After Guided Setup prompts you for your ZIP code, there is a screen right before where it begins asking the several "what you get on channel NN" questions. You can press ENTER on that screen, and it will present you a list of candidate lineups. You would want to pick a "Rebuild" lineup. In fact, you can go to zap2it.com and it will present the same candidate list for a given ZIP code, so you can see if what it shows for a lineup is what you are actually seeing.

Thanks, that worked. I knew the people on this message board would be smarter than Tivo Customer Service agents and there was a way to do this that wasn't obvious. A Digital Rebuild lineup exists for 94086.

I am having problem with KTVUHD (702) with my pc qam tuner. The signal seems to go from 100% to 0% and back to 100%. From the cable box the problem seems less visible. All the other channels are ok.
Is anybody having reception problem with their 702 channel ?
I am in 94041 zipcode.

juancmr,
do you know if they are adding Galavision to the lineup in Santa Rosa?

rsra13,

I get Galavision on channel 69 now whereas previously it wasn't even listed in price listings I'd get with bills. As I write this they're showing Vida Salvaje, a nature show. If they'd bring back Que Locos that would be awesome.

Here's a scan of the card. I had to crop it but the pertinent info is there.

Saw that (and a few others :D ) in a meeting a couple weeks ago. The limited basic thing is weird though.

Be kind. Rewind your DVDs

Way ahead of you there. Told my wife she had to rewind every On Demand movie after watching it. The VCRs back in the head end don't do it automatically. :p

I've had the Comcast 6416/3416 DVR for a few years now and I'm getting tired of its various glitches and lack of storage expandability. I'm considering replacing it with one of the TiVo HD units. (I'm aware of the fact that VOD and Pay-per-view aren't available with the TiVo units--that doesn't bother me as I never use these features.)

I have several questions regarding the use of an HD TiVo with Comcast service in the Bay Area:


What is the current situation with CableCARDS? Does Comcast offer MCards, or only SCards? Do I only need one MCard to receive two channels at once or two?
Are there still reliability issues with CableCARDS? I've heard stories where people have had to try a dozen cards before finding two that worked properly. Has this gotten any better?
Are CableCARDS available at Comcast storefronts, or do they require a truck roll?
Are there any other considerations/gotchas to be aware of?
Are there any usability/performance differences between the TiVo HD DVR and the TiVo Series 3 HD DVR that would make one preferable over the other?

No, this is not a joke...

I just moved from Sunnyvale to Cupertino and had been dreading dealing with Comcast because of all the horror stories I've heard. So, I was pleasantly surprised when my entire experience - from account set up to installation to channel updates - was dealt with in a quick, professional, and courteous manner.

The CSR who helped set up my account and schedule my appointment was patient, knowledgeable and answered all of my questions satisfactorily. She offered a next day appointment, and much to my surprise, the technician showed up and finished the work within the service window. He even took down the MAC address from my Motorola SBG900 (I chose self installation) and sent it to their office so when I connected it later, set up was a breeze. I chose to get a regular cable box and exchange it for an HD one at my local office, which is conveniently located about a block from my home. I walked in, asked for an HD cable box and was out the door. I hooked everything up and noticed I wasn't receiving some of the encrypted HD channels, so I initiated a chat session; "Jon" updated my account and I was viewing the channels in a matter of minutes. Overall, a painless experience.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a positive note regarding Comcast Customer Service. Happy Friday!

-Karla

I've had the Comcast 6416/3416 DVR for a few years now and I'm getting tired of its various glitches and lack of storage expandability. I'm considering replacing it with one of the TiVo HD units. (I'm aware of the fact that VOD and Pay-per-view aren't available with the TiVo units--that doesn't bother me as I never use these features.)

I have several questions regarding the use of an HD TiVo with Comcast service in the Bay Area:


What is the current situation with CableCARDS? Does Comcast offer MCards, or only SCards? Do I only need one MCard to receive two channels at once or two?
I got lucky and the first card he tried was a MCard...
Are there still reliability issues with CableCARDS? I've heard stories where people have had to try a dozen cards before finding two that worked properly. Has this gotten any better?
which works fine, no issues after several months. But, I think once a good card is found you're ok.
Are CableCARDS available at Comcast storefronts, or do they require a truck roll?
I seem to remember I had to set-up an appointment, but, I have heard of others who turned in a STB and got a card, but, unsure of getting the setup done correctly.
Are there any other considerations/gotchas to be aware of?
Are there any usability/performance differences between the TiVo HD DVR and the TiVo Series 3 HD DVR that would make one preferable over the other?
Well, due to the slower CPU it does take time to do searches, complete Season Pass changes, download shows to your computer, but, that's all I've come across.


Otherwise it's much better than the POS Moto box I've been fighting with for a year. Just wish there was a firewire out to do recordings, rather than the DRM'd TiVo Transfer stuff.

Update on Upgrades and New Programming Coming to the Bay Area

I just received this email from Mr. J. and I will again post this as I received it so there is no question on what was or wasn't said ( My normal disclaimer :p )

____________________________________________________________ ______

MikeF5: It's been a little while since I've cleaned up the Forum's "In Box" so feel free to share this with the members.

For a little while it looked like the "Bay Area HD Forum" was turning into the "cable-modem forum" but it appears that trend has slowed dramatically. There are many online discussion groups out there talking/speculating/analyzing our cable-modem service, but only a couple of local sites that focus on HD and only one that I read regularly. Frankly, since so much of the non-HD discussions on the Forum is covered exhaustively and repeatedly in other venues I began to find the usefulness of the HD Forum becoming compromised. I'm happy to see that trend was short-lived.

On to the questions....

When will we see more HD channels added?

A two-part answer. We have been focusing our HD efforts recently on the expansion of our "HD On Demand" content. One of the recent trends we have seen is a strong surge in "HD On Demand" downloads and accordingly we have been spending our time and resources responding to meet that demand. We anticipate finishing the year with thousands of hours of HD content being available on our "On Demand" platform each month and thus widening our lead over our competitors in terms of HD content.

And we have not forgotten about adding additional "full-time" HD channels to our Bay Area lineup. Without disclosing too much of our competitive playbook, we plan to add at least five HD networks in the next 45 days.

Rest assured, the Forum users feedback to your last "poll" helped played a large role in our selections. (A HINT to all the SCI-FI voters out there).

Does anyone know if Comcast is planning on showing UFC and Pride Fights PPV in HD On Demand or Boxing?

We will add HD PPV events to our lineup. As outlined above, we've been focusing our efforts on "HD On Demand" and the next round of HD channel additions but we will soon turn our attention to HD PPV.

What is the status of the network upgrades?

Despite some bouts of bad weather we added 387.53 miles of fiber in February
In Sunnyvale & Los Gatos 21,852 homes have been added to the new network in 2008.
In Hayward, 15,969 homes
In Santa Rosa, 15,800 homes

A reminder, that yes, we do indeed need to temporarily interrupt our service to the small group of homes in a neighborhood, (approximately 300) that we are working on during a particular day. Despite our best efforts to inform folks in these neighborhoods, (via direct mail, door-hangers, email messages, etc) we still come across a small group of residents who are "surprised" when we are working on their street. I'm thankful to the many Forum members who take the time to respond to the occasional questions and help us "inform and educate".

From JasonOG and Keenan in Santa Rosa: Comcast will hookup everyone else in town first and leave us two for last since we've been the biggest complainers.

Wow. Who told you about my 2010 master plan ? Did MikeF5 "spill the beans" and throw out our long-standing agreement?. Now we will have to implement "Plan B" (Just in case....I'm just kidding!!!)

____________________________________________________________ _

I'd like to address a couple of the things that Mr. J. brought up. I know that we haven't had much to discuss, programming wise, lately but if people really want to talk about Comcast's internet stuff for the Bay Area, we can set up a separate forum for that but that would require someone to handle that since that is not my personal interest at this time ( It may become more important to me when DOCSIS 3.0 is implimented ;) )

So 5 more HD channels coming and I think I see the SciFi-HD coming to a neighborhood close to you soon.

Oh, and to Keenan and Jason we have now implemented "Plan B" just for you guys......... NOT !! I know sometimes it seems you're being left out or over looked but you're not, it's just the luck of the draw. Heck, I was about the 5th area to be upgraded in my own area :p but it will happen, probably when you least expect it.

I'm looking forward to the day when all the areas will be upgraded and when we have so much HD that we can't view it all in one day so we can bitch ....er.... discuss other more important things like global warming or when will the Giants win a World Series again ( probably not in my life time )... :D

Thanks Mr. J. for the updates, it made my day.

Laters,
Mikef5

Sci-Fi HD by April please?

It looks like at least a part of Los Gatos received the upgrade last night. This morning I have a bunch more HD channels and a few On Demand channels. None of which where there last night. For reference I am in the neighborhood of Winchester and Blossom Hill Rd. Anyone else?

awesome news, Sci-Fi HD will be a great add in time for BSG. i wonder what the other 4 are. CNNHD? that will be a great add in time for the 08 elections...

Update on Upgrades and New Programming Coming to the Bay Area

I just received this email from Mr. J. and I will again post this as I received it so there is no question on what was or wasn't said ( My normal disclaimer :p )



From JasonOG and Keenan in Santa Rosa: Comcast will hookup everyone else in town first and leave us two for last since we've been the biggest complainers.

Wow. Who told you about my 2010 master plan ? Did MikeF5 "spill the beans" and throw out our long-standing agreement?. Now we will have to implement "Plan B" (Just in case....I'm just kidding!!!)



Laters,
Mikef5
:p:D

awesome news, Sci-Fi HD will be a great add in time for BSG. i wonder what the other 4 are. CNNHD? that will be a great add in time for the 08 elections...

While BSG is produced dark and grainy, as long as Comcast puts out as good a picture as DirecTV does with SciFi-HD, you guys should be very happy. I currently only watch Stargate:Atlantis on SciFi-HD, but it has some of the best PQ I've ever seen, spectacular, clear, crisp, detailed images, even during motion. I've found myself rewinding and pausing sometimes just to take in everything that can be seen in some of the images.

As long as Comcast gives it a full 1/2 QAM, and/or if they do go with the 3 per as they have in some markets back east, they don't have some of the early growing pains those folks had(heavy pixelation and breakup), this channel should look very good.

While BSG is produced dark and grainy, as long as Comcast puts out as good a picture as DirecTV does with SciFi-HD, you guys should be very happy. I currently only watch Stargate:Atlantis on SciFi-HD, but it has some of the best PQ I've ever seen, spectacular, clear, crisp, detailed images, even during motion. I've found myself rewinding and pausing sometimes just to take in everything that can be seen in some of the images.

As long as Comcast gives it a full 1/2 QAM, and/or if they do go with the 3 per as they have in some markets back east, they don't have some of the early growing pains those folks had(heavy pixelation and breakup), this channel should look very good.

as long as it looks anywhere close to BSG does on UHD, i'll be happy.

Oh please let Food-HD be one of them........ Just gotta have Giada in all her glory.

Update on Upgrades and New Programming Coming to the Bay Area

What is the status of the network upgrades?

Despite some bouts of bad weather we added 387.53 miles of fiber in February
In Sunnyvale & Los Gatos 21,852 homes have been added to the new network in 2008.
In Hayward, 15,969 homes
In Santa Rosa, 15,800 homes



Sunnyvale and Los Gatos together have approximately 65,000 household. So that means only about one third of the network has been upgraded. This doesn't bode well for Sunnyvale being upgraded by April. I wonder why the Sunnyvale numbers are being clubbed with Los Gatos. Due to that its possible that Sunnyvale has been upgraded less than even one third.

I was trying out some VOD this afternoon. Are there only HD shows for CBS and ABC available? No Fox or NBC? :confused:

I don't think Fox has ever offered VOD.

NBC used to charge $1.99 for their VOD, shortly after they started their Hulu deal on-line, I think Comcast pulled the plug on NBC's VOD... Or at least their HD offerings.

fitprod

From JasonOG and Keenan in Santa Rosa: Comcast will hookup everyone else in town first and leave us two for last since we've been the biggest complainers.

Wow. Who told you about my 2010 master plan ? Did MikeF5 "spill the beans" and throw out our long-standing agreement?. Now we will have to implement "Plan B" (Just in case....I'm just kidding!!!)

Only 663 days until 2010.

While BSG is produced dark and grainy, as long as Comcast puts out as good a picture as DirecTV does with SciFi-HD, you guys should be very happy. I currently only watch Stargate:Atlantis on SciFi-HD, but it has some of the best PQ I've ever seen, spectacular, clear, crisp, detailed images, even during motion. I've found myself rewinding and pausing sometimes just to take in everything that can be seen in some of the images.

As long as Comcast gives it a full 1/2 QAM, and/or if they do go with the 3 per as they have in some markets back east, they don't have some of the early growing pains those folks had(heavy pixelation and breakup), this channel should look very good.Comcast passes on the signal just exactly as they get it, they do not re-compress. This isn't satellite :cool:

when Battle of the Galactic Stars first came out on Scifi I tried to watch it but it was horrible PQ. I didn't start watching it until UHD picked it up last year or so. Now I'm hooked... really hope Comcast gets Scifi-HD in time.

I don't think Fox has ever offered VOD.

NBC used to charge $1.99 for their VOD, shortly after they started their Hulu deal on-line, I think Comcast pulled the plug on NBC's VOD... Or at least their HD offerings.

fitprod

:mad:. But then I guess that's what divvers are for, and then I don't watch much NBC.

bwelling,

I can't manually tune in SciFiHD 736. Tried it but it only stayed on the channel I was watching. It's not even in my guide listings. I was hoping to finally be able to watch those Oscar winning movies like Mosquito, Ogre or Gargoyles: Wings of Darkness. :D

It looks like at least a part of Los Gatos received the upgrade last night. This morning I have a bunch more HD channels and a few On Demand channels. None of which where there last night. For reference I am in the neighborhood of Winchester and Blossom Hill Rd. Anyone else?

Anyone have a QAM mapping list created for the new lineup in Los Gatos? I did a scan with my HDHomeRun and my current signal is VERY LOW compared to what it use to be before the upgrade and the HDHR is having problems locking on to channels. My Comcast HD DVR is having the same signal problems. I'm hoping Comcast is simply just not done yet.

Sunnyvale and Los Gatos together have approximately 65,000 household. So that means only about one third of the network has been upgraded. This doesn't bode well for Sunnyvale being upgraded by April. I wonder why the Sunnyvale numbers are being clubbed with Los Gatos. Due to that its possible that Sunnyvale has been upgraded less than even one third.

Take note (and comfort?) that the wording was "... in 2008". Some parts of Sunnyvale (thankfully mine) were upgraded in late 2007, so the 21K number does not reflect the total upgraded household count.

Take note (and comfort?) that the wording was "... in 2008". Some parts of Sunnyvale (thankfully mine) were upgraded in late 2007, so the 21K number does not reflect the total upgraded household count.
Hmm ... I didn't know that there were parts of Sunnyvale upgraded in 2007. In that case it sure is taking Comast a long time to upgrade Sunnyvale.

Travel Channel HD, please! :)

Watch FX-HD will be the other chan, and I can easily admit that Comcast is the best :) Except for the ridiculous prices but what ya going to do :\

TridentTrinity: One part of Sunnyvale got it late 2007, my area (Wolfe/Old San Francisco) got it Jan 08. Then they are moving south and west I think.

Cheers!

Despite some bouts of bad weather we added 387.53 miles of fiber in February
In Sunnyvale & Los Gatos 21,852 homes have been added to the new network in 2008.
In Hayward, 15,969 homes
In Santa Rosa, 15,800 homes

......

Wow. Who told you about my 2010 master plan ? Did MikeF5 "spill the beans" and throw out our long-standing agreement?. Now we will have to implement "Plan B" (Just in case....I'm just kidding!!!)




So does this mean that Saratoga will be the very last city? I have not seen any discussions on work being done or acutal upgrades in Saratoga, even though I received "the letter" back in Nov/Dec timeframe. Does this mean that we part of "Plan Z".

If there is work currently being done in Saratoga, please let me know. I will gratefully accept this corrected information.

Overall, this is very depressing... :(

Warren

Anybody in the San Mateo/ Foster City area? Can we expect any new HD channels anytime soon? Does Mikef5 know where we fit in the master plan!!!

Thanks

Watch FX-HD will be the other chan, and I can easily admit that Comcast is the best :) Except for the ridiculous prices but what ya going to do :\

Cheers!

What does the cost run for all the HD Comcast has now with HBO and SHO?

I'm sure this will give Comcast some heartburn, but with DirecTV, for $84, I get about 62 linear HD channels(includes 6 locals, premiums HBO and SHO, FSNBA-HD, the 4 LA DNS HD channels, and the HD-DVR lease-rent/fee), plus 15 HD PPV channels. I don't subscribe to Starz, Cinemax or The Movie Channel.

That breaks down to about $1.09 per HD channel, or $1.35 minus the HD PPVs.

Hmm ... I didn't know that there were parts of Sunnyvale upgraded in 2007. In that case it sure is taking Comast a long time to upgrade Sunnyvale.

I think my area (101/237/Mathilda nexus) was perhaps the first Sunnyvale area to get upgraded. Happened in late Oct / early November of 2007.

What does the cost run for all the HD Comcast has now with HBO and SHO?

I'm sure this will give Comcast some heartburn, but with DirecTV, for $84, I get about 62 linear HD channels(includes 6 locals, premiums HBO and SHO, FSNBA-HD, the 4 LA DNS HD channels, and the HD-DVR lease-rent/fee), plus 15 HD PPV channels. I don't subscribe to Starz, Cinemax or The Movie Channel.

That breaks down to about $1.09 per HD channel, or $1.35 minus the HD PPVs.

All the Comcast regular HD is $85, without the prems.

I pay $130/mo for digital classic, 1 DVR and 6mbit HSI, that's including all taxes, fees, license fees, franchise fees, franchise license fee taxes, and tax license fee tax taxes...

Hi..I live near El Camino and Bernardo too...been waiting for a real long time for the upgrade...saw some Cablecom trucks yesterday too...wonder if they were for the upgrade or for the prolonged internet outage we had....

Called Comcast and asked them to waive my charges for this month...they put me on hold for an hour....i lost patience and hung up....sigh...what is customer satisfaction coming to these days??

-Siva.
A few days ago, there were some cablecomm guys replacing boxes on some pole tops near McKinley and Bernardo in Sunnyvale. A good sign I hope? I've seen other activity with cablecomm trucks lately too, so maybe an upgrade is almost upon us.

Mikef5,

Any way you can ask for Travel HD and Speed HD for our family? I pay extra for the sports pack, but only get NFL HD.

Thanks!

I would also like Speed HD, but if Formula 1 and MotoGP are not produced in genuine HD, then there's no point.

Mikef5,

Any way you can ask for Travel HD and Speed HD for our family? I pay extra for the sports pack, but only get NFL HD.

Thanks!

we voted already a few months back. not sure travel and speed were on top of everyone's list :\

A few days ago, there were some cablecomm guys replacing boxes on some pole tops near McKinley and Bernardo in Sunnyvale. A good sign I hope? I've seen other activity with cablecomm trucks lately too, so maybe an upgrade is almost upon us.

I'm in 94087, and the Comcast internet speed has been unsteady in the last few days. Earlier tonight, my download speed was only 300Kbps. I used get 25Mbps running the same test (Power Boost on). I hope this is a sign of imminent upgrading.

Hmm ... I didn't know that there were parts of Sunnyvale upgraded in 2007. In that case it sure is taking Comast a long time to upgrade Sunnyvale.

An update on the status of the on going upgrades...

This is posted as received so there is no question on what was or was not said ( My normal disclaimer :p )

-------------------------------------------
For the Forum....if you want to post it.

Mikef5:

In Sunnyvale we stand, as of this morning, at the 50% completed milestone. Several neighborhoods that received a "notice" are waiting for one of our competitors to put a new power supply unit in place, (our equipment is co-located in the right-of-way in this particular Sunnyvale neighborhood). Another Sunnyvale neighborhood that received the "notice" is waiting for a large underground bore to be completed so we can run our fiber in the new conduit. In this neighborhood we are waiting on a permit from the local water company.

Trident,
The above was posted on Jan. 28th, just before you joined the forum. So maybe you didn't read any posts before your join date.

Shortly after I received their letter, there was some work done in our neighborhood involving cutting a trench across a street to install some cabling, but I must say I'm not impressed with their slow progress.

So does this mean that Saratoga will be the very last city? I have not seen any discussions on work being done or acutal upgrades in Saratoga, even though I received "the letter" back in Nov/Dec timeframe. Does this mean that we part of "Plan Z".

If there is work currently being done in Saratoga, please let me know. I will gratefully accept this corrected information.

Overall, this is very depressing... :(

Warren

I'm in 94087, and the Comcast internet speed has been unsteady in the last few days. Earlier tonight, my download speed was only 300Kbps. I used get 25Mbps running the same test (Power Boost on). I hope this is a sign of imminent upgrading.

I've been in an area of 94087 that has always had junk speeds in the evening, but great very late at night/mornings/afternoons. Recently I've noticed the speeds dropping in the afternoons as well as much, much slower speeds in the evening than what I'm used to, so perhaps it's gettnig closer..

Tune to an encrypted channel you don't receive. Press LiveTV to switch tuners, and switch the other tuner to an encrypted channel you do receive.

Then look at the CableCARD diagnostic menu under "Conditional Access"

Compare the data for the two channels.

If it says Auth: NOT_SUBSCRIBED, somehow your account says you are not supposed to receive the new channels and you need to tell Comcast they haven't authorized your account to receive those channels.

I followed your instructions and sure enough a channel that does come in (758) shows "Auth:Subscribed" and the channel not coming in (757) shows "Auth:Not_subscribed". So it seems this is configuration issue with my account set-up.

I just now hope I can get a CSR who understands the problem! The last time I called on this the first CSR reset my cablecards three times to no avail. A day later a second CSR called me back and tried an additional two times, finally a third CSR called me back and scheduled a serviceperson to come out. The serviceperson came out and couldn't explain why the channel wasn't being received other than blaming it on the system upgrade in progress (he didn't seem very knowledgeable about cable cards though...)

You would think that verifying what channels I am supposed to receive would be pretty high up on the the flowchart that the CSR follows (but sometimes the bleeding obvious is omitted in this things...)

I followed your instructions and sure enough a channel that does come in (758) shows "Auth:Subscribed" and the channel not coming in (757) shows "Auth:Not_subscribed". So it seems this is configuration issue with my account set-up.



Barry,

I think you have nailed your problem on the head, they need to properly configure your account for your new cards. Make sure they understand that it's not the card that isn't working, it's that they haven't configured your account properly to go along with the new installation. That should fix the problem. They can hit the cards all day long but if your account isn't set up properly it'll do no good.

Laters,
Mikef5

Shortly after I received their letter, there was some work done in our neighborhood involving cutting a trench across a street to install some cabling, but I must say I'm not impressed with their slow progress.
Wow, slow progress ?? I'm sure they would appreciate your help in digging that trench and running that cable.

Do you realize what it takes to rerun all new fiber cable, not to mention updating/upgrading the head ends and most of the equipment in between ?? I've been with cable since the days of TCI and AT&T and they left this cable system in a complete mess, half the systems not upgraded pass 550 MHz and some upgraded half assed or piece mealed together and left that way and now Comcast has to come in and fix what they screwed up. At least with Comcast we are finally getting upgraded, with the other group we'd never see half the things we now have with Comcast.

I think they deserve a little slack don't you think ?? I know it's a pain waiting for the upgrades to happen but they are at least getting done and they are doing it as fast as they can while still doing it in a safe way for their workers.
I criticize Comcast when they deserve it ( just ask Mr. J. ) but IMHO they don't deserve it in this case.

Laters,
Mikef5

Rewind 10 years and you could be saying the same thing by subsituting "Comcast" with "@Home". If TCI and AT&T are putting in mess, what makes you think Comcast is different?

To be very honest with you, Comcast's customer service makes me sick. And I don't expect much difference with their field service. Which I have seen all too many.

Rewind 10 years and you could be saying the same thing by subsituting "Comcast" with "@Home". If TCI and AT&T are putting in mess, what makes you think Comcast is different?

To be very honest with you, Comcast's customer service makes me sick. And I don't expect much difference with their field service. Which I have seen all too many.
Well let's see.....

What makes me think Comcast is different ??? Well, maybe the fact that I've been working with Comcast for the last 4 years to get our areas upgraded and they have at least made the effort to do what the other owners wouldn't do, like actually getting the upgrades done, plus my brother worked in the field with TCI and AT&T and I still have friends that work there. That might have something to do with it.

Customer service makes you sick... name a customer service that doesn't make most people sick, they are script readers at best but their job is to answer questions that are on that list and nothing more, if you have a problem that they can't answer ask for a supervisor, that's his job.

And to be very honest with you, you have no idea what the field service people do because they are nothing like the CSR's. My brother was one so I have a moderate idea on what they have to do and what they have to put up with.

One of the good things about cable is you have no contract that locks you into a long term contract and are free to explore other providers if cable is not up to your liking but you will find all providers have their pluses and minuses and it's not always better on the other side of the fence.

Laters,
Mikef5

problem is you want filet mignon and champagne but only want to pay for a Big Mac and a coke.

in other words, if you want personalized service I hope you're prepared to pay for it. roughly I'd guess it would triple what you currently pay... maybe more.

fortunately you have internet resources like this one where we can help each other work out issues and get answers to questions that the Indians don't have in their scripts...

problem is you want filet mignon and champagne but only want to pay for a Big Mac and a coke.



Probably so, but in some cases all you get is a bag of peanuts with a sell by date of 20 years ago.

My last encounter with Comcast customer service was seriously akin to talking with brain-dead zombies. Zombies that have no problem charging for their time, yet seem to have no real clue, and/or seemingly inclination, as to fixing the problem.

fortunately you have internet resources like this one where we can help each other work out issues and get answers to questions that the Indians don't have in their scripts...
Nicely said. ;)

I found this group by accident about 4 years ago when I was looking to buy my first HD tv set ( I now own 4 :eek:, just can't get enough ) and noticed that there was also a Comcast S.F. forum here so I joined the website and started lurking around the forum.

About that same time Comcast had announced they were going to offer DVR's but when I tried to get one I was told my area wasn't going to get them because we were not upgraded ( the reason I hate the word " upgraded" ). That jacked my jaw and I went to the press to make it known that something wasn't right and that's when I met Mr. J. and he assured me that everyone was suppose to get one and that there had been some misinformation put out about their availability and that if I would go to the local office he'd insure there was one their for me... and yes there was one there with my name on it.

Mr. J. called me to insure that I got it and to see if I was happy. I explained that this was all so avoidable if only there had been proper information passed out and that's why I'm still here after all these years, because he cared enough to insure customers were given proper information and not rumors. I've never heard of a SatCo V.P. ever do that for their customers and he still reads this forum to this day. Comcast better than the rest ?? Maybe not, but it does have people that give it a big plus.

Laters,
Mikef5

Probably so, but in some cases all you get is a bag of peanuts with a sell by date of 20 years ago.

My last encounter with Comcast customer service was seriously akin to talking with brain-dead zombies. Zombies that have no problem charging for their time, yet seem to have no real clue, and/or seemingly inclination, as to fixing the problem.

Jim, one word.... Plastics... no wait .... Supervisor

Don't talk to the brain dead, they're there just to read the from the script. If it's a real problem get a tech level person or a supervisor. It sounds like you've gone through their chain of command so the next step is ... Supervisor ( can't get the military out of me :p )

Laters,
Mikef5

.......Mr. J. called me to insure that I got it and to see if I was happy......I've never heard of a SatCo V.P. ever do that for their customers and he still reads this forum to this day......


Mixed feelings on this one.....
For the most part, I've been glad to have Mr. J. onboard, and I am excited
to hear about the addition of new *dedicated* HD channels!
But, once again, our issue with the current DCH3416 firmware knocking out the red recording lights
has not been addressed or resolved since September, despite numerous postings and inquiries in several forums,
affecting at least hundreds of users nationally.
Where art thou on this one, Mr. J.?

Jim, one word.... Plastics... no wait .... Supervisor

Don't talk to the brain dead, they're there just to read the from the script. If it's a real problem get a tech level person or a supervisor. It sounds like you've gone through their chain of command so the next step is ... Supervisor ( can't get the military out of me :p )

Laters,
Mikef5

Yes, that is a way to go, and in fact I have, to no avail. The problem is systemic in my experience. After awhile you just get weary and say the hell with it.

In my case, I have a signal problem, for both TV and HSI. It's never been resolved and they charged me for a service call that didn't fix the problem. Went to pay the bill and asked that the $19.95 charge be removed and the CSR said she would take care of it. Next bill comes along and the charge is still there, I figured the billing cycle would explain it. On the next bill, it's still there again, plus a $4.95 late fee. I went to the office and they said a supervisor would call me. That never happened, in fact, I've never had a supervisor call me, even in the past with previous issues. Finally, the 3rd bill comes, charges are still there, problem still not fixed, and I said the hell with it and paid the $25 - it just wasn't worth my time anymore to fool around with it.

At this point, I'm just waiting until the upgrade is done and see if that fixes things, if not, then I'll tread down this path again. I'll tell you though, it's really, really, not something I'm looking forward to, and it shouldn't have to be that way.

anyone else watching the nba game on 740. Terribale pixlation??? Can one of throw on 740 and let me know. Im in Dublin

anyone else watching the nba game on 740. Terribale pixlation??? Can one of throw on 740 and let me know. Im in DublinNo problem here. Must be a local problem.

fortunately you have internet resources like this one where we can help each other work out issues and get answers to questions that the Indians don't have in their scripts...


Nicely said. ;)


Nicely said? Yes I do understand the larger point you are addressing, but I wonder how someone on this forum can call something with a xenophobic remark bordering on intolerance (IMO) as nice. How exactly is it relevant if the person on the other end is Indian? The customer service person could be anywhere in the world and in Comcast's case most likely someone locally in the US. In any case it is totally upto the organization for having decided to have CSRs that read from a script.

Some people don't understand the difference between organizations choosing to have only a token level of customer service and people who have just been told to do their job. Transferring your anger/frustration to the nationality of the CSR person instead of the organization just shows a childish lack of understanding, prejudice and intolerance that I'm sure we can have without over here.

Just got home from work to find a Comcast flyer in my mailbox. It states that they are "in the final stages of upgrading" in my neighborhood. And the second paragraph states "During the weeks of April 10th through May 13th, you will now have more choices..." Here they go with putting dates in print again. I don't dare say that Comcast is claiming that all of Sunnyvale, or even just my neighborhood, will be upgraded by May 13th. But I'll take this as I won't be upgraded before then. :mad:

Nicely said? Yes I do understand the larger point you are addressing, but I wonder how someone on this forum can call something with a xenophobic remark bordering on intolerance (IMO) as nice. How exactly is it relevant if the person on the other end is Indian? The customer service person could be anywhere in the world and in Comcast's case most likely someone locally in the US. In any case it is totally upto the organization for having decided to have CSRs that read from a script.

Some people don't understand the difference between organizations choosing to have only a token level of customer service and people who have just been told to do their job. Transferring your anger/frustration to the nationality of the CSR person instead of the organization just shows a childish lack of understanding, prejudice and intolerance that I'm sure we can have without over here.
Cool your jets buster. I didn't see the reference to an Indian CSR until you pointed it out to me, I should have read it more carefully before I posted. That was my fault in not doing so and for that I will apologize for.

My point was that I agreed with the statement that there is this forum which was set up to help people when they could not get help through the normal means, ie CSR's, that's what I agreed with and I made no reference to anyones nationality.

I think before you jump my sh*t again about something, a simple courteous inquiry on what I meant would be appreciated, instead of calling me a xenophobic or going on a tirade.

Laters,
Mikef5

My 1 CS experience has been positive with Comcast. I had to deal with them about 2 years ago when we had an HD box in the living room and an SD box in the master bedroom, which was then exchanged at the office for an HD one when we got an LCD TV for the bedroom. For some reason, the living room box deactivated while the bedroom box worked. I called CS and got them to reactivate the box, all done within 10 minutes or so of calling. The CSR was on the line while the channels came back on; before that she had to get verification/authorization from a supervisor.

I didn't mean to imply that all my CSR experiences were bad. It's just that when it comes to something that isn't in the "playbook" they appear to shut down intellectually, and I have to say, in my case, have a seemingly lack of regard for the subscriber. Why didn't a supervisor call those few times? Busy? Didn't feel like it? Never got the message from the subordinate? Figured they would ignore it and the problem would go away? Sticky note fell off the desk?

When I saw the desk CSR write it down on a sticky note I pretty much knew the game was over. This is a huge communication conglomerate, you mean to tell me the way they communicate internally is with sticky notes?

The use of a sticky note pretty much tells you they have no system in place to handle issues such as the one I presented them with.

Cool your jets buster. I didn't see the reference to an Indian CSR until you pointed it out to me, I should have read it more carefully before I posted. That was my fault in not doing so and for that I will apologize for.

My point was that I agreed with the statement that there is this forum which was set up to help people when they could not get help through the normal means, ie CSR's, that's what I agreed with and I made no reference to anyones nationality.

I think before you jump my sh*t again about something, a simple courteous inquiry on what I meant would be appreciated, instead of calling me a xenophobic or going on a tirade.

Laters,
Mikef5

Now you are the one jumping to conclusions. I did not call you Xenophobic but rather the original poster. I merely pointed out that there were some "not so nice" aspects to that post. Might I suggest you go ahead and carefully re-read my post before using colorful language out here?

I was not jumping on your anything but rather pointing out that it was erroneous to appreciate that post. If you felt offended then I'm sorry since I didn't mean that at you. I was just bringing to attention the original poster's unsavory remarks.

Just got home from work to find a Comcast flyer in my mailbox. It states that they are "in the final stages of upgrading" in my neighborhood. And the second paragraph states "During the weeks of April 10th through May 13th, you will now have more choices..." Here they go with putting dates in print again. I don't dare say that Comcast is claiming that all of Sunnyvale, or even just my neighborhood, will be upgraded by May 13th. But I'll take this as I won't be upgraded before then. :mad:

I have the same mailer thing with the same dates. Not too happy about the delay either, but it looks like the limited basic + digital classic gives me all the HD channels I really want. Not sure how much that combination will cost me, though.

A much more serious problem for me is that in the evenings, my internet speed drops to a crawl. Just ran speedtest, and the download speed is 300Kbps, while upload is about the same. I have the highest speed tier, too. During the mornings and early afternoons, I get about what I used to get. Does anyone know if this kind of slowdown is due to the upgrading happening, and will I get back the full speeds when I get upgraded? I'm very concerned about this now.

Nothing derogatory said or implied, so relax. It's simply a fact that many companies are out-sourcing CS to India. As far as actual local techs and service people, I've honestly had nothing but good-to-excellent service from them... most who have been around since the TCI days and know the area, which is really to Comcast's credit that they kept those people around.

I have the same mailer thing with the same dates. Not too happy about the delay either, but it looks like the limited basic + digital classic gives me all the HD channels I really want. Not sure how much that combination will cost me, though.

A much more serious problem for me is that in the evenings, my internet speed drops to a crawl. Just ran speedtest, and the download speed is 300Kbps, while upload is about the same. I have the highest speed tier, too. During the mornings and early afternoons, I get about what I used to get. Does anyone know if this kind of slowdown is due to the upgrading happening, and will I get back the full speeds when I get upgraded? I'm very concerned about this now.
Clau,

Does this drop in speed only happen at night and does it happen every day at the same time or does it vary ??
The reason I ask is that Comcast has a testing time that is "normally" done late at night ( can't remember the exact time but it's well after midnight ) and this might and I say might be what you are seeing, testing of the system which could be due to the upgrades that are happening in your area. The problem is when they upgraded my area they were also doing testing during the daytime also so it makes it hard to pin down if that is causing the problem or if it is something else. One other thing, do you see problems with your cable channels when you see the speed drops, like picture pixelation or audio drop outs ??

Laters,
Mikef5

Clau,

Does this drop in speed only happen at night and does it happen every day at the same time or does it vary ??
The reason I ask is that Comcast has a testing time that is "normally" done late at night ( can't remember the exact time but it's well after midnight ) and this might and I say might be what you are seeing, testing of the system which could be due to the upgrades that are happening in your area. The problem is when they upgraded my area they were also doing testing during the daytime also so it makes it hard to pin down if that is causing the problem or if it is something else. One other thing, do you see problems with your cable channels when you see the speed drops, like picture pixelation or audio drop outs ??

Laters,
Mikef5

The speed drops start early evening. Tonight shortly after 6, I was still getting several Mbps from the speakeasy.net test page (although I usually get 25Mbps due to PowerBoost). Since about 7:30 pm, my speed has been in the 300-600Kbps range, and upload is more or less constant at 330 Kbps or so. I don't watch much TV, but right now the channels look fine.

I called the CSR and they couldn't find anything wrong with the modem: SNR's are OK, and the settings are correct. I asked her whether this is because of upgrading, and she has no idea. She set up an appointment for me tomorrow afternoon for a tech to come. I don't think that is going to help much, but I would like to be able to ask the tech the status of the upgrades and whether this problem is normal prior to upgrades.

After midnight, things will more and less drift back to normal. I wonder if there are some heavy web servers sharing my node. It would be nice if Comcast can find out which modem is carrying a lot of traffic.

Just ran another speedtest, and the speed is somewhat better, but nowhere close to what I should be getting. Jpeg attached.

Mixed feelings on this one.....
For the most part, I've been glad to have Mr. J. onboard, and I am excited
to hear about the addition of new *dedicated* HD channels!


I too share this same feeling. I appreciate having Mr. J here, but I don't appreciate he or anyone else who isn't an AVS moderator saying what we can or cannot discuss.

This forum is for Comcast HD discussion, but sometimes we have discussion of HSI service, especially blast which is new and exciting to us HD freaks who also enjoy our fast internet.

Personally, when I have a minor issue, I want to bring it up here rather than dslreports. I feel more comfortable here, period. And it's not like cable modem discussion is taking over, it's just a side thing. Plus all of the discussion is related to Comcast service, so it's not a bad thing.

I'm a fan of Comcast discussion and inside info, just not people trying to control our avsforum discussion.

relax everyone. giants season is starting soon. ok maybe go back to stressing out...

During the weeks of April 10th through May 13th, you will now have more choices..." If we combine this statement with the sci-fi channel hint from Mr. J, that would suggest that they are delaying roll-out of sci-fi HD just long enough for us to have to watch the Battlestar premier in low-def. Bah! No sense of urgency at comcast?!

Nothing derogatory said or implied, so relax. It's simply a fact that many companies are out-sourcing CS to India. As far as actual local techs and service people, I've honestly had nothing but good-to-excellent service from them... most who have been around since the TCI days and know the area, which is really to Comcast's credit that they kept those people around.

In that case everything's fine and I apologize for the fuss and lets leave it at that.

The speed drops start early evening. Tonight shortly after 6, I was still getting several Mbps from the speakeasy.net test page (although I usually get 25Mbps due to PowerBoost). Since about 7:30 pm, my speed has been in the 300-600Kbps range, and upload is more or less constant at 330 Kbps or so. I don't watch much TV, but right now the channels look fine.

I called the CSR and they couldn't find anything wrong with the modem: SNR's are OK, and the settings are correct. I asked her whether this is because of upgrading, and she has no idea. She set up an appointment for me tomorrow afternoon for a tech to come. I don't think that is going to help much, but I would like to be able to ask the tech the status of the upgrades and whether this problem is normal prior to upgrades.

After midnight, things will more and less drift back to normal. I wonder if there are some heavy web servers sharing my node. It would be nice if Comcast can find out which modem is carrying a lot of traffic.

Just ran another speedtest, and the speed is somewhat better, but nowhere close to what I should be getting. Jpeg attached.
You might be right about a heavy user or 2 that might be in your node. If I remember right the nodes are set up with 400-500 homes per node so if you get a lot of heavy users on at the same time that will affect your speed when they are on line. I guess that's an advantage with DSL, it's not affected that way but only by internet traffic but that would make sense that could be the problem that is affecting you. I don't know anyone that works in the internet side of cable but you would think that there has to be a way of finding out if there are in fact people running web servers in your node, especially if it is affecting people that much as you say it is. You might ask the tech that comes to look at your system those questions and see what he says. I'd be interested on what he says since I've been thinking of switching to Comcast internet since they're now offering 16 mbps and possibly more when DOCSYS 3.0 is implemented.

Laters,
Mikef5

Just got home from work to find a Comcast flyer in my mailbox. It states that they are "in the final stages of upgrading" in my neighborhood. And the second paragraph states "During the weeks of April 10th through May 13th, you will now have more choices..." Here they go with putting dates in print again. I don't dare say that Comcast is claiming that all of Sunnyvale, or even just my neighborhood, will be upgraded by May 13th. But I'll take this as I won't be upgraded before then. :mad:

I received the same notice yesterday. Nice. Judging by the way they've been hitting their mark on dates up to this point, I'd say we may be upgraded by mid-June.

I had a door tag this morning saying they were working on upgrading our neighborhood over the next few days and to expect some outages....From all of your collective experiences, how long from when receiving this notice to when the upgrade will be completed?

I have never received any sort of letter stating a date when to expect the upgrade to be complete, only that an upgrade is coming and that I may see more comcast/cablecom trucks. Perhaps they do different letters in different areas.

For you guys that want the Food Network HD added, this article might give Comcast a reason to carry it if the network does what it says it's going to do...
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/03/10/hgtv-and-food-network-to-begin-hd-simulcast/

The interesting part is at the end where they say they are going to upgrade ( my favorite word :) ) their Chelsea Market studios in New York to full high-definition capability.

Could this mean Giada in HD :p

Laters,
Mikef5

Unless you are seeing widespread slowdowns with every site you try to connect to, it might just be that the speed-test sites themselves get congested at certain times of the day.

I know sometimes when I check the speed tests I get over 20mbits, other times only 7-10. Since it's still well over 6mbits and other web sites and such seem ok, I assume my local connection is fine and Boost is even working, a little, but maybe the test site(s) - or something inbetween - is/are just congested.

For you guys that want the Food Network HD added, this article might give Comcast a reason to carry it if the network does what it says it's going to do...
http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/03/10/hgtv-and-food-network-to-begin-hd-simulcast/

The interesting part is at the end where they say they are going to upgrade ( my favorite word :) ) their Chelsea Market studios in New York to full high-definition capability.

Could this mean Giada in HD :p

Laters,
Mikef5

Giada is already in HD and it/she looks wonderful. My neighbor has it on Dish and every time I see it I get hungry, in many ways.... :)

Unless you are seeing widespread slowdowns with every site you try to connect to, it might just be that the speed-test sites themselves get congested at certain times of the day.

I know sometimes when I check the speed tests I get over 20mbits, other times only 7-10. Since it's still well over 6mbits and other web sites and such seem ok, I assume my local connection is fine and Boost is even working, a little, but maybe the test site(s) - or something inbetween - is/are just congested.

No, the speed-test sites are fine. I notice the problem because in addition to web-pages taking longer to load, I am having major problems using a VPN connection to do work. Basically I cannot do any work in the evenings now.

FWIW, different speed test sites may give different results, but if you are getting 300Kbps, it is not the speed-test site's problem.

I had a door tag this morning saying they were working on upgrading our neighborhood over the next few days and to expect some outages....From all of your collective experiences, how long from when receiving this notice to when the upgrade will be completed?

I have never received any sort of letter stating a date when to expect the upgrade to be complete, only that an upgrade is coming and that I may see more comcast/cablecom trucks. Perhaps they do different letters in different areas.

Only in the initial letter I received did I receive anything like this. Although that letter said "within the next few months" instead of days. It appears that they send the notice with an actual month-long time frame to expect the upgrade about a month before that period.

I'm in Sunnyvale, by Central and Mary. And like many others who posted...I have also received the notice about the upcoming upgrades...and the slight delay...

Though...I do have one question. I just have expanded basic from Comcast...and usually just watch the local unencrypted HD channels (Fox 2.1, ABC 7.1, CBS 5.1, etc) through the QAM tuner on my TV, but recently (last week) all those channels seemed to have disappeared.

I did try rescanning...and have noticed a different digitial channel lineup...but I now no longer get the local HD channels...In fact, the only HD channel I get is CW...at like 92-2 broadcast in 1080i...

Anyone else near my area see the same issue with missing local HD broadcast channels from Comcast?

No, the speed-test sites are fine. I notice the problem because in addition to web-pages taking longer to load, I am having major problems using a VPN connection to do work. Basically I cannot do any work in the evenings now.

FWIW, different speed test sites may give different results, but if you are getting 300Kbps, it is not the speed-test site's problem.

So I was waiting at home for a Comcast tech to show up. Just got a call that there is no need to wait. The whole area is being rebuilt and that's why internet is slow. In fact, she said that they just found a problem near where I am, and they are trying to fix it.

Wish they told me that earlier and I wouldn't have to take time off to come home :(.

I asked her when will the rebuild be completed, and she said according to what she has, it should be no later than middle of April.

I walked around the neighborhood earlier, and there is a CableCom truck on Hollenbeck near Danforth. There are people pulling cable in the backyards of houses on Hollenbeck and Rubis Ave.

Also talked to an AT&T guy doing repairs here. He said that they have a new CO at Hollenbeck and Danforth, but it is not yet operational. Once that's up, our DSL speeds will get a major boost. That's good news, I guess. The existing closest CO is at Sunnyvale Ave and Terrell, and that is very far for me.

I'm in Sunnyvale, by Central and Mary. And like many others who posted...I have also received the notice about the upcoming upgrades...and the slight delay...

Though...I do have one question. I just have expanded basic from Comcast...and usually just watch the local unencrypted HD channels (Fox 2.1, ABC 7.1, CBS 5.1, etc) through the QAM tuner on my TV, but recently (last week) all those channels seemed to have disappeared.

I did try rescanning...and have noticed a different digitial channel lineup...but I now no longer get the local HD channels...In fact, the only HD channel I get is CW...at like 92-2 broadcast in 1080i...

Anyone else near my area see the same issue with missing local HD broadcast channels from Comcast?

I'm near you. I re-scanned and the HD channels did show up on my set. There were, though, a bunch of digital channels that were not picked up by the set on the re-scan. The set eventually picked them up mostly by trial and error by entering a channel number followed by a dash...in my set it forces to look for any subchannel tied to the main channel.

Durny1

I'm near you. I re-scanned and the HD channels did show up on my set. There were, though, a bunch of digital channels that were not picked up by the set on the re-scan. The set eventually picked them up mostly by trial and error by entering a channel number followed by a dash...in my set it forces to look for any subchannel tied to the main channel.

Durny1

Thanks for your response and checking Durny1...If you get a chance, can you tell me if FOX is still like on 2-1?

I tried re-scanning again, but still didn't get any of the local HD channels (FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS)...and only got CW was my only HD channel on 92-2 in my area in Sunnyvale....and a bunch of other "new" channels.

I also tried entering in like 2-1, 5-1, 7-1, etc...but those didn't turn up anything.

I finally called Comcast Service (I like dealing with pain) hoping they would tell me they were still working on something in the area...but they weren't.

And I was told that they weren't responsible for any local HD channels if my QAM tuner couldn't pick them up...and they would only be responsible if I had paid for HD service and channels (of course that's what they would say).

They also claimed that the local HD broadcast channels change on a weekly basis...so that I would have to re-scan for them weekly...Yeah...right...

I even asked them when they did the upgrade in my area during the last week, and they said they no longer have that information...Anyway, it looks like I (and I would think my node/complex in the Gardens) no longer get local channels in HD...but that's just my suspicion. Okay...end rant...

It's more likely that you've (temporarily) lost the PSIP info on the HD channels and they're showing up at their real rf channel locations on your TV.

Thanks for your response and checking Durny1...If you get a chance, can you tell me if FOX is still like on 2-1?

I tried re-scanning again, but still didn't get any of the local HD channels (FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS)...and only got CW was my only HD channel on 92-2 in my area in Sunnyvale....and a bunch of other "new" channels.

I also tried entering in like 2-1, 5-1, 7-1, etc...but those didn't turn up anything.

I suggest you re-scan the channels, then start at channel 2 and go backwards. Many of the HD locals have traditionally been on higher channels, 110 and above. However there are some on the lower channels too. Going backwards, high to low, you usually hit some HD locals quicker than going low to high.

As Terry mentioned, the appropriate complaint to Comcast is the head-end is no longer transmitting PSIP information and tell them when it happened. Tell them the FCC requires PSIP information sent by the broadcasters to be passed through.

Thanks for your response and checking Durny1...If you get a chance, can you tell me if FOX is still like on 2-1?

I tried re-scanning again, but still didn't get any of the local HD channels (FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS)...and only got CW was my only HD channel on 92-2 in my area in Sunnyvale....and a bunch of other "new" channels.

I also tried entering in like 2-1, 5-1, 7-1, etc...but those didn't turn up anything.

I finally called Comcast Service (I like dealing with pain) hoping they would tell me they were still working on something in the area...but they weren't.

And I was told that they weren't responsible for any local HD channels if my QAM tuner couldn't pick them up...and they would only be responsible if I had paid for HD service and channels (of course that's what they would say).

They also claimed that the local HD broadcast channels change on a weekly basis...so that I would have to re-scan for them weekly...Yeah...right...

I even asked them when they did the upgrade in my area during the last week, and they said they no longer have that information...Anyway, it looks like I (and I would think my node/complex in the Gardens) no longer get local channels in HD...but that's just my suspicion. Okay...end rant...

I noticed the same thing last night in Hayward. All of the QAM channels stopped showing up (this is on two different TV's). I haven't rescanned to look for them hoping that it would come back. It BETTER come back before Lost comes on tonight!

I suggest you re-scan the channels, then start at channel 2 and go backwards. Many of the HD locals have traditionally been on higher channels, 110 and above. However there are some on the lower channels too. Going backwards, high to low, you usually hit some HD locals quicker than going low to high.

As Terry mentioned, the appropriate complaint to Comcast is the head-end is no longer transmitting PSIP information and tell them when it happened. Tell them the FCC requires PSIP information sent by the broadcasters to be passed through.

I find it hard to believe that it's Comcast not sending the PSIP information through because I get it on my Vizio and Sony and the PSIP info is still there. The only one that doesn't show up properly is KRON-4 which shows up at 131-8. Unless the individual head ends are blocking it because it's still in the main loop or I or anyone else wouldn't be able to see it.

I know that when they are upgrading some areas they will change channel lineups to do testing or set up like channels in a frequency area of their own. The Comcast box will compensate for that because a signal is sent to the box to let it know about the frequency change but the QAM tuners will sometimes not and only show the RF of the channel, even if the PSIP data is there. The only way to be sure is to find people in your node/loop and see if they are getting it or not.

Laters,
Mikef5

Anbody else in a non-upgraded area experience "no signal" on Idol last night for about 20 minutes? This is really annoying and seems only to happen on Fox and Idol in particular. I just want to make sure its not a symptom of too many splitters or something.

Thanks

Anbody else in a non-upgraded area experience "no signal" on Idol last night for about 20 minutes? This is really annoying and seems only to happen on Fox and Idol in particular. I just want to make sure its not a symptom of too many splitters or something.

Thanks

Montyward,

You do realize that your area is in the process of being upgraded and will at times have system interruptions ??? Not that is what caused it but it is one thing to take into consideration when you are looking for a cause. I'd check with others in your area to see if they lost it also.

Laters,
Mikef5

Anbody else in a non-upgraded area experience "no signal" on Idol last night for about 20 minutes? This is really annoying and seems only to happen on Fox and Idol in particular. I just want to make sure its not a symptom of too many splitters or something.

Thanks

Funny that you should mention. I've been having strange issues with the last few DVR recordings of Idol. Yesterday the recording refused to play from 25 minutes to 46 minutes which corresponds nicely with your 20 minutes of loss of signal. I had been thinking that this might be something to do with the upgrades but I never got it on any other recording and coupled with reports here of loss of signal I think the DVR skips recordings when the signal is lost.

Is anyone from Comcast reading this? Mr. J or anyone in authority? I think there is a clear pattern of loss of signal on Fox/Idol that someone should look into.

Funny that you should mention. I've been having strange issues with the last few DVR recordings of Idol. Yesterday the recording refused to play from 25 minutes to 46 minutes which corresponds nicely with your 20 minutes of loss of signal. I had been thinking that this might be something to do with the upgrades but I never got it on any other recording and coupled with reports here of loss of signal I think the DVR skips recordings when the signal is lost.

Is anyone from Comcast reading this? Mr. J or anyone in authority? I think there is a clear pattern of loss of signal on Fox/Idol that someone should look into.

It's Les Moonves, president of CBS doing it, :p:D

Moonves also labeled outdoor advertising the fasting-growing division at CBS, thanks in part to the increasing presence of digital billboards, and shared his favorite programs -- among them The Sopranos, Californication and Two and a Half Men.

Fox’s American Idol did not make Moonves’ list. “If somebody would kill that show, I’d really appreciate it,” he said with a smile.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6540563

Anbody else in a non-upgraded area experience "no signal" on Idol last night for about 20 minutes? This is really annoying and seems only to happen on Fox and Idol in particular. I just want to make sure its not a symptom of too many splitters or something.

Thanks

I have posted this a few weeks back. Almost every AI episode has an outage on the Fox-HD feed, and I am in a 550MHz area.

Funny that you should mention. I've been having strange issues with the last few DVR recordings of Idol. Yesterday the recording refused to play from 25 minutes to 46 minutes which corresponds nicely with your 20 minutes of loss of signal. I had been thinking that this might be something to do with the upgrades but I never got it on any other recording and coupled with reports here of loss of signal I think the DVR skips recordings when the signal is lost.

Is anyone from Comcast reading this? Mr. J or anyone in authority? I think there is a clear pattern of loss of signal on Fox/Idol that someone should look into.

Yes, this is exactly what happened with me. I use my HTPC to record and it skipped to the 46 minute mark. Funny because it happened on a commercial break and it was hard to tell what happened until I realized the show was almost over. I have only noticed this on Fox/Idol. It was recording something else at the same time on another HD channel which recorded fine. I just can't figure out what Comcast has against Idol. Its not me, but my wife might just hurl the remote at me if it happens again after just switching to Comcast from Dish.

Edit: I won't bring it up again and just assume that it only happens in non-upgraded areas and that I'll have to live with it.

Thanks for your response and checking Durny1...If you get a chance, can you tell me if FOX is still like on 2-1?

I tried re-scanning again, but still didn't get any of the local HD channels (FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS)...and only got CW was my only HD channel on 92-2 in my area in Sunnyvale....and a bunch of other "new" channels.

I also tried entering in like 2-1, 5-1, 7-1, etc...but those didn't turn up anything.

..

My set automatically mapped them into 2-1, 5-1, 7-1 respectively. The real channels were somewhere else, much higher up; i.e 8x-xx or 9x-xx...don't remember. I stumbled upon them by accident and didn't pay much attention. I'll try to search for them this weekend and get back to you.

One trick I found useful when I find my set is "stubborn" and refusing to find channels I know are there is to delete all channels. I can achieve this by starting a re-scan, and immediately cancelling it while the set looks for the first channel. This erases all channel mapping in my set. Then, I re-scan again. This procedure tends to find additional channels that weren't there before.

Durny1

The speed drops start early evening. Tonight shortly after 6, I was still getting several Mbps from the speakeasy.net test page (although I usually get 25Mbps due to PowerBoost). Since about 7:30 pm, my speed has been in the 300-600Kbps range, and upload is more or less constant at 330 Kbps or so. I don't watch much TV, but right now the channels look fine.
Clau,
I haven't run many speed tests and definitely haven't done any recently until last night. I'm pretty sure I'm pretty close to where you are, and I was getting much better download speeds than 300-600Kbps, but nowhere near a consistent 6Mbps. I ran 8-10 speed tests, each a few minutes apart, and was getting anywhere between 1.5 to 5.5Mbps, but more consistently around 2.5-3Mbps. Hope this helps.

Edit: I was running the speed tests around 7-7:30PM.

Clau,
I haven't run many speed tests and definitely haven't done any recently until last night. I'm pretty sure I'm pretty close to where you are, and I was getting much better download speeds than 300-600Kbps, but nowhere near a consistent 6Mbps. I ran 8-10 speed tests, each a few minutes apart, and was getting anywhere between 1.5 to 5.5Mbps, but more consistently around 2.5-3Mbps. Hope this helps.

Edit: I was running the speed tests around 7-7:30PM.

I tried the same thing last night, and got the same results as yours.

In addition to the lower speeds (I'm on the 8Mbps tier), there is a lot of variations in speeds, too. In the past, that speed test shows a consistent 20Mbps download speed due to PowerBoost. I think there may be some hardware issues with our nodes, and subsequently many more users are sharing the same node. I hope the rebuild fixes it all.

I find it hard to believe that it's Comcast not sending the PSIP information through because I get it on my Vizio and Sony and the PSIP info is still there. The only one that doesn't show up properly is KRON-4 which shows up at 131-8. Unless the individual head ends are blocking it because it's still in the main loop or I or anyone else wouldn't be able to see it.

I know that when they are upgrading some areas they will change channel lineups to do testing or set up like channels in a frequency area of their own. The Comcast box will compensate for that because a signal is sent to the box to let it know about the frequency change but the QAM tuners will sometimes not and only show the RF of the channel, even if the PSIP data is there. The only way to be sure is to find people in your node/loop and see if they are getting it or not.
Why is it so hard to believe? Your PSIP experience has little to do with OPs experience unless you are on the same head-end.

PSIP troubles have often been head-end specific configuration issues. The PSIP channel map has to be adjusted at each head-end because the frequencies used to broadcast are specific to each head-end. You can't have a "master" Comcast PSIP that gets sent out and passed through because potentially every head-end uses a different physical frequency for let's say KTVU/KPIX. So the PSIP would say 2.1 maps to 79.1 for one head-end but for another 2.1 would map to 68.1.

As an example, my head-end was not sending PSIP for KNTV for the longest time even though most other areas did get PSIP channel mapping for it. I knew the PSIP wasn't there because I used a stream analyzer and saw that it was missing. It took a while to get the message to someone that could change the configuration on my head-end to fix it.

If the PSIP channel map is there, a rescan will show the channels at the PSIP channle map location regardless of where Comcast moved the physical channel to. The OP said he rescanned and couldn't find the channel, so there's a good chance the PSIP either isn't there or is malformed. The only other possibility I can think of is OP has a Samsung TV and it has the problem picking up PSIP that clau had.

Why is it so hard to believe? Your PSIP experience has little to do with OPs experience unless you are on the same head-end.

PSIP troubles have often been head-end specific configuration issues. The PSIP channel map has to be adjusted at each head-end because the frequencies used to broadcast are specific to each head-end. You can't have a "master" Comcast PSIP that gets sent out and passed through because potentially every head-end uses a different physical frequency for let's say KTVU/KPIX. So the PSIP would say 2.1 maps to 79.1 for one head-end but for another 2.1 would map to 68.1.

As an example, my head-end was not sending PSIP for KNTV for the longest time even though most other areas did get PSIP channel mapping for it. I knew the PSIP wasn't there because I used a stream analyzer and saw that it was missing. It took a while to get the message to someone that could change the configuration on my head-end to fix it.

If the PSIP channel map is there, a rescan will show the channels at the PSIP channle map location regardless of where Comcast moved the physical channel to. The OP said he rescanned and couldn't find the channel, so there's a good chance the PSIP either isn't there or is malformed. The only other possibility I can think of is OP has a Samsung TV and it has the problem picking up PSIP that clau had.
SFHub,

That's what I said,
Originally Posted by Mikef5
I find it hard to believe that it's Comcast not sending the PSIP information through because I get it on my Vizio and Sony and the PSIP info is still there. The only one that doesn't show up properly is KRON-4 which shows up at 131-8. Unless the individual head ends are blocking it because it's still in the main loop or I or anyone else wouldn't be able to see it.


Also, I'm a little confused on what you are saying about the PSIP data. This is the way I understand the PSIP data stream.

The broadcast stations transmits it's signal with a PSIP data stream saying, lets take KTVU for example, RF 56.1 maps to 2-1. When you put 2-1 into your turner it looks at the PSIP map and tunes to RF 56.1.
Now Comcast gets that signal and PSIP data but wants to put it on, let's say RF 102. It should remap that PSIP data for 2-1 to RF 102 ( or where ever the head end puts it at ) and your QAM turner should see that remapping and when you select 2-1 it should tune to RF 102 instead of RF 56.1. So if your tuner doesn't it would be a remapping problem or the head end isn't sending it because of test or channel rearrangements. The PSIP data info is still there but in some areas it's not being remapped properly. The channel is still there you just have to go through all the channels to see where they are at and since the PSIP data isn't mapped properly you have to look at the RF channel and not the 2-1 channel, like on my system KRON4 is on 131-8 instead of 4-1.
That's the way I've always thought of how it works, if not maybe you could explain it to me a little better :confused:

Laters,
Mikef5

Mike, you're a little confused about the purpose of the PSIP data. It doesn't tell the tuner anything about "where to look" for the signal. It provides information to the DTV set about (among other things) what it should display as the "channel" on the front panel to the user.

I have observed in the same way that sfhub has that the PSIP data stream is frequently missing from one or more Comcast local DTV channels here, but it's rarely incorrect when it's actually present.

Mike, you're a little confused about the purpose of the PSIP data. It doesn't tell the tuner anything about "where to look" for the signal. It provides information to the DTV set about (among other things) what it should display as the "channel" on the front panel to the user.

I have observed in the same way that sfhub has that the PSIP data stream is frequently missing from one or more Comcast local DTV channels here, but it's rarely incorrect when it's actually present.

Ok, so the tuner just looks for all frequency's and looks at the PSIP data to know what each one is called. So if it finds 56.1 RF the PSIP data would tell the tuner that it's KTVU 2-1 and display that ??
To carry the example further. If Comcast wants to move 56.1 RF to 102 RF they would have to change the original PSIP data to the say, if you see 102 RF it's now 2-1 instead of the original 56.1 being 2-1.

Laters,
Mikef5

The rf channels don't have fractional parts. KTVU-DT is transmitted on rf channel 56. The dash- or dot-N parts are from the data stream. Even without any PSIP data, the transport stream has, in the packet headers, information as to which (sub)program each one belongs. That's one possible source of the fractional part. But it gets more confusing because the PID "program numbers" are not necessarily the same as the subchannel numbers, which is where the PSIP data come into play to tell the TV which "program" goes with which "subchannel" (for the front panel display).

The rf channels don't have fractional parts. KTVU-DT is transmitted on rf channel 56. The dash- or dot-N parts are from the data stream. Even without any PSIP data, the transport stream has, in the packet headers, information as to which (sub)program each one belongs. That's one possible source of the fractional part. But it gets more confusing because the PID "program numbers" are not necessarily the same as the subchannel numbers, which is where the PSIP data come into play to tell the TV which "program" goes with which "subchannel" (for the front panel display).

Right, the numbers I used where just an example, I have no idea what the real frequency's are, that was just a wild guess :). Why did they have to make it so complicated ?? But that brings up another thing. If it this confusing right now, what happens next year when the broadcasters go all digital and some of them are changing the frequency's that they broadcast at. The PSIP data has to change to reflect that and I'm sure that will cause more problems for cable to change their mapping for those channels.

But thanks, I think I've got a better idea now of PSIP than I had before and it makes more sense than what I've thought about it in the past. It just proves, you can teach an old dog new tricks... ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

The "real frequencies", which are in the hundreds of MHz, have little to do even with our old notion of "channel numbers" 2-13. And on cable, the relationship between "channels" and rf frequencies has always been even less direct. With the transition to DTV, the level of abstraction is being bumped up yet another notch so that we can keep (approximately--we still need to add a "dot one") our old familiar "channel 2", "channel 5", etc., for a while longer. :)

Yes, this is exactly what happened with me. I use my HTPC to record and it skipped to the 46 minute mark. Funny because it happened on a commercial break and it was hard to tell what happened until I realized the show was almost over. I have only noticed this on Fox/Idol. It was recording something else at the same time on another HD channel which recorded fine. I just can't figure out what Comcast has against Idol. Its not me, but my wife might just hurl the remote at me if it happens again after just switching to Comcast from Dish.

Edit: I won't bring it up again and just assume that it only happens in non-upgraded areas and that I'll have to live with it.

I don't see why we shouldn't bring it up again. Regardless of the upgrade, repeated loss of signal on the most watched TV program is just not acceptable. It would be a different issue if this happened just once in a while. But this has happened consisently for the past 3 weeks at the very least. If it happens again next time during American Idol then I'm going to call up Comcast and make a big fuss about it.

Count me in for losing signal on 3 episodes of Idol over the last three weeks. :mad:

In addition, count me in for having horribly low download speeds in the evening over the last week (my numbers coincide with the 200-400 kbps + a ping of around 300+ms). :confused:

And... count me in on receiving the flyer saying upgrades are now scheduled from April 10 - May 13! :eek:

I'm in 94087 near Sunnyvale-Saratoga & Remington. Waiting patiently, as I have been since last Fall! I'll believe it when I see it.:rolleyes:

Jeremy


I don't see why we shouldn't bring it up again. Regardless of the upgrade, repeated loss of signal on the most watched TV program is just not acceptable. It would be a different issue if this happened just once in a while. But this has happened consisently for the past 3 weeks at the very least. If it happens again next time during American Idol then I'm going to call up Comcast and make a big fuss about it.

I'm in Sunnyvale, 94086, and as of last night, I've got the new channels.

Unfortunately, my Tivo series 3 shows no program info for any of the
new channels. I re-ran the guided setup, so it shows the channels,
I see them in the program guide, but there's no info about any of the shows.
Forcing tivo to make its daily connection to update its program info
seems to have no effect.

I filled out the online support form on tivo's website, but it says to expect
a response in 3 to 5 days !? Sigh...

I tried the same thing last night, and got the same results as yours.

In addition to the lower speeds (I'm on the 8Mbps tier), there is a lot of variations in speeds, too. In the past, that speed test shows a consistent 20Mbps download speed due to PowerBoost. I think there may be some hardware issues with our nodes, and subsequently many more users are sharing the same node. I hope the rebuild fixes it all.

Can you guys post what Modulation your node is using? This can be found on the modem info page, usually on http://192.168.100.1/. I don't know what they were thinking but after they upgraded my area (Sunnyvale), they had left the upstream modulation to QPSK (not close to enough bandwidth for this crowded part) and I had the same speed problems. Sure enough, I called and called, tried explaining my problem and someone must have done something because they changed the Upload Modulation to 16QAM and all the problems are gone, great service for over a month now. If that is the case, your best chance will be to let someone who knows what they are talking about and maybe can do something to fix it with comcast (Mikef5 sounds like the correct person on our forum - Sorry Mike if this will lead to some pms you might not want, but its true) :)

PS. I hope this will not be an issue when Blast comes around, and they raise the cap on upload speeds. If so, De Javu all over again :\

I'm in Sunnyvale, 94086, and as of last night, I've got the new channels.

Unfortunately, my Tivo series 3 shows no program info for any of the
new channels. I re-ran the guided setup, so it shows the channels,
I see them in the program guide, but there's no info about any of the shows.
Forcing tivo to make its daily connection to update its program info
seems to have no effect.

I filled out the online support form on tivo's website, but it says to expect
a response in 3 to 5 days !? Sigh...

In which part of 94086 are you? I'm just wondering how close you are (or aren't) to me and others in the non-upgraded 94087 area.

Can you guys post what Modulation your node is using? This can be found on the modem info page, usually on http://192.168.100.1/. I don't know what they were thinking but after they upgraded my area (Sunnyvale), they had left the upstream modulation to QPSK (not close to enough bandwidth for this crowded part) and I had the same speed problems. Sure enough, I called and called, tried explaining my problem and someone must have done something because they changed the Upload Modulation to 16QAM and all the problems are gone, great service for over a month now. If that is the case, your best chance will be to let someone who knows what they are talking about and maybe can do something to fix it with comcast (Mikef5 sounds like the correct person on our forum - Sorry Mike if this will lead to some pms you might not want, but its true) :)

PS. I hope this will not be an issue when Blast comes around, and they raise the cap on upload speeds. If so, De Javu all over again :\

My modem settings are correct: good SNR and QAM256 is used. Upstream power level is OK.

Last night my speed was higher, with downloads in the several Mbps range. Not the same as what I get during the day, or in the past, though. For instance, right now my download is 24Mbps, and my upload 1492Kbps. Power Boost is working.

Mike, you're a little confused about the purpose of the PSIP data. It doesn't tell the tuner anything about "where to look" for the signal. It provides information to the DTV set about (among other things) what it should display as the "channel" on the front panel to the user.

I have observed in the same way that sfhub has that the PSIP data stream is frequently missing from one or more Comcast local DTV channels here, but it's rarely incorrect when it's actually present.

I still haven't been able to fix my problem with the missing local HD channels, but wanted to thank everyone (Terry, Mike, sfhub, Durny1, clau in particular) for their help, suggestions, and information so far. :)

I'm learning more about how Digital Cable/Comcast works than what a Comcast Service Rep would probably know or tell me.

I'll try giving Comcast a call again and hopefully will get to talk to someone who can get someone else to check on the PSIP data in my area.

Thanks...

Count me in for losing signal on 3 episodes of Idol over the last three weeks. :mad:


I wonder if Mr. J, who has been praised much here, will now come through and take a look at what looks to be a genuine problem. This has happened across multiple areas seperated by quite some distance so it doesn't look to be something very simple and isolated.

Ok, so the tuner just looks for all frequency's and looks at the PSIP data to know what each one is called. So if it finds 56.1 RF the PSIP data would tell the tuner that it's KTVU 2-1 and display that ??
To carry the example further. If Comcast wants to move 56.1 RF to 102 RF they would have to change the original PSIP data to the say, if you see 102 RF it's now 2-1 instead of the original 56.1 being 2-1.
Basically the PSIP channel info data is transmitted inline to the channel. Your TV is not aware of the PSIP channel info until it actually tunes that channel. That is why people suggest a "rescan" when channels move around. I've found though if the major channel # stays the same, and just the minor # changes, many TVs can adjust automatically. I imagine they cached the previous PSIP data and look through all the sub-channels for a matching entry.

Here are examples of the info:

Channel 1
Service Name: KPIX DT
TSID: 10217 (0x27e9)
Channel Number: 5.1
Carrier Frequency: 624000000
Modulation Mode: SCTE_mode_2
Source ID: 36

Channel 2
Service Name: KTVUHD
TSID: 10217 (0x27e9)
Channel Number: 2.1
Carrier Frequency: 624000000
Modulation Mode: SCTE_mode_2
Source ID: 38

Channel 3
Service Name: KTVU-SD
TSID: 10217 (0x27e9)
Channel Number: 2.2
Carrier Frequency: 624000000
Modulation Mode: SCTE_mode_2
Source ID: 79

I believe the ways many TVs are implemented, if the PSIP is there but the Modulation Mode or Carrier Frequency is wrong, the TV will still populate it's list of available channels but the tuning won't be correct. I recall a while back someone set the Modulation Mode to ATSC causing many issues with tuning.

For OP, upon rescan of all channels, if 2.1 doesn't show up as an available channel, the chances are very high, the PSIP channel info is just missing. If the frequency or modulation were wrong, then 2.1 should still show up (under most TVs) but it likely wouldn't tune properly. I say likely wouldn't tune properly, because I could see TV implementations which might populate frequency and modulation through other means.

I'm near Bernardo and McKinley. I was driving home on Thursday at
around 2AM, when I saw a comcast bucket truck on Bernardo. On a lark, I
manually tuned to 737 and was surprised to see that I had been upgraded. :)

The rf channels don't have fractional parts. KTVU-DT is transmitted on rf channel 56. The dash- or dot-N parts are from the data stream. Even without any PSIP data, the transport stream has, in the packet headers, information as to which (sub)program each one belongs. That's one possible source of the fractional part. But it gets more confusing because the PID "program numbers" are not necessarily the same as the subchannel numbers, which is where the PSIP data come into play to tell the TV which "program" goes with which "subchannel" (for the front panel display).
And it is even more confusing, because absent PSIP channel info data, TVs are on their own to number the sub-channels. This is why some TVs will have KRON at 110.1 and others might have it at 110.4. The data and stream IDs are the same, the TVs just "count" differently, so a person using a Sony TV will swear the sub-channel is 110.4 and the Sharp TV user will say no, it is at 110.1.

The major # of 110 is defined by the frequency, so all TVs will use 110 as the major. The counting differences are just for the minor #.

As of last night I have been unable to receive USAHD. I get the "One Moment Please... Channel should be available shortly" message. I have been able to view this channel before. Is anyone else noticing this? If they have taken it out of my package they did not notify me in any way and that would be unethical.

I just got a TiVo HD and need to pick up some CableCARDs this weekend at the local Comcast storefront.

How do I tell the difference between an SCard and an MCard? I'll need to be able to tell them apart so I can get the proper number of cards (2 SCards or 1 MCard). Are they clearly marked? The Comcast people working in this particular storefront aren't very knowledgeable, so I doubt I'll be able to count on them knowing the difference.

I just got a TiVo HD and need to pick up some CableCARDs this weekend at the local Comcast storefront.

How do I tell the difference between an SCard and an MCard? I'll need to be able to tell them apart so I can get the proper number of cards (2 SCards or 1 MCard). Are they clearly marked? The Comcast people working in this particular storefront aren't very knowledgeable, so I doubt I'll be able to count on them knowing the difference.

Jerry,

Here's a link to show you what a M-Card looks like, just click on figure 1 to get a full view of it ....
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=122124

Laters,
Mikef5

Mike,

Thanks. Looks like the MCard at least is very distinctly labeled.

My modem settings are correct: good SNR and QAM256 is used. Upstream power level is OK.

Last night my speed was higher, with downloads in the several Mbps range. Not the same as what I get during the day, or in the past, though. For instance, right now my download is 24Mbps, and my upload 1492Kbps. Power Boost is working.

QAM256 is the Forward Path modulation (download). What is your Return Path? You will get effected even if your signal is good, since there will not be enough upload bandwidth from the node. Maxing you upload speeds will cripple your download, which you probably have noticed a long time ago.

I wonder if Mr. J, who has been praised much here, will now come through and take a look at what looks to be a genuine problem. This has happened across multiple areas seperated by quite some distance so it doesn't look to be something very simple and isolated.

That would be nice. Actually, I don't mind if it cuts out some of the results show of Idol, since that is a painful waste of my time. I feigned concern and incredulity for my wife to see but inside I thought it wasn't so bad. But when it happens on the performances themselves, that's another matter.

The crews were in my neighborhood yesterday and today replacing "stuff" so hopefully it will all be better soon.

I'm near Bernardo and McKinley. I was driving home on Thursday at
around 2AM, when I saw a comcast bucket truck on Bernardo. On a lark, I
manually tuned to 737 and was surprised to see that I had been upgraded. :)

Thats great. Which side of Bernardo and McKinley are you? Was your cable box already updated to be able to tune to 737?

Thats great. Which side of Bernardo and McKinley are you? Was your cable box already updated to be able to tune to 737?
I'm on mckinley, almost in mountain view.

I manually tuned tivo to 737 which worked ok. I don't have a comcast set top box
any longer, but I thought you could manually tune to a channel on one of those too.

I'm on mckinley, almost in mountain view.

I manually tuned tivo to 737 which worked ok. I don't have a comcast set top box
any longer, but I thought you could manually tune to a channel on one of those too.

Okay thanks. That means my area should upgraded pretty soon.

The comcast set top boxes have a concept of a channel map which contains the logical mapping of the channel number to the real frequency so you wouldn't be able to tune to it till they update that information (among other set top software/settings defined downloadable info) for you to be able to tune to it. You also need the Guide information for the new channels etc so I think they would pretty much have to reset your box. So they could be upgraded without the boxes having been updated with the latest settings.

And we have not forgotten about adding additional "full-time" HD channels to our Bay Area lineup. Without disclosing too much of our competitive playbook, we plan to add at least five HD networks in the next 45 days.


Based on what our friends over in Sacramento are receiving on March 31, I will guess we will get the following in our area:

Food Network HD
Sci-Fi HD
Animal Planet HD
TLC HD
CNN HD

They are also scheduled to get AMC HD....maybe we'll see it too :)

Based on what our friends over in Sacramento are receiving on March 31, I will guess we will get the following in our area:

Food Network HD
Sci-Fi HD
Animal Planet HD
TLC HD
CNN HD

They are also scheduled to get AMC HD....maybe we'll see it too :)

Those would be nice channels to have but if I might ask, where did you get this information ??? The reason I ask is Engadget reports these channels will be offered to the Sacramento area http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/03/14/comcast-readies-six-hd-newcomers-for-sacramento-california/

But I like your channels better ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Those would be nice channels to have but if I might ask, where did you get this information ??? The reason I ask is Engadget reports these channels will be offered to the Sacramento area http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/03/14/comcast-readies-six-hd-newcomers-for-sacramento-california/

But I like your channels better ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Mike,
Read down that engadget thread you linked...Somebody from Sacramento commented on it and says the message they got from comcast is "Its actually Food Network HD , SciFi HD, ANIMAL Planet HD, TLC HD, AMC HD and CNN HD.
Thats what the message said in Sacramento."

AP is a nice one

Mike,
Read down that engadget thread you linked...Somebody from Sacramento commented on it and says the message they got from comcast is "Its actually Food Network HD , SciFi HD, ANIMAL Planet HD, TLC HD, AMC HD and CNN HD.
Thats what the message said in Sacramento."

AP is a nice one

I normally don't read the comments, they usually have little if anything to do with the post only their personal opinions. I hope the guy is right. Personally, I like that lineup except for CNN-HD, not a big fan of news HD or otherwise but I'm sure others might be. Personally, I'm rooting for the SciFi-HD and Food Network HD, but that's just me :).

I wish I could comment on whether or not these particular channels will come to the our area but even if I knew I couldn't say one way or the other. We'll just have to wait and see or I'm told and given permission to post ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Davisdog,

I went back to the link and read the comments and there seems to be different things said about the additional channels being added. Here's what I mean...

Matt

@ Mar 14th 2008 6:51PM
Its actually Food Network HD , SciFi HD, ANIMAL Planet HD, TLC HD, AMC HD and CNN HD.
Thats what the message said in Sacramento.
He doesn't say how he got the message ( message on box, post card from Comcast, posting in forum etc. )

Todd

Comcast sent a postcard in the mail as well. The post card said that they could add up to 8 new HD channels.

"We will be adding up to 8 new high-definition channels, including Home & Garden, USA, Discovery and Sci-Fi."
The front of the card says "Enjoy More HD Channels March 31st!" "See more. Hear More. Experience more with HDTV from Comcast."
The funny thing is they say "up to" 8 new channels and they only mention 4 on the post card. The other funny thing is we already have Discovery HD Theater here in Sacramento on Comcast.


At least Todd says he got a post card from Comcast but we all know how accurate those post cards are ;)

So we'll just have to wait and see what really gets added.... I'm still rooting for the SciFi HD and the Food Network HD :p

Laters,
Mikef5

I haven't seen the postcard myself, I just looked over at the Sacramento - Comcast forum on AVS and a bunch of people are confirming they have gotten the same postcard with the new channels they are getting. This is all speculation on my part...take it with a grain of salt :rolleyes:

But I like your channels better ;)

Sci-Fi HD puts on a lot of action movies I wouldn't mind seeing in HD. With BSG coming back around the corner, it would be perfect timing. They also seem to put on several 'twisted' shows which I could probably get in to.

I hope we see TLC HD mainly because new episodes of American Chopper. Hate having to wait several months for them to re-air on Discovery Theater HD.

Food HD....I probably wouldn't watch this myself a whole lot, but my girlfriend can watch this for hours.

Either way more HD channels the better! Since I use TiVo Series3 HD DVR, I can't really take advantage of On-Demand. I just hope they don't switch over to SDV until those USB dongles start being made available.

USAHD is still out here. I didn't receive any messages that it was going to be removed from the tier. I'll give Comcast a call Monday to see if it is a technical problem. Anyone else seeing this? I still have the old Digital Gold package.

USAHD is still out here. I didn't receive any messages that it was going to be removed from the tier. I'll give Comcast a call Monday to see if it is a technical problem. Anyone else seeing this? I still have the old Digital Gold package.

Brian,

Try pulling the plug on the box for about 5 minutes and then reconnect the power to the box and force it to do a reset of the system. There is a way to do a complete reset of the box but it's not recommended. Before you do this call Comcast and make sure your account is showing correctly the channels you are authorized to receive, sometimes they screwup the account data and channels will not show up on your box.

Laters,
Mikef5

Giants preseason game is on NBC 11 right now in HD. Looks decent... the closeup shots are good, but the wide-angle views leave a lot to be desired.

giants game looks like widescreen SD to me. i'm 99% sure it is. pretty obvious KNTV is using FSN's graphics package, prob their production team.

I'm in Sunnyvale, 94086, and as of last night, I've got the new channels.

Unfortunately, my Tivo series 3 shows no program info for any of the
new channels. I re-ran the guided setup, so it shows the channels,
I see them in the program guide, but there's no info about any of the shows.
Forcing tivo to make its daily connection to update its program info
seems to have no effect.

I filled out the online support form on tivo's website, but it says to expect
a response in 3 to 5 days !? Sigh...Until everyone in your area is converted, there will be a "Rebuild" lineup in addition to the old one. Sometimes the guided setup doesn't select the right one. When going though guided setup, after choosing the ZIP code, there is a screen right before all of the "What do you get on channel NN?" questions, where you can press "ENTER" to manually select the lineup. "Comcast Digital Rebuild (Sunnyvale)" would probably be your best bet.

giants game looks like widescreen SD to me. i'm 99% sure it is. pretty obvious KNTV is using FSN's graphics package, prob their production team.

it was upconverted. one of the worst productions I have ever seen, very sloppy, but then again it's spring training for broadcasters too (not Jon or Kruk, they were good as always) let's hope KNTV can work out the bugs quickly...

today's game is on FSN-BA. we'll see if they fare any better..

edit: NOPE it wasn't even in HD.

Does anyone have TiVo S3/HD in the Moraga area? The station name for 709 shows up as KQEDH instead of KQEDHD, so there is no guide data for that channel.

Until everyone in your area is converted, there will be a "Rebuild" lineup in addition to the old one. Sometimes the guided setup doesn't select the right one. When going though guided setup, after choosing the ZIP code, there is a screen right before all of the "What do you get on channel NN?" questions, where you can press "ENTER" to manually select the lineup. "Comcast Digital Rebuild (Sunnyvale)" would probably be your best bet.

That did the trick. It's odd how manually adding the channels or using the regular setup didn't "just work" I think tivo is going to get a lot of support calls if they don't make some changes to the basic setup. They could at least send an email or send the tivo box a message if you are in an area being upgraded.

Anyway, mine works now. Thanks!

Looks like I have my first "real" problem here...

Using a Series 3 and a TivoHD. Not sure when this first happened, but HistoryHD (758) and a few other channels (the HD ones they added late last year) are just blank now.

When I go to the CableCARD menu instead of:
AUTH: SUBSCRIBED

I get:

AUTH: MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY

This happens on both TiVo's and when tuned it is just a black screen. This only happens for HistoryHD, USAHD and the few others that were added. The other channels all work normally.

I am in Redwood Shores, and haven't changed anything with Comcast in months, is it just me?

Just an update...

Spent well over an hour on the phone with Comcast, the person was very helpful but was stumped. We more or less went through the entire setup process and even added a few channels I don't get (HBO, etc.) and those popped up within 5 seconds of him sending the signal. He sent about 4 different signals, rebuilt the package, etc.

I did discover that I had a recording on one of the channels from 4 - 5 (750 Discovery HD) which was is perfect. When it tuned to 758 HistoryHD it lost it.

So that tells me that exactly at 5pm it crapped out...and it is obviously something on their end since all 4 of my CableCARDS do the same thing...just hope they get it fixed soon :)

Just ran these about 30 min ago (Sunday, 9pm)

That's a good question. What does it show if you run the following test?
http://msiad.visualware.com/myspeed/
according to this one: 6.55 Mbps down, 1.61 Mbps up

I've also seen folks say running the below test until it's about 75% DL'ed and see what speed it's at.
ftp://ftp1.optonline.net/test64
according to this: 1000 KB/s (7.8 Mbps) to 10%, 500 KB/s (3.9 Mbps) to 50%, then it trickled to 300KB/s (2.3 Mbps) by 75% downloaded :(

And then there's this one, but like most of these types of speedtests, it only shows you the initial burst of speed, not what it's typically going to run at.
http://www.speedtest.net/index.php
according to this one: 21751 kbps (21.2 Mbps) down, 2215 kbps (2.1 Mbps) up

I also tried http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/ and got: 21496 kpbs (20.9 Mbps) down, 2254 up (2.2 Mbps)


I'm not really sure of a good reliable test...
yeah, I'd really like to know the best way to test connection speed. They all vary too much to have any idea which is accurate. Who knows what i "really" have :|

Just ran these about 30 min ago (Sunday, 9pm)


according to this one: 6.55 Mbps down, 1.61 Mbps up


according to this: 1000 KB/s (7.8 Mbps) to 10%, 500 KB/s (3.9 Mbps) to 50%, then it trickled to 300KB/s (2.3 Mbps) by 75% downloaded :(


according to this one: 21751 kbps (21.2 Mbps) down, 2215 kbps (2.1 Mbps) up

I also tried http://speakeasy.net/speedtest/ and got: 21496 kpbs (20.9 Mbps) down, 2254 up (2.2 Mbps)



yeah, I'd really like to know the best way to test connection speed. They all vary too much to have any idea which is accurate. Who knows what i "really" have :|
You have to use a web-site that can actually deliver some bandwidth. The ftp1.optonline.net site doesn't even come close. Try this link:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/independent/slipstream/slipstream_h1080p.mov

Use Windows task manager to measure the throughput.

http://www.w6rz.net/6mbps.jpg

Ron

You have to use a web-site that can actually deliver some bandwidth. The ftp1.optonline.net site doesn't even come close. Try this link:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/independent/slipstream/slipstream_h1080p.mov

Use Windows task manager to measure the throughput.

http://www.w6rz.net/6mbps.jpg

Ron
thanks for that link. according to my firefox download status bar, I was getting about 2500 KB/s the whole way (19.5 Mbps). Nice! I hope that one is true :D

I watched task manager, but I don't know what I was looking at. The graph went to about 2-2.5% during the download, then back to 0. And there were no straight lines like in your example... my graph was up/down and irregular for the download. Does any of this mean anything to anyone?

Looks like I have my first "real" problem here...

Using a Series 3 and a TivoHD. Not sure when this first happened, but HistoryHD (758) and a few other channels (the HD ones they added late last year) are just blank now.

When I go to the CableCARD menu instead of:
AUTH: SUBSCRIBED

I get:

AUTH: MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY

This happens on both TiVo's and when tuned it is just a black screen. This only happens for HistoryHD, USAHD and the few others that were added. The other channels all work normally.

I am in Redwood Shores, and haven't changed anything with Comcast in months, is it just me?
Are you sure you are looking at the correct CableCARD info?

The Conditional Access info is only valid when you are tuned to a channel that is encrypted.

If you aren't then it just displays the info for the previous channel you were watching.

The reason it might get confusing is TiVo has 2 tuners. Even if one of your tuners is tuned to HistoryHD (which is encrypted), the other tuner might be tuned to an unencrypted channel, in which case MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY might be normal (because that CableCARD hasn't been initialized to handle decryption yet)

So basically you might be thinking you are looking at the conditional access info for HistoryHD, but you might actually be looking at the conditional access info for the other tuner that might be tuned to KTVU (making the conditional access info essentially uninitialized)

If you are getting MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY for every encrypted channel even when you have both tuners on encrypted channels, then that usually means the card hasn't been activated properly.

I suggest you change both tuners to encrypted channels you do get.
For example, change to ESPN-HD, press LiveTV to switch tuners, tune to ESPN2-HD, look at the CableCARD Conditional Access to make sure both say SUBSCRIBED. Then change one of the tuners to HistoryHD, the CableCARD Conditional Access should now say SUBSCRIBED for one of them and something else for the other.

You have to use a web-site that can actually deliver some bandwidth. The ftp1.optonline.net site doesn't even come close. Try this link:

http://movies.apple.com/movies/independent/slipstream/slipstream_h1080p.mov

Use Windows task manager to measure the throughput.



Ron
Ron, thanks for that. They have big files and it's local, I think optonline is back east somewhere.

thanks for that link. according to my firefox download status bar, I was getting about 2500 KB/s the whole way (19.5 Mbps). Nice! I hope that one is true :D

I watched task manager, but I don't know what I was looking at. The graph went to about 2-2.5% during the download, then back to 0. And there were no straight lines like in your example... my graph was up/down and irregular for the download. Does any of this mean anything to anyone?
Not even the apple website can sustain 20 Mbps. You're just seeing the variability in the throughput that the host can deliver. The only reason my graph had a straight line is because I have the 6 Mbps service, and you're seeing the bandwidth cap in action.

Here's a more typical download. This is from my own w6rz website, which is on a host shared by a zillion other users:

http://www.w6rz.net/ed24p_00.zip

http://www.w6rz.net/throughput.jpg

The percentage is the based on the link speed. In my graph, I'm using a 100 Mbps Ethernet connection, so 12.5% would be 12.5 Mbps. If you have a 1 Gbps Ethernet connection, 2% is 20 Mbps.

Ron

Just an odd question from an outsider...

I see that FSN Bay Area (soon to be CSN) does SabreCats AFL games in HD, why is it only the road games that are in HD?

Just an update...

Spent well over an hour on the phone with Comcast, the person was very helpful but was stumped. We more or less went through the entire setup process and even added a few channels I don't get (HBO, etc.) and those popped up within 5 seconds of him sending the signal. He sent about 4 different signals, rebuilt the package, etc.

I did discover that I had a recording on one of the channels from 4 - 5 (750 Discovery HD) which was is perfect. When it tuned to 758 HistoryHD it lost it.

So that tells me that exactly at 5pm it crapped out...and it is obviously something on their end since all 4 of my CableCARDS do the same thing...just hope they get it fixed soon :)

I have the same problem in Belmont (I think we share the same lineup with you guys in Redwood Shores) -- last time something similar happened it was fixed in a day. I'm going on vacation, so I hope it's straightened out by the time I'm back.
One thing for sure, it's not the equipment because it's impossible that 6 (your 4 and my 2) cablecards all go bad at the same time.

I have the same problem in Belmont (I think we share the same lineup with you guys in Redwood Shores) -- last time something similar happened it was fixed in a day. I'm going on vacation, so I hope it's straightened out by the time I'm back.
One thing for sure, it's not the equipment because it's impossible that 6 (your 4 and my 2) cablecards all go bad at the same time.

Ok, now I don't feel so bad, and I am just hoping some sort of upgrade is going on that caused the outage :)

Are you sure you are looking at the correct CableCARD info?

I actually ran through the TiVo CableCARD help section to make sure I had all my ducks in a row when I called Comcast. So I had one tuner / card locked on a channel and then changed to the channels that weren't coming in with the other one. Each time I hit a channel that was black (HBO, Showtime, HistoryHD, etc.) the CableCARD had the exact same status.

More or less the new HD channels are behaving just like a channel I don't subscribe to (HBO for example). It sounds like I am not the only one with this issue so hopefully it will be fixed by the time I get home tonight.

Keenan,

I know you've had some problems with HSI and I wanted to let you know that on Friday they were working in my neighborhood and cable was out for several hours. When it came back on, the HSI speeds, particularly upload, were much better. At speedtest.net I was getting 25,000 down and 1,500 up. some other uploads of some large files was at 1,200 to 1,400 at a pretty constant rate (meaning non-power boosted). Prior to what I assume was an upgrade of the equipment, I was getting 10,000 to 15,000 down and at most 500 up. I just switched to comcast HSI from DSL Elite (which has the same advertised speed) and Comcast has been consistently better. I am on the 6 months @ $19.99 per month deal. I had thought about switching to blast when available, but if I'm getting these speeds, I don't think I'll make the jump.

More or less the new HD channels are behaving just like a channel I don't subscribe to (HBO for example). It sounds like I am not the only one with this issue so hopefully it will be fixed by the time I get home tonight.
For me, a channel I don't receive results in NOT_SUBSCRIBED. I just tuned 2 channels I don't receive and both show NOT_SUBSCRIBED.

I get the MISSING_PROGRAM_REKEY when the encryption isn't initialized yet and I'm viewing a HD local (which doesn't require CableCARD). Other times I see it is when the card wasn't initialized properly or if their is a problem at the head-end.

Not even the apple website can sustain 20 Mbps...
... The percentage is the based on the link speed... If you have a 1 Gbps Ethernet connection, 2% is 20 Mbps...

ah ok. I do have a Gigabit port on my mobo, so the 2% makes sense. and my download status from firefox was about 20Mbps, so that seems to match the 2% I saw.

Nowthe first point you made above is confusing me. Everything seems to indicate I was getting just under 20Mbps for the whole download, but you're saying that apple's website can't sustain it? So what did I get if it wasn't about 20 Mbps? I don't know if this question is clear. apologies for that

thanks again for the explanations! this actually makes a lot more sense to me now :)

Keenan,

I know you've had some problems with HSI and I wanted to let you know that on Friday they were working in my neighborhood and cable was out for several hours. When it came back on, the HSI speeds, particularly upload, were much better. At speedtest.net I was getting 25,000 down and 1,500 up. some other uploads of some large files was at 1,200 to 1,400 at a pretty constant rate (meaning non-power boosted). Prior to what I assume was an upgrade of the equipment, I was getting 10,000 to 15,000 down and at most 500 up. I just switched to comcast HSI from DSL Elite (which has the same advertised speed) and Comcast has been consistently better. I am on the 6 months @ $19.99 per month deal. I had thought about switching to blast when available, but if I'm getting these speeds, I don't think I'll make the jump.

My rates have been all over the place. Currently, with Ron's file, and the Apple file, I'm only getting about 120-140kB/sec, that's terrible. Something is not right, if Ron can flatline at 6mbps(advertised rate) and I'm only getting about 1mbps, something is amiss somewhere.

There's a lot of factors involved, but that just seems like too much of a discrepancy.

I'm just waiting to see what happens when my area is finally upgraded, hopefully these HSI issues will be resolved. Or, U-verse is coming to my part of town, sometime...

ah ok. I do have a Gigabit port on my mobo, so the 2% makes sense. and my download status from firefox was about 20Mbps, so that seems to match the 2% I saw.

Nowthe first point you made above is confusing me. Everything seems to indicate I was getting just under 20Mbps for the whole download, but you're saying that apple's website can't sustain it? So what did I get if it wasn't about 20 Mbps? I don't know if this question is clear. apologies for that

thanks again for the explanations! this actually makes a lot more sense to me now :)

Try using something like the below, it's easier to see the actual throughput rate. I have a GB adapter as well and the Win task manager is much too coarse to get a decent picture of the rate.

http://www.bandwidth-meter.net/

Try using something like the below, it's easier to see the actual throughput rate. I have a GB adapter as well and the Win task manager is much too coarse to get a decent picture of the rate.

http://www.bandwidth-meter.net/

Err ... You don't really need anything like that. Windows has other builtin tools to do the job. You can use Performance Monitor to get a whole lot of detailed performance statistics about various things in the OS including the network. Start/Run/perfmon/Right Click/Add Counters/Performance Object/Network Interface. Then you can look at all the detailed stats for whatever you want. Hit the explain button for what each counter means. You can log it, graph it, you can alert yourself when certain threshholds are reached etc etc.

Its a pretty powerful tool and the swiss army knife of windows OS internals performance monitoring. Play around with it and you'll find its worthwhile learning about it.

Err ... You don't really need anything like that. Windows has other builtin tools to do the job. You can use Performance Monitor to get a whole lot of detailed performance statistics about various things in the OS including the network. Start/Run/perfmon/Right Click/Add Counters/Performance Object/Network Interface. Then you can look at all the detailed stats for whatever you want. Hit the explain button for what each counter means. You can log it, graph it, you can alert yourself when certain threshholds are reached etc etc.

Its a pretty powerful tool and the swiss army knife of windows OS internals performance monitoring. Play around with it and you'll find its worthwhile learning about it.

I had seen that before but never played with it. It does look like a nice little tool. Thanks. :)

I have a GB adapter as well and the Win task manager is much too coarse to get a decent picture of the rate.

In Windows Task Manager, go to "Options" and check "Auto Scale".

Ron

Brian,

Try pulling the plug on the box for about 5 minutes and then reconnect the power to the box and force it to do a reset of the system. There is a way to do a complete reset of the box but it's not recommended. Before you do this call Comcast and make sure your account is showing correctly the channels you are authorized to receive, sometimes they screwup the account data and channels will not show up on your box.

Laters,
Mikef5

Did that and it didn't help so today I called and they said I wasn't supposed to be receiving any of the 4 recently added channels because of being on that old Digital Gold package. But I still get 2 of them (unless they go turn those off after the call). This would also interfere with the new HD channels being launched soon. I rarely watch USAHD nor the other two so it was not a big deal I was just wondering why USAHD suddenly disappeared.

I told them I was probably going to change the packages anyway at the end of the month and drop the premium channels or order them ala carte when there was something I really felt was worth watching. With the strike we kinda got short changed with HBO and Showtime. Besides my entertainment bill is way too large for recession times. :D

Nowthe first point you made above is confusing me. Everything seems to indicate I was getting just under 20Mbps for the whole download, but you're saying that apple's website can't sustain it? So what did I get if it wasn't about 20 Mbps? I don't know if this question is clear. apologies for that

The Firefox download window is showing you the average bandwidth (which is a good measure, since it translates directly to download time). The Task Manager display (or other tools mentioned in the thread) shows a more instantaneous or peak measure of bandwidth.

All websites have some kind of throttling method for downloads. For example, when you view a video on Youtube or Hulu, you don't get 20 Mbps. You get less than 1 Mbps, so that the server can support many users at the same time. The apple site is a good test, because the throttle is set very high.

Of course, it's a bit of a scam on Comcast's part. They're charging you a premium for the high rate service, but most websites won't deliver the bandwidth.

Another issue is how many hosts you have to route through to get to a destination. You can see this with tracert. For me, the apple website is down the street:

C:\xfer>tracert movies.apple.com

Tracing route to a1793.x.akamai.net [8.5.245.34]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 7 ms 8 ms 7 ms 73.227.228.1
2 8 ms * 8 ms ge-7-10-ur01.santaclara.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.195.253]
3 10 ms 10 ms 8 ms pos-0-7-0-0-ar01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.86.90.154]
4 14 ms 12 ms 12 ms COMCAST-IP.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.79.43.138]
5 18 ms 9 ms 10 ms xe-11-0-0.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.79.43.137]
6 11 ms 12 ms 12 ms ae-43-99.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.18.197]
7 12 ms 11 ms 14 ms 8.5.245.34

Trace complete.

C:\xfer>

Any host along the path can limit your throughput. BTW, notice that movies.apple.com actually resolves to a1793.x.akamai.net. Akamai hosts many of the big high bandwidth sites, such as banks.

Ron

More bandwidth isn't a scam! Users who don't use their allotted bandwidth are good too. Leaves more for the rest of us. ;)

The Firefox download window is showing you the average bandwidth (which is a good measure, since it translates directly to download time). The Task Manager display (or other tools mentioned in the thread) shows a more instantaneous or peak measure of bandwidth.

All websites have some kind of throttling method for downloads. For example, when you view a video on Youtube or Hulu, you don't get 20 Mbps. You get less than 1 Mbps, so that the server can support many users at the same time. The apple site is a good test, because the throttle is set very high.

Of course, it's a bit of a scam on Comcast's part. They're charging you a premium for the high rate service, but most websites won't deliver the bandwidth.

Another issue is how many hosts you have to route through to get to a destination. You can see this with tracert. For me, the apple website is down the street:

C:\xfer>tracert movies.apple.com

Tracing route to a1793.x.akamai.net [8.5.245.34]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 7 ms 8 ms 7 ms 73.227.228.1
2 8 ms * 8 ms ge-7-10-ur01.santaclara.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.195.253]
3 10 ms 10 ms 8 ms pos-0-7-0-0-ar01.sfsutro.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.86.90.154]
4 14 ms 12 ms 12 ms COMCAST-IP.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.79.43.138]
5 18 ms 9 ms 10 ms xe-11-0-0.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.79.43.137]
6 11 ms 12 ms 12 ms ae-43-99.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.18.197]
7 12 ms 11 ms 14 ms 8.5.245.34

Trace complete.

C:\xfer>

Any host along the path can limit your throughput. BTW, notice that movies.apple.com actually resolves to a1793.x.akamai.net. Akamai hosts many of the big high bandwidth sites, such as banks.

Ron
Nice, up here we have to stop and get gas twice as often. Be nice if we didn't have to traverse northern California like a drunken sailor just to get to the edge. Fairfield>Oakland>Sacramento>San Jose is something I don't quite understand...

Tracing route to 8.5.245.34 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 8 ms 7 ms 9 ms 73.111.228.1
2 9 ms 8 ms 5 ms ge-2-4-ur01.santarosa.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.198.213]
3 8 ms 8 ms * ge-1-10-ur02.windsor.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.226.153]
4 16 ms 12 ms 11 ms te-9-1-ur01.napa.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.192.178]
5 20 ms * 13 ms te-9-1-ur02.napa.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.192.182]
6 12 ms 15 ms * te-9-1-ur01.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.192.186]
7 13 ms 9 ms * te-9-1-ur02.fairfield.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.87.192.190]
8 29 ms 13 ms 20 ms pos-0-7-0-0-ar01.oakland.ca.sfba.comcast.net [68.86.90.138]
9 15 ms 12 ms 18 ms pos-0-14-0-0-cr01.sacramento.ca.ibone.comcast.net [68.86.85.181]
10 16 ms 17 ms 21 ms COMCAST-IP.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.79.43.138]
11 17 ms 17 ms 21 ms xe-11-0-0.edge1.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.79.43.137]
12 15 ms 21 ms 14 ms ae-23-79.car3.SanJose1.Level3.net [4.68.18.69]
13 15 ms 18 ms 15 ms 8.5.245.34

Trace complete.

Any QAM viewers in Sunnyvale 94087 besides me not receiving 11.x (KNTV-NBC) this afternoon? Looks like normal signal strength and error rates, but acts as though it is encrypted :confused:

Jim

quick question im in east palo alto clarrke ave.... behind the bestbuyt and for some reason im not getting the National geographic channel HD anymore anyone esle having this problem ?

Any QAM viewers in Sunnyvale 94087 besides me not receiving 11.x (KNTV-NBC) this afternoon? Looks like normal signal strength and error rates, but acts as though it is encrypted :confused:

Jim

It's gone on my Qam tuner also, looks like the PSIP data is screwed up or missing, KNTV-HD is showing as 92-3 on my tuner.

Laters,
Mikef5

Okay thanks. That means my area should upgraded pretty soon.

The comcast set top boxes have a concept of a channel map which contains the logical mapping of the channel number to the real frequency so you wouldn't be able to tune to it till they update that information (among other set top software/settings defined downloadable info) for you to be able to tune to it. You also need the Guide information for the new channels etc so I think they would pretty much have to reset your box. So they could be upgraded without the boxes having been updated with the latest settings.

So whats the new date for the upgrade in El Camino/Bernardo area? Not too optimistic to expect it this week?

Does anybody know if they are close to implementing multi-room viewing on the DCH series DVRs? (I believe Motorola calls it "follow-me tv" or some such crap.)

even the DCT with latest firmware have "Connected Home", but they have yet to turn it on.

Ok, now I don't feel so bad, and I am just hoping some sort of upgrade is going on that caused the outage :)

My channels are back tonight. Are yours too? (No upgrade I can see though)

So whats the new date for the upgrade in El Camino/Bernardo area? Not too optimistic to expect it this week?

Nothing is known for sure unless Mr. J or Mikef5 know something and/or would share it here.

I did call up customer service and reached a very helpfull lady who was willing to look up the status (as she has a boyfriend in Sunnyvale who wasn't upgraded yet). She was able to find that they are still working in our specific area but couldnt tell me when they'd be done for sure. I'm guessing they probably don't have access to that information. The best guess was that they should be done by the date they gave us on the card (Mar 23).

So lets all start raising a ruckus after 23rd Mar if they aren't done :)

My channels are back tonight. Are yours too? (No upgrade I can see though)

Yep, when I got home everything was back to normal. Maybe they were moving things around for the new channels? Guess I just need to wait for a bit next time. Honestly had they done it on a weekday I wouldn't have even noticed.

It's gone on my Qam tuner also, looks like the PSIP data is screwed up or missing, KNTV-HD is showing as 92-3 on my tuner.

Laters,
Mikef5

According to the PC QAM tuner (and some code that I wrote), KNTV was on 116-1 but is now on 92-3 in my area. The bad part is that it used to have PSIP data when it was on 116 but now it's missing. :mad:

Interestingly, I also see KGO and KQED duplicated on both 110 and 117. Wonder why they're wasting bandwidth like that.

According to the PC QAM tuner (and some code that I wrote), KNTV was on 116-1 but is now on 92-3 in my area. The bad part is that it used to have PSIP data when it was on 116 but now it's missing. :mad:

Interestingly, I also see KGO and KQED duplicated on both 110 and 117. Wonder why they're wasting bandwidth like that.

That's interesting they would put it at 92.x - that's also where KBCW-HD lives. I guess two HDs can live together in 6 MHz without degrading either one. Previously I was also getting KNTV on 116.1 (PSIP'd to 11.1) but the Weather Plus PSIP was missing and could only get it by tuning to 116.x directly.

Does anybody have any idea if KNTV is going to now live permanently at 92.x or is this just temporary? And hopefully the PSIP data for this will be restored soon in any case. :mad: :mad:

According to the PC QAM tuner (and some code that I wrote), KNTV was on 116-1 but is now on 92-3 in my area. The bad part is that it used to have PSIP data when it was on 116 but now it's missing. :mad:

Interestingly, I also see KGO and KQED duplicated on both 110 and 117. Wonder why they're wasting bandwidth like that.
The reason you're probably seeing the duplicate channels is that they are either doing or getting ready to do digital simulcasting in your area. I don't know what area your are in but I'm seeing the same thing in mine and I know they were getting ready to do simulcasting here but I think they are delaying it until all the areas get upgraded and then they'll worry about that later.

Laters,
Mikef5

That's interesting they would put it at 92.x - that's also where KBCW-HD lives. I guess two HDs can live together in 6 MHz without degrading either one.
You realize for *every* 6MHz block that carries HD (on our system) there are minimum 2 HD channels (sometimes 2 HD + some SD), right? A 256QAM 6MHz block is around 38Mbps and each OTA channel (HD+SD multicast) is at most around 19Mbps, so 2 HD fits nicely within 1 6MHz block.

Interestingly, I also see KGO and KQED duplicated on both 110 and 117. Wonder why they're wasting bandwidth like that.
In case you weren't saying that tongue-in-cheek, usually that means they are moving it (or getting ready to move it) and just haven't shut off or replaced the old one yet. Comcast for sure knows how their bandwidth is being used.

It's when putting 3 HD channels into one 256QAM, as apparently Comcast has started to do in some markets, that things start to get a bit dicey.

It's when putting 3 HD channels into one 256QAM, as apparently Comcast has started to do in some markets, that things start to get a bit dicey.
I was mapping out the recent channel changes and realize we are now one of those markets.

AETV, HGTV, and SHO are now all on the same 256QAM channel (ch 11, 201MHz)

I should say, that is on my system, I don't know about others.

Interestingly, I also see KGO and KQED duplicated on both 110 and 117. Wonder why they're wasting bandwidth like that.
In my area I don't see any duplicates but lots of stuff did shift around. For the channels you listed, my system had the following changes:

110 MXHDW, S-HDw
became
110 U-HD, NGC-HD

116 KNTV, ESPN
became
116 TBS, ESPN

92 AETV, KBCW
became
92 KNTV, KBCW

It's gone on my Qam tuner also, looks like the PSIP data is screwed up or missing, KNTV-HD is showing as 92-3 on my tuner.
I verified using stream analyzer PSIP for KNTV-HD is missing after the move from 116 to 92.

Also even when PSIP for KNTV gets fixed, clear QAM tuner will get confusing (until you remove some channels from your channel list) when tuning KNTV because not only do you have 11.1 and 11.2 PSIP virtual channel maps for KNTV, you have a physical digital channel 11 being used for AETV, HGTV, SHO.

So once PSIP is fixed, you will have a full channel scan returning
11.1 KNTV-HD (virtual channel #, actual 92.x)
11.1 blank screen (encrypted)
11.2 KNTV-W (virtual channel #, actual 92.x)
11.2 blank screen (encrypted)
11.3 blank screen (encrypted)

The ordering is implementation/TV dependent. I just listed one possible ordering.

It appears we have 2 new HD channels/streams (at least on my system)

Through a channel scan, I know they are there, but I cannot tune them to see what they are because they are encrypted.

There are 2 HD streams on ch24, one of them is GolfVS. The other is not in the guide yet (at least not the TiVo guide)
ch24 GOLFVS/?

There are 2 HD streams on ch100, one of them is MTV. The other is not in the guide yet (at least not the TiVo guide)
ch100 MTV/?

I was mapping out the recent channel changes and realize we are now one of those markets.

AETV, HGTV, and SHO are now all on the same 256QAM channel (ch 11, 201MHz)

I should say, that is on my system, I don't know about others.

That's not exactly great news. I didn't think Comcast would expand this practice before they had the right equipment in place, at least I'm guessing they don't have it in place per the article a few weeks back. The "right equipment" being a type of double-pass statmuxing system to dynamically rate-shape the data of the 3 channels.

My bet is that they are doing it the "simple" way of just splitting the bandwidth between the 3 channels. Can you tell if each channel has been allotted the same bandwidth?

How do they look? If I'm not mistaken, AETV and HGTV are 720p, and SHO doesn't run a very high bitrate anyways so it might not have much effect on PQ.

I'm really surprised though that they have already started doing that here. They must be feeling the pressure from DirecTV even more so than their public stance(1000 HD choices etc.) has indicated.

My bet is that they are doing it the "simple" way of just splitting the bandwidth between the 3 channels. Can you tell if each channel has been allotted the same bandwidth?

How do they look? If I'm not mistaken, AETV and HGTV are 720p, and SHO doesn't run a very high bitrate anyways so it might not have much effect on PQ.
My bet is these channels weren't using that much bandwidth to start and they found they could fit all three on 1 channel.

I don't know about SHO, but the other channels don't look much different to me. AETV always looked like crap. HGTV looks decent. Even before they put them on one channel none of the channels were pushing the envelope like CBS does. I think the pre/post bitrates are probably about the same, but I'm going by memory, which could be faulty.

Right now, there are 3 video streams, 14.5, 11.5, and 9Mbps (+ some audio streams)

There appears to be around 2.5Mbps head room that is not being used and probably is in reserve. These are variable bitrate so I'm just giving averages.

HGTV is 1080i. It looks decent and is almost definitely the 14.5Mbps.

I don't get SHO so I don't know how it looks. By process of elimination it is likely the 11.5Mbps stram.

AETV is 720p but they just stretch SD content so it has always looked like crap (to me) relative to real HD content. It is very likely the 9Mbps stream.

My bet is these channels weren't using that much bandwidth to start and they found they could fit all three on 1 channel.

I don't know about SHO, but the other channels don't look much different to me. AETV always looked like crap. HGTV looks decent. Even before they put them on one channel none of the channels were pushing the envelope like CBS does. I think the pre/post bitrates are probably about the same, but I'm going by memory, which could be faulty.

Right now, there are 3 video streams, 14.5, 11.5, and 9Mbps (+ some audio streams)

There appears to be around 2.5Mbps head room that is not being used and probably is in reserve. These are variable bitrate so I'm just giving averages.

HGTV is 1080i. It looks decent and is almost definitely the 14.5Mbps.

I don't get SHO so I don't know how it looks. By process of elimination it is likely the 11.5Mbps stram.

AETV is 720p but they just stretch SD content so it has always looked like crap (to me) relative to real HD content. It is very likely the 9Mbps stream.

Maybe they are rate-shaping them, if they were doing a flat 3-way split you wouldn't have that 14.5Mbps rate.

P.S. At least you have SHOHD, we haven't had it up here for going on 4(maybe longer) years now.

For those in Sunnyvale 94086 and 94087 that were recently upgraded I am curious if channel 757 (NGC) comes in OK. For me it shows as NOT_SUBSCRIBED so I need to call Comcast to get it added (putting the dreaded CSR call on hold while I attempt to make some space on my TiVo as getting that channel added will quickly eat up my disk space :) ). I am just curious if everyone shows this way or if I am just a lucky one.

Thanks in advance!

I attempted to pick up an SD-DVR at my comcast office yesterday and they said they had not seen on in weeks. Has anyone picked up one of these lately? Also for equipment can I pick up boxes at another location say where I work in Oakland instead of where I live in Solano County? As for my cable card experience I picked up a Cable Card yesterday at my local Comcast Office who begrudgingly handed it over saying that am I sure I want the card that they were told to discourage people from getting them. big surprise there. Got home installed the card into my Mitsubishi WD-Y57 DLP and called in the Host and Data ID numbers to comcast. After two hours they hadn't sent a signal to the card so I called again. This time the card was successfully paired but my premiums (514 - 600 & 770-800) were not authorized, told them that it was not authorized for my premiums, they sent another signal, for a minute the card was decrypting the channels successfully then lost them and said they were not authorized, they then sent another signal and the card can tune into the premium channels but they are completely unwatchable as there is extreme macro blocking on these channels, check signal level in my tv diagnostic screen for several HD channels and these were good. Do I have a bad card, or should I just try again with another CSR? Thanks for the help

I verified using stream analyzer PSIP for KNTV-HD is missing after the move from 116 to 92.

Also even when PSIP for KNTV gets fixed, clear QAM tuner will get confusing (until you remove some channels from your channel list) when tuning KNTV because not only do you have 11.1 and 11.2 PSIP virtual channel maps for KNTV, you have a physical digital channel 11 being used for AETV, HGTV, SHO.

So once PSIP is fixed, you will have a full channel scan returning
11.1 KNTV-HD
11.1 blank screen (encrypted)
11.2 KNTV-W
11.2 blank screen (encrypted)
11.3 blank screen (encrypted)

The ordering is implementation/TV dependent. I just listed on possible ordering.It seems that this is not a good time to be trying to set up a DVR on the local Comcast system. :(

Best to wait a bit for things to settle back down.

Maybe they are rate-shaping them, if they were doing a flat 3-way split you wouldn't have that 14.5Mbps rate.
I don't understand this requirement that bandwidth be equally divided among 3 channels. It don't observe that happening on the 2 HD channel 6MHz bands we have right now. As far as I can tell these are individual streams and each can have their own independent bitrate.

For example:
ch69
DISC, 1080i, 12.2Mbps (Chicago Fire)
USA, 1080i, 9.8Mbps (Shadow Man - Steven Seagal)
*unused* 15.8Mbps

The streams are allocated bit packets as required and then null packets are added to bring the bit rate to a constant 38 Mbps. The division between streams is totally arbitrary until the moment when the sum of their rates exceeds 38 Mbps. That's when Comcast's encoder would have to make decisions about "rate shaping".

The streams are allocated bit packets as required and then null packets are added to bring the bit rate to a constant 38 Mbps. The division between streams is totally arbitrary until the moment when the sum of their rates exceeds 38 Mbps. That's when Comcast's encoder would have to make decisions about "rate shaping".
Yes, that matches what I observe.

Keenan seemed to be implying that splitting the channel bandwidth usage among 3 channels required equal allocations of bandwidth to the 3 channels unless rate-shaping was used.

It seems that this is not a good time to be trying to set up a DVR on the local Comcast system. :(

Best to wait a bit for things to settle back down."I guess I picked a bad week to give up sniffing glue."

Actually, I picked a bad time to start using the QAM tuner in my 2 year old TV. (I just ordered a new one for the LR, and in anticipation of moving the old one to the BR with no cable box, I figured I'd check out the QAM capability.)

Is there a place to find a list of SJ digital channel assignments? It would make it easier than trying to figure out which channel is which, for labeling purposes.

Also, I get 11-1 in its proper PSIP re-mapped location, unlike what some of you have reported. But, I actually get TWO 11-1's. One has nothing on it, and the other has NBC-HD. Weird.

Yes, that matches what I observe.

Keenan seemed to be implying that splitting the channel bandwidth usage among 3 channels required equal allocations of bandwidth to the 3 channels unless rate-shaping was used.

That was my understanding. With current equipment, the two providers are allocated 3MHz each. KIPX would get 3MHz, KGO would 3MHz. KPIX could use all their 19.38 worth of space for their single channel. KGO would have to spread their channels over their own 19.38 worth of space. Now, stat-muxing could be taking place within those two 3MHz slots, but I didn't think that the full 6MHz was stat-muxed among the 4 channels(for example).

IOW, KPIX gets 3MHz to do with whatever they want, same for KGO. I was under the impression that's how it works currently. The new system actually stat-muxes the whole 6MHz among however many channels you want but it does it more efficiently without sacrificing PQ.

But, as you noted, you have one that was using 14.5 already so maybe they have implemented the new equipment.

I guess what I'm saying is there's a "good" and a "bad" way, and I'm guessing it's still being done the bad way in the bay area.

I read the article a few weeks ago and don't remember the details but it talked about how it was a large improvement over the current system.

A test would be to see if any of the 3 channels ever go over a certain bitrate. Each of those channels may be capped at a number that totals the full 38Mbps. That to me is still "flat-rating", which also means that if one channel drops below it's assigned allocation, the extra is not used for the other channels.


....OTOH, I do remember years ago Comcast was rate-shaping KGO and it was causing PQ problems. They stopped doing it at the request of the station and the problems went away. They may have started to do it again under the pressure of needing to add more channels.

(man, that's a terrible post, I'm not even sure if I understand what I just wrote. :p )

Also, I get 11-1 in its proper PSIP re-mapped location, unlike what some of you have reported. But, I actually get TWO 11-1's. One has nothing on it, and the other has NBC-HD. Weird.
I explained why that is happening here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=13407292&postcount=5677

Yes, that matches what I observe.

Keenan seemed to be implying that splitting the channel bandwidth usage among 3 channels required equal allocations of bandwidth to the 3 channels unless rate-shaping was used.

Right. Comcast is doing 256QAM now on it's HD channels. If they were doing 64QAM, they would only have about 27 Mbps for the 6 Mhz channel (net of FEC). That is not able to support 2 full HD streams, which can hit a max of 19 Mbps. 19+19=38, which is why 2 HD channels fits nicely into a 256QAM modulated 6 Mhz cahnnel (which nets about 39 Mbps net of FEC).

720p programming can use the full 19 Mbps or so, depending on the audio track and colorspace used. Sticking 3 of these in a single 256 QAM channel will be dicey though - they'll have to do statistical transrating of MPEG2, which will downrez programming when they run out of bandwidth for a specific instant in time. The equipment to do that exists and is in use with several carriers, so it's practical for comcast to do it, but depending on the programming, there could be a quality hit. Mostly likely though, you won't see it as a lot of HD is not encoded for maximal use of the capacity.

Doing a fixed 3 way split of the bandwidth will definitely cause a hit on quality, unless the source content is doing 480p most of the time.

All this just shows the problem that comcast has right now compared with DirecTV. Comcast still is avoiding making hard choices and moving a block of analog channels to digital. Taking 10 analog channels and converting them to digital would solve a lot of their problems in many of the markets, but they don't seem to want to do that. It's a good thing too, since so many people watch stuff like golf channel, VS, AZN and and CMTV on analog. :-(

Any chance we'll see sci-fi HD on our lineups on or prior to the April 4 debut of Season 4 of BSG? That day is fast approaching and I am getting nervous. I finally want to watch the show in HD "day and date" with SD. (I'm not one of those people who wait six months because in the end I'll take great content now, but I'd love to have great content and picture now)

Thanks.

That was my understanding. With current equipment, the two providers are allocated 3MHz each. KIPX would get 3MHz, KGO would 3MHz. KPIX could use all their 19.38 worth of space for their single channel. KGO would have to spread their channels over their own 19.38 worth of space. Now, stat-muxing could be taking place within those two 3MHz slots, but I didn't think that the full 6MHz was stat-muxed among the 4 channels(for example).
...
A test would be to see if any of the 3 channels ever go over a certain bitrate. Each of those channels may be capped at a number that totals the full 38Mbps. That to me is still "flat-rating", which also means that if one channel drops below it's assigned allocation, the extra is not used for the other channels.
That sounds like an SDV concept to reduce fragmentation.

I think a simpler test is just to observe the NULL stream and see if it ever reaches zero. If not, then there is spare capacity. Of course they could still be flat-rated, thus accounting for the NULL stream always being there, but that seems like a waste of bandwidth to me. I've observed the NULL stream bit rate increase and decrease so I know at least part of that capacity is usable by the active streams.

I looked at one of the ADS channel groups like ch114 (on my system)
I see the following bitrates 4.5, 4.3, 3.9, 3.8, 3.8, 3.9, 3.7, 3.5, 3.4, 3.2
with 1.6 for the NULL stream.

I don't see any equal allocation algorithm, rather it matches what Terry described where each stream can have its own individual bitrate with NULL packets filling in the blanks.

That sounds like an SDV concept to reduce fragmentation.

I think a simpler test is just to observe the NULL stream and see if it ever reaches zero. If not, then there is spare capacity. Of course they could still be flat-rated, thus accounting for the NULL stream always being there, but that seems like a waste of bandwidth to me. I've observed the NULL stream bit rate increase and decrease so I know at least part of that capacity is usable by the active streams.

I looked at one of the ADS channel groups like ch114 (on my system)
I see the following bitrates 4.5, 4.3, 3.9, 3.8, 3.8, 3.9, 3.7, 3.5, 3.4, 3.2
with 1.6 for the NULL stream.

I don't see any equal allocation algorithm, rather it matches what Terry described where each stream can have its own individual bitrate with NULL packets filling in the blanks.

I guess the only way to know for sure is if, say, all of KGO's channels somehow needed more that 19.38Mbps. KNTV would probably be a better choice.

There's a table somewhere on this forum that showed a bitrate comparison between FIOS and a cable system, don't recall which one. But it showed FIOS having consistently higher bitrates than cable, not just CBR'ing a full 19.38Mbps signal, but higher VBR rates. I think AETV and/or HFTV were in the list, if so, we can tell if Comcast has lowered the bitrate on your previously mentioned channels. Won't tell us if they're allocating specific amounts, but it will tell us if Comcast has moved away from the "pass what we get" policy.

<edit> Here it is in the first post,

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008271

FiOS Comcast Difference

AETV HD 18.66 Mbps 14.48 Mbps -28.9%
Discovery HD 14.16 Mbps 10.43 Mbps -35.8%
Discovery HD Theater 17.45 Mbps 12.60 Mbps -38.5%
Food Network HD 14.32 Mbps 13.73 Mbps -4.3%
National Geographic HD 11.39 Mbps 10.32 Mbps -10.3%
Universal HD 12.72 Mbps 11.01 Mbps -15.5%

Starz HD 11.93 Mbps 9.76 Mbps -22.2%

My guess is that you'll never see AETV get to that 18.66Mbps rate here unless there's not a lot going on with the other 2 channels as they would have to split the remaining 19Mbps between them.

Right. Comcast is doing 256QAM now on it's HD channels.
...
720p programming can use the full 19 Mbps or so, depending on the audio track and colorspace used. Sticking 3 of these in a single 256 QAM channel will be dicey though
...
All this just shows the problem that comcast has right now compared with DirecTV. Comcast still is avoiding making hard choices and moving a block of analog channels to digital.
Not sure why 64QAM is being introduced. They've been doing all 256QAM for probably at least 1.5-2yrs now, and partial 256QAM for even longer. I think almost all cable companies used 256QAM for their HD channels from the beginning. I had HD from Comcast when it first came out (when it was basically HD locals + HBO) and as far as I can remember, the HD channels have always been 256QAM. Other digital channels were 64QAM, but then eventually everything got migrated to 256QAM.

--

Both 720p and 1080i programming can use 19Mbps. 720p actually compresses better both because the raw pixel rate is less and because compressing progressive images is more efficient than compressing interlaced.

However the observation is many of the HD channels we get are actually sending out 12-15Mbps and some are as low as 9Mbps.

For example AETV is consistently around 9-11Mbps. That is probably because much of their content is upconverted stretched SD. If they do 24/7 HD, maybe their bitrates will change.

I don't see any issue with combining 2 12Mbps HD channels with AETV. There is head room for higher bitrates if necessary. What we want to avoid is having CBS and ESPN which are around 18.5Mbps during primetime combined with a 3rd HD channel.

--

While Comcast may have problem matching DirecTV in the long run, what we are seeing here isn't an illustration of that because:
1) there is additional unused bandwidth in our systems.
2) they aren't reducing bitrates as far as I can tell, just combining 3 channels which are broadcast at low bit rates.
3) IMO Comcast is doing fine moving analog channels to digital. When they need the extra bandwidth, they move some analog channels to digital. There is no reason for them to move 10 analog channels to digital unless they have HD channels to fill up the bandwidth. They don't appear to have contracts set up for 20-30 HD channels so why move them before necessary?

On my head-end, they've already moved TVGC, CSPAN to digital to introduce some channels and I see they are also using ch24, ch69, ch74 in the analog range (don't know if those used to be analog channels.

I'm on a 850MHz system and the highest they are currently using is around 750MHz. There's another 100MHz not being used yet.

Personally I think between selective migration of some analog channels to digital, 1GHz upgrades of 550MHz areas, rate shaping, SDV, etc. Comcast has enough tools to compete with DirecTV. A lot of HD channels sucked when they were SD channels (because the content was crap) and still suck when you change them to HD. There really is only a much smaller set of HD channels people really care about and the rest are just filler to make the numbers look big.

I guess the only way to know for sure is if, say, all of KGO's channels somehow needed more that 19.38Mbps. KNTV would probably be a better choice.
...

AETV HD 18.66 Mbps 14.48 Mbps -28.9%

My guess is that you'll never see AETV get to that 18.66Mbps rate here unless there's not a lot going on with the other 2 channels as they would have to split the remaining 19Mbps between them.
I don't see why KGO or KNTV would choose to send out more bitrate to Comcast than they do for OTA. It's more work and not a whole lot of benefit to them. It would be nice if someone had access to a baseline for us to compare to for AETV, SHO, HGTV. It is easy to do for OTA because we can do real-time simultaneous comparisons, but all those channels have access to 19Mbps, so there is no reason to degrade those signals. The ones where degrading the channel might happen are the 3 listed above but I can't tell whether we just got a crappy feed or we have a great feed and Comcast is making it crappy. I wouldn't feel comfortable using the chart listed because I'm not even seeing the numbers in the Comcast column (let alone the FIOS column) even when there is plenty of spare bandwidth.

...
Really? That is amazing, I never knew AETV went up that high. Even when AETV was sharing a 6MHz block with just one other HD channel, I've never seen it that high. I think we got a bum AETV feed.

Does anyone happen to remember the bitrates for AETV prior to the recent changes? The highest I can remember was around 11-12Mbps. I'm shocked to see it is supposed to be 18.66Mbps, because I've never seen that even when it had access to 19Mbps of bandwidth and there would be no reason to limit it.

Any chance we'll see sci-fi HD on our lineups on or prior to the April 4 debut of Season 4 of BSG? That day is fast approaching and I am getting nervous. I finally want to watch the show in HD "day and date" with SD. (I'm not one of those people who wait six months because in the end I'll take great content now, but I'd love to have great content and picture now)

Thanks.

+1 on this question...besides do we even know if UHD will carry it again as they did last year?

See the first post in that thread, there's some rather brutal screenshots comparing DiscHD on both providers.

bfdtv also notes that this 3-per is something that Comcast has instructed their systems to do starting in April. There's a list of the channel pairings further down in the thread.

+1 on this question...besides do we even know if UHD will carry it again as they did last year?

Here's hoping too. Currently UHD is finishing up Seaon 1 in a 'whole saga' according to the promos, which still means even season 3 is a ways out.

I explained why that is happening here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=13407292&postcount=5677

That's nice. I actually don't care why it's happening. But, it's still nice.

Anyway, is there a list somewhere of relatively current SJ area Comcast QAM channel assignments?

This is not a good time to be making a list either. :rolleyes:

See the first post in that thread, there's some rather brutal screenshots comparing DiscHD on both providers.

bfdtv also notes that this 3-per is something that Comcast has instructed their systems to do starting in April. There's a list of the channel pairings further down in the thread.

Ugh... Slaughtering HD like that is criminal, esp. Discovery theater which has a lot of nice eye candy on it. They must not be using dynamic transrating on that...

It's funny, Comcast and cable in general used to be the HD quality kings, since they carried stuff unmolested, while DirecTV was doing HDlite. Now with the new MPEG4 HD channels, DirecTV is no longer doing HD lite, but Comcast is moving to overaggressive compression hurting quality, to make sure that we can enjoy golf channel and QVC and HSN in analog...

What a reversal of roles!

It is starting to look that way, of course, we've discussed it here at length, and for us HD fans, Comcast has just taken too long to get with the program.

As I've said before, I'm more interested in their HSI service now than I am with any HD channels they have/may carry. I can't think of 1 channel Comcast carries that I can't get from DirecTV with the exception of some of the older MPEG2 legacy channels DirecTV still tranmits, Comcast has the PQ edge on those. But that's only 2 channels, ESPN-HD and Disc-HD.

And unless Comcast's OnDemand product is as good a quality as their linear channels, I'm not interested in that either. Well, as good as they used to be anyway.

Maybe Mr J could be asked to address if they are going to do the super compression in this market and no longer follow their policy of not additionally compressing HD signals?

Anyway, is there a list somewhere of relatively current SJ area Comcast QAM channel assignments?
You could try silicondust's website.

http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/hdhomerun/channels

There are entries that will be out of date because channels move around, but you can get an idea where to look and what to look for.

I doubt someone other than Comcast will have an accurate list. Usually people are motivated in the beginning to put one together, but then over time it gets out of date and they don't bother updating.

Also keep in mind the subchannel numbering algorithm is not universal and what one tuner calls .1 might be .5 on another tuner.

See the first post in that thread, there's some rather brutal screenshots comparing DiscHD on both providers.

bfdtv also notes that this 3-per is something that Comcast has instructed their systems to do starting in April. There's a list of the channel pairings further down in the thread.
I went and read the post. Given that additional information, I think our area must be experimenting and possibly planning full implementation of the 3-per.

All the recent re-arrangement of channels matches exactly the list bfdtv gave in the other thread (except for the channels we don't receive yet)

I also noticed 2 unpublished bit-starved 9-10Mbps HD channels at ch24(225MHz) and ch100(651MHz)

The confusing part for me is apparently Comcast must have already been reducing the PQ for many months even before the recent realignment, because AETV has looked like crap for a while and I just thought it was the source because it was on a 2-per channel and had 19Mbps at its disposal. Now with the chart keenan posted, it seems AETV is supposed to be 18Mbps, but we've had a crappy version of that, which now is stuck in a 3per channel, where you don't notice the reduction in quality as much because it was already reduced before.

I would say Bay Area is at least experimenting with 3per and likely will implement it. That is based on the realignment of the channel groupings matching what bfdtv posted, unpublished bit-starved HD streams, and information from Mikef5/MrJ that we will be getting new HD channels soon.

I guess what was not mentioned is along with new HD channels we'd be getting 3-per.

I bolded all the channels we have today that now match the grouping bfdtv posted. Last month they were in some completely different grouping. I think the 3rd wheel channels match up with the ones we have been promised.

I think it is a shame they don't fully use the capacity they currently have before reducing PQ. 550 areas are almost all upgraded to 1GHz now. 860MHz has room to spare. 750MHz areas have less room, but they should have enough room for the new channels in the list below.


Discovery Channel
SciFi
USA

Food
NatGeo
UHD

A&E
HGTV
Starz

Cinemax
HBO
TLC

Animal Planet
Discovery HD Theater
History HD

You could try silicondust's website.

http://www.silicondust.com/wiki/hdhomerun/channels

There are entries that will be out of date because channels move around, but you can get an idea where to look and what to look for.

I doubt someone other than Comcast will have an accurate list. Usually people are motivated in the beginning to put one together, but then over time it gets out of date and they don't bother updating.

Also keep in mind the subchannel numbering algorithm is not universal and what one tuner calls .1 might be .5 on another tuner.Thanks. I figured any list wouldn't be 100% accurate, especially during this highly active period.

That's a real drag about the sub-channel numbering, as most of the digital channels appear to be sub-channels of only a handful of parent channels. Hopefully, the sub-channels will at least remain the same on my two Panasonic TV's and the Panasonic DVD Recorder I will be buying. One would hope they use the same basic tuner design in all of their ATSC/QAM tuners.

so yeah ias i stated earlier i lost channel 757 which is natgeo.... dudes havent been any help but if it means anything one guy said that by summer they were planning on rolling out more hd channels

The reason you're probably seeing the duplicate channels is that they are either doing or getting ready to do digital simulcasting in your area. I don't know what area your are in but I'm seeing the same thing in mine and I know they were getting ready to do simulcasting here but I think they are delaying it until all the areas get upgraded and then they'll worry about that later.

Laters,
Mikef5

Yes, I am aware of analog-digital simulcast. I've had it for quite some time. However, it's the Hi Def streams that are duplicated. If you count the simulcast, then it's triplicated.

Downtown Los Gatos has gotten the infamous "flyer".


wooooooo



April 4 - May 20

Yes, I am aware of analog-digital simulcast. I've had it for quite some time. However, it's the Hi Def streams that are duplicated. If you count the simulcast, then it's triplicated.

I'm seeing PSIP data for KNTV on 92.3 now, so looks like Comcast fixed it in a somewhat timely manner. However, it would've been nice if they got it right from the get go.

I'm still seeing KGO/KQED HD on both 110 and 117 though. Also, I forgot to count analog earlier so you could say they're quadruplicated :p ;)

I'm seeing PSIP data for KNTV on 92.3 now, so looks like Comcast fixed it in a somewhat timely manner.

Also KBCW now has PSIP data, it's showing up as 44.1 :) That leaves KICU at 122.1 and KRON at 131.1 as the two QAM-only HD stations without it.

Probably not to date accurate as there are a lot of changes happening to systems in the bay area, but this link(in post below) gives you the ability to look up some of your system details, bandwidth, sub count, etc. Thanks to sansri88 for posting it in the Comcast HD Quality Reduction thread.

Go here: https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/csb/coals/index.html

Click on cable search in the left column. Type in your state, and then the type of filing is Annual Cable Operator Report. Look for the one that is your system name (mine is Comcast of New Jersey II). Within the report you can find detailed information on your system.

You can use your community identifier. It's on your bill. Mine is NJ329. If you search for that CUID, you can get your PSID (physical system ID). Do this to get the PSID:

1) Get the CUID off your bill
2) Input the CUID into the FCC Identifier.
3) For type of filing, look up the signal leakage report.

It will return results for your CUID. One of the columns on the search results will the the physical system ID. Copy it and go back to search. Then:

4) Input the PSID into the PSID box.
5) For type of filing look up the Annual Cable Operator Report.

That should get you the results you're looking for.

Downtown Los Gatos has gotten the infamous "flyer".


wooooooo



April 4 - May 20


hey Trident,

you got any new flyers abt an upgrade date in the El Camino/Bernardo area? I havent gotten any....

I went and read the post. Given that additional information, I think our area must be experimenting and possibly planning full implementation of the 3-per.

All the recent re-arrangement of channels matches exactly the list bfdtv gave in the other thread (except for the channels we don't receive yet)

I also noticed 2 unpublished bit-starved 9-10Mbps HD channels at ch24(225MHz) and ch100(651MHz)

The confusing part for me is apparently Comcast must have already been reducing the PQ for many months even before the recent realignment, because AETV has looked like crap for a while and I just thought it was the source because it was on a 2-per channel and had 19Mbps at its disposal. Now with the chart keenan posted, it seems AETV is supposed to be 18Mbps, but we've had a crappy version of that, which now is stuck in a 3per channel, where you don't notice the reduction in quality as much because it was already reduced before.

I would say Bay Area is at least experimenting with 3per and likely will implement it. That is based on the realignment of the channel groupings matching what bfdtv posted, unpublished bit-starved HD streams, and information from Mikef5/MrJ that we will be getting new HD channels soon.

I guess what was not mentioned is along with new HD channels we'd be getting 3-per.

I bolded all the channels we have today that now match the grouping bfdtv posted. Last month they were in some completely different grouping. I think the 3rd wheel channels match up with the ones we have been promised.

I think it is a shame they don't fully use the capacity they currently have before reducing PQ. 550 areas are almost all upgraded to 1GHz now. 860MHz has room to spare. 750MHz areas have less room, but they should have enough room for the new channels in the list below.

There's a post by markofmayhem in that thread that goes into some detail on how Comcast distributes these signal. He also mentions Vyyo's ICE system used at the CMC in Denver, this is the system I was referring to earlier. Of note is that some of these channels may be double bounced from provider to the CMC and then back to another sat before reaching the local headends.

Apparently Comcast has started to use an "off-the-shelf" pre-packaged channel provider which apparently has already reduced the quality for some of these channels. Sort of like how we use Comcast for our local channels rather than getting them directly from the station OTA. The Disc/USA/SciFi grouping is one of these pre-packaged blocks.

His post is more informative, and no doubt more accurate, I just hit some of the things I thought were interesting.

Basically, for some of the PQ issues that have been popping up, it's not a local problem, but a problem in how, and from who, the signals are handled prior to getting to the local headends.

So, that would seem to leave Mr. J off the hook. :D

Comcast Philly, now that's a different story...

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=13418296#post13418296

News
Comcast: No HD For MLB Extra Innings
The cable operator will only show games in standard-def.
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (March 19, 2008) -- Comcast said today that it will not offer any MLB 'Extra Innings' baseball games in High-Definition.

In Demand, the company that will distribute the pay package of games to cable operators, is expected to offer up to 10 'out-of-market' games a week in HD as well as dozens of others in standard-def.

However, Comcast told TVPredictions.com today that it will not broadcast the high-def games to its subscribers.

"Only SD," Comcast spokeswoman Jenni Moyer said.

Asked why, Moyer said it wasn't because the cable operator didn't have room on its system for the HD games which require more capacity.

"It's most likely because we don't have an agreement to carry it in HD," she said.

DIRECTV has said it will offer up to 40 Extra Innings games a week in HD, although the high-def coverage will cost an additional $50 over the standard package of $179.

Dish Network did not carry the pay package last year and has not announced that it will do so this year, either.

Cox, Time Warner and Charter will carry the package, but has not announced its HD plans.

http://www.tvpredictions.com/comcastmlb031908.htm

Not a very good spokesperson if you have to say "It's most likely because....".

well that sucks, i'd be the first paying customer to have EI in HD.

Not a very good spokesperson if you have to say "It's most likely because....".

I thought the same exact thing.

That leaves KICU at 122.1 and KRON at 131.1 as the two QAM-only HD stations without it.
My area has PSIP for those two channels. Actually has had them for the last 6 months and didn't lose them during the recent moves.

hey Trident,

you got any new flyers abt an upgrade date in the El Camino/Bernardo area? I havent gotten any....

Well I got one back in Feb that said Feb 18 to Mar 23, and I haven't gotten anything else since then. Mar 23 is coming soon. So if we don't get upgraded by then we should start asking Comcast.

... and for us HD fans, Comcast has just taken too long to get with the program.

As I've said before, I'm more interested in their HSI service now than I am with any HD channels they have/may carry....
ditto for me. a couple weeks ago I had Dish installed and got their DishHD package. I actually think the PQ of Dish is noticeable better on all channels. It's almost like all the channels look as good as HDTheater did at Comcast. I still have Comcast because I wanted to see if I was going to miss ondemand, but you know what.. i've got a DVD/BD player and netflix, so screw it. Probably cancelling Comcast tv this week. Just need to make sure Dish gets my bill right... sneaky bastards, never trust the sales rep :mad:

the bottom line is that my tv bill is going from $115 per month to $35 per month, and I have 95% of the channels that I want (in HD!). No CNBC or FSN. Oh well...

I will keep Comcast phone and internet. Although I'm still not convinced the 16Mpbs blast is worth it. Might downgrade it back to 6Mpbs... I can't tell any difference with the stuff I do online

ditto for me. a couple weeks ago I had Dish installed and got their DishHD package. I actually think the PQ of Dish is noticeable better on all channels. It's almost like all the channels look as good as HDTheater did at Comcast. I still have Comcast because I wanted to see if I was going to miss ondemand, but you know what.. i've got a DVD/BD player and netflix, so screw it. Probably cancelling Comcast tv this week. Just need to make sure Dish gets my bill right... sneaky bastards, never trust the sales rep :mad:

the bottom line is that my tv bill is going from $115 per month to $35 per month, and I have 95% of the channels that I want (in HD!). No CNBC or FSN. Oh well...

I will keep Comcast phone and internet. Although I'm still not convinced the 16Mpbs blast is worth it. Might downgrade it back to 6Mpbs... I can't tell any difference with the stuff I do online

How does the DishDVR compare to Comcast?

How does the DishDVR compare to Comcast?

Smokes it, the Dish DVR is one of the best I've ever used, second only to a TiVo and not by much.

Hi my name is Fred from S.F.

I just made the move to HDTV (VIZIO VO47 FHD from Costco)... I hooked up to my regular basic comcast cable and did get good HD channels. Now i've upgraded to the basic HD cable from comcast....

my question is, how come i am not getting certain channels in HD anymore like Sixty Minutes, CBS Morning/Evening News and some other network shows as well...

Can someone please direct me to a link that can explain to me in simple terms? Sorry, I tried following the 191 pages on thos SF HD thread and i'm lost! I apologize for my ignorance too ;p

thanks!

Fred

ditto for me. a couple weeks ago I had Dish installed and got their DishHD package. I actually think the PQ of Dish is noticeable better on all channels. It's almost like all the channels look as good as HDTheater did at Comcast. I still have Comcast because I wanted to see if I was going to miss ondemand, but you know what.. i've got a DVD/BD player and netflix, so screw it. Probably cancelling Comcast tv this week. Just need to make sure Dish gets my bill right... sneaky bastards, never trust the sales rep :mad:

the bottom line is that my tv bill is going from $115 per month to $35 per month, and I have 95% of the channels that I want (in HD!). No CNBC or FSN. Oh well...

I will keep Comcast phone and internet. Although I'm still not convinced the 16Mpbs blast is worth it. Might downgrade it back to 6Mpbs... I can't tell any difference with the stuff I do online

Currently I have both Comcast and DirecTV. The combo gives me practically every known HD channel, duplicates of the local HD channels for those times when there's a 3-way or more recording conflict, HSI 6/384, all for about $140 a month.

$140 for Comcast or for both?

What kind of Comcast and D* packages? Premium channels? DVRs?

How does the DishDVR compare to Comcast?
i've got the Vip-722, and I love it. but to be honest I have never liked the moto6412 since I got it, so my opinion is probably a bit jaded lol

still, the general consensus seems to be that of what keenan said. it's one of the best and comparable to tivo quality.

$140 for Comcast or for both?

What kind of Comcast and D* packages? Premium channels? DVRs?
i'm curious about packages too, and are they promotional rates that expire? the main reason i didn't go directv was the 24 month contract and all the extra fees. i've got my dish HD-DVR and another HD receiver all with no extra fees. that was the kicker for me... it's a flat $35/month deal.

one huge caveat to anyone considering such a change though... the sales rep lied to me (or lacked training). when i got my first bill it was chock full of fees that I was repeatedly assured would not be incurred. A THIRD-level rep at dish was finally able to hear my side of the story and credited my account for 1 year of fees, thus giving me the deal I actually signed up for. Bummer about the missed expectations, and now only having the rate for one year, but whatever. Dish almost lost me as fast as they got me. I have no contract with them for this exact reason - I can't stand these companies

Hi my name is Fred from S.F.

I just made the move to HDTV (VIZIO VO47 FHD from Costco)... I hooked up to my regular basic comcast cable and did get good HD channels. Now i've upgraded to the basic HD cable from comcast....

my question is, how come i am not getting certain channels in HD anymore like Sixty Minutes, CBS Morning/Evening News and some other network shows as well...

Can someone please direct me to a link that can explain to me in simple terms? Sorry, I tried following the 191 pages on thos SF HD thread and i'm lost! I apologize for my ignorance too ;p

thanks!

Fred

Basically, I think when you hooked up you're regular cable to you're TV it was receiving standard definition and stretching out the picture.

CBS has never broadcast their new programs in HD.

fitprod

$140 for Comcast or for both?

What kind of Comcast and D* packages? Premium channels? DVRs?

I'm paying $101 per month to DirecTV for their Total Choice package plus HBO. SHO and the HD Extra Pak. Includes 2 HD-DVRs, they cost $80 for the first and the second one was free. Second one was added later to replace a HR10-250. I was/am a current D* customer.

I'm paying $20 per month for Limited Basic, and $20 for 6/384 HSI for 6 months(intro offer). But, with the HSI I got $230 in rebates via Circuit City - $60 went to cover the cost of the modem, and depending on how you like at it, 7.5 mos of free HSI(which would make my current monthly outlay $120 instead of $140), or about 10 mos of HSI at $20(6 mos)/$44(3.8 mos) which would come out to about $146 average over the 10 mos.

the main reason i didn't go directv was the 24 month contract and all the extra fees.That's odd, as it's a well known fact that Dish has way more "nickel and dime" fees than Direct. Five dollars for this. Five dollars for that. It all adds up. You must have some special deal from that third tier CSR.

Hi my name is Fred from S.F.

I just made the move to HDTV (VIZIO VO47 FHD from Costco)... I hooked up to my regular basic comcast cable and did get good HD channels. Now i've upgraded to the basic HD cable from comcast....

my question is, how come i am not getting certain channels in HD anymore like Sixty Minutes, CBS Morning/Evening News and some other network shows as well...

Can someone please direct me to a link that can explain to me in simple terms? Sorry, I tried following the 191 pages on thos SF HD thread and i'm lost! I apologize for my ignorance too ;p

thanks!

Fred

KPIX news is definitely broadcasting in HD, i don't know if CBS's network news is in HD yet (i'm young and i work long hours).

as far as whether you are set up correctly, need more information. i think your TV has a QAM tuner. did you plug the cable directly into your tv? if you did, you need to do a channel scan, then tune in to only the digital channels (ie 11.1) to just be able to receive HD signals, but only if the network is actually broadcasting an HD signal at the time you tuned in. not every program is in HD yet.

confused what you mean by upgraded to comcast basic HD - did they give you a motorola box? if you did, you'd need to tune into the 700s channels to get any HD... and again, only if the network is actually broadcasting an HD signal at the time you tuned in.

Has anyone else noticed that KPIX periodically loses sync with the decoder in the cable box? By "loses sync", I mean that after a commercial, generally, the image will freeze or all sound will be lost. This always happens after a switch from SD (a commercial or other teaser) back to the HD signal. Switching channels then back resyncs things.

This has been going on for a couple of weeks. I have only noticed the phenomenon with KPIX (channel 705).

http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/vindu/2008/03/19/share-your-comcast-customer-service-stories/


Share your Comcast customer service stories

By Vindu Goel
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 1:46 pm in Business, Comcast, Technology, Telecom.
Digg this del.icio.us

I’m going to be interviewing Rick Germano, Comcast’s new head of customer service, on Friday morning as part of a larger piece I’m doing on the company.

I’d love to hear your tales of Comcast service — good and bad — as well as any feedback that you’d like me to pass on to Rick.

I’m especially interested in your experiences with the super-fast 16 Mbps Blast Internet service that Comcast recently launched in the Bay Area. How was the ordering/installation experience? Is your Web experience notably faster? Do you think it’s worth the money?


So, is Mr J out? or that's a different position?

http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/vindu/2008/03/19/share-your-comcast-customer-service-stories/



So, is Mr J out? or that's a different position?

Different position. I'd be interested on what he has to say, I've had correspondence with him ( Mr. Germano ) in the past.... not on my Christmas list ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Different position. I'd be interested on what he has to say, I've had correspondence with him ( Mr. Germano ) in the past.... not on my Christmas list ;)

Laters,
Mikef5
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v637/keenanj/017-1.gif

Doesn't sound like the guy for customer service head...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v637/keenanj/017-1.gif

Doesn't sound like the guy for customer service head...

If you can remember a long time ago when they first started with the upgrades and the issuing of DVR's this was the guy that said that the 550 MHz areas would not be upgraded in the foreseeable future if ever. They were waiting for some kind of future technology to get the bandwidth for the 550 MHz areas so we could get what everyone else was getting already. Basically we were SOL as far as he was concerned.

Laters,
Mikef5

Looks like my section of LG got upgraded last night! Can't say the line-up is all that thrilling, but there are a few good ones that I didn't have before. And I now have OnDemand, which I'll need to play around with to see how good that is. Good job, Comcast.

Smokes it, the Dish DVR is one of the best I've ever used, second only to a TiVo and not by much.

Okay thanks. This then begs the question of the DirecTV DVR as they seem to have the most HD channels.

Okay thanks. This then begs the question of the DirecTV DVR as they seem to have the most HD channels.

There are more appropriate threads to answer this question. The folks at Comcast are probably already displeased with me. :p Probably why I'm still not upgraded. :D

But, it's fairly common knowledge that the current Comcast DVR offerings are a lowest common denominator/basic functionality DVR solution. They get the job done in reasonably efficient fashion, but that's it. One of the very huge drawbacks to the Comcast DVR is it's extremely limited storage capacity.

When you get into the TiVo(cable-OTA), DirecTV and Dish DVRs, your into a whole different world of DVR'ing.

I suggest you look in the HDTV Recorder forum, specifically the below link for the D* DVR,

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=931226

If you can remember a long time ago when they first started with the upgrades and the issuing of DVR's this was the guy that said that the 550 MHz areas would not be upgraded in the foreseeable future if ever. They were waiting for some kind of future technology to get the bandwidth for the 550 MHz areas so we could get what everyone else was getting already. Basically we were SOL as far as he was concerned.

Laters,
Mikef5

I do recall that, in fact, I think that's when I signed up for Dish, I wasn't going to wait for Comcast to bring me TNT-HD so I could see the NBA in HD. This was like 3+ years ago??

Note to Comcast: We still don't have TNT-HD here in Santa Rosa, at least in most all of the city.

I've actually had good interactions with Rick Germano. Light years ago when Comcast was first rolling out the HD DVR's, he personally called my local Comcast office and had them come out and install it for me a few days before they were available to the public. I can't remember why...I think because it was delayed by a good year in the Bay Area and I kept bugging him about it.

Edit: I should look back in the archived thread and see if I can find my "ecstatic" post...

I've actually had good interactions with Rick Germano. Light years ago when Comcast was first rolling out the HD DVR's, he personally called my local Comcast office and had them come out and install it for me a few days before they were available to the public. I can't remember why...I think because it was delayed by a good year in the Bay Area and I kept bugging him about it.

Edit: I should look back in the archived thread and see if I can find my "ecstatic" post...

The time I dealt with him was when he was Regional Senior Vice President, for Comcast and yes, I saved those emails just for nostalgic reasons, just so I can remind myself that it could've been a lot worse. ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Just went home for lunch and I'm upgraded! Woo hoo! Finally Comcast delivers just in time. I'm in the Bernardo El Camino area. Time for a nice HD filled weekend.

There's supposed to be a free preview weekend for HBO starting today. Anyone getting it? It's not happening up here, yet.

http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/vindu/2008/03/19/share-your-comcast-customer-service-stories/

Quote:
Share your Comcast customer service stories

I’m going to be interviewing Rick Germano, Comcast’s new head of customer service, on Friday morning as part of a larger piece I’m doing on the company.

I’d love to hear your tales of Comcast service — good and bad — as well as any feedback that you’d like me to pass on to Rick.

I’m especially interested in your experiences with the super-fast 16 Mbps Blast Internet service that Comcast recently launched in the Bay Area. How was the ordering/installation experience? Is your Web experience notably faster? Do you think it’s worth the money?

So, is Mr J out? or that's a different position?

Why not ask him about the issues with the lousy DVR and recent news of picture quality reduction? This is their core business and more important to most of us than internet service.

-Dave

BTW, The 5 FCC commissioners will be meeting at Stanford on April 17th holding a public meeting on Broadband Network Management Practices aka Comcast's traffic shaping policies.

Folks from this list who are interested in the topic should plan to attend and make their opinions heard.

You could even bring up how Comcast is degrading HD quality by packing 3 HD signals in 1 6 Mhz channel while you are at it - I think a number of the commissioners would be very interested in hearing about it, and all 5 will be there in person. :-)

BTW, The 5 FCC commissioners will be meeting at Stanford on April 17th holding a public meeting on Broadband Network Management Practices aka Comcast's traffic shaping policies.

Folks from this list who are interested in the topic should plan to attend and make their opinions heard.

You could even bring up how Comcast is degrading HD quality by packing 3 HD signals in 1 6 Mhz channel while you are at it - I think a number of the commissioners would be very interested in hearing about it, and all 5 will be there in person. :-)

Well Mike, while you're at it why not ask the FCC Commissioners about this article about the SatCo's and their picture quality.....
http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6543480
seems like the FCC is showing a sense of bias when it comes to fair competition between what's required of cable and not required by the SatCo's. This is the part that jacks my jaw....
The National Association of Broadcasters, which did not return requests for comment, is probably going to be unhappy because the FCC plans to allow DirecTV and Dish to down convert broadcasters’ HD signals to a less pristine picture resolution for several years.

The satellite giants—which combined serve about 30 million pay-TV subscribers—convinced FCC officials that they lacked the channel capacity to provide every eligible station in HD immediately. They insisted that they needed several years to prepare for a full HD carriage requirement


While people jump on cable for trying to get the most out of the bandwidth they have, it seems the SatCo's only need to cry to the FCC to get what they want. Seems fair to me.... don't you think ???

Laters,
Mikef5

Well Mike, while you're at it why not ask the FCC Commissioners about this article about the SatCo's and their picture quality.....
http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6543480
seems like the FCC is showing a sense of bias when it comes to fair competition between what's required of cable and not required by the SatCo's. This is the part that jacks my jaw....

While people jump on cable for trying to get the most out of the bandwidth they have, it seems the SatCo's only need to cry to the FCC to get what they want. Seems fair to me.... don't you think ???
I'm confused, are you saying cable should be allowed to degrade HD locals or that SatCos should not? :)

Well Mike, while you're at it why not ask the FCC Commissioners about this article about the SatCo's and their picture quality.....
http://www.multichannel.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6543480
seems like the FCC is showing a sense of bias when it comes to fair competition between what's required of cable and not required by the SatCo's. This is the part that jacks my jaw....


While people jump on cable for trying to get the most out of the bandwidth they have, it seems the SatCo's only need to cry to the FCC to get what they want. Seems fair to me.... don't you think ???

Laters,
Mikef5

First off, the DBS guys can now carry the SD versions of the HD locals in a bunch of obscure markets for a few more years until more satcom capacity is online. Basically, they are not going to have to carry some independent religious TV station in whackyourbutt,TX in HD and waste their satcom capacity to do so. Local users who care about these stations can use an OTA antenna and pick up that signal and experience in HD. The DBS guys already carry all the major locals in major markets in full HD. In this area it just means that KRON might not get carried in full HD... :-) But as I said, local OTA will work just fine.

However, DirecTV is not downrezzing A&E, NGC, etc..., all NATIONAL channels that have no local OTA option. If Comcast downrezzs it, I cannot just stick an antenna out and pick up A&E the way it's supposed to be.

This is an apples and oranges comparison.