no if ands or buts, even if I went back, yet again, to their Hudson office. The freezing has not been happening as much as it was, its down to once or twice compared to the 15 or 20 x it was last week. Maybe next week it wont happen at all.

Tsunamii:

That's what Comcast originallyt old me: "The hardware in the 6412 is the same as the 6208, it only has a hard drive. Giving you a 6412 will not make any difference." I guess this just goes to show them.

It reminds me of a problem I had with my previous Denon DVD player. Connected to ANY other TV, it would display 480p over component just fine. However, when connected to my Sony XBR set, the picture would jump all over the place. No one seemed to have any insight or would just blame the TV. Anyway, I was able to trade it in for another, more expensive Denon player and the problem is gone. Most likely very similar hardware. Probably just one transistor or something somewhere that causes it.

Tennberg, you may be on to something. I remember rolling out Dell's D600's laptops a few months back and after months of getting everyone on board with what image to use the chipset on the boards changed so we now have 2 images for both sets of laptops that are the same model and series. That would explain Avic’s post awhile ago saying it was only a small number of these DVR’s that had an issue. Still you would think someone would step-up to the plate and say lets replace them and we (Comcast) will send them back to Motorola rather then have paying customers with crappy service. Not exactly Tweeter service, LOL. What does Comcast think is going to happen when there is competition? Will they then get their act together with customer relations? I know I can't treat my customers like that, id be out of a job and the company would be out of business.

I'm still a bit wary of Verizon's "fiber to your house" push. Especially here in Massachusetts, with our aging infrastructure and a good number of people living in apartment buildings or complexes, is Verizon going to run fiber to each and every one of those buildings? We recently had a fiber run at my work of about 2000' and the project cost several thousand dollars. I can't being to imagine how much money Verizon is going to spend running fiber all over MA.

Not only that, but you need a special termination for the fiber to convert the light signals into electrical signals (not super cheap).

The only real scenario I can see is for this to happen in residential neighborhoods lined with houses, *not* apartment buildings. I'm not sure if I see this taking off as well as Verizon thinks it will.

Originally posted by tennberg
I'm still a bit wary of Verizon's "fiber to your house" push. Especially here in Massachusetts, with our aging infrastructure and a good number of people living in apartment buildings or complexes, is Verizon going to run fiber to each and every one of those buildings? We recently had a fiber run at my work of about 2000' and the project cost several thousand dollars. I can't being to imagine how much money Verizon is going to spend running fiber all over MA.

Not only that, but you need a special termination for the fiber to convert the light signals into electrical signals (not super cheap).

The only real scenario I can see is for this to happen in residential neighborhoods lined with houses, *not* apartment buildings. I'm not sure if I see this taking off as well as Verizon thinks it will.

Tennberg, Her is an article from this AM's Seattle paper.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/209872_msfttv29.html
"Verizon Communications Inc. plans to use Microsoft Corp. technology for its rollout of television service over a new fiber-optic network, becoming the third major telephone company to help fulfill Microsoft's long-stymied bid to barge into the TV business."
From what I have been reading they have been running the fiber for over a year already.

Originally posted by tennberg
I'm still a bit wary of Verizon's "fiber to your house" push. Especially here in Massachusetts, with our aging infrastructure and a good number of people living in apartment buildings or complexes, is Verizon going to run fiber to each and every one of those buildings? We recently had a fiber run at my work of about 2000' and the project cost several thousand dollars. I can't being to imagine how much money Verizon is going to spend running fiber all over MA.

Not only that, but you need a special termination for the fiber to convert the light signals into electrical signals (not super cheap).

The only real scenario I can see is for this to happen in residential neighborhoods lined with houses, *not* apartment buildings. I'm not sure if I see this taking off as well as Verizon thinks it will.


Verizon has already finished laying fiber in the 15 nieghbourhoods mentioned in the article. They finshed laying the fiber in my nieghbourhood 3 months back. Verizon is spending billions for the project.

Ready or not , FIOS service is here to stay.

Originally posted by bruman
Redsox do look great and prob why I never made the jump. someday though some co is gonna make me leave comcast when another co can offer more.

NESN Redsox games are absolutely amazing. Fortunately, I got my tv & box at the end of the season and was able to watch some games. I was terribly disappointed, however, by the Fox playoff games. It was almost like going back to SD compared to the quality of NESN games.

For those that haven't seen them who are redsox fans, you are in for a treat come April. They were, by far, the BEST programs I have seen on HD in the 6 months I have had HDTV

Verizon has been wiring up Natick for the past few months now as well. Like I said before, the only thing is I live in a big condo development, and since the job would have to be underground they ain't gonna get get to me for a long time.

That's why towns like Boston and Cambridge will be last (along with me).

After a night of freezing Comcast said they will send someone over on Monday to change out my Box. Though they said not to mention any freeze issue so the box will be changed. Go figure.

Originally posted by Tsunamii
After a night of freezing Comcast said they will send someone over on Monday to change out my Box. Though they said not to mention any freeze issue so the box will be changed. Go figure.

Tsunamii: "Yes, I'd like to exchange my 6412."

Comcast: "What seems to be the problem with the box, sir?"

Tsunamii: "Not a thing. The box is performing as expected. No problems whatsoever."

Comcast: "Not a problem. We'll have a technician out on Monday to exchange your perfectly-working 6412, sir."

Tsunamii: "Thanks. I hope the new 6412 performs as flawlessly as the one I am exchanging."

I have a 6412 and the audio cuts out now and then. Also while changing channels the audio seens to get "lost" for about 15-30 seconds.

tennberg, LMAO.. Funny how life can be. I hope I have better luck with the next.

Has anyone noticed a very dark picture level on the 6412 using DVI output? When I fix it on my Sony WEGA, then all my other inputs have a far too "white" black level. It's definitely unique to the 6412. All shadows on shows are too black, no detail.

I only use DVI and the picture on my DLP FP is great. I know my FP allows for different color levels for different inputs.

Originally posted by Tsunamii
After a night of freezing Comcast said they will send someone over on Monday to change out my Box. Though they said not to mention any freeze issue so the box will be changed. Go figure.

I noticed that my 6200 is starting to freeze again today.

Originally posted by DaveFi
Verizon has been wiring up Natick for the past few months now as well. Like I said before, the only thing is I live in a big condo development, and since the job would have to be underground they ain't gonna get get to me for a long time.

That's why towns like Boston and Cambridge will be last (along with me).

I think another reason that the cities are being delayed is the hardware (ONT).

Verizon has expressed concerns about their vendor's ability to provide a single piece of hardware that will supply a multi unit building.

I was reading on broadband fourms that Verizon has said that since it is laying fiber underground it is not cost effective to start off in Boston opting for the burbs. They also said they will not be wiring up condos and large apt blds. They released about 19 towns that are completed now and others are in the works. I saw the Verizon trucks last week in Maynard with the large spools of black fiber. The first step is being rolled out in

Andover, Bedford, Belmont, Boxford, Burlington, Holliston, Hopkinton, Lexington, Lincoln, Lynnfield, North Reading, Natick, Newton, Reading, Sherborn, Topsfield, West Newbury, Winchester and Woburn

"Verizon's FiOS broadband Internet access services offer download speeds of up to 5 Mbps (megabits per second), 15 Mbps and 30 Mbps, with upstream speeds of up to 2 Mbps for the first two products and 5 Mbps for the third."
Hopefully we will see some of the effects of competition with Comcast offering more HDTV stations becuase no matter what is on the horizon its been awhile since we had any new channels and rethinking rates.

BTW got my new DVR box and no freezing yet :)

Hi guys and gals, I just got my WD4200HD yesterday and I'm finally using the DVI output on the 6412. I'm having a minor problem when I first turn on my tv, the screen comes on in a split screen. When I change inputs and go back to DVI the picture is fine. Also using component out does not have this issue.

Does anyone experience this issue using DVI with the 6412?

I'm trying to see if its the 6412 or the WD4200HD causing this!

I see it all the time. If you pause and then play the problem goes away as well.

The Comcast tech that was at my place last night said a new firmware was being pushed this week. For the various freezing issues, I wonder if it will fix Xboxjunkie's problem also..

I have an HD -ready monitor (Turned in my HD box in December to save SOME $) and comcast.
I know the HD locals are considered PART of the BAsic broadcast service.

My wsister's fiancee is lending me an HD tuner this weekend for the big game sunday.
What ATSC channel does Comcast retransmit WFXT-DT on?

chitchatjf, Ive seen it posted here in the last few days but you should be able to do a scan and find it. If not its within the last few days that someone had posted what Channel it was broadcast on...

chitchatjf,

More than likely you'll need to connect an antenna to the tuner. If it cannot understand QAM you're SOL using the Comcast feed.

If it understands QAM I think all of the OTA channels are in the 80's.

Dave

SSETTA,
I bought a Sammy Plasma about a Year and a half ago and have been very happy with the quality. When I buy a new one I will still check out what is out there but wouldnt hesitate to buy another Sammy.
If you buy a Sony dont be mislead. Sony didnt even make the panel. They buy them from Pioneer, LG, Fujitsu etc... and from what ive read are poised to leave the Plasma market focusing on LCD in a join venture with Samsung.
All in all if you find a good price on a Sammy (I had tweeter price match and they dropped over 1k) its worth the buy. Good luck and enjoy :) When you go for speakers check out SVS Subs :))) Also you might want to check out www.audioholics.com they have tons of great info also.

Someone mentioned that 256 QAM would be deployed in a week in all the regions. That was 3 weeks back. 256 QAM is still not on in Burlington.

On a sidenote ,I want Verizon to be here with its video service as soon as possible. Comcast increases rates 6-8 % every year. I have two cable boxes. They charge me around 3 dollars more for the second box as digital access point charges. What a ripoff.

Originally posted by jdoe7890
Someone mentioned that 256 QAM would be deployed in a week in all the regions. That was 3 weeks back. 256 QAM is still not on in Burlington.

On a sidenote ,I want Verizon to be here with its video service as soon as possible. Comcast increases rates 6-8 % every year. I have two cable boxes. They charge me around 3 dollars more for the second box as digital access point charges. What a ripoff.

Someone said it was expected to be rolling out in the next weeks, but there are never any guarantees when its 3rd party information.

As for rate increases... you think Verizon isn't going to raise their rates every year like Comcast and every other cable company out there. Oh, also, isn't DirecTV raising their rates this year?

ya I dont get why they charge more fo the second box. comcast def nickle and dimes its customers.

can someone explain the 256 QAM ? what is it and what does it do ?

I have seen it in the box menu but dont understand all the talk about it.

so there is gonna be a firmware upgrade for the freezing ? thats a good thing!

I am not sure about other MSOs but I know DirecTv charges for each additional receiver to replicate service to it and I believe it is more then Comcast.

EDIT:
I found this that might help clear up QAM question. The question was the diffrence between 64 and 256 QAM

" The difference is the number of symbols they can modulate per second (64 QAM = 5.05694 Msps and 256 QAM = 5.360537 Msps), thus the overall bandwidth is different (64 QAM = 26.97036 Mbps and 256 QAM = 38.8107 Mbps).

256 QAM allows for more programs per carrier. As an example, you can squeeze two 19Mbps HD programs down a single 256 QAM multiplex, where you can only get 1 HD plus 1 or more SD programs down a single 64 QAM multiplex"

so that means better picture like the higher channels ? like NFL Network..etc ?

those channels look great.

that will be cool and is long overdue! we pay to much to have to suffer with analog any longer.

thanks for the reply. was curious about that but didnt want to sound stupid. lol :)

besides picture quality how will we know its done ? firmware/ menu changes ?

Tsunamii, are you sure about that?

QAM256 is simply a different modulation rate then QAM64. One result of the switch is that somewhat more information can be transmitted in a given period of time. A lot of people think it has something to do with compression, but I think that's not the case ... its more about how the data stream is modulated on a carrier and sent downstream, where it is then demodulated.

Actually, if you enter QAM64 QAM256 in Google and search you can find some descriptions.

Anyway, I think Tsunami is referring to the implementation of ADS (Analog/Digital Simulcast) which is due to be implemented AFTER 256QAM, but has no specific relationship to that change other than maybe benefitting from the increased throughput.

Originally posted by raidbuck


But there are 9 national HD channels (HDNET/Movies, INHD1&2, ESPN1&2, TNT-HD, Discovery-HD, Universal-HD) and Comcast only carries 4. For those prices I just feel I should be getting the maximum, not the mininum service level for HD.

They are content to be near the bottom, rather than the leader, in HD content and that's a shame because they are the biggest cable company.


Rich N.


I agree 100%, along with where are UPN and WB.

Of course Verizon will hit us with rate increases, and no doubt accompany it with their typically clueless substitute for service.

But the point is that when there's some competition, no matter how limited, there's at least a chance that both will have to offer more value for their fees in order to woo clients away from the other guy.

I had a Comcast tech in on Monday night in Taunton due to flaky internet issues related to the speed upgrade (Jan 26, in case anyboy cares)

QAM256 is not in use in Taunton yet. Will be within a month. No news on iGuide. They're still workign on it.

All stations will be digital by 2007, he was unclear on whether or not that was simucast or full digital with all analogs eliminated. This news supposedly holds (excpet for the QAM modulation) for the entire Boston area. He made brief mention of VOIP as well (we can get phone already but do not do so)

And I need to bahve a new wire pulled form the tap to the house. low signal on the internet freqencies. TV is not affected.

Tim

khauser, Yes I was thinking about ADS confused my self. With 256 QAM hopefully we will see some new HD stations soon?

Originally posted by D_Doherty
chitchatjf,

More than likely you'll need to connect an antenna to the tuner. If it cannot understand QAM you're SOL using the Comcast feed.

If it understands QAM I think all of the OTA channels are in the 80's.

Dave

He will be coming by on Friday.

Anyone know anything about Charter? I picked up a set with a HD tuner and it found some of the channells listed as charter HD, but they sure don't look HD.

Anyone else have trouble getting OnDemand? For the last few days it's been unavailable for me.

DaveFi, I just checked mine and its working fine. Only a few towns aways from ya not sure what the issue is.

Originally posted by DaveFi
Anyone else have trouble getting OnDemand? For the last few days it's been unavailable for me.

What message do you get when you try VOD?

I get the usual "can't communicate" error.

Originally posted by DaveFi
I get the usual "can't communicate" error.


call to see if the VOD server is still down, I know it was down on Sunday. If its up, ask the CSR to see if they can check if the box is responding properly & send it a hit.

Off Topic: Those who were waiting for Enterprise in HD are in for a disappointment. Enterprise has been cancelled and will air its final episode on May 13th. So when you see Enterprise in HD it will be in syndication.

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2005/02/03/star_trek_nears_its_final_frontier_as_upn_cancels_enterprise/

OT: I, for one, won't miss it. For me, Enterprise never seemed to have the dynamic that TNG, DS9, or Voyager had. I found it slow, unengaging, and uninteresting. I think its good that Paramount is taking it off the air and giving the brand some time to rest. I'd love to see it come back on in a few years after the writers and directors have had some time to gather their thoughts. They could also take a cue from the writers for Farscape and Battlestar Galactica. I think those are two sci-fi shows that are executed beautifually.

I guess we don't need UPN-HD anymore..... not that we were getting it anytime soon anyway.

I agree with you tennberg. Ive been enjoying Battlestar allot more then Enterprise. Enterprise got a little too soft without enough action. Not to say I didn't keep watching it.. lol..
Ok now I want SciFi in HD!!! I wont hold my breath..

I'd just like SciFi in digital SD at the very least.

Really burns me that I can get a better picture on the second tier cable channels than on SciFi, Discovery or TLC.

My major desire now is to get Universal HD, as they will be airing BG in HD on their channel. For those of you who had a chance to catch the miniseries that aired on NBC in HD, you will recall that the PQ was absolutely amazing! It was such a letdow to be introduced to it through NBC-HD to only then have to watch it on Sci-Fi in analog SD *and* non-anamorphic widescreen (postage stamp).

My wish list, in order, from Comcast:

1. Universal HD
2. HDNet/Movies

then, WAY down the list, with no desire to get them:

499. WB-HD
500. TNT-HD
501. ESPN2-HD

then, EVEN FURTHER down the list:
.
100232. UPN-HD

With Voom now gone, maybe Comcast could cut some deal on the channels Voom was getting and use that to boost their HD content. Imagine Comcast saying, "Get Comcast and get access to 30+ HD channels!"

A little bit off topic but I went into the setup of my 6412 and the DVI/ypbpr output was set up as 480p, shouldn't it be 10800I? I have an RCA Scenium rear projection.

Originally posted by Tsunamii
Off Topic: Those who were waiting for Enterprise in HD are in for a disappointment. Enterprise has been cancelled and will air its final episode on May 13th. So when you see Enterprise in HD it will be in syndication.

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2005/02/03/star_trek_nears_its_final_frontier_as_upn_cancels_enterprise/

which will be in the fall as WCVBDT will have it for this area :)

Now it will most likely be weekend late nights only

Originally posted by kenvt
I guess we don't need UPN-HD anymore..... not that we were getting it anytime soon anyway.

but didn't I read somewhere that Friday night Sox games would be in HD by the fall?

FYI, the Lowell area has been updated to 256 QAM

have not noticed. dont look digital.

Originally posted by bruman
have not noticed. dont look digital.

The 64 QAM were updated to 256 QAM, chnls 200+ are all being broadcasted @ 256 QAM now. I think your talking about ADS, that is still to come.

Looks like all the QAM stuff broke on my Fusion HD card--the new QAM station numbers:

84.1 - PBS
86.1 - NBC 7
86.2 - ABC 5
87.1 - CBS 4
87.2 - FOX 25

Still waiting for 256 QAM in Maynard. With the ability to send more channels down with 256 QAM I wonder when we will see some more HD stations.

Originally posted by Tsunamii
Still waiting for 256 QAM in Maynard. With the ability to send more channels down with 256 QAM I wonder when we will see some more HD stations.

I would say probably after ADS is completed. So for a real rough estimate I'd say late summer - sometime fall before new HD chnls appears, but who knows, I could be wrong.

Originally posted by D_Doherty
chitchatjf,

More than likely you'll need to connect an antenna to the tuner. If it cannot understand QAM you're SOL using the Comcast feed.

If it understands QAM I think all of the OTA channels are in the 80's.

Dave

He left TWO BOXES AND an antenna.

I have tonight and tomorrow night to work on it. :)

I'll try the comcast feed first and if that dosen't work,then the antenna.

I may still watch the first half in SD as there is a superbowl party for Complementary FOOD!

Friday 11:53pm Update: one box was useless. The second box only handled ATSC and NTSC signals with the antenna I could only get 7 and 9 Analog.

Probobly should have tried comcast.

OTOH I can live.

Sunday 11:11pm rehooked up box using NTSC and was still able to geta 480p picture from the NTSC signal on channel 13.

I got a pre-recorded call from Comcast yesterday telling me that I'd have a free week of HBO from the 7th through the 13th.

First question: did everyone else get this call?

Second question: does anyone know if that would include the HD HBO channel?

Just curious.

Last time they ran a free preview I didn't get the HD version.

All the IMAX stuff is gone from HD-VOD, and there are a few more real movies. They need to lower the price to <$4 for me to try. $6 is way too much.

Anyone know the Comcast QAM channel for ESPN--I've heard that some people can get it with their QAM tuners.

Thanks,
-Kyle

Originally posted by hibricc
but didn't I read somewhere that Friday night Sox games would be in HD by the fall?


I heard that they are trying to be ready for the start of the season, but might be a few weeks off unless NESN helps out.

Anyone else notice this?

When you record a show say an Hour long show via the guide it sometimes only records half an hour instead of the whole hour.

When you set a manual record it still does not show up on the upcoming recordings section.

My new Box does not pause and freeze now but pauses and comes back within a second or two. Not as bad but still not what I was pitched when I signed up.

Lastly I have had about 5 complete crashes with the box resetting and coming back within a few min.

If this was a Microsoft product it would be front page news rather then Comcast customers trying to get answers from anywhere they can find them.

Now I too have a "Field Supervisor" slated to come by next friday. Im starting to think that even if Verizon has higher prices it may be worth switching after this crap. I dont have time every week to make a slot for yet another Comcast tech to come by and muddy up my floors and fix nothing.

Hmmm, I had planned on going to the local Comcast office this week to swap my 6200 for a 6412.

Are most of the 6412's ok and we're just seeing the few that don't work well being complained about here?

Just wondering what I'm getting myself into...

Scooterboy, I can only speak for my self. While I assume that most must be ok. I keep hearing that its new technology and nothing is perfect but Tivo seems to work without the issues I am having.
I never had a problem until I went to a DVR. More pixilation, audio drop outs, picture freezing and the box crashing; I’m not asking for much just what is being advertised and what I am paying for I would not classify it as complaining as much as dissatisfied.
I do hope its just my bad luck with these boxes and you have better!!

My 6412 is buggy. It will occasionally reset during a timed recording. Very annying. I'm going to swap it out.

Tsunamii:

Have you considered that other equipment in your TV setup may be causing this issue or perhaps the envrionment itself?

When I had my Denon DVD-910 player hooked up to my Sony 34XBR960 via component, I would get jumpy video anytime I tried to watch a DVD in progressive scan (480p). Several calls to Denon said there was no issue with my player, that it would work on my set, and that it was an issue with my set. It turns out, in the end, that it was an issue with the Denon player (I scoured the web to find a couple mentions of others with the same issue). Upgrading to a higher-end Denon player (I got a nearly full credit for the 910, having owned it for over 6 months) solved all my issues and I can now watch DVDs in progressive scan.

When I upgraded to the 6412, all the issues I had with the 6208 went away, and I've had much success with this one (except for the unusually loud hard drive).

Have you (or Comcast) checked the following:

1. Signal strength coming over the cable line
2. Any old Cablevision filters on your line? (mine had one that was VERY old and was promptly removed by Comcast)
3. Does your 6412 have at least 2-3" of space on both sides, the top, and the back for proper ventilation?
4. Is the wiring in your house/apartment the older RG59 wiring or the newer RG6 wiring? Comcast replaced a lot of the wiring in my apartment with RG6 and it helped a lot with signal strength
5. Are all connections from your wall outlet to the junction box/tap tight? One of the techs found a poorly made connection in my apartment where the termination was not clamped on at all and was nearly falling off.

I would not be surprised at all though if you've had two bad boxes in a row. Working in the IT industry, I've had instances where I've had to go through 2-3 pieces of equipment to get one that worked properly. Sometimes that just happens and the only solution is to keep replacing it until you find one that works.

I do wish you luck in your search. You're always welcome to watch mine, though the HD noise may be a bit much :-)

Im pretty sure its not my equipement. I had never had issues before gonig to DVR. The box crashing seems to happen if you have been on the same station for awhile and I go to change the station. It will sit there for a second the redlight along with the amber light on the box appears and it ends up crashing. Im in a house that although is an old house all the wiring is only a few years old. No other filters present.
I think I am going to have to go through the growing pains of Comcast trying to get their equipemnt to work consistantly.

Originally posted by Tsunamii
I would not classify it as complaining as much as dissatisfied.
If I made it sound like any complaining here was unjustified, I didn't mean to. I totally agree you should get what was advertised to you.

I just wanted to know if the problems you're having are typical or atypical of all the 6412's. Guess I'll find out soon enough. :)

I had a 6412 that reset/rebooted itself when it felt like it. I caled Comcast and told them what was happening. I had a tech there the next day to swap the box and haven't had a problem since. The tech said that some of the early production units had a bug where higher temps were causing a reset. I kept my 6412 in a case with glass doors. He showed me the power-off diagnostic menus that showed temp and it was high. New box, even after 30 min of being on with the doors closed wasn't close to the old box, in terms of temperature reading.

As for the folks that are dissatisfied, call and complain. You'll get another 6412 that works better and maybe even some credit. The squeaky wheel gets the grease!

My 6412 has worked perfectly since November.I'm very happy with it.I don't think it has ever rebooted.Make sure it has adequate ventilation because it does get a little warm.

Ive have my cable Box in an open shelving unit fro BDI. So there should be enough ventilation. Though I guess I can't count that out. Ill check the Diag menu to see if I see the temp reading.
Scooterboy, no offense taken. Inflection is easily lost in Email and chat forms. I am generaly happy with Comcast the cost seems a bit high for the services offered but that is life. I do get a kick out of the Comcast ad talking about OnDemand and how it is free etc. Ya maybe it is but they just raised the price for the whole thing rather then charge extra for OnDemand. Not a complaint just and observation. It is big buisness after all and that is how it generaly works.
Well off to get ready for the Game. Go Pats!!!!

BTW, is anyone else with their own QAM tuner seeing freezing on WFXT Fox 25? My LG LST-3100A keeps locking up, and I'm afraid it's my gear.

I bought it for the last Super Bowl and have enjoyed watching the Patriots and Sox win it all in HD. Hopefull this isn't a bad omen for the outcome of the game.

It would just be a bummer to have to "suffer" through SD though.

Same problems here in Marlborough on a Comcast DVR.... :(

I have my OTA box set back up just in case!

What kind of "freezing" are you seeing? Is it like the DVR went on pause and you have to change the station to get it to come back? Or somthing else?

Originally posted by Tsunamii
What kind of "freezing" are you seeing? Is it like the DVR went on pause and you have to change the station to get it to come back? Or somthing else?

At least it looks like it's not just me...

The screen pauses and I have to change the channel to get the signal to come back. Channel 5 seems OK, so it looks like this may be happening on Fox only.

Figures this would happen on the day of the Super Bowl. :(

I think it’s kind of funny that our Comcast employees here grow quite as glitches grow more frequent.
Hey, Ill call a spade a spade.
Avic what’s up with your CSR’S? You seem to be so knowledgeable but what gives?
It’s more then me having problems but your CSR’s are in the dark?
Does it take an act of Congress to get some satisfaction here?
Obviously there are problems and obviously Comcast does not want to acknowledge them so whats the deal?

Originally posted by Tsunamii
I think it’s kind of funny that our Comcast employees here grow quite as glitches grow more frequent.

its called being stuck at work. only speaking hypothetically if I was a Comcast employee.

They're probably just spoiling for another rate increase.

Two minutes into the second half of the game ,I have a house full of people,I posted about how my 6412 had worked flawlessly since November and my screen goes completly blank.Panic sets in .I don.t know what to do.I call Comcast and they say that I'm the first to call about a problem.I still have sound but no video. They have no idea what the problem could be.Thanks to this forum I unplug my cable box and do a hard reboot and thank the Lord the video comes back. As Nancy Kerrigan would say Why,why,why.well at least the Patriots won.I just wish I had a copy of the game

Originally posted by Defraggerman
Two minutes into the second half of the game ,I have a house full of people,I posted about how my 6412 had worked flawlessly since November and my screen goes completly blank.Panic sets in Sorry I jinxed you!

:(

Defraggerman that sux!!! Mine started into freezing too, not blank but frozen. Only one Crash yesterday though.
It kind of makes the whole new guide useless when every time it crashes it dumps the memory and I have only "to be announced"...
It would be nice to see some official acknowledgement from Comcast on their hardware/software issues. At least then you can say hey things happen they are working on it, yadda yadda yadda. Instead its the standard party line of isolated issues etc.
I wonder if Verizon will use the same guide or go with Microsoft like they have on the left coast. It would be interesting if nothing else to see the same or similar hardware interacting with a different guide.

I had a strange thought the other day...

Saturday ended the mad sales event for large TVs at all the electronics stores. Did comcast add their install hours during the past week or two to satisfy the needs? Say like someone someone took the plunge last Wednesday and dropped a few grand on a Plasma. Unless he already had an HD setup, he'd need Comcast to come out in order to take full advantage of it right? Well one could set up satellite yourself, but maybe not as easy.

just a random thought to chew on. Brain gum...

Fees are killing me. I'm seriously considering dropping the DVR, SHO and maybe HBO too.

I'll probably go back to just 6200 w/Basic Cable and Digital Classic.

DaveFi:

I do agree that there needs to be some serious competition in MA in regards to cable in order for Comcast to start dropping their prices. Since Verizon's "fiber to your home" service will only be in 15 or so towns, will Comcast only offer competitive rates in those towns or will competitive rates be statewide? Will Comcast also offer competitive rates only to customers who are eligible to receive both Comcast and Verizon service (e.g., homeowners and not people who live in apartment complexes like myself)?

It will be interesting to see what kind of changes another player in the market will bring. Hopefully, it will be mostly positive.

As for dropping packages or services, I don't think I'm ready to do that yet. I get standard cable with Digital Gold (Old) (from the AT&T Broadband days) and HD DVR service along with cable internet service. My monthly bill, since the price increases, is nearly $150. Is it a lot? Well, yes. But, I rent, I'm not married, I don't have kids or pets, and I have a decent-enough paying job. I enjoy watching HD, I love the DVR service, and it's nice to have a gazilion channels to browse to see if something's on. I mean, I get two weather channels! That only is worth the monthly cost...*snicker*