Comcast HD Quality Reduction: Details, Screenshots - Page 52  

Hey bfdtv could you do a small clip comparison with UniversalHD between Fios and Comcast? Comcast UHD is so blocky and I'm curious if it's them or comcast.

Perhaps they should all just let go of 1995 and stop using MPEG-2 because the encoding/decoding hardware is cheaper. Switch to an MPEG-4 Advanced Profile codec like h.264 already. Any stream I have encoded at a mere 5Mbps for 720P or around 10Mbps for 1080p has looked infinitely better than anything I have ever seen from a provider. They could easily cram 4 1080i or 8 720p channels on a 38.8Mb pipe and recoup the cost of the hardware migration fairly quickly.

H.264/AVC STBs don't exist yet (announced but none shipping AFAIK) so an MSO couldn't buy them if they wanted to. Also, none of the current Cablecard equipment (Tivo, Vista Media Center, etc.) is known to support H.264/AVC. No Cablecard TVs did, Tivo is rumored to, Vista would need a CODEC installed and the FCC would probably take a dim view of having this equipment obsoleted so soon.

after a long deciding period over the last few months, action finally taken here earlier this week and D* poised for an install on friday. maybe the pq isn't any better, or maybe it is... that said, it's cheaper overall, and if the pq is the same then at least i'm getting 2x the 'hd' channels for less money. good riddance, commiecast-- your hd was great until you fuxored it.

I know at least 10 people personally who switched to either DirecTV or ATT U-verse; including my parents. I can't understand why anyone in their right mind would want to keep Comcast if they have alternatives in their area. I only have comcast because of my R5000's; if it wasn't for that, I would have switched a long time ago.

Doesn't Comcast must have a department that looks at statistics showing a significant decline in their customer subscriptions in the last several months (including new customers); and try to find out why? Aren't they trying to find out why they have so many angry customers?

I think they figure that "growth" whether population or by acquisition will compensate. They are close. Big boys like Comcast can do it. But the rest are treading water or shrinking slowly. They hope they can upgrade and excessively compress HD channels until they can catch up. But the competition is growing and even with "exaggerated" promises and outright LYING about HD quality and quantity most people are seeing the light.

I personally am stuck with Comcast due to living in an Apartment. If I had a southern view, I would be tempted to try a deck installation.

I had DTV for a year, before HDTV. I was REALLY impressed with the guide, PQ and especially sound. Made all my cable experiences seem pathetic - STILL!

Now that DTV has better DVR's, the most HD channels and have most HD in MPEG-4 compression. There is little reason not to switch for those who can.

That sounds like what a company spokesperson would say.

Or their lawyer.

How so?

Or a reasonable person who is neither, and instead is very knowledgeable about business-in-general, in our society.

Comcast should be forced to say these things in their ads.

This is how they really feel folks.

But why don't they? Hmm....

So, how many folks here are SERIOUSLY considering dropping Comcast for FIOS. I am not interested in any Dish provider, since I need the whole 9-yards (TV, Phone & Internet). That said, PQ on HD is paramount and I have been hating the PQ from Comcast more and more each day. It just... SUCKS!!!

I wonder if the devil you know (Comcast) may just be as good or better than the devil you don't know (FIOS). I'm sure there are horror stoies on both ends - but, are there any real showstoppers?

Rather than reinvent the wheel... did anyone do the research and be willing to share honest, unbiased opinions.

thanks - steve

The purpose of advertising is to promote purchase of a product or service. That's true whether you're selling bleach, knives, or video programming.


What's actually interesting is what percentage of Comcast's subscribers have dropped (past tense) Comcast for FiOS. (It's a pretty small number. First: Talk is cheap. Second: Verizon is dragging its feet offering service, cherry-picking subscribers.)


Overall, my understanding is that, as you would expect from a new entrant into the marketplace, with deep pockets, FiOS offers a very substantial value advantage, and I expect that they'll continue to do so until they have a decent market share -- and then you can expect Verizon to be Verizon, and if anyone is better getting more and more revenue from customers than Comcast its Verizon.

I have noted that Verizon does seem to have an extraordinarily high number of billing complaints regarding FiOS, as compared to cable companies. I suspect that's a temporary anomaly.

Snce this topic is about HD image quality, it should be noted Verizon passes HD to the end user as they receive it.

Wow! I did not know that. Absolutely no compression? Is this true for any HD channel (not just the locals)? Too bad FIOS is still not offered in my neighborhood.
I'd switch to Verizon (from Comcast) in a heartbeat... even if Verizon is more expensive. Don't care about cost... just want the best PQ.

No additional compression beyond what the content provider has already done. If History Channel sends out 16mb/s then that's what Verizon will give you.

Thanks, Keenan. Come on, Verizon. Get off your butt and lay down those fiber optic lines in my neighborhood!

By the time they get around to me they'll probably be butchering the signal just like Comcrap... uh Comcast.

I doubt this, because they have made a large financial investment in order to have a huge amount of bandwidth available. I think we all mistrust corporations to some degree, but I look at actions to guide my opinions.

Verizon chose a technology that did not have immediate payoffs, but has not just a current infrastructure to support uncompressed HD, but for the future will increase the bandwidth available by orders of magnitude.

Current technology:

BPON - Example: internet upstream data - 155Mbit/s, downstream - 622 Mbit/s, TV - 870 MHz of bandwidth.

Near future:
GPON - upstream data - 1.2 Gbits/s, down - 2.4 Gbits/s, TV - ???

Far Future... multistream - 10 Gbits?

Anyways, BPON is the current technology, GPON is already being deployed. If they're not compressing now, all indications are that they can avoid it in the future.

so why do medicine ads, for example, have to list side effects, risks, etc. why do auto ads (even though they get away with it in ultra fine print no one can really read) have to state that 'model shown is actually the ultra deluxe luxury package that is $29,999' when they flash a price of 17,589 for the entire 1st 28 seconds of the 30 second clip? many areas of advertising are regulated to protect the consumer from making a poorly or (deliberately) falsely informed purchase. in light of the above, forced requirement for advertising that you downconvert/downres your 'HD' , and as such some segment of the population experiences an unexpected 'viewing side effect' should not be viewed as so preposterous,

As I've mentioned before, that's meaningless. They laid the fiber down my block in August 2006.

Still waiting for service offering... apparently they're cherry-picking subscribers even within a town.


Because there are laws that require precisely that. There are no laws that require FiOS, for example, to reveal that they cherry-pick who to offer service to.

What's the difference to society? It comes back to what's really important (health) and what isn't (television).

FWIW, I just read this: http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2008-06/...g-all-digital/

Comcast is planning on buying up a BUNCH of DTAs, and going all-digital over the next two years. They're planning on getting 20% of their customers onto all-digital by the end of 2008 which is quite ambitious. This will mean tons more space for HD programming, and (hopefully) the end of short-sighted solutions like jamming three HD channels into a single QAM.

I am thrilled by this, and am *very* curious which regions will be impacted first. I sincerely hope that Atlanta is one of the first!

Been noticing blockiness lately (<2 months)...they're rolling a truck.
Hopefully it's loaded with MPEG-4 compression equipment or thousands of miles of fiber optic cable. Either way they're gonna need a BIG truck or I'm switching over to D* and my wife will kill me for the lack of On Demand.
Maybe I'll put the savings into a Bluray player and some Netflix stuff for her.
I figure I'll have enough saved for Bluray in about 6 months.
Seriously.

How big is the smallest Direct dish and how effective is it?

switch to directvhd complete here as well. installer had some issues with our building and the installation, as well as activation (they didn't seem to have my complete order listing so I had to show the prinout from tuesday). that said, i now have about 2.5x as many hd channels, and the ones in common (universal hd, usahd, foodhd, etc) all are at least as good looking as comcast was. it seems some still shots don't quite show as much fine detail as the comcast did, but my screen is no longer dominated with massive macroblocking and noise in any motion scene.... well worth the switch

well, i am too new to be an expert, but the dish they installed today for me is about a 30 x 24 oval with the arm sticking about 1.5-2 feet out

My coworker just canceled his Comcast service.

On to the next provider, who will eventually treat you just the same. Onward!

And all I've heard is that if we want change, we're supposed to make our voices heard by voting with our feet.

It's never Comcast's fault, right? Consumers are just too dumb and the provider is always doing the right thing?

No, we should make our voices heard by talking about it to like minded interested folks on the Internet or elsewhere.

For instance, a couple years ago I had been a happy customer of Comcast for many year and generally sung their praise. At that time I had one of their HD STB's and their Extended Basic package. The HD DVR's were coming out and their web page specifically stated you did NOT need a digital cable subscription to rent one. So I did, and used it happily for a few months.

A few months later a Comcast rep contacted me and said I could not continue renting the DVR unless I at upgraded to
at least their Digital Silver package. We went round and round about it but eventually I just returned it and dropped back to using only Lifeline Basic, using only my own computer PCHD card. (a net negative $6-7 / month after broadband discount)

I no longer even live in a Comcast neighborhood but I tell this story once in awhile to warn others of what can happen when their cable company becomes too complacent.

I think it's an interesting story, I'm telling it now, and I think telling it once in awhile gives me a bit more power than just 'voting with my feet'.

- Tom

this "contribution" isn't needed