San Francisco, CA - Comcast - Page 3  

Edgar,

What happens when you tune your 5100 to Ch195. Does it stay on the channel and show you a not authorized screen (and InHD on the channel guide at the bottom) or does it just kick you back out and not let you tune to that channel

If the former, than have them switch you to Digital Classic and see if you then get the channel (if that does it then you can keep digital classic or not...your choice for $10)....If the latter (doesnt even tune) then they dont have the channel active in your particular area (yet)...

Hi Dailowai,

My parents live in San Ramon, and they get inHD 1 & 2. They do not get HBOHD and Showtime HD for free.

I'm in San Ramon and have been getting free Showtime and Cinemax channels since I picked up the 5100 a week and a half ago (I pay for HBO). I get INHD2 but not INHD1.

I'm not getting INHD anymore here in Marin. I pay for the digital classic tier and still get INHD2 but not INHD (chan 195). Called Comcast for a reset but nothing yet so maybe INHD is a system wide problem?

Is anyone in Marin or Sonoma getting INHD? All I get is a blank screen or frozen image from the previous channel viewed. Not getting the "NOT AUTHORIZED" message as happened last time I lost INHD. Also I rebooted.

Spudman2 - Which channel # is Cinemax on in San Ramon?

I'm still receiving INHD1 and INHD2 since August of '03.

I guess I'm not on the same system has san ramon or danville, I haven't been able to recieve INHD since I've gotten HDTV. I have the digital classic package.

Davisdog, thanks for your advice! I just went ahead and ordered it, and 4 hours later (15 minutes ago) INHD-1 (or INHDM, as Comcast calls it) just came on. Unfortunately, HBO and Showtime both encrypted too, although they did so two hours ago, so I'm not sure the events are connected. My GF says she expected them to become encrypted sometime before the Sex and the City finale, so she's not surprised. Truth be told, I wasn't watching HBO or Showtime at all when I had them, so no harm done, and I get my Oscar pre-show!

So Davisdog, would you happen to know any literary agents looking to represent a cutting-edge extremely timely science fiction manuscript? ;-)

andrewlago - Cinemax channels are 561-567.

The Good Guys in Sunnyvale sells the Comcast-branded Motorola 5100 for $40. I called Comcast to inquire about providing my own STB, and she said Comcast does not support owner-provided STBs and that I have to rent one from them. The sales guy at Good Guys thinks otherwise, and that I simply need to call Comcast to activate the box. Obviously, one of these folks is misinformed. Which one?

Something is fishy...

Have you seen it...I'm betting this is the SB5100 Cable Modem, not the DTC-5100 STB.

They do allow customer provided Cable Modems...They do not allow customer provided STBs...And the 5100 STB is worth more than $40.

Is anyone in the Milpitas/Saratoga/Los Gatos/Santa Clara getting the INHD1 or INHD2 as part of this upgrade?

I don't have it here in Milpitas. Just want to see if anyone is receiving it before calling Comcast.

-- Alvin

Alvin,
I expect it to take them a bit before they actually finish the upgrade and get new channels on it. See if you can even tune to 195 or 196...if you punch those into your remote and the STB spits you right back to the channel you had been on then its not there (and calling a CSR won't do you any good)...if it does lock up and gives you not authorized or something then you might call.

BTW...dont get your hopes up if somebody in Santa Clara says they have it...most of the city is on a different leg that was already at 750Mhz...Saratoga, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos, Milipitas are all similar though (for the most part)

-steve

Anybody else have KPIX (channel 186?) breaking up and stuttering? It was like that all weekend for me, and was the only HD channel doing so. The video would freeze for about 1/2 second every 2 seconds or so. Weird.

rjcrum,

I'm having the same problems with KPIX here in the Milpitas area. Seems to have gotten worse since they started with the upgrades, not sure if they have completed the upgrades or not, I just hope this isn't a look of things to come....

Any word on new HD channels being added for the Bay area? Heard rumors about March 1.

Anyone in Fremont having problems with pixelation on the HD channels? I had HDTV installed last Tuesday and I have this problem at night. I have had Comcast come out twice now and even with a cable run from outside directly to my DCT5100, I still have the problem.

Funny that it is almost gone during the day. This morning at 6am, it was especially bad during the rain. It seems to start getting bad late in the afternoon, gets worse later in the evening, and clears up at 10am.

Some people are another forum are wondering if it is temperature related.

I have heard of squirrel related problems...usually its when a squirrel chews on the lines around the neighborhood and they become suspectible to moisture getting into the coax (maybe temp also?)...We had that once in my neighborhood and they replaced a section of overhead lines...They have crews that go out and check the lines for stuff like that (I think they call it line sweeps or something). You might ask that the field tech put in a work order for that.

I live in a relatively new section of Fremont (16 years) and all the lines are underground. I noticed a very thick line in the ground coming up to some sort of distributor and 8 ports in a green box out next to the street. The technician tried a different port and the same results.

Might there be something different about the evening broadcast that affects the HD channels?

Anyone in Fremont?

The HD channels are all on fixed frequencies that are spread around the frequency spectrum on the Cable (they arent all together) so its hard to imagine something affecting just the HD channels like that. Sounds like a signal level drop on the whole system (temp or moisture related do to some flaw somewhere). I bet it's affecting everything but you just notice it on the HD since they normally look so good and it's hard to tell that the ugly analog is just a little uglier than normal.

You might check the signal levels on your 5100 Diagnostics to see if they are dropping at night.

Power off the 5100 and then quickly hitting the select button (on the box, not the remote) will bring up the diags. Look at the numbers under inband, outofband and maybe upstream modem (use arrows and select to move between fields). I don't know what the optimum numbers are for signal level but see if you notice a pattern where they are lower at the band times...Maybe then you can get comcast to look at the line for flaws (having them underground makes it more painful to find, but they can still patch in at different areas and find the segment where they have a signal loss...if that's it)

Well, I did check the diagnostic of one of the offending channels (INHD2) and didn't notice any change in the readings.

For OOB: SNR 21.4dB (Good) AGC 15% (Good)
Inband: SNR 32.bdB (Fair) AGC 54% (Good)

Lots of correctable errors (1338) and a few uncorrectorable (12)

RF Modem: 32dB

I've had 3 DCT now and one said 24dB, another 34dB, and this one 32dB.

Strangely, it wasn't as bad last night. The technician had changed the DCT5100, one splitter, and a different outside port. This was all just 'trial and error', and it didn't make any difference in the late morning.

This early Wednesday morning, the channels look poor again. It is raining out here quite a bit, but not extremely cold.

Strange.

Ahhh...finally some idea if I'm having a signal problem.

I did ask the technician to run a coax line from outside to the 5100. We went out in the street where the cable comes out of the ground to a distribution block and ran the coax all the way through my garage. Still had the pixelation problem, but I didn't check the inband diagnostic.

So now maybe I can call them again with some more data.

Is there anyone in Fremont having this problem?

New HD channels to come 3/1?
I noticed that Discovery Health is off now, was on...and a bunch of other channels were on.

With the 7.07 firmware, can you record with firewire on any HD channel or just the non-encrypted ones?

I believe its anything your STB allows you to view you can pass on the firewire (they dont have 5C turned on)...But I'd suggest you look at the big thread in the HDTV Recorders area that is on this very active

I just lost INHD1 & 2. I was always surprised I got those 2 channels for the $5/month. Such a disappointment that it's gone. Anyone else?

All of the sudden tonight HBO-HD and SHO-HD were replaced by HBO-W and SHO-W subscription in the channel line-up. Anybody know anything about that?

Bill

Yeah...I just took a look and see the same. Any difference?

So do you have INHD?

Well I had InHD for about a week, its back to being "Not Authorized" for me, but it is what I expected because I'm not on the digital tier. Still getting HBO-HD and SHO-HD for now.