Chicago, IL - Comcast - Page 21

I totally disagree with this statement! I can quite obviously see a difference between OTA and Comcast's HD! Comcast's HD suffers from artifacting and overblown contrast as compared to OTA (via a Dish 6000). Go Here to see other Chicago local Comcast customers who see a difference as well.

What local HD channels does Comcast have that isn't avalable OTA? I know Comcast doesn't have WGN and a few other OTA channels themselves. If you are tlalking about HSB, Showtime, ESPN-HD etc.. well obviously those are not OTA but you can get more HD on Satellite the Comcast. And it looks better then Comcast as well!

Uh oh, sounds like the groves are off.

I have done side by side comparison between Direct TV and Comcast (HBO/Showtime) and Direct's picture doesn't even compare to the picture from Comcast. Direct is not passing the full signal. As for Dish, I have not had the opertunity to do a side by side yet but I am planing this experiment in the next couple of weeks. (I love that my job lets me do this and I get paid for it ). I think the weak link for Comcast is their box from Motorola. I am not very confident in it's built quality, circuitry, etc... Let's hope that eventually we will be able to get a third party box that will allow programming from the cable co. to get our premium channels.

-bak

Can you please give us break down of what is offered on D* in HD? I would like to know what channels, not including OTA, can be had by Satellite and not by Comcast.
I ask for non OTA since, correct me if I am wrong, D* doesn't actually offer the OTA channels, but rather of means of obtaining them (setting up a separate antenna to the dish, which can decode OTA signals). I can receive those with my OTA receiver. I would like to know what is offered by D* themselves, as if I didn't have the resources to connect the antenna.
And if there are any additional costs for any of the channels.

Comcast:
ESPN-HD
INHD1
INHD2
HBO
Showtime

By Oct.15:
Discovery-HD (and yes, for no extra cost)
two HD channels which have not been announced.

Thanks for the input.

Well Frank, I guess we can disagree then. I did read through several of the post in the thread you started about Comcast being subpar....I don't agree.

I've compared OTA HD and Comcast HD and if there is a difference, it is minimal. I had been watching OTA HD for over a year and a half prior to getting Comcast HD...so it wasn't just a view OTA once and Comcast once and draw my conclusions type of comparison.

KenH did post that it was possible some areas around Chicago were having some problems with Comcast, however, he has also posted on several occasions that there is no difference between Comcast HD and OTA HD. I would have no trouble with you not respecting my opinion, but KenH has been around much longer than I and has probably forgotten more than I'll ever even know about HD and the like...his opinion is one I'd think would carry some weight.

And I did not say that Comcast had locals that you couldn't get OTA...I said there are "several Comcast HD channels that are available OTA". If you are not sure which channels I'm referring to, then read SamR's last post...he defined them nicely.

Tom

Note that I'm most definitely a layman type of TV viewer...I'm a carpenter by day and a HD fan by night. My comparisons are nothing more that sitting down and watching and deciding which I like best. I don't have any equipment and I don't have the critical eye that some on these boards seem to have. I can however tell if one picture on my display looks better than another picture on my display (57" RPTV).

Guys I am eagerly awaiting what is to come on the 15th of this month.

Even if we just got Discovery-HD, it would be a godsend. We are truely lucky to have all of the channels we are getting from comcast at this time. Even though the service is horrible (when the consumer knows more about the service than the CSRs, thats a problem IMHO), we are still getting quite a lineup.

Any more info on these possible channel additions?

If it is Discovery HD, and the HD Net channels, that would be the best possible thing ever.

SamR, where did you hear about a Oct. 15 roll-out of Discovery HD?
I have been told that we will get HDNet, HDNet Movies, and Discovery HD on Oct. 16. It would be great to have a press release making it official.

I am a current Directv subscriber and I'm sorely tempted to switch to Comcast. I've a projector in the basement and I'm thinking of replacing my 13 year old Mits in the family room with something with HDTV.

I think its a little ridiculous that each HDTV requires an outlay of a few hundred bucks for a tuner with DTV. On top of that, you have to pay extra for their HDTV package, and you can't even get HiDef local channels.

Anyway, my question is this: has anyone been able to wrangle a deal out of Comcast to switch from Directv?

Mike,
Comcast does have a satellite "buy back" deal going where they will give you $25 a month off your bill for 16 months if you switch to their service. I'm having mine installed today, and they will take the satellite receiver with them, so make sure you have an old Diretv receiver around and don't give them your HD unit if you make the switch.

Bill M.

I just received the letter that Comcast will be upgrading the network in Lake in the Hills 'soon' (whatever that means). I am currently a D* customer, and I definetly plan on switching, as long as the 'basic' channels do not look horrible.

$25 off for 16 months is a great deal. I'll gladly give them an old Hughes receiver.

The signal Comcast delivers to you is derived from the OTA transmitter signal, it is not the original full bit rate video/audio leaving the studio that they are encoding to their QAM format. It would be great if this were so, but it isn't. That will probably change a few years down the road, tho.

The ATSC encoding process takes a video signal that in 1080i format has a raw bit rate from the studio of around 1500Mbits and compresses it to around 18Mbits. That's a lot of compression, and it produces a signal that is surprisingly good for display on a home receiver. A program producer would NOT want to use this heavily compressed ATSC signal for further recording, editing and duplication and then have it recompressed again. The results would generally be awful.

Comcast is not distributing our HD signals the same as they leave the transmitter. They are using QAM encoding to optimize the bandwidth of their cable systems. I do know they "convert" the ATSC transmitted signal to their format using a digital MUX. But I am fairly sure the algorithms are not totally transparent. There is going to be some deteriorations or artifacts at times. It is not a lossless process. Just as in the previous paragraph, you are compressing an already compressed signal, tho not in the exact same way.

If you have OTA reception issues you cannot overcome to get a decent OTA signal, Comcast will provide a very good signal that the majority of viewers will not object to. And DTV via either OTA or Comcast is definitely cleaner (less graininess) and more detailed than NTSC can ever hope to achieve.

I appreciate the comments Bob and appreciate you participating in this forum (and respect your opinion as well).

Just to be clear, if you reread the entire sentence rather than just the quote you pulled from my post you would see that it is not me who said they are the same. I suggested that the differences are minimal at best (and even so, that is just my opinion).

I posted as best I could remember, without quoting, what another member (highly respected as well) had posted on more than one occasion in more than one thread. If I was wrong in my recollection, I'm sure I'll be reminded.

Tom

Could you elaborate a bit, since this relates to the signal quality passed along to the cable companies?

How much prefiltering, if any, do you and other stations typically use before final MPEG-2 encoding? I understand dynamic MPEG-2 processing occurs within each macroblock, 'tossing out' moving details to achieve this compression at ~18 Mbps. One reads newer MPEG-2 encoders do a better job than earlier models, but I see little discussion how this might relate to overall 1080i resolvable detail.

For example, I understand CBS requires Panasonic HD D5 tapes for network broadcasts. I assume, as you indicate, your station is receiving standard-format 1080i signals with 1920 horizontal pixels. But, HD D5 recordings, of telecined films (not test patterns) at least, are limited to less than 1300-pixel horizontal resolution, according to testing recently reported by Joe Kane and confirmed by member sspears here . I assume this means 1920 horizontal pixels are still present, but compression has filtered higher frequencies that create resolvable (contrasting) details above 1300-pixel resolution. That would leave continuous unresolvable tones where resolvable detail once existed. Most home displays can't present 1080i's limiting horizontal resolution of ~1700 resolvable pixels (sampled cameras, telecines), but some can.

So it appears, unless the source is an uncompressed Philips D6 tape, with ~1.2 Gbps payload video , or a live HD broadcast, many 1080i stations are limited to <1300-pixel resolution, or perhaps 1440-pixel resolution if a Sony HDCAM is the source. With either compressed-tape source, I assume there's a final filtering during decompression in home STBs, reducing horizontal resolution perhaps an additional ~7-15% (see ATSC tests ).

Since live 1080i broadcasts appear similar to HDCAM-based programming such as the PBS loop or Rudy Maxa travelogues, can anything be derived from that in terms of typical station filtering? (My CBS/PBS sources, via Time Warner Cable, don't involve subchannels, and believe my 9-inch-CRT display can resolve 1600-1700 pixels). --John

Is there anymore info on those new channels coming Oct 15 or 16?

Some bad news. I initially was given this info from a personal friend at Comcast. I also spoke with the HDTV Project Manager at Comcast who stated that she was not at liberty to say. (I presume any negotiations are still in the infantile stage) I today spoke with a CSR who stated they have been told of some new channels, but nothing as far as dates.

FrankS, can you please advise?

[quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by FrankS
What local HD channels does Comcast have that isn't avalable OTA? I know Comcast doesn't have WGN and a few other OTA channels themselves. If you are tlalking about HSB, Showtime, ESPN-HD etc.. well obviously those are not OTA but you can get more HD on Satellite the Comcast. And it looks better then Comcast as well!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUOTE]Originally posted by SamR.
Can you please give us break down of what is offered on D* in HD? I would like to know what channels, not including OTA, can be had by Satellite and not by Comcast.
I ask for non OTA since, correct me if I am wrong, D* doesn't actually offer the OTA channels, but rather of means of obtaining them (setting up a separate antenna to the dish, which can decode OTA signals). I can receive those with my OTA receiver. I would like to know what is offered by D* themselves, as if I didn't have the resources to connect the antenna.
And if there are any additional costs for any of the channels.

Comcast:
ESPN-HD
INHD1
INHD2
HBO
Showtime

Thanks for the input. [/quote]

Any word on VOD, or DVR?

Any confirmation on "HDNet, HDNet Movies, and Discovery HD on Oct. 16"?

Any idea when WGN-HD will be available on Comcast also?

No new channels today. They did send a firmware/sowtware update last night (02.52 - 51.42)

V

Just curious, do you know anything that was changed or any visible difference? I haven't checked my box yet.

My box did reset itself last night, but I didn't have time to check what might be different. I did watch CBS HD last night. Was it just me or was the CSI PQ more "digitized" and less crisp and clean than it usually is?

Probably a dumb question, but how can you tell the box reset overnight when it is always on. Do you have to go into the menu or is there an indication on the front display?

I never turn my box off. When I went to use my tv last night, as soon as I hit a button on my remote the cable box started doing "something". It shut off for a couple seconds, then came back on and was still doing "something" for a few seconds. When I got control back all of the channel guide information said something like "will display soon".

I thought it was happening to give us the new HD channels. I didn't see anything new.

The only new feature, I think, is in the menu, under setup, there is Timers tab. Which I guess allows you to tell you box to turn to specified channel at specified time. I think that is the only new feature that I have noticed. Also, SD channels quality seems a little bit better.

V

My guess is that the "Timers" tab would likely have to do with compatibility with a PVR or Tivo. The DCT2000 digital cable box has a 9 pin connector to interface with a Tivo recorder. I haven't checked the DCT5100 (too difficult to get it out of the cabinet) but I would think it has the same controller connector.

The new Timers function probably has a lot to do with that interface for recording from the box and recording start and stop times.

Mike K.

did anyone noticed that HBO-D and SHOw-D now are named HBO-E and SHOW-E instead? or am i just crazy?

HBO-E and SHO-E are just means HBO east and Showtime East forwhatever reason (or maybe it varies by market) they have selected the HD movie channels to be the same programming as the East channels

i know that, but i swear the used to be named hbo-hd and show-hd, just wondering if anyone else noticed a change on tv guide or if i am imagining things and this is how they have always been named

My HBO was HBOHD....I haven't checked in the past few days to see if mine has been changed as well.

Tom