Pittsburgh, PA - Comcast - Page 2

I currently have a Channel Master Suburban Advantage on a rotor on my roof top. It is has a UHF distance rating of 30 miles/vhf distance of 45 mi. I currently get all the analog pgh stations more clearly than my Comcast cable presents which I only use for cable only stations. I see that there are UHF antennas rated further in miles. Does that seem as though it would be necessary to get the digital locals?
joe

I guess the grass isn't always greener on the digital side of the spectrum! Maybe more a chartreuse.
joe

Well it's being installed today (Thurs) between 12-4pm. Right now, I have OTA, so I'm curious to see if the picture quality will be comparable.

I have a Mits 65807 w/ RGBHV input and the Mot 5100 has component output for the HDTV hookup which usually requires a transcoder. I asked the CSR about the installation because I didn't want to waste half my day waiting for them to arrive and are unable to install it. I was assured by Comcast that they will have all the connections needed for installation on any TV. We'll see!!

Rich

My installation was scheduled for next Saturday, but they called and then visited my home yesterday to do "game planning." I need a new undergrand drop using a higher grade cable than what is in place. The crew should be here in a day or two. I hope it rains so that my lawn will soften up a bit.

I'll be using the dish buy back program worth $400 in credits. Goodbye Charlie, promises of new HD service can only hold me for so long. I sure do hope that Comcast works out completely because this is called burning your bridges!

Just a tidbit of info. A co-worker had his Motorola 5100 installed yesterday afternoon. He says the HD content is already active now (well ahead of the 15th). He briefly watched the PBS demo loop and some ABC and Showtime last night. Didn't say anything about ESPN. He lives near Churchill and says the HD channels numbers are in the 800 range. He needed to reset some defaults on the box to tell it he had a 16:9 TV, etc.

What the heck? Just for kicks I entered my address in Cranberry (16066) and to my surprise it didn't say Comcast wasn't available. 2 cable systems can't use the same physical cable can they?

Yes, but Armstrong is dragging their feet on ESPN-HD, HDNets, and Discovery. I know there is no cable competition and it's just a bug in Comcast's site, but it would be pretty fun to make an easy switch like that.

Yeah Armstrong is pretty good, and I don't really need ESPN until October 5, so I still have hope.

Mits made a TV that has component inputs but doesn't support HD on those inputs? What were they smoking when they designed that?!

I had to delete the earlier post because I had brain freeze while I was writing the previous post.

Well the installer just left and he was 2 hours late.

The installer didn't have a clue about this connection. He said it was the first TV he saw with the RGBHV. I cannot agree with that because he went straight for the component hookups and didn't bother looking at all the inputs on the back of the TV which are clearly labeled with 1080i and 480i/480P. So how would he know if he hooked up someone else wrong, I had to mention to him that the connection he made wasn't going to work. I would say they're programmed to go for the component. Blue to blue red to red green to green. If I was clueless about my TV, in which I'm sure there are alot of people that buy HDTV's that don't have a clue will get screwed. So if you have a Mits TV be aware you need to activate the RGBHV inputs in which the H and V are not used. Change the RGBHV(DTV) port to YPrPb not RGB. I asked if he had any training on HDTV and he said they are on the job training.

He did about 40 installs so far this week. They began installing HDTV boxes on Monday. They ran out of remotes, but they're using regular Digital box remotes. The only difference is the color and a few buttons are moved around.

Also they swapped out one of my other Digital boxes instead of adding one and now they can't add it back. I hope this is worth it.

Sorry agtiny, Mits is not smoking crack, I was for a bit.

Rich

Comcast ad in today's Post Gazette touting next weekend's Steelers game in HDTV! Think it was in the sports section, but not sure.

Ugh, we need to get some sort of confirmation on this. Will it be on KDKA or only on some exclusive Comcast channel? I need to know if I should invite some people over for the game or not.

Heh after seeing the picture quality of today's KDKA production, I'd be happy if they would broadcast in SD. This looks like weak OTA analog in a bad multipath area. KDKA certainly doesn't have the skills to do an HD broadcast.

Man, you're telling me. I'm only watching the game on my old Sony 27" TV today but I noticed how poor the picture is. Lots of video noise.

Well, now that the starters are about done it's time to cut the grass (before any rain comes) and listen to the radio broadcast...

Guys, I can officially tell you the KDKA feed next Saturday will be in HD OTA and on Comcast (I'm working that show).

Mark, any details about how that's possible? KDKA has never done an HD production before, are they outsourcing it or what?

Yeah, the announcer (Bob Pompeani) mentioned that next week's game will be in High-Def. Curious as to what kind of arrangement that is.

We'll need to figure out what channel on Comcast.

I wasn't really listening but heard him say "like looking out a window", so I instantly came here to see who heard what he said. Hope it goes off without a hitch!

I took his comments to mean it would be available to all meaning OTA as well as Comcast.

I'm a new member here and just had my Comcast HDTV installed today. I can't say that I'm all that happy though. Let me explain. Comcast sent out a contracted installer to do the job. He arrived right on time armed with a new Motorola 5100 box, a Comcast "On Demand" universal remote control, and some cheap cables. I planned ahead and picked up some decent cables earlier in the week suspecting that this might happen. The installer told me that he and three other co-workers were doing around 70 to 80 installs per day (total) this week. He said that he didn't think that Comcast thought that HDTV would go over this well. When I asked about future programming he said that he was told that KDKA should be up and running before months end and that WPXI should be onboard next month. He also said that the Steeler game would be on a "separate HDTV channel around the others". I don't know if I take much stock in his word but here's hoping for the best. Anyway back to the install. He really didn't know much about HDTV and confessed that the employees received no training. My gripe is that I had a perfect picture before the install on most channels and after the Motorola HDTV box was installed my picture quality is now poor. Out of the four HDTV channels, only WQED is crystal clear. He said that Comcast was having a lot of problems with the Motorola 5100 boxes(a software problem he thinks) and that all of his installs had poor quality on non-HDTV channels. He said that they are working on it now and will add the new software if that's the case or maybe go to another box if needed. He also advised calling Comcast and arranging a tech to come out and look things over which I just did. Also as part of my gripe, I found out about an hour post install that a second cable box in another room no longer works. It seems that when he switched out the old box, Comcast cut service to both. When I called Comcast, the employee there had me go through the script of re-provisioning to no avail. She also said that employees there were not trained to handle HDTV questions except for the new script that they are to use. Well, a tech will be out on Tuesday and I hope that I can get a better picture. If not, I will need to decide if it is worth having poor picture quality on Non-HDTV channels versus HDTV.
Sorry for the long post, but wanted to tell all of my install and hope to hear from others about theirs.

Thanks for the report Bert. A couple things:

Motorola DCT5100 product information

FAQ (includes information on firmware versions, etc. -- maybe check what version yours is vs. what the latest is)

It would be great, but I seriously doubt we will get KDKA-DT or WPXI-DT that soon. I doubt he knows what he's talking about on that subject.

Not all the HD channels are actually broadcasting HD all the time. Maybe only WQED was (demo loop?) when you watched. Watch ESPN-HD on Sunday (baseball) or Monday (football) nights and see how that is.

My install is scheduled for Monday.

How could Comcast not think HDTV would go over well? Circuit City and Best Buy and the like have been selling lots of HD-ready TVs the past few years and lots of them have only been used for DVD till now because (like me) their owners haven't gotten around to the initial investment and trouble to get OTA/Satellite STBs and antennas. But signing up for Comcast HDTV is a relatively painless step, so I'm not surprised that there's a lot of interest out there.

MrGonk,
I have my install on Tuesday and my game plan was to s-video the SD on a separate input from the HD. That is the way I have my Dish 6000 setup at this time and it works well. But your other idea involving a split before the 5100 is one I had not thought of. Do you believe that a RF input of analog channels would be superior to a s-video input from the 5100?

Bill