San Francisco, CA - Comcast [Text View] - Page 44

Mikef5

08-05-09, 12:22 PM

If RCN can do it, there shouldn't be any reason why Comcast can't do it as well.

RCN Selects TiVo as its Primary DVR Platform
http://investor.rcn.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=401063
http://www.rcn.com/j/tivo?bid=banner--all--TiVo--2009-08-03--TiVo

(Thanks to bfdtv in the TiVo thread.)

Jim,

Read this article from Light Reading......
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=180071&site=cdn&f_src=lightreading_sitedefault

This is the part that interested me...

Comcast also announced intentions to offer TiVo as a "primary DVR option" in a yet-to-be announced tru2way market, but has not pinpointed a launch date. If Comcast opts to go wider with that strategy, RCN's use of the TiVo DVR as a competitive differentiator may be short-lived.

This is not the Motorola/Tivo software option that they released months ago and Yes, I've already asked Mr. J. about this ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

That Don Guy

08-05-09, 03:00 PM

TiVo won't have any guide data until the channel shows up here:

http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do?aid=zap2it
I had this problem before with the last loading of channels (see here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15624214#post15624214)). I sent Zap2It an E-mail, and this may have been just a coincidence, but the new channels showed up on the guide within a week.

The website says to send an E-mail to feedback@zap2it.com with the following directions:

If you wish to report a cable or satellite lineup discrepancy: please fill-in the "Subject:" line as "Lineup Discrepancy," and include the following information or your request will not be processed:

Cable System Name (please copy exactly from our list of providers)
Specific Description of Problem (channels missing or incorrect, program data incorrect, date/time of specific occurrence, etc.)
Provider Phone Number
Provider Service (cable, satellite)
Apartment or Hotel Complex Name (if applicable)
City
State
Zip Code

-- Don

nbc11newsclips

08-05-09, 07:04 PM

at midnight tonight, they will be getting Comcast Central

rxp19

08-05-09, 07:26 PM

at midnight tonight, they will be getting Comcast Central

cool... I wonder if that new iTV icon that showed up on my quick menu has anything to do with Comcast Central. Currently it says "Application Unavailable"

stretch437

08-05-09, 07:35 PM

juct checked friend's system and finally the analog channels (channels numbered over 35 or so) are finally gone on the stanford side of palo alto. they'll have to look at titantv or silicondust to find ESPN now...

Barovelli

08-05-09, 10:24 PM

at midnight tonight, they will be getting Comcast Central

Huh? :confused:

I don't think so.

Mikef5

08-05-09, 11:56 PM

cool... I wonder if that new iTV icon that showed up on my quick menu has anything to do with Comcast Central. Currently it says "Application Unavailable"

I think this is what you are looking for.....
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22357449-What-is-iTV

So far this offers Caller ID on your tv screen but it could be used for other things also. This has been rolled out on the East coast and now seems like it's going to come to the Left Coast.

I'd rather see the Whole House Dvr implemented which for me would be more useful but some people might find this to their liking. ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

dlou99

08-06-09, 01:44 AM

Are Comcast's radio channels encrypted? When I try to tune to the 900 channels on my ATI DCT, Vista Media Center shows the "No Tuner Available".

I get them just fine using a generic PCI based ATSC/QAM tuner on Linux (i.e. unencrypted).

mpatnode

08-06-09, 12:35 PM

I get them just fine using a generic PCI based ATSC/QAM tuner on Linux (i.e. unencrypted).

Thanks. I'll go pound on thegreenbutton to figure out what's going on. Anyone know of a simple tuner app that I can run outside of VMC to test the ATI DCT?

superrecord

08-06-09, 08:55 PM

audiovid

08-06-09, 11:27 PM

> ok, I have comcast (and hate them) at my place and have a big family..

If you have TVs and recorders with digital tuners then you can watch QAM channels. They are differently numbered, but you can correlate the Comcast channel number to the QAm channel number because Comcast shipped all their subscribers DTAs. There is a method titled Tuning COMCAST Cable-QAM Channels in the Tuning section at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12470932&postcount=131 that describes how to.

If you do not have ATSC tuners in the TVs, you need boxes to convert the digital signals to analog.

Cable and TV share the same frequencies, so you could probably use an OTA conversion box if you really really want to avoid Comcast.

08-06-09, 11:36 PM

Cable and TV share the same frequencies, so you could probably use an OTA conversion box if you really really want to avoid Comcast.

OTA uses ATSC. Cable uses QAM. These two modulations are not compatible.

stretch437

08-07-09, 12:08 AM

... even if the frequencies overlap.

mpatnode

08-07-09, 12:36 AM

ok, I have comcast (and hate them) at my place and have a big family. everyone has got their own televisions going in their own rooms. anyhow, I dont want to pay for more boxes monthly and some of the channels just went out. Can I buy a 3rd party DTA and get these channels back or will comcast see my box and then fine me? I am really not trying to give them any money at this point.

thanks for any advice..

Note Comcast will give you two DTA's for free. I'm assuming you still plan to pay for the basic or extended basic service. Note the free DTA's don't provide pay-per-view or premium channels, they just convert the digital signal.

If you really want to buy your own, it should work fine. Just like a Tivo or Windows Media Center box with a digital receiver. If your TV's are already digital, all the basic (and most likely most the extended) digital channels will probably just work. Comcast no longer counts the number of TVs in the house.

MikeSM

08-07-09, 01:18 PM

Thanks. I'll go pound on thegreenbutton to figure out what's going on. Anyone know of a simple tuner app that I can run outside of VMC to test the ATI DCT?

It doesn't exist. The way the code is written, the DCT can only talk to VMC. It's part of the DRM/contrent security crap that is forced upon cablecard the way MSFT implemented it.

rsra13

08-07-09, 05:12 PM

Last night I recorded, and watched, 30 Days of Night (average to low movie) from Encore HD and was pleasantly surprised with the quality. After recording several movies from HBO HD and getting dissapointed with the quality, it was great to see that some other channels can keep a good quality. The picture actually looked near Blu-ray, watched at night, in a 100'' screen.

Brian Conrad

08-07-09, 08:02 PM

stretch437

08-07-09, 08:06 PM

i distinctly remember remarking more than once recently during movies shown on encore HD that they seemed to have unusually (for comcast anyways) high picture quality.

someone who is familiar with 3-packing and bitrates and all that can probably explain why.

keenan

08-07-09, 08:37 PM

I watched an OnDemand Sundance movie "A World Without Thieves" which had a lot of action scenes and don't recall any pixelation. But recording "True Blood" was so disappointed in the actions scenes with heavy macroblocking. Until Comcast fixes that (with better recompression) maybe they ought to charge only $1.98 a month for HBO. :D

I agree, Comcast already charges 30% more for HBO/SHO than DirecTV, and for an inferior product to boot. Only reason I have HBO with Comcast is the free for 2 year promo. :)

rsra13

08-07-09, 08:53 PM

MikeSM

08-08-09, 10:56 AM

The problem with HBO HD may be, as mentioned previously here if my memory doesn't fail me, that they (HBO) enconde their shows in mp4, they send that data to Comcast and Comcast convert that to MPG2, so you can imagine the results if you don't have the right tools to do that process.

This is done at HITS, home of the 3-pack transcoding as well. I wish comcast would get some clue here and use better quality gear.

mpatnode

08-08-09, 12:12 PM

This is done at HITS, home of the 3-pack transcoding as well. I wish comcast would get some clue here and use better quality gear.

You just need to tell DirectTV marketing how to use the fact in their advertising. Much more effective than to expect Comcast to care about what existing customers want...

Brian Conrad

08-08-09, 12:36 PM

I watched last weeks episode of "True Blood" again this time OnDemand and it was far better than the real-time encoding that you get when you watch or record the broadcast. And you will notice if you record the shows you get the last few minutes of the previous hour instead of the show starting right up as you would do with any other broadcast. It must take a couple minutes to fill the encode buffers and creates the delay. This was really noticeable with last night's Bill Maher show that I recorded.

So if you want better PQ you have to do OnDemand and avoid the water cooler the following morning since it often is not up there right away though Showtime has been known for put episodes in advance OnDemand. ;)

diskus

08-09-09, 03:34 PM

How do you guys measure this PQ?

Brian Conrad

08-09-09, 03:59 PM

With today's compression techonology you should not be seeing macroblocking even on an action scene. In the particular episode of True Blood, Jason is being chased and much of that scene with the real-time encoding was macroblocked. I believe the term is quad-pelling which is a technique that simplifies the blocks during action to reduce bitrate. The OnDemand version did not have much of that at all and what there was barely noticeable. Most here notice the recompressed show look grainier. The OnDemand version was definitely cleaner. Recompression will introduce a grainy look.

keenan

08-09-09, 04:19 PM

That's the scene I saw it on as well. It's fairly easy to see, when I saw it during Eureka awhile back it was so bad you didn't even know it was a person that had walked by, all you saw was a brief pixelated mess where they should have been.

Brian Conrad

08-09-09, 07:05 PM

There was one episode where people were blurred intentionally (two back I think). Syfy has what I call dirty blocks and winds up grainy. Not sure if that is due to Comcast recompressing for three packing or that's how they get them from the network. I actually see less macroblocking on Syfy than HBO now. On Bill Maher's opening skit they had some cross-dissolves and the encoder quad-pelled them. That should not have happened.

keenan

08-09-09, 07:19 PM

Mikef5

08-10-09, 12:29 PM

Just got an email updating the schedule for the addition of the new HD channels for some of the Bay Area. They are doing a systematic roll out to insure in goes without a hitch. I'm posting as I received it so there is no question about what was or wasn't said.

_____________________________________________________

You asked me for a schedule for the World of More high-definition channel launches we announced on July 10th, (http://comcastcalifornia.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=292) and I can share the following information without giving my competition too much info.

Please note that we continue to use a very structured and phased approach to our launches due to the large number of customers, vast geographic region and our focus on providing superior service to our customers.

August 10th

The World of More channel changes will occur in Novato and San Rafael.

August 17th

The World of More channel changes will occur in Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.

August 18th

The World of More channel changes will occur in Cupertino and Los Altos.

August 19th

The World of More channel changes will occur in Mountain View and Saratoga.

August 20th

The World of More channel changes will occur in Milpitas.

Stay Tuned….and thanks for continuing to share your opinions…as you know I stop by the Forum fairly regularly to keep my fingers on the pulse but your ongoing efforts to bring the major issues to my attention is deeply appreciated.

________________________________________________________

That's the roll out list for now, if there are any changes or additions I'll post them here. As a side note. The schedule I received in the mail said that Milpitas wouldn't get the new channels until the 27th of August so it looks like it's going to come a week sooner than what the mailed schedule said. Hope that goes for the rest of the areas.

Laters,
Mikef5

calbear289

08-10-09, 12:57 PM

I noticed Palo Alto isn't on the list. Is our service lumped in with Mountain View, or are we not getting new channels?

Thanks

Brian Conrad

08-10-09, 01:00 PM

On the Syfy image I compared the Comcast feed to the DirecTV feed and with the Comcast image the person was reduced to red/green blocky pixels, not even a distinguishable person, just a blocky mess moving across the screen. With the DirecTV feed the person was clearly distinguishable.

What ever Comcast is doing, it seems to have the most trouble with closeup rapid movement, like when someone is moving quickly close to the camera such as the fight scene with Jason on True Blood.

The basketball game on Hung was highly pixelated. True Blood didn't have many scenes that would have led to pixelation. Still was grainy which happens when you compress an already compressed image. I wonder if HBO knows about this. I guess Comcast isn't large enough of a subscriber base for them to still provide an MPEG-2 stream. :D

millerwill

08-10-09, 01:33 PM

Nothing re the East Bay?

mds54

08-10-09, 01:48 PM

Still unbelieveable that they can skip the biggest city in the area....San Jose.
No dates at all???

henree

08-10-09, 01:52 PM

Nothing re the East Bay?
Just got my motorolla 6200 box from comcast. And it appears that if I run the coaxial cable directly into my unit I get all the Hd channels. And I scroll can through them pretty fast. But when I use a splitter, a lot of Hd channels give me the message " One Moment Please". Do you think the splitter is not giving enough juice to the cable box? Would an amplifier help this issue. It is always the same Hd channels that don't work. With the splitter my channel surfing slows down as well. I only have one coaxial outlet in my apartment.

Ace of Space

08-10-09, 02:23 PM

Still unbelieveable that they can skip the biggest city in the area....San Jose.
No dates at all???

I totally agree.

Cal1981

08-10-09, 02:43 PM

This isn't HD specific but it is a Comcast issue. We have three TV hookups (2 DVRs and a Moto 700). One line is split at its termination between our HDTV and the cable modem. I want to run a fourth line to another bedroom, move the 700 there and get a DTA for one of the original sets. I called Comcast on Friday, explained the situation and was told no problem. A cable install would be $21 and the hookup would be $13 or $15 (forget which). I called today to set up an appointment and was told that Comcast no longer does cabling that involves wall fishing (mine would have to go either in the attic or under the house and could run from the main splitter in the garage or a much shorter run from our bedroom off a "local" splitter). I would have to get a private contractor to run the cable and then a Comcast tech would do the "installation". The explanation involved damage , liability etc. Needless to say, I was surprised by this. Has anyone had a similar situation and what was Comcast's response. The coax running currently is all R59 pre-wired when the house was built.

gfbuchanan

08-10-09, 02:43 PM

Give Comcast a break. If it the list doesn't include San Jose, it seems obvious that they are not ready to roll it out in San Jose yet. Sorry if that is your area, but that is they way they have decided to roll things out.

On the other hand, if every time Comcast gives a schedule, all they get is grief about it not including "my" area, they will stop posting any schedule. Then everyone can speculate about when it will occur, rather than having factual information.

Still unbelieveable that they can skip the biggest city in the area....San Jose.
No dates at all???

keenan

08-10-09, 03:27 PM

What about my area?! :p

rxp19

08-10-09, 03:58 PM

Just got my motorolla 6200 box from comcast. And it appears that if I run the coaxial cable directly into my unit I get all the Hd channels. And I scroll can through them pretty fast. But when I use a splitter, a lot of Hd channels give me the message " One Moment Please". Do you think the splitter is not giving enough juice to the cable box? Would an amplifier help this issue. It is always the same Hd channels that don't work. With the splitter my channel surfing slows down as well. I only have one coaxial outlet in my apartment.

Is your splitter rated at least 1000MHz / 1GHz ? It should say on the splitter.

Mikef5

08-10-09, 04:17 PM

What about my area?! :p
Jim,

Does Hell and freezing over ring a bell or How about when the Giant's win the World Series ?? :p:D

Haven't heard about Santa Rosa yet but it is on the list. I was shocked that they gave a schedule that is this specific but then again it started today so the competition would have to move at the speed of light to mess with the roll out. As you can see, Milpitas is at the end of the list so you can see how much pull I have with Comcast ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

walk

08-10-09, 04:29 PM

The coax running currently is all R59 pre-wired when the house was built.

Use RG6.

walk

08-10-09, 04:31 PM

Just got my motorolla 6200 box from comcast. And it appears that if I run the coaxial cable directly into my unit I get all the Hd channels. And I scroll can through them pretty fast. But when I use a splitter, a lot of Hd channels give me the message " One Moment Please". Do you think the splitter is not giving enough juice to the cable box?

Could be, what is the signal level like? Turn the box on, then turn it off then immediately (within 2 seconds or less) press the middle/enter/SELECT button, then scroll down to "OOB tuner" I believe it's called. There's more information on Wikipedia about the service menu...

mds54

08-10-09, 04:34 PM

Give Comcast a break. If it the list doesn't include San Jose, it seems obvious that they are not ready to roll it out in San Jose yet. Sorry if that is your area, but that is they way they have decided to roll things out.

On the other hand, if every time Comcast gives a schedule, all they get is grief about it not including "my" area, they will stop posting any schedule. Then everyone can speculate about when it will occur, rather than having factual information.

Whoa! I'll give Comcast a break when they give me a break. Fair enough?
And I'll ask about schedules anytime I want. Thank you.

keenan

08-10-09, 07:00 PM

Jim,

Does Hell and freezing over ring a bell or How about when the Giant's win the World Series ?? :p:D

Haven't heard about Santa Rosa yet but it is on the list. I was shocked that they gave a schedule that is this specific but then again it started today so the competition would have to move at the speed of light to mess with the roll out. As you can see, Milpitas is at the end of the list so you can see how much pull I have with Comcast ;)

Laters,
Mikef5
I was just kidding, but yeah, probably when the Giants win a World Series. The Dodgers have been slumping lately, should be a good game tonight. :)

BTW, in case anyone is interested, there's a promo(12 mos) where you can add Digital Classic for $6.95, may vary by location.

Barovelli

08-10-09, 08:42 PM

Jim,
As you can see, Milpitas is at the end of the list so you can see how much pull I have with Comcast ;)
Laters,
Mikef5

Or Monterey/Salinas - I should have more pull than Mike!

San Jose is still in the DTA rollout/analog cut off stage. Someone with time on their hands could backtrack here and see when those listed areas lost analogs - of course YMMV in areas . . .

Mikef5

08-10-09, 09:14 PM

I was just kidding, but yeah, probably when the Giants win a World Series. The Dodgers have been slumping lately, should be a good game tonight. :)

BTW, in case anyone is interested, there's a promo(12 mos) where you can add Digital Classic for $6.95, may vary by location.

So was I Jim :p

The Dodgers always play their best when they play the Giants and vica versa. It's a great rivalry and is one I look forward to every year. As much as I joke about the Dodgers they are the team to beat but the Giants are playing much better this year, better than a lot of people thought they would. It'll be a great series to watch, hopefully NBC will not screw up the broadcast tonight.

Laters,
Mikef5

nikeykid

08-10-09, 10:12 PM

beat la! beat la!

keenan

08-10-09, 10:14 PM

beat la! beat la!

Not a chance! :D

mpatnode

08-11-09, 12:23 AM

I just tried ESPN 360 (http://comcast.net/360) on the big screen which Comcast customers now get for free. Quality was underwhelming. I don't suppose there's a chance in h*ll that any NFL games will be available here. How about NFL Primetime?

jharkin

08-11-09, 01:20 AM

August 10th

The World of More channel changes will occur in Novato and San Rafael.

I'm in San Rafael and this happened today. There are definitely More HD channels. The guide hasn't caught up yet, though, so lots of TBA channels.

henree

08-11-09, 03:24 AM

Is your splitter rated at least 1000MHz / 1GHz ? It should say on the splitter.

The splitter says 5/1000mhz.

DiveFan

08-11-09, 04:17 PM

But when I use a splitter, a lot of Hd channels give me the message " One Moment Please". Do you think the splitter is not giving enough juice to the cable box?
In my experience, the above message means 'lack of signal'.
- Use quality RG/6 cabling to your STB and/or DTA. If you just need short lengths, they are available at the Comcast office if you ask nicely.
- Use quality splitters or directional couplers; Comcast installed the latter where direction connections to analog devices (VHS, DVR) were made. Most of the splitters from Frys, RS, etc are Crap.

I'd recommend that you get the $0.99/mo 'protection plan' and have a Comcast tech do all this for Free. Let them supply everything, including an amplifier if necessary. The good techs will measure signal levels to know what will work.

rxp19

08-11-09, 04:37 PM

Isa75

08-11-09, 04:43 PM

I have Comcast Basic Cable in Milpitas with built in QAM Tuner from my TV (no box, card, or anything between the wall and TV). I signed up for their $10.00 month deal after giving ATSC a try for a while and jumped on this price when I seen it. I assumed that I would only have the bare basic of channels but on my Samsung HDTV I scanned the over the air and cable channels and ended up with a lot more then I was expecting. I have Locals in HD, and ended up with about 170 ch. some of which are black, some are repeats with the TV content repeated labeled Cable, some DTV. I even had HBOs on the first 48 hours in HD. Those have disappeared now (the premium ones), but is this the norm for Comcast Basic with a QAM Tuner? I have ch. 2 - 128.1 (something like that), On ch. 9 I have 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6 all are some derivative or PBS. The channel listing is a bit of a pain because the don’t match up with Yahoo’s TV listings, and I’m fearful of pulling the trigger on Tivo HD only to find out I cant record these oddly numbered 78.1 (just an example not sure that’s a real number) and the fact that sometimes channels just seem to disappear. Any help or advice on this? I don’t want call and complain about something I might not even suppose to be getting.

gotok

08-11-09, 05:34 PM

...... Any help or advice on this? I don’t want call and complain about something I might not even suppose to be getting.

I have wondered about this myself. I have limited basic service in San Jose, and my Sony QAM tuner can receive more than just the local channels. I think it gets the expanded basic channels as well, although they are all in SD. The additional channels are on aritrary frequencies as you described. However, my Sony HDTV has TVGOS and I have learned how to add the channels to the guide so that the channel icon as well as the programming for the channel shows up in the guide making it easy to access those additional channels. It's great for now, but I suspect this is a temporary leak which will be plugged as the Comcast digital transition is completed.

mds54

08-11-09, 06:01 PM

Woah! http://www.comcast.net/mydvr -Schedule DVR recordings online!

Unfortunately, it seems like everyone is getting the "Sorry, we're unable to activate you at this time." error message, as reported on other forums.

Me too:
Sorry, due to high traffic volumes, we're unable to activate MyDVR Manager at this time

So much for that.....

Isa75

08-11-09, 06:18 PM

I do get my locals in HD I know that for sure, I'll update when I get home if I get anything else like Discovery, I'm not sure.

mds54

08-11-09, 06:55 PM

Isn't today the big day for some of you to get all the new HD channels?
Can anyone confirm a new channel lineup and PQ?

nbc11newsclips

08-11-09, 07:18 PM

at midnight on early wednesday

gfbuchanan

08-11-09, 07:38 PM

With Comcast Basic, you can expect to get the local channels, in both SD and HD. That would be everything you used to get on the analog channels 2-34 (or so), along with the extra KQED channels.. Any channels beyond that are just gravy and likely to disappear at any time. The consensus is that the Expanded Basic channels (old channels 36-80), while currently in the clear, will move down into the area blocked out by the notch filter at some point. When that happens, if you just have limited basic, you will lose them.

Some of the channel listings will have logical channels that correspond to their old channels (like 9.1, 9.2, 5.1, etc.) Others channels do not send logical channel information, so you have to tune them by their actual channel (such as 107.3). What channel identification is used depends on Comcast sending a PSIP and your tuner recognizing it. Expect channels without PSIP info to move around at Comcast's pleasure.

Greg

I have Comcast Basic Cable in Milpitas with built in QAM Tuner from my TV (no box, card, or anything between the wall and TV). I signed up for their $10.00 month deal after giving ATSC a try for a while and jumped on this price when I seen it. I assumed that I would only have the bare basic of channels but on my Samsung HDTV I scanned the over the air and cable channels and ended up with a lot more then I was expecting. I have Locals in HD, and ended up with about 170 ch. some of which are black, some are repeats with the TV content repeated labeled Cable, some DTV. I even had HBOs on the first 48 hours in HD. Those have disappeared now (the premium ones), but is this the norm for Comcast Basic with a QAM Tuner? I have ch. 2 - 128.1 (something like that), On ch. 9 I have 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6 all are some derivative or PBS. The channel listing is a bit of a pain because the don’t match up with Yahoo’s TV listings, and I’m fearful of pulling the trigger on Tivo HD only to find out I cant record these oddly numbered 78.1 (just an example not sure that’s a real number) and the fact that sometimes channels just seem to disappear. Any help or advice on this? I don’t want call and complain about something I might not even suppose to be getting.

mpatnode

08-11-09, 07:52 PM

The consensus is that the Expanded Basic channels (old channels 36-80), while currently in the clear, will move down into the area blocked out by the notch filter at some point.

Where is this notch filter implemented? If I'm paying for expanded basic, but not using Comcast hardware will I still get those channels?

ayewbf

08-11-09, 08:15 PM

at midnight on early wednesday
As reported by jharkin already, all the new HD channels went live in san rafael as of yesterday, the 10th. Yay!
Unfortunately there is no new tivo guide data yet, and so all the programming says 'to be announced'. Except for channel 755 which has been erroneously listed since last Nov. or so even though it only came online yesterday.

WIsh comcast could own the problem of reporting lineup changes to tivo, instead of waiting for users to do it for them. There are so many changes I don't want to have to itemize them to tivo support myself.

tex94

08-12-09, 09:58 AM

Channels up in Mill Valley too. I'm not getting CBS College Sports at all - the channel appears on my Tivo HD but I get just black screen when I tune it in. Also a few other odd items like HBO HD is still at 770 but the other HBOs are in the 800s. Starz is also on 780 but looks like it is repeated in the 800s too. ABC Family is showing up on 2 different HD channels (I forget the numbers) but showing the same programming (talk about a waste of bandwidth!).

I'm sure that it will all get sorted out in the coming days. Now if I could just get Tivo to load the programming...

nikeykid

08-12-09, 10:45 AM

not in oakland yet :(

stretch437

08-12-09, 11:45 AM

where's all this mydvr stuff coming from? i was looking at those directv ads (promoting a similar feature) longingly - did i have this feature all along?

i thought i had been following this thread fairly consistently but this is coming as a surprise to me.

i don't remember getting any notification from comcast that that this feature was available to me. comcast loves to send me leaflets in the mail about this and that. i never saw anything about this. comcast also loves to sprinkle comcast ads in all of its programming and even in various corners of my program guide. i never saw this feature mentioned in any of those ads.

also apparently you need a comcast.net account. i don't remember ever setting this up either.

so this whole thing is a total mystery. if i can set recordings via the web, i'd love to know more.

theman23

08-12-09, 12:36 PM

Does anyone know when the new channels are supposed to go live in San Francisco? I've looked through this thread and can only find cities in the Bay Area. Thanks.

mds54

08-12-09, 01:34 PM

rsra13

08-12-09, 02:42 PM

Well, I'm going to watch today's game in Ultra High Definition. I'm leaving to San Francisco right now. :D

I hope Manny treat us better today. :(

keenan

08-12-09, 03:44 PM

Same here. I knew the competition had it, but the first I heard of it for Comcast was the previous post in this thread. You can't get activated anyway...I've tried for two days, so it's not really a feature yet.

TiVo boxes have it as well.

henree

08-12-09, 05:19 PM

How do you get audio from component and composite video at the same time? I have my vcr hooked up to the 6200 using line in recording. But there is only one audio out and one audio in on the 6200 unit. The Audio in from the vcr is going to the 6200 out. The component outputs are going to my tv. If I have to record something, is there a way I can hear audio from the component connection while recording using the composite connection?

bobby94928

08-12-09, 05:59 PM

henree

08-12-09, 06:42 PM

Get 2 of these from Radio Shack and it will work fine.

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3295840
Thanks for the link. But won't this degrade the audio quality?

bobby94928

08-12-09, 07:36 PM

Thanks for the link. But won't this degrade the audio quality?

Not at all.....

hiker

08-12-09, 08:04 PM

Thanks for the link. But won't this degrade the audio quality?Using the Y-cable won't "degrade" the signal but you might get a slight attenuation of the signal. If you tried to split the composite video with the Y-cable you would definitely notice a dimmer picture. To split the signal properly you should use a distribution amp like the Radio Shack one here (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103065).

bobby94928

08-12-09, 10:33 PM

Using the Y-cable won't "degrade" the signal but you might get a slight attenuation of the signal. If you tried to split the composite video with the Y-cable you would definitely notice a dimmer picture. To split the signal properly you should use a distribution amp like the Radio Shack one here (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103065).

He is not interested in the video side of the equation. He is using composite and component for that and the receiver will already do both just fine. You are correct in the fact that you can't just use a Y-cable to split the video.

audiovid

08-13-09, 01:19 AM

Isa75 and gotok

You can figure out what you can see on QAM by using your DTA and following the procedure described at http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12470932&postcount=131#CH6

The DTA Virtual Map lets you correlate Comcast channel number to QAM address. It does not include any of the OTA channels that Comcast broadcasts e.g. Comcast 5 correlates to xx.x but the DTA will not tell you about OTA 5.1 which is not viewable via DTA.

nbc11newsclips

08-13-09, 07:03 AM

around 2 a.m., the new HD Channels went up, but there are some are missing...

717 WGN America HD
724 ESPN HD
771 Planet Green HD
772 Biography Channel HD
779 Fuse HD
794 Hallmark Movie Channel HD
796 Lifetime Movie Network HD
798 AMC HD
806 HBO Zone HD
807 HBO Latino HD
841 ThrillerMax HD

they hope to get additional new HD channels by later this morning.

gfbuchanan

08-13-09, 03:01 PM

Where is this notch filter implemented? If I'm paying for expanded basic, but not using Comcast hardware will I still get those channels?

If you have Expanded Basic, then you should not have a notch filter and you should be able to tune the digital versions of the Expanded Basic channels with any QAM tuner, even after they move them down into the lower channels (34-78). The notch filter is put on the coax at the street, inside the Comcast distribution panel. It blocks the expanded basic channels (34-78 or so). It is only put on subscribers that have limited basic.

Greg

Brian Conrad

08-13-09, 04:40 PM

As I thought the reason some of the East Bay communities weren't listed was because we already get some of those new channels and have for some time.

Mikef5

08-13-09, 04:46 PM

Anyone in the Milpitas area, check your line up, I think you will be pleasantly surprised :D and a week earlier than posted :eek:

Laters,
Mikef5

tleipelt

08-13-09, 09:22 PM

I am in Santa Clara and all of the HD channels are now active, including the ones listed in nbc11newschips posting.

nbc11newsclips

08-13-09, 09:41 PM

what happened to the Biography Channel HD Ch. 772 and Lifetime HD Ch. 795 have not been turn on?

jlee301

08-14-09, 12:22 AM

Anyone have any information on the 'World of More' digital migration for the East Bay? I haven't received any letters or notifications on my set-top box either. It would be nice to know when this will happen :-).

Mikef5

08-14-09, 12:29 AM

what happened to the Biography Channel HD Ch. 772 and Lifetime HD Ch. 795 have not been turn on?

They're not active in my area either, I'll wait a couple of days for things to settle down before I ask WUWT. I guess I should be happy I'm getting the new channels a week ahead of time ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Xn0r

08-14-09, 12:44 AM

mykalis

08-14-09, 02:25 AM

All the new HD channels they promised are active in Sunnyvale, CA.

mrdc90

08-14-09, 02:49 AM

a few questions here

i live in daly city and i have astound and thinking about getting comcast, so my Qs
-does comcast offer mtv hd in my area?
-what is the current hd/dvr box comcast is using?

stretch437

08-14-09, 03:01 AM

- yes
- motorola for sure, i'm guessing DCH3416 or possibly DCT6412 .

mrdc90

08-14-09, 03:48 AM

- yes
- motorola for sure, i'm guessing DCH3416 or possibly DCT6412 .

thanks

mykalis

08-14-09, 03:49 AM

I've got the new Moto DCX

a few questions here

i live in daly city and i have astound and thinking about getting comcast, so my Qs
-does comcast offer mtv hd in my area?
-what is the current hd/dvr box comcast is using?

jfoneill

08-14-09, 04:24 AM

Look forward to our upgrade in Rohnert Park the first week of September. Has this upgrade made the iTV functional? It continuously shows up as not available except for a brief period that it teased me and said I could get incoming calls to show up on my TV. That never worked and it went back to "application not available". Also can some of you share your impressions of the picture quality on the new channels?

tex94

08-14-09, 10:00 AM

hiker

08-14-09, 10:26 AM

Anyone know how long it will take Tivo to update their programming guide with the new channels? I'm lucky enough to have 50+ new channels but unless I revert to channel surfing and watching live TV (so 1990s) they are useless to me until I get Tivo updated.I'd recommend anyone with TiVo missing channels in the guide report a lineup issue on the form here (http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport/contactsupport/lineup_tool.html).

tex94

08-14-09, 11:18 AM

I'd recommend anyone with TiVo missing channels in the guide report a lineup issue on the form here (http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport/contactsupport/lineup_tool.html).

I did that - and agree that the more requests they get the more quickly they will probably update the lineups. Just curious since I am new to Tivo how long it usually takes them to update it.

fender4645

08-14-09, 11:26 AM

In past experience, it usually takes around 5 days between the time they show up on the Comcast box and when it shows up on the Tivo (sometimes a little quicker, sometimes a little longer)

tex94

08-14-09, 11:50 AM

In past experience, it usually takes around 5 days between the time they show up on the Comcast box and when it shows up on the Tivo (sometimes a little quicker, sometimes a little longer)

Well, that is good news. I hope that is true here too!

hiker

08-14-09, 12:04 PM

Well, that is good news. I hope that is true here too!
It might depend on your location. Here in Novato (separate lineup from the rest of Marin), I've waited for weeks and still no change for new channels, until I did the report a lineup issue. So now I do the report after I see changes posted here on the forum.

Mikef5

08-14-09, 12:41 PM

Update to Initial roll out of the new HD channels

I just received an email that updates the progress of the initial roll out and when the next areas will be getting them. As always I post as I receive the messages to avoid confusion.

____________________________________________________________ _______

You can share with the Forum….

Wanted to let you know that our engineering team has been doing some incredible work the last few nights, and combined with no major customer impacts, we’ve accelerated the launch schedule I sent you last week.

Here is the latest…..

As of this morning, Friday August 14th, the following communities now have the new channels:

Novato, Marin, San Rafael, Sausalito, Tiburon, San Anselmo, San Geronimo, San Quentin, San Anselmo, Belvedere Tiburon, Corte Madera, Fairfax, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Kentfield, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Mountain View, Saratoga, Los Altos and Milpitas!

As I mentioned, the credit for pulling this off goes to our engineering team, who work tirelessly in the early morning hours to take care of our customers.

I anticipate the next round will take place the week of August 24th and I’ll pass that list on to you when it’s finalized.

___________________________________________________________

That's the latest on the progress of the initial roll out so far. When I get anymore info I'll post it here. This is going much faster than I thought it would, I mean Milpitas wasn't even suppose to get them until the 20th of August so kudos to the people doing this roll out, nicely done.

Laters,
Mikef5

mds54

08-14-09, 01:46 PM

Thanks Mikef5!
Please keep us posted on a San Jose roll out date, which I have yet to see any mention of. Do you know if it will be this year?

theman23

08-14-09, 02:03 PM

Any news about San Francisco? I haven't seen it mentioned yet at all.

dandrewk

08-14-09, 02:03 PM

fender4645

08-14-09, 02:09 PM

AFAIK, Comcast Tivo is not available in the Bay Area. The Tivo references you see in this thread are those with Tivo-branded S3's/HD's.

tex94

08-14-09, 02:11 PM

Please forgive if this has been covered. I did do a search, but got hundreds of hits, none of them answering my (hopefully simple) question.

I am a long, long time DirecTV subscriber. As Callvantage is getting out of the VOIP business, I am forced to find another phone provider. The best option for us is Comcast Triple Play with full HD-everything package, including DVR.

However, (as you know) the Comcast Motorola DVR with TV Guide software REEKS. It's worse than unusable. The DirecTV HD DVR is leagues better. And better still... TiVO!!!

From reading the posts, it looks like some here already have Comcast TiVO in the Bay Area. But Comcast's website tells me it's not available here yet. What's up with this? I live in Marin, is it available here now, or is there an ETA for TiVO?

Info greatly appreciated. I'm not gonna switch unless/until TiVO service starts here.

Not available to my knowledge. But I do have a real Tivo and love it. Way better than Comcast DVR - better interface, more responsive, web/mobile scheduling, multi room viewing, Netflix streaming, YouTube, PC sharing, Amazon VOD (including some great HD PQ and 5.1 sound), and more on the way. The only thing that held me back for years was Comcast free VOD. But I don't miss it at all with Netflix streaming and Amazon via the Tivo. As long as you keep the box for 3-4 years it pays for itself too.

dandrewk

08-14-09, 02:19 PM

Not available to my knowledge. But I do have a real Tivo and love it. Way better than Comcast DVR - better interface, more responsive, web/mobile scheduling, multi room viewing, Netflix streaming, YouTube, PC sharing, Amazon VOD (including some great HD PQ and 5.1 sound), and more on the way. The only thing that held me back for years was Comcast free VOD. But I don't miss it at all with Netflix streaming and Amazon via the Tivo. As long as you keep the box for 3-4 years it pays for itself too.

Thanks! Does Comcast provide cable card for free? I assume I would need two for dual tuners.

Paying for itself in 3-4 years - is that including payment for TiVO service?

Poochie

08-14-09, 02:35 PM

Thanks! Does Comcast provide cable card for free? I assume I would need two for dual tuners.

Paying for itself in 3-4 years - is that including payment for TiVO service?

The Tivo HDs (and HD XL's) take "M cards" (multistream cards) so you'd only need one card, assuming Comcast supplies these. I have the older "S3" Tivo which only supports the cards in single-stream mode, so I require 2 cards to have both tuners operational. Someone else will need to chime in to say if our local Comcast supplies M cards to Tivo HD users.

Also of note, even though my tivo requires 2 CableCards, Comcast does NOT treat my Tivo as 2 digital outlets, which is good. They only charge something like $1.50/month for Tivo CableCard access, in addition to my normal programming charges.

In addition to tex's glowing comments about a standalone HD Tivo, you can also get more recording capacity in a Tivo than anything currently offered by Comcast - either through "officially supported" methods like buying a HDXL, and/or adding an external MyDVR Expander, or through the route I took - replacing the internal drive with a 1TB unit.

tex94

08-14-09, 03:46 PM

Thanks! Does Comcast provide cable card for free? I assume I would need two for dual tuners.

Paying for itself in 3-4 years - is that including payment for TiVO service?

Marin offices only issue M-Cards and, at least for me, the first M-Card is totally free.

It pays for itself over time because you aren't renting the Comcast DVR at $15-16/month (not sure what they charge). if you get a multi-year plan or a lifetime plan from Tivo you end up paying only around $8/month. This results in a "saving" of roughly $80 per year. So in 3-4 years you've paid back the purchase of the hardware and everything beyond that is pure gravy. (Please ignore the similarity of this argument to the one my wife uses to justify buying more clothes if they are on sale.)

Xn0r

08-14-09, 04:37 PM

Xn0r

08-14-09, 05:35 PM

Also of note, even though my tivo requires 2 CableCards, Comcast does NOT treat my Tivo as 2 digital outlets, which is good. They only charge something like $1.50/month for Tivo CableCard access, in addition to my normal programming charges.
I'm a bit annoyed at Comcast. I kept my HD cable box after I got my Tivo HD for the sole purpose of accessing On Demand. The HD cable box and the Tivo HD are hooked up to the same cable outlet via a splitter, and hooked up to the same TV (so you can't watch both at the same time).

Comcast added charges for something listed as "HDTV Additional access $7.00" and "Extra outlet $6.99". They also charge me $1.70 a month for the M-Card, not $1.50. Sometimes I wonder if they charge everyone a different price. :confused:

This is in addition of the $7 they were already charging me for "High Definition TV" and $6.99 they were charging me for an additional outlet (I have an SD box in a different room). So it's now $7 x 2 + $6.99 x 2 per month in addition to the programming charges, taxes, etc! Just for having a cablecard hooked up to the same outlet/TV! Also, don't their ads say "HD is free" ?

When I picked up the cablecard at the Milpitas office, they told me there would be no additional charge, since the first cablecard is free. I even made sure I told them that I intended to keep the HD cable box for On Demand, etc. They insisted there would be no additional charges. So I was very pleased. :rolleyes:

Imagine my surprise when I got my bill and it went up by about $16 for something they told me would be free? :mad:

Xn0r

08-14-09, 05:51 PM

I'd recommend anyone with TiVo missing channels in the guide report a lineup issue on the form here (http://www.tivo.com/setupandsupport/contactsupport/lineup_tool.html).
I did so yesterday, and got this response:

Thank you for contacting TiVo's Channel Lineup Department. We have assigned incident number # to your channel lineup issue. We expect to resolve the issue within 7 business days. If we should require additional information, we will contact you.

I was hoping for a bit of a speedier response. This is basically affecting nearly everyone with a Tivo or Tivo HD in the Bay Area! Nearly all of the new channels have shown up on the Tivo, but some that changed chan #s haven't been updated. All the new channels presently display "To be announced", so I can't schedule season passes, etc, on any of the new HD channels. A bit frustrating.

I had actually hoped that Tivo would be a bit more proactive about this. But I guess SOP is to wait for people to fill out the form and then fix it. I can't imagine why it would take seven days, or even one day to do this. Not exactly rocket science. But ohwell. :p

08-14-09, 05:52 PM

Since you have 3 outlets (HD box, SD box, CableCard), "$6.99 x 2" is correct. $7 is for the HD box rental. You should pay for one, not two.

BTW, each outlet is a digital device that Comcast has to enable, not the physical cable connector on the wall.

Mikef5

08-14-09, 06:08 PM

@mikeF5:
What's the plan for the remainder of the rollout? Are they adding even more channels than the flyer listed here (http://comcastcalifornia.mediaroom.com/file.php/230/HD_Self-Mailer-860.pdf)?

Most of the new channels seem to be there, although I haven't looked really close to compare the list above with what's on the cable box and my Tivo.
They also added a bunch of SD channels mostly foreign language channels but one channel that I'll probably get is channel 300 which is Setanta Sports. It covers most of the international soccer and rugby games. The last I heard this would be in the Sports Package or it might be sold separately, not sure which. I rarely watch SD channels but I've become a big fan of rugby so until they get the HD version this will have to do. :)

I have a TivoHD also and all the HD channels that were scheduled to be added are there, it's just the BioHD 772 and Lifetime HD channel 795 are still not active, don't know what's up with that. I'll give it a couple of days to sort it self out and then I'll bitch.

Also the TivoHD has no guide data for the new channels and Tivo expects me and it's other paying customers to do Tivo's job and let them know about all the channel additions. So what am I paying them for ? If Comcast did this, people would be screaming bloody murder. Don't get me wrong, I love my Tivo, I'm just tired of updating Tivo's lineup for them every time there's a change in the lineup and this time it's a major change.

Laters,
Mikef5

gfbuchanan

08-14-09, 06:17 PM

Xn0r

08-14-09, 06:30 PM

They also added a bunch of SD channels mostly foreign language channels but one channel that I'll probably get is channel 300 which is Setanta Sports. It covers most of the international soccer and rugby games. The last I heard this would be in the Sports Package or it might be sold separately, not sure which. I rarely watch SD channels but I've become a big fan of rugby so until they get the HD version this will have to do. :)
OIC

I have a TivoHD also and all the HD channels that were scheduled to be added are there, it's just the BioHD 772 and Lifetime HD channel 795 are still not active, don't know what's up with that. I'll give it a couple of days to sort it self out and then I'll bitch.
Yeah same situation here. Probably just have the cab boxes updated w/ the chans but not transmitting yet or something similar.

Also the TivoHD has no guide data for the new channels and Tivo expects me and it's other paying customers to do Tivo's job and let them know about all the channel additions. So what am I paying them for ? If Comcast did this, people would be screaming bloody murder. Don't get me wrong, I love my Tivo, I'm just tired of updating Tivo's lineup for them every time there's a change in the lineup and this time it's a major change.

Yeah no kidding. I've done that a LOT over the years. And since this was a big change publicly announced, you would think that Tivo would be on top of it eh?

At least we can tune to the channels with Tivo HD. I think that the Tivo automatically picks up the new channels from the cablecard. I'm pretty sure this is why they showed up "incomplete" (no schedule info, some relocations not updated) on my Tivo HD, but not on my SD Tivo at all.

And if my assumption here is correct, one would also think that Tivo had a feedback mechanism to detect such changes, eh? E.g. The Tivo picks up a bunch of new channels via the cablecard, and it's fed back to Tivo which should generate some sort of alert for their lineup department to investigate. Makes too much sense perhaps? :p

Xn0r

08-14-09, 06:33 PM

Two Comcast employees knocked on my door yesterday to ask if my service was OK. They said they had recently completed an upgrade for the local node (or whatever they called it) to fiber optic. Any idea what, if any, impact that should have on my service? Just curious.

Interestingly enough, they were not trying to sell me anything. In fact, I asked them what kind of deals they had going, and they didn't know. Strange.

Greg
Probably just cut over to some new fiber, or put in a new drop in your local HFC to expand bandwidth or something similar, and were going around checking to make sure everything was working.

It'll probably allow faster access to the internet, and may have been needed as they're rolling out DOCSIS 3 which has faster internet speeds, and thus needs faster backhaul (the fiber) to handle the possible additional bandwidth. This is my guess. :)

ayewbf

08-14-09, 06:36 PM

Also the TivoHD has no guide data for the new channels and Tivo expects me and it's other paying customers to do Tivo's job and let them know about all the channel additions. So what am I paying them for ? If Comcast did this, people would be screaming bloody murder. Don't get me wrong, I love my Tivo, I'm just tired of updating Tivo's lineup for them every time there's a change in the lineup and this time it's a major change.
My feelings exactly. Except, comcast is obviously not doing their part here as the guide data has not made it out to Tribune yet (see zap2it.com, titantv.com). I have yet to see tivo guide data sort itself out when comcast hasn't given Tribune the right data.

ayewbf

08-14-09, 06:43 PM

I did so yesterday, and got this response:
I fill out their form on that web page and the browser just jumps back to www.tivo.com after I hit submit. No incident number, no email response. Used to work the last n times I did it (for all comcast channel changes, ug).

No evidence that submitting these forms actually makes the lineups get fixed any faster...

Xn0r

08-14-09, 07:26 PM

My feelings exactly. Except, comcast is obviously not doing their part here as the guide data has not made it out to Tribune yet (see zap2it.com, titantv.com). I have yet to see tivo guide data sort itself out when comcast hasn't given Tribune the right data.
I'd think that all Tribune should need would be the channels and names of the networks. Myself, and probably many others have supplied these to Tivo, which I'd think would make it to Tribune somehow.

I doubt Comcast would supply the actual program info. Tribune probably has it's own back channels for all that. It's not like everyone has a different set of HBOs or Shotime channels. The only differences in schedule are for the different time zones, which are typically (but not always) indicated in the channel names. They could also verify by going into the comcast TV schedule webapp (http://www.comcast.net/tv/tv-listings/?zipcode=95054) and looking at it there by inputting a zip code.

I note with interest though that Comcast doesn't have the new channels on there yet!

ayewbf

08-14-09, 07:36 PM

I'd think that all Tribune should need would be the channels and names of the networks. Myself, and probably many others have supplied these to Tivo, which I'd think would make it to Tribune somehow.

I doubt Comcast would supply the actual program info. Tribune probably has it's own back channels for all that. It's not like everyone has a different set of HBOs or Shotime channels. The only differences in schedule are for the different time zones, which are typically (but not always) indicated in the channel names. They could also verify by going into the comcast TV schedule webapp (http://www.comcast.net/tv/tv-listings/?zipcode=95054) and looking at it there by inputting a zip code.

I note with interest though that Comcast doesn't have the new channels on there yet!
1)Tribune may have a way of aggregating program info when it is the same for an entire time zone but of course they need to be able to handle local programming variances.
2)The info doens't go from tivo->tribune, tribune guide data existed before tivo (it's where tv guide gets their info , etc)
3) Tribune can't come up with the info themselves in a vacuum, the content provider really needs to help. Those comcast engineers who are supposedly ahead of schedule might take a moment and push updated guide data to Tribune (and tivo too if that's really a necessary separate step). It should be part of their job IMO
4) The above URL you listed still doesn't have the new channels in my zip code either. No surprise. I have seen tribune&tivo guide data get updated before comcast's own web page gets fixed.

Poochie

08-14-09, 07:52 PM

Comcast added charges for something listed as "HDTV Additional access $7.00" and "Extra outlet $6.99". They also charge me $1.70 a month for the M-Card, not $1.50. Sometimes I wonder if they charge everyone a different price. :confused:

Just a note, I really meant "something like $1.50/month" when I said that - it might be $1.99, it might be $1.25. I suspect it's actually $1.70 (same as you) but I don't have my Comcast bill in front of me - I just remember it being in the <$2 range and "in the noise" compared to the monthly programming fees.

As for all the other stuff, my Tivo is the only device I have hooked up to cable so I'm not suffering the same fate as you with respect to extra outlet fees and the like...

(Another topic here)
I haven't been in front of my Tivo yet today, but I vaguely recall that even if the guide data doesn't have any info on the new channels, we should be able to enable them in "channels I receive" and (lol) channel surf or manually record if we want any of their programming ahead of Tivo et al getting the guide situation squared away. Maybe I'll give that a shot this weekend...

keenan

08-14-09, 08:01 PM

4) The above URL you listed still doesn't have the new channels in my zip code either. No surprise. I have seen tribune&tivo guide data get updated before comcast's own web page gets fixed.

Comcast's websites are notoriously out of date/uninformative. For an Internet provider, Comcast sure doesn't seem to understand a major concept of the World Wide Web.

Mikef5

08-14-09, 08:29 PM

1)Tribune may have a way of aggregating program info when it is the same for an entire time zone but of course they need to be able to handle local programming variances.
2)The info doens't go from tivo->tribune, tribune guide data existed before tivo (it's where tv guide gets their info , etc)
3) Tribune can't come up with the info themselves in a vacuum, the content provider really needs to help. Those comcast engineers who are supposedly ahead of schedule might take a moment and push updated guide data to Tribune (and tivo too if that's really a necessary separate step). It should be part of their job IMO
4) The above URL you listed still doesn't have the new channels in my zip code either. No surprise. I have seen tribune&tivo guide data get updated before comcast's own web page gets fixed.

Comcast uses TvGuide to do their guide info. They use that guide data for their own boxes not for customers Tivo boxes. The guide data on my Motorola boxes is correct and uptodate and has the new programing info in it.

Tivo uses Tribune Media for their guide data. It is up to Tivo and Tribune Media to get updated guide info from where ever they get it from. I don't care where they get it from but it's not the job of the customer to do that for them or if they want their customers to do that for them then compensate them for their time and effort. I pay a monthly fee to have an updated and correct guide, not to sit there and waste my time doing their job updating the guide that I pay a monthly fee for.

Laters,
Mikef5

keenan

08-14-09, 08:40 PM

Is there a way to submit the request for guide info/update directly to Tribune Media? I'm tired of not having any info for CSNBD3(seriously, what is the deal with that channel name?) - I'm currently watching "Sign Off" which started at 2pm today, it's a great show, the Giants are playing the Mets. :rolleyes::p

Also need to get CSNCA to display guide info, the channel is not even listed in the Tribune(zap2it) lineup for my area.

ayewbf

08-14-09, 10:15 PM

Tivo uses Tribune Media for their guide data. It is up to Tivo and Tribune Media to get updated guide info from where ever they get it from. I don't care where they get it from but it's not the job of the customer to do that for them or if they want their customers to do that for them then compensate them for their time and effort. I pay a monthly fee to have an updated and correct guide, not to sit there and waste my time doing their job updating the guide that I pay a monthly fee for.
Ya, we pay both comcast&tivo to get the guide data right. Comcast has to get their lineups to Tribune we cant do it for them.

Been making all these same observations for years now here and nothing has improved w.r.t. how comcast lineup changes are handled, it's obvious that the bad press is making no difference.

If you actually still have a useful comcast contact you might bend their ear on the issue.

DPlettner

08-14-09, 10:22 PM

Here are the new HD Lineup in my area on Tuesday August 11th:

702 KTVU HD (Fox)
703 KNTV HD (NBC)
704 KRON HD (MNT)
705 KPIX HD (CBS)
706 KICU HD (Ind.)
707 KGO HD (ABC)
709 KQED HD (PBS)
711 KKPX HD (ION)
712 KBCW HD (CW)
715 KGO HD2 (LiveWell HD)
717 WGN America HD
719 QVC HD
720 Comcast SportsNet Bay Area HD
721 Comcast SportsNet California HD
722 Golf Channel HD
723 Versus HD
724 ESPN HD
725 ESPN2 HD
726 ESPNEWS HD
727 NBA TV HD
728 NHL Network HD
729 MLB Network HD
730 NFL Network HD
731 Speed HD
732 CBS College Sports HD
733 Bravo HD
734 A&E HD
735 TBS HD
736 SyFy HD
737 TNT HD
738 USA HD
739 Universal HD
740 TV One HD
741 FX HD
742 Style HD
743 Spike HD
744 G4 HD
745 Comedy Central HD
746 HGTV HD
747 Food Network HD
750 Discovery Channel HD
751 Animal Planet HD
752 TLC HD
753 E! HD
754 HD Theater
755 Travel Channel HD
756 Science Channel HD
757 National Geographic Channel HD
758 History Channel HD
759 CNN HD
760 Fox News Channel HD
761 Fox Business HD
762 CNBC HD+
763 Disney XD HD
766 Cartoon Network HD
767 Nickelodeon HD
768 ABC Family HD
769 Disney Channel HD
771 Planet Green HD
772 Biography Channel HD
776 The Weather Channel HD
777 BET HD
778 CMT HD
779 Fuse HD
781 VH1 HD
782 MTV HD
783 Palladia HD
784 Outdoor Channel HD
787 MSNBC HD
790 IFC HD
791 WE HD
794 Halmark Movie Channel HD
795 Lifetime HD
796 Lifetime Movie Network HD
797 MGM HD
798 AMC HD
801 HBO HD
802 HBO Signature HD
803 HBO2 HD
805 HBO Comedy HD
807 HBO Zone HD
808 HBO Latino HD
809 Encore HD
816 Starz HD
817 Starz! Edge HD
818 Starz! Comedy HD
819 Starz! Kids & Family HD
825 Showtime HD
826 Showtime Too HD
838 Cinemax HD
840 ActionMax HD
841 ThrillerMax HD
847 The Movie Channel HD
871 PPV HD

Channels listed in Bold are new HD channels.
Thanks for posting this list!

I got the new HD channels in Cupertino today. I have a CableCard and Vista/Win7 Media Center, and the only thing I noticed is that my guide shows Palladia on 743, but that channel is now Spike. The guide data has not yet been updated.

I manually added half a dozen of the channels I should receive (Comedy Central, E!, G4, etc) and all the ones I tried are there. Hopefully the guide data will be updated soon. In the meantime, your list is the only source I have for the new channels. Comcast's website is still showing the old lineup.

-Dave

Mikef5

08-14-09, 11:24 PM

Ya, we pay both comcast&tivo to get the guide data right. Comcast has to get their lineups to Tribune we cant do it for them.

Been making all these same observations for years now here and nothing has improved w.r.t. how comcast lineup changes are handled, it's obvious that the bad press is making no difference.

If you actually still have a useful comcast contact you might bend their ear on the issue.

Here's the problem with that. Comcast supports only it's equipment, not Tivo nor any other 3rd party device. They do allow those devices to access their system but they provide no support for those devices, other than cable cards which will allow them to access Comcasts network.

If Tivo or Tribune Media wants to use Comcast's guide data THEY must go to Comcast to get it ( I'm sure they would have to pay for it too ), but it is not yours nor my responsibility to provide that data to Tivo or Tribune Media. If I wasn't paying Tivo a monthly fee to use their service, then I'd be happy to help them keep it accurate but not when I'm paying them for a service they are not providing.

Laters,
Mikef5

Mikef5

08-14-09, 11:27 PM

Thanks for posting this list!

I got the new HD channels in Cupertino today. I have a CableCard and Vista/Win7 Media Center, and the only thing I noticed is that my guide shows Palladia on 743, but that channel is now Spike. The guide data has not yet been updated.

I manually added half a dozen of the channels I should receive (Comedy Central, E!, G4, etc) and all the ones I tried are there. Hopefully the guide data will be updated soon. In the meantime, your list is the only source I have for the new channels. Comcast's website is still showing the old lineup.

-Dave

DPlettner,

Try channels 772 and 795 and see if they are active in your area, they aren't in my area. If they are then I'll make a request to see why we are not getting them or why only certain areas are getting them. TIA.

Laters,
Mikef5

DPlettner

08-14-09, 11:57 PM

Try channels 772 and 795
I do not receive these channels when I manually enter them.

-Dave

ayewbf

08-15-09, 12:01 AM

If Tivo or Tribune Media wants to use Comcast's guide data THEY must go to Comcast to get it ( I'm sure they would have to pay for it too ),
I don't believe that's how it works for Tribune.

ayewbf

08-15-09, 12:09 AM

Is there a way to submit the request for guide info/update directly to Tribune Media?Yes, feedback@zap2it.com

http://www.zap2it.com/services/site/zap-feedback,0,6935396.story

Used to have to do that for directv vs tivo lineup problems.

Mikef5

08-15-09, 01:05 AM

Yes, feedback@zap2it.com

http://www.zap2it.com/services/site/zap-feedback,0,6935396.story

Used to have to do that for directv vs tivo lineup problems.

That is the same form that's on the Tivo site, Tivo sends that form to Zap2it to update Zap2it's data base. Zap2it then incorporates that data into its data base, then it sends that updated guide data to Tivo to update Tivo's guide listing. Zap2it is owned by Tribune Media, it's one of the products that they offer to content providers. In the link you provided go to the very bottom of the page and click on the last item there, see where it takes you.

You know I should be bitching about this in the Tivo Community Forums where it might do some good and not here where at best I'm off topic but then again that's never stopped me before ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

ayewbf

08-15-09, 01:16 AM

So the finger pointing on the guide data is pretty exemplary of the problem and goes to how it hasn't been fixed after all these years. Tivo's perspective which contradicts mike's unusual view on how this works:

"Whenever any cable providers make changes, they control the timing of when those changes should be delivered. They tell the data handlers exactly when to make the changeover in the channel guides, and then tell their engineers when to actually switch video to match. If they tell their engineers to swap the channels on Wednesday at midnight and send that same data to the data handlers ahead of time, the customer should rarely notice a problem. Unfortunately, cable providers don't always time the updates properly, which can account for long periods where the information is not correct."
http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5738221#post5738221

"I'm personally frustrated that your provider[comcast] caused this to happen in the first place, as well as allowed the data to be incorrect for so long. There are automated steps in place that rely on them providing accurate data, which they have not done this time around. Because we are the recipients of that data, everyone gets mad at us because programs can't be recorded. The closest analogy I can think of is a cart trying to draw the horse."

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5716634#post5716634

That's from 2007 btw.

Ok, it's friday night I got other things to do :)

Xn0r

08-15-09, 01:31 AM

I haven't been in front of my Tivo yet today, but I vaguely recall that even if the guide data doesn't have any info on the new channels, we should be able to enable them in "channels I receive" and (lol) channel surf or manually record if we want any of their programming ahead of Tivo et al getting the guide situation squared away. Maybe I'll give that a shot this weekend...
Yes you can. I've already enabled 'em all. Just can't transfer my season passes from SD to HD until the guide data is there. I think I can schedule manual recordings though. Although, I experimentally hit the record button the other night on one of the "To be announced" channels, and it caused a reboot!

Mikef5

08-15-09, 01:37 AM

Xn0r

08-15-09, 01:44 AM

Yeh I guess I'm going to have to set up a manual recording for the premier of Mad Men this sunday, since the Tivo HD still thinks AMC HD i son 769, when it's now on 798. Otherwise I'll likely get an hour of Hanna Montana instead. :rolleyes:

keenan

08-15-09, 04:20 AM

What I find interesting is that, in my case anyways, it's only the Comcast sports net channels that have bad guide data, somehow I don't see that as being TiVo problem. In fact, looking at Comcast's own channel lineup site it shows the same thing for my zip, usually "Sign Off" and "To Be Announced", yet when I use a zip from say San Francisco all the correct data is there. That to me is a problem with Comcast, not TiVo or Tribune Media.

mpatnode

08-15-09, 05:29 PM

If you have Expanded Basic, then you should not have a notch filter and you should be able to tune the digital versions of the Expanded Basic channels with any QAM tuner, even after they move them down into the lower channels (34-78). The notch filter is put on the coax at the street, inside the Comcast distribution panel. It blocks the expanded basic channels (34-78 or so). It is only put on subscribers that have limited basic.

Thanks. So can you tell me if all the expanded basic HD channels encrypted? IE: ESPN, AMC, TNT, etc? I'm also curious about the local radio stations. VMC won't tune those, but it doesn't make sense that they would be encrypted.

Brian Conrad

08-15-09, 07:47 PM

Dragunov1

08-16-09, 12:49 AM

Mikef5

08-16-09, 01:04 AM

Mikef5 or anyone else, if you find anything more about Setanta could you please post? I'm a big soccer fan and it would be amazing if we can get this channel. All the other providers offer it for 15$/mo which is way too much in my opinion, but if Comcast include it in the sports package I'll love them forever :)
Dragunov1,

Here's a link to Setanta Sports and it lists the price there and you're not going to be happy but that seems to be the going price.....http://www.setanta.com/us/Comcast/
It's way to much for me for a SD channel, now if it were HD it might be worth a look see.

Laters,
Mikef5

mpatnode

08-16-09, 01:42 AM

Local FM radio stations are not encrypted. The little project here (SCTE) that dumps the channel will display what channels they are on. Here I am getting them on 118 and can tune them in using a QAM tuner on my computer. I don't know where the lower 900 music channels are though as they don't show up in the map. Those may be encrypted.

I finally figured it out via the Sydyen Proceedure (http://www.satelliteguys.us/comcast-cable-forum/77997-comcast-digital-channel-assignments.html#post683478). I can now tune anything the DTA can on VMC, although it chokes on the FM channels because it's confused about the lack of video. But I can now tune all the SD digital channels which are being ignored by the channel scan. I'm assuming this will all be fixed when Comcast turns off the analog broadcasts in SF.

Now I'd like to figure out if I can get some of the other HD channels (A&E, AMC, TNT, ESPN etc..) the same way. Some folks have reported getting these unencrypted. Using this post (http://www.satelliteguys.us/comcast-cable-forum/77997-comcast-digital-channel-assignments.html#post683478), I was able to find the frequency that ESPN HD is broadcasting on (747) and translate that to channel 116, but I can't find anything that tells me the sub-channel number. I can't seem to find this info in the STB current channel diagnostics.

It's interesting when I tune to 116, I get a blank screen (vs. a message saying the channel is unavailable). Dunno if that means anything.

Also considering the W7 upgrade to see if that makes any difference.

rsra13

08-16-09, 02:34 AM

Dragunov1,

Here's a link to Setanta Sports and it lists the price there and you're not going to be happy but that seems to be the going price.....http://www.setanta.com/us/Comcast/
It's way to much for me for a SD channel, now if it were HD it might be worth a look see.

Laters,
Mikef5

Yeah, unfortunately is the same price in DirecTV, SD too. So we don't have any choice there.

hiker

08-16-09, 10:01 AM

...
It's interesting when I tune to 116, I get a blank screen (vs. a message saying the channel is unavailable). Dunno if that means anything.
...FWIW... Here, it appears that ESPN-HD is now encrypted.

mpatnode

08-16-09, 02:56 PM

FWIW... Here, it appears that ESPN-HD is now encrypted.

How are you determining this?

Brian Conrad

08-16-09, 03:34 PM

I finally figured it out via the Sydyen Proceedure (http://www.satelliteguys.us/comcast-cable-forum/77997-comcast-digital-channel-assignments.html#post683478). I can now tune anything the DTA can on VMC, although it chokes on the FM channels because it's confused about the lack of video. But I can now tune all the SD digital channels which are being ignored by the channel scan. I'm assuming this will all be fixed when Comcast turns off the analog broadcasts in SF.

Now I'd like to figure out if I can get some of the other HD channels (A&E, AMC, TNT, ESPN etc..) the same way. Some folks have reported getting these unencrypted. Using this post (http://www.satelliteguys.us/comcast-cable-forum/77997-comcast-digital-channel-assignments.html#post683478), I was able to find the frequency that ESPN HD is broadcasting on (747) and translate that to channel 116, but I can't find anything that tells me the sub-channel number. I can't seem to find this info in the STB current channel diagnostics.

It's interesting when I tune to 116, I get a blank screen (vs. a message saying the channel is unavailable). Dunno if that means anything.

Also considering the W7 upgrade to see if that makes any difference.

AMC, A&E, TNT are encrypted here, that is the HD versions. The SD digital versions are not at the moment. Where I am 116 has the channel map on program 4. That's the nice thing about the HDHomeRun is you can do scans and get a report on all the channels.

hiker

08-16-09, 06:29 PM

How are you determining this?I think ESPN-HD has always been encrypted. I have been able to view it since the first day it came to Comcast even though I have only Limited Basic with Digital Preferred. Until now, that is, since I get no 724 in the guide on DCT-6200 and "Channel not available." on TiVo with CC. This is the same behavior with chans 35-82 since those channels are not part of Limited Basic. I thought ESPN-HD was part of Digital Preferred (previously Digital Classic) but now I'm not so sure.

dandrewk

08-17-09, 02:51 PM

I'm now quite serious about switching full time to Comcast Triple Play (dumping DirecTV). But two questions remain:

1. Has Comcast officially or unofficially announced when their TiVO service will be available in the Bay Area?

2. Regardless, I'm considering buying an HD TiVO. I note there are problems getting updated guide info when Comcast changes its lineup. Is this an ongoing problem? Is there a chance they just might not support non-Comcast TiVO's with current guide data?

Mikef5

08-17-09, 03:04 PM

Dandrewk,

1. Has Comcast officially or unofficially announced when their TiVO service will be available in the Bay Area?
No official or unofficial announcement and from what I've been reading, it's still not ready for prime time. If you want Tivo get Tivo.

2. Regardless, I'm considering buying an HD TiVO. I note there are problems getting updated guide info when Comcast changes its lineup. Is this an ongoing problem? Is there a chance they just might not support non-Comcast TiVO's with current guide data?

Yes, an on going problem but most of the time it's not a big deal. Fill out a form on Tivo stating the problem and in about a week it gets corrected. The problem this time was, this was a big roll out of HD channels ( about 52 of them and that's not counting the SD channels that were added ) and there seems to be a disconnect between Comcast and Tribune Media ( who does the guide data for Tivo ). I can't believe Tribune Media wasn't informed of this massive addition of channels, I got it and so did the rest of the media reporters. I think the problem was Tribune Media got the old schedule and the roll out is going much faster than it was anticipated so they are behind the curve on rolling out their guide data to Tivo. As an example, Milpitas wasn't suppose to get the new channels until the 20th and we got it on the 14th so Tribune Media probably thinks it won't be active here until the 20th even though it already is active here.

Hope that helps.;)

Laters,
Mikef5

dandrewk

08-17-09, 03:09 PM

Dandrewk,

No official or unofficial announcement and from what I've been reading, it's still not ready for prime time. If you want Tivo get Tivo.

Yes, an on going problem but most of the time it's not a big deal. Fill out a form on Tivo stating the problem and in about a week it gets corrected. The problem this time was, this was a big roll out of HD channels ( about 52 of them and that's not counting the SD channels that were added ) and there seems to be a disconnect between Comcast and Tribune Media ( who does the guide data for Tivo ). I can't believe Tribune Media wasn't informed of this massive addition of channels, I got it and so did the rest of the media reporters. I think the problem was Tribune Media got the old schedule and the roll out is going much faster than it was anticipated so they are behind the curve on rolling out their guide data to Tivo. As an example, Milpitas wasn't suppose to get the new channels until the 20th and we got it on the 14th so Tribune Media probably thinks it won't be active here until the 20th even though it already is active here.

Hope that helps.;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Yes Mike, and thanks again.

re: the recent rollout - I see manually accessing the new channels works, but still no updated guide data, right? Or have some of you gotten the updated guide?

keenan

08-17-09, 03:43 PM

Got the confirmation from TiVo on the 2 CSN sports net channels, it says they should be corrected in 7 days, so next Monday we'll see how accurate they are.:)

dandrewk

08-17-09, 03:48 PM

One other question re: TiVO's w/cable cards - is On Demand and Pay per view still available?

miimura

08-17-09, 03:50 PM

One other question re: TiVO's w/cable cards - is On Demand and Pay per view still available?Nope. Never has, never will. This will require a new box that supports "True2Way".

- Mike

keenan

08-17-09, 03:56 PM

Nope. Never has, never will. This will require a new box that supports "True2Way".

- Mike

I thought there was an adapter for existing TiVo boxes that would work with SeaChange VOD systems, assuming Comcast uses SeaChange.

dandrewk

08-17-09, 04:01 PM

Nope. Never has, never will. This will require a new box that supports "True2Way".

- Mike

Will that be the case with the Comcast version TiVO as well?

Xn0r

08-17-09, 04:02 PM

tex94

08-17-09, 04:08 PM

@mikef5: what annoys me is that even with the sped up schedule, Tribune/Tivo could have still rolled out the changes. In fact they should have rolled them out early IMHO. What's the big deal if those new channels appear in the channels list? If you don't get them, or haven't gotten them yet, you simple don't select them in "channels you receive" list. They could have even added the changed channel #s as duplicates (e.g., added a 769 for Disney HD, and while keeping a 769 for the old AMC HD, and adding 798 for the new AMC HD). Then people could have just check marked the channels they have as they showed up, or whatever.

If they did something like that then I wouldn't be going through my To Do list adding manual recordings for season passes which have HD versions now, but don't show up in the guide do to the lack of an update. :sigh:

I feel the same way. I ultimately decided to just leave the SD channels and recording on until the guide gets updated. I didn't want to delete all of the old ones, set up manual recordings for the new ones, and then dump that and set up season pass recordings later. So I'll just live with SD for another few days. I did get a message from Tivo yesterday about a lineup change but the only thing it changed was dropping AMC from 769 and replacing it with ABC Family (which still also appears on another channel). I'm hoping we only have another few days to go.

Mikef5

08-17-09, 04:08 PM

Will that be the case with the Comcast version TiVO as well?
The Comcast/Tivo box will do VOD and PPV, it's just a normal Comcast box with Tivo software installed.

Laters,
Mikef5

keenan

08-17-09, 04:13 PM

@mikef5: what annoys me is that even with the sped up schedule, Tribune/Tivo could have still rolled out the changes. In fact they should have rolled them out early IMHO. What's the big deal if those new channels appear in the channels list? If you don't get them, or haven't gotten them yet, you simple don't select them in "channels you receive" list. They could have even added the changed channel #s as duplicates (e.g., added a 769 for Disney HD, and while keeping a 769 for the old AMC HD, and adding 798 for the new AMC HD). Then people could have just check marked the channels they have as they showed up, or whatever.

If they did something like that then I wouldn't be going through my To Do list adding manual recordings for season passes which have HD versions now, but don't show up in the guide do to the lack of an update. :sigh:

It would likely be a customer service nightmare, you would have people calling wondering why they weren't getting the channel listed in their guide. Folks like us would have no problem, but for the average Comcast sub out there, which would include those using Comcast STBs, it would be a customer service/support mess.

Mikef5

08-17-09, 04:14 PM

On a totally different topic.

Has anyone, that has the new channels, been able to tune in 772 Bio-HD or 795 Lifetime HD ? Still not active here, as a matter of fact it says " Not Authorized " . As far as I know they're in the Digital Starter package.

Laters,
Mikef5

dandrewk

08-17-09, 04:18 PM

Mikef5

08-17-09, 04:20 PM

I thought there was an adapter for existing TiVo boxes that would work with SeaChange VOD systems, assuming Comcast uses SeaChange.
Jim,

I think that adapter was for SDV, but it might work with VOD ( not really sure ) which would be nice if that were the case. I wouldn't have to keep a Comcast box for just VOD with my TivoHD ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Xn0r

08-17-09, 04:21 PM

I feel the same way. I ultimately decided to just leave the SD channels and recording on until the guide gets updated. I didn't want to delete all of the old ones, set up manual recordings for the new ones, and then dump that and set up season pass recordings later. So I'll just live with SD for another few days. I did get a message from Tivo yesterday about a lineup change but the only thing it changed was dropping AMC from 769 and replacing it with ABC Family (which still also appears on another channel). I'm hoping we only have another few days to go.
Yeah I went ahead and did it through Sunday, figuring they'd have it fixed by then (over 7 business days since I put in my change requests). It wasn't that big of a deal, since there was only about 5-6 shows I had to do it for.

So the new 769 is ABC Family for you? For me, that's 768, and 769, which used to be AMC HD, is now Disney HD, AMC HD having moved to 798.

Xn0r

08-17-09, 04:24 PM

The Comcast/Tivo box will do VOD and PPV, it's just a normal Comcast box with Tivo software installed.

Laters,
Mikef5
Wouldn't it be nice if Tivo could make a little USB box like the SVD box that did all the major cable cos proprietary VOD/PPD stuff plus True2Way and SeaChange? Probably way too much work and way to expensive. :p

Maybe in the future they'll have a Tivo which does just those two standards.

Mikef5

08-17-09, 04:26 PM

I get them both fine in Marin.

I was afraid of that. The last time I talked with a CSR they screwed up my account big time and I don't want to go through that again but I guess it's either that or not watch those channels :rolleyes:;) Thanks.

Laters,
Mikef5

R_J

08-17-09, 04:26 PM

Same problem here, in Cupertino, with those two channels. Maybe you can alert your Comcast contacts... ;-)

On a totally different topic.

Has anyone, that has the new channels, been able to tune in 772 Bio-HD or 795 Lifetime HD ? Still not active here, as a matter of fact it says " Not Authorized " . As far as I know they're in the Digital Starter package.

Laters,
Mikef5

Mikef5

08-17-09, 04:29 PM

Wouldn't it be nice if Tivo could make a little USB box like the SVD box that did all the major cable cos proprietary VOD/PPD stuff plus True2Way and SeaChange? Probably way too much work and way to expensive. :p

Maybe in the future they'll have a Tivo which does just those two standards.
There was a rumor a couple of months ago that Tivo was developing a Tru2way Tivo which would take care of all our problems.... now if they would really do it I'd buy one in a micro ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Xn0r

08-17-09, 04:29 PM

It would likely be a customer service nightmare, you would have people calling wondering why they weren't getting the channel listed in their guide. Folks like us would have no problem, but for the average Comcast sub out there, which would include those using Comcast STBs, it would be a customer service/support mess.
Hrm. Perhaps it would be. But it isn't much different than just having a bunch of channels you don't receive in your channels list, like most people have, since people have different packages. If people tried to add 'em and they didn't work, perhaps they'd just figure it wasn't in their package. They might call comcast to "add" them though, but that could probably he handled by a recording or whatever. ;)

Mikef5

08-17-09, 04:31 PM

Same problem here, in Cupertino, with those two channels. Maybe you can alert your Comcast contacts... ;-)

So Marin gets them and Cupertino and Milpitas don't ?? That doesn't make sense. Why can't things be simple ? ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Xn0r

08-17-09, 04:42 PM

Mikef5

08-17-09, 04:53 PM

I get them both fine in Marin.

Dandrewk,

Can you physically tune those channels in or do you just have the guide data for them ? It would seem strange that Marin would have those 2 channels active and available and Cupertino, Milpitas and Santa Clara don't.

Laters,
Mikef5

dandrewk

08-17-09, 05:02 PM

Dandrewk,

Can you physically tune those channels in or do you just have the guide data for them ? It would seem strange that Marin would have those 2 channels active and available and Cupertino, Milpitas and Santa Clara don't.

Laters,
Mikef5

I can physically tune them, and they are in the guide data.

Wife Swap... Ripleys Believe it or not. ;)

Mikef5

08-17-09, 05:18 PM

I can physically tune them, and they are in the guide data.

Wife Swap... Ripleys Believe it or not. ;)

Frak !!! , I really hate talking with CSR's, maybe Mr. J. can shed some light ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

tex94

08-17-09, 05:56 PM

Frak !!! , I really hate talking with CSR's, maybe Mr. J. can shed some light ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

I can tune those channels in (here in Marin) as well. I used to have problems with CBS College Sports but now that works. Only channel that comes in black is TMC (847, I think) but I doubt I'd use it much so I am going to wait to see if it resolves itself first.

tex94

08-17-09, 05:57 PM

Yeah I went ahead and did it through Sunday, figuring they'd have it fixed by then (over 7 business days since I put in my change requests). It wasn't that big of a deal, since there was only about 5-6 shows I had to do it for.

So the new 769 is ABC Family for you? For me, that's 768, and 769, which used to be AMC HD, is now Disney HD, AMC HD having moved to 798.

Oops, I think you are right, it was Disney HD and not Family. I can't seem to keep all the new channels in my head yet. :o

dandrewk

08-17-09, 06:14 PM

Just ordered Triple Play Premium. I'm gonna hold off on TiVO for a bit until I get the updated dual tuner Motorola HD DVR. I hope it's a least a bit better than the my current Moto - the very first HD DVR Comcast offered.

BTW, I used online chat window for the order. It was a bit slow, but the person really knew her stuff. This was a complicated order.

Mikef5

08-17-09, 06:19 PM

I can tune those channels in (here in Marin) as well. I used to have problems with CBS College Sports but now that works. Only channel that comes in black is TMC (847, I think) but I doubt I'd use it much so I am going to wait to see if it resolves itself first.
TMC is a separate program which is no longer offered in any package and is $18.95 last time I looked and that's all by it's self. I lost it to when I changed to the Triple Play and even though they said nothing was going to change it did but that's another long drawn out story. I really don't watch it so it's not a big deal to me. It's just the principle that I care about ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Cal1981

08-17-09, 06:43 PM

Just got a card from Comcast for the Vallejo area with a more definitive date for analogue capture. It now says that you need to order your DTAs before 9/1/09. The front side has Urgent and states that you must act before 9/1 to keep getting your channels. I assume that the process will kick in either on or before that or shortly thereafter. The only remaining question is how soon do the channel additions occur.

MikeSM

08-17-09, 06:58 PM

There was a rumor a couple of months ago that Tivo was developing a Tru2way Tivo which would take care of all our problems.... now if they would really do it I'd buy one in a micro ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Comcast isn't really doing SDV - they don't need to given the all digital spectrum reclamation. TW markets got SDV is spades though.

tex94

08-17-09, 07:26 PM

TMC is a separate program which is no longer offered in any package and is $18.95 last time I looked and that's all by it's self. I lost it to when I changed to the Triple Play and even though they said nothing was going to change it did but that's another long drawn out story. I really don't watch it so it's not a big deal to me. It's just the principle that I care about ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Wow, then for $18.95 I really don't care and will disable it on my Tivo. Thanks.

ayewbf

08-17-09, 07:35 PM

I can physically tune them, and they are in the guide data.

Wife Swap... Ripleys Believe it or not. ;)
Here in San Rafael, those 2 channels are tunable but there is no tivo guide data for them, just like all the other new channels still. 7 days now... No Tribune data either.

ayewbf

08-17-09, 07:41 PM

Dandrewk,
I can't believe Tribune Media wasn't informed of this massive addition of channels, I got it and so did the rest of the media reporters. I think the problem was Tribune Media got the old schedule and the roll out is going much faster than it was anticipated so they are behind the curve on rolling out their guide data to Tivo. As an example, Milpitas wasn't suppose to get the new channels until the 20th and we got it on the 14th so Tribune Media probably thinks it won't be active here until the 20th even though it already is active here.Its my experience with pretty much all (if not all) the upgrades so far, that the tribune guide data is not updated on time just like the tivo guide data. It's business as usual for comcast.

gfbuchanan

08-17-09, 08:10 PM

Just out of curiosity, I am in Cupertino and rescanned with my OnAir QAM tuner and didn't find any of the new HD stations. At least not in the clear. I thought that someone said they were tuning them with their QAM tuner. So my question, are the new HD channels all covered by the notch filter (i.e. real channels 36-78)? If I were to upgrade from Limited Basic to Digital Starter, causing Comcast to remove the notch filter, would I be able to tune the new HD channels with my in the clear QAM tuner? Or are they all encrypted an require either a Comcast box or Cable Card?

Greg

Mikef5

08-17-09, 08:22 PM

Its my experience with pretty much all (if not all) the upgrades so far, that the tribune guide data is not updated on time just like the tivo guide data. It's business as usual for comcast.

Because Tribune Media can't get it's act together you blame Comcast for this ??? You're joking right :confused:
Hell, I'm low man on the totem and I heard about it and I was informed of the changes that were made, there's no way Tribune Media wasn't informed.

Laters,
Mikef5

dandrewk

08-17-09, 08:29 PM

Here in San Rafael, those 2 channels are tunable but there is no tivo guide data for them, just like all the other new channels still. 7 days now... No Tribune data either.

I have guide data in San Rafael, but it's on Comcast's Moto DVR.

ayewbf

08-17-09, 08:44 PM

Because Tribune Media can't get it's act together you blame Comcast for this ??? You're joking right :confused:
Hell, I'm low man on the totem and I heard about it and I was informed of the changes that were made, there's no way Tribune Media wasn't informed.

Laters,
Mikef5You still seem to be pretty confused on how guide data does (or doesn't) get pushed. It's as if you didn't read my explination from Tivo. Tribune doesn't just read comcast's press release and then check in with users to find out when the changes actually went thru.

Figures you'd fight with me on this instead of finding out what actually has been going wrong for years now.

MKANET

08-17-09, 08:48 PM

Sorry, if this has been bought up before. I just got a small thing in the mail saying that if I want to continue watching channels 35-82, I need to call in by September 1, 2009 to get new equipment. Will I be able to tune into these channels via digital ready TV with standard unencrypted QAM; and, just remap the channels again? I'm guessing this is just a small addon to existing QAM tuners and motorola cable boxes to convert these channeles to unecrypted QAM? I can't imagine purposefully everyone's existing working setups; as that would be a disaster.

08-17-09, 09:06 PM

If I were to upgrade from Limited Basic to Digital Starter, causing Comcast to remove the notch filter, would I be able to tune the new HD channels with my in the clear QAM tuner?

Extremely unlikely. There is no good reason for Comcast to keep those channels in the clear.

08-17-09, 09:07 PM

Will I be able to tune into these channels via digital ready TV with standard unencrypted QAM; and, just remap the channels again?

yes

clau

08-17-09, 09:27 PM

Frak !!! , I really hate talking with CSR's, maybe Mr. J. can shed some light ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

I can't get those two channels, either, and I am in Sunnyvale. On a more serious note, I don't see Comedy Central HD anywhere.

tvibe

08-18-09, 01:19 AM

clau

08-18-09, 10:41 PM

I'm in Sunnyvale, 94087 and NBC Channel 703 Audio is not working with my Dolby Digital Decoder. I am using Cable Cards through my Tivo HD and the sound hasn't been working for 2 days now. It seems to work okay when I change the settings to put Dolby Digital to PCM (which then just gives me 2.1 sound). Anyone else having this problem?

I'm in 94087, and channel 703 works correctly for me. Note that some programs are not broadcast in Dolby Digital: the 6 pm local news is one such example. I am also using a TiVo HD with CableCard.

stretch437

08-19-09, 12:39 AM

i have been getting subtle audio distortion on only KNTV HD for the last few months. i get it via comcast and i could swear i get it also (only much more subtle) OTA.

using a video processor and an audio receiver for both sources.

tex94

08-19-09, 09:59 AM

Good news, Tivo now has updated channel information for all of the new channels in Marin as of last evening. Now I can turn off my SD channel copies and move my programs to HD.

I have to say with this last influx of channels I am pretty darn satisfied with the channel selection. Yes, it would be nice to get the rest of the sports channels (e.g., ESPNU, FSN, etc) in HD and all the HBO/Starz/Showtime multiplexes but overall this is a pretty good selection. For me, PQ now becomes much more important and where I'd like to see Comcast focus next.

EDIT: I also noticed that both zap2it and Tivo listings on their websites show the old lineup. I had expected they would show the updates first but it sounds like they are on a slower update path (ok by me since I want my box updated most of all)

Mikef5

08-19-09, 12:50 PM

Here's an update on the recent problems with Tivo guide and the missing channels that some customers are experiencing and new dates for more areas that are getting the new HD channels. Again, I'll post as I received the message to avoid any confusion or should I say any more confusion ;)

___________________________________________________________

You can pass this along to the Forum…..

On the issue of the updates to the electronic channel guide/navigator:

Simply put, we did not implement the process to update the channel guide/navigator as we typically do. As you know, we significantly “sped up” the original launch schedule, and in our haste to provide more of our customers their expanded HD lineups we failed to keep our vendor up-to-date on the schedule changes. We dropped the ball. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused folks. And I want to personally apologize to you for the “heat” a few of the Forum members have sent your way because of our mistake.

On “missing channels”:

This one is a bit more complicated. It appears that only certain customers, who have certain packages, who have a very specific “billing code” assigned to them, that was used for only a specific period of time, are experiencing this issue. We’ve got our best software programmers trying to isolate the “bug” and then putting in place a patch. Again, this issue does not impact every customer who now has the new HD lineup and we are actively working to clear this up.

On the next set of launches:

Monday August 24----World Of More launches in Burlingame & Millbrae.

Tuesday August 25----World Of More launches in Palo Alto, Woodside, Portola Valley, Atherton, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Stanford and portions of San Mateo County & Santa Clara County

Thursday August 27---World Of More launches in Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Windsor, Sonoma Co., Geyserville, Forestville, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Sebastopol, Penngrove, Graton, Bodega Bay, Occidental, Camp Meeker, Cazadero and Graton.

It is also important to note that we continue to work in numerous communities in the Bay Area on converting the current analog signals transmitting channels 35 to 84 to an “all digital” protocol. This step is necessary to recapture the bandwidth we need to launch the additional 51 HD channels.

Thanks, as always, for your help.

_______________________________________________________

So there you go. On the problem with the Tivo guide. Tribune Media was told of the new channels being added but because the new channels got added faster than it was first thought they would, the ball was dropped and Tribune Media didn't get notice of the early completion of the roll out. They have now. ;)

Well, with the addition of new roll out areas coming I hope things go better for them :)

The missing channels problem that I and some other customers are experiencing is a billing code error and they are having the software programmers look into what the problem is in the system. I will keep on top of this one and let you know if I find anything else.

Laters,
Mikef5

ayewbf

08-19-09, 01:18 PM

My tivo got its proper update yesterday. Interestingly zap2it's web page still has not been updated. I think things happened in that order in the past as well which doesn't make much sense.

I'm not at all buying the early completion excuse, as comcast's July 10th press release had a rollout date of Aug. 11 on it, and it took 7 full days beyond that for the guide data to get updated. See here http://comcastcalifornia.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=292 Mr J, any heat I may be making is really meant for comcast. This problem has been ongoing for years - as long as cablecard tivo boxes existed. I've been getting unfair "heat" in return actually. But that's par for online forums unfortunately.

hiker

08-19-09, 01:30 PM

Mikef5

08-19-09, 01:41 PM

Is anyone receiving WGN-HD 717? I'm not... TiVo gives "Channel not available" and DCT6200 doesn't show 717 in the guide.

I thought the rule was if you get the SD version of a channel then you should get the HD version. I have Limited Basic and get WGN-SD on channel 33. Apparently Comcast isn't conforming to the rule.

I'm getting it here in Milpitas and it is in the Limited Basic Package. Novato was one of the areas that was updated on the 14th so it should be available to you. As much as I hate to say this, call Comcast and ask WTF. Are you getting channels 772 and 795 ? These are the channels that have the billing code error in them for some customers and this might be connected.

Laters,
Mikef5

rsra13

08-19-09, 02:09 PM

Thanks for the update Mike!

Crossing my fingers that South San Jose is updated on September 25 ("...and portions of San Mateo County & Santa Clara County"). :D

hiker

08-19-09, 02:11 PM

I'm getting it here in Milpitas and it is in the Limited Basic Package. Novato was one of the areas that was updated on the 14th so it should be available to you. As much as I hate to say this, call Comcast and ask WTF. Are you getting channels 772 and 795 ? These are the channels that have the billing code error in them for some customers and this might be connected.

Laters,
Mikef5Not getting 772 Bio-HD or 795 Lifetime-HD but I would not expect those since the SD versions are not part of Limited Basic. However, I do receive the SD version of Bio on 275 as part of the Digital Preferred tier so I should also be getting 772 Bio-HD. 46 Lifetime SD is part of Expanded Basic so I understand why I'm not getting 795 Lifetime-HD. Not sure if the billing code bug is affecting this.

DPlettner

08-19-09, 02:36 PM

The new HD channels are now in Windows Media Center in Cupertino. A simple guide download did not add the new channels. I had to set up the tuners again, and that step added the new channels.

-Dave

keenan

08-19-09, 02:36 PM

Thursday September 27---World Of More launches in Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Windsor, Sonoma Co., Geyserville, Forestville, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Sebastopol, Penngrove, Graton, Bodega Bay, Occidental, Camp Meeker, Cazadero and Graton.

I guess Santa Rosa is looking at October, was sort of hoping to see MLB-HD before the end of the baseball season, bummer...

Those of you that have MGM-HD, what tier or package is it in? I'm curious as it doesn't have a SD counterpart.

Mikef5

08-19-09, 02:48 PM

I guess Santa Rosa is looking at October, was sort of hoping to see MLB-HD before the end of the baseball season, bummer...

Those of you that have MGM-HD, what tier or package is it in? I'm curious as it doesn't have a SD counterpart.

Jim,

MGM-HD is in Digital Classic Package on channel 797 ( when you get it :o )

I still haven't heard anything on Santa Rosa but if Petaluma is getting done you have to be pretty close. At least it's headed North :p;)

Laters,
Mikef5

keenan

08-19-09, 02:56 PM

Jim,

MGM-HD is in Digital Classic Package on channel 797 ( when you get it :o )

I still haven't heard anything on Santa Rosa but if Petaluma is getting done you have to be pretty close. At least it's headed North :p;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Maybe, Santa Rosa is a system all by itself and when it comes to upgrades and the like, all those surrounding systems may as well be in Siberia. But you're right, at least they're in the area.

BTW, how does that crow taste regarding the "fault" of the "Mystery of the Missing Guide Info"? :p:D

Mikef5

08-19-09, 02:59 PM

BTW, how does that crow taste regarding the "fault" of the "Mystery of the Missing Guide Info"? :p:D

Sore subject Jim and I'll leave it at that.

At least Comcast owned up to the fact they dropped the ball and didn't leave it hanging in the air or continue the finger pointing. Give them credit for that at least.

Laters,
Mikef5

keenan

08-19-09, 03:20 PM

Sore subject Jim and I'll leave it at that.

At least Comcast owned up to the fact they dropped the ball and didn't leave it hanging in the air or continue the finger pointing. Give them credit for that at least.

Laters,
Mikef5

Oh, I give them credit for sure, I was thinking more about your strident defense of them earlier, but as you say, sore subject and it's been fixed. 'Nuff said. :)

Mikef5

08-19-09, 03:32 PM

Oh, I give them credit for sure, I was thinking more about your strident defense of them earlier, but as you say, sore subject and it's been fixed. 'Nuff said. :)
Not a problem Jim, it's just in my nature to be ardent in my views and I respect people that admit to their mistakes. Must be the old Navy training in me leaking out again. ;)

Laters,
Mikef5

Cal1981

08-19-09, 03:46 PM

Monday September 24----World Of More launches in Burlingame & Millbrae.

Tuesday September 25----World Of More launches in Palo Alto, Woodside, Portola Valley, Atherton, East Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Stanford and portions of San Mateo County & Santa Clara County

Thursday September 27---World Of More launches in Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Windsor, Sonoma Co., Geyserville, Forestville, Petaluma, Rohnert Park, Cotati, Sebastopol, Penngrove, Graton, Bodega Bay, Occidental, Camp Meeker, Cazadero and Graton.

It is also important to note that we continue to work in numerous communities in the Bay Area on converting the current analog signals transmitting channels 35 to 84 to an “all digital” protocol. This step is necessary to recapture the bandwidth we need to launch the additional 51 HD channels.

An once again, nothing for Vallejo/Benicia even though it looks like the analogues go away by 9/1.

sjcabby

08-19-09, 04:22 PM

mds54

08-19-09, 04:31 PM

Thanks for the update Mike!

Crossing my fingers that South San Jose is updated on September 25 ("...and portions of San Mateo County & Santa Clara County"). :D

Yikes! We're seeing schedules to the end of September and San Jose has not even been mentioned yet. That's an awful lot of people to keep in the dark :(

Mikef5

08-19-09, 04:35 PM

Do you mean August?

I posted it as I received it ( cut and paste ) but..... looking at the calender, the 24th of August is a Monday and the 24th of Sept is Thursday so you might be right. I will ask just to be sure.

Laters,
Mikef5

sjcabby

08-19-09, 04:49 PM

I posted it as I received it ( cut and paste ) but..... looking at the calender, the 24th of August is a Monday and the 24th of Sept is Thursday so you might be right. I will ask just to be sure.

Laters,
Mikef5

Yeah, I noticed it didn't line up. I hope it's a typo and we can start seeing more HD next week rather than next month. I appreciate your looking into it. :)

Mikef5

08-19-09, 04:59 PM

Yeah, I noticed it didn't line up. I hope it's a typo and we can start seeing more HD next week rather than next month. I appreciate your looking into it. :)

UPDATE....

August is the date NOT September. Thanks for pointing that out SJcabby.
I've updated the original post with the correct month.

Laters,
Mikef5

sjcabby

08-19-09, 05:12 PM

UPDATE....

August is the date NOT September. Thanks for pointing that out SJcabby.
I've updated the original post with the correct month.

Laters,
Mikef5

Great, thanks Mike!

cgw

08-19-09, 05:18 PM

Re "On 'missing channels': This one is a bit more complicated. It appears that only certain customers, who have certain packages, who have a very specific “billing code” assigned to them, that was used for only a specific period of time, are experiencing this issue."

Do the problematic billing codes show on the bill, or does calling to nag help? In Mikef5's list of launches I did not see Moraga, but I haven't seen the new lineup.

Mikef5

08-19-09, 05:36 PM

08-19-09, 05:55 PM

I thought the rule was if you get the SD version of a channel then you should get the HD version. I have Limited Basic and get WGN-SD on channel 33. Apparently Comcast isn't conforming to the rule.

Limited Basic gets Discovery SD but not Discovery HD.

jlee301

08-19-09, 06:30 PM

I hope someone from Comcast is reading this, as I do not appreciate the treatment I just received. Typically I have had great Comcast experience...mainly because I never have to call and have them fix anything because everything is functioning properly.

Last Thursday night, I notice that three of my HD channels went out, TLC HD, HBO HD, and Cinemax HD. Initially I thought maybe they were about to add more HD channels cause of the digital migration or moving them to reflect the new channel numbers after the migration...but neither is the case. When I select it on my TiVo HD boxes, it just saids cannot find signal. On the Comcast Motorola set-top box, it gives me a please wait. Either way, the channel never comes up. Interesting enough those three channels happen to be sitting on the same frequency 747 MHz in Union City, CA (according to my TiVo diagnostic). I get the feeling someone pulled some cables out when they weren't suppose to...

So I call last Friday, the representative said there have been complaints on the same issue and that it should be resolved by tonight. Come Tuesday, the issue wasn't resolved, so I call again and another representative says that they see no such issue open and that they will now assign a technician to come to my house and investigate today (Wednesday).

So today, the technician comes and says he needs to get some information for standard SOP before trying to figure out the issue. The technician takes out the cable cards, get the serial numbers, host id, and serial number from my Motorola HD set-top box, unplugs the cable, puts it back in, and reboots all of the boxes...channels I mention still don't come up. So he calls in and has them send a signal to the cable cards and the HD set-top box....channels still don't come up.

So now he gets on the phone with another tech and they look up my account and relay to me that I have this old "Total Package" and that's why I am not getting the channels. The technician pulls out this channel list flyer from May of 2009 and says, you can't get any of these HD channels. I respond, sir, "I am getting all of the HD channels except those three I mentioned." I also go online and show him my billing statement which clearly states I have the "Digital Premier" package from Comcast. He still insists that I have the "Total Package" and that once I upgrade to the latest that I will get the channels. So he leaves even though I've asked him to stay while I call a representative and "upgrade" to Digital Premier again.

Now I call the Comcast representative and they see this old "Total Package" but they said it should not have been the problem. So the representative changes my package to the most up to date "Digital Premier" and sends a signal to all my boxes again...channels I mentioned still aren't coming up. I also find that the ticket I filed is now closed even though my issue has not been resolved and there's a charge on the account for finding no problem... So the lady on the phone said she will get someone out right away and dispatch will call me in about 15 minutes. An hour passes, no call from dispatch, I call again, this time a guy is helping me and he tells me to give them another 30 minutes. I wait another 30 minutes, now a different lady answers and tells me that she sees no tech coming out as my next technician is scheduled to come out next Monday from 10-12PM.

At this point I am extremely furious. I have taken time out of my work to have them fix this issue and nothing was done. And now I will need to take more time out of my schedule to have them fix this issue. I had the new Monday appointment rescheduled for tomorrow now from 3-5PM. They better not send out the same technician.

mds54

08-19-09, 06:43 PM

wwu123

08-19-09, 06:50 PM

jlee301

08-19-09, 06:54 PM

Did you check if the signal strength is low in the Tivo Settings->Channels->Signal Strength diagnostic for those channels? I was having trouble with HBO HD and TNT HD dropping in and out a few months ago, when I upgraded some bad coax connectors, all the signals were quite a bit stronger and I stopped losing those channels.

I didn't change any of the cables or splitters. I showed him through the TiVo diagnostic that the signal strength was low when tuning to either TLC HD, HBO HD, and Cinemax HD. Instead he pulls out this box he carries with him to measure the signal and said all is fine with the signals at every entry point.

Xn0r

08-19-09, 07:57 PM

keenan

08-19-09, 08:15 PM

I didn't change any of the cables or splitters. I showed him through the TiVo diagnostic that the signal strength was low when tuning to either TLC HD, HBO HD, and Cinemax HD. Instead he pulls out this box he carries with him to measure the signal and said all is fine with the signals at every entry point.

That signal check they do can be rather suspect as they typically check only 3 or 4 frequencies.

Is Union City a 750MHz system? If so, when the tech comes out, again, have him/her check that specific frequency(747). I'd be surprised if it gives a good reading. How's the signal strength on the next lower frequency?

When moving channels around they may have moved that channel block to a frequency that does not work well on your system(end of range - could be a tilt/load balance issue), of course, that would mean that your neighbors are missing the channels as well. Do they receive them?

Xn0r

08-19-09, 08:38 PM

At this point I am extremely furious. I have taken time out of my work to have them fix this issue and nothing was done. And now I will need to take more time out of my schedule to have them fix this issue. I had the new Monday appointment rescheduled for tomorrow now from 3-5PM. They better not send out the same technician.
Welcome to the club. My problem was (thankfully) not as bad as yours.

I bought a Tivo HD 2nd hand from someone. I went down to Milpitas to get a cablecard (Motorola M-card), recorded all the info on it. Called Comcast to activate it. This was on a Tuesday night. The person on the phone said she sent the code and activated my cablecard, etc, etc, but nothing worked. She basically then did a FOAD and said that it could take 20 minutes to take effect, so wait and call back. So I did. Nothing changed.

I did some poking around and noticed that I was getting all digital channels except those which were encrypted, even HD channels. The "conditional access" cablecard menu was showing Con:N, which means that the card wasn't activated.

I called back and now there was a different problem: The hostid of the Tivo was still associated with the previous owner, and the CSR claimed they couldn't disassociate it, that the customer had to call in can cancel his service. So I got the guy I bought it from to call in. The next day I called back, and the guy I bought it from had canceled his service, but it was still "in process" and nothing could be done until the process completed. The guy FOADed me to call back at 8PM (probably after his shift or something). So I did so, and they said the change was still "in process". However, this CSR person claimed they could disassociate the hostid with the customer now that they knew he had canceled. They did so, re-did the whole activation code thing. Nothing.

Anyway, after several frustrating calls where they couldn't do anything, they scheduled a tech to come out Friday 1-3PM, "their earliest appointment". He showed up around 5PM. He gets on the phone with a clueful tech, and they start going through stuff. They can't get it to work either.

So he runs down to the truck and gets another cable card (identical make model), puts it into the Tivo and then gives the new numbers to the clueful tech. They send the codes, and I wait a bit, and flip it to the conditional access screen and see "Con:Y" and "Auth:S" for the first time! w00t! This looks good.

I check, and I have all my channels! Yea! "Only" took four days. But I imagine this sort of ordeal is the "normal" thing for Comcast. I'm still convinced the the first cablecard was OK. It was talking to the headend just fine (according to the CC menus).

What I speculate happened was the card was screwed up in their database, because of the previous owner thing, and because of this situation, the card, or their system/software was stuck in some half initialized state that they couldn't fix via the monkey menus the CSRs probably use.

So essentially, even though the card was likely fine, it's probably useless now because it's likely stuck in a bad state in their system. It could be a bad card I suppose, but it seems unlikely to me, since it was able to display all but encrypted channels, and I'd be surprised if the only functionality of the card which failed was the decoding part. It simply wasn't being properly initialized for whatever reason.

BTW, I've also had good experiences with Comcast. One time, a cable box in one of my rooms suddenly stopped receiving certain channels. All others it received just fine, just certain ones it wouldn't get. Most were in the same channel range, except few oddballs (perhaps they were all in the same freq range but some different chan ranges 'cause of virtual chan #s?). Anyway, it turned out that the problem was the cable going from my wall the the box. It suddenly went "bad" for no reason at all. Perhaps you're having a similar situation?

EDIT: One thing I definitely note is that calling comcast CS seems to be like pulling the lever on a slot machine/one armed bandit. Getting a good CSR that actually knows what they're doing is like hitting the jackpot. Sometimes you just have to keep calling back until you get someone with a clue. This has been the case on several occasions in the past. They seem to be very disorganized and inconsistent.

Xn0r

08-19-09, 08:55 PM

With all the confusion going on with the Tivo Guide not getting updated, I can finally say that I now have the guide data for the Tivo so I guess all the hubbub got things moving after all. Now to check and see if it's accurate. I noticed on the Comcast guide for Spike HD it's 2 hours off from what it should be and Comedy Channel HD is MIA. Ain't life great !! ;)
I just forced an update, and I now have the PG data! Yea!

EDIT: Comedy Central appears to be showing the east coast feed, but the guide data is for west coast. Right now, 1800, it supposedly showing "Glenn Martin, DDS", but it's actually showing "Futurama", which is schedule at 2100 (three hours from now). Cable box shows Futurama. Guess I'll be filing another lineup issue. :rolleyes:

EDIT2: Interestingly, The Tivo PG seems to have SpikeTV HD correct, but the Comcast STB has it wrong. And it's not just a "different time zone" thing. The cable box shows "Kill Bill: Vol. 2" on at 1800, but it's actually showing "Ultimate Iceman: Chuck Liddel". The Tivo guide is showing the proper program (Iceman), but shows "Kill Bill Vol. 1" starting at 1830, and "Kill Bill Vol. 2" at 2100. SNAFU. :confused:

Xn0r

08-19-09, 08:57 PM

^^^^^
That is the kind of stuff of which nightmares are made.......
I feel for you. I think many of us here have experienced similar situations.
If only Comcast management (that cares) could see reports like this.
A company that is "flush with cash" and that has a near monopoly in some areas ... it's going to be hard to make them care. Until it starts affecting their bottom line. I wish Verizon would get FiOS out here. Even if I don't switch, it'd increase the competition in the area and perhaps they'd clean up their act.

keenan

08-19-09, 09:25 PM

A company that is "flush with cash" and that has a near monopoly in some areas ... it's going to be hard to make them care. Until it starts affecting their bottom line. I wish Verizon would get FiOS out here. Even if I don't switch, it'd increase the competition in the area and perhaps they'd clean up their act.

Comcast wants to be in the content creation business like the big boys. There's speculation that all that cash is being stockpiled to make another run at a Disney type acquisition, like Time Warner for example.

smthrsd

08-19-09, 09:35 PM

Anyone know the day the new hd's become active in the Dublin area?

dandrewk

08-19-09, 09:42 PM

I just replaced my old (original) Comcast HD DVR with a new(er) Moto 3416. The remote is very hit and miss... as in, click a button and sometimes it registers first try... but more often it takes several clicks to get it to do anything. Obviously, this won't work for direct channel changes.

The batteries are fine
Nothing obstructing the remote or receiver. It doesn't matter how close/far I put the remote
Same results when using Logitech Harmony remote
Resetting the box doesn't help

Mind you, I -just- now have plugged the thing in. I noticed that cable configuration seems to be going through a long list of "messages" followed by some Hex code. I don't know if this is a continual process, or only happens at first setup or after a power outage.

Should I:

Be patient and let the setup process cycle through. This is what is causing the remote problems. It's normal behavior for the 3416.
Storm back to Comcast and get a box that works. This one is defective.

Thanks for any info!

Xn0r

08-19-09, 11:18 PM

Wait until tomorrow. If it still does it, exchange in.

jlee301

08-19-09, 11:19 PM

An update on my issue. Right before I wrote all that mess a few post above, I called their Corporate office in Philadelphia and told them my problem. About an hour later I got a phone call from a woman in the Livermore office telling me they were notified of the situation from Corporate and have found the issue and fixed it.

She didn't elaborate too much on what the actual problem was but I am not complaining. As a little added bonus, they credited me for $34 (the monthly price of HBO and Cinemax subscription) for the inconvenience...

dandrewk

08-19-09, 11:23 PM

jlee301

08-19-09, 11:46 PM

When moving channels around they may have moved that channel block to a frequency that does not work well on your system(end of range - could be a tilt/load balance issue), of course, that would mean that your neighbors are missing the channels as well. Do they receive them?

According to the woman I spoke to from the Livermore office, she claims the issue affected everyone in Union City. I was going to check the signal strength on the frequencies near it, but since 747 MHz is now pumping at 90%, probably no reason too.

keenan

08-20-09, 12:23 AM

According to the woman I spoke to from the Livermore office, she claims the issue affected everyone in Union City. I was going to check the signal strength on the frequencies near it, but since 747 MHz is now pumping at 90%, probably no reason too.

It might have been a load balancing/tilt issue then, not enough signal power at the top end, glad to see you got it fixed. :)

Xn0r

08-20-09, 12:25 AM

Wow. What a cluster this has been on both the Comcast and Tivo end. I just went through the channels ... just the HD channels ... and found 10 channels with bad info on the Tivo.

Some comcast PG data was also wrong (where the Tivo had the correct info). But I'm less concerned about that since I watch the Tivo and mostly use the CC STB for On Demand. Anyway, I sent yet another lineup report to Tivo. Mebbe some of you guys can verify this and make sure I didn't mess anything up. It's in the format of the Tivo web form:

Missing:
775 Encore HD (still missing programming data "to be announced")
772 BIOHD (this is likely the subscription bug mentioned in this thread)
795 LIFEPHD (ditto)
(reported these last in order to "push" Comcast from the Tivo end perhaps ;) )

Incorrect desc:
1. Glenn Martin DDS, 745, 06:00 PM, 8/19/2009, Futurama
2. Kendra, 753, 06:00 PM, 8/19/2009, The E! True Hollywood Story
3. Phineas and Ferb, 763, 07:00 PM, 8/19/2009, X-Men: Evolution
4. That '70s Show, 768, 7:00PM, 8/19/2009, Americas Funniest Videos (10PM showing, this appears to be the east coast feed, PG has west coast.)
5. Hannah Montana, 769, 7:00PM, 8/19/2009, Ella Enchanted
6. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, 778, 8/19/2009, 7:00PM, World's Strictest Parents (appears to be 10:00PM showing, so east coast feed, west coast PG)
7. 40 Naughtiest Celebrity Scandals, 781, 8/19/2009, 7:45PM, Real Chance of Love
8. Daddy's Girls, 782, 8/19/2009, 7:45PM, The Real World
9. Real Time With Bill Maher, 801, 8/19/2009, 8:15PM, What Happens In Vegas (west coast feed, showing east coast PG?)
10. The Rocker, 838, 8/19/2009, 8:22PM, Medicine Man

Wow. Look at all those screwups!!! Amazes me what a awful job they do at something seemingly simple. In nearly all instances it's a case of setting the wrong feed/timezone for the channel (east coast feed, west coast PG data, and vica versa). It doesn't help that in many cases not only Tivo, but Comcast has it wrong on the STB guide! AMAZING.