Philadelphia, PA - Comcast - Page 327

NO HD CHANNELS FROM 206 - 230 as of 848pm friday night

HD CHANNELS ARE BACK AS OF 9:43PM. after speaking with 3 customer service agents in the frackin caribbean.

fios is looking better & better.

I thought I posted this earlier, but I don't see it here...

Is Comcast offering access to the HBO free preview this weekend?

Do a QAM scan with your TV's, Comcast unencrypted a BUNCH of regular SD cable channels. I just got a new LCD TV for the bedroom and it picked up a ton of digital SD channels on QAM. Looks like all the Digital Starter channels have been unencrypted, minus HD channels. Digi Classic and above remain encrypted.

I don't know if they are just fooling around or what, I'm suspecting they are just testing something, perhaps DTA boxes hooked up to my system somewhere???

They didn't unencrypt anything new in my area. However, we always got about 35 SD channels in the clear, including all of the limited basic channels.

HBOHD unencrypted as of Sunday afternoon, on 89-1 in Lower Bucks.

Checked and HBO-HD is not unencrypted in Central PA. Luckily I subscribe to it. In PA Comcast seems to suck like the Eagles. Full of false hope and promises.

Can you tell I'm bitter at the Eagles loss today?

I think they are only keeping it unencrypted during the Obama Inaugural Celebration. Right now HBO-HD and regular HBO are both in the clear.

Anyone else get a postcard saying that effective Jan 20th, Digital Starter and above now include up to 2 DTA boxs at no charge. After the first 3 outlets(1 box, 2 DTAs), they are $1.99/mo each.

If they are introducing DTA boxes into our area, then I'm guessing they plan to move the B2 tier(expanded basic) of channels to digital only, consistant with other areas of the nation: Chicago, Portland OR immediatly come to mind. I think they announced this in Seattle as well.

Not sure of timeline, but probably within a few months I would guess...

great news for future HD channels.

This also means that all of the B2 channels now being sent in-the-clear/unencrypted probably isn't a test, for now anyway DTAs will be deployed with privacy mode off, and any TV with a QAM tuner can get B2 cable channels. They have not physically moved those channels to frequencies filtered out by limited basic traps yet... assuming that will happen in the months to come.

I did not get this notice, in Willow Grove. This will render my tivo all but useless and my dvd recorder will also be on it's way out. Not a good sign, imho.

For WG system, it is on the last page of the Jan. bill, either you missed it or didn't get your bill yet.

Well, not all Expd. Basic Digital channels will be in the clear, just the SD, AFAIK.

Sure they haven't moved Expd. Basic SD to filtered out frequencies, they still have Expd. Basic Analog there. They will do so when the Analogs are dropped.

FWIW it seems up here in NNJ they've done some shifting of frequencies. Looks like more QAMs are optimized, filled up to the max 12:1 SD mux instead of being spread apart in 5-6 channels per mux. Also some HD channels seem to have shifted frequencies.

Whatever it is, these DTAs are a great sign for the Freedom Region. In a few months B2 will go digital, and we'll bask in the HD glory that Chicago and Boston have been in for quite a while now.

Must have missed it. I already got and paid the January bill; it's the beginning of yet another "special deal" they gave me when I threatened to go to Fios. Same time frame? Would you mind quoting the relevant passage?

Hi all:

I'm in South Philly and am thinking of dumping my comcast TV+DVR service and just keeping the internet service, and just watching whatever channels Comcast broadcasts in the clear using my TV's QAM tuner. I have read quite a few pages of this thread and I think I'm getting confused between channels broadcast 'in the clear' (meaning channels that you can get with no Comcast subscription at all just by plugging a QAM tuner into the cable jack) and channels broadcast 'unencrypted'. Are they not the same thing? If I were to just get internet service, would I receive anything over QAM, or do I need to subscribe to limited basic? If I do, will my QAM tuner get every channel included in limited basic? Comcast's site is of course useless, it just says "Converter may be required to receive certain channels."

The only channels you can count on are the local ones. All the "cable" channels can go encrypted at anytime, for just a few days or forever. If you can live with 3,6,10....ect great, but don't count on anything else. I played that game for a few months.......got old fast.

Hopefully, I'll get a chance to scan that page later today or tomorrow.

Thanks. The only reason I decided to stay with *c* is that you don't need a box to record most channels. Once that changes I have absolutely no reason not to go with Fios.

After the DTAs are available, word is based on other markets, it's typically another 2-3 mos. until Analog Expd. Basic is discontinued.

'cable-ready' channel assignments changed, but Tribune guide data (read: my TiVo!) not updated ...

MSNBC moved, and clear QAM HD channels for WPVI and WCAU are MIA! This has been for a couple weeks now. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm emailing a 'lineup discrepancy' report to zap2it/tribune right now. Is there anything else I should consider?

Is there a list of the real QAM assignments for WPVI and WCAU?

WPVI and WCAU moved to QAM channels 47.1 and 47.2 respectively. This happened several weeks ago in NE Philly.

Here is the DTA availability notice, on the last page of a bill from Comcast - Willow Grove.

Thanks QZ1

Well I'm one happy dude. I'm glad I subscribed to this thread. I've been straggling along with my HD HOMERUN getting only local affiliates and TBS which were open QAM. Everything else was encrypted. I saw ak3883 post on Jan 17 to rescan for new channels and I couldn't be more satisfied. All the old analog channels that I was still recording on an old Panasonic HD DVR (with much trouble due to it constantly locking up with U99 error) are now being broadcast in open QAM. I wonder how long it will last. TNT, USA, TCM, A&E, TVLAND and tons of others. I'm in Zap 2 It's Comcast - Cable (Kng of Prussa) PA00271:X.

Anyone with an open QAM DVR that hasn't scanned for new channels recently and has Comcast ought to check it out.

It will last for the forseeable future, because they have to be clear-QAM for the DTAs to work. Instead of encryption, Digital Expd. Basic will be filtered out soon, just like Analog Expd. Basic has been. In fact, they will almost certainly move the Digital chs. to the frequencies where the Analog chs. are right now, so they don't have to do anything. Comcast DTAs have a security protocol that could be implemented, if the FCC approves a waiver, then the chs. would be encrypted.

I wonder if they will bother with these DTAs in the city since we've always needed some kind of box to get anything above basic. I know years ago they stopped giving out analog boxes and only give out digital ones even if you only have expanded/digital starter. I'm hoping that they're prepared to do the analog migration in the city at the same time as the suburbs who are getting these DTAs. And I'm really hoping MDU customers will benefit from it as well.

I just moved back to Philadelphia from Boston where they've done things backwards from here. Up there just like here, the city has always required a box and the suburbs haven't, but they decided to go all digital in the city first. It went incredibly well with very few complaints. They have over 100 HD channels and the number is continuing to grow. The suburbs are complaining about the lack of HD, so they're planning to implement the DTA boxes and migrate those systems.

i'm actually a comcast technician in plymnouth meeting so, i should know the answer to this question:
does anybody know if cartoon network comes through in the willow grove system on qam? i know its on 521mhz but i dont know what channel this comes out to on a qam tuner.
btw the dta boxes are on backorder do everybody's tivo will still work for the the next few months at least.
and fios requies a box for every tv.

For all Comcast's systems in this region?
If not, then which service areas?

They are supposed to be available on 10 Feb. for WG system, but there has been no notice on the changeover; that would be at least several mos. away. But, if they can 't start getting those boxes out soon, it would be delayed more than several mos. I would think.

sure glad comcast wont let fios roll into this town. guess they need to pay for that big ugly skyscraper somehow...

(outside of philly)

also quite mad that a LCD TV with a cablecard slot costs about 1k more than a normal HDTV with a cable box. i hate this cable box to death and would not wish it upon any unsuspecting customer. the remote on the other one crapped out, and half of the buttons do not work.

I'm not positive but I seem to recall seeing CN when scanning though the channels. I don't remember the the number. In the 70s or 80s I think. I can take another look tonight. Note that I'm in Doylestown.

Why are dta's going to break tivo's? Is a dta essentially a STB that tunes in one channel?