You've gone senile, it's now Aug 11, 2010, where have you been? :p:D

See the below from the top of the forum,

Thank God I'm just senile ( or have bad eye sight and/or can't read ), I thought I'd lost 10 days again :p:D

Laters,
Mikef5

Okay, after watching some of the Olympics on NBC, USA and UHD I have some comments.

I get terrible macroblocking on fast motion. Anytime NBC does the moving graphic, it looks blocky.

When watching the PGA Championship, ESPNHD, CSNHD I don't see much macroblocking.

Anybody else notice these sorts of issues?

Throw me in this camp, too. I've noticed it seems worse on NBC than on other HD channels, like ESPN, as well, even before the Olympics.

BTW, forgive the selective quoting. I quoted the stuff that was relevant to my reply. Heh. :)

I don't have Comcast any more but I recall the 2004 Olympics being really bad. When they had the diving competition, every time the divers made a splash entering the water, you had horrible pixelation of the water.

So far, what I'm seeing, on Direct TV, doesn't look anywhere near that bad. But haven't seen diving yet, just some swimming, basketball, some sculling, etc.

Didn't see the opening ceremonies with the fireworks but I would imagine that might be prone to artifacts as well.

Didn't see the opening ceremonies with the fireworks but I would imagine that might be prone to artifacts as well.

Check. It looked like a sky full of reddish blocks from time to time. It kind of ruined my opening ceremony experience. That and the fact it was 4.5 hours.

The NBC feed is a lot better than 2004, but it's far from perfect. Luckily (?) the worst offender seems to be the full-screen logo swish (note to network graphics people, stop doing that!) but other fast-motion can cause it too. As others have said, it's more than likely an NBC-feed problem, not a local KNTV or Comcast problem (Comcast doesn't re-compress KNTV, or any of the local channels, including CSN).

The NBC feed is a lot better than 2004, but it's far from perfect. Luckily (?) the worst offender seems to be the full-screen logo swish (note to network graphics people, stop doing that!) but other fast-motion can cause it too. As others have said, it's more than likely an NBC-feed problem, not a local KNTV or Comcast problem (Comcast doesn't re-compress KNTV, or any of the local channels, including CSN).

Agreed, better than 2004, but not by much, and I simply don't get that logo, how can they possibly think that looks good, all pixelated and blurry?

So by coincidence, diving tonight on KNTV-HD.

On Direct TV, no pixelization from the water splash.

But there is a bit when they're spinning in the air in real time. The slow motion is a bit clearer but it breaks up.

You hope over time, they refine the encoders and the picture improves, as NTSC did over the decades.

I haven't posted in a while, but in reviewing some last few pages, I haven't seen much talk of new HD channels coming our way on Comcast in the Bay Area. Are we due for new HD offerings in the coming weeks, months? Thanks!

I just ordered Comcast Internet BLAST. What's the best modem (and respective firmware/tweaks) that would give it the best performance, reliability, and stability? Or, is it best to just lease the one they give you? Where can I get it? Online/Retail store.

Does anyone know if Comcast has added the special Olympics Soccer and Basketball HD channels? Googling around indicates they've showed up on Directv, but don't show up in their guide...anyone know what channels (if any) Comcast is slated to use for these channels?

Thanks

I can almost live with a one or two hour delay, but when it is a 24 hour delay, I really get annoyed. The men's gymnastics final will start in Beijing about 7 pm tonight (Monday) our time. That's one sport that we would want to watch in real time. I hope we can see that sometime tonight and not tomorrow night.
Gymnastics coverage started at 10 PM local time - in other words, it was live when it was aired in New York, but three hours delayed here. The same with the swimming, which was the original problem (somebody complained that, because there is a three-hour delay but only for the west coast, it is still too easy to hear the results of events you want to watch without knowing the results first).

One of the "advantages" of having the games in central/eastern Asia is, you can "persuade" the organizers to hold certain events at times where they would air live in the eastern USA. Not that there haven't been a few complaints, mind you, especially from the athletes (all of the swimming finals, as well as all of the gymnastics events, have to be held in the morning).

Does anyone know if Comcast has added the special Olympics Soccer and Basketball HD channels? Googling around indicates they've showed up on Directv, but don't show up in their guide...anyone know what channels (if any) Comcast is slated to use for these channels?

Thanks

You mean they're not in the Comcast guide? They are listed in the DirecTV guide. Comcast may have chosen not to put them up here, as I recall, only a few systems back east got the HD channels.

That is correct. There are some selected eastern systems with the two channels. Nobody in the west has said they have them.

Gymnastics coverage started at 10 PM local time - in other words, it was live when it was aired in New York, but three hours delayed here. The same with the swimming, which was the original problem (somebody complained that, because there is a three-hour delay but only for the west coast, it is still too easy to hear the results of events you want to watch without knowing the results first).

One of the "advantages" of having the games in central/eastern Asia is, you can "persuade" the organizers to hold certain events at times where they would air live in the eastern USA. Not that there haven't been a few complaints, mind you, especially from the athletes (all of the swimming finals, as well as all of the gymnastics events, have to be held in the morning).

Actually all the individual gymnastics finals are held in the evening Beijing time.

Diving seems to be a popular sport for viewers, but last night NBC once again decided not to show the 10m women's synchro live. It started at 11:30 pm our time. I wish they assign one of the channels to carry stuff live, not with tape delay to account for the east-west time difference.

I am getting "Not Authorized" for all non-local HD channels except Nat Geo HD and Science HD. This was suspected earlier to happen around Aug 15th. I have limited basic + Digital Classic. Any one had success in getting 1 year promotional price for Digital Starter that Comcast promised for those affected?

I am getting "Not Authorized" for all non-local HD channels except Nat Geo HD and Science HD. This was suspected earlier to happen around Aug 15th. I have limited basic + Digital Classic. Any one had success in getting 1 year promotional price for Digital Starter that Comcast promised for those affected?Same pkgs here (LB + DC) and I'm now getting only ESPND,ES2HD,MOJHD,HDT,SCIHD,NGCHD. Digital Classic is supposed to include Sci-Fi HD but I don't have it. Don't know about CSNHD since there is no game on now but I can see the HD SPORTS logo on 720.

If you got the letter for 1 year deal on Digital Standard for $33/mo, take it down to your local office and see what they say. I showed my letter to CSR guy local office here a couple of weeks ago and he said he knew the code to enter for the offer. I haven't decided yet.

I had to call 2 times (btw I never received the "letter"), but I got the 33/year for digital starter.

I am getting "Not Authorized" for all non-local HD channels except Nat Geo HD and Science HD. This was suspected earlier to happen around Aug 15th. I have limited basic + Digital Classic. Any one had success in getting 1 year promotional price for Digital Starter that Comcast promised for those affected?

I had to call 2 times (btw I never received the "letter"), but I got the 33/year for digital starter.

I didn't get the letter. But fortunately when I called last night CSR gave me an extension '89600' to reach during daytime regd this problem. She gave this number as soon as I told "I lost bunch of HD channels".

Today I asked CSR to connect me to this ext. Everything went smoothly. I told him that I didn't get the letter. First he said the offer is for "standard package". After I asked he tried if the offer works for 'digital starter' and it seemed to work. So the magic number is 89600.

I can't see these channels yet.. he said someone needs to remove trap tomorrow. It wouldn't matter for me since these are ADS. Not sure if the authentication also changes tomorrow.

I was watching something on Tuesday night (8/12) at about 7:45 when, instead of the usual white text on black screen Emergency Alert Message, it appeared in what can best be described as a "picture in picture" window, with the message scrolling across the window. (I was recording it as well; the window does not appear in the recording, but also the signal does not jump over the message like it used to with the full-screen EAS messages.)

Has anybody else seen this? The thing is, I am not sure if this is how Comcast sent it, or the PIP window is something TiVo does.

-- Don

In my area there are at least 6 encrypted channels which are probably HD in the range for the "extender basic" (or whatever the term of the week is) channels so the trap may have to be removed even if the channels are authorized. Went through this rigmarole this spring and finally went to the Comcast office to get it set up right. Even there they had the wrong information on the most current channel lineup pamphlet at the time.

Does anyone know if Bay Area Comcast will be getting new HD channels anytime soon?

Are there any worth getting?

I didn't know Comcast had AMC-HD here in the bay area, it shows as being on 769 here in Santa Rosa.

I am getting "Not Authorized" for all non-local HD channels except Nat Geo HD and Science HD. This was suspected earlier to happen around Aug 15th. I have limited basic + Digital Classic. Any one had success in getting 1 year promotional price for Digital Starter that Comcast promised for those affected?
I called them and upgraded to Digital Starter $33 for 12 months, but I had to keep the Digital Classic or I don't get the promotion price. I think my bill will be something like: Digital Starter + Digital Classic + HD STB fee.

I called them and upgraded to Digital Starter $33 for 12 months, but I had to keep the Digital Classic or I don't get the promotion price. I think my bill will be something like: Digital Starter + Digital Classic + HD STB fee.

CSR told me the same intially : first he said I needed to keep DC with "Standard Package" for this offer. I asked him to remove it since it does not have much value now. He tried to removing it in the system and it was ok. He clarified that I will loose on-demand, which was ok with me. After that I asked if the offer works with "Digital Starter" in stead of "Standard Package".. he tried and said it worked.

I am not at home to verify if get any of the new channels and if On-Demand is still on.

Gwenn Knapp wrote an article for tomorrow's Chronicle that addresses what we were talking about regarding NBC's "live" coverage of the Olympics.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/13/SPN112AJUT.DTL

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but are any of you guys seeing a bright yellowish line down the left hand side of HD NBC network shows on KNTV-DT 703? It's not there during local HD programming like newscasts, but it's definitely there during HD Olympic coverage and Nightly News.

I can get rid of it by adjusting my TV's horizontal position a bit, but it just irritates me that it's only on NBC HD. Strangely enough, it's also not present when I'm watching NBC HD on Demand stuff, like Olympic highlights. Anyone know what gives?

Does anyone know if Bay Area Comcast will be getting new HD channels anytime soon?

Just read that Comcast is picking up the Big Ten network (college football) including a HD feed. Don't know if the Bay Area will get it soon though.

I have noticed that "Spike" promotes their HD channel, that one might be nice (they seem to show Star Wars films a lot...)

FX hd would also be a good chan to be carried. There are others that have been mentioned, the more choices the better. Make everybody happy.

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but are any of you guys seeing a bright yellowish line down the left hand side of HD NBC network shows on KNTV-DT 703? It's not there during local HD programming like newscasts, but it's definitely there during HD Olympic coverage and Nightly News.

I can get rid of it by adjusting my TV's horizontal position a bit, but it just irritates me that it's only on NBC HD. Strangely enough, it's also not present when I'm watching NBC HD on Demand stuff, like Olympic highlights. Anyone know what gives?

When I do 'Dot for Dot' on my Pioneer Plasma, I see a white line on the left side. I don't recall seeing it on UniversalHD, or USA-HD.
And, now having watched more, the quality is only slightly better than last time. Still seeing macroblocking, and the wide shots are still very fuzzy (though that might be the frame rate conversion 50 Hz to 60 Hz).

I called them and upgraded to Digital Starter $33 for 12 months, but I had to keep the Digital Classic or I don't get the promotion price. I think my bill will be something like: Digital Starter + Digital Classic + HD STB fee.
So, what is your total bill for video - minus the STB fee?

Maybe I should re-read some of the older posts, but this still confuses me when I see someone post "$33 a month" for Digital Starter. Is that the total cost? or, is Limited Basic, Standard Cable, etc, cost added on to that?

IOW, I have Limited basic only. If I go with the Digital Starter plan, if it's available here, how much is my monthly bill?

The website for my area is WORTHLESS! :D

Digital Starter is around $57, about the same as Standard Cable.

Digital Starter is around $57, about the same as Standard Cable.

Thanks...that's a little too much. I wanted to try it for awhile to compare Comcast with D*, but given the channels I get already for $16.50 a month, I'm not going to take the chance of losing that by changing plans just to compare channels I already have. If it was $33 a month total, I'd consider just adding and keeping it.

Sure be nice if Comcast had an HD-only package. :)

Also, is AMC-HD a real channel, or just a guide anomaly from TiVo?

Also, is AMC-HD a real channel, or just a guide anomaly from TiVo?

AMC-HD is a real channel. They added it when they added Science and Disney as part of the 3 pack. I have not seen any HD movies on it though.

Sure be nice if Comcast had an HD-only package. :)

Also, is AMC-HD a real channel, or just a guide anomaly from TiVo?

It's a real channel, I get it on channel 769 ( Road House is on right now and in a proper aspect ratio ) and you're right that all HD package from Dish is really tempting and would be nice if Comcast offered the same type of package. ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Thanks, guys. I'd like to have that channel for Mad Men and Breaking Bad, but not enough to change plans. Plus, I hear it's a lot like TNT-HD with a bunch of crap on the screen, promos during programs, etc?

BTW, figured out my guide problem. It's been so long since anything has changed up here it never occurred to me to check the guide selection menu sequence TiVo has(forgot it was even there). Once I did that, the missing info filled in. :)

I don't see Comcast ever offering an HD only package, DirecTV doesn't either, but hopefully they might some day. Of course, with Dish losing subs and D* adding them, they really don't have too much incentive to.

Thanks, guys. I'd like to have that channel for Mad Men and Breaking Bad, but not enough to change plans. Plus, I hear it's a lot like TNT-HD with a bunch of crap on the screen, promos during programs, etc?

BTW, figured out my guide problem. It's been so long since anything has changed up here it never occurred to me to check the guide selection menu sequence TiVo has(forgot it was even there). Once I did that, the missing info filled in. :)

I don't see Comcast ever offering an HD only package, DirecTV doesn't either, but hopefully they might some day. Of course, with Dish losing subs and D* adding them, they really don't have too much incentive to.

AMC-HD doesn't do a lot of commercial insertion in their programing like TBS ( the worse offender ) and to a lesser extent TNT, it's actually a very good station and I like watching it because of all the older programing that they have. I love being nostalgic once in a while and it looks good in the expanded versions of those movies ( it's not HD but expanded SD to fill the 16x9 screen ) ... :p

I know that cable will never offer an all HD programing package like Dish but if they don't do something really quick I may drop down to just a basic cable line up and go with that Turbo HD from Dish to feed my HD addiction ;)
I'm paying way to much for what I'm getting and my only allegiance is to my wallet. ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Amen to that, my $16.50 per month is too sweet to mess around with. :D

to clarify...i posted a week or two back...after having had limited basic + digital classic + HD STB for $36 and change (38.82 after taxes)...

since they were getting rid of my previous deal...they offered me 12 months at $33/mo without the STB. (Digital Starter which has everything i had before, but no Science or Natl Geo HD...but all other HD except the premium channels...+ all of the analog stuff too (which i never watch))

so it will be $40 + taxes...haven't gotten my first bill yet, but i'm suspecting i'll be close to $42 per month with the STB and taxes.

how did someone get $16.50/mo? (its already $15/mo for just limited basic...which is ultimately what i'll end up with once i buy a new TV with a built in QAM tuner and these 12 months go by...[i like the Dish TurboHD in principle...will want to see how it fairs with real customers and with PQ during the next several months)

That's all I have, Limited Basic, which in SR is currently $16.50. It's higher or even lower I think depending on the part of the bay area you are in.

...which is weird to me, given that the systems are supposed to be all the same, or will be, but since it's in my favor, I'm not complaining.

Also, you're breakdown of what you're paying just confuses me again, but that's not surprising I guess, given the different rates all the bay area.

That "$16.50" includes $1.79 for CableCard.

That "$16.50" includes $1.79 for CableCard.

Actually, no..but that's a subject best left alone in my case. :p:D

AMC-HD is alright. Seems like a crapshoot if they will show a particular movie in real HD or upconverted. I'd say it's about 50/50.

In theory "more is better" with HD channels EXCEPT if it means more heavy compression to squeeze them in, and then they don't even have much (if any) real HD content.

Spike and FX would probably qualify...

In my area there are at least 6 encrypted channels which are probably HD in the range for the "extender basic" (or whatever the term of the week is) channels so the trap may have to be removed even if the channels are authorized.
This hasn't happened in my area yet. All the digital channels are outside channel 35-78 (approx). I guess as the analog channels are removed more and more digital channels will move to this range in all areas.

The reason I didn't see the channels yesterday was that Comcast didn't enable new package (Digital Started) until today, apparently to avoid charging me before the physical trap is removed by Comcast guy.

That's all I have, Limited Basic, which in SR is currently $16.50. It's higher or even lower I think depending on the part of the bay area you are in.

...which is weird to me, given that the systems are supposed to be all the same, or will be, but since it's in my favor, I'm not complaining.

Also, you're breakdown of what you're paying just confuses me again, but that's not surprising I guess, given the different rates all the bay area.

i don't have my new bill, but here's what i was pay for before (close, i'm too lazy to pull out the bill but know it fairly well)

limited basic 14.69
digital classic 14.95
HD STB 7.00

subtotal 36.64 + taxes/franchise fees = 38.82

my new package is:

digital starter (includes extended basic + a slew of digital channels...everything i had before except NatlGeo HD and Science HD)

dig starter 33.00
HD STB 7.00
taxes/franchise fees ~$2+

total = $42+

make sense? (and yes, i agree, comcast pricing and documentation is crazily confusing!)

One of the annoying things is that most of these channels (AMC, USA, TNT, etc) seem to have the same film catalog (of about 30 movies) and just rotate amongst themselves. Not much bang for the buck. :(

i don't have my new bill, but here's what i was pay for before (close, i'm too lazy to pull out the bill but know it fairly well)

limited basic 14.69
digital classic 14.95
HD STB 7.00

subtotal 36.64 + taxes/franchise fees = 38.82

my new package is:

digital starter (includes extended basic + a slew of digital channels...everything i had before except NatlGeo HD and Science HD)

dig starter 33.00
HD STB 7.00
taxes/franchise fees ~$2+

total = $42+

make sense? (and yes, i agree, comcast pricing and documentation is crazily confusing!)

Thanks for the breakdown, it does make more sense that way. :)

Comcast has added HD channels for customers in the some Northeast and Chicago markets:

Comcast lighting up 15 HD channels in Chicago, Illinois (http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/08/15/comcast-lighting-up-15-hd-channels-in-chicago-illinois/)

Comcast adds 9 HD channels in Vermont, 10 in Pennsylvania (http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/08/14/comcast-adds-9-hd-channels-in-vermont-10-in-pennsylvania/)

Has anyone heard if Northern California is lined up for some additional HD channels?

Since I've had HD with Comcast, I've found that I view whatever is on HD 90% of the time - the rest on standard cable. I'm thinking of downgrading to Digital Starter from Digital Preferred to match my viewing habits. I could lose NatGeo HD and Science Channel HD for $15 less a month, but if these additional channels were on the horizon for the Bay Area market, I could be persuaded to stay at the second-tier price scheme.

FWIW -- I have noticed the decreased PQ when the previously added HD channels were squeezed into the bandwidth -- more aritifacting on most channels except for Comcast Sports HD. I'd love more channels, but would hate the compression to increase. SDV can't come soon enough -- do the new Motorola boxes handle this already?

I'd switch to satellite, but I am required to periodically watch the San Francisco Board of Supervisor meetings on basic cable as penance...

May I ask what you are paying for Digital Preferred?

I only had Limited Basic plus Digital Classic which was perfectly fine for my watching habits, then I received the letter from Comcast warning me that most of the HD channels will disappear on August 15 unless I upgraded to the Digital Standard package for $33/mo.

When I called them, they said the rate wasn't available, but I can get the Digital Preferred package for $39, plus a 1-time $5 service charge. I was paying $40/mo before, so this deal seemed a no-brainer.

Today, I received the bill for $94! $67/mo for Digital Preferred and a $22 service charge plus tax. What's wrong with this picture?

<...> I'm thinking of downgrading to Digital Starter from Digital Preferred to match my viewing habits. I could lose NatGeo HD and Science Channel HD for $15 less a month, but if these additional channels were on the horizon for the Bay Area market, I could be persuaded to stay at the second-tier price scheme.<...>

May I ask what you are paying for Digital Preferred?

I only had Limited Basic plus Digital Classic which was perfectly fine for my watching habits, then I received the letter from Comcast warning me that most of the HD channels will disappear on August 15 unless I upgraded to the Digital Standard package for $33/mo.

When I called them, they said the rate wasn't available, but I can get the Digital Preferred package for $39, plus a 1-time $5 service charge. I was paying $40/mo before, so this deal seemed a no-brainer.

Today, I received the bill for $94! $67/mo for Digital Preferred and a $22 service charge plus tax. What's wrong with this picture?

The price scheme for Cable Subscribers in San Francisco is:

Standard Cable (incl. Limited and Expanded Basic) = $55.99
Digital Starter (incl. Standard Cable) = $56.99
Digital Preferred = $15.95 + Standard Cable = $71.94


I believe you were not awarded the "promotional" price (6 or 12 month deal) of $39 -- a call to customer support should rectify that.

There are so many pricing schemes: deals for new customers, existing customers, customer retention deals, online, on the phone, from a reseller... the confusion obviously pushes folks to the alternatives and the cable companies would do well to simplify:

TVB Wired Cable Penetration Fell to Lowest Level Since 1990 (http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/content_display/news/media-agencies-research/e3i0ecc4d65594512fa79496d9101d18195)

I'm afraid one has to be vigilant about one's bill -- once your "deal" expires, they typically tell you that you do not qualify for another deal for three months. But getting a 'deal' can save you up to 50% on your bill.

I've grown fond of some of the cable VOD offerings, I like being able to plug the cable into old sets and get basic programming, and cable used to have the best PQ for HD. But their advantages are slipping if not gone with the satellite co's recent improvement of their offerings and quality.

I just want to spend as little money as possible to get the channels I enjoy with PQ that doesn't distract from the programming. That, and to have Raquel Welch dropped on top of me (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWKDpIPonGQ)...

Wunderhund - Thank you for the information. I'll call Comcast tomorrow about my deal...not!

My last posting on this got lost during the database failure, here goes again.

Has anybody in 94087 in Fremont/Mary area had daytime problems with digital channels (pixellation, drop outs)? Same problems on two different QAM receivers, especially on 2.1/5.1 and 11.1/44.1. Problems clear up at night, and especially bad on warmer days. (and, no, not the temp of my equipment, the temp outside :cool:) Stats indicate not a signal strength problem but a quality of signal problem. Happening on and off all summer, but seems to be getting worse. Tech always seems to come on cool days when no problems... Called again, got the usual load from the CSR ("I'm sorry, we don't support QAM since it gets its signal from over the air" :eek:) but scheduled a truck roll for the 27th anyway.

Thanks
Jim

Jim, you have the opposite of the temperature problem I had sometime ago. The signal would degrade with lower temperature (8pm-8am), so when the tech came, there was no issue. Before the tech came for the second time, I recorded 5 minutes every hour for 24 hours and showed the recordings to the tech. Convinced him to escalate the problem to the networking department, who then solved the problem.

Comcast offices in Monterey, Mountain View, Santa Clara, and Scotts Valley will be closed after this month.

Jim, you have the opposite of the temperature problem I had sometime ago. The signal would degrade with lower temperature (8pm-8am), so when the tech came, there was no issue. Before the tech came for the second time, I recorded 5 minutes every hour for 24 hours and showed the recordings to the tech. Convinced him to escalate the problem to the networking department, who then solved the problem.

Thanks for the info, I will do some recordings in case it is OK when he gets here. Just curious, do you know how localized your problem was (few houses, whole neighborhood)?

Jim

Just curious, do you know how localized your problem was (few houses, whole neighborhood)?

No, I don't.

I am in Saratoga CA - was wondering what is the least I need to pay to get HD locals? I have one TV with digital tuner and one older one for which I would need a box. Thanks.

I am in Saratoga CA - was wondering what is the least I need to pay to get HD locals? I have one TV with digital tuner and one older one for which I would need a box. Thanks.

Short Answer : You need Limited Basic to get HD Locals.

Longer one : If you don't want meddle with frequencies etc, you need to get a cableCARD (first one is free) or a HD Box ($7 or $8 for rental). If you want to see these channels on older tv, you need the HD Box. Note that second box costs 6.99 _over_ the nomal $7 rental.

Short Answer : You need Limited Basic to get HD Locals.

Even if you don't need the HD box, on top of the Limited Basic package, you'll need the 'High Definition TV' option which costs $7.

Even if you don't need the HD box, on top of the Limited Basic package, you'll need the 'High Definition TV' option which costs $7.Not if he has a QAM tuner in the TV. He can just plug the cable right in. He only wants local HD, not nationals.

Boy, should TV really cost this much? Comcast has been monkeying around up here in Santa Rosa, Ca. and it's been hard to figure out what I'm getting, channels come channels go, so I called them today to help me figure it out. I have two HDTV and this is what I currently get and pay for:

Limited Basic- Channels 2-34 $16.57
Digital Classic- Channels 120-503 + Discovery/National Geo $11.95
HDTV - Channels 702,703,705,707,709, on demand, music $7. 00 box included
Additional HDTV service $7.00
Additional box $6.99
Subtotal $49.91

So my family is ready to string me up because we don't get their favorite channels anymore, USA, TBS, Food, ect..........but if I want those channels I have to upgrade to Standard Cable (48.99 Channels 720-769). Then I get USA, TBS, Food ect in hdtv
That brings my grand total to $81.93 plus the BS fees and such they tack on

Half the channels they are offering, we'll never watch. Are any of the Satellite services more cost effective? Are there any other ways to package this better?

<..>So my family is ready to string me up because we don't get their favorite channels anymore, USA, TBS, Food, ect..........but if I want those channels I have to upgrade to Standard Cable (48.99 Channels 720-769). Then I get USA, TBS, Food ect in hdtv
That brings my grand total to $81.93 plus the BS fees and such they tack on.
Half the channels they are offering, we'll never watch. Are any of the Satellite services more cost effective? Are there any other ways to package this better?

I had the same service you have, but was 'forced' to upgrade in order to get the channels they recently dropped from Limited Basic + Digital Classic. I signed up for the Digital Preferred + Standard Cable promo for $39.99 for the next 12 months. I suggest you mention this 'deal' when you call them.

Even if you don't need the HD box, on top of the Limited Basic package, you'll need the 'High Definition TV' option which costs $7.

Not true. First cable card is also free if he wants one.

I am running into a weird problem and I'm hoping someone can clue me in. I'm in San Francisco and have comcast for internet and basic cable, as in no cable box, just I think basic + extended, so I get something like 80 SD channels plus the broadcast HD channels. Sometime within the last couple weeks though, I stopped being able to tune KNTV-HD (NBC), which used to come in on channel 11. I'm still able to tune into the local fox, cbs and abc stations (plus the local PBS station, KQED), but not nbc. I just tried calling comcast up to ask about it but the guy said that they don't really support the local broadcast channels in HD, since I don't have a cable box, but I thought they were required to deliver those local channels anyways. I'm wondering if this is the case (that I'm **** out of luck), or if there's some documentation somewhere on some regulations or something I could cite to try to get NBC to come back in.

Getting a cable box is really not an option as I use MythTV as my dvr, with tuner cards set to get the local broadcast hd channels over the regular cable.

Boy, should TV really cost this much? Comcast has been monkeying around up here in Santa Rosa, Ca. and it's been hard to figure out what I'm getting, channels come channels go, so I called them today to help me figure it out. I have two HDTV and this is what I currently get and pay for:

Limited Basic- Channels 2-34 $16.57
Digital Classic- Channels 120-503 + Discovery/National Geo $11.95
HDTV - Channels 702,703,705,707,709, on demand, music $7. 00 box included
Additional HDTV service $7.00
Additional box $6.99
Subtotal $49.91

So my family is ready to string me up because we don't get their favorite channels anymore, USA, TBS, Food, ect..........but if I want those channels I have to upgrade to Standard Cable (48.99 Channels 720-769). Then I get USA, TBS, Food ect in hdtv
That brings my grand total to $81.93 plus the BS fees and such they tack on

Half the channels they are offering, we'll never watch. Are any of the Satellite services more cost effective? Are there any other ways to package this better?


I currently have Dishnework - $37.99 for Top 100+, $10 for HD ( they have a second HD tier for an extra $10 ) and $5.99 for locals including HD. The DVR is another $6.99 I think. The DVR can drive my second TV in the bedroom but it is only SD - but we are able to watch all the programs we record on either TVs. I think at this time this seems like the better deal.

I called Comcast and they say I need to have a HD box at each TV - I guess the locals are encrypted. We were trying to downgrade as school starts next week and we would like the kids to watch less TV but I really like this Dish single box DVR solution.

On DSLreports, there's a post about a major influx of new HD channels in Chicago:

On August 19 Comcast will launch 15 HD channels in the city of Chicago.
Big Ten Network HD
Weather Channel HD
FX HD
Fox News Channel HD
Bravo HD
CNBC HD
QVC HD
Independent Film Channel HD
WE HD
Fuse HD
Encore HD
NBA TV HD
NHL Network HD
Hallmark Movie Channel HD
Speed Channel HD

Any word on this happening in the Bay Area anytime soon?

Chicago is all digital all the time. They have plenty of room, we don't.......

[...] I guess the locals are encrypted. [...]
Locals are not encrypted.

On DSLreports, there's a post about a major influx of new HD channels in Chicago:

On August 19 Comcast will launch 15 HD channels in the city of Chicago.
Big Ten Network HD
Weather Channel HD
FX HD
Fox News Channel HD
Bravo HD
CNBC HD
QVC HD
Independent Film Channel HD
WE HD
Fuse HD
Encore HD
NBA TV HD
NHL Network HD
Hallmark Movie Channel HD
Speed Channel HD

Any word on this happening in the Bay Area anytime soon?

Mikef5 - want to take a stab at this question? I'm curious too, and you seem to be the expert on release dates.

i may be in the minority, but i'd rather have zero new channels if ading them means PQ gets even worse...

On DSLreports, there's a post about a major influx of new HD channels in Chicago:

On August 19 Comcast will launch 15 HD channels in the city of Chicago.
Big Ten Network HD
Weather Channel HD
FX HD
Fox News Channel HD
Bravo HD
CNBC HD
QVC HD
Independent Film Channel HD
WE HD
Fuse HD
Encore HD
NBA TV HD
NHL Network HD
Hallmark Movie Channel HD
Speed Channel HD

Any word on this happening in the Bay Area anytime soon?

Locals are not encrypted.

Then I can just get basic cable for $14.99 and get the local HD feeds for free? I do have at least one TV with build in tuners? Thanks.

Then I can just get basic cable for $14.99 and get the local HD feeds for free? I do have at least one TV with build in tuners? Thanks.
Yes.

assuming you know that you need to hunt for where these channels are etc. This procedure is pretty specific to the TV and might be much simpler than what I am implying here.

Boy, should TV really cost this much? Comcast has been monkeying around up here in Santa Rosa, Ca. and it's been hard to figure out what I'm getting, channels come channels go, so I called them today to help me figure it out. I have two HDTV and this is what I currently get and pay for:

Limited Basic- Channels 2-34 $16.57
Digital Classic- Channels 120-503 + Discovery/National Geo $11.95
HDTV - Channels 702,703,705,707,709, on demand, music $7. 00 box included
Additional HDTV service $7.00
Additional box $6.99
Subtotal $49.91

So my family is ready to string me up because we don't get their favorite channels anymore, USA, TBS, Food, ect..........but if I want those channels I have to upgrade to Standard Cable (48.99 Channels 720-769). Then I get USA, TBS, Food ect in hdtv
That brings my grand total to $81.93 plus the BS fees and such they tack on

Half the channels they are offering, we'll never watch. Are any of the Satellite services more cost effective? Are there any other ways to package this better?
Yes that's about right, since you have 2 HD boxes.
I also have 2, and one is a DVR, I pay a few bucks more for that - BUT I'm getting a 12 months promotion on the 2nd HD box, it is 1/2 price for 12 months. Also "Standard" cable is $52, so it works out to around $80/mo, plus taxes and fees..

i may be in the minority, but i'd rather have zero new channels if ading them means PQ gets even worse...

As mentioned, Chicago dumped the ADS channels (the "A" portion that is) a while ago, so they have another 240Mhz or so(?) to work with... I'll guess we won't get that many more new channels here until they do the same.

1 analog channel is 6Mhz I think, with 2 or 3 HD channels able to use that space, so 40 analog channels could be 80 to 120(!) new HD channels.

As mentioned, Chicago dumped the ADS channels (the "A" portion that is) a while ago, so they have another 240Mhz or so(?) to work with... I'll guess we won't get that many more new channels here until they do the same.

1 analog channel is 6Mhz I think, with 2 or 3 HD channels able to use that space, so 40 analog channels could be 80 to 120(!) new HD channels.

That's what I thought. I'm going to stick with CC until year's end. At that point, if I don't see some signs of movement in terms of enhanced HD offerings in early 2009, I'll start to consider my options. I will keep CC Internet but the TV end of it will be open to other providers.

Does anyone know what the latest model DVR is from comcast? I've had mine for almost 2 years, and I'm wondering if there's a better model they're now leasing.

I'm not sure the info on the first page is still accurate.

If you have a 6416/3416 you have the latest.

I got the Motorola 3416 when I picked one up at their office a few months back. I believe that is the current offering. It probably has a larger hard drive than your older model.

Anyone notice that since KTVU got a new transmitter the switchover to the 10 O'Clock News doesn't have audio that makes you jump out of your chair? What ever the issue was with the difference between network programming and commercials (both network and local) and the audio level of the newscast it seems to have been resolved with the new gear.

Man, I really want SpeedHD... just for the WS Formula1 coverage. There is a race this weekend, please comcast!

On DSLreports, there's a post about a major influx of new HD channels in Chicago:

On August 19 Comcast will launch 15 HD channels in the city of Chicago.
Speed Channel HD

Any word on this happening in the Bay Area anytime soon?

The newest DVR box is the DCH-3416
http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Business/Products/TV%20Video%20Distribution/Set-tops/QAM%20Set-tops/All%20Digital%20QAM%20Set-tops/DCH3416/_Images/Static%20Files/B2B_Product_DCH3416_MD_US-EN.jpg
(note, not DCT-3416)

The newest DVR box is the DCH-3416
http://www.motorola.com/staticfiles/Business/Products/TV%20Video%20Distribution/Set-tops/QAM%20Set-tops/All%20Digital%20QAM%20Set-tops/DCH3416/_Images/Static%20Files/B2B_Product_DCH3416_MD_US-EN.jpg
(note, not DCT-3416)

Looks like I have the older DCT-3416. Anyone know what the differences are? Will I have any problems exchanging it at comcast?

Looks like I have the older DCT-3416. Anyone know what the differences are? Will I have any problems exchanging it at comcast?


With the newer system, I notice less of a remote delay, more hard drive space, and the box just looks better. As long as you're in an upgraded area and subscribe to HD/DVR, comcast will swap it out with no questions asked. Simply stop by one of their stores.

i bought a DCH-3416 hd dvr settop box last december.

here are my channels in my HD package:

702 KTVUD
703 DKNTV
704 KROND
705 KPIXD
706 KICUD
707 KGOHD
709 KQEDH
712 KBCWD
720 CSNHD
722 VSGLF
724 ESPND
725 ES2HD
730 NFLHD
734 A&EHD
735 TBSHD
736 SCIFI
737 TNTHD
738 USAHD
739 UHD
740 MOJHD
743 MHD
746 HGTVD
747 FOODD
750 DSCHD
751 APHD
752 TLCHD
754 HDT
756 SCIHD
757 NGCHD
758 HISHD
759 CNNHD
764 FAMHD
765 DISHD
769 AMCHD
770 HBOHD
780 SZ1Hw
785 SHOHD
792 MXHDW

channels in bold are not authorized on my HD package.

so when do they get these new HD channels in the bay area?

With the newer system, I notice less of a remote delay, more hard drive space, and the box just looks better. As long as you're in an upgraded area and subscribe to HD/DVR, comcast will swap it out with no questions asked. Simply stop by one of their stores.

It's also much quieter. Don't forget to ask for an HDMI cable when you pick one up (Comcast will give you one for free if you ask)

It's also much quieter. Don't forget to ask for an HDMI cable when you pick one up (Comcast will give you one for free if you ask)

Thanks, I'll def swap it out. Couldn't have come at a better time with the Olympics. I'm running low on HD space.

Thanks, I'll def swap it out. Couldn't have come at a better time with the Olympics. I'm running low on HD space.


If you have a dct-3416, you already have the largest HD that Comcast offers (a paltry 160Gb...pathetic...16 = 160Gb), so I dont think going to the DCH will solve your space problem

Thanks, I'll def swap it out. Couldn't have come at a better time with the Olympics. I'm running low on HD space.

they wont move the stuff already on the old DVR onto the new one.
so you will lose all the show you have recorded. on the plus side
you will have lots of free space :)

If you have a dct-3416, you already have the largest HD that Comcast offers (a paltry 160Gb...pathetic...16 = 160Gb), so I dont think going to the DCH will solve your space problem

One word: TiVo! :D

One word: TiVo! :D

When I had comcast tv I also enjoyed my mythtv and firewire
connection the the dc{th}-3416. but tivo is more user friendly

If you have a dct-3416, you already have the largest HD that Comcast offers (a paltry 160Gb...pathetic...16 = 160Gb), so I dont think going to the DCH will solve your space problem

That's the great thing about using a server based PVR system. I have 8TB of storage available for storing video, and 7 TB is used! HD MPEG2 is pretty hard on the disk for long programs like the olympics...

Any idea what this is? Do they have any internet service besides DSL?

Any idea what this is? Do they have any internet service besides DSL?

U-verse

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uverse

Any idea what this is? Do they have any internet service besides DSL?

The question I have is whether they are placing copper or fiber. If it is copper it will probably not have anything to do with Uverse. If they are placing fiber to new nodes near your existing or newly placed cross connect boxes then Uverse is coming to your neighborhood.

The question I have is whether they are placing copper or fiber. If it is copper it will probably not have anything to do with Uverse. If they are placing fiber to new nodes near your existing or newly placed cross connect boxes then Uverse is coming to your neighborhood.


How can I tell?

If it is fiber, that wire is going to have some orange markings on it.

If the cable is stolen, it's copper. :)

If the cable is stolen, it's copper. :)

Apparently that's becoming quite a prize among thieves nowadays. A friend of mine works at a metal recycling place and she said they make more calls now to verify the source of the material than they've ever had in the past because it's becoming such an issue.

Signs of the depression? Better keep a close eye on your Comcast cable feed. :D

Hi - I just got back from a visit on the east coast, where I had been watching the USA women's soccer team winning their games, on the NBC soccer channel, which appeared in the lineup there..

But when got back home last night, all I could find that mentioned women's soccer was UHD...so I did a manual recording on that channel beginning at the time that the game started, for a total of 4 hours...

guess what? no soccer....3 quarters of the way through I found I was watching the MEDAL ceremony, backtracked and found that UHD had joined in with the soccer channel broadcast ONLY for the medal ceremony - bummer!!! (even if the US beat Brazil 1-0...I wanted to see it!)

So IS there an soccer channel in these parts???? I can't find it!!!

No!!!

AT&T trucks have been doing work at the end of my street for a couple months now. (in Petaluma) no idea what they are doing...

Better keep a close eye on your Comcast cable feed. :D

Now that would really tick 'em off. RG6 center core is copper plated steel, and the shielding is aluminum.

Tough times calls for keeping some metals indoors where you used to let it sit on a pallet outside.

Now that would really tick 'em off. RG6 center core is copper plated steel, and the shielding is aluminum.

Tough times calls for keeping some metals indoors where you used to let it sit on a pallet outside.

A but the squirrels love it around here, they've got teeth like "Jaws" from those old James Bond Movies

ps...Any idea what you've got Cablecom working on at Saratoga and Cox/McFarland..they've been out there for days digging up the nice Lawn at the office complex for you

ps...Any idea what you've got Cablecom working on at Saratoga and Cox/McFarland..they've been out there for days digging up the nice Lawn at the office complex for you

Office Complex, eh? Comcast Small Business is the likely reason. Taking more customers away from AT$T for Phone & 'net.

Comcast get much phone business? I would think it was too "young" for business to rely on it yet.

AT&T has been laying cable in downtown Martinez for months now. The thick cable is black, didn't notice any orange markings but the next time I'm downtown during the week I'll ask. Wouldn't have guessed those halfway house people would have been into home theater. :D

I'm from a small town in Washington state and in the late 1980s they laid fiber there but the place was always a test bed for the phone company's new technologies. When I was a kid we had automated dialing before a lot of places.

A squirrel put my area into the dark yesterday for about 8 hours chewing into some gear at a PG&E substation. It got it's just results as it was fried.

Also about stealing copper the plaques on the benches at the waterfront park are being stolen for the metal in them.

Comcast get much phone business? I would think it was too "young" for business to rely on it yet.Things may have changed but last time I looked at getting cable (TV) for my office they wanted $5000 for installation. See they are required by franchise agreement to bring a drop into every residential building, but not commercial ones. That was about 10 years ago. Lately I get flyers in the mail for Comcast business HSI but I've never looked into it. I pay about $30/mo for DSL and that's all we need.

Comcast get much phone business? I would think it was too "young" for business to rely on it yet.

I've had it for two years now, it's fine. Feature rich, it has all those bells and whistles that can run your AT$T bill up.

Half million adds in Q2 while BOPC lost subs, though i think bundling is a big reason.

Sorry for drifting OT. DTA, Digital TV switch, etc.

I am having a problem. I used to be able to insert channels (for a couple of surveillance cameras, and some modulated video inputs) into channels above 83 or so. I would view these channels directly with my tv's and/or VCR's.
With the new digital channels, it seems that this won't work anymore, since the inserted channels don't seem to be able to 'get through' whatever Comcast is putting in those spaces.
So, I tried putting in a notch filter that removes channels between 75-80 (a ChannelPlus NF-471), and then inserting my local channels into that space. Unfortunately, the notch filter seems to remove some of the digital and HD channels, so they aren't visible to my Comcast DVR's anymore.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can insert these local channels, without messing up too much of the Comcast feed?
Thanks
Mike

Speaking of U-Verse, I noticed that, starting sometime last week (August 17-23), the TV listings at Excite.com have added an entry for U-verse to the options for Benicia.

-- Don

Hi - I just got back from a visit on the east coast, where I had been watching the USA women's soccer team winning their games, on the NBC soccer channel, which appeared in the lineup there..

But when got back home last night, all I could find that mentioned women's soccer was UHD...so I did a manual recording on that channel beginning at the time that the game started, for a total of 4 hours...

guess what? no soccer....3 quarters of the way through I found I was watching the MEDAL ceremony, backtracked and found that UHD had joined in with the soccer channel broadcast ONLY for the medal ceremony - bummer!!! (even if the US beat Brazil 1-0...I wanted to see it!)

So IS there an soccer channel in these parts???? I can't find it!!!

The UniHD schedule was way off, I usually put 1 hour extra, and usually got the end. USA-HD was the 'Team USA' channel, that's what the soccer game was on, UniHD was Boxing, f-o-r-e-v-e-r. There were various repeats, but, the descriptions on my TiVoHD were never quite right, and I only got lucky to get the game. The one I wasn't as lucky on was the USA-Canada game that had a 90 minute lightening delay, and though it started in the middle of the broadcast block, and I added an hour, my recording stopped at the start of the second overtime.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can insert these local channels, without messing up too much of the Comcast feed?

I went through the same thing. I wound up notching out an analog channel I didn't want (along with its immediate analog neighbors because of filter width). I avoided notching out a digital channel.

I bought a custom notch filter 2599 at channel 44 from Communications and Energy Corporation for the incoming cable feed:

http://www.cefilter.com/products/display_product.asp?ProdID=22&CatID=1

And I bandpass filtered my cheap modulator at channel 44 to keep it's out-of-band junk from getting onto the cable, using a custom TXBP bandpass:

http://www.cefilter.com/products/display_product.asp?ProdID=17&CatID=1

With these filters, you can choose your substitution channel exactly, and they're not crazy expensive. Lead time was a week or so.

I forgot to say, cable TV channel number to frequency mapping is not linear, check here to make sure the "analog" channel you choose to knock out does not have analog or digital neighbors you wish to keep:

http://www.jneuhaus.com/fccindex/cablech.html

For example, I knocked out 44 which for me is in the middle of a purely analog group of channels, so I wouldn't knock out an unknown digital channel on a neighboring channel.

The UniHD schedule was way off, I usually put 1 hour extra, and usually got the end. USA-HD was the 'Team USA' channel, that's what the soccer game was on, UniHD was Boxing, f-o-r-e-v-e-r. There were various repeats, but, the descriptions on my TiVoHD were never quite right, and I only got lucky to get the game. The one I wasn't as lucky on was the USA-Canada game that had a 90 minute lightening delay, and though it started in the middle of the broadcast block, and I added an hour, my recording stopped at the start of the second overtime.
yeah...I'm still ticked off about the whole business...even though YESTERDAY I noticed the game was on the NBC site and watched it, and I'm glad I did, it didn't compared with watching it in high-def on a bigger screen without knowing what the score would finally be....

(I saw the Usa-Canada game because I had set it for a 4-hour recording on my father's Tivo, where I was visiting at that time...)

Just recently moved and tried to sign up for High Speed internet via comcastoffers.com Being impatient like all of us are I decided to call Comcast before my self install kit arrived. The situation is I am trying to avoid a "professional install" since it is not necesarry as the previous tenant had comcast service and even though it has been "disconnected" in the system, the line itself is still active. In other words no truck roll has been sent out. In order to save Comcast money and save myself some aggravation I have attempted to explain the situation to a phone csr and an online chat csr. They both say that they need to send someone out to charge me $50 install fee for basically plugging in the coax to my cable modem. There is no notch filter on the line so there is no need for an installer. If they want to send one later to block the expanded basic channels then so be it but all I want is basic + blast internet. As an IT engineer I know that this is not rocket science. The last straw here is that the online csr just closed the chat in the middle of the session basically not wanting to clear up the situation. This is not how they should be treating new customers, I almost want to spring and switch to speakeasy DSL but would rather prefer Comcast if possible. Any suggestions besides waiting for the "mythical" self install kit? Thanks.

Any suggestions besides waiting for the "mythical" self install kit? Thanks.

Kits are sent UPS from within the Bay Area. Doesn't take too long.

You could go into any payment center and pick up a modem. But you may not get the promo price that the website offers.

Can buy one at retail. Can buy a used one, but beware - if it's an unreturned rental unit you'll pay a rental fee if they will provision it at all.

If you elect for the tech visit, I think you can meet the tech at the door and ask for a SIK - they hand you a modem and the mythical SIK (2 coax jumpers, a splitter and install CD in a slick shrink wrap box) and say "have at it".

But if you end up with too many modems in the end, I recommend returning them to a payment center and get a receipt.

what, no hallmark channel? i've checked my on-screen guide, and its still there, and i've checked ch. 66, and ch. 185, and it went to color bars, what happened, does it go off the air, or are they having some technical difficulties?

The Kit they are sending me is coming from Georgia via DHL. Go Figure, so I take it no real way to avoid the tech visit despite everything already being there. Of course they insist that there is no service at my address when there clearly is since I can watch my tv without a problem. As far as hallmark is concerned am definitely not getting it either on 66 or 185 as of midnight last night, didn't check this morning. what gives? The wife love her mystery shows and was pretty annoyed at not being able to watch them last night.

I just got a new Sharp 32" HDTV for our den, I plan to use this as the alternate viewing spot when my wife or kids are hogging my 52" tv in the family room.

I have a comcast box on the big TV but was hoping to avoid getting one for the little TV (I don't plan to use it that often and dont want to spend the $$). The QAM tuner does a nice job with the local digital and HD channels I can get on cable but I was surprised to see that channels like ESPN and CNN were still showing up as analog. This, of course, means that the picture quality is crappy in comparison.

Is there anything I can do other than get a comcast box (or Tivo HD)? When they switch to digital only next February will these channels come in as digital (I suspect not as comcast will want me to pay more). Suggestions?

I have a picture on both 66 and 185 as of 7:40AM in Rohnert Park.

Is there anything I can do other than get a comcast box (or Tivo HD)? When they switch to digital only next February will these channels come in as digital (I suspect not as comcast will want me to pay more). Suggestions?
Feb 2009 doesn't apply directly to Comcast. Comcast is on their own schedule. They could potentially switch before, at, or after that date. They can do partial switching. They have changed plans in the past so best to pay attention if it affects you.

Just recently moved and tried to sign up for High Speed internet via comcastoffers.com Being impatient like all of us are I decided to call Comcast before my self install kit arrived. The situation is I am trying to avoid a "professional install" since it is not necesarry as the previous tenant had comcast service and even though it has been "disconnected" in the system, the line itself is still active. In other words no truck roll has been sent out. In order to save Comcast money and save myself some aggravation I have attempted to explain the situation to a phone csr and an online chat csr. They both say that they need to send someone out to charge me $50 install fee for basically plugging in the coax to my cable modem. There is no notch filter on the line so there is no need for an installer. If they want to send one later to block the expanded basic channels then so be it but all I want is basic + blast internet. As an IT engineer I know that this is not rocket science. The last straw here is that the online csr just closed the chat in the middle of the session basically not wanting to clear up the situation. This is not how they should be treating new customers, I almost want to spring and switch to speakeasy DSL but would rather prefer Comcast if possible. Any suggestions besides waiting for the "mythical" self install kit? Thanks.
How do you know it's still active? If service was disconnected (properly, inside the locked catv box) then you will need a tech to hook it up again. Also the modem needs a tech to register it, though if you search around the internet you can find the secret procedure to do it yourself, but otherwise you can't just take your own modem and plug it in, it won't work until it's registered.

I just got a new Sharp 32" HDTV for our den, I plan to use this as the alternate viewing spot when my wife or kids are hogging my 52" tv in the family room.

I have a comcast box on the big TV but was hoping to avoid getting one for the little TV (I don't plan to use it that often and dont want to spend the $$). The QAM tuner does a nice job with the local digital and HD channels I can get on cable but I was surprised to see that channels like ESPN and CNN were still showing up as analog. This, of course, means that the picture quality is crappy in comparison.

Is there anything I can do other than get a comcast box (or Tivo HD)? When they switch to digital only next February will these channels come in as digital (I suspect not as comcast will want me to pay more). Suggestions?

to the second part of ur question, you'll need another hd-compatible-moto box or cable card from comcast to see other HD channels that are not "OTA" such as espn and cnn. those digital channels are encrypted and will continue to be even if comcast turns off analog (if ever).

Why don't we have a DirectTV thread that is anywhere as extensive as this Comcast thread? It would be good to hear more balanced comparisons of the two.

Why don't we have a DirectTV thread that is anywhere as extensive as this Comcast thread? It would be good to hear more balanced comparisons of the two.

I don't know. Why don't you ask over in a DirectTV thread or start one yourself. You could refer to this one as an example. We definitely don't want to muddy this one up with DirectTV.

I have noticed that the Big 10 channel is popping up all over the country in the last days so I thought I'd go through our channels to see if it has arrived here yet. Lo and behold, I have the channel on 403. I am still getting a 'not authorized' message so it is fairy new. I have the Sports package so I will definitely get it when it authorizes. As has been mentioned in other threads Comcast is going HD in Big 10 footprints but not in others. That seems to be the case here, no HD. Not yet anyway.

Why don't we have a DirectTV thread that is anywhere as extensive as this Comcast thread? It would be good to hear more balanced comparisons of the two.

In addition to what Bobby said, DirecTV is a nationwide provider, whereas Comcast is basically a local provider. Things concerning D* happen all over the country, while issues with Comcast are local.

There is a local DirecTV thread as well as a number of national threads.

Is there anything I can do other than get a comcast box (or Tivo HD)? When they switch to digital only next February will these channels come in as digital (I suspect not as comcast will want me to pay more). Suggestions?

You won't able to watch these channels with just QAM tuners. To be fair to Comcast, it offers free CableCARD (and even a free DCT 700 cable box). I don't see them demanding customer to pay more for first TV. I hope they get rid of "additional outlet fee" for other TVs. It does not make much sense.

The Kit they are sending me is coming from Georgia via DHL..

That's nutz :o

Received my self install kit yesterday, will try to deal with the comcast gods later today. The reason I know I have a signal is that I still maintain an account at another location with the triple play premier bundle and when I hook up my dct-3416 I receive all my provisioned channels so I know that the line has not been "disconnected". What is frustrating about this is that I have not needed a tech to come and install service during my last three moves. The most I have had to do was call the CSR, give them my MAC address to provision my modem and pick up the dcts at the local office. I'm guessing I'll have to pay their $50 install fee for the tech to come out and plug in a coax cable, and call in a mac address. Thanks for the feedback guy, here is to hoping for DOCSIS 3 soon. :cool:

I wonder if they're every going to standardize sound levels on HD stations (and networks)? Going between channels like KQED-HD where the level is low to KPIX-HD where it is high. This is very annoying. And levels on the cable network channels are all inconsistent too. I guess it's all in how the original stream was encoded.

I just read that Comcast is finally bringing Speed HD. Any idea when that might happen for our area? I would love to finish out the Formula 1 season in HD. :p

Got the message on my S3 today about the BigTen network being added. Unfortunately only the SD channel. :(

Got the message on my S3 today about the BigTen network being added. Unfortunately only the SD channel. :(

maybe its cuz i was a pac10 alum but... why would anyone in CA care about the big ten network????

Yes, it's nice to hear about upcoming adds like Big Ten network and Speed HD, but when will we get the FX HD channel? Especially since it's been recently announced by Comcast for the Northeast and Chicago areas.

Most of FX' shows have been delayed due to the writers' strike -- for example, The Shield's final season has been in the can for some time but has been held back until next Tuesday. Would love to see that show in HD... hint hint... not to mention It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and a new entry, Sons of Anarchy, which debuts the day after The Shield's premiere. You also have Damages and Rescue Me returning in early '09.

Damn, sometimes it feels as though Comcast is just daring me to go satellite, as I believe both D* and E* carry FX HD... :(

maybe its cuz i was a pac10 alum but... why would anyone in CA care about the big ten network????

Because there are many transplants and alumni from those states. When I lived in New York, Texas, and New Mexico I would have given my eyeteeth to be able to watch my favorite Pac10 (they were actually Pac8 then) team play football on TV.

Looks like the A's are trying to switch CSN networks on us.

"The A's are negotiating with Comcast to shift their local cable television rights from CSN Bay Area to Sacramento-based CSN West." (http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_10311344)

Any ideas if CSN West will be televised in HD in the Bay Area soon? Ever?

There were a couple of sports I followed on CSN West (channel 400) this past year. It would've been nice to watch them in HD. The Dish companies have this issue resolved, but that's not an option for me.

Any ideas if CSN West will be televised in HD in the Bay Area soon? Ever?



Looks like Sacromento gets both CSN West HD and CSN Bay Area HD. WTF (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4126328#post4126328)?

Why the heck would the A's want to do something like that?

More viewers, more exposure, more money.

More viewers in Sacramento than Oakland and the Bay Area whaaa?

What're they gonna do when the team moves to Fremont?

Rivercats have a big fanbase...one of the best in all of AAA. I'm a bit surprised that Sacto wasn't a possible destination for the A's.

It's official: Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080828-its-official-comcast-starts-250gb-bandwidth-caps-october-1.html

(sounds very reasonable to me, I know TW and others were looking at much lower caps in the 50-60 GB range)

Interesting. Unfortunately my router doesn't do any bandwidth stats but I think I'll try to find some app and run it on all my machines to see roughly how much bandwidth I use. I really have no idea.

Interesting. Unfortunately my router doesn't do any bandwidth stats but I think I'll try to find some app and run it on all my machines to see roughly how much bandwidth I use. I really have no idea.

Earlier in the month I looked all over for an app that would track BW and just about every single one was of no use as all they did was track data amounts over the adapter connection - meaning, that all data, including local LAN usage such as viewing/transferring video from a server to a client was included in the totals.

I did finally come across one that did breakout LAN usage from internet usage. It's not free, but it's worth the $30 IMO. It's called BWMeter and it will separate out the usage and list it by hour/day/month/year and has a lot of other features.

http://www.download.com/BWMeter/3000-2155_4-10252213.html

I also tried to find something that would work directly with the router(D-Link DIR655) but apparently there is no such animal.

I'm very happy with BWMeter though.

Cool. I'll try that out...

Cool. I'll try that out...

Came across the below as well, but it doesn't work with my router.

http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato

Sweet, now I can make sure I'm using all of my allotted 250 gigs!

Damn 40 million emails, I better get crackin!

(/sarcasm)

So it's both ways, not just downloading then.
Data usage, also known as bandwidth usage, is the amount of data, such as images, movies, photos, videos, and other files that customers send, receive, download or upload over a specific period of time.

My router (D-Link "GamerLounge" ... dumb name, good 1000bit soho router) shows LAN and WAN "packets" sent and received seperately, but I have no idea how big a "packet" is. I would also have to reset it manually at the beginning of the month, I guess.

Has anybody in 94087 in Fremont/Mary area had daytime problems with digital channels (pixellation, drop outs)? Same problems on two different QAM receivers, especially on 2.1/5.1 and 11.1/44.1. Problems clear up at night, and especially bad on warmer days.

Thought I would follow up on this. Short answer, an inline amplifier fixed this :) Longer answer, the tech said that warmer weather causes all cable distribution to be adversely affected, essentially reducing signal strength at the house drop vs. cooler weather. That coupled with my splitters caused enough of a signal degradation to drop below the threshold. Tech also said too much signal can also be a problem, so I will have to check on chilly nights, but the right attenuator would solve that ;)

Happy again, even if $50 lighter :D
Jim in Sunnyvale

It's official: Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080828-its-official-comcast-starts-250gb-bandwidth-caps-october-1.html

(sounds very reasonable to me, I know TW and others were looking at much lower caps in the 50-60 GB range)

Man I was just getting ready to shift over to Comcast HSI and their digital phone ( do the Triple play bit ) ...... not going to happen now !!! I'll just stay with Sonic Net and live with my meager but unlimited 6 Mbps :rolleyes:

This 250 GB limit will come and bite them in the rear end later on ( try streaming or downloading a couple of High Def movies or do the NetFlix movie downloads, especially when they go HD for their movies and see how long that will last ) but I can see what's going to happen down the road. You want more than 250 GB's ??? PAY MORE for it or better yet metered internet access. That's been on the horizon for along time and I'm shocked it hasn't happened before now.

They don't have the infrastructure to be all things to all people ( Cable Tv, Internet access, and digital phones ). They have to rob Peter to pay Paul and in the end we all lose.

Here's my humble advice to Comcast. Build the infrastructure to support what your customers want, don't try and squeeze more into a pipe that just isn't built for it...... get a damn bigger pipe :rolleyes:

Wow, blood pressure shot up there for a second. :p
I'm going back to watching the A's lose another game while we still have the bandwidth to do it.

Laters,
Mikef5

Uh, 250GB is a lot.

Keep in mind they always had these limits (actually they were probably lower a few years ago) the only difference now is they are telling us exactly what those limits are.

250GB would be about 35 HD movie downloads (avg. about 7GB each). That's more than 1 per day. Are you really going to rent more than 1 HD movie per day, every day of the month?

Yeah the thing is these have always been there. I have seen people get "the letter" for using 200gb, some for 300gb. Personally I have gone over 300gb sometimes and they didn't tell me anything. But now that it is official they will monitor more it seems.

Uh, 250GB is a lot.

Keep in mind they always had these limits (actually they were probably lower a few years ago) the only difference now is they are telling us exactly what those limits are.

250GB would be about 35 HD movie downloads (avg. about 7GB each). That's more than 1 per day. Are you really going to rent more than 1 HD movie per day, every day of the month?

Walk,

Let me first answer your question. No, I will not rent more than 1 HD movie per day, with Netflix you pay a monthly fee and down load the movies you want, when you want them. When they start offering HD movies as part of this then yes there will be times when I wll down load more than one HD movie. To be honest I normally use Comcast's VOD for a lot of the HD movies I watch but that is supplemented by other sources. If that was all I was using my internet connection for then it would not impact me in the least but I do other things that when you add them all up they are a significant amount of data ( not near 250 Gb's but significant ).

My point was there should be no caps or limits at all. They offer you high speed internet up to 16 Mbps but now want to limit the amount of data that you can download, why do you need all that speed ?? So you can reach your limit faster ?? :rolleyes:

If their infrastructure can't support this then they shouldn't offer it or limit it. They need to fix their infrastructure to accommodate this increase in data transfer not just limit it to a set level. This is the same thing they were doing with the upgrades to their cable system. They wanted to add channels without upgrading the systems to handle this so they crammed as much as they could into the systems until they realized it wasn't going to work and to their credit they finally got busy upgrading all their cable systems here in the Bay Area. They could of just limited the amount of channels you can view and waited until technology was available to increase their capacity to add new channels but they finally did the right thing and did the upgrades.

So, long story made short. Upgrade the system to accommodate this increase in data flow, not limit it to some arbitrary amount that could, in the future, be even more restrictive ( Point in fact, take TWC as an example ).

Laters,
Mikef5

They've had un-official, or at least un-publicized caps for quite awhile, and if I'm not mistaken it's a dynamic cap, meaning that if you fall into the very top percentage of BW users you'll get a call from Comcast's CSA people, whether that's 300 or 450GBs in a given month. At least now, there's an actual number, a gauge, so users know where they stand.

Mikef5, I agree that they should build the system to support what the customers want, but it's a balancing act. How much capital do you put into a system when only a few percentage actually use it to it's capacity?

I haven't done the numbers, but I doubt 8/1 users would even get close to the cap in a single month, 16/2 definitely can, and their 50mb service, well, that could probably be done in a week or so.

What wasn't said in the articles, and I expect the other shoe to drop sometime in the future, is that now there are caps, I would expect additional charges for BW usage beyond the cap will become a reality - your flat rate per month gets you 250GBs, but anything above you'll pay extra for, like many cell phone plans, or even gas/water/electricity/telephone service.

Eventually, as online content becomes more prevalent, Comcast will need to raise the cap, or probably more likely, raise the cost for that additional usage as in their 50MB service - can't imagine paying for that level of service without being able to use it, and with a cap at 250...

As far as "unlimited" DSL with Sonic, I've seen Dane mention that the only reason they can do that now is that the overall majority of their users don't use an amount where it becomes a losing proposition for Sonic. Sonic buys X-amount of BW at X-amount of dollars for it's users, if those users start using more than he's paid for, then the price to the user will have to increase. If I'm not mistaken, there have been times when Sonic has actually been in the red with their internet service, but the other products have made up the difference so they're still in the black overall.

In a perfect world, a 16/2 user should be able to saturate that pipe 24/7, but because cable HSI is a shared "party line" system it would require some expensive upgrades, capital outlay that's not justified because only a few users would actually use it. Plus, they are actually are upgrading the infrastructure the deployment of DOCSIS 3.0, although caps and rates commensurate with that level of service will probably be put in the place - maybe a cap of 400+GB for a 50MB connection.

I don't like the idea of caps, but as I noted earlier, as far as caps go, 250GB seems very reasonable at the current time, definitely better than what some of the others providers have been talking about.

I haven't done any comparisons lately, but for $52 a month, a 16/2 connection that's actually faster for brief periods and the ability to use 250GBs of BW per month is not a bad deal at all IMO. Granted, you have to also have cable TV to get that rate, but when you're only paying $16.57 a month for all the local HD and then some, the whole package is a pretty darn good deal.

Of course, ask me again in a year or so, after online content becomes more prevalent and that cap has been surpassed month after month, then it will be time to look around again, and even then, Comcast will have to stay competitive.

As far as I can see they've gone as far as they can with DOCSIS 1.x. Caps are merely there to make sure that a tiny minority of people don't fubar the whole network for the vast majority of everyone else who probably only uses 2-5GB a month and will NEVER run into a 250GB cap.

I'm sure when DOCSIS 3.0 is rolled out they will be able to increase the caps.

FIOS would be nice too, but even still we should consider ourselves lucky to have one of the fastest and relatively cheapest internet services in the world... many people around the world pay by the byte for broadband and even more people are still stuck on dialup!

They've had un-official, or at least un-publicized caps for quite awhile, and if I'm not mistaken it's a dynamic cap, meaning that if you fall into the very top percentage of BW users you'll get a call from Comcast's CSA people, whether that's 300 or 450GBs in a given month. At least now, there's an actual number, a gauge, so users know where they stand.

Mikef5, I agree that they should build the system to support what the customers want, but it's a balancing act. How much capital do you put into a system when only a few percentage actually use it to it's capacity?

I haven't done the numbers, but I doubt 8/1 users would even get close to the cap in a single month, 16/2 definitely can, and their 50mb service, well, that could probably be done in a week or so.

What wasn't said in the articles, and I expect the other shoe to drop sometime in the future, is that now there are caps, I would expect additional charges for BW usage beyond the cap will become a reality - your flat rate per month gets you 250GBs, but anything above you'll pay extra for, like many cell phone plans, or even gas/water/electricity/telephone service.

Eventually, as online content becomes more prevalent, Comcast will need to raise the cap, or probably more likely, raise the cost for that additional usage as in their 50MB service - can't imagine paying for that level of service without being able to use it, and with a cap at 250...

As far as "unlimited" DSL with Sonic, I've seen Dane mention that the only reason they can do that now is that the overall majority of their users don't use an amount where it becomes a losing proposition for Sonic. Sonic buys X-amount of BW at X-amount of dollars for it's users, if those users start using more than he's paid for, then the price to the user will have to increase. If I'm not mistaken, there have been times when Sonic has actually been in the red with their internet service, but the other products have made up the difference so they're still in the black overall.

In a perfect world, a 16/2 user should be able to saturate that pipe 24/7, but because cable HSI is a shared "party line" system it would require some expensive upgrades, capital outlay that's not justified because only a few users would actually use it. Plus, they are actually are upgrading the infrastructure the deployment of DOCSIS 3.0, although caps and rates commensurate with that level of service will probably be put in the place - maybe a cap of 400+GB for a 50MB connection.

I don't like the idea of caps, but as I noted earlier, as far as caps go, 250GB seems very reasonable at the current time, definitely better than what some of the others providers have been talking about.

I haven't done any comparisons lately, but for $52 a month, a 16/2 connection that's actually faster for brief periods and the ability to use 250GBs of BW per month is not a bad deal at all IMO. Granted, you have to also have cable TV to get that rate, but when you're only paying $16.57 a month for all the local HD and then some, the whole package is a pretty darn good deal.

Of course, ask me again in a year or so, after online content becomes more prevalent and that cap has been surpassed month after month, then it will be time to look around again, and even then, Comcast will have to stay competitive.

Jim,

You know this is Deja Vu all over again only with internet instead of cable tv upgrades ;)

I do agree they have to balance what they can offer and what is feasible and for the most part I agree with a lot of your points. My concern is what is going to happen down the line. If you accept limits on your service now what is the motivation to upgrade your infrastructure. If you wait until new available content starts to dominate the system before you upgrade the system they will once again be playing catch up to the competition like they are doing now with their HD channels.

Here's another thought. How does Dish do their HD VOD and their new 1080p VOD ??? Internet connection required ??? How does Directv do their Directv on Demand ??? Internet connection required ?? How about IPTV ?? Internet connection..... I think you see where this is going. Yes, this is way down the line but the time is coming where more and more heavy duty data will be available on the internet. I don't want Comcast to wait until they absolutely have to upgrade their network but for once get ahead of the pact and get it done before they fall behind again. Yes, I know they have to answer to share holders and bean counters but a little future planning will save you money in the long run.

One last thought. If I was a cable company and I wanted to limit the impact that my competition ( Sat Co's ) new VOD or any other new competitors/content providers had on my system, how could I do this and justify it ?? Internet connection required.......Limited
Not saying they would do this but it's an interesting idea to ponder for the future ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Jim,

You know this is Deja Vu all over again only with internet instead of cable tv upgrades ;)

I do agree they have to balance what they can offer and what is feasible and for the most part I agree with a lot of your points. My concern is what is going to happen down the line. If you accept limits on your service now what is the motivation to upgrade your infrastructure. If you wait until new available content starts to dominate the system before you upgrade the system they will once again be playing catch up to the competition like they are doing now with their HD channels.

Here's another thought. How does Dish do their HD VOD and their new 1080p VOD ??? Internet connection required ??? How does Directv do their Directv on Demand ??? Internet connection required ?? How about IPTV ?? Internet connection..... I think you see where this is going. Yes, this is way down the line but the time is coming where more and more heavy duty data will be available on the internet. I don't want Comcast to wait until they absolutely have to upgrade their network but for once get ahead of the pact and get it done before they fall behind again. Yes, I know they have to answer to share holders and bean counters but a little future planning will save you money in the long run.

One last thought. If I was a cable company and I wanted to limit the impact that my competition ( Sat Co's ) new VOD or any other new competitors/content providers had on my system, how could I do this and justify it ?? Internet connection required.......Limited
Not saying they would do this but it's an interesting idea to ponder ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

I hear you, but in the case with HSI, I think they are probably ahead of the curve now that they've started the process of changing over much of the analog channels to digital, moving to DOCSIS 3.0, and even deploying 1GHz systems.

The amount of users that are actually DL'ing those videos via DirecTV and Dish is practically nil in my estimation, at least currently, so it wouldn't have much impact on the network or the cap. I have wondered how all that would shake out though, satcos using a cablenet provided internet to deliver their content. Eventually it will certainly become a factor, but I don't see that happening in the immediate future.

I think this cap announcement is just one step on the way to enabling the provider to charge for that sort of usage - video DLs from another provider - among other things.

Personally, given Comcast's history for, let's just say, being less than truthful - lying is a harsh word - :p about BW usage, capacity, management methods, etc, I have my doubts that there really is a problem, rather it's Comcast artificially creating these BW issues as a way to extract more money from the subscriber - sort of like how the worth of diamonds is linked to what ever the manufacturers set the supply level at.

As far as limiting usage induced by other companies, they're not "supposed" to restrict that usage, but as far as I know, they can charge whatever they want for it. So if you're a D* sub and you're using a lot of BW for those videos I expect you'll be paying Comcast, in some way, some how, in the future for it.

BTW, the BDA is not happy at all with those satcos claiming "Blu-ray disc quality", or something referencing Blu-ray, for that 1080p VOD they're offering - clearly it is not Blu-ray quality by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll bet the use of the term Blu-ray will soon disappear from those ads.

As far as I can see they've gone as far as they can with DOCSIS 1.x. Caps are merely there to make sure that a tiny minority of people don't fubar the whole network for the vast majority of everyone else who probably only uses 2-5GB a month and will NEVER run into a 250GB cap.

I'm sure when DOCSIS 3.0 is rolled out they will be able to increase the caps.

FIOS would be nice too, but even still we should consider ourselves lucky to have one of the fastest and relatively cheapest internet services in the world... many people around the world pay by the byte for broadband and even more people are still stuck on dialup!

Yes, but there's also those that get 100mb/s pipes and pay $50-$70-USD for it. Technically speaking, the US is behind the curve with it's internet infrastructure, we should have been getting 50-100mb/s speeds a long time ago. OTOH, who is really using that much capacity right now? Maybe in the future sure, but for now, it's that balancing act of providing the infrastructure versus the cost and return involved.

I hear you, but in the case with HSI, I think they are probably ahead of the curve now that they've started the process of changing over much of the analog channels to digital, moving to DOCSIS 3.0, and even deploying 1GHz systems.

The amount of users that are actually DL'ing those videos via DirecTV and Dish is practically nil in my estimation, at least currently, so it wouldn't have much impact on the network or the cap. I have wondered how all that would shake out though, satcos using a cablenet provided internet to deliver their content. Eventually it will certainly become a factor, but I don't see that happening in the immediate future.

I think this cap announcement is just one step on the way to enabling the provider to charge for that sort of usage - video DLs from another provider - among other things.

Personally, given Comcast's history for, let's just say, being less than truthful - lying is a harsh word - :p about BW usage, capacity, management methods, etc, I have my doubts that there really is a problem, rather it's Comcast artificially creating these BW issues as a way to extract more money from the subscriber - sort of like how the worth of diamonds is linked to what ever the manufacturers set the supply level at.

As far as limiting usage induced by other companies, they're not "supposed" to restrict that usage, but as far as I know, they can charge whatever they want for it. So if you're a D* sub and you're using a lot of BW for those videos I expect you'll be paying Comcast, in some way, some how, in the future for it.

BTW, the BDA is not happy at all with those satcos claiming "Blu-ray disc quality", or something referencing Blu-ray, for that 1080p VOD they're offering - clearly it is not Blu-ray quality by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll bet the use of the term Blu-ray will soon disappear from those ads.

Again I agree with you ( for the most part ) but given their history and willingness to do upgrades ( how long did it take to do the cable upgrades in Santa Rosa and Milpitas ??? ) I think it's prudent to start now to avoid the rush later on when we're playing catchup again :p

I have a bad feeling you're right about the real reason having nothing to do with the claim of bandwidth problems. They were slapped on the wrist by the FCC for their "throttling and/or packet interference " of some users of peer to peer and this, IMHO, is their response to what they intend to do about it.

Well, for me, if it's limited then it's not for me and I can, for now, live with what I have. Sonic's a great company and has a great support staff. I'm sure Comcast can live with me not getting their limited internet connection :p;)

Edit...
Jim read some of the comments in this link, I think some of them are valid and worth noting ... http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/15280.cfm
Laters,
Mikef5

Again I agree with you ( for the most part ) but given their history and willingness to do upgrades ( how long did it take to do the cable upgrades in Santa Rosa and Milpitas ??? ) I think it's prudent to start now to avoid the rush later on when we're playing catchup again :p

I have a bad feeling you're right about the real reason having nothing to do with the claim of bandwidth problems. They were slapped on the wrist by the FCC for their "throttling and/or packet interference " of some users of peer to peer and this, IMHO, is their response to what they intend to do about it.

Well, for me, if it's limited then it's not for me and I can, for now, live with what I have. Sonic's a great company and has a great support staff. I'm sure Comcast can live with me not getting their limited internet connection :p;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Well, you are actually limited in that you can only push so much data through at that rate you're paying for. I'm not sure how to calculate it, but I'm guessing you couldn't even reach 250GBs a month with a 6mb/s connection. I could be wrong about that though as I don't know how to come up with the number. And you're probably not getting a full 6 either, it's probably closer to about 80% of that rate.

I agree Sonic is a great company, and if their newer, faster service is competitive with Comcast I'll definitely be checking it out, but for now, I'm happy with what I get for the price. :)

Edit...
Jim read some of the comments in this link, I think some of them are valid and worth noting ... http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/15280.cfm
Laters,
Mikef5

Interesting comments, they're some good discussion in the Ars Technica forum as well.

Below link talks about the principle of net neutrality - something that is linked directly to things such as DirecTV/Dish video DLs - although this article focuses on why the TV networks need to be lobbying for it to become law in Washington.

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/08/29/daily.2/

Well, you are actually limited in that you can only push so much data through at that rate you're paying for. I'm not sure how to calculate it, but I'm guessing you couldn't even reach 250GBs a month with a 6mb/s connection. I could be wrong about that though as I don't know how to come up with the number. And you're probably not getting a full 6 either, it's probably closer to about 80% of that rate.

I agree Sonic is a great company, and if their newer, faster service is competitive with Comcast I'll definitely be checking it out, but for now, I'm happy with what I get for the price. :)

Actually, I get more than the advertised speed ( I live just down the street from the access node ) but you're right I don't even come close to 250 Gbs but that's not the point I'm driving at. Future planning is what I'm driving at. Sure it's fine now but sooner than you think we'll be exceeding that limit. There's just getting more and more content that is available for us to use and it's only going to get worse ( or better depending on your view :) ).

The internet was never designed to do what it's being expected to do now days. I doubt that there are very many people that remember what the internet was designed to do.....and it wasn't to play Colossal Cave or Zork :D
The whole internet system needs to be revamped and upgraded. Internet 2 was suppose to do that but that seems to have lost steam or lost interest in doing. We are majorly behind just about every country in internet infrastructure build up and it's sad that we live in Silicon Valley the place that makes it happen.

Laters,
Mikef5

Interesting comments, they're some good discussion in the Ars Technica forum as well.

Below link talks about the principle of net neutrality - something that is linked directly to things such as DirecTV/Dish video DLs - although this article focuses on why the TV networks need to be lobbying for it to become law in Washington.

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/08/29/daily.2/

That's funny, I click on the link and get the message " We are currently undergoing maintenance ", Well, at least someone's upgrading their system :D

Laters,
Mikef5

Interesting comments, they're some good discussion in the Ars Technica forum as well.

Below link talks about the principle of net neutrality - something that is linked directly to things such as DirecTV/Dish video DLs - although this article focuses on why the TV networks need to be lobbying for it to become law in Washington.

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/08/29/daily.2/

More fuel for the fodder..... http://www.dailytech.com/Comcast+Sets+Data+Cap+at+250+GB/article12812.htm
One more for good measure..... http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=162587&site=cdn&f_src=lightreading_sitedefault

Laters,
Mikef5

That's funny, I click on the link and get the message " We are currently undergoing maintenance ", Well, at least someone's upgrading their system :D

Laters,
Mikef5

It worked when I posted it. :confused:

It worked when I posted it. :confused:

It made me laugh :p:D
I mean what are the chances that we would be discussing the need for the internet infrastructure needing to be upgraded and the site goes down for maintenance at the same time ??? Check for listening devices.......:)

Laters,
Mikef5

250GB is 2,000,000 megabits. If you have 6Mbit service (6/1 actually, remember both count towards the cap) 2,000,000 / 7 = 285,714 seconds / 3600 = 79 hours.

You could use your cap's worth in 79 hours or about 3.3 days.

If you have 16/2 service = 31 hours.

Still the point of a faster connection is so you can download large files quicker if you need to, not so that you can saturate it 24/7.

Using the HD movie example, with a 16Mbit connection you should easily be able to watch it while it's DLing (most HD rentals are encoded at about 7-10mbit/sec).

More fuel for the fodder..... http://www.dailytech.com/Comcast+Sets+Data+Cap+at+250+GB/article12812.htm
One more for good measure..... http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=162587&site=cdn&f_src=lightreading_sitedefault

Laters,
Mikef5

Typical, lot of people getting their pannies bunched over nothing.

Most video games have a data rate of around 1500bytes/sec (1.5kB). Web surfing and email, practically nil. Watching "TV shows" online, probably most have a bit-rate of around 300-400k/sec. Maybe some higher quality services might break 1-1.5Mbit (125-188KByte) per sec. At that rate you'd have to watch about... 370 hours per month, or over 12 hours per day. :rolleyes:

There's also the issue about online backup. There are a bunch of sites that will offer unlimited backup space for less than $10/month. So in one fellow swoop, I could easily surpass the cap. Granted it's not like it would happen all the time...but it's a lot closer than the "50 million emails" example Comcast and the press have been floating around.

Eh, get an external usb drive, ie 500GB for $99, do your backups there.

I can't imagine how long it would take to backup 500GB at 1mbps. Actually I can, about 1111 hours, or 46 days.

It made me laugh :p:D
I mean what are the chances that we would be discussing the need for the internet infrastructure needing to be upgraded and the site goes down for maintenance at the same time ??? Check for listening devices.......:)

Laters,
Mikef5

The graphic on this one made me laugh ;)

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/08/29/comcast-set-to-begin-bandwidth-capping-come-october-1st/

^ that's funny. :D

The graphic on this one made me laugh ;)

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/08/29/comcast-set-to-begin-bandwidth-capping-come-october-1st/

I feel my panties getting bunched up..... :D:p

Laters,
Mikef5

Decided to upgrade our bdrm. to flat screen 40" LCD.
Our main 50" plasma is connected to cable via 6412 DVR.

Can I hook in cable directly to the cable input of our Samsung LCD and expect to tune in the HD channels - or do I need a box from Comcast?

Thanks.
...mike

Decided to upgrade our bdrm. to flat screen 40" LCD.
Our main 50" plasma is connected to cable via 6412 DVR.

Can I hook in cable directly to the cable input of our Samsung LCD and expect to tune in the HD channels - or do I need a box from Comcast?

Thanks.
...mike

You should be able to get the HD Locals via the built in QAM tuner (as well as the Analog channels)...you will need a box to get any of the non-locals HD Channels (which are encrypted)

I'm just going to put my 2 cents in here on HSI. I think charging two people who both have 6/1 service different fees on a sliding scale is reasonable. Somebody who just surfs normal web content and does e-mail could pay $20/month (which is the introductory price) and have a cap at about 25GB/mo. When you're about to go over the cap, you get an e-mail. When you go over, they charge you another $5 for another 25GB of transfer. If you were actually using 250GB/mo, you would be paying $65/mo. It's a model like the Sprint Fair and Flexible(TM) plan. I think it's eminently fair. Obviously Comcast may feel like the $/GB should be more, but hey, I'm just throwing an idea out there. I'm sure it's not a new one.

- Mike

Eh, get an external usb drive, ie 500GB for $99, do your backups there.

I can't imagine how long it would take to backup 500GB at 1mbps. Actually I can, about 1111 hours, or 46 days.

Neat. And when my house burns down, my wonderful backup burns along with it. The whole point of offsite backups is so you don't have a single point of failure. And I'm not saying I'm backing up 500GB of data. My point was that it's not as impossible to hit that cap with legitimate and responsible use of the bandwidth.

What are these sites that offer unlimited back up for 10$/mo ? Or not unlimited but good amounts of data, and can it be anything like mp3's avi's ?

How often does your house burn down? :)

That's why I said external drive... you can throw it in a fireproof safe if you need, or just take it to work. I have a couple USB drives that I use for backups, one with work stuff on it at home, and one with home stuff at work.

I just can't see backing up jack diddly over a 1mbps connection (or even whopping 2mbps).

Yes it's a legal use of your bandwidth..... if that's what you really want to use it for. Personally I get impatient waiting for my backups at 480mbps USB 2.0 :) (though actually the drives top out at around 70-80 mbps)

How often does your house burn down? :)

That's why I said external drive... you can throw it in a fireproof safe if you need, or just take it to work. I have a couple USB drives that I use for backups, one with work stuff on it at home, and one with home stuff at work.

I just can't see backing up jack diddly over a 1mbps connection (or even whopping 2mbps).

Yes it's a legal use of your bandwidth..... if that's what you really want to use it for. Personally I get impatient waiting for my backups at 480mbps USB 2.0 :) (though actually the drives top out at around 70-80 mbps)

All it takes is once. :) Disclaimer: I worked in the backup industry for 8 years. Believe me, I've tried (like many) the whole "bring the drive to work everyday" thing but the fact is you forget once...then again...then again...and then you stop all together. The only real way to get a safe backup is to get it offsite...automatically.

Dragunov1, Mozy has an unlimited "home" backup for $4.95/month (double disclaimer: I used to work for Mozy's parent company).

Sorry to keep things off topic...back to our regularly scheduled program.

Unlimited for $4.95? That's cheap, may have to take a look at that. I backup locally, but for that price some redundancy becomes attractive.

Your point about the cap vs online backup is very clear now, I'd blow through the cap before I got halfway through the initial backup, incremental would be no problem, but how are you going to get the initial backup done?

These online backup companies can't be too happy about this cap.

Unlimited for $4.95? That's cheap, may have to take a look at that. I backup locally, but for that price some redundancy becomes attractive.

Your point about the cap vs online backup is very clear now, I'd blow through the cap before I got halfway through the initial backup, incremental would be no problem, but how are you going to get the initial backup done?

These online backup companies can't be too happy about this cap.

Of course, there is a benefit to having a cap, for those of us mortals who stay below that cap and do our own backups at home. It gets us a better connection, by giving less capacity to the bandwidth-hoggers. At least I think that's how it should work...

Of course, there is a benefit to having a cap, for those of us mortals who stay below that cap and do our own backups at home. It gets us a better connection, by giving less capacity to the bandwidth-hoggers. At least I think that's how it should work...

It doesn't really give less, it just caps everyone equally. You'll still have those who run right up against the cap. I don't think those who don't will really see any performance increase, it'll just be that the hogs will see less capacity available.

Sort of like those going 75mph on the freeway will be brought back down to 65mph along with everyone else.

That's how I think it works, sort of anyway...:confused:

My usual list of vexing questions:

What is the latest DVR equipment available in Marin? I went to the San Rafael location hoping to switch my 6412 for something newer, and all they had were more old 6412s. If I stop into a Comcast location somewhere else (in the City?) would they give me something newer?

MHD is gone again from our neighborhood in Mill Valley.

Is the Big10 channel supposed to be available as part of the sports package? Or does it cost extra? I'm getting a "not authorized" message even though I do get all of the other 400 through 418 sports channels.

Again, the cap is not new, just the public announcement of it is (which is good).

If you've never run into the cap before, ie you never got a nasty letter from Comcast, you don't have anything to worry about in the future.

As for backups, it would take over 23 days to upload 250GB at 1mbps.

Note that Comcast has not committed to providing any sort of metering. It's totally unfair to have a cap if you don't provide the tools for the users to monitor how fast they are approaching the cap.

One school of thought is that they don't want you to know, otherwise you'll see how much you're paying for the small amount you use. Then customers will wonder why a sub that only uses 3-5Gbs a month is paying the same as the sub who is using 250GBs. OTOH, that's pretty much the nature of the beast, those who use less usually end up subsidizing those who use the most, it's why I can get 6+ HD channels(plus 30 or so non-HD channels) for only $16.57 a month.

So they can offer 16/1 service with 250GB cap or 850k total service (uplink+downlink) with no caps assuming 24/7 saturated connection. That could be compared to 466k/384k (466+384=850) DSL service with no caps, assuming you saturate the connection using P2P, remote backup, or some yet to be built super cool killer app.

Also 250GB cap is from their standpoint, meaning it isn't 250GB of delivered payload, it includes headers, TCP ACKs, retransmissions, error checking, etc.

At least 15-18% less when you consider actual payload transferred, which is what most consumers will be thinking in their head, so it is more like a 210GB cap.

Does anyone know what happened to the NHL Network? I used to have it in my digital lineup on channel 419 in Sunnyvale, but now it's gone. Did Comcast remove it for some reason?

It's still alive in Rohnert Park on channel 419.

What is the latest DVR equipment available in Marin? I went to the San Rafael location hoping to switch my 6412 for something newer, and all they had were more old 6412s. If I stop into a Comcast location somewhere else (in the City?) would they give me something newer?

Shiny & new is the DCH3416. I'm not sure if there are any service centers in NB that are attached to a main office, but that's the best way to go, a center closer to the warehouse gets restocked more often than one that is farther away.

An office in another area (SF, aka "West Bay") would not stock equipment for Marin. I really, really wish that could be fixed, especially in this age of DVRs. Someday . . someday. .

My usual list of vexing questions:


Is the Big10 channel supposed to be available as part of the sports package? Or does it cost extra? I'm getting a "not authorized" message even though I do get all of the other 400 through 418 sports channels.

I'd like to know this as well

I just got a message on my 3416 that we are getting an update to the guide on 9/9. The message did not mention much, but did say some improvements in Search.

We shall see.

http://www.comcast.com/newguide/

http://www.comcast.com/newguide/

Thanks for posting the link.

The Comcast guide appears to still not have a feature that I thoroughly appreciated when I had the Dish Network - the ability to only view your subscribed channels in the guide with one click. One can peruse the listings seeing only the channels you pay for, without seeing the listings for the scores of channels that you do not receive. Or you can opt to see all the channels in the guide.

i.e. -- One does not have to wade through dozens of Showtime and international channels in the guide if you're not paying for them.

I suppose Comcast thinks we need to see what we're missing?

Does anyone know if Tivo boxes have the ability to screen out unsubscribed channels without having to manually create favorite lists?

Cheers.

Does anyone know if Tivo boxes have the ability to screen out unsubscribed channels without having to manually create favorite lists?

TiVo does not automatically know which channels you subscribe to. You do have to mark the channels you want to watch, and that becomes your personal line-up.

TiVo does not automatically know which channels you subscribe to. You do have to mark the channels you want to watch, and that becomes your personal line-up.

Thanks for the reply -- another good thing about the Dish boxes is that one's list of subscribed channels would dynamically change as the package changed -- channel additions, channel number changes, etc. would automatically be reflected when one viewed 'subscribed channels' only.

I am curious about Tivo's next generation of DVRs -- once they have SDV and VOD functionality, I'd gladly return the 'punch-drunk' Moto box to Comcast.

New channels are added automatically, and you have to unmark them if you don't want them. Channel number changes are processed as deletion and addition, but I think (not 100% sure) the Season Passes are automatically migrated to the new channel numbers.

Olympics was great with a 1TB TiVo. :)

I am curious about Tivo's new generation of DVRs -- once they have SDV and VOD functionality, I'd gladly return the 'punch-drunk' Moto box to Comcast.

Unfortunately looks like you'll be stuck with the Moto for a long time if your waiting for Tivo to have built in SDV and VOD

Unfortunately looks like you'll be stuck with the Moto for a long time if your waiting for Tivo to have built in SDV and VOD

Supposedly the last Tivo firmware update provided support for SDV. The other missing piece is the hardware which is in the final stages of testing. With the way Comcast lags in technology, I'd bet we'll see a full Tivo solution before Comcast does widespread rollout of SDV.

Supposedly the last Tivo firmware update provided support for SDV. The other missing piece is the hardware which is in the final stages of testing. With the way Comcast lags in technology, I'd bet we'll see a full Tivo solution before Comcast does widespread rollout of SDV.


I assume we'll see the Tivo dongle with SDV support before than...but I havent seen anything about the S3/HDTV Tivo getting support for VOD as part of that (and the S4 sounds to be way out in the future). Has anybody heard about it supporting VOD anytime in the near future?

You can use the Favorites to create a list of channels that you subscribe to (and/or actually want to watch). It has to be done manually but doesn't take long. I don't know if there is limit to the # of channels you can Favorite but mine is pretty long and I haven't had any problems. You do have to push the "Favorite" button on the remote to switch the guide list to that mode though.

The saved searches sounds okay, though I wish you could search the whole title and the descriptions too, not just the first 5 letters of the title. For example if you are looking for say, live performances by Tom Petty, you can't just search for "petty", it won't find "Austin City Limits, Tom Petty" or "MTV Live: Tom Petty" etc...

I just read that Comcast is finally bringing Speed HD. Any idea when that might happen for our area? I would love to finish out the Formula 1 season in HD. :p

The Formula 1 world feed isn't in HD, so getting Speed HD will only be marginal improvement (more bandwidth and widescreen.)

I assume we'll see the Tivo dongle with SDV support before than...but I havent seen anything about the S3/HDTV Tivo getting support for VOD as part of that (and the S4 sounds to be way out in the future). Has anybody heard about it supporting VOD anytime in the near future?

Yeah, VOD is a whole other story. True2way was supposed to solve that problem but enough MSO's are holding out that many believe it will never see the light of day. Which means it will probably take another 3 or 4 years for yet another standard to be put on the table and shot down.

You can use the Favorites to create a list of channels that you subscribe to (and/or actually want to watch). It has to be done manually but doesn't take long. I don't know if there is limit to the # of channels you can Favorite but mine is pretty long and I haven't had any problems. You do have to push the "Favorite" button on the remote to switch the guide list to that mode though.
I, too, created a Favorites list to mimic the old Dish "all subbed" list. However, I've had to hit Menu, Favorites (heart), then select the list, before actually seeing my Favorites guide on the screen.

Did they change the way the Favorite button works? It used to cause my receiver to scan thru my "favorite" channels, one at a time, instead of just listing my favorites guide. I'll have to try it again, and see if it just brings up the Favorites list. Thanks for the tip.

My usual list of vexing questions:

Is the Big10 channel supposed to be available as part of the sports package? Or does it cost extra? I'm getting a "not authorized" message even though I do get all of the other 400 through 418 sports channels.

any update on this?

I just got a message on my 3416 that we are getting an update to the guide on 9/9. The message did not mention much, but did say some improvements in Search.

We shall see.

Same message here. Does anyone know if the seemingly long lost firmware update for the DCH3416 DVRs will be part of this update process? I'm still very irked at the non-functional Record lights.

Would there be a list of what is available for free on VOD? David Letterman/Jay Leno from the previous day? Am thinking of switching from Dish to Comcast as the triple play seems to be such a good deal! Thanks

I think (not 100% sure) the Season Passes are automatically migrated to the new channel numbers.
That's correct, the Season Passes have information on the channel identifiers so as long as those stay the same, channel #s can change and the season passes will adjust.

An FYI those of us who have both Comcast and DirecTV, TiVo and DirecTV announced today that the separation is over, they're going to make love again with a new DirecTV TiVo around this time next year. Indications are that it will not be a porting of the TiVo UI/system to a POS Motorola box like Comcast is doing, but a ground up model like the original D* TiVo.

DirecTV with a TiVo DVR - (Comcast takes another blow to the chin). :p:D

DirecTV with a TiVo DVR - (Comcast takes another blow to the chin). :p:D

I think it's a little lower than the chin...... ;):p

I tried to convince them to just buy out Tivo and drop the Moto boxes altogether but nnnnnooooooooo !!!
Oh well, live and learn.

Laters,
Mikef5

This is the second time DirecTV and TiVo have announced a deal right before a courtroom battle with Dish.

I think it's a little lower than the chin...... ;):p

I tried to convince them to just buy out Tivo and drop the Moto boxes altogether but nnnnnooooooooo !!!
Oh well, live and learn.

Laters,
Mikef5

:eek::D

At the speed Comcast moves, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see D* subs using their D*TiVos before Comcast even gets the TiVo ported boxes in the bay area. There's a newspaper article just waiting to be posted. :p:D

This is the second time DirecTV and TiVo have announced a deal right before a courtroom battle with Dish.

With Liberty having a large stake in TiVo I always felt it would only be a matter of time until DirecTV(a Liberty Media company) brought TiVo back into the fold, especially given that NDS, who created the current D* DVR, is a News Corp company(previous owner of DirecTV).


BTW, some more fuel for the fire, apparently the Comcast Boston area has over 60+ HD channels, what's up with that? Could it be that they've eliminated most all of the analog channels?.....hmmm....sounds like a good idea...:p

BTW, some more fuel for the fire, apparently the Comcast Boston area has over 60+ HD channels, what's up with that? Could it be that they've eliminated most all of the analog channels?.....hmmm....sounds like a good idea...:p

NOOOOOO !!! We need those analog channels.......I can't remember why .... Oh yeah, to waste bandwidth with :rolleyes::rolleyes:.

Comcast, drop the analog channels already. If you lose customers then cut your loses and just do it. No one else offers analog so why should you ??? To placate a few people that just don't want to come into the digital age ???
You have to do something to free up the bandwidth to add more channels and services and dropping the analog channels is the fastest and easiest way to do it, so just DO IT !!!

Laters,
Mikef5

ahhh...it's good to see MikeF5 starting to get some fire and sarcasm back in him :)

LOL...really, "HE'S BACK!!" :p:D

Seriously though, are the people that live in Boston and Chicago that much different than us, do they have 3 eyes, or 2 heads, and need all those extra channels?:p

I, too, created a Favorites list to mimic the old Dish "all subbed" list. However, I've had to hit Menu, Favorites (heart), then select the list, before actually seeing my Favorites guide on the screen.

Did they change the way the Favorite button works? It used to cause my receiver to scan thru my "favorite" channels, one at a time, instead of just listing my favorites guide. I'll have to try it again, and see if it just brings up the Favorites list. Thanks for the tip.
You have to push Guide, then Favorite, yes to switch the guide listing to "favorites only". I think if you push Favorite alone it flips the channel to the next favorite one in the list.

Oh wait, if you have more than 1 Favorite list you might have to select which one, yea.. I don't know, I only have 1.

I just push Guide, then Favorite (on the remote) and bam.

ahhh...it's good to see MikeF5 starting to get some fire and sarcasm back in him :)

Yeah and he's right. Did you all see the Comcast HD lineup in Boston? 60 channels, including multiples of Showtime HD. They wake up in the morning and new HDs appear like manna from heaven. BTW, some kid in a Comcast vest comes up to my door the other day saying that they are laying new fiber in advance of the 2/09 digital conversion and he wanted to check on whether our service had experienced any outages (we haven't). This seemed rather odd until he began to hard-sell the triple bundle package. Seems like a pretty flimsy pretext to me.

BTW, some kid in a Comcast vest comes up to my door the other day saying that they are laying new fiber in advance of the 2/09 digital conversion and he wanted to check on whether our service had experienced any outages (we haven't). This seemed rather odd until he began to hard-sell the triple bundle package. Seems like a pretty flimsy pretext to me.

What a frickin lie...The turning off of Analog OTA on 2/9 has no affect at all on cable...and any upgrade they are doing in your area would have nothing to do with that (but I bet he completely made that up to act like he cares...and no upgrade was going on in your neighborhood)

What a frickin lie...The turning off of Analog OTA on 2/9 has no affect at all on cable...and any upgrade they are doing in your area would have nothing to do with that (but I bet he completely made that up to act like he cares...and no upgrade was going on in your neighborhood)
Of course it was. Comcast has had a pattern of using 3rd party sales companies to go around and try to convince existing customers to buy the phone service. This isn't the first time that this has happened and, since I don't want the phone service, I usually make short shrift of these folks and send them on their way.

Would there be a list of what is available for free on VOD?

Try http://tvplanner.comcast.net

You may need to fill in some information to see listings in your area - like a zip code.

Click on Channel 1 - it will take you to a page, on the left is a menu (straight out of javascript torture on my chairside laptop) to select movies, networks, etc.

That's pretty neat actually, but is torture on the browser even on my beefy PC.

Click on the ON DEMAND on the top bar, then "View all Programs" for a huge-normous list (beginning with just the letter "A").

Try http://tvplanner.comcast.net

You may need to fill in some information to see listings in your area - like a zip code.

Click on Channel 1 - it will take you to a page, on the left is a menu (straight out of javascript torture on my chairside laptop) to select movies, networks, etc.

Thanks! Guess Letterman/Leno are not on VOD. I guess we will need 2 DVRs if I want to watch the previous nights show on the second TV. Thanks again!!

That's pretty neat actually, but is torture on the browser even on my beefy PC.

Click on the ON DEMAND on the top bar, then "View all Programs" for a huge-normous list (beginning with just the letter "A").


Time for a new browser (or PC) ;)

I was just browsing it and it is pretty handy (well if I had Comcast...) and I found if fairly snappy considering (especially when I was using the new Google Browser ;)

Free HBO this weekend?

I read that some cable providers are having a free HBO weekend, 9/5 to 9/8.

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=45936&t=911832

Comcast may be one of them?

Free HBO this weekend?

I just finished watching the free movies from last time. :)

Free HBO this weekend?

I read that some cable providers are having a free HBO weekend, 9/5 to 9/8.

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=45936&t=911832

Comcast may be one of them?
Sometimes, but not always, there have been some free weekends where Comcast has just ignored it.

Today I brought my 6412 and SD receiver back to Comcast. I handed them over and told them that I was disconnecting. When asked if I was moving, I said no, I went to satellite. So, after 5 or so years, I have returned to DishNetwork. Why? Well, that's fairly simple, and I told Comcast why. The 722 DVR is head and shoulders better than the Motorola POS. The HD channel count is on Dish is much, much higher with comparable picture quality. The cost of service is 20% less for more entertainment and that's the regular cost, not the 3 month come-ons that I also received.

I will still be watching this thread and will be offering any help that I can when appropriate.

Time for a new browser (or PC) ;)

I was just browsing it and it is pretty handy (well if I had Comcast...) and I found if fairly snappy considering (especially when I was using the new Google Browser ;)

Click on "On Demand" and then "View All Programs" - very long pauses between page loads.

Today I brought my 6412 and SD receiver back to Comcast. I handed them over and told them that I was disconnecting. When asked if I was moving, I said no, I went to satellite. So, after 5 or so years, I have returned to DishNetwork. Why? Well, that's fairly simple, and I told Comcast why. The 722 DVR is head and shoulders better than the Motorola POS. The HD channel count is on Dish is much, much higher with comparable picture quality. The cost of service is 20% less for more entertainment and that's the regular cost, not the 3 month come-ons that I also received.

I will still be watching this thread and will be offering any help that I can when appropriate.

Congrats for speaking with your wallet, the economics/value equation are hard to ignore.

Hell has frozen over:

http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/09/04/hdnet-hdnet-movies-coming-to-comcast/

So.....we should see HDNet here in the BA maybe by this time next year.....???

The Formula 1 world feed isn't in HD, so getting Speed HD will only be marginal improvement (more bandwidth and widescreen.)

Still, widescreen and more bandwidth is very welcome. The SD feed is painful, especially after FOX showed races in WS. Looks like this won't happen before the race this weekend, anyone know if this will happen before the end of the year?

No kidding! It pisses me off to no end that those subscribers in Boston and Chicago have somehow been deemed worthy enough to be anointed with so many HD channels to choose from, while the Bay Area Comcast continues to mope along at a snail's pace. Not to mention Boston and Chicago getting The Shield in HD right now and we're not! ggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
AND NOW I see on Engadget that Comcast has finally grabbed its ears, pulled its head out, and made a deal with Mr. Mark Cuban to add HDNet and HDNet Movies to its offerings. Of course, that probably means we won't see those channels here in the Bay Area for at least 2-3 years... yeeesh.

Today I brought my 6412 and SD receiver back to Comcast. I handed them over and told them that I was disconnecting. When asked if I was moving, I said no, I went to satellite. So, after 5 or so years, I have returned to DishNetwork. Why? Well, that's fairly simple, and I told Comcast why. The 722 DVR is head and shoulders better than the Motorola POS. The HD channel count is on Dish is much, much higher with comparable picture quality. The cost of service is 20% less for more entertainment and that's the regular cost, not the 3 month come-ons that I also received.

I will still be watching this thread and will be offering any help that I can when appropriate.
I have plans on doing the same thing. I'm just waiting for Dish to release the new 722s with Sling capability. I understand it should be by the end of this year, or possibly Q1 next. I can live with Comcast DVR and Digital Starter until then.

I just push Guide, then Favorite (on the remote) and bam.Thanks. That's one sweet tip.

I think I've diagnosed the missing Big 10 Channel in Marin (Mill Valley). Just like my problem with MHD, they are broadcasting the signal with QAM 64 modulation (instead of QAM256, which seems to apply to every other channel). I don't understand why this it, but it means that much of the time the channel IS available on my CableCard TV. But the channels are not, for the most part, available on my Motorola 6412 DVR. (I had a day or so of MHD. Big10 has never appeared.)

I've meant to call this in to Comcast but have been too busy during the day. And I sort of presume that evening service will get routed to some call center overseas that will be useless. If anyone has any tips as to whether this problem is related to local Comcast techs being incompetent, or if this is systemwide somehow, I'd appreciate hearing them.

I have called Comcast very late at night, and the CSR wasn't overseas.

I think I've diagnosed the missing Big 10 Channel in Marin (Mill Valley). Just like my problem with MHD, they are broadcasting the signal with QAM 64 modulation (instead of QAM256, which seems to apply to every other channel). I don't understand why this it, but it means that much of the time the channel IS available on my CableCard TV. But the channels are not, for the most part, available on my Motorola 6412 DVR. (I had a day or so of MHD. Big10 has never appeared.)

I've meant to call this in to Comcast but have been too busy during the day. And I sort of presume that evening service will get routed to some call center overseas that will be useless. If anyone has any tips as to whether this problem is related to local Comcast techs being incompetent, or if this is systemwide somehow, I'd appreciate hearing them.

In San Francisco they maybe having some Ingress issues with signal leaking into the cable from Sutro tower OTA broadcasts. Keeping 5MW of signal out of the co-ax can be tricky.

QAM64 can work with lower SNR's so they maybe switching the channels that overlap with the broadcast channels to QAM64 so those channels will work. They get less overall symbol rate per channel but at least it works for those channels

Just a theory of course.

QAM64 can work with lower SNR's so they maybe switching the channels that overlap with the broadcast channels to QAM64 so those channels will work. They get less overall symbol rate per channel but at least it works for those channels.

Well, at this moment the problem has changed and doesn't require that sophisticated an analysis--they have no signal to either of those channels. Hard to imagine how incompetent they are.

More information. Both MHD (which has either been renamed or replaced at Ch. 743 by something called Palladia) and the Big10 Channel at Ch. 403 are sent at 99000 kHz. Perhaps to kevini's point, it appears that some of the channels in that general frequency band (90000 to 110000) are sent using QAM64. Seems like the vast majority of channels are sent using QAM256. When either 743 or 403 do manage to be received by my Cablecard TV, they have an SNR of around 29 or 30. Most of the other channels are around 35 or 36.

After a long and frustrating call with a Comcast CSR, he tested the headend for Mill Valley (which he says is actually up in San Rafael). The headend is broadcasting fine (or so he says). So the problem is supposed to be local to my neighborhood. He opened a service ticket to check the general neighborhood. They will call me within 48 hours . . . "or if you don't hear, call us." But the bottom line seems to be that there is some problem with that particular frequency in my neighborhood (as the neighbors report the same problem on MHD).

how come 720 isn't showing the wash/byu game? espn just ran a clip of the game and it was in HD

i will get the new guide including "Comcast Central" on tuesday.

http://www.comcast.com/newguide

how come 720 isn't showing the wash/byu game? espn just ran a clip of the game and it was in HD

They never show college football on 720, it's strictly A's/Giants, Warriors and Sharks.

Anyone getting the "meta-6" communication error when trying to go to On-Demand? I have a DCH-3200 and it just started doing this a couple of days ago. I thought it might have something to do with the hot weather. Guess I gotta call Comcast. Anyone have any insight?

They never show college football on 720, it's strictly A's/Giants, Warriors and Sharks.

CSNBA? Sure they do, at least they used to when it was FSNBA.

CSNBA? Sure they do, at least they used to when it was FSNBA.

They didn't today, apparently.

Speaking of the Guide upgrade, anyone heard about Sunnyvale? Also, does the guide upgrade include firmware updates? My DCT-6412 is still chugging along on 16.20.