Portland, OR - Comcast - Page 14

My first post in this forum. I am currently in the limited basic package from comcast. I get Discovery non-HD in that package, and realize the Discovery HD is 707. Is it true that if you get the channel in non-HD, you automatically get it in HD? Does anyone get Discovery HD using limited basic package?
Thanks!

no discovery HD requires the digital package.

It's a bundling thing with the cabel channels, at least thats what I've heard.

ESPN HD can only be offered with ESPN classic

Basically the HD brodcast channels come in basic everything else you need to have digitial

I signed up yesterday for comcast Digital silver ($42), HD ($5) and High Speed internet ($25). I signed up over the phone and the rep told me that HD was $5/month not $38. I'll have to wait and see my first bill to see if he was lying.

Actually we are NOT paying for HD, per se, we are paying an extra $5 for rental of their HDTV Receiver.

This is my story and I'm stiickin' to it!

Does anyone have news on when the new Cable Digital Boxes will be available. The current guide is atrocious, and does not compare to the DTV guide. Also a PVR with HD capabilities is a must
Thanks

I think the guide is supposed to be updated via firmware upgrade soon, someone can correct me if I'm wrong (comcast has been advertising it like crazy). I do know the boxes we already have currently are capable of much more than comcast's crappy guide.

The DVRs are still "on their way" (not currently available) in most, if not all of the PDX area to my knowlege.

I called Comcast and their web site had done crazy things to my HD order giving me extra boxes and remote controls and heaven only knows what else. There was also something on my order about an "hourly charge for a home theater installation" that didn't sound like something I needed.

After ten minutes on hold, I was only charged $16 for installation and $5 a month for HD. I guess if you don't want surprises on installation day, you better talk to one of their humans when upgrading!

I asked about the DVR when I signed up for HD a few weeks ago. The story then was that they were supposed to be available "at the end of the year." But when I pressed for more specifics, the person I talked to (who might be totally clueless, for all I know) wasn't convinced they would really be available by then.

Also, forgive my ignorance, but are there different on-line guides for different boxes? And if firmware upgrades are necessary, is this something that can be done down the wire, or does it require a service call? I do know that the program guide displayed through my ReplayTV box is MUCH EASIER to comprehend and use than the TV guide thing available with the cable box.

I gather we should be getting either the Motorola 6412 or the Motorola BMC9012 (Digeo Moxi).

See here for some info:

6412: http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/dct6412.asp
BMC9012: http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/bmc9012_bmc9022d.asp

Thanks for the responses
I have heard that we were to get the MOXI, but who knows when
I have both Cable and DTV, OK so I otherwise have no life, and I only keep cable because my location doesn't allow me HD OTA. It is SO hard to go to Cable for use since their guide is basically an ATARI vs a modern Playstation
They are losing subscribers to Satellite, and I have to say I sure understand why

*sigh* Last I spoke with one of their local CSR's (which was just a few days ago), he said they weren't sure which DVR they were going to get, either the 6412 or the BMC9000 (at least he knew the model numbers, which is more than I can say for anyone prior), it's going to depend upon which one they get can to work with their "features" (read: VOD, which the 6412 already supports, but the BMC9000 doesn't necessarily), but hopefully they'll get both. I could use the 6412's Firewire output, and the Moxi's interface.

First time in this group... and here's my gripe.

I've noticed KOIN6 (CBS) station broadcasting a Sunday football game in SD on their HD channel. But then on NFL PrimeTime on ESPD-HD, the highlights for that same game are all in HD. I don't get it.

Um, I assume you mean OTA right?

Nobody in the Portland area gets CBS HD with comcast.

Thats right, OTA.

And this is slightly off topic, but it really grinds me that the local FOX station will broadcast the Detroit Lions because Joey Harrington was a UO Duck. They should be broadcasting the NFC west teams especially a team that the Seahawks are competing with for the division title. This year, that's the RAMS. I am SICK of watching a bad team (Lions) just because Joey is there.

being that the lions are 4-2 I wouldn't call them a bad team, I'd say they are probably a playoff team this year.

BTW why the hell is portland a seahawk town anyway? Granted we have higher number of seahawk fans than say in illionios, but I'd say 80% of the portland area football fans have a favorite team other than the seahawks.

I'd say even with as bad as the niners are we have more niner fans than seahawks fans in town.

I agree on the incredibly poor game selections, and I can't understand why they happen so often.

Here are my guesses:

1) Marketing (not sports) is choosing the games based on some bogus rules of thumb they read in some demographic article (e.g. viewers want to see 'local' teams like San Diego in meaningless games!). If the sports guys are choosing the games then someone needs to check what they've been drinking.

2) The Harringtons know people at the stations, and they want to make sure his thousands (ahem) of Portland fans can see him as much as possible.

3) Every weekend, the programmers spin the wheel of games and we get whatever it lands on.

My guess is that it's the first one. I think I'll send an email to the sports departments at the stations and see if I get a response (which I'll then post).

Point taken, the Lions are doing better this year. But the same thing has been happening with the local Fox station ever since Joey went to Detroit. Back when Detroit couldn't win a game. It's pretty clear the motivation to show the Lions week after week has more to do with Joey than the Lions.

I admit it. I am a Rams fan. Nevertheless, it stands to reason they should be showing the teams that matter within your local division when they aren't showing some marquee game in the league.

{Edit} OK I give. I've taken this way off topic. I emailed the KPTV sports programming guys with my gripe from their web site.

That's a circular argument if I ever saw one. We don't have a local division. Portland is not a suburb of either Seattle or San Francisco.

Someone (I think it was KPTV) did a survey last year or the year before and it turned out the Seahawks and the 49ers and the, as they termed it, "Detroit Harringtons", drew similar levels of interest.

Personally, I'm one of those people who prefers to watch Joey and the Lions, who, by the way, are 4-2 to the Rams 4-3--or if you prefer head-to-head comparisons, who beat the Rams last season.

Hey, We all want the Sunday ticket. But for what it's worth, Detroit is better than SF or SL this year! Just my 2-bits worth.

Doesn't matter... the NFL includes Portland in the blackout region for Seahawk games. Plus, this is pretty much NFC West territory - at least for Fox who owns the broadcast rights to the NFC this year.

I wasn't here back in the 80's... was it the same back then? If so, I suppose they broadcast every SD Charger game here back when Fouts was the qb...

So anyword on when we get UPN?

That's the NFL's mistake. The local affiliate is entitled to know better, presumably having a person or two who could find Oregon AND Washington on a map.

Being from California, you're missing something about Harrington. He's not just a former U of O QB, he's a hometown Portland boy.

Besides the MNF game going dead OTA for 2 minutes last night.... Is anyone else experiencing periodic sound dropouts on Fox HD? I notice it every few minutes during the baseball games. I also noticed it during the MNF game on ABC, but not as frequent.

When I flip over to OTA, it seemed to occur there too but not as often.

Yeah, I noticed it also. It's been happening on all of the baseball games lately, cuts out every couple mins for a second. Then I was watching The Swan with my girlfriend last night and it was doing the same thing, cutting out at least once every minute or two. She asked me if they were cussing on the show and it was bleeping it out.

Not sure what your point is here. My point was that the NFL considers Portland to be part of the Seahawks fan base. Whether the local affiliate "knows better" as you say doesn't matter; the NFL doesn't give them broadcast rights to a blacked out Seahawk game, so they have no choice in the matter.

Expanding on that reasoning, my thinking was that division games would mean more to the majority of the local fan base than watching Joey and the Lions. Maybe the station's marketing people know otherwise; they go with what generates the most advertising dollars.

But I think that's a shortsighted strategy. The Seahawks are new to the NFC West. By showing your divisional opponents you help to build a strong fan rivalry between the teams. Divisional rivalry is good for the fans, the advertisers, the owners, the NFL, and the stations. My argument is with the station's marketing (to show the Lions), not the NFL.

I experience periodic audio dropouts on FOX HD using Comcast's cable box, too. Very annoying, but not fatal. I haven't tried switching to OTA, though (it takes too long and my Sony TV really doesn't like switching to the DVI input more than once per power-on cycle).

I haven't noticed regular audio dropout on MNF in the last few games, thankfully.

I wish FOX MLB picture quality could match MNF! (And I wish MNF would match CBS HD SEC football quality.)

Does anyone know if Comcast will make DVR's available to us in the near future? VOD is better than nothing but Tivo is better than VOD. Thanks. Read some previous notes and seemed to answer this question.

Yes, DVR supposedly by year-end. The question I have, though, is about the interface to the DVR. It would be great if it had all the features of Tivo or ReplayTV (i.e. not just pausing live TV and VCR-style recording, but also recording all episodes of a favorite show and saving only the last X number, or recording all programs containing a particular actor or about a particular subject). These are the features that really make ReplayTV and Tivo shine. It's not clear, at least to me, that the Comcast DVR will have any of these.

There is a huge Comcast DVR thread elsewhere on this forum, and I assume somewhere in the thousands of posts there is an answer to this, but I haven't been through it yet to see.

I was told by a Comcast Tech Support person several months ago that it appeared - at that time - that we would be getting a DVR HD Receiver with MOXI/Digeo GUI probably before 1st of year or so.

WAITING patiently in Beaverton;

Michael

I took a look at the Diego Moxi viewer's manual (pointed to in a post earlier in this thread). The DVR feature set looks very comparable to Replay or Tivo. Only a 30-minute pause window (my Replay has an unlimited pause window -- a great way to watch sporting events that have no clear end time). But the Moxie has the ability to record one live show and watch a second simultaneously, and it has better record prioritization tools than my Replay. I'm very much looking forward to getting this!