Chicago, IL - Comcast - Page 247

Comcast: The most HD choices*

* Unless you want to watch HDNet, HDNet Movies, or dozens of other HD channels that they don't/won't/refuse to carry.

Saw this in my latest bill:
On 11/4, Cook County Access launches on Basic service on channel 900.
On 11/20, Ovation (182) moves from Sports/Entertainment to Digital Classic.
On 12/1, MOJO (174) shuts down.
An 12/8, Versus HD goes full time on 174. Golf HD goes full-time on 199.
On 12/9, Local Origination HD is added to Digital Starter on channel 285.

I really think Comcast needs to start concentrating on quality instead of quantity. I understand that its an important marketing strategy to have more (or think you do) than the competition, but when it looks as horrid as it does, then the game is over. For instance, I watched the Blackhawks game Saturday night on WGN-HD via Comcast. Granted WGN doesn't have the prettiest HD signal in Chicago, but the visual quality of the game was horrible. The Mpeg-2 tiling during any graphical transition was completely unacceptable! I would never put my name to HD of that quality.

Did you compare it to an OTA feed? That's the only way to truly figure out if Comcast is the one causing quality issues or if there are other issues with WGN's feed.

I agree that there are a number of Comcast HD channels that are of marginal quality at best. What irritates me more is that there are several good HD channels (HDNet/HDNet movies/MGM come to mind) that they don't carry and don't seem to be making much of an effort to ever add.

I don't expect/want Comcast to carry every HD channel that's available on satellite - but considering how much Comcast costs per month, we definitely deserve more than what we're currently getting. Boneheaded moves like replacing Mojo (admittedly junk, but at least the programming was 100% HD) with a full time version of a B-rate mostly upconverted SD sports network like Versus does not help.


I've compared live sports broadcasts OTA versus Comcast on a number of occasions. WGN-HD is the absolute worst and looks every bit as bad OTA as it does via Comcast.

WMAQ is not much better -- although I've noticed that the macroblocking on this season's version of Sunday Night Football is less obnoxious than last season. The edges of the macroblocks are now blurred a bit so they tend to blend in more to the adjacent block. I don't know if this is a consequence of the addition of 5-3 or if it's an intentional attempt to disguise the macroblocking. Either way, it doesn't look any worse on Comcast than it does OTA but is an improvement over last season.

On the other hand, Fox and WCIU look equally good on both OTA and Comcast. CBS looks outstanding (yes, I'm one of the dozen or so viewers that can actually pick up WBBM-HD OTA).

You probably missed this message regarding Comcast and HDNet.

One thing to remember is that Comcast owns Versus. Versus & Golf were running into situations where both had an HD program to show, usually Versus lost out & Golf took over. I'm all for splitting & carrying both of these. MGM is supposed to be added in the city 10/15. I have heard that there is an agreement with HDNet, but i'd bet Comcast tries to to a quasi "national" rollout of that & get some publicity.

I did miss that. And while it's certainly a step in the right direction, I'll only believe it when it shows up as a working channel on my cable box.

Comcast announced back in May (http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/05/c...nds_mgm_hd.php) that they had reached an agreement to carry MGM-HD, too. Per Sparkman's post above, it will finally be added in the city on Oct 15. But as I live in the suburbs, I'm not holding my breath as to when it will be available here.

Maybe I've just got bad timing but it seems like all I ever see on Versus is a lot of upconverted SD rodeo and cage fighting (my apologies if you're a rodeo and/or cage fighting fan).

A national rollout of HDNet would be a pleasant surprise.

Per the Comcast HDTV thread in programming:


VERSUS HD PROGRAMMING
NHL
World Extreme Cagefighting
PAC-10 College Football
Tour De France
(new in 2009)

Now I'm not a big fan of any of these, but I can understand peoples frustration when these were blacked out in HD because Golf HD had programming on.

No and I wish I could have. I have never seen their DT signal that bad. In fact, I dont think I've seen anyones DT that bad. I'll have to catch the next hockey game on WGN via OTA.

Andy, what is the local origination HD that will be on channel 285 starting 12/9? Will it HDNet, Travel HD, or FearNet HD?

Probably CSN+ games in HD.

Just for fun I plugged my Coax into my LCD TV and did a channel search. I got basic cable with about 9 HD channels. I subscribed to Comcast a while ago for internet only and for some reason I get this basic cable. I wish I would've known earlier so I can watch Bears games in HD.

The Bears' games have been in widescreen SD on FOX the last couple of weeks anyway, so you didn't really miss much.

I followed your advice and purchased the RCA amp last night from Best Buy. I did it pretty late so I didn't spend a lot of time watching, but so far so good. I'm hoping this reduces the picture drop-outs, weird pixellation, and the eternity it takes for the picture to settle after changing the channel. Looks like it might be a lot better.

I've also noticed that the picture from the Moto box into my Series 2 TiVo takes a bit longer to settle after changing the channel than the feed directly to the TV from the box.

All I know is what the bill said. I'm guessing it could be HD overflow from CSN, public access, etc...

WLSD1, 2, and 3 as well as WGNDT and Tube (all carried on 699 MHz) have been down all evening in the Wilmette / Evanston area. Just in case anyone else was wondering "is it just me?"

Has anyone else been receiving some strange DD audio the last week or so? The audio sounds almost robotic and my receiver keeps repeating DD5.1 as if there is something wrong with the metadata. I use ClearQAM with the audio passed to the receiver using an optical cable. Only happens on digital channels with DD sound. I'm thinking it's just something on my end (probably the dirt cheap cable I bought) but just wondering if anyone else has noticed anything.

I'm in Lake Forest, not sure what system that's on.

What brand of TV? Some Samsung's have been known to suffer from 'robot audio'.

All NFL games are in HD this year.

It's October 15 now, and they're working in Chicago Area 2.  ESPNews and Toon Disney are in 720p like other Disney-owned HD channels, while Planet Green is in 1080i like other Discovery-owned HD channels.  Biography is in 720p, and MGM is in 1080i.

Comcast Chicago HD Stations

This is a copy of the listing I maintain in the Comcast Cable TV thread on DSLReports.com.

Channels slated for addition today confirmed. Added updates per Comcast mailing. Corrected channel names per messages in this thread (thanks). Channels listed in italics are available only in the city of Chicago (those of us in the 'burbs will have to pay the same but miss out ).


01 - 169 NFL Network
02 - 171 AMC
03 - 173 ESPN
04 - 174 MOJO (gone Dec. 1; changes to Versus effective Dec. 8)
05 - 175 History
06 - 176 TLC
07 - 177 Sci-Fi
08 - 179 HGTV
09 - 181 Food Network
10 - 183 WCIU (Independent)
11 - 184 WPWR (My Network)
12 - 185 Showtime
13 - 186 HBO
14 - 187 WLS (ABC)
15 - 188 WMAQ (NBC)
16 - 189 WBBM (CBS)
17 - 190 WFLD (Fox)
18 - 191 WTTW (PBS)
19 - 192 WGN (CW)
20 - 195 Cinemax
21 - 196 Starz
22 - 197 Disney
23 - 198 ABC Family
24 - 199 Versus/Golf (changes to Golf fulltime effective Dec. 8)
25 - 200 Comcast SportsNet
26 - 203 ESPN2
27 - 204 TNT
28 - 205 HD Theater
29 - 206 National Geographic
30 - 207 Universal
31 - 208 A&E
32 - 209 Palladia
33 - 212 Science
34 - 216 CNN
35 - 218 Discovery Channel
36 - 219 TBS
37 - 221 USA
38 - 224 Animal Planet
39 - 227 Hallmark Movie Channel
40 - 231 ESPNews
41 - 234 NHL Network
42 - 235 NBA TV
43 - 237 Speed
44 - 256 Big Ten Network
45 - 261 Planet Green
46 - 263 Encore
47 - 264 Fox Business Network
48 - 265 Fox News Channel
49 - 266 CNBC
50 - 267 FX
51 - 269 Biography
52 - 270 Weather Channel
53 - 278 Bravo
54 - 279 Fuse
55 - 280 Independent Film Channel (IFC)
56 - 281 WE
57 - 282 QVC
58 - 283 Toon Disney
59 - 284 MGM
60 - 285 To Be Announced (coming Dec. 9, local origination, maybe Comcast SportsNet PLUS?)

Does anyone have a list of the QAM stations available?

MY WLSD channels and WGN have been out as of sometime last night on Clear-QAM. These are working fine on my TiVo HD with cable card though... Strange.
I'm in woodridge, btw.


This might have something to do with the new channels coming out. I'll try a re-scan tonight.

I heard this during the bears game sunday. Very "tinny" audio on DD.

Did you see the feed for the game? it looked horrible. I watched part of the game on CBS later and it was like night and day. I don't have an antenna so I couldn't compare comcast's feed to the original, but to my eyes, the FOX feed was either compressed to hell or streched sd feed.

Being replayed tonight on NFL Network @ 8:30. Watch their HD feed on 169 & see if you notice a difference.

It is indeed a Samsung.

:S

Did you get it during any other games? I heard it during the CBS games and during the Sunday Night NBC game.