Chattanooga, TN - HDTV - Page 66

I have another question for Cynder... How is the interface to the TV service on the EPB box? Is it better than Comcast's? Is it running Microsoft's MediaRoom?

They put out the flyers in my neighborhood this past weekend, and I got the email yesterday that it's available in my area. (Ranch Hills sub-division off of Shallowford road, near where it turns into Morris Hill Road.)

To answer some questions I had about EPB's service, I called, and confirmed that they do not offer cable cards. And they do not offer STBs with firewire.

They do have ClearQAM for the "Expanded" lineup. Which is pretty nice. So Media Center and HTPC fans (or those with ClearQAM tuners in their TVs) are not completely left out of the fun.

One thing I'd wait on, though... I'm not sure when the EPB lineup will make it's way to the guide services. (I only checked TitanTV.) So you'd probably be doing quite a bit of manual mapping with Comcast's lineup to the actual channels until those guide listings start showing up in the mainstream services.

The only question the call person could not answer is what I would get in HD (if any) through clear QAM.

My father in law's comcast box has a message on it now saying that after April 19th all TV's will require an adapter to receive any channels over 13. So I'm guessing that is the day they encrypt everything (above channel 13). I sure hope they aren't going to encrypt the locals! (that are in HD)

Mine got that last weekend. They're fast eliminating the reasons I stay with them.

Looks like Comcast in Athens is getting a full digital lineup(finally). I'm considering dropping Directv and going to Cable. The Comcast pricing always confuses me.

I'd like to get all the channels, the sports pak and all the premiums with standard internet.

All the digital outlet fees, etc are what I don't understand. I'll probably get 3 HD/PVRs also.

Can anyone give me an estimate of what this would cost? I might get a couple of the Moxi DVRs and just use cable cards, I assume this would save on the monthly bill, but not sure how much I'd have to pay for the cable cards vs the HD/PVRs.

You'll get hit for an HD box rental plus HD programming fee and probably an extra outlet fee per box past the first. crap adds up fast. reason why i only have HD in 1 room other than my QAM tuners.

This has been one of my biggest contentions with Comcast. I do not mind the extra box rental. But an extra HD "access" fee and a extra box, ends up being about $14.00 per HDTV per month.

If I went with one regular HD/DVR I'd have to pay the 15.95 + HDTV fee of 6.95(soon to be 7.95) and then 1.50 per cable card and then an outlet fee on top of that per unit? It really gets confusing as to what is what and about the last person I can depend on is the service reps, I've been burned on that before.

I'll still probably make the switch, but I'm just trying to get a handle on some of the charges.

Anyone using cable cards and if so, what are the costs involved?

I believe that cable cards are no charge when you use the Comcast HD DVR. They are already inserted in the box and I think come along with the HD DVR charges.

I have Tivo HD and which uses two singlestream cable cards which cost $6.95 each per month on top of the HD channel cost. I recently ordered HBO on a half-price 6-month special and got one HBO HD, one Starz HD, and 8-10 premium (non-HD) channels of HBO and Starz.

Is everyone waiting with baited breath for the extended basic QAM to go dark as promised?

Yep.

I read a few messages where people mentioned that EPB uses QAM for their TV. I had talked to them about a month ago and they said their system does NOT use QAM. That is one reason I was going to stay with Comcast because I just got a Sony TV with QAM tuner and I have a Hauppauge 1600 I use for recording.

Has anyone actually checked to see if it is QAM or not?


Also, I just lost ABC, NBC and CBS HD a few days ago using my Hauppauge 1600 and SageTV, but they come in fine on my Sony TV with QAM. Has anyone else had something similiar? The SD signals are working fine. Just HD. ABC has been trouble before. I am wondering if it is the 1600 and if the HD Homerun would work better. I did notice that ABC HD shows a channel of 77-9-1 which is a little odd considering most others are xx-0-x. Not sure if that is throwing something off as I still get confused when it comes to mapping the channels. On my Sony TV I can enter 9.1 or 77.9 and get ABC HD. Not sure why the 1600 needs 3 numbers.

Thanks,

When I talked a call-flunkie, he seemed to know what he was talking about. He said that if you subcribe to the extended package, then a set top box was not required and you could plug the cable directly to your TV.

If Comcast encrypts all their current ClearQAM channels on Monday, I will probably be ordering EPB... but just the internet service. I might get lucky and have the extended package wide open on ClearQAM... if not... then there are other ways to get TV programming.


Also as for your other question, I only have an HD Homerun and as long as Comcast didn't move channels, it performs brilliantly.

Thanks for the info. I will check into that as well.

On a good note, I read somewhere else that you should change out any splitter you have if it is a 5-900MHz to a 5-2GHz. I did that and now I am getting ABC, NBC and CBS HD. Not sure if that was it or a coincidence. But if your saying they may encrypt on Monday, I hope they don't encrypt the HD local channels. If other things I have read are correct, they are required by law to provide all local channels. And honestly, ABC, NBC, CBS, CW and SyFy are the only channels I watch, and I can watch SyFy off the web.

But I am still interested in the HD HomeRun. Just sounds cool.

One can only hope it's that simple. EPB contractors were stringing fiber near here about a week ago. Utils here are underground though. I bet they didn't put any extra conduits in. County sewer trashed the yard last time, wonder what EPB will do. I want service, but is it worth a cut through the driveway to get it.

Nothing's happened yet. Comcast did move a few channels... like Comedy Central and E!. I don't watch E, so that's not a big deal. But one channel I haven't found (or they actually did encrypt it) is the PBS Kids Sprout channel. I can't find it. Anyone know what the channel is now? My 4 year old loves it.

I did a quick check and found Sprout on 18-11 (18-0-11) on my HVR 1600 and SageTV. It gives the station as 18.14. I have to use 18.14 on my Sony TV so not sure why SageTV and the HVR 1600 are using 18-11. I still don't fully understand the mapping. I bet if I rescanned it would probably move to 18-14.

ClearQAM channels are getting moved or encrypted on Comcast. I keep getting notices from Media Center that it couldn't record programs from ESPN, Comedy Central, MTV, and maybe a few others.

ClearQAM extended basic channels are gone for me too. I'm getting the Local stuff with HD channels but only a few worthless channels past 13. I also rescanned and they're definitely gone.

Oh well. All good things have to eventually come to an end.

Time to figure out some other solution.

Same thing happening in Athens, we get all the local Chattanooga Nets(plus HD) and the Knoxville Locals(no HD), Knox and Chatt PBS's and TBS, WGN and a few shopping channels We did have a full lineup, but it pretty much disappeared a week or so ago. We still get Hallmark on Analog Ch# 70, no idea how that one hung in there, it's always been in the middle of nowhere, even when we had the expanded pkg in analog.

I'm running a scan in Soddy w/ the HDHR. Mythbusters failed to record and everything I've checked comes up no signal. a week late but looks like they did it afterall. I'll edit the post after the scan.

Edit:

yep, looks like they tied off the pipe for everything but the locals, a couple of Atl stations, and of course QVC/HSN. I didn't think those would get dropped due to the sales nature.

Now they can't use that old argument about everyone else requiring a box on every TV but they don't. Come on EPB.

Noticed the Encrypted a bunch of channels and popped on here to see what was going on with Comcast of Chattanooga. I'd hate to use a box now if I have to. For what reason are they doing this?

Money... they want to make more on box rental fees.. they figure since everyone is going to have multiple hdtvs... they'll sucker them in to wanting hd boxes on each tv... Comcast is fast becoming less of a TV provider and more of a equipment rental company...

As far as I'm concerned it'd be fine if their DVR equipment could do half of what my MythTV system does.... but Comcast's DVR is an overpriced, outdated, space limited, piece of junk.

Isn't the EPB offering a 4 tuner box that allows external USB drives? I think 1 of the Sat companies has a box capable of external storage. if Comcast would open up the USB port to storage I'd be a bit better. What moron decided to put such a tiny drive in an HD box anyway?

Besides that, I routinely use all 3 digital tuners in my Sage server just on locals. Like I've said before, when fiber gets here it's bye-bye Comcast (assuming the clear-QAM rumors are true).

I don't know, it seems like a long payback. They furnish the boxes, but they do have to pay for them, probably minor on their end, but nonetheless it costs them. All the newer tvs are QAM capable, the filters are in place for the customers that only had the Limited Basic. It seemed like a no brainer to keep the expanded basic like it was for cable ready tvs.(which for digital, would work fine on the QAM capable sets coming out everyday).

First by encrypting them, they no longer have to use filters for basic customers.. which means they don't need to roll a truck to remove/add filters.

Second, I think you'll find that people won't get a DTA for 1.99/mo for an HDTV they were currently getting clear QAM Digital Starter.. they'll get the more expensive digital box or a HD box. I'm sure Comcast will see a significant increase their STB rental revenue by doing this.

It's all about the $$$. Comcast could give a crap about the fact that it doesn't make sense to have to put a STB on the millions of QAM HDTV's in this country. The result of which is just wasting a significant amount of energy and making many of the features built into these expensive tv's relatively useless. Comcast only cares about increasing revenue.

Oh I'm sure it's all about $$$. They also just eliminated the one true advantage that they had over all the other competitors. The requirement for a box of some kind. Of course it's hard to say if that advantage was that big or not, but it's certainly going to be removed.

would anyone discourage me from filing a BBB complaint against Comcast for this crappy behavior? Probably wouldn't do anything but make me feel better by venting. I mean, all of us are paying for a group of channels and now Comcast requires us to ALSO rent equipment (plus add'l outlet fee) for each simultaneous channel we choose to view from that package.

I need to call EPB and see if I can verify whether they do clear-QAM.

Sure, why not. Their service is pretty reliable around here, so they have an overall rating of "B" with the BBB.

But I agree with you... The STB scam is silly, but they aren't the only service company that does it. And the FCC's cablecard mandate does little to offer any relief.

You should have seen their faces when I asked for a firewire enabled STB down at the main facility. I had to steer them to the FCC's website that yes, in fact, they do have to provided a firewire enabled STB if requested. No good that does though... they encryt all the channels through firewire too... and I was paying for the box!

I'm still trying to convince the CFO at my house that EPB is a better option.

Does this apply to EPB also or just Comcast? one could only hope since their 3 offerings from the quickstart guide don't seem to show one.