Chicago, IL - Comcast - Page 5

I have had the 5100 box from Comcast for about a week now and it has worked flawlessly until tonight. Tonight I can only get the HD ABC signal and it is noisy/pixellated, HD CBS and NBC nada, no Fox either. All the analog and SD digital cable stations are coming in fine. Since I'm new to this I'm wondering -- is this common? Or do I have some sort of problem?

I've had the 5100 for a couple weeks now and this is the first night I've experienced any problems. As you say, 188, 189 and 190 do not come in... 187 is badly pixilating with massive dropouts. 186, HBO HD, is working fine.

Hope it's fixed soon.

Tom

Guys I've been having that same problem ALL DAY!!!!! I called early today about it and the lady sent a hit out to my box. It didn't fix it right away so she scheduled to have a guy come out tomorrow (Friday). It ended up coming back on (the digital channels) about a half hour later but now it's back to it's antics again.

I'm currently experiencing the exact same problems you two have described. This is getting very frustrating. I've had this box for less than a week. Between this, the flickering problem, and the lack of channels this is definately is turning out to be quite a bumpy road.

Same here too. NBC, CBS, and Fox all don't come in. So it's pretty much a Comcast problem since everybody is experiencing it right?

*edit*
I just noticed that closed captions don't work on any of the digital channels, including the HD channels. It comes in fine on the analog channels and on Ch. 4 analog HBO on the other TV's in the house, so it's I think it's just the digital stations. Btw, I've tried using both the CC decoding from the TV and the Motorola 5100 box, same results. Anyone else notice this too?

I'm trying to stay optimistic about this. You never know, they could be testing something and possibly adding Discovery HD back to the lineup. Doesn't hurt to dream right?

I had my HD installed on 5/7 and have only gotten HBO and ABC since the install. No 188 189 190. Comcast has spent considerable time troubleshooting, but no answer yet. They eliminated all possibilities inside, and are still working on it outside. At least HBO and ABC come in very well, tho.

Hope they figure this out soon, I'm anxious to see CSI!

I should add that Comcast's efforts to fix the problem are commendable.
They keep in contact, phone me with status updates, and give me direct line #'s to return calls.

Here's my problem with that. When I called to tell them about the problem yesterday, I asked about the discovery HD channel and the lady didnt know anything about it. In fact, when I mentioned Discovery HD, she started to go on and on about all of the standard def discovery channels they had. Then I reminded her that I meant a high definition discovery channel and she was like "yeah that's something that discovery may come out with sometime in the future, yes... more and more will be turning to HD as time goes by."

Ummmmm... HELLO? It's great to know that these people are well informed.

Ok, I just checked and noticed that NBC, CBS, and Fox are all showing up again but ABC still has pixelation problems. Is that just a Comcast problem or are OTA people noticing this too? And can anybody try closed captions on any digital cable channels (preferable any of the HBO multiplexes) with both the decoding from the TV and the Moto 5100 box and see if either work? Digital channels don't have any CC showing up anymore.

*edit* Another edit, ABC seems fine now.

The pixelation was a Comcast issue - OTA signals were fine last night, but Alien Resurrection kept breaking up on Comcast's feed.

I'm getting closed captions on channel 185 (Showtime-DT, during Street Time), 186 (HBO-DT, during The Wire), 188 (WMAQ-DT, during Law and Order SVU) and 189 (WBBM-DT, during 48 Hours Investigates), but not on Fox nor ABC.

Did you go into the Motorola 5100 setup screen and turn on closed captions? Mine was set to disabled, and I had to turn them on in order for them to show up.

I tried turning on both the CC decoding in the Moto 5100 box and the TV, neither worked. Not even the digital cable channels.

Well my install happened Thursday, and it's mostly good. First, they sent out a guy with only the standard digital boxes, not the hi-def ones, so they had to send out another tech.

He showed up and we went to work. I was installing on two sets, so they got all the right channels set up upstairs, but got my analog and hi-def ONLY downstairs... it was then that their computers went out :-)

So, at this point they can't do the downstairs, so we check the upstairs. All the hi-def channels come in but they ALL pixelate and drop audio a lot. All except ABC. ABC is rock solid and looks great. They checked everything in my house, connections, signals the whole nine. No problems.

So he checked at the pole and got the same results. He said that a tech would come out to the pole today to see what the problem was. I haven't heard anything, but some of the stations are out completely now. [sigh] Getting closer though.

Since the install, I added a brand new TiVo. I have it hooked up via s-video. The problem I'm having is that some of the standard digital stations seem slightly blurry. I know the big screen (65" 16:9 Mitsu) will accentuate flaws, but the blurriness is bothering me. Has anyone else noticed this? Maybe it's just me...

Anyway, still no full hi-def and I got blurriness. I got a ways to go...

Take Care,
Grey

Hey,

I can see all the north siders having fun with Comcast finally going live with HD in Chicago.

Anyone from Chicago Ridge, Palos Heights, Palos Hills area, listening out there? Anything happening out this way? I thought Orland Park was Beta also.

Us South siders need some good news too. *lol*

Nutt

How does the picture look if you change the aspect ratio of your screen so it is not altered? How does the picture look stretched if from a different source?

I have a 58" 16:9 TV and blurry, soft, or simliar terms are appropriate. You get used to it. What's difficult is when you were just watching a HD broadcast and then switch back to a stretched picture. It's really awful.

I'm in Justice, IL and received a letter stating that the area I'm in will officially be offered HD-Cable 6.10.03.
AND, they will be adding WTTW-HD (Ch. 191) by 6.5.03!!!

You just made my day!!!!!!!!!!

Too bad WTTW rarely offers any HD other than their demo loop.

I also received my letter stating 6/10/03. Did you notice that CBS is not on the list? (at least on my letter) Looks like they traded CBS for PBS?

What is shown on the PBS demo loop?

And dwk, this is a letter from Comcast? What else did it say?

Yep, its from Comcast.
Sorry, wish I could scan it in, but scanners dead...

I have been a beta tester for HDTV ( although I still only get HBO and ABC, they are diligently working on getting the rest working).

The letter says that the official launch date for the Chicago market is 6/10/03. It says I will have to start paying the $5 fee for the box but there is no additional charge for the HD channels at this time.
I need to let them know that I want HD before 7/1 or they will cancel my service. They also said I do not have to pay an install fee.

They list these channels

185 Sho 186 HBO 187 ABC 188 NBC 190 FOX 191 PBS.


Anyone else get a letter listing the channels? If so, is CBS listed on yours?

Funny, in the small print at the bottom of the letter it says 'an HDTV premium may apply'

Looks like they are positioning to charge for HD?

Just took a look at today's mail. Received the same letter. I also noticed the omission of CBS (189) from the lineup. While I am glad to be getting Channel 11 added (they have some wonderful demo loops, but little esle to offer) I am very upset about losing CBS. They had far and away the best HD programming. I've become a big fan of CSI and CSI: Miami since the HD was installed.

From what I understand, CBS was being provided through an old arrangement with AT&T. Comcast has been working to finalize an agreement with CBS, but I guess these things take time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will get it worked out in the near future. I'm also hoping they get WGN HD added. I'm sure we will be getting information in the next couple of weeks about some HD broadcasts (the Cubs\\Sox series is coming up, seems like a logical choice).

I had heard a few weeks ago, from a reliable soure, that there will be more channels added in late June. Let's hope it goes beyond the letter we received today.

Mike K.

This is not a local Comcast issue, it is a corporate issue. I believe we are the only ones in the country receiving CBS HD via cable. Nationally Comcast does not have an agreement with CBS. They have been negotiating this but have not come to an agreement. We were riding in on the old AT&T agreement that had something to do with the interference issue in the downtown area.

I believe this will be resolved at some point, hopefully sooner than later. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that they just leave it alone for a while.

Mike K.

It would be great to see this in HD again, the game from last year was excellent. However, an engineer at WGN recently told me that they would not be doing any games of the series in HD...at least he said it was very unlikely that they would.

Tom

Wow. If they got rid of CBS, I would be pissed.

Cant you get ALL the local HD channels through satellite? PLUS all of the other available ones?

Is it just me or does cable have no real benefits over satellite?

You CAN NOT get any of the local HD channels over satellite because there simply is not enough bandwidth for even a small number of major U.S. markets. Echostar carries the east coast CBS HD feed, so I suppose technically one could state there is *1* local feed being carried in the ehtire nation. I'm not an Echostar customer but I think even on the west coast they just have the CBS east feed.

Cable has lots of benefits over satellite like more bandwidth (assuming you're on modern cable system), more bandwidth potential, no interruption to signal during heavy cloud cover, no fixed requirement to have a box and pay a feed for every connection, no wife acceptance factor, the ability to receive local emergency broadcast/severe weather alerts no matter how bad the weather is, etc. There are also lots of negatives that I won't rehash here.

I would gladly dump satellite and return to cable. As it stands I rarely watch SHO HD, HBO HD, and HDNet because I have no way to record them. I frequently watch the local HD broadcasts because I can record them with my HiPix. Sometimes I even switch to the digital but non-HD broadcasts to improve picture quality over the soft satellite signal (especially when stretched for my widescreen TV).

Satellite and cable can not compete equally IMHO. I think most people switch to satellite out of distaste with the local cable company but would be willing to switch back if their issues were addressed. (For sokme this is poor service, poor picture quality, or in my case lack of HD channels.)

There are pros and cons to both systems. Neither is perfect, especially when you factor in HD availbility and potential of HD availbility.

Just received a letter from Comcast looks like my free days are close to over. On July 1st it is going to cost me 5.00 to rent the HD box ......very cheap I thinnk. They also will be adding PBS station who cares not me sure would like to see ESPN HD or HDNET or Dis HD back NOT a PBS staion or Drop FOX who cares about that station

Does anyone know definitely if they will or will not be carrying CBS HD??It is the ONLY reason I would add Comcast since I cannot get CBS via OTA.

Thanks

Dunno what happened, but today all of my hi-def stations are rock solid. Maybe the tech did something afterall. Now I just have to get used to the soft picture coming through the TiVo...

I'm finally a true member of the hi-def community. Thanks to all of you for the help (and kipp jones especially for kindly answering PM's a month ago.)

Take Care,
Grey

Dunno what kind of feed they get, but tonight not much is rock solid. Getting a lot of pixelization and dropouts myself. Wonder what happened in one day?

The hockey game looks magnificent on ABC however, and no drops there at all...

Take Care,
Grey