Portland, OR - Comcast

[skihoodoo]

around 10 this morning comcast activated 306 again for MARCH Madness

[akaussie]

Originally Posted by skihoodoo

around 10 this morning comcast activated 306 again for MARCH Madness

KOIN DT2, showed up on 6.2 via my QAM tuner. Big thumbs up to both KOIN and Comcast for this!

[earletp]

I received a letter from Comcast today that says on or after May 1st they are going to be adding eleven new HD channels to our line-up.

Disney - 741
ABC Family - 739
TBS-HD 755
Discovery - 707
(Discovery theater moves to 711)
TLC - HD - 738
Science Channel - 772
Food network - 766
Animal planet - 743
SciFi - 759
CNN - 744
AMC - 771

[jkm2730]

I wonder if we will see any new HD channels or changes added to the QAM signal. I have wondered if at some point Discovery will switch over to HD via QAM.

[earletp]

Doubtful, they'd have to willing to basically give them away for free and add them to the Limited Basic package. I don't foresee that happening.

[baloo75]

Originally Posted by earletp

I received a letter from Comcast today that says on or after May 1st they are going to be adding eleven new HD channels to our line-up.

Disney - 741
ABC Family - 739
TBS-HD 755
Discovery - 707
(Discovery theater moves to 711)
TLC - HD - 738
Science Channel - 772
Food network - 766
Animal planet - 743
SciFi - 759
CNN - 744
AMC - 771

I hope they actually do it this time, many of these were supposed to be added on or after November 1st. Of course May 1st is after November 1st

[tedder]

Those new channels are mostly supposed to be in the "Digital Starter" package. Does that mean free via QAM? I.e., no converter box required? I'm having trouble finding information on the comcast site.

[jabbawabba]

Maybe they can compress the stream even more and the image quality will be even worse!

[skihoodoo]

well this was in the statesman today

[tri0xinn]

So Portland HD quality has gone downhill as well? I'm in Eugene.. noticed the quality drop instantly.. I have some hd recordings on the dvr from several months ago that are clearly 25 percent better looking.. this is super disapointing.. Is this quality issue a temporary thing? or am I gonna have to switch to Directv.

[baloo75]

I had a message on my boxes this morning saying 11 new HD channels coming on May 1st. They also sent a message saying Coming May 1st ABC Family HD. It looks like they are sending out a separate message each day to the boxes about this.

It actually looks like it is going to happen.

[crossbeaux]

I got the letter in the mail yesterday.

[scowl]

Shoot, we won't get the beginning of Battlestar Galactica season 4 in HD.

[crossbeaux]

Originally Posted by scowl

Shoot, we won't get the beginning of Battlestar Galactica season 4 in HD.

Yes. Bummer. Is there anything else worth watching on that network? I just never got into Serenity or Stargate.

[lewlew]

Whoa!
Just got back from a visit to comcast on nimbus.

I had been seriously considering verizon's fios but would have had to wait for an unknown length of time before they would be able even to think about installation.

With comcast I currently have digital classic and the dvr for a total of $89+/mo.

I sat down with the csr and I was very polite and humble. I showed her the verizon brochures and noted the $47.99 tv price and also noted the $16 for the dvr.
She said "let's see what I can do". After several minutes on her computer she says
"$46.60/ mo plus taxes and a free dvr for one year.

I almost kissed her.

I had her print out a confirmation of what she said and I have it in my fat little hands.

This is better than anything I could have hoped for from verizon.

I don't say this very often: "Thank You Comcast"

[Phantom Gremlin]

Originally Posted by lewlew

I don't say this very often: "Thank You Comcast"

Yes, competition is a wonderful thing. Enjoy it while you can. The current state of affairs is good for customers but not so good for shareholders, so it won't last.

[rifleman69]

Originally Posted by lewlew

Whoa!
Just got back from a visit to comcast on nimbus.

I had been seriously considering verizon's fios but would have had to wait for an unknown length of time before they would be able even to think about installation.

With comcast I currently have digital classic and the dvr for a total of $89+/mo.

I sat down with the csr and I was very polite and humble. I showed her the verizon brochures and noted the $47.99 tv price and also noted the $16 for the dvr.
She said "let's see what I can do". After several minutes on her computer she says
"$46.60/ mo plus taxes and a free dvr for one year.

I almost kissed her.

I had her print out a confirmation of what she said and I have it in my fat little hands.

This is better than anything I could have hoped for from verizon.

I don't say this very often: "Thank You Comcast"

Pretty sure you don't get the same amount of channels as Verizon, plus HD channels for free. At least you're getting a better deal on your product.

[thoots]

Originally Posted by crossbeaux

If Comcast is really switching from 20Mbps ABR to 13.3Mbps APR for HD channels, does anyone know how that compares to the satellite HD channels? If the old rule used to be OTA > Cable > Satellite, does that change now?

I expect Comcast is in the toilet now. There's a pretty big thread about it, here:

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

I'm in the Salem area. A week or so ago, my HD quality went right down the toilet -- HGTV HD being by far the most noticeable.

Do you like the "digital cable" picture quality? Is that about the kind of quality you want to see for your "High Definition" dollars? Oooh, didn't think so.

I'm doing research into DirecTV -- I figure I'll finally get up off of my butt and tell Comcast where to shove it. There's no way I'm gonna keep on paying their top-dollar prices for toilet-quality "HD Lite."

[Phantom Gremlin]

Originally Posted by thoots

I'm doing research into DirecTV -- I figure I'll finally get up off of my butt and tell Comcast where to shove it. There's no way I'm gonna keep on paying their top-dollar prices for toilet-quality "HD Lite."

I have DirecTV SD, some channels are good, some are obviously quite heavily compressed. I can't get HD because of trees. Which is just as well, because many people have previously commented on the quality of the HD signal being transmitted by DirecTV. Ironically, I belive that the moniker HD lite was invented to describe the "HD" being sent by DirecTV. Maybe things have improved recently.

Choose wisely. You will have a 2 yr commitment. No commitment with Comcast.

As of right now, my understanding is that the best PQ is from FiOS. But I won't switch, since I'm too cheap to buy more TiVo HD boxes to replace my 4 DirecTiVo receivers.

[rifleman69]

Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin

I have DirecTV SD, some channels are good, some are obviously quite heavily compressed. I can't get HD because of trees. Which is just as well, because many people have previously commented on the quality of the HD signal being transmitted by DirecTV. Ironically, I belive that the moniker HD lite was invented to describe the "HD" being sent by DirecTV. Maybe things have improved recently.

Choose wisely. You will have a 2 yr commitment. No commitment with Comcast.

As of right now, my understanding is that the best PQ is from FiOS. But I won't switch, since I'm too cheap to buy more TiVo HD boxes to replace my 4 DirecTiVo receivers.

You'll definitely notice the difference between Comcast and DirecTV vs FiOS on every channel. I noticed it the very moston on KGW where the picture is crystal clear on our non-HD tv whereas it was "blocky" and grainier on DirecTV.

I'm happy with FiOS, just don't hope you have a billing problem with Verizon as their customer service leaves something to be desired.

[mpsan]

Originally Posted by rifleman69

You'll definitely notice the difference between Comcast and DirecTV vs FiOS on every channel. I noticed it the very moston on KGW where the picture is crystal clear on our non-HD tv whereas it was "blocky" and grainier on DirecTV.

I'm happy with FiOS, just don't hope you have a billing problem with Verizon as their customer service leaves something to be desired.

YUP! It is why I still have Comcast TV and FIOS Internet and phone. We have NEVER gotten the same billing amount two months in a row and they are never correct! Many hours spent on the phone to correct it. I also wonder it the FIOS-TV costs less by the time you add up all the charges!

How hard is it to say phone is $XXX and Internet is $YYY and discount is $ZZZ and get a total?

[rifleman69]

Originally Posted by mpsan

YUP! It is why I still have Comcast TV and FIOS Internet and phone. We have NEVER gotten the same billing amount two months in a row and they are never correct! Many hours spent on the phone to correct it. I also wonder it the FIOS-TV costs less by the time you add up all the charges!

How hard is it to say phone is $XXX and Internet is $YYY and discount is $ZZZ and get a total?

Amen!

[ridgefamus]

Originally Posted by mpsan

How hard is it to say phone is $XXX and Internet is $YYY and discount is $ZZZ and get a total?

Really! It sure is fun trying to unravel when you have Land line = $AAA, wireless phone = $BBB, TV = $CCC and Internet = $DDD and a discount for them all bundled together that has never made sense. Then, when you log in to the Verizon website you never know where you are going to land. I tried to view my bill yesterday and got thrown into the Internet site. All I was able to see was Internet but it showed $39.99 less a $2.00 bundle discount for $37.99 total.

Several years ago I switched from being a long-time Earthlink internet user. When I got on to Verizon, it was obvious this was a telephone company pretending to be an internet provider whereas Earthlink, IMO, is the epitome of being an ISP. Verizon needs a lot of help tying its internet sites together if it's going to bundle their various services and sell them as such. But the line speed is good.

Sorry - just realized my Verizon rant was in the wrong thread.

[mpsan]

Yes. I just have their FIOS phone and internet now. My wife has their cell service but we can not bundle that as we would loose our corp. discount.

Internet has been OK, but sometimes, like the past few days, it can take a while for Eudora to log in to their POP3 servers!

[jesmith1263]

I mainly wanted to get the Portland forum to the front. I did notice that Comcast is sending out about three channel reminders for May 1st each week. I notice today that they are saying TBS HD to be added and Discover HD to go to 707 and Discover Theather to be on 711. Would of been nice to have TBSHD for today's Baseball game of the week. Glad to see 11 channels on May 1st.

[formulaben]

Anyone else seeing a TON of macroblocking with the NCAA Championship game? I'm down in Eugene and the picture is horrible during fast transitions.

[rifleman69]

Not that much on the antenna here as well as FiOS. Could be a local thing.

[Phantom Gremlin]

Originally Posted by jesmith1263

I notice today that they are saying TBS HD to be added and Discover HD to go to 707 and Discover Theather to be on 711. Would of been nice to have TBSHD for today's Baseball game of the week. Glad to see 11 channels on May 1st.

Be careful what you wish for.

It has been reported that the way Comcast is adding HD channels is by putting 3 of them on one QAM channel (instead of previous 2). So, instead of retransmitting unmodified HD, Comcast must first further compress the HD. Which means lower picture quality.

Does anyone know if this 3 HD -> 1 QAM is happening in the Portland area? If so, this may be what finally pushes me into FiOS.

[crossbeaux]

I don't know if more compression is happening yet. But I believe that according to FCC regulations, they must broadcast the local stations, including HD, without degrading the quality. So if they are further compressing, it would be on the other channels. I personally am looking forward to TBS-HD for baseball, SciFi-HD for Battlestar, and AMC-HD for the occasional movie and Mad Men. I want "less-compressed" HD, but I'd rather have HD-lite than no HD at all. And I would hope that in 2009, Comcast would eliminate all but the locals from their analog offerings and free up room for better quality HD.

And in my part of town, there's no FIOS option. But if there were, I'd consider it too.

[Hormoz]

Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin

Be careful what you wish for...

Does anyone know if this 3 HD -> 1 QAM is happening in the Portland area? If so, this may be what finally pushes me into FiOS.

I noticed some quality degradation on the HD channels (subjective, of course) and that's what pushed me to sign up for FIOS. When I returned the HD box to the Nimbus center last Friday, they asked me about the reason for canceling and I mentioned it was due to their lowering of HD quality. Surprisingly the CSR knew about this and mentioned that by the end of the year they will be moving a whole bunch of channels off analog to free up more space for HD. We'll see!