Philadelphia, PA - Comcast - Page 352

Does your TV have the "Sharp Edge" feature? If so, make sure that is off. That will eliminate the outline you see.

I stopped by the local Comcast office yesterday (2nd. time) & they had plenty of brand spanking new DCX 3400s. The one they gave me was indeed a 500g drive. I had read the latest software had disabled native but in fact it worked fine. A question though, what should I use for SD? I've disabled 480i yet the image (and menu) on SD channels is awful & stretched at 480p.

I find this unit to be faster than my old 3416 in channel change, etc. The older unit would seem to hang a bit before executing a command, this one doesn't (yet). Anyway, the upgrade was worth the effort it took to get it.

Just a guess, but with a larger TV you will see pixelating during fast motion easier. TVs that big are designed to be viewed from several feet away so if you stand a foot or two away, it will not look very clear. Not sure anything is wrong with your box.

Still no HDNET in Mont co. I was in Upstate NY visiting family this past weekend and Time Warner up there has added a bunch of new HD channels, pushing their total to around 115. Cooking, DIY, BBC America, Nat Geo Wild, Hub, GoalLine(new ESPN channel), Fox Soccer Plus, Outdoor Network are the newest ones. They went SDV about 2 years ago and can add HD channels at will. They also had a nice pamplet in the mail with the bill clearly explaining their policy for "Digital channel encryption" and it spelled out how SD/HD local channels are not encrypted per policy and can be tuned with a QAM tuner. It also talked about what SDV is, how they use it, how you can get a tuning adapter, how/what you get with CableCARD VS box, etc. It would be really nice if Comcast put that information in a concise pamplet like this and made it readily available.

Has anyone had success accessing the stored content on the DCX3400M via FireWire?

Also, FWIW, I've got it connected via HDMI to my Denon receiver with the following USER SETTINGS:

TV Type: 16:9
HDMI/YPbPr OUTPUT: NATIVE
MY TV SUPPORTS THE FOLLOWING FORMATS: 1080p24m, 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i
VIDEO SHARPNESS: 3
ADDITIONAL HDMI SETTINGS:
HDMI/DVI MODE: HDMI
COLOR SPACE: YCC 4:4:4
AUDIO OUTPUT: PASS THROUGH

How do these look? I got the box and a new TV the same day so I have yet to really tweak the picture.

Bill

In the menu where you set it to native, is 480p still selected? I can't remember if 480p was an option, but I set mine to native and unchecked everything below 720p and I do not get the stretched out look to SD channels.

Thanks, that appears to be my best choice.

How are you guys telling what size HD is in there?

Look at the manufactorers label on the label on the bottom of the DVR, next to where it says "Model: DCX 3400"(or something like this) there are a couple numbers, one is either 250, 320, or 500. That indicates how big the hard drive is.

Or you can go to the diagnostic screen(s) and verify it there as well.

I keep reading about the diagnostic screen screen but the only one i know of is pressing setup with the box off and i need no HD info on that one.

Comcast offices can only serve customers within their 'Corp.', which consists of their system and at least one other system.

For instance, Willow Grove system and Lower Merion system make up a Corp. IIRC, the bill only list the system's local office. However, the latest price card lists both systems. Over the years, both written and verbal info. have mentioned WG and LM as being together.

Sure there is...just not in your part of Mont. co., apparently.
Willow Grove system has it; (so, almost surely Lower Merion system has it, also.)
You'll probably get HDNet in central Mont. co. soon, though.

What channel is HDNET showing up on? I've noticed 2 new channels (can't remember #s) showing up with "unavailable" on them. Just wondering if that may indeed be a placeholder for HDNET at least.

It's 897 here in Northern Chester County.

They gave me the 500GB box as well.

Bill

Yeah, I am almost sure it is ch. 897 here on WG sys., as well.

Thanks for the replies, no 897 here yet.

Hi all,

I'm wondering if someone can answer a basic HDTV question for me.... We currently have an old CRT tv, and are using Comcast basic cable. We would like to upgrade to a new flat panel HDTV. If we get an HDTV with a QAM tuner, will it be capable of picking up local HD stations over basic cable? We're really not interested in upgrading to digital cable service at this time, as we can stream a lot of additional content via netflix, playon, etc., but it seems a shame to have a nice new HDTV and not be able to see HD broadcasts. FiOS is not availabe in our area yet.

Yes. Locally you get CBS (3.1), Fox (29.1), ABC (6.1), NBC (10.1), CW (I forget channel), & PBS WHHY (12.1).

Thanks!!

You forgot WPHL 17.1, home of the Fightin' Phils.
CW should be on 57.1. There are also some other local broadcast channels, for those that don't know.

BTW, one shouldn't count on these channels being mapped to their .1
On our system, they only map a few of them anymore, it keeps getting worse.
We have to rescan every so often, and then find them manually on their real QAM channel frequency.
Again, for those just learning, don't use Comcast cable box channel numbers for your TV's QAM tuner, as they don't correspond.

Ad on page C5 of today's Philadelphia Inquirer announces these HD additions for Comcast of Philadelphia on or about December 15, 2010.

Network-Channel Number-Package
BBC America- 1225 (Digital Preferred)
Crime & Investigation 1231 (Sports/Ent Pack)
Nat Geo Wild 1262 (Digital Preferred)
Smithsonian Channel 1265 (Digital Preferred)
Cooking Channel 1281 (Digital Preferred)
DIY 1291 (Digital Preferred)
Jewelry TV 1315 (Digital Preferred)
Game Show Network (GSN) 1325 (Expanded Basic)
Ovation 1345 (Digital Preferred)
Galavision 1368 (Digital Preferred)
Sprout 1505 (Expanded Basic)
Hub 1511 (Digital Preferred)
MavTV 1621 (Digital Preferred)
Outdoor Channel 1630 (Digital Preferred)
Sportsman Channel 1632 (Digital Preferred)
World Fishing Network 1632 (Sports/Ent)
IndiePlex 1862 (Digital Preferred)

Also being added on or about Dec. 15 are these premium HD channels:

HBO West 1911
HBO 2 West 1914
HBO Signature 1915
HBO Signature West 1916
HBO Family 1917
HBO Family West 1918
HBO Comedy 1920
HBO Comedy West 1921
HBO Zone West 1924
HBO Latino West 1926

Cinemax West 1931
MoreMax 1932
MoreMax West 1933
ActionMax 1934
ActionMax West 1935
ThrillerMax 1936
ThrillerMax West 1937
WMax 1938
5StarMax 1941
OuterMax 1944
@Max 1946

Showtime2 1952
Showtime Beyond 1954
Showtime Beyond West 1955
Showtime Showcase 1956
Showtime Showcase West 1957
Showtime Extreme 1958
Showtime Extreme West 1960
Movie Channel 1970
Movie Channel Xtra 1972

Starz West 1981
Starz Edge 1982
Starz in Black 1984
Starz Kids & Family 1986
Starz Cinema 1988
Starz Comedy 1991

These additions will take us to over 150 HD channels.

Interesting channel numbers. I guess Comcast has a way to go to get to a standardized channel lineup when Philly channels aren't there yet (or is it the rest of us)? Please post again tomorrow if indeed they show up. Good additions though!

Wow, is this/have they gone to SDV or something with that lineup? First time I've seen or heard of 4 digit channel numbers in an area with Moto equipment, in the Freedom region.

Comcast removed all of the analog channels in our area last week. We are 100% digital now.

Where is your "area"?

Area 4 - Northeast Philly

Additional channels are live in South Philly. TiVo guide data doesn't know about it yet.

Nothing new here, but alas, we are the "old" 800s channels as well. Maybe that's part of it .

Congrats to Philly for getting among the best, if not the best HD lineup in all of Comcast. Makes sense since Comcast employs just a few people in the city, haha

RE: Garden State Cable - Cherry Hill Digital.

I got a mailing a few weeks ago that said they were going all digital and you had to get converter boxes, but not too clear about how it would affect QAM tuners.

I've got a cable card in my TV, but my PC DVR is QAM, which I use for recording the OTA channels.

Does anybody know if they are going to encrypt the OTA channels? I'm sure they wouldn't mind having me pay $$$ to rent their DVR. Calling their customer service number is usually waste of time.