Does anyone in our area have firmware higher than 16.20? My 10-year-old was trying to record a Cartoon Network marathon of one of his favorite shows, and we discovered that in the Comcastic Language (or maybe it is in "Motorolian"?) that "All Episodes" in fact means "eight." If you have a series recording, the most the box will keep is eight episodes regardless of available disk space. I noticed in the WikiBook the following entry regarding a newer firmware release:

Version 16.41
Available for Models: 5100, 6200, 6208, 6412, 6416, 3080
Available Date: 2007-07-04
Build Date:
Bugfixes:

Can launch VOD from either tuner (on dual tuner PVRs)
frozen frame on going to digital music channels has been fixed
100% full PVR bug has been fixed [Note: This bug still appears to persist.]
bug giving ability to PVR a VOD stream has been fixed
series recordings no longer limited to 8 episodes
some models were not displaying title/artist on digital music channels - fixed

Milpitas resident here.

Just wanted to let people know that I received a Comcast flyer in the mail on Saturday informing me that the upgrades are almost complete for Milpitas/Sunnyvale. There was a new channel listing printed with the new channels added highlighted in red. I only subscribe to Expanded Basic so it looks like I'll be getting KICU-HD, KRON-HD, and GOLF-HD added to my lineup.

If everything goes smoothly after the upgrade I might even think about switching over to their Digital package...my wife's been bugging me for Discovery HD.

Milpitas resident here.

Just wanted to let people know that I received a Comcast flyer in the mail on Saturday informing me that the upgrades are almost complete for Milpitas/Sunnyvale. There was a new channel listing printed with the new channels added highlighted in red. I only subscribe to Expanded Basic so it looks like I'll be getting KICU-HD, KRON-HD, and GOLF-HD added to my lineup.

If everything goes smoothly after the upgrade I might even think about switching over to their Digital package...my wife's been bugging me for Discovery HD.
Tyre,
Just for my edification, where in Milipitas are you located at ?? I live near the Curtner school. Just wondering if you're in the same local loop as I am. This waiting for the upgrades to be completed is getting really old.

Laters,
Mikef5

Tyre,
Just for my edification, where in Milipitas are you located at ?? I live near the Curtner school. Just wondering if you're in the same local loop as I am. This waiting for the upgrades to be completed is getting really old.

Laters,
Mikef5

:rolleyes::D

Try waiting for them up here!!

Is there a good way to determine the space a show will take up on the hard drive. I just got the dch 3416 (traded in the DCT3412) and it seems to fill up at the same pace. Digital Channels i.e. Bravo take up about 1% per hour, HD seems to vary. Do Movie Channels take up more space than Broadcast HD? I don't feel I have that much on the DVD and I'm at 53% just like that. Does setting up Series recordings take up alot of hard drive space? Just wondering if there is a reference chart or something.

David in Mtn View

As with all digital channels, the amount of space that it consumes is going to depend on the bit rate at which the show comes in on. So a 2 hour movie on HBO-HD might consume more than a 2-hour movie on TNT-HD if HBO is broadcasting at a higher bit rate.

Does anybody recently know of a Bay Area Comcast office that has a 6416 or perhaps a new box. I don't think I can use a 3416. I am looking to get more disk space.

I believe you'll have to go to office that's in your region (at least that's how it used to be). In other words, I live in Moraga so I can't go to an Oakland Comcast shop and swap boxes...they'll send me to the one in Concord.

Tyre,
Just for my edification, where in Milipitas are you located at ?? I live near the Curtner school. Just wondering if you're in the same local loop as I am. This waiting for the upgrades to be completed is getting really old.

Laters,
Mikef5


I live in South Milpitas, in the townhomes adjacent to the Great Mall.

I also forgot to mention that in the Comcast flyer it says to look for your new channels between 9/18 and 10/18.

I live in South Milpitas, in the townhomes adjacent to the Great Mall.

I also forgot to mention that in the Comcast flyer it says to look for your new channels between 9/18 and 10/18.
Tyre,

I was afraid of that ( the newer part of town ). I'm in the north part of Milpitas ( older part of Milpitas ), total opposite of you. A little pass the 880/Calaveras intersection. It will be interesting to see how much of Milpitas is going to be upgraded in that time frame. Thanks for the info.

Laters,
Mikef5

Anyone know if the most screwed up part of Sunnyvale will get its upgrade soon? I'm talking about the Wolfe/Old San Francisco, I herd that they are working around the 101 area.

As with all digital channels, the amount of space that it consumes is going to depend on the bit rate at which the show comes in on. So a 2 hour movie on HBO-HD might consume more than a 2-hour movie on TNT-HD if HBO is broadcasting at a higher bit rate.
Here's the weird thing about space, I have 6 (1hour) shows from Bravo -Digital and 1 movie (2hours 15min) from HBO and I'm at 43% full. That doesn't seem right, does it? I would think 1% for each Digital show (that's how much it goes down when I delete one) and 7 or 8% per hour on HBO, that should put me in the 22 to 25% range....Hmmmm 3416 getting less space then my 3412. Bizarre.

i live in oakland and have comcast basic package (includes SD DVR).....anyone know if discovery HD is encrypted in oakland? If i upgrade my $24/mo sd-dvr package for $11 for HD-receiver, can i get discovery-HD along with the local broadcast-hd channels? right now i just have my hdtv plugged straight into the coax (no dvr) and i can get fox/pbs/abc in hd, but no NBC in hd for some reason. I really dont want to upgrade to a $70+/mo package just to watch hd channels, since i dont watch that much tv anyways (just wanna watch discovery in hd however ;) )


any suggestions?

and i also notice that using my hdtv's tuner, my nbc-hd is 118.2 or something, not the 11.1 thats listed by tvantenna.org

and im getting some duplicate "digital" channels....for example one analog CNN ch 57 and one digital CNN 121.7...the TV tuner displays it as a "digital" signal although the image quality is definitely NOT digital (a bit upconverted maybe?).....anyone know whats this about?

I understand that Comast charges a HD fee of $5-$8 in addition to a $7.99 outlet charge in order to receive HDTV on a second set. If I were to add a DVR that would be an additional $11.99.

Now if I went with the Tivo HD, would any of these charges go away (obviously the DVR charge would)?

The outlet fee should be $6.99. The HD fee is $7 for digital subscribers and $8 for non-digital subscribers. For the longest time that HD fee has always been for HD equipment rental. Recently yunlin found the people he spoke with now claims the charge is for HD service. So depending on who you talk to you might or might not be charged an HD fee.

I understand that Comast charges a HD fee of $5-$8 in addition to a $7.99 outlet charge in order to receive HDTV on a second set. If I were to add a DVR that would be an additional $11.99.
Now if I went with the Tivo HD, would any of these charges go away (obviously the DVR charge would)?

Without Tivo you would have 5-8 OR 11.99 in addition to 7.99. With Tivo HD, you will have cable card charge (1.75 ?) in addition to 7.99.

and i also notice that using my hdtv's tuner, my nbc-hd is 118.2 or something, not the 11.1 thats listed by tvantenna.org

and im getting some duplicate "digital" channels....for example one analog CNN ch 57 and one digital CNN 121.7...the TV tuner displays it as a "digital" signal although the image quality is definitely NOT digital (a bit upconverted maybe?).....anyone know whats this about?
11.1 is the virtual channel #. The actual broadcast is usually on a different frequency/channel #. There is a mechanism of PSIP which allows virtual channel mapping so the underlying channel # can be replaced by a more common channel # you are used to. If your NBC-HD is at 118.2 then that channel is missing PSIP virtual channel mapping info.

The digital CNN 121.7 is likely the ADS version (digital simulcast) which is basically the analog version mpg encoded and sent as SD digital.

Keep in mind digital != HD. Digital channels don't always look better. They can look better, worse, or same as their analog counterparts depending on bitrate, frame size, etc.

cargo555, more than likely that Discovery HD is encrypted. If your HD receiver does not give you D-HD, I think the best option would be to add 'Digital Classic' to your basic. Like most things with Comcast, nothing is clear : some people could not add 'Digital Classic' just over basic, though many could.

I have my tv (sharp 52D62U) tuned the way I like it and HD sources and DVD look great but I am still really frustrated by SD PQ - coming through a Comcast/Moto DCT3416. I have it set to output SD at 480i but the TV seems to do a really bad job with it - very soft images, lots of blockies, etc. So, now I am thinking of replacing my Receiver and wondering whether it is worth getting one with a decent scaler. Any thoughts?

If yes, any suggestions? Faroudja is cheaper but am hearing much more positive feedback around Reon/Realta chips. Are either likely to make much of a difference on SD?

Any other settings or insights you can share? Would 480p be a better setting on the Moto? College football is about to start and too many games are still shown in SD. Thanks

The outlet fee should be $6.99. The HD fee is $7 for digital subscribers and $8 for non-digital subscribers. For the longest time that HD fee has always been for HD equipment rental. Recently yunlin found the people he spoke with now claims the charge is for HD service. So depending on who you talk to you might or might not be charged an HD fee.

Is it just me, or does $6.99+$7=$13.99 seem awfully high? How does this compare to the satellite companies & U-Verse? Does this include a decoder box (I assume it does)?

I have my tv (sharp 52D62U) tuned the way I like it and HD sources and DVD look great but I am still really frustrated by SD PQ - coming through a Comcast/Moto DCT3416. I have it set to output SD at 480i but the TV seems to do a really bad job with it - very soft images, lots of blockies, etc. So, now I am thinking of replacing my Receiver and wondering whether it is worth getting one with a decent scaler. Any thoughts?

Any other settings or insights you can share? Would 480p be a better setting on the Moto? College football is about to start and too many games are still shown in SD. Thanks

The upconversion in the DCT box isn't bad. I set mine to output 1080i for everything. It does a much better job than my TV.

The upconversion in the DCT box isn't bad. I set mine to output 1080i for everything. It does a much better job than my TV.

My biggest issue with the upconverter on the DCT3416 is the hectic edge enhancement. It looks really bad on my projector and really brings out the mpeg noice.

My TiVo HD on the other had does an excellent job with the SD channels. Honestly the ADS channels on comcast through the Tivo HD are the best looking SD channels I've ever seen.

Kevin

:rolleyes::D

Try waiting for them up here!!

From what I've read, you both have it better than the Sunnyvale Comcast slums! Maybe not a whole lot better, but better nonetheless.

Anyone know if the most screwed up part of Sunnyvale will get its upgrade soon? I'm talking about the Wolfe/Old San Francisco, I herd that they are working around the 101 area.

I might be in a worst part than you (Remington/Hollenbeck). I think we were one of the last parts of Sunnyvale to get Comcast Cable Internet.

I have my tv (sharp 52D62U) tuned the way I like it and HD sources and DVD look great but I am still really frustrated by SD PQ - coming through a Comcast/Moto DCT3416. I have it set to output SD at 480i but the TV seems to do a really bad job with it - very soft images, lots of blockies, etc. So, now I am thinking of replacing my Receiver and wondering whether it is worth getting one with a decent scaler. Any thoughts?

If yes, any suggestions? Faroudja is cheaper but am hearing much more positive feedback around Reon/Realta chips. Are either likely to make much of a difference on SD?

Any other settings or insights you can share? Would 480p be a better setting on the Moto? College football is about to start and too many games are still shown in SD. Thanks

You might double-check you aren't getting ADS simulcast- if it's soft & MPEG artifacted, it might be digital simulcast rather than analog. You can check on the diagnostics screen what the channel type is (QAM for digital).

Regardless, I agree the PQ for the Moto boxes isn't very great for SD, upconverted especially;
if you want really good SD PQ, as another poster noted, the TivoHD boxes are MUCH better, even for digital SD channels (which you'd think would be the same)- think Tivo's upconverting/scaling circuits are much better than the Moto's (especially the scaler.) You could try 480p, depends on your TV deinterlacer vs the Moto box (again I think the Tivo one is superior, but hard to compare given I have a RP-CRT), but that wouldn't make much impact on sharpness or macroblocking, just on interlacing. I don't recall if the Moto settings are like the Tivo's "hybrid" mode where you can set SD to either 480p or 480i w/o impacting the HD output anyway...

So rather than a new scaler/receiver, I'd suggest (biased :) ) looking at an HD Tivo instead, which has other benefits as well vs the Comcast box. Might even be cheaper.

I have my tv (sharp 52D62U) tuned the way I like it and HD sources and DVD look great but I am still really frustrated by SD PQ - coming through a Comcast/Moto DCT3416. I have it set to output SD at 480i but the TV seems to do a really bad job with it - very soft images, lots of blockies, etc.

Any other settings or insights you can share? Would 480p be a better setting on the Moto? College football is about to start and too many games are still shown in SD. ThanksIn my experience, setting 4:3 overide to 480p looked worse than 480i.

I do notice improved PQ with my DCH3416 vs my previous DCT3412 and DCT 6412. With the older boxes, the ADS channels (channel numbers below 100) didn't look as good as the D2D channels. With the DCH3416, they look much closer. And, the D2D channels look better than with the previous models, as well.

You might want to try getting a DCH3416 from your local office, and see if that helps, before spending on a Tivo S3 or HD.

The upconversion in the DCT box isn't bad. I set mine to output 1080i for everything. It does a much better job than my TV.My TV's have always done a better job upconverting than the Comcast receivers. Plus, a lot of TV's will not stretch what they perceive to be HD signals. So, you are stuck with a sidebarred image.

So rather than a new scaler/receiver, I'd suggest (biased :) ) looking at an HD Tivo instead, which has other benefits as well vs the Comcast box. Might even be cheaper.Or, try the DCH3416 first.

Who do you call? Is there a local number or do you dial the 1800 to complain or ask Comcast questions?

Tried searching but couldn't find an answer to these 2 questions - TV is Samsung 4252, STB is Motorola 6412 HD/DVR, and I'm in SF:

- With component vid/audio from the box to the set, the cable remote could control the volume of the TV (not the actual TV's volume, but the volume using the cable box, like on a CRT TV). With HDMI from box to set, cable remote Mute works, but volume control doesn't. Is there a way to get my volume control back using the cable remote?

- What is the Samsung remote set-up code to control the cable box? I've tried 064 listed in the STB code page in the book, and there's no code for a Motorola "Cable Box" listed. I've also tried 000 through a (patience limited) 011 - I just can't see me sitting there for hours going from 000 thru 076 or whatever the last possibility is to find it.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Does the remote code list have a code for "General Instrument"? Try that one . .

- With component vid/audio from the box to the set, the cable remote could control the volume of the TV (not the actual TV's volume, but the volume using the cable box, like on a CRT TV). With HDMI from box to set, cable remote Mute works, but volume control doesn't. Is there a way to get my volume control back using the cable remote?The Comcast remotes can be set to control the volume of the TV. Look through the remote manual. There should be a few pages of codes for various devices. If the installer didn't give you one, it should be available on the Comcast website Support pages.

As for your Samsung remote, Barovelli made an excellent suggestion. If there's no Motorola listed, try General Instrument.

Thanks Bovarelli, I'll check that tonight.

And thanks garypen, I've got the Comcast remote set up to access the TV controls, but what I'm looking for is a solution to the cable box volume issue. I don't want to have to select "Cable" on the Comcast remote to change channels on the cable box, then "TV" to adjust volume of the TV each time. Or to use 2 remotes to do the same thing. It just seems to me that if the Comcast remote can mute the TV using the cable box 'mute' function, then it should also be able to adjust the volume, like it did with my CRT TV and with the component inputs on the new plasma. Perhaps my HDMI cable/hookup/input is bad? Maybe I'm using the wrong Samsung remote code on the Comcast remote?

Thanks for your input guys. Any further insights are appreciated.

Check the wiki page on the Motorola STBs. There are instructions on how to unlock the volume control of the remote.

By default they set it up so that the volume buttons always transmit in "TV" mode - in other words they control the volume of your TV not the cable box. You can unlock this to make the volume buttons control anything you want (well, one of the 3). I have mine set as "Aux" which is my AV receiver.

Though honestly I don't know if it can control the volume of the digital outputs (S/PDIF or HDMI), it may apply only to the analog RCAs.

Thanks walk, I found that last night as well but I think it's still not what I'm looking for. I know the remote still controls the volume settings on the cable box because I can see the little 'Volume Lines' at the top of the screen, but that just doesn't seem to actually raise or lower the volume through the TV like it's supposed to, despite the fact that the Mute function works. I'm thinking it may just be the wrong Samsung code (some functions work, some don't = classic symptoms of wrong code?) but I'm still on the hunt for solid answers, or anyone who has my setup that works like it should, and how they got it to do that.

It would sort of be a bummer if the cable box volume doesn't function through the HDMI cable. I hate juggling remotes just to watch regular TV, and there's no way I'm going back to component inputs after HDMI...

I have run into this issue before and the answer I have received is that the volume for the stb is only for the rca jacks. Since the signal out of the box now is digital, the signal is transmitted to the receiver as if it were the analog equivalent of line output. The mute function works because you are telling the stb to stop sending the digital audio signal. I hope this helps.

That sounds suspiciously like "Time to get a new Harmony, Mfed." ;) Makes sense though, thanks cperalt1. I'm going to call Comcast and see if they've maybe got a firmware update or other fix in the works for this, if that even applies.

Thanks for all the responses! If anyone else has anything, feel free to lay it on me. :)

Yeah that's what I was afraid of.

Sounds to me like you just want to put the remote back into it's default state - that is the Volume buttons always control the TV no matter what mode you are in. That way you don't have to switch modes and don't need 2 remotes.

Well, it looks like I can change cable box channels or control actual TV volume with the Comcast remote, but not both at the same time without selecting the 'device' input button for each on the cable remote. PITA, but minimal considering some of the real setup nightmares I've read about. Maybe if I can get the Samsung remote to change the cable box channels...hmmmm.

The installer must have re-programmed your remote then, because the default behaivior is that the volume on the remote controls the TV's volume.

There's a code to change it back to that, and/or also a code to reset everything back to the default, if you need to. Check the wiki.

Thanks, I'll check that out tonight too.

...
- What is the Samsung remote set-up code to control the cable box? I've tried 064 listed in the STB code page in the book, and there's no code for a Motorola "Cable Box" listed. I've also tried 000 through a (patience limited) 011 - I just can't see me sitting there for hours going from 000 thru 076 or whatever the last possibility is to find it.
...


For my Samsung LN-T3253H the Comcast remote code is 0060. It may be the same for your model. I got this list from someplace (0019, 0030, 0032, 0056, 0060, or 0178), and succeeded with 0060.

Can someone in Union City tell me what HD channels Comcast offers? There are huge discrepancies between what comcast.com, tvguide.com, and yahoo.com shows. Thanks.

Well, it looks like I can change cable box channels or control actual TV volume with the Comcast remote, but not both at the same time without selecting the 'device' input button for each on the cable remote

Not true. You just have to activate "volume punch-through". That should be in the instructions Comcast provided. If you lost those instructions, try this:
1. PRESS the device, (CABLE), button - RELEASE
2. PRESS and HOLD the SETUP button until the red LED flashes twice, then RELEASE.
3. PRESS 9 - 9 - 3.
4. PRESS the device key you would like the volume to come from (TV).
5. Two blinks.


Alternatively a Harmony 670 is only ~$85 on Amazon.

Not true. You just have to activate "volume punch-through". That should be in the instructions Comcast provided. If you lost those instructions, try this:
1. PRESS the device, (CABLE), button - RELEASE
2. PRESS and HOLD the SETUP button until the red LED flashes twice, then RELEASE.
3. PRESS 9 - 9 - 3.
4. PRESS the device key you would like the volume to come from (TV).
5. Two blinks.


Alternatively a Harmony 670 is only ~$85 on Amazon.
Nice, thanks! I'll try that tonight.

In regards to all the other assistance, I entered the GI code last night and that seemed to be the one (erm...maybe it was 060, now I don't remember specifically), but I didn't have much time to play around to ensure that all functions worked. At least the basics worked though, and that was good enough. More tweaking to come....

Thanks again all!

Not true. You just have to activate "volume punch-through". That should be in the instructions Comcast provided. If you lost those instructions, try this:

www.comcast.com/remotes

Instructions for quite a few company remotes.

I'm going to go pick up a Tivo HD later today and I just called Comcast to order cable cards. I was told that they would cost $1.79 and there would also be a $15.99 installation. Now the weird thing is, I currently only have analog cable and nothing else and she didn't try to sell me a digital package or the HDTV package. My question is, will my Tivo work with the cable cards if I don't change my current cable package?

My question is, will my Tivo work with the cable cards if I don't change my current cable package?

Yes, works fine even with just limited basic.

Yes, works fine even with just limited basic.

And will this let me get the encrypted HD channels (Discovery, TNT, etc) as well as the local HD channels?

And will this let me get the encrypted HD channels (Discovery, TNT, etc) as well as the local HD channels?

No, you'll need to get Digital Classic, or Digital Plus, whatever it is they call it now.

Looks like there might be a solution for the new TivoHD to work with SDV. Now to see if they will reallly do this or not.
Here's the link ( the date of the article is 24 Aug so it is recent )
http://ibc.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=175784

and the link to the MultiChannel article it's self

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6471733.html

Laters,
Mikef5

No, you'll need to get Digital Classic, or Digital Plus, whatever it is they call it now.

OK, so what's the minimum package(s) that I can get away with if my goal is to get the local and cable channels (minus the premium channels) in HD on my TivoHD box?

Anyone know if the most screwed up part of Sunnyvale will get its upgrade soon? I'm talking about the Wolfe/Old San Francisco, I herd that they are working around the 101 area.

Not sure when we're getting upgraded (I'm between Wolfe and Fair Oaks, between El Camino and Old San Francisco), but we might be about to get 2 more HD channels.

Last night my TiVo S3 had a message saying a lineup change occured - I "lost" 800 (or was it 900? Some PPV thing I never use), but gained Golf/VersusHD 721 and ESPN2HD 724 according to the message from TiVo. Naturally I immediately tried watching those channels, but got the banner on the top with the channel/program info and a message at the bottom I had never seen before - "Channel not available" with the tivo logo to the left. And when I went to my CableCard test menu, the channels didn't even appear as I did the channel-up/channel-down thing from 709 on up. So I wonder if my CableCards haven't gotten a new mapping, or if tivo jumped the gun on putting these in my lineup, or something else... hmmm. (I've got Digital Classic and 2 working Mot cablecards in my Tivo, and they still properly tune DHD and ESPN-HD, fwiw)

OK, so what's the minimum package(s) that I can get away with if my goal is to get the local and cable channels (minus the premium channels) in HD on my TivoHD box?

Limited Basic + Digital Classic.

Limited Basic + Digital Classic.

Thanks. A couple more questions. Does the Digital Classic or Digital Preferred packages already come with Basic or Standard cable? The Comcast site doesn't let me add both a digital and an analog package (and I don't want to have to pay for both). Secondly, the cable guy is coming out on Thursday to install the cable cards. Can he take care of adding the digital package then or do I have to call up Comcast again?

I got a note in my comcast bill saying analog KFTY cable channel 10 is going away in Santa Rosa. The digital channel 199 is already on.

Are there any rumors what they will do with the bandwidth? There should be room for two more HD channels now.

TNT HD would be really nice.

I got a note in my comcast bill saying analog KFTY cable channel 10 is going away in Santa Rosa. The digital channel 199 is already on.

Are there any rumors what they will do with the bandwidth? There should be room for two more HD channels now.

TNT HD would be really nice.

I saw that too. I think it happened quite some time ago.

Thanks. A couple more questions. Does the Digital Classic or Digital Preferred packages already come with Basic or Standard cable? The Comcast site doesn't let me add both a digital and an analog package (and I don't want to have to pay for both). Secondly, the cable guy is coming out on Thursday to install the cable cards. Can he take care of adding the digital package then or do I have to call up Comcast again?

On top of whatever package you pay Comcast for, you have to pay $13 a month to Tivo to use that Tivo HD, right?

On top of whatever package you pay Comcast for, you have to pay $13 a month to Tivo to use that Tivo HD, right?

Right. This would be equivalent to the HDTV+DVR fee that Comcast charges, so net net is that I'm out about $280 for the Tivo hardware.

So you pay a DVR fee to Comcast for using a Tivo that you buy on your own and also pay Tivo a monthly charge?

You wouldn't be renting any equipment from Comcast so why would you pay them anything besides the programming packages? Oh Cable Card?

So you pay a DVR fee to Comcast for using a Tivo that you buy on your own and also pay Tivo a monthly charge?

You wouldn't be renting any equipment from Comcast so why would you pay them anything besides the programming packages? Oh Cable Card?

No, I don't have to pay Comcast's DVR fee because I won't be using their DVR, so the Tivo subscription fee is a wash. I will be renting the cable card for $1.79/month.

Not sure when we're getting upgraded (I'm between Wolfe and Fair Oaks, between El Camino and Old San Francisco), but we might be about to get 2 more HD channels.

Last night my TiVo S3 had a message saying a lineup change occured - I "lost" 800 (or was it 900? Some PPV thing I never use), but gained Golf/VersusHD 721 and ESPN2HD 724 according to the message from TiVo. Naturally I immediately tried watching those channels, but got the banner on the top with the channel/program info and a message at the bottom I had never seen before - "Channel not available" with the tivo logo to the left. And when I went to my CableCard test menu, the channels didn't even appear as I did the channel-up/channel-down thing from 709 on up. So I wonder if my CableCards haven't gotten a new mapping, or if tivo jumped the gun on putting these in my lineup, or something else... hmmm. (I've got Digital Classic and 2 working Mot cablecards in my Tivo, and they still properly tune DHD and ESPN-HD, fwiw)

I am in Sunnyvale near the Mountain View border off Central, and got the same message on my Tivo and it got my hopes up about the upgrade. I also get the "Channel not available" message on 721 and 724. I have not received any notice in the mail about getting upgraded though, so I was a bit surprised to see this. So is anyone in the Sunnyvale slums actually able to get these channels now, or did Tivo just jump the gun?

Thanks. A couple more questions. Does the Digital Classic or Digital Preferred packages already come with Basic or Standard cable? The Comcast site doesn't let me add both a digital and an analog package (and I don't want to have to pay for both).?

Yes, adding Digital Classic over Limited Basic is not very obvious. There is no option on the website and usually local office would not add it. If the installation guy can call comcast to add it, thats fine. Otherwise, you can call comcast they can usually add Digital Classic over Limited Basic. Note that comcast reps would be just as confused as we are regd comcast policies, if one rep does not add it, call another one. Good luck.

Is comcast going to install one M-Card for TivoHD?

Yes, adding Digital Classic over Limited Basic is not very obvious. There is no option on the website and usually local office would not add it. If the installation guy can call comcast to add it, thats fine. Otherwise, you can call comcast they can usually add Digital Classic over Limited Basic. Note that comcast reps would be just as confused as we are regd comcast policies, if one rep does not add it, call another one. Good luck.

Is comcast going to install one M-Card for TivoHD?

Can you explain the reasoning for needing to pay for both a digital and an analog package? What's included in the analog package that's required to be able to receive the HD stations?

I don't know if the tech will be bringing one card or two. I'll let you know when he's done.

No, I don't have to pay Comcast's DVR fee because I won't be using their DVR, so the Tivo subscription fee is a wash. I will be renting the cable card for $1.79/month.

Oh I forgot Comcast charges extortion for their crappy DVR.

Too used to Direct TV charging $6.

Not sure when we're getting upgraded (I'm between Wolfe and Fair Oaks, between El Camino and Old San Francisco), but we might be about to get 2 more HD channels.

Last night my TiVo S3 had a message saying a lineup change occured - I "lost" 800 (or was it 900? Some PPV thing I never use), but gained Golf/VersusHD 721 and ESPN2HD 724 according to the message from TiVo. Naturally I immediately tried watching those channels, but got the banner on the top with the channel/program info and a message at the bottom I had never seen before - "Channel not available" with the tivo logo to the left. And when I went to my CableCard test menu, the channels didn't even appear as I did the channel-up/channel-down thing from 709 on up. So I wonder if my CableCards haven't gotten a new mapping, or if tivo jumped the gun on putting these in my lineup, or something else... hmmm. (I've got Digital Classic and 2 working Mot cablecards in my Tivo, and they still properly tune DHD and ESPN-HD, fwiw)

I just checked and I can't tune to those channels at all, like they don't exist.

Sorry to keep beating on this, but I really want to understand how this works. Let's say that I decide to just get the Digital Classic or Digital Preferred (because it's only $3 more than Digital Classic) without Basic Cable. Would I not be able to get all the non-premium HD channels with the cable cards? Is this because my cable cards would not be sent the right information during initialization?

On a semi-related note, I'm considering heading in to the local Comcast office and picking up the cablecards then rather than waiting until Thursday. I'm quite impatient and Thursday seems like a lifetime away. Does Comcast in the Bay Area hand out cablecards in the offices? Is this recommended, or should I really wait for the tech to come and install it for me?

Guys, I am having a devil of a time finding the KICU-HD (706) signal on my hdhomerun. Has anyone found the channel and program id for the signal on comcast's plant yet? I assume it's not encrypted as it's a local.

I know I can put one of the boxes into diagnostic mode when tuned to it, but I was hoping someone here had already found it and would save me the hassle. :-)

Thx
mike

Guys, I am having a devil of a time finding the KICU-HD (706) signal on my hdhomerun. Has anyone found the channel and program id for the signal on comcast's plant yet? I assume it's not encrypted as it's a local.

I know I can put one of the boxes into diagnostic mode when tuned to it, but I was hoping someone here had already found it and would save me the hassle. :-)

Thx
mike
Mike,

I'm not sure how your box reads the channels but the PSIP for KICU is 36.1 so you might want to look there or look in the same area that the other local channels are located at, it really depends alot on the loop that you're in on how the frequency's are allocated.

Laters,
Mikef5

Sorry to keep beating on this, but I really want to understand how this works. Let's say that I decide to just get the Digital Classic or Digital Preferred (because it's only $3 more than Digital Classic) without Basic Cable. Would I not be able to get all the non-premium HD channels with the cable cards? Is this because my cable cards would not be sent the right information during initialization?



First off, it's not you - it really is confusing, and I went through similar confusion myself when signing up a few months ago. But I think everyone is saying you need Basic Cable to sign up for Digital cable - so you can't do what you just said. It's a Comcast billing requirement, basically.

I think what people are mainly talking about is whether you can get away with just the cheaper Limited Basic, because some reps require you to sign up for at least Limited Basic + Extended Basic (combined = all analog channels) to sign up for HD.

To confuse things further there's something called Enhanced Cable or Digital Starter in ADS areas which bundles digital versions of the lower channels (so doesn't require Limited or Extended Basic) plus a subset of the digital non-HD channels and a subset of the digital HD channels, and the lineup varies from city to city...

First off, it's not you - it really is confusing, and I went through similar confusion myself when signing up a few months ago. But I think everyone is saying you need Basic Cable to sign up for Digital cable - so you can't do what you just said. It's a Comcast billing requirement, basically.

I think what people are mainly talking about is whether you can get away with just the cheaper Limited Basic, because some reps require you to sign up for at least Limited Basic + Extended Basic (combined = all analog channels) to sign up for HD.

To confuse things further there's something called Enhanced Cable or Digital Starter in ADS areas which bundles digital versions of the lower channels (so doesn't require Limited or Extended Basic) plus a subset of the digital non-HD channels and a subset of the digital HD channels, and the lineup varies from city to city...

Thanks for the help. I think I'm gonna stop by the local office tonight after work and see what I can do. I might just go for the Digital Preferred package and not deal with all this nonsense. :)

Mike,

I'm not sure how your box reads the channels but the PSIP for KICU is 36.1 so you might want to look there or look in the same area that the other local channels are located at, it really depends alot on the loop that you're in on how the frequency's are allocated.

Laters,
Mikef5

I'm on 860 plant and have looked around where the other network feeds are, but can't find it.

thx
mike

please help me figure this out. i have regular digital cable with on demand. i just got a samsung 4661 lcd. when i select a program to watch through on demand, the show goes to black and white and fuzzy. it does not do this on any premium channels through on demand. this worked fine before i got my new tv, my question is why the heck would it work for premium channels, but not the regular on demand stuff? i have other tv non lcd in the other room and on demand fully works on it. whats going on?? please advise!

Guys, I am having a devil of a time finding the KICU-HD (706) signal on my hdhomerun. Has anyone found the channel and program id for the signal on comcast's plant yet? I assume it's not encrypted as it's a local.

I know I can put one of the boxes into diagnostic mode when tuned to it, but I was hoping someone here had already found it and would save me the hassle. :-)

Thx
mike
In my area it is at RF 74.1 (525MHz). The PSIP channel mapping is 36.1 Your area might be different.

For me, its 122-2 for KICU.

In my area it is at RF 74.1 (525MHz). The PSIP channel mapping is 36.1 Your area might be different.

Looks like there might be a solution for the new TivoHD to work with SDV. Now to see if they will reallly do this or not.
Here's the link ( the date of the article is 24 Aug so it is recent )
http://ibc.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=175784

and the link to the MultiChannel article it's self

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6471733.html
Is the S3 capable of sending an outgoing signal through a USB port? (I just want to make sure that USB ports weren't included in whatever "no bidirectional signal" agreements TiVo made.)

-- Don

Is the S3 capable of sending an outgoing signal through a USB port? (I just want to make sure that USB ports weren't included in whatever "no bidirectional signal" agreements TiVo made.)
I should hope so, otherwise those TiVo wireless adapters will operate very very slow :)

On a serious note, the NCTA is putting this thing together, so I'm sure they will adjust whichever rules are necessary to get it working.

For me, its 122-2 for KICU.

very weird. not there for me either... looks like i'll have to do it the hard way.

thx
mike

very weird. not there for me either... looks like i'll have to do it the hard way.

thx
mike
Mike,

What city did you say you are in ?? Maybe someone in your city can give you the frequency for KICU. I'm surprised that it's not located on 36.1 or the other freqs. that other people gave. There's always the hard way to do it, channel by channel by channel etc......not a pleasant thought but it will work. Have you gone into the diagnostic menu for that channel to see what frequency the Motorola box is seeing it at ?? That should give you the area to look at.

Laters,
Mikef5

very weird. not there for me either... looks like i'll have to do it the hard way.

thx
mike

For me, at San Jose (95112), it's at RF 119.1

HTH

Guys, I am having a devil of a time finding the KICU-HD (706) signal on my hdhomerun. Has anyone found the channel and program id for the signal on comcast's plant yet? I assume it's not encrypted as it's a local.

I know I can put one of the boxes into diagnostic mode when tuned to it, but I was hoping someone here had already found it and would save me the hassle. :-)

Thx
mikeMike, if "SM" stands for San Mateo, try channel 29, where the community channels used to be.

I got a message saying CSPAN2 will be moved to 109 ("Digital Starter") and CSPAN3 will also be added to in digital channels. Of course, Comcast has to make more of these cuts in order to add more HD channels but was suprised to see one of the better basic channels getting the chop. CSPAN2 is pretty good.. I actually record some bookTV talks on Tivo.. soon it won't be possible. I think the message said the switch over will be on Sept 26.

Somehow this month (10 months after I swapped out the Comcast DVR for the S3), Comcast remember that they didn't take the remote back (the Comcast guy didn't want to take it with him). So they charged me $3.70 for it. I went to the San Jose office on south 10th St to return it. The lady there took care of the remote quickly, and as soon as I asked about the $7 HDTV, she said, "oh yeah I noticed they are charging you the box fee also, starting from 7/11, let me take that off". I was shocked that someone there actually know what they were doing. Lets hope this next bill comes 100% correct.

All this time and all you needed to do was return your remote and the $7/mo HD charge could have been removed? :)

Comcast was very stupid for charging that $3.70 for the remote. They could have kept charging the $7 HD fee instead. :)

I went to the San Jose office on south 10th St to return it. . . . . I was shocked that someone there actually know what they were doing. Lets hope this next bill comes 100% correct.

Go Team San Jose!!!!:):)

Go Team San Jose!!!!:):)


They must have a good teacher ;)

Mike, if "SM" stands for San Mateo, try channel 29, where the community channels used to be.

That's a winner! 29-1 it is! Where did they move all the public access channels to? I have to go update my sage QAM channel mapping...

Thanks,
mike

Okay.....another NFLNET HD game was televised last night on the SD NFLNET channels only. Do we assume that Comcast is NOT going to give us a dedicated HD NFLNET channel other than when the eight regular season games are broadcast? (if that!)

Bad move.....

Okay.....another NFLNET HD game was televised last night on the SD NFLNET channels only. Do we assume that Comcast is NOT going to give us a dedicated HD NFLNET channel other than when the eight regular season games are broadcast? (if that!)

Bad move.....

Especially bad considering it's now on the Sports Tier and costs a few bucks extra.

Especially bad considering it's now on the Sports Tier and costs a few bucks extra.

Yep. I would pay their fee if they gave me the channel in HD. I might pay even more if they gave me the other sports channels in the package in HD too.

Is NFL channel even doing these pre-season games in HD?

They don't have real games until around Thanksgiving, and last year that's when they showed up on the HD channel.

YES! That's what I'm talking about.....several of the pre-season games have been available in HD on NFLNET, but NOT with Comcast........

Is anyone in the Sunnyvale/Milpitas area not receiving channels 702 and 705 ?? These channels have been off since 9:00 a.m. and are still off at 5:30 pm. The CSR Supervisor that I talked to has no idea what the problem is or when it's going to be taken card of. Couldn't even get her to call the head end to find out what the problem was, thanks for nothing. But before I bitch to the head end supervisor I would like to know if anyone else in these areas are still without channels 702 and 705 or if it's just my node that is affected.

Laters,
Mikef5

Is anyone in the Sunnyvale/Milpitas area not receiving channels 702 and 705 ?? These channels have been off since 9:00 a.m. and are still off at 5:30 pm. The CSR Supervisor that I talked to has no idea what the problem is or when it's going to be taken card of. Couldn't even get her to call the head end to find out what the problem was, thanks for nothing. But before I bitch to the head end supervisor I would like to know if anyone else in these areas are still without channels 702 and 705 or if it's just my node that is affected.

Laters,
Mikef5

Still missing in Los Gatos. Calling comcast now.

They want to send someone to check my cablecards. I tried to convince them it was an issue with their end but no luck. Mikef5, can you call someone?

Still missing in Los Gatos. Calling comcast now.
Make sure you talk to a supervisor because the CSR will not have a clue to what is going on. Thanks for the reply. ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Still missing in Los Gatos. Calling comcast now.

They want to send someone to check my cablecards. I tried to convince them it was an issue with their end but no luck. Mikef5, can you call someone?
Unfortunately, it's after working hours and all my contacts are home but I'm going to make it a point to press this to a higher level tomorrow.

It can't be your cable cards because the same thing is happening to me and I don't have cable cards. Make sure they don't charge you for a truck roll, you shouldn't pay for their incompetency. They wanted to do a truck roll for me also but I was able to explain it enough to him that he finally understood it wasn't a box problem but a head end problem. But the supervisor pi**ed me off when she flatly refused to call the head end to find out what the problem was :mad:

Laters,
Mikef5

Unfortunately, it's after working hours and all my contacts are home but I'm going to make it a point to press this to a higher level tomorrow.

It can't be your cable cards because the same thing is happening to me and I don't have cable cards. Make sure they don't charge you for a truck roll, you shouldn't pay for their incompetency. They wanted to do a truck roll for me also but I was able to explain it enough to him that he finally understood it wasn't a box problem but a head end problem. But the supervisor pi**ed me off when she flatly refused to call the head end to find out what the problem was :mad:

Laters,
Mikef5

Sure seems like a headend problem - same channels missing here in south Sunnyvale, have been all day. I am missing 2.1 and 5.1 digital on both my QAM tuners. Both these channels (and only these channels) are on the same physical channel 74 on the cable, and all the other digitals I normally get are coming in OK. My uneducated guess is that the mux putting these together for that channel is bad. I will be calling also... Hopefully the more they hear from us the better.

Jim in Sunnyvale

Sure seems like a headend problem - same channels missing here in south Sunnyvale, have been all day. I am missing 2.1 and 5.1 digital on both my QAM tuners. Both these channels (and only these channels) are on the same physical channel 74 on the cable, and all the other digitals I normally get are coming in OK. My uneducated guess is that the mux putting these together for that channel is bad. I will be calling also... Hopefully the more they hear from us the better.

Jim in Sunnyvale
I think you're uneducated guess hit's the problem right on the head. They've had this problem before and that's what it turned out to be the last time but like I said I couldn't get the supervisor to even call the head end with the info or even to find out why the trouble ticket wasn't closed before 5:00pm. This area is being upgraded and they do some testing and work during the day time but all work is to be completed before prime time, 5:00pm. That should of rang a bell to that supervisor that something was wrong and she should of called and found out what the hold up was. As of 9pm the channels are still off and probably will remain that way until tomorrow. But you are right the more people that call the more it will make them realize they have a real problem.

Laters,
Mikef5

I got connected to a supervisor when I called, he checked the Santa Clara end (which he said is the source for the Sunnyvale end as well as others?) and said he saw 703 and 704 out also, but I don't get those so could not comment... He said he could not check Sunnyvale directly at that moment, but would do some more checking and call me back before 11pm tonight. So maybe there is hope...

Jim in Sunnyvale

I got connected to a supervisor when I called, he checked the Santa Clara end (which he said is the source for the Sunnyvale end as well as others?) and said he saw 703 and 704 out also, but I don't get those so could not comment... He said he could not check Sunnyvale directly at that moment, but would do some more checking and call me back before 11pm tonight. So maybe there is hope...

Jim in Sunnyvale
I believe Sunnyvale is a divided area, some of the city is on the Santa Clara end and part of it is on the SaraMilgatos loop, which is my loop. I am getting 703 but not 702 or 705 and 704 doesn't exist on this loop, it was taken off here a long time ago to make room for some other HD channels.
Hopefully, this guy knows what he's doing but unless he talks to the people on the SaraMilgatos head end nothings going to change. I have the email address of the Supervisor for my head end and her phone number and I will let her know tomorrow what is going on or should I say not going on. She's a very persuasive person and is quite competent. 10:30pm and still no 702 or 705.

Laters,
Mikef5

I believe Sunnyvale is a divided area, some of the city is on the Santa Clara end and part of it is on the SaraMilgatos loop, which is my loop. I am getting 703 but not 702 or 705 and 704 doesn't exist on this loop, it was taken off here a long time ago to make room for some other HD channels.
Hopefully, this guy knows what he's doing but unless he talks to the people on the SaraMilgatos head end nothings going to change. I have the email address of the Supervisor for my head end and her phone number and I will let her know tomorrow what is going on or should I say not going on. She's a very persuasive person and is quite competent. 10:30pm and still no 702 or 705.

Laters,
Mikef5

Ahha... I knew Sunnyvale was divided, but I didn't know my part (very south Sunnyvale, a block from Cupertino) is with Milpitas and other parts south. Now it begins to make sense. I will tell the super that IF he calls back, but I suspect you will have to make your connection tomorrow to get things resolved. (Seems like there should be a better way, my rural cable co in the Sierra foothills has much better service - but that's probably because I am the only one they hear from when the digital goes out...)

'Nuff for tonight
Jim in (South) Sunnyvale

Well, I see nothing has changed. Channels 702 and 705 are still missing in action. So I guess it's time to email the head end and find out why. :mad:

If you are not receiving these channels please keep calling Comcast to let them know that you are not getting these channels for over a day now and you would like to know when you will be getting them back.

Laters,
Mikef5

I actually record some bookTV talks on Tivo.. soon it won't be possible.Sure it will. Subscribe to digital service, and hook the box up to your Tivo. Voila.

Mike, time to get Mr. J on the horn and have him light a fire under Comcast to get these HD channels online. DirecTV has over 80 slots for HD channels set in engineering mode since yesterday with about 20-40 of then due online by the 16th of Sept.

Check out the lineup in the first post below.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=899457

Mike, time to get Mr. J on the horn and have him light a fire under Comcast to get these HD channels online. DirecTV has over 80 slots for HD channels set in engineering mode since yesterday with about 20-40 of then due online by the 16th of Sept.

Check out the lineup in the first post below.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=899457
Jim,

Comcast is going to release some new HD channels soon, I am just not at liberty at this time to tell you when that will happen, wish I could ;)

I do have some other news to post but I can't do that until tomorrow after it is officially released and no it has nothing to do with Santa Rosa :p

Laters,
Mikef5

Update to the missing channels in SaraMilgatos,

THEY'RE BACK !!!

Thank you Ms. Nichol

Laters,
Mikef5

Jim,

Comcast is going to release some new HD channels soon, I am just not at liberty at this time to tell you when that will happen, wish I could ;)

I do have some other news to post but I can't do that until tomorrow after it is officially released and no it has nothing to do with Santa Rosa :p

Laters,
Mikef5

Well, up here in the northern ghettos not much movement from what I've seen. Other than a few trucks there has been no work notices mailed so I'm skeptical that we'll see this upgrade by year's end.

Well, up here in the northern ghettos not much movement from what I've seen. Other than a few trucks there has been no work notices mailed so I'm skeptical that we'll see this upgrade by year's end.
Same here in the southern ghettos, I see more AT&T trucks rolling than Comcast ones but the big difference is I know that our areas are going to be upgraded with Comcast and I don't know that with AT&T. Besides, if they couldn't keep my sister happy with their U-verse offering, they'd really have problems with me ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Comcast is going to release some new HD channels soon, I am just not at liberty at this time to tell you when that will happen, wish I could ;)

Could you tell us how many channels will be added and maybe even what channels they will be?

Could you tell us how many channels will be added and maybe even what channels they will be?
Look back a few posts and see the survey that was just done and that will give you a good idea of what is being planned.

Laters,
Mikef5

Look back a few posts and see the survey that was just done and that will give you a good idea of what is being planned.

Laters,
Mikef5

Thanks, Mike. Can you also say whether or not these new HD channels will be on SDV or will they be linear?

Sure it will. Subscribe to digital service, and hook the box up to your Tivo. Voila.

Currently my HD receiver (DCT 6200) is free. Later I am planning to get a TivoHD to replace both my analog Tivo and 6200.

Thanks, Mike. Can you also say whether or not these new HD channels will be on SDV or will they be linear?
To be absolutely honest, I don't know, but I would hazard a guess that the Last Coast ( West Coast ) will not see SDV for some time to come. The major users of SDV so far are Time Warner and Cox and they are/will be using it quite heavily. The new channels will not be SDV at this time and like I said SDV probably won't get here anytime soon. It's only in testing in a couple of Comcast areas back East. Comcast moves like the Slowsky's :D Slow but methodical.......

Laters,
Mikef5

Thanks again for the info, Mike. I hope you're right, cuz I don't want my TivoHD to turn into an expensive doorstop. :)

Thanks again for the info, Mike. I hope you're right, cuz I don't want my TivoHD to turn into an expensive doorstop. :)

I don't think that will happen, the NCTA has offered a work around for the problem of Tivo's not working with SDV or VOD by the use of a " tuner resolver ", an external USB device. So they can make it work, the question is will they do it and when will it be available ?? ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

I don't think that will happen, the NCTA has offered a work around for the problem of Tivo's not working with SDV or VOD by the use of a " tuner resolver ", an external USB device. So they can make it work, the question is will they do it and when will it be available ?? ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Any chance of the USB device allowing TiVo to receive On-Demand & Pay per view?

Yeah, I read that too, but I'm not holding my breath. SDV is here and now while this external tuner resolver device is still vaporware, as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, I read that too, but I'm not holding my breath. SDV is here and now while this external tuner resolver device is still vaporware, as far as I'm concerned.

I always thought that for Tivo to do a TivoHD for cable would be vaporware for the rest of my life but ...... it actually happened and I'm still here :p

If you think about it though, it's to both of their advantages to keep their customers happy and not isolate a very profitable/mutual product. It always boils down to the bottom line, if it's profitable they'll do it. Also, I can't imagine the bad publicity this would generate if they didn't get this worked out, not good for either side.

Laters,
Mikef5

If you think about it though, it's to both of their advantages to keep their customers happy and not isolate a very profitable/mutual product. It always boils down to the bottom line, if it's profitable they'll do it. Also, I can't imagine the bad publicity this would generate if they didn't get this worked out, not good for either side.

But Comcast already has a solution out there for current Tivo owners: rent out their own boxes with Tivo software on it. I just don't see what Comcast has to gain by working on this tuner device, other than cooperating with the law. :)

Any chance of the USB device allowing TiVo to receive On-Demand & Pay per view?
I saw a similar question asked over on the Comcast TiVo forum.

I think the main problem is, how do you get TiVo to "send", say, an up-arrow keypress to whatever is driving the Comcast-side OnDemand menus?
(This assumes that it's being driven from the server side somewhere. If the menu software is in the cable boxes themselves, then I don't see off the top of my head how it can be done.)

As for PPVs, maybe I'm missing something, but can't you call up Comcast and order a PPV that way, then set up the TiVo to record the appropriate channel (say, 801 for the main InDemand PPV channel)?

(If it's a wishlist we're compiling here, I'd like to see some way for Comcast-based messages to be put into the TiVo message inbox, or at least made available for viewing. I realize it's pretty much impossible, but a man can dream...)

-- Don

But Comcast already has a solution out there for current Tivo owners: rent out their own boxes with Tivo software on it. I just don't see what Comcast has to gain by working on this tuner device, other than cooperating with the law. :)

It's not just Comcast...it's potentially all providers who plan to switch to SDV.

I'm guessing that the software to render the menu and allow user interaction with the menu lives entirely on the cable boxes. The server simply sends data that is used to populate the menu. If I were to design this, I would store menu templates on the cable box (and probably allow some way to update these templates) and then when the user chooses to view the OnDemand stuff, the server send a bunch of data that indicates show choices and a template with which to display the data. The software on the box handles all the rendering and UI interaction from that point on.

But Comcast already has a solution out there for current Tivo owners: rent out their own boxes with Tivo software on it. I just don't see what Comcast has to gain by working on this tuner device, other than cooperating with the law. :)

Actually, they don't. That software interface was suppose to roll out on Aug 19 in Boston and never did and for the life of me I can't find out why it didn't happen... but I will eventually but it doesn't bode well for this Tivo/Comcast software being released any time soon.

While this software would be nice and allow you to use a Motorola box with Tivo software and still be used in a SDV system, I've always felt that if you want the Tivo interface then get a Tivo. ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

I saw a similar question asked over on the Comcast TiVo forum.

I think the main problem is, how do you get TiVo to "send", say, an up-arrow keypress to whatever is driving the Comcast-side OnDemand menus?
(This assumes that it's being driven from the server side somewhere. If the menu software is in the cable boxes themselves, then I don't see off the top of my head how it can be done.)

As for PPVs, maybe I'm missing something, but can't you call up Comcast and order a PPV that way, then set up the TiVo to record the appropriate channel (say, 801 for the main InDemand PPV channel)?

(If it's a wishlist we're compiling here, I'd like to see some way for Comcast-based messages to be put into the TiVo message inbox, or at least made available for viewing. I realize it's pretty much impossible, but a man can dream...)

-- Don
To be honest, I don't care how it's done, just that the NCTA says it can be done with the USB tuner resolver and a firmware upgrade. What I want to know is, are they going to do it and when will it be available. Right now with Comcast that is not a big problem, SDV is along way down the road. The people that should care are the people of Time Warner and Cox who have done SDV already and in a big way and they are the most affected by this.
My advice to Tivo and the cable company's is " just do it and get it done now not some nebulous time frame down the road".

Laters,
Mikef5

I can confirm that the Newark, CA Comcast Office has the new DCH boxes. I can't wait to see if I can notice an improved picture...I also can't wait to change output resolution without turning off the box!

I can confirm that the Newark, CA Comcast Office has the new DCH boxes. I can't wait to see if I can notice an improved picture...I also can't wait to change output resolution without turning off the box!

Very much look forward to your report on the DCH stbs!

Very much look forward to your report on the DCH stbs!

So far it's okay (picture seems better), BUT I thought you could change output resolution on the fly, I haven't figured it out yet.

In the user menus, there is nothing. The remote is the same as before so there is no button for it.

The format button on the box doesn't do anything as advertised in the user manual. The manual says the format button on the box is the button used to change output resolution, but I tried pressing it with the TV on, and I got nothin.

The only way I deduce you can change it is the old fashioned way, with the box off.

Can anyone explain? This is quite disappointing. :(

So far it's okay (picture seems better), BUT I thought you could change output resolution on the fly, I haven't figured it out yet.

In the user menus, there is nothing. The remote is the same as before so there is no button for it.

The format button on the box doesn't do anything as advertised in the user manual. The manual says the format button on the box is the button used to change output resolution, but I tried pressing it with the TV on, and I got nothin.

The only way I deduce you can change it is the old fashioned way, with the box off.

Can anyone explain? This is quite disappointing. :(
If you read the operating manual for it, it says that the function is only available if the system software allows for it and it looks like from what you said it doesn't allow for it. This is from the manual....Note: Availability of certain features is dependent upon application support.
Sort of like the USB port and the Ethernet connection... there but not functional.

Looks like no support, darn that would have been a nice feature to have :(

Laters,
Mikef5

Update to the missing channels in SaraMilgatos,

THEY'RE BACK !!!

Thank you Ms. Nichol

Laters,
Mikef5

Kudos, Mike, thanks to you and Ms. Nichol. The Comcast CSR supervisor called back last night at just before 11am and asked if 702/705 were still bad (they were). He said he checked "the Sunnyvale head end" and they were OK. I told him I was probably on a different loop including Los Gatos and Milpitas, but he was unable/unwilling to check this. Also told him there were at least 2 other people missing 702/705, and did he have a record of any other calls, no he didn't. The only thing he could do was schedule a roll, which I did. Asked if I needed to be there since they could just check outside at the box, he said yes I needed to be there since they don't have any digital channel test boxes (!) and rely on the customer's set or box to verify digital. (Even my rural cable co can do this, they just bring a portable QAM TV set as their test box!) Of course I cancelled the roll since, thanks to you, my stations are once again working.

Very frustrating - seems like there is a lot of room for improvement in data sharing between the CSR people and the headend people. I am participating in the survey they are asking customers to take part in and will voice my opinions strongly, FWIW (without using names, of course).

Again, thanks

Jim in south Sunnyvale

Kudos, Mike, thanks to you and Ms. Nichol. The Comcast CSR supervisor called back last night at just before 11am and asked if 702/705 were still bad (they were). He said he checked "the Sunnyvale head end" and they were OK. I told him I was probably on a different loop including Los Gatos and Milpitas, but he was unable/unwilling to check this. Also told him there were at least 2 other people missing 702/705, and did he have a record of any other calls, no he didn't. The only thing he could do was schedule a roll, which I did. Asked if I needed to be there since they could just check outside at the box, he said yes I needed to be there since they don't have any digital channel test boxes (!) and rely on the customer's set or box to verify digital. (Even my rural cable co can do this, they just bring a portable QAM TV set as their test box!) Of course I cancelled the roll since, thanks to you, my stations are once again working.

Very frustrating - seems like there is a lot of room for improvement in data sharing between the CSR people and the headend people. I am participating in the survey they are asking customers to take part in and will voice my opinions strongly, FWIW (without using names, of course).

Again, thanks

Jim in south Sunnyvale
Jim,
The supervisor actually said the techs don't have equipment to check digital channels :confused:??? That's totally ludicrous, every tech that I've ever dealt with had test equipment to do a basic signal/channel checks and I find it hard to believe that they rely on a customers box for anything other than to verify that the channels are not showing up on that particular box. Wow, I'm amazed and the reason I'm amazed is that one of my brothers worked for TCI/AT&T and he had lots of test equipment to do basic testing. Well, at least the channels are back and we were able to watch the Raiders and the 49er's games ( and which channels were they on ??? 702 and 705 :eek:).

Laters,
Mikef5

If you read the operating manual for it, it says that the function is only available if the system software allows for it and it looks like from what you said it doesn't allow for it. This is from the manual....Note: Availability of certain features is dependent upon application support.
Sort of like the USB port and the Ethernet connection... there but not functional.

Looks like no support, darn that would have been a nice feature to have :(

Laters,
Mikef5

I saw that, I just figured when people mentioned it here, that they were doing so based on personal experience with the box, not a spec sheet or the user manual.

So I renew my complaint against Comcrap, they need to use boxes that pass through resolution OR actually ALLOW customers to use the feature on DCH boxes to change output resolution without having to turn it off BECAUSE YOU CAN'T TURN OFF THE BOX WHEN RECORDING MATERIAL, BUT IF YOU WANT TO WATCH DIFFERENT PROGRAMS IN DIFFERENT RESOLUTIONS WHILE RECORDING, YOU ARE SCREWED.

If I sound pissed, it's not just because of this. It's also because Comcrap royally f***ed me over yesterday. I have 2 dual tuner HD-DVRS, and returned one (a 6412) to the Newark, CA office to swap for DCH.

I asked them a million times to make sure they were taking off the correct box off my account. They assured me they did.

But I got home and my wife complained of no TV service. Called Comcrap and they said the wrong box (3412) was taken off, but they fixed the problem.

Today I get a call from Comcrap Sacramento asking me to fax the receipt I got (Which I didn't get, I just signed a receipt but I don't think I got a copy) because they need ME to fix the situation, or else I might get charged for a box I don't have.

For some reason, Comcrap can't just directly take care of this with the Newark, CA office, who are the ones that screwed me over. They can't even give me a phone number to the office, which may force me to make another trip to the Newark, CA to get them to fax the receipt over (I will not be a happy camper if it comes to this).

ALL THIS...for a box that doesn't even allow me to change output resolution without turning the box off!

God damn Motorola and Comcrap, what a pathetic combo!

I saw that, I just figured when people mentioned it here, that they were doing so based on personal experience with the box, not a spec sheet or the user manual.

Sorry Pappy but the new DCH boxes are really scarce especially here in the South Bay and I'm really surprised that you were able to get one. So there aren't that many people that have first hand experience with those boxes. You're the second person that I know of that has one and I'd be interested in your experiences with the new box ( except for the ability to change resolution which we now know isn't available ) . Do you really see a difference in picture quality, guide speed any faster, remote freeze ups gone etc... ??

I'll try and check if that feature can be added and what it would take to have it added when I talk to Mr. J. again but I'm almost sure that would require the software to be modified and how hard that would be is anyones guess but it's worth a shot ;).

Laters,
Mikef5

Sorry Pappy but the new DCH boxes are really scarce especially here in the South Bay and I'm really surprised that you were able to get one. So there aren't that many people that have first hand experience with those boxes. You're the second person that I know of that has one and I'd be interested in your experiences with the new box ( except for the ability to change resolution which we now know isn't available ) . Do you really see a difference in picture quality, guide speed any faster, remote freeze ups gone etc... ??

I'll try and check if that feature can be added and what it would take to have it added when I talk to Mr. J. again but I'm almost sure that would require the software to be modified and how hard that would be is anyones guess but it's worth a shot ;).

Laters,
Mikef5

It's cool, don't worry about it.

So far remote freeze ups are to a minimum (but not totally non-existent), guide speed seems same, and there is a difference in PQ. Both HD and SD look better. Even the guide looks better (one of the first things I noticed).

For example, last night's Leno in HD looked a lot better than I'd ever seen on previous Comcast boxes. It just felt a bit sharper than before. It appears to also have more depth, but I don't know if this is all in my head. :D

My wife and I trying to figure out if the glitch that occurs with old boxes that relates to fast forwarding (you know, you are fast forwarding and all of a sudden it skips to the very end of the program) still happens on this box. We aren't sure yet, especially since we've trained ourselves to not let this glitch take effect (by slowing down the FF to only 3 arrows). We have to untrain ourselves and see what happens.

Next Round of Upgrade Notices Being Sent Out
______

Due to the sensitive nature of rebuilds and customer impacting work which may result in the outages you experienced , customers in Hayward, San Leandro and San Lorenzo are being notified via mailers of the upcoming construction and/or potential outage activity. The mailings should begin to hit their mailboxes around September 4th.
________

So the next areas for upgrades are out and you should be getting your notices in Sept and yes the upgrades in the other areas are continuing and I should have some information on that some time soon.....just not now... be patient ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

I had a quick question for everyone regarding channels available for Comcast Digital Classic customers.

I currently have a TivoHD with 2 Motorola CableCards. The problem I'm having is that my CableCard1 is not able to bring in channel 518 (Encore West) and 586 (Flix), but they come up fine with CableCard2.

My question is, am I supposed to get these two channels with Digital Classic? The reason I ask is because I called Comcast to tell them I could receive it on one card, but not the other, and they told me that I was NOT supposed to be getting at all, since those two channels are part of the "Digital Preferred" package, whatever that means.

Can somebody with a Channel Listing for the Bay Area/Fremont area help me out? Thanks.

Next Round of Upgrade Notices Being Sent Out
______

Due to the sensitive nature of rebuilds and customer impacting work which may result in the outages you experienced , customers in Hayward, San Leandro and San Lorenzo are being notified via mailers of the upcoming construction and/or potential outage activity. The mailings should begin to hit their mailboxes around September 4th.
________

So the next areas for upgrades are out and you should be getting your notices in Sept and yes the upgrades in the other areas are continuing and I should have some information on that some time soon.....just not now... be patient ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

"sigh"...still no mention of Santa Rosa...

I had a quick question for everyone regarding channels available for Comcast Digital Classic customers.

I currently have a TivoHD with 2 Motorola CableCards. The problem I'm having is that my CableCard1 is not able to bring in channel 518 (Encore West) and 586 (Flix), but they come up fine with CableCard2.

My question is, am I supposed to get these two channels with Digital Classic? The reason I ask is because I called Comcast to tell them I could receive it on one card, but not the other, and they told me that I was NOT supposed to be getting at all, since those two channels are part of the "Digital Preferred" package, whatever that means.

Can somebody with a Channel Listing for the Bay Area/Fremont area help me out? Thanks.I have Digital Classic and am pretty sure I get 586 "Flix", but I don't know about 518 Encore, I don't think I get that one.

I have Digital Classic and am pretty sure I get 586 "Flix", but I don't know about 518 Encore, I don't think I get that one.

Maybe I'll just call them to see if they can figure out why I can't get 586 "Flix", and hopefully they can fix it. I'll just consider myself lucky that I can tune in 518 "Encore West". I mainly record the HD shows only anyway.

Not sure if most of you guys get it, but the National Geographic HD channel is awesome. Becoming my new favorite channel besides ESPNHD and DiscoveryHD.

Next Round of Upgrade Notices Being Sent Out
______

Due to the sensitive nature of rebuilds and customer impacting work which may result in the outages you experienced , customers in Hayward, San Leandro and San Lorenzo are being notified via mailers of the upcoming construction and/or potential outage activity. The mailings should begin to hit their mailboxes around September 4th.
________

So the next areas for upgrades are out and you should be getting your notices in Sept and yes the upgrades in the other areas are continuing and I should have some information on that some time soon.....just not now... be patient ;)

Laters,
Mikef5
I just got the comcast upgrade notice in the mail yesterday. I am in the Sunnyvale slums around Lawrence, Wolfe, El Camino, and Reed. I'll start believing this when I actually see the trucks in the neighborhood.

-Steve

"sigh"...still no mention of Santa Rosa...

Jim,
I'm sorry, how remiss of me.... To all my friend in Santa Rosa.....I forgot what I was going to say.... Oh yeah, You are not forgotten, but please be patient you will be upgraded but hopefully not before I am ... ;)

Yes, Jim I'm pulling your leg. If I find out anything about Santa Rosa you'll be the first one I'll tell. You've been waiting as long as I have to finally have our areas finished and upgraded. The Northern and Southern ghetto's have to stick together :p

Laters,
Mikef5

Jim,
I'm sorry, how remiss of me.... To all my friend in Santa Rosa.....I forgot what I was going to say.... Oh yeah, You are not forgotten, but please be patient you will be upgraded but hopefully not before I am ... ;)

Yes, Jim I'm pulling your leg. If I find out anything about Santa Rosa you'll be the first one I'll tell. You've been waiting as long as I have to finally have our areas finished and upgraded. The Northern and Southern ghetto's have to stick together :p

Laters,
Mikef5

:D

Jim,
The supervisor actually said the techs don't have equipment to check digital channels :confused:??? That's totally ludicrous, every tech that I've ever dealt with had test equipment to do a basic signal/channel checks and I find it hard to believe that they rely on a customers box for anything other than to verify that the channels are not showing up on that particular box.
What the Comcast guys have said to me when I had signal issues caused by them is the vans don't have the equipment but the bucket trucks do. They send the vans out first basically as level 1 truck support and only after they have confirmed an issue, will they schedule a bucket truck. I don't know if he was just making the stuff up, but it matched my experience.

What the Comcast guys have said to me when I had signal issues caused by them is the vans don't have the equipment but the bucket trucks do. They send the vans out first basically as level 1 truck support and only after they have confirmed an issue, will they schedule a bucket truck. I don't know if he was just making the stuff up, but it matched my experience.
Well, things do change and it's been awhile since my brother did this work but it seems to me that sending 2 trucks is a waste of resources but hey it's their money and their work load.
If it were me, I'd just send one truck with all the proper test equipment and if there was no problem or the problem was something the customer had done, then charge them for the truck roll. But if there is a problem with the cable system then you are already there and have the proper equipment to test and or fix it and I didn't waste 2 techs time and have to set up another time with the customer for the bucket truck to come. Works for me but.. ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

When I had a temperature sensitive signal problem (degraded at night) last November, the first tech needlessly replaced all of the coax connectors and removed a splitter without telling me. I just found out about the splitter a few days ago when I tried to hook up the cable modem. That tech told me he had no equipment to measure the error rates for digital channels. I had to schedule another tech appointment, and that tech #2 didn't/couldn't do anything other than submitting a request to have the network department check the outside signals.

Mikef5, thanks for the great news on the upgrades to the Hayward, San Leandro and San Lorenzo systems. I got my notice last night and just couldn't believe it. After years of begging and pleading, Comcast will finally update our system. I’m glad they are finally fulfilling the promise made last December. I can’t wait to see all the new HD and On Demand content.

A person who does a lot of writing for the Inquirer (a British-based website that is very good for computer news) has posted this on the problems he having when Comcast took over his cable internet service from Time Warner. Again, not cable TV based but indicative of the quality of Comcast technical assistance.

http:www.theinquirer.net/?article=42031

- Phil

The first line install/service guys use a meter that's pretty common in the industry, I can't think of the make/model off hand, but I believe it's only capable of checking the overall line parameters, not individual channel frequencies.

this is quite a surprise if you are a big football fan as i am...

http://fsnbayarea.com/Sched_CollegeHD.jsp

looks like FSN is doing 3 games in HD a week this year?? awesome! time for FSN+BAHD (about the 10th time i asked for it)

A person who does a lot of writing for the Inquirer (a British-based website that is very good for computer news) has posted this on the problems he having when Comcast took over his cable internet service from Time Warner. Again, not cable TV based but indicative of the quality of Comcast technical assistance.

http:www.theinquirer.net/?article=42031
It sounds like a lot of his problems have to do with being a business class customer with TWC and being pawned off on the consumer division when Comcast took over.

Comcast probably should have just told the business class customers we can't support you rather than giving this guy the runaround. This guy probably should have dumped Comcast after the first few tries, realizing he was no longer getting the service level he was paying for.

It appears to have come to the point where he is setting himself up for a Pyrrhic victory trying to get Comcast to fix something they are clearly incapable of fixing and getting more frustrated trying to do so.

Did anyone else's local HD channels over Comcast QAM get shuffled around this weekend? KPIX moved to where KTVU used to be and what used to be KPIX is blank. KQED and KGO got switched around. I had to do a channel rescan on my TV to get everything back to the right place.

Did anyone else's local HD channels over Comcast QAM get shuffled around this weekend? KPIX moved to where KTVU used to be and what used to be KPIX is blank. KQED and KGO got switched around. I had to do a channel rescan on my TV to get everything back to the right place.

KPIX/KTVU HD share a frequency on my headend, as do KGO/KQED HD. However, the PAT/PMT is the same now as it was on Aug30. So I guess the answer on my headend would be "no".

I'm in Sunnyvale, and I do not subscribe to any digital plans. I have a QAM tuner in my TV. I get the clear HD channels like FOX-HD, and so on. My question is this: if I rent a HD cable tuner box from Comcast, will I be able to see ESPN-HD, DISC-HD and FDN-HD? Or do I have to subscribe to a digital plan in order to get those channels on the cable tuner box? Thanks.

Those stations are encrypted, which is why you can't get them clear today. You will have to subscribe to a digital tier to receive them and you will need a box or a cable card if your TV has a slot for it.

So I need to subscribe to a digital tier before I can watch those channels, even if I were to use a Comcast HD tuner box?

Renting a Comcast HD STB by itself does not give you any additional channels.

The reason why I asked is that I have another 3 year old TV with CableCard, and that one can receive those 3 channels. It is probably a grandfathered in feature.

So I am watching a recording of Dogfights that was recorded Thursday on HIST on my SXRD and I'm seeing letterboxing on both top/bottom and left/right. So I start trying to figure out what happened with Sage that caused the problem.

Well, it's not Sage, as my Comcast DVR has the same issue. Turns out the problem is that Dogfights is a native HD program in 16x9 format, and letterboxed for 4:3 SD presentation on HIST. When I display this on my 16x9 set, I get another set of black bars. This really sucks.

When are we going to see HIST in HD in our system? It's supposed to launch shortly on DirectTV.

Thx,
Mike

Most programs on History channel are 16:9, even the old programs. But I notice 'HD' tag in program info only today. Some Dogfight are on HD OnDemand (700 -> News & World -> History Channel).

My guess is that Comcast will add a few HD channels in late Sept.

The reason why I asked is that I have another 3 year old TV with CableCard, and that one can receive those 3 channels. It is probably a grandfathered in feature.If you are grandfathered and get an HD box, you should be getting the same channels on the HD box as you are with your CableCARD device.

Does anyone know if Comcast offer plans to offer a cable box with native passthrough?

Just got an m-card installed in my TivoHD and all is good. There were no problems whatsoever. I'm getting all the channels that I should be getting with the Digital Preferred package. Man, MojoHD looks good.

Does anyone know if Comcast offer plans to offer a cable box with native passthrough?

No idea. This is one of the mail reasons I bought a TivoHD.The native pass-through works very well.

Now if they could just bring me an m-card. I brought mine up just too early. I have 2 s-cards and the one is not validated correctly. Hopefully they will bring an m-card when they come out again on Friday....

Kevin

I think it's time to leave Comcast. I moved from a 750MHz+ area to Sunnyvale, so the lack of the InHDs and EPSN2 was a bit of a shock. They keep trying to reassure me that Sunnyvale WILL be upgraded, or they simply blame the Sunnyvale government for non-cooperation. I simply wish we didn't pay the same as those who receive MANY more HD channels:

Sunnyvale:
702 KTVU - (Fox)
703 KNTV - (NBC)
705 KPIX - (CBS)
707 KGO - (ABC)
709 KQED - (PBS)
720 FSN HD
722 Discovery - HD
723 ESPN - HD
730 HBO - HD

Bay Area Neighbors:
703 KNTV (NBC)
704 KRON (IND)
705 KPIX (CBS)
707 KGO (ABC)
709 KQED (PBS)
719 MOJO (Formerly INHD-1)
720 FSNBA (Check Local Listings for times)
721 Vs/Golf HD
722 Discovery-HD
723 ESPN - HD
724 ESPN2 HD
725 NFL Network HD
725 HD Special Events
726 TNT HD
727 Universal HD
728 MHD
730 HBO - HD
732 Cinemax - HD
734 Starz! - HD
736 Showtime - HD

Some Bay Area Locations:
702 KTVU (Fox)
703 KNTV (NBC)
704 KRON (IND)
705 KPIX (CBS)
706 KICU-DT
707 KGO (ABC)
709 KQED (PBS)
710 KBCW HD
711 National Geographic HD
712 A&E HD
713 TBS HD
714 HGTV HD
715 Food HD
716 ABC Family HD
717 History HD
719 MOJO (Formerly INHD-1)
720 FSNBA (Check Local Listings for times)
721 Vs/Golf HD
722 Discovery-HD
723 ESPN - HD
724 ESPN2 HD
725 NFL Network HD
725 HD Special Events
726 TNT HD
727 Universal HD
728 MHD
729 Disney
730 HBO - HD
732 Cinemax - HD
734 Starz! - HD
736 Showtime - HD

If this is the case then I believe the Sunnyvale locations (and other 550MHz areas) should receive pro-rated bills. I think it's time to leave the Comcast Cable fold (not to mention the sheer offal that is the CableCard systems). I just want my the freedom to records my shows without paying a monthly fee for TiVo and without the need for strictly-controlled, CableLabs-blessed OCCUR computers. Satellite may have worse image quality but frankly the sheer amount of HD channels is staggering, and MPEG4-encoding should reduce picture-quality issues. At least my DB4 antenna still functions, but another marvelous anomaly of my new residence is the OTA channels are more difficult to receive as well...

I do apologize for the diatribe but I am feeling quite frustrated, and now that my 1-year special price has ended the monthly cost for such a pittance of HD is galling.

Some Bay Area Locations:
702 KTVU (Fox)
703 KNTV (NBC)
704 KRON (IND)
705 KPIX (CBS)
706 KICU-DT
707 KGO (ABC)
709 KQED (PBS)
710 KBCW HD
711 National Geographic HD
712 A&E HD
713 TBS HD
714 HGTV HD
715 Food HD
716 ABC Family HD
717 History HD
719 MOJO (Formerly INHD-1)
720 FSNBA (Check Local Listings for times)
721 Vs/Golf HD
722 Discovery-HD
723 ESPN - HD
724 ESPN2 HD
725 NFL Network HD
725 HD Special Events
726 TNT HD
727 Universal HD
728 MHD
729 Disney
730 HBO - HD
732 Cinemax - HD
734 Starz! - HD
736 Showtime - HD


Where did you find this list? This looks like the list with the 8 new channels that are coming......

Kevin

That's just a list from another HD site with "someone" speculating the numerical associations - I think channels 711-717 & 729 are just assumptions or "guesstimates" regarding their numerical associations. Regardless of the actual numbers, those are still 8 more upcoming channels the 550MHz areas will lack. 550MHz areas receive 9 HD channels; other receive 20 HD channels, and still others receive 28 HD channels and we all pay the same! That is a very biased tier...

That's just a list from another HD site with "someone" speculating the numerical associations - I think channels 711-717 & 729 are just assumptions or "guesstimates" regarding their numerical associations. Regardless of the actual numbers, those are still 8 more upcoming channels the 550MHz areas will lack. 550MHz areas receive 9 HD channels; other receive 20 HD channels, and still others receive 28 HD channels and we all pay the same! That is a very biased tier...
Thanks, that makes more sense. I very much doubt they will move KBCW off 712. They want it to line up with its basic cable channel...

Kevin

That's just a list from another HD site with "someone" speculating the numerical associations - I think channels 711-717 & 729 are just assumptions or "guesstimates" regarding their numerical associations. Regardless of the actual numbers, those are still 8 more upcoming channels the 550MHz areas will lack. 550MHz areas receive 9 HD channels; other receive 20 HD channels, and still others receive 28 HD channels and we all pay the same! That is a very biased tier...

Neil,
I can assure you that SunnyVale is in the process, right now, of upgrading their system. There are "some areas" in SunnyVale and Milpitas that will be activated soon ( Wish I could give you a time frame but I can't ). When they let me release the dates I will post it here. So my advice to you is give it a little more time. I'm in the same boat as you, a 550 MHz area, so I know how you feel but it is coming just not as fast as we all wish it would.

Laters,
Mikef5

Mikef5,

Are you at liberty to disclose how close the non-550 areas are to getting additional HD channels? Days? Weeks? Months?

Mikef5,

Are you at liberty to disclose how close the non-550 areas are to getting additional HD channels? Days? Weeks? Months?

No I'm not, but if I was a betting man I'd look at the other providers and when they are going to release their new channels, that could give you an idea when Comcast might do theirs.... ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

No I'm not, but if I was a betting man I'd look at the other providers and when they are going to release their new channels, that could give you an idea when Comcast might do theirs.... ;)

Laters,
Mikef5
Isn't DirectTV adding more HD channels mid-September?

Thanks for the reassurance, but I still think Comcast should pro-rate those on older systems that receive less HD channels - we play the same yet receive FAR less. Is there a way to determine what city has what bandwidth, so when I'm ready to buy a home I can move to an area with more bandwidth?! ;)

Thanks for the reassurance, but I still think Comcast should pro-rate those on older systems that receive less HD channels - we play the same yet receive FAR less. Is there a way to determine what city has what bandwidth, so when I'm ready to buy a home I can move to an area with more bandwidth?! ;)

Neil,
Comcast has plans to have all areas in the Bay Area upgraded in 18 months ( from last December ) so by the time you get ready to buy that house, all areas should be upgraded... or at least that's the plan... ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Thanks for the reassurance, but I still think Comcast should pro-rate those on older systems that receive less HD channels - we play the same yet receive FAR less. Is there a way to determine what city has what bandwidth, so when I'm ready to buy a home I can move to an area with more bandwidth?! ;)

Just be ready to move every 7-8 years....I moved to Saratoga ~9 years ago and one of the Big Benefits was they had just been upgraded TO 550Mhz and had Cable Internet... That was a huge jump from San Jose's A/B Cable system that only had 300Mhz combined (and dialup) :)

Now San Jose has 860Mhz...and Saratoga is in the Ghetto with 550Mhz ;)

But instead of moving, I just took a 1Yr sabbatical from Comcast and have been enjoying Dish-HD for a while (maybe I'll move back when Comcast finishes the Saratoga upgrade..since they offer those nice welcome back discounts :)

I'm assuming its not news that with Comcast and the NFL having their dissagreement, the NFL network is no longer in the digital package at 180. That is even though its listed on their website as in the package and my TiVo doesn't know that its gone. I didn't find out until my TiVo was recording a blank channels for last week's Thursday 9ers game. (I saw the second half on KPIX instead.)

So I just rang Comcast to complain that they hadn't told me or updated the website, so I missed the game. I signed up for the Sports Tier, and they said they'd waive the usual $1.99 change fee and give me the sports tier discounted to $2.99 until February. I'm assuming, if you complain about the NFL Network getting dropped, you get the freebies.

I'd originally got the sports tier when I sign up with Comcast last year, all I really wanted was SPEED. I noticed it was also in the "Premier Tier" as well, the 2 tiers have a lot of channels in common, so I decided change over to that and got charged the $1.99 fee. Then this year they dropped half the channels in the Premier tier so you got less than the Sports for 4c more a month. Quite annoying, but as I still got SPEED I never bothered to pay the $1.99 to switch back.

Speaking of NFLNET.....
What happened to channel 725?
It's gone from my Guide and Favorites list.
(Yes, I have the sports tier package)

I just checked and we still have channel 725 in Rohnert Park, nothing on it of course.

does anyone know what HD channels santa clara (the city) should be getting?
At the moment I have comast hooked to my mythtv box with no HD cable
recvr box. I get the locals which is mostly what I care about.
was going to upgrade to a digital cable box when hockey season starts.

thanks

Bay Area Neighbors:
...
Some Bay Area Locations:
...
I do apologize for the diatribe but I am feeling quite frustrated, and now that my 1-year special price has ended the monthly cost for such a pittance of HD is galling.[/QUOTE]

Isn't DirectTV adding more HD channels mid-September?

DirecTV is launching these channels on the 14th:

A&E
Big Ten Network
Cartoon Network
CNN
Food Network
Golf/Versus
HGTV
History
NFL Network
National Geo
Simithsonian
TBS

Dish beat DirecTV for History Channel HD though, that just went active on their STB's a few mins ago.

Looks like Comcast SFBA will be dead last in HD channels (again) in a week or so.

PS DirecTV is turning on 6 MORE HBO HD channels next month or so, or so I heard from a friend working with them.

This is even more galling for me, as I'm in 860 Mhz plant, and there is a ton of capacity that doesn't even have a QAM carrier up on it at all. I feel badly for the 550 areas, but how come we have all this empty capacity that could be filled with HD channels that the DBS guys are already broadcasting, at a lower price than Comcast is charging?

Thx
Mike

Can anyone in the Rohnert Park/Cotati/Sebastopol area confirm that Digital Preferred Plus is required to get an HDDVR? I have a new HDTV coming Friday and my dad went in to pick up an HDDVR box for me but was told he would have to switch from Digital Preferred $14.95 to Digital Preferred Plus $45.95 and would be charged $6.99 for a Digital Programming Access Fee as well as the $7.00 for the HDDVR box.

Hey all, just got my new tv, now trying to figure out the cable situation in west san jose/ saratogi

I currently have comcast digital cable with premium channels. I would like to upgrade to comcast hd with dvr and premium channels (hbo mostly)

First question is wheter its worth it these days to stick with comcast, or switch to direct tv or dish network. I will probably stick with comcast (for Now) unless one of the other providers has a killer hot deal.

2nd question is whether or not i should provide my own dvr box for use? im sure comcast gives/rents you one, but im sure it costs more than it should and has a small hard drive space.

Any info would be appreciated. Will be calling comcast tommorow and threatening to cancel my current package and see what they throw at me.

Thanks in advance

DirecTV is launching these channels on the 14th:

...
CNN
...

I didn't expect it when I got my HDTV and the Comcast HD box three years ago, but I've been very spoiled by KTVU's (mostly*) gorgeous newscasts in HD, as well as KGO and now even KRON. It's especially great for text and graphics. Big movies and 5.1 surround yeah, but I guess I'm a news geek as well.

So now I find myself wondering how many months it will take to get CNN HD on Comcast. Or worse. Is there good news coming?

*If only KTVU's helicopter shots weren't always chock full o' glitches, and their remote feeds weren't so often covered in digital noise (or upsampled?).

im all the way from Virginia, and saw this was a specific Comcast thread for San Francisco...

I dont know how you all feel about Comcast, but people around Richmond,VA absolutely hate the company. Horrible service and customer service. Just wanted to let you all know of something I found yesterday thats pretty funny...

I was looking at websites to create a forum for Comcast Horror stories...so naturally I tried IHateComcast.com. And of course it was taken, but the funny thing is...Comcast Cable Communications actually OWNS IHateComcast.com...pretty sh*tty when you are a company and you have to buy websites that are degrading to you so it can't get out as quick as it normally would....PM if you have a comcast horror story and I plan to make a forum solely for comcast problems

oh yeah...GO NINERS

Sorry we all here are Comcast fanboys :p

jk!

does anyone in bayarea on comcast cable have analog radio FM?
milt

dslreports.com has a forum dedicated to bitching about comcast. suggest you try there.

honestly comcast has been a pretty good thing for the bay area, compared to the 2-3 cable companies that preceeded it.

I mean when they took over here we had no HD at all, no DVR, and 1.5mbit cable modem. Now we have many HD channels with more coming all the time, at superb quality I might add, unlike satellites, and 6-8mbit cable modem with "speed boost".

not bitching, just asking for information.
milt

not bitching, just asking for information.
milt

Milt,
I don't think the bitching comment was meant for you but for the Va. poster.
To answer your question, I don't think there is analog FM radio left in the Bay Area, I believe it's all gone to digital or soon will be.

Laters,
Mikef5

We might still have it in Santa Rosa but I'm not sure how to even check.

I just checked and we still have channel 725 in Rohnert Park, nothing on it of course.

Nope.....gone for three days now in San Jose. I can't even manually
punch it in anymore. So, I'm paying extra for NFLNET, but now the
HD channel has been taken away from me??? C'MON COMCAST!!! :mad:

Nope.....gone for three days now in San Jose. I can't even manually
punch it in anymore. So, I'm paying extra for NFLNET, but now the
HD channel has been taken away from me??? C'MON COMCAST!!! :mad:

That's weird that you lost it and it's still on here on a 550 MHz area in Milpitas. It is just listed as 725 with no name and the guide says To Be Announced. Go figure... :rolleyes:

Laters,
Mikef5

I lost ESPN today, or yesterday... Not sure what the deal is with that.

I lost ESPN today, or yesterday... Not sure what the deal is with that.

Jim,
You lost it ?? or it's there but can't access it ?? or not there at all ??

Laters,
Mikef5

probably a dumb questions, but i'm concerned whether the upgrades in saramilgatos will be finished by next year as comcast has promised.

i'm in l.g. and haven't seen any evidence that the upgrade to 1mil hz is actually happening. i don't see any trucks or people out working on the lines or boxes. is the upgrade all done internally by new/improved equipment or software, or do they also need to make hardware upgrades out in the field?

Jim,
You lost it ?? or it's there but can't access it ?? or not there at all ??

Laters,
Mikef5

It's not tuning, says "Searching for signal on : Basic Cable In" with an S3. It's not getting any signal at all. IOW, no signal being sent because if I use the signal meter for stations I don't get, like HBO, it does give a reading and then the CC screen pops up. With ESPN, nothing.

probably a dumb questions, but i'm concerned whether the upgrades in saramilgatos will be finished by next year as comcast has promised.

i'm in l.g. and haven't seen any evidence that the upgrade to 1mil hz is actually happening. i don't see any trucks or people out working on the lines or boxes. is the upgrade all done internally by new/improved equipment or software, or do they also need to make hardware upgrades out in the field?

A lot of the work is done at the head end and not normally visible to the customer but some of the work is done outside where you may or may not see trucks rolling around, it really depends on your area on what needs to be done. I can tell you from some of the info I've been able to ascertain the upgrades for the SaraMilgatos area is on schedule or ahead of schedule. My best guess is that this area will be done before the end of the year if not sooner. Some nodes in this area are going to light off soon, you will know when you get a letter with the new channel line up in it and it will tell you when you will be activated ( some people have already received their letters ) . So far I have not received the letter :(

Laters,
Mikef5

It's not tuning, says "Searching for signal on : Basic Cable In" with an S3. It's not getting any signal at all. IOW, no signal being sent because if I use the signal meter for stations I don't get, like HBO, it does give a reading and then the CC screen pops up. With ESPN, nothing.

So you're using the Tivo ?? Do you still have a Comcast box or know someone that has one ?? The reason I ask is I've been losing and regaining channels on and off for weeks now and it's do to the upgrades happening in this area. Some times they forget to return the system to normal and that may of happened in your area. If someone else in Santa Rosa that is using the Motorola box could tell us what channel 723 says or if they are still getting it that would help a lot in trouble shooting.

Laters,
Mikef5

So you're using the Tivo ?? Do you still have a Comcast box or know someone that has one ?? The reason I ask is I've been losing and regaining channels on and off for weeks now and it's do to the upgrades happening in this area. Some times they forget to return the system to normal and that may of happened in your area. If someone else in Santa Rosa that is using the Motorola box could tell us what channel 723 says or if they are still getting it that would help a lot in trouble shooting.

Laters,
Mikef5

Hopefully someone will chime in, all I have is the S3 and the HDHR which doesn't tune encrypted stations. It will show whether there is a signal or not, but it seems apparent there is no signal being sent, at least that's my assumption.

Hopefully someone will chime in, all I have is the S3 and the HDHR which doesn't tune encrypted stations. It will show whether there is a signal or not, but it seems apparent there is no signal being sent, at least that's my assumption.

The no signal being sent was exactly what happened to me last week when I lost 702 and 705 ( I think :) ) turned out the system was being worked on and they didn't return the system back to normal. You'll have to get Comcast to get a hold of the head end to find out if they are working on the system and why it's been out for so long ( see if there's an open trouble ticket on the system ).

Laters,
Mikef5

does anyone in bayarea on comcast cable have analog radio FM?
milt

I had it until a month or two ago. I used it to tape Cartalk and Prairie Home Companion from the Comcast analog FM signal to listen to while commuting (proving that there is still use for audio cassettes). But I got only static one weekend and analog radio has been gone ever since. I now tape those shows off of KQED, which is carried by Comcast on channel 960. If you use an optical link from the Comcast box to your receiver, this will not give you an audio signal that reaches the tape out jacks; you need to go from the audio out RCA jacks on the Comcast box to the receiver. The signal strength was too low until I changed the audio settings on the main menu of the Comcast box from "matrix" to "stereo."

p.s. Cartalk is also available via podcast, but only a small part of Prairie Home Companion is podcast. But if my car can play cassettes, it is a good bet that it does not have an iPod port.

That's weird that you lost it and it's still on here on a 550 MHz area in Milpitas. It is just listed as 725 with no name and the guide says To Be Announced. Go figure... :rolleyes:


That's the way it *was* here in San Jose until Monday.
I'm assuming that this is the channel that will be used for
HD NFLNET once Comcast decides to give it back to us.
This has happened before, but this time I can't even get
725 back manually.

I guess if you had some "inside info" on 725/NFLNET-HD being
activated, you would have told us? ;)

The no signal being sent was exactly what happened to me last week when I lost 702 and 705 ( I think :) ) turned out the system was being worked on and they didn't return the system back to normal. You'll have to get Comcast to get a hold of the head end to find out if they are working on the system and why it's been out for so long ( see if there's an open trouble ticket on the system ).

Laters,
Mikef5
It's back as of 5pm......and, I have 8 brand new HD channels!! Just kidding, just the SOS..:D

It's back as of 5pm......and, I have 8 brand new HD channels!! Just kidding, just the SOS..:D

That's what's suppose to happen, they normally will work until prime time ( 5 pm ) and then they are suppose to return the system back to normal, which most of the time they do but there's always that one time....... ;)
That's also a good indicator that your area is in the process of being upgraded.
8 new HD channels that sounds familiar :p

Laters,
Mikef5

8 new HD channels that sounds familiar :p
Mikef5

Stop teasing and just bring it already! :)

Info for TiVo owners, TTG, TTCB and MRV due in Nov,

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=365225

That's what's suppose to happen, they normally will work until prime time ( 5 pm ) and then they are suppose to return the system back to normal, which most of the time they do but there's always that one time....... ;)
That's also a good indicator that your area is in the process of being upgraded.
8 new HD channels that sounds familiar :p

Laters,
Mikef5

I guess that is good news, at least I hope so. :)

Info for TiVo owners, TTG, TTCB and MRV due in Nov,

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=365225

Whoohoo!!

i just upgraded my comcast to hd package. im only getting 20 something channels in the 700 range. is that it?? wow i thought they had much more hd

i just upgraded my comcast to hd package. im only getting 20 something channels in the 700 range. is that it?? wow i thought they had much more hd

That's it. To be fair, they don't downres it like some of the DBS guys do, but DirecTV will soon have 70 national HD channels (in another week or so), and will be adding more on top of that, and comcast is looking pretty poor from an HD perspective, at least in this market.

Thanks,
mike

I love ADS!
In the past when the channel under 100 were analog recording 3-4 shows would take 30-50% of the hard disk. I'm talking about an old DVR, the one with DVI.
Now that we have ADS I was checking my recordings and we have like 20 shows recorded, basically cartoons, Disney Channel, stuff for the kids, and all of that is only using 10% of the hard disk space!

Edit: I forgot... that's Comcastic!

I just moved to SJ and was playing around with my HDHR and was surprised to see what I am getting unencrypted. HDHR is picking up like 110 channels compared to my old house I only got like 70. For a while I was getting HBO, CNN and stuff over my HDHR but that is now gone. Maybe comcast was doing something on their end. Only thing I really care about is the locals anyways..

I love ADS!
In the past when the channel under 100 were analog recording 3-4 shows would take 30-50% of the hard disk. I'm talking about an old DVR, the one with DVI.
Now that we have ADS I was checking my recordings and we have like 20 shows recorded, basically cartoons, Disney Channel, stuff for the kids, and all of that is only using 10% of the hard disk space!

Edit: I forgot... that's Comcastic!
The DCT-6412 Phase I and II had a Broadcom MPEG-2 encoder to record analog channels to hard disk. To get acceptable quality from that encoder, the bitrate was set to around 7.5 Mbps. Pretty high for SD, and the reason why it was quickly filling your hard disk.

The Phase III DCT-6412 and Phase IV DCH-6416 have an LSI Logic (now Magnum Semiconductor) MPEG-2 encoder. The bitrate was lowered to 6 Mbps (actually 6 Mbps average, 9 Mbps peak VBR). As a member of the team that designed that encoder, I felt they could have gone quite a bit lower on the bitrate. However, Motorola was so happy with the encoding quality at 6 Mbps, it was left at that setting. Also, there was some concern over encoding latency, which affects channel change time. Higher bitrates have lower latency, so that was another reason to stick with 6 Mbps.

The Digital Simulcast channels are encoded at a much lower bitrate, probably below 3 Mbps and maybe even approaching 2 Mbps. That's why you're able to pack more SD programs on your DVR.

Ron

I have a question: why does FSNBA HD only show some games in HD - even when they are being filmed in HD? They might show a game on SD and - even when the program is filmed in HD - they choose to leave FSNBA HD dormant with no programming. Do they have to pay Comcast extra to carry it in HD too? Seems like if you have it in HD you should show it in HD.

I have a question: why does FSNBA HD only show some games in HD - even when they are being filmed in HD? They might show a game on SD and - even when the program is filmed in HD - they choose to leave FSNBA HD dormant with no programming. Do they have to pay Comcast extra to carry it in HD too? Seems like if you have it in HD you should show it in HD.

They have to have the bandwidth to produce and distribute the HD stream, also it is more expensive to produce a game in HD rather than SD

Not all games are shot in HD. Only about a third are.

I have a question: why does FSNBA HD only show some games in HD - even when they are being filmed in HD? They might show a game on SD and - even when the program is filmed in HD - they choose to leave FSNBA HD dormant with no programming. Do they have to pay Comcast extra to carry it in HD too? Seems like if you have it in HD you should show it in HD.
Normally I'd say that you need to go to the people that produce the program and yell at them to do more programs in HD. In this case, for those that forgot or didn't know, Comcast owns FSNBA so I guess you'll just have to yell at them ;)

Also, all the games are not done in HD, the schedule is on FSNBA website. I'm sure the reason is cost and whether or not there are HD facilities at the ball park they are playing in would affect their ability to even do the game in HD. I would imagine that in time Comcast would want to do all or most of the games in HD just like ESPN-HD does.

As far as to why it's not a 24hr station, I have no idea but I think it would be a good idea if it was. It would solve the problem of the channel not getting turned on sometimes when a game is scheduled to be shown on that channel. If it's on all the time then that is not a problem.

Laters,
Mikef5

Normally I'd say that you need to go to the people that produce the program and yell at them to do more programs in HD. In this case, for those that forgot or didn't know, Comcast owns FSNBA so I guess you'll just have to yell at them ;)

Also, all the games are not done in HD, the schedule is on FSNBA website. I'm sure the reason is cost and whether or not there are HD facilities at the ball park they are playing in would affect their ability to even do the game in HD. I would imagine that in time Comcast would want to do all or most of the games in HD just like ESPN-HD does.

As far as to why it's not a 24hr station, I have no idea but I think it would be a good idea if it was. It would solve the problem of the channel not getting turned on sometimes when a game is scheduled to be shown on that channel. If it's on all the time then that is not a problem.

Laters,
Mikef5

Since it's squatting on that bandwidth already, I've never understood why it wasn't full time either. Maybe Comcast plans to use SDV on FSNBA-HD in the future. Ask Mr. J, he should be able to answer why it's not 24/7.

Jim is going to be happy to note that I saw CableCom hanging new fiber on Brookwood near Sonoma this morning. Gettin' closer there my friend.

Jim is going to be happy to note that I saw CableCom hanging new fiber on Brookwood near Sonoma this morning. Gettin' closer there my friend.

As long as it's not been done for an intranet upgrade for the city since the cop shop is right there at that corner. For years, the city, and some of it's upper echelon employees at home had high speed internet access way before the public ever had it.

I have to stay pessimistic, that way come early 2008 and I'm still staring at the same 8 HD channels I won't be disappointed. :D

I have have a question regarding NFL Net HD/725. I lost the channel early this week or late last week. Looks like others had the same issue but 725 came back. I still don't have it on guide and cannot manually get to it. Today I called Comcast support today and advised them of my problem. I talked with 3 different people who said it should be in the guide. I have a DCT3412 and DCT700 and neither has 725 in the guide. They did a soft reset on both boxes then a hard reset about 3 hrs later on the 3412. Still no 725. One tech said it looked it was a probably network and would call back. Never called. The last person I spoke to set up a tech visit. I told her I doubted it was a box problem. I'm in Redwood Shores/Redwood City headend. I wonder if anyone in my area is still missing 725?

Tnx,
John

Is anyone getting the Giants game in HD on channel 720 ??? It's in the guide and on the websites schedule and that's why the damn channel should be on 24 hours a day :mad:

Laters,
Mikef5

Is anyone getting the Giants game in HD on channel 720 ???

Yes.

Yes.
Thanks Walk, I just got off the phone with the CSR and what a waste of time. I plan on raising a big stink with the head end again. To bad Mr. J. is on vacation or I'd bitch to him also. I'm pi##ed, we don't get that much HD the way it is an the one station that matters they choose not to light off for the game tonight.

Laters,
Mikef5

It's on in Santa Rosa, of course, there is no guide info, never has been.

It's on in Santa Rosa, of course, there is no guide info, never has been.
Well, I've got guide data but no game, I'll trade ya ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

I've got the Giants game on 720.... but I'm in Hayward (550mhz) so I don't really have much more in HD :(

I'm in Pittsburg, and I recieve channel 725 but there isn't any programming on it? Just says "to be announced". I read that some neighboring cities get NFL network HD on this channel??? I have never had anything on it.

I've got the Giants game on 720.... but I'm in Hayward (550mhz) so I don't really have much more in HD :(

The good news is you are in the next area to be upgraded, you should be getting a letter from Comcast soon.

Laters,
Mikef5

Is anyone getting the Giants game in HD on channel 720 ??? It's in the guide and on the websites schedule and that's why the damn channel should be on 24 hours a day :mad:

Laters,
Mikef5

In HD here as well.

Well, now I'm getting the floating HD Logo but still no game, not a happy camper:mad:

Laters,
Mikef5

So when Hayward customers get letter notices saying to watch out for cable outages due to upgrading, how long should we expect to see our upgraded systems activated?

Should we expect to see any additional HD channels up and going before we get a new all-digital box? I'm impatiently waiting for ESPN2 HD :D

I have have a question regarding NFL Net HD/725. I lost the channel early this week or late last week. Looks like others had the same issue but 725 came back. I still don't have it on guide and cannot manually get to it.

I don't have it in Campbell either. Used to have it, but not even in the guide right now.

So when Hayward customers get letter notices saying to watch out for cable outages due to upgrading, how long should we expect to see our upgraded systems activated?

Should we expect to see any additional HD channels up and going before we get a new all-digital box? I'm impatiently waiting for ESPN2 HD :D

That's really hard to say, it really depends on how much needs to be changed out or upgraded but usually it takes a couple of months. There's more to it than just swapping out equipment, a lot more than I could explain to you but 2-3 months is a good guess-a-ment but could be sooner if there are no problems and everything goes without a hitch.... and that never happens does it ?? ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

I have have a question regarding NFL Net HD/725. I lost the channel early this week or late last week. Looks like others had the same issue but 725 came back. I still don't have it on guide and cannot manually get to it.

I was the one that first reported the loss of 725 at the beginning of the week (South San Jose) Seems like it's sporadic around the Bay Area. A call to a CSR and a soft hit did nothing. I still cannot access it manually. At least now I know I'm not the only one. I sure would like to see Comcast activate this channel as NFLNET-HD since the HD Games of the Week will start in a few days.....

I have 725 in the guide but it's been dark since the end of last NFL season.

I don't subscribe to the "sports" package required to get NFL-Network but for the last 2-3 years they have put the live HD football games on that channel, for "free". Actually 2-3 years ago they ALSO put the Game of the Week replay show on there for free but last year they stopped that.

Supposedly NFL-Net did some pre-season games in HD this year but they were not shown on 725 at all (even for people that subscribe to NFL-Net). I do not know what Comcast's plan is for that channel this year. The first (regular season) game on NFL-Net isn't until November I think, so we probably will have to wait until then to find out....

I have 725 in the guide but it's been dark since the end of last NFL season.

I don't subscribe to the "sports" package required to get NFL-Network but for the last 2-3 years they have put the live HD football games on that channel, for "free". Actually 2-3 years ago they ALSO put the Game of the Week replay show on there for free but last year they stopped that.

Supposedly NFL-Net did some pre-season games in HD this year but they were not shown on 725 at all (even for people that subscribe to NFL-Net). I do not know what Comcast's plan is for that channel this year. The first (regular season) game on NFL-Net isn't until November I think, so we probably will have to wait until then to find out....
Walk,

As soon as Mr. J. gets back I'll ask him about channel 725 and what it's going to be used for and why the heck channel 720 isn't a 24 hour channel. Never got to see the game last night and I have this feeling it's still not fixed, we'll see on tonight's A's game.

Laters,
Mikef5

Quick question - since the Niners are on MNF (ESPN-HD), and it's being transmitted in the local market on KPIX, does ESPN-HD get blacked out? I'd guess "no" as it's really ESPN's game and the retransmission is so locals without ESPN don't lose their home team's game, but that's just a guess on my part...

I'm sure 720 isn't 24/7 because FSN doesn't broadcast in HD 24/7.

Quick question - since the Niners are on MNF (ESPN-HD), and it's being transmitted in the local market on KPIX, does ESPN-HD get blacked out? I'd guess "no" as it's really ESPN's game and the retransmission is so locals without ESPN don't lose their home team's game, but that's just a guess on my part...
It should be on both channels.

It should be on both channels.

You would think that it would be on both, but it's a home game so if they go by the league rules the local station can have the national channel blocked locally. I'm hoping it's on both so I can do a comparison between the two broadcasts.

Laters,
Mikef5

I'm sure 720 isn't 24/7 because FSN doesn't broadcast in HD 24/7.

What they could do is just broadcast FSN channel 40 programing on it to keep the channel open and active and have it broadcast it's programing on both channels. That's what ESPN does, channel 38 and 39 broadcast the same programs that are on ESPN-HD and ESPN2-HD, so there's no reason why Comcast couldn't do the same with channels 40 and 720.

Laters,
Mikef5

You would think that it would be on both, but it's a home game so if they go by the league rules the local station can have the national channel blocked locally. I'm hoping it's on both so I can do a comparison between the two broadcasts.

Laters,
Mikef5

I'm 99% positive it will be blacked out on ESPN, that's what's happened in the past IIRC.

What they could do is just broadcast FSN channel 40 programing on it to keep the channel open and active and have it broadcast it's programing on both channels. That's what ESPN does, channel 38 and 39 broadcast the same programs that are on ESPN-HD and ESPN2-HD, so there's no reason why Comcast couldn't do the same with channels 40 and 720.

Laters,
Mikef5
Talk about Deja Vu, I just checked channel 720 and they're doing just that, showing the same programing that's on channel 40 and showing it on 720 and some of that programing is in HD. Now they may just be testing the channel since we had a problem with the channel last night but it proves they can do it if they want to.

Laters,
Mikef5

Well, I found out why 720 is active..... Big 12: Fresno St @ Texas A&M at 12:30 ( and it's not showing in the Guide ) but it does show that they could do what ESPN is doing if they wanted to.

Laters,
Mikef5

FSN could do that yes, but Comcast would have to buy upscaling equipment and dedicate it to that channel.

The MNF game should be on both ESPN and the local channel. The NFL usually allows this. You're thinking of the MLB blackout rules.

FSN could do that yes, but Comcast would have to buy upscaling equipment and dedicate it to that channel.

The MNF game should be on both ESPN and the local channel. The NFL usually allows this. You're thinking of the MLB blackout rules.

Walk, turn on channel 720 right now they're doing it right now so they already have the necessary equipment. The pre-game program was done in SD digital and 4x3 aspect ratio and the game is HD 16x9.

No NFL has the same rules, the reason is local advertisement revenues, it happened last year a lot so don't be surprised if it happens. One way around it is for the local station take the feed from ESPN and insert local advertisement during the commercial breaks so they both could show the game but you would see local advertisement if you watch the local channel.

Laters,
Mikef5

Walk,

As soon as Mr. J. gets back I'll ask him about channel 725 and what it's going to be used for and why the heck channel 720 isn't a 24 hour channel.....

Thanks Mikef5!
Could you also please ask Mr. J. why those of us that are subscribed to the Sports package are not receiving NFLNETHD *now* since they are active and already broadcasting some programming in HD?

Thanks Mikef5!
Could you also please ask Mr. J. why those of us that are subscribed to the Sports package are not receiving NFLNETHD *now* since they are active and already broadcasting some programming in HD?

Did Comcast ever come to an agreement with NFLNet regarding tier placement? I don't think they have and that is probably why it's not there anymore. IIRC, NFLNet wanted Basic carriage and Comcast wanted to put it on a Sports tier. There was quite a few articles about it last year and I think this is the first year where there is no current agreement.

Thanks Mikef5!
Could you also please ask Mr. J. why those of us that are subscribed to the Sports package are not receiving NFLNETHD *now* since they are active and already broadcasting some programming in HD?
I can ask but I'd almost bet it might be on how the contract for the programing was written. They might only have the rights to show some of the games and not all the games but I'll ask just the same.

Laters,
Mikef5

Did Comcast ever come to an agreement with NFLNet regarding tier placement? I don't think they have and that is probably why it's not there anymore. IIRC, NFLNet wanted Basic carriage and Comcast wanted to put it on a Sports tier. There was quite a few articles about it last year and I think this is the first year where there is no current agreement.
I thought that was for the Big 10 ( college football ) that there was a problem with cost and tier placement :confused: I might be confused though, it wouldn't be the first time :p

Laters,
Mikef5