Chicago, IL - Comcast - Page 223

For INBAND channels, the frequency given by the box is the center of the 6MHz allocation (analog 2 is 54-60, box shows 57MHz). It is always a whole number (57.000MHz). The only time fractions show up is for the OOB (Out-Of-Band, where the guide data and other forms of data are read) and Upstream (where your box talks back.) OOB is typically 75.25MHz, which is in a 4MHz gap between channels 4 and 5. The Upstream is a very low frequency, such as 9.056.

Converting frequencies to their analog numbers is very tricky. They are not sequential:
2-4,5-6,95-99,14-22,7-13,23-94,100+

I'm getting fed up with this DVR crap I'm pay for with Comcast. AGAIN I record something in HD and it records the Non HD channel. I then recorded an episode of American Chopper and I go to hit Play and nothing happens. It comes up with a screen to Delete Recording or Don't Delete Recording. Is there any discount I can get for this crap? This has to be the worst technology I've ever used.

Do other people have frequent audio and video dropouts on Sci-Fi HD and USA HD? Most of the HD channels seem pretty solid, especially the major networks, but some break up now and then and a few almost make me want to switch to the SD feed.

Go get a Tivo. You will never be able to look at a regular cable DVR again.

Mine studders at least once a week on HD channels and I have to un plug the stb to fix it.

andyross63,

Thanks for the information.

Here in Schaumburg, SciFi, USA and Discovery are all tripled onto one frequency. I've heard Comcast is using a form of compression (they call it something else) to do this. It's obvious that during fast movements it cannot handle it and starts stuttering or showing major breakup. Worse, this seems to affect the other two. So far, Discovery only seems to stutter, but I haven't seen it pixelate.

In some other forums, people in Michigan and elsewhere have also seen these issues. It's possible it's uplink issues (USA and SciFi are both part of NBC/Universal). We'd need some satellite users to compare against. Another possibility is Comcast is using a master site to compress them, then distributing that feed nationally.

For the audio issues, if you have a DVR, you can try one of these 'fixes':
Pause for a few seconds, then play so you are buffering
Use Review to jump back 15 seconds, then LIVE again.

I think with the new software we got in November that LIVE is pretty much LIVE (anybody with both a DVR and non-DVR to compare?) I've noticed that when I do a pause on many channels, it seems to back up a second before finally pausing. I think when you then go back to LIVE it's actually the old 0.5-1 second buffering.

USA HD and SCI-FI HD are both fine via DirecTv. No video or audio problems at all.

Sci-fi=audio Dropouts Every 30 Secs To A Min.
Usahd - Horrific Choppiness - Especially During Wrestling Last Week
JOLIET AREA

After improving some here on the northside of the city (Lakeview), SciFi is horrible again, audio drop outs can be as frequent as 15-30 seconds. Absolutely unwatchable now. I had to finally turn to SciFi SD to watch Enterprise last night. What in the world is Comcast doing? They have to know about it; people have reported it across the whole service territory. Even a message to subscribers acknowledging there's a problem and that they're working on it would be nice.

Come on AT&T, speed up that rollout and show me what you got. I've never been so tempted to make a switch as I am now. It's one thing if this happens to a useless channel like A&EHD (just how many times can you watch Law & Order?), but don't mess with my SciFi.

I just submitted a feedback for poor picture at:

http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Cus...ContactUs.html

I am on the north side of Chicago and my SciFi HD is and has been coming in perfectly!

cause there are no 1080p broadcast sources..
only recent blu ray and HD DVD players (or computers) can do 1080p, and that's assuming the title is encoded in a manner that allows the DVD player to reformat the video stream and reconstruct it as a 1080p signal.
That being said, unless you have a huge TV or are sitting too close, you probably won't even notice the difference between the formats, especially with Comcast HD compression..

I'm in Oak Forest and Sc-Fi HD was fine last night as well.

Anyone else have their cable go out at about noon?.......looks like it might be out for 12-24 hours......it just came back on.

If you have the DVR, let it play for a minute, then do a Review, then Live. If that doesn't fix it, just pause, wait a few seconds, then play so it is now buffered.

This fixes the audio problem, but the video is due to Comcast compression to cram 3 HD's into one frequency. The audio is probably a side effect of that, too.

All broadcast mpeg video is compressed. Then are then "encoded" for broadcast over the analog airwaves. What this does is take the digital signal and modify it to travel over the analog radio waves. Over the air uses ATSC, which allows for a data stream of 19 megabits per second. But cable uses QAM, versions of which can support 40 mbps per channel. So putting three HD channels into one QAM channel isn't really compressing it too much. That's why cable wants to end analog just as quick as they can, because they can get all kinds of content into that bandwidth.

I read a study that, in a perfect world, cable tv can support basically an infinite number of channels. Since the number of channels actually being watched in any neighborhood is fairly small, those channels would be "always on". Then when a couple of viewers want to stray, those channels would be turned on by the headend. Sort of like the OnDemand feature. Basically, the math works out that there's always going to be enough bandwidth to support the choices of the neighborhood. Pretty neat.

WCIUHD is up and running.............183 here in Glendale Heights........

I am not getting SCIFI HD. I only have Digital Starter with "first tier?" HD channels. Do I have to pay more for SCIFI HD?

I also wish HGTV HD came in under this "first tier?"

Here too. Style has moved from 183 to 118.

Both SCIFI & HGTV are in Digital Classic. $14.99/mo higher than Digital Starter. Digital Preferred is $1 more than Digital Classic & includes 16 more channels than Digital Classic.

BOOOOOOO!

Thanks, we have it in Chicago (Lakeview) now, too.

I just switched to Comcast from Directv, and I suddenly miss my Tivo. It's only been a few days, but I'm not too happy with the Motorola HD-DVR functionality.

Couple of dumb questions:
If I were to buy an HD-Tivo, what models should I look for?
But then I'd have to pay Tivo a monthly fee, correct?
And would I then downgrade to a Comcast HD non-DVR set top box?


thx

You could buy either the TiVo Series 3 or TiVo HD.
Yes you would have to pay TiVo a monthly fee.
You would downgrade to a CableCard which is far cheaper than any of the boxes.

And I'm assuming the CableCard cancels out the use of features like On Demand?

I love that we have WCIU now (can't wait to watch the Cubs in HD), but I am waiting for Animal Planet. Has anyone seen it appear yet? I would love to see the Puppy Bowl in HD!

I am located in Uptown, haven't had any issues with Sci-Fi, but Discovery HD was acting up last night during a rerun of Dirty Jobs(juttering and pixelating), I figured it was the weather. I have a 3416 box hooked up via HDMI .

WCIU-DT is at 681MHz (analog 105), shared with WPWR-DT. Mojo was moved from 681Mhz to 729MHz (analog 113), shared with NFL-HD.

With the two recently dropped analogs, the removal of the western feeds tomorrow, and AP-HD, I'll probably have to do a full rescan next month.

I went AT&T Oakbrook Terrace show-room to see the demo of U-verse. It looks great. The "interactive menu" is awesome. The bad news is that it is not yet available in Naperville.

Does anyone know when it might come in Naperville area?

It was here in Downers Grove too, but it wasn't in hd. I'm assuming cause the Bulls' were away?