Portland, OR - Comcast - Page 93

I've got an odd issue with my TiVo Series 3, and I've seen it since the first day I plugged it in (which was last Thursday) it has frozen on me several times - hard frozen, with no response to remote control or the buttons on the box - even the clock froze up. The first couple times I was watching live and didn't have a chance to connect the dots; but the next two times I was watching a recorded program, and it occured in the same spot of that recording both times

The recording was of the 11 o'clock news on KATU-HD (via Comcast from unencrypted QAM; still don't have the cablecards why I can't just pick them up? *shrug*), and both times it occured during the weather, with the "Right Now" temperature map on the screen. It seems that, right as they're about to switch to the next map, it freezes hard and a power cycle is required; however, I can FF past it successfully.

Just now I reproduced this with a live broadcast of the 6:30 news same map, same issue. Clearly it's the process of decoding the stream - not just recording it - that causes this to happen, but that's the most peculiar happenstance; what about the bitstream could cause the TiVo to hard lock like that?

What's also peculiar is that no one else seems to be reporting this; but I wonder if maybe this is a new issue? Not in the TiVo software necessarily, as I reproduced it both with the original shipping software (8.0.x?) as well as the latest update (8.3.1); but maybe in the broadcast from KATU, since they added the blue sidebar to their 4:3 programming? Or something I haven't noticed this in any other programing - including other KATU-HD programming, though I haven't watched much more than Kyle XY - just the news.

If anyone has a TiVo Series 3 and hasn't tuned into KATU-HD for the news in awhile, mind checking it out? I'm going to record the 11 o'clock news again tonight and watch it at a later date maybe TiVo can somehow retrieve the content and debug it from their end (shyeah at 768kbps? That'd take the better part of a day).

Moorebid, check my reply in Portland, OR - OTA.

Rifleman69, Thanks for the tip about adapters from monoprice.com Don't need it yet because I have DVI(TV) from DVI(dvd) but know future DVDs will be HDMI rather than DVI. I thought having adapter in advance is good idea. Great price and service from monoprice. When Company gives good service, I like others to know about it.

A good place for cables is http://www.pchcables.com

They are local so no shipping.
Area is Cornelius Pass Road and Cornell.

Any news on new HD Channels from Comcast?

Directv is rolling out a number of new HD channels in September and even more by years end.
I was a dedicated Directv subscriber until I bought my Samsung LCD but my dad just bought a 46" XBR3 LCD and upgraded his Directv to HD.
The MPEG 4 on the SD channels are phenomenal as compared to my crappy fineliving, food TV and FSNNW.

I think comcast will loose me as I like the Directv plan.

Regarding new HD channels, does anyone know what will happen with the baseball playoffs in HD this year? During the All Star game, I was reminded that TBS has at least some of the early rounds this year. Will we get these in HD?

Last night around 10:50 PM, the 3412 I cable box became unresponsive. As I was trying keys on the remote, suddenly the box rebooted itself, and when it came back on, the HD channels 7xx seem to be jerky, especially pronounced during image pan. Switching to an analog channel (say, opb 10) and back to 7xx seems to have cleared it up. Back to the dreadful situation I've had several month ago, except now it is reversed!

Also, any time I switch to 702 (Katu-hd) within about 30 minutes or so the sound starts to break up and finally goes away within 5 seconds or so, the "no-sound" condition lasts about 3 to 5 seconds and things are back to normal, until the next episode, assuming I am watching the same (702) channel. Ironically this is the only channel I noticed it on.

Now, is it worth taking back the box and exchanging it? Opinions and advice will be greatly appreciated.

The last 2 nights just after 10pm my DVR has become unresponsive. I had to unplug both times...what a pile.

Hormoz, I get that audio dropout on KATU via OTA on DirecTV as well. It's a problem on their end most likely.

Thanks for the info. I guess we can't blame Comcast for this one... yet!

Hey...does anyone know what unencrypted QAM channels are on the Comcast lineup? I installed a WINTV card recently that supports unencrypted QAM, but I don't want to install yet another splitter if there really isn't anything special.

Thanks!

SV

Just plug it in, do a channel scan, and see what you get.

Any news on new HD Channels from Comcast?

Anyone have any ideas on this?

From reading other places, I know that Comcast has rolled out at least A&E and Foodnetwork in HD in other places recently.

Anyone know when they will show up in PDX?

Thanks.

re: QAM. I picked up 3 channels, and only one was a real channel. Ah well. Won't bother with yet another splitter. Hopefully I can get an antenna up for ATSC soon.

SV

I'm wondering as well - I'd love to get Food and HGTV in HD...

Well Comcast said A&E HD was to be added last December when they added National Geographic HD, since we still don't have it, I wouldn't hold my breath for any other HD additions in the near future.

(refer to post 2289)

I don't normally have my HD card plugged into the cable but for kicks I plugged it in and did a QAM scan. It was interesting but not much is unencrypted out there. I got the locals of course, plus the Hallmark Channel, and WGN. I also got a dozen shopping channels and I found the program guide is duplicated on at least four channels (?). One stream seemed to be exclusively On-Demand features (one was in HD). There were two 256 QAM channels that were completely empty (just passing null packets) so either they're reserved for On Demand or there's room for more HD channels. Important channels like ESPN and SciFi were totally encrypted of course so it's pretty much worthless to me.

What was really interesting is the range of resolutions out there. Comcast is delivering SD channels anywhere from 320x480 to 640x480. A 320x480 channel doesn't take hardly any bandwidth so it's no wonder they found room to simulcast the analog stations in digital! Many of the streams were using the telecine flags so something is recognizing filmed content and passing it at 24 fps to save bandwidth.

Yeah, but do we really need high bandwidth for city council meetings?

Almost all SD channels are 528x480 which is OK I guess. That even includes public access channels like PCC and Clackamas College and full screen On Demand movies. The low resolution stuff (352x480) seems to be limited to certain On Demand features like television shows. These really look like they were downloaded off the Internet.

I haven't come across a wide screen SD On Demand movie yet (it would be cool if they were 720x480 DVD resolution) but someone in my neighborhood paid for "Fearless" in HD. It was full 1920x1080 resolution of course at 14.3 Mbps (surprisingly no telecine flags). It looked just awesome.

Watched the ancient "Beach Blanket Bingo" on TCM the other night. Was letterboxed, widescreen. The "zoom" setting of my Sony stretched the picture to fill the width of the screen. Seems like it was 2.x-to-1 so there were still black bars top and bottom.

In any case, it was SD, but didn't look too bad; obviously low-res.

Ditto your coments on the HD VOD - very, very good on most of the movies offered. Same goes for the HD premium channels. Just wish more of the shows were available on VOD.

One limitation of VOD that has affected me a few Saturday evenings - there is not enough channel bandwidth in the system to handle everyone viewing VOD. Only a select few can do this; I don't know how many VOD channels are available in a given neighborhood, but it is something to consider - there is limited bandwidth. the system cannot handle all subscribers simultaneously.

Mike

In my neighborhood there are at least three 256 QAM channels dedictated to VOD. There may be as many as five since I've found a couple of channels sending nothing but null packets and the three channels I've found have never been close to full. Each channel can send 3 HD movies but it can also send at least 12 SD movies and maybe as many as 20 of the lower resolution features. HD VOD isn't going to help things.

Looking forward to Hall of Fame game on August 5th. First Preseason game of the year. However, I believe it is on NFL net and not provided "free" by Comcast. I wonder what the viewing audience will be nationwide compared to previous years.

One of the few perks of DirecTV I guess, they should have the game on...although it'll only be interesting the first couple of series. Still some football is better than none.

Anyone know what it costs to get the NFL network now? I'm not inclined to pay for it unless it's really cheap.

I could be wrong, but I thought the sports package was only $5.99/month or something like that and includes several Fox Sports channels. The channel is included in the "Digital Plus" but not in the "Digital Classic." The Comcast website doesn't show a price for the Plus package. Comcast: clear as mud...as usual, but at least it is better than it was a few months ago.

You're right - it is 5.99/month. Despite my distaste for the situation, I went ahead and paid it since I'm such a football nut. Oh well, just one more way Comcast is shooting itself in the foot with FIOS-TV on the horizon.

If it was just NFL Network, I'd think it was embezzlement, but there are several channels that come with that add-on, and besides, I ABSOLUTELY MUST have SPEED Channel anyhow, so my situation is different.

OK...here we go again. KGW HD... same as last year. Tonights Game has the same audio issue as last year where you can't hear the Officials calling issues on the field! I do wonder if this is a KGW/NBC issue and not Comcast.

Yup. I think I concluded last year that the problem was that the officials voice was coming through the surround channels and the level of those is much less than the center channel.

I do get the feeling that the problem is local (KGW.)

Well, it sure is a pain and I do not know why it takes so long to fix...like the low sound on latenight like Leno. Seems Leno is OK now but it took Months to fix!