Seattle, WA - Comcast - Page 159

Comcast Plans Valentine's Day Launch of National Dating on Demand Video Personals

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050210/comcast_dating_1.html

(Might be good for laughs.)

Thamks for the report, rverginia

The audio level problem was caused by the interruption in the bitstream as the video ( and audio) was switched between sources. i.e. local vs network, and also any very loud audio that was caused by bumping the microphone. KOMO has installed an audio processor that puts out a constant digital audio bitstream regardless of the input. This should resolve the drastic audio level changes that have been observed.

Don

I've noticed it's gone in evening programs as well, lost didn't have any issues, nor others I've watched...thanks KOMO

I'm pleased to hear someone else had this type of problem. I got the first three min. of Masterpiece Th. and then the bar took me to the last minute - dead loss. No idea why, but you and I so far are the only ones reporting this. Luckily for me the show was repeated, found it by search, that worked fine.

I had one show, recorded in the middle of the night, that, when I checked the program summary in the MyDVD listing, said something like 'the entire program was not recorded due to a power outage or a system problem.' And, about 5 minutes was missing from the middle of the show.

You know, bored the other night, I came across the Dating On Demand thing and looked at a few of the women on there; is this a joke? Or are women that good looking actually trying this for a date?! Didn't check out the guys, but I am SO glad I'm not "out there" anymore!

Sorry, but you are mistaken, I had the same audio problems as usual during this week's Lost. Although I have to admit, I am still not sure whether they are caused locally or transmitted from KOMO.

Actually this was the first time I haven't experienced problems with audio in "Lost".

And my first experience with CBS HD went pretty well with "CSI: New York" except for the minute or two of no signal coming back from commercial.

Question about Comcast reception using HDTV with QAM Tuner.

I have a friend who just installed a new Hitachi LCD HDTV with OTA/QAM tuners and a Cable Card slot. He has Comcast BASIC cable (for $13/month).

Before he bought the TV, I told him he should be able to receive unencrypted local DTV channels from Comcast, regardless of whether he subscribed to their digital package or not. Six different people at Comcast told him otherwise.

He hooked up the TV and it works for most local DTV channels via Comcast. In fact, the TV somehow knows to map most of the digital channels to their OTA equivalents, e.g., KOMO-DT is mapped to 4-1, KING-DT to 5-1, etc. For KIRO-DT, he gets it on 84-1 instead of being mapped to 7-1.

I don't know how the TV determines channel mapping, but I do know it happened automatically for him--he did not have to make any entries to set it up that way.

His problem is with KCTS-DT. He gets 9-1 (simulcast of analog 9). He can tune 9-2 and 9-3 but does not see any programming (I told him about the 5 PM switch from 9-2/9-3 to 9-5 HD in the OTA world). But he can't seem to find 9-5 or whatever KCTS-HD might be identified as. He was trying after 5 PM. He is going to try a new channel scan after 9 PM to see if that brings it in.

Anyone have any insight on how/whether he will be able to tune and watch the KCTS HD subchannel? He seems able to understand all I've said here and he is comfortable with the operation of the TV.

At this point he is not using a Cable Card, nor should he have to for HD locals reception.

I have had this problem several times as well. I was recording the Encore presentations of Battlestar Galactica Tuesday night and one of the episodes was only half recorded, it dropped the last half hour or so. Also, I noticed a "bug" in the software the other night while watching and recording shows. It seems that the box is not smart enough to know that you are already on a channel that is being recorded and then a second scheduled recording starts. For example, I was watching and recording Lost and Alias Wed night and I also had King of Queens scheduled to be recorded, well, when it was time for KoQ to start, the popup message came up and said that it needed to switch to channel 107 to record the show even though I was watching a channel that was being recorded already so It should have only been using one tuner for that. Does anyone know where we can post bug reports?

Well ABC likes to extend their show times a minute or two, and that might be throwing off the 6412 (I have to set a manual 8-10pm recording for Lost and Alias, otherwise it will not record CSI: NY and Law and Order because Alias goes till 10:01pm).

My wife has two shows that she wants to record - Oprah and Oprah after the Show. She has attempted to record Oprah via a season pass and single show recording on standard NBC (05), HD NBC (105) and KONG (06) and for some reason the machine will not do it (insert content filter joke here). I've taken a look, moved the show to priority #1 and still no luck. I have erased the season pass, set the recording back up myself to make sure no conflicts, and it still won't record the shows. Any ideas on why this is? These are the only two shows that won't record properly (insert more jokes here). Thanks in advance for your help.

do you have them set up as 2 different shows? I'm not sure of the schedule, but if 'after the show' occurs after the show (go figure), then set up a season pass on the main show, and add extra time to include 'after the show'. there is a known problem with the 6412 and recording shows that overlap - while this isn't really an overlap, per se, it might be the same problem.

We do have the machine set to record a show directly after Oprah and right before Oprah After the Show, but even given the overlap problem you pointed out I would think that it would record at least Oprah or Oprah After the Show. Wouldn't the machine consistently skip the show that follows another recording or vice versa? I suppose we can make sure that there are no shows set to record that surround either Oprah recording and see if that solves the problem, but then we miss the other shows we want. Is this software that bad?

..and we do have it set up to record them as two different shows (at two different times).

Is anyone receiving the HD subchannel of KCTS (PBS channel 9) from Comcast cable using a QAM tuner (after 5 PM when it is broadcasting)? Or is everyone reading this thread using a Comcast STB instead?

Anyone watching Numbers? I'm having a lag in the audio. Lips move first then sound! Does KIRO scan this forum? My receiver only has the option to further delay the audio so that doesn't help.

Others seeing and hearing this?

Art

Affirmative. I was just flipping through the channels and heard/saw the audio lag during numbers.

I had problems recording Battlestar Galactic last week with the DCT6412 too. It was ok for the first 20 minutes, then it skipped right to the end. There was no indication anything was wrong, but the last 40 minutes were simply missing. It was rerun Tuesday and I checked that morning that it was scheduled to be recorded with no conflicts, but when I checked for it that night, no recording! Fortunately I was able to download the episode with **********. Much better quality too. It's funny that the sole purpose of the Comcast's cable system it to deliver TV shows, yet they're not as reliable and can't do as good a job as a bunch of hackers on the internet who are beset on all sides by hostile lawyers and industry whores like Michael Powell.

My wife using the Tivo to record Oprah is one of the reasons I want to cancel DirecTV.

Dare I say it??? Microsoft software just isn't reliable, yet. Maybe in a few years.

Here's a thread where they discuss the new HD channels on DirecTV. I didn't have enough interest to make it through about 10 posts, but one person was indicating that the sats that converted from Internet use can handle 1500 locals, and future sats in the next couple of years will add 1000 more, plus some national HD channels.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=507704

Does anyone else notice the interlace lines during SD programming on KIRO-DT? HD programming looks great, but the SD programming looks like it needs to be deinterlaced or something. It's especially noticeable when the camera is panning or something is moving horizontally across the screen. I don't see this problem on any other channel. Anyone else see this?

-- Alex

I'm getting OTA of Kiro and the SD looks exactly like you describe (at least for the Illinois basketball game.) So it isn't Comcast. It is either CBS or Kiro with the problem. Not only does the edge of objects have strange interlace artifacts, almost like they are combining the interlaced frames in reverse order, but it also has a flicker like dropped frames.

Since they switched to the golf, it looks fine, but it would be hard to tell because there isn't too much motion compared to basketball.

Budget_HT,
I get KCTS HD on 82-5 after 5PM with both LG 4200A and 3410A. It was gone on my 4200A for a few weeks when Comcast switched channels in my area from 111 to 82 but it reappeared about a week ago when they dropped 82-6. I believe it is also available on 122.

It looks to me like KIRO is doing some kind of squeeze or stretch...because the aspect ratio isn't what quite you'd expect from 4x3 analog channels. A little wider. I wonder if that processing is adding artifacts.

I'd say that's an uninformed cheap shot. Look in the 6412 w/ iGuide thread - where MS is not involved - and you'll see many of these same problems. It would be more fair to say there are bugs to be worked out in this entire "ecosystem": 6412 core hardware, firmware, and low-level OS (Motorola), 6412 application software (either MSTV or iGuide), Head-end hardware & software (whatever Comcast is using there), EPG guide data (tribune or whoever supplies it to Comcast), etc. There are bugs in ALL of these places.

And even with all of these problems there is no way I would be willing to give up my 6412. This is by far the best solution for recording, timeshifting, and pausing HD on cable. For ~10 bucks per month, no upfront costs, I feel I am getting my moneys worth and more!

BTW: Now that I have Kiro, I'm taking down my OTA antenna. One happy camper here.

I have the exact same problem w/ KIRO OTA. It started when they began mangling their SD picture with that slight horizontal stretching and apparent omission of a couple of dozen scan lines from the top of the field.

I'm altogether displeased with KIRO, as of late. The problems are myriad: the botched 480i to 1080i conversions, the moving of the CBS Evening News to 5:30, the Eyewitness News "ticker" appearing for minutes at a time during entertainment programs, the waste of bandwidth that is the "Airport Cam" on 7-2...

Okay, Okay. Sorry. But, it seems like I have seen more bugs in Windows than in other software products. And, certainly more problems than I've seen in the cars I've owned...or just about any other product.

You're right that this is a system of many parts. And, I'll agree that I wouldn't want to give up my 6412. In general, I'd say I'm very happy with it. And comfortable with it, too. In general the problems are what I'd consider minor.