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Comcast HDTV - Page 12

post #331 of 11882
7/26/05 at 11:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by QZ1 View Post

As a side note, where are the HD CableCard STBs for sale? They have been delayed for a year, already.
Maybe we will see SD CC STBs? I tend to doubt it, though, but who knows.

If I had to bet, my bet would be that we will never see these, the cablecos have pushed back the date the FCC had mandated, ostensibly for more time for research and development, but actually, as people in the industry have noted, it's actually to give the cablecos time to develop their own multi-functional equipment(DVRS, home media centers, etc..) in an effort to make CC equipped devices a less compelling choice for consumers.
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post #332 of 11882
7/26/05 at 11:26am
[quote=QZ1]Third, is space. Some rooms can't accomodate an STB, especially a kitchen, worse yet, if one has an LCD there, because it can't be stacked.
QUOTE]


On Motorola's website they have a DCT700 STB that is very small and would work in those applications.
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post #333 of 11882
7/26/05 at 12:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by QZ1 View Post

Many people are not going to take to kindly to Expd. service requiring a Digital STB.

First, is the price. Are they going to make people pay $5 per STB?
IIRC, one area was giving up to three for free, and then a discounted rate for more. But how long can they lose $ on STBs. Maybe, that is why they just recently raised Expd's price a higher % than ever, here, in anticipation of this.

Second, is ease of use. Heck, even for me, I didn't find their remote good, having to change modes, and the layout, so I had to buy a universal remote to make use of everything seemless.

Third, is space. Some rooms can't accomodate an STB, especially a kitchen, worse yet, if one has an LCD there, because it can't be stacked.

Even within a service area, there would have to be a staggered rollout to accomodate everyone. In fact, unless they can convert part of a system, they will simply make some people get Digital STBs artificially early.

Look, I am all for it, but I just wish there had been Digital Cable Ready TVs at retail for a few years, already.

As a side note, where are the HD CableCard STBs for sale? They have been delayed for a year, already.
Maybe we will see SD CC STBs? I tend to doubt it, though, but who knows.

As long as they leave the basic analogs alone, there will be little resistence. What option do people have? Move to satellite and never have to use a STB? IN the test market, digital STBs are $1.99/mo. if I remember correctly.

Sony has two cablecard HDDVRs for sale now, one with a 250GB, the other 500GB drive. People have had many issues with cablecards so far, you'd better save the $599 or $799 for the Sony's and rent a Comcast HDDVR for now.

In my area, one day Comcast turned off the analog HBO and SHO channels, anyone who wanted HBO had to get a digital STB. That move had caused some defection to DBS, but Comcast seemed to accept that.

Some people want to make it sound like only cable subs pay for STBs.
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post #334 of 11882
7/27/05 at 10:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by keenan View Post

If I had to bet, my bet would be that we will never see these, the cablecos have pushed back the date the FCC had mandated, ostensibly for more time for research and development, but actually, as people in the industry have noted, it's actually to give the cablecos time to develop their own multi-functional equipment(DVRS, home media centers, etc..) in an effort to make CC equipped devices a less compelling choice for consumers.

No, the FCC mandate for cablecos to use CC STBs was delayed. I am talking about CC STBs at retail, they were delayed a year so far. They were mandated to be supported as of July '04, as I am sure you know. I think we might see some inexpensive SD CC STBs, but nothing HD until CC v.2, but who knows.
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post #335 of 11882
7/27/05 at 11:03am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jacmyoung View Post

As long as they leave the basic analogs alone, there will be little resistence. What option do people have? Move to satellite and never have to use a STB? IN the test market, digital STBs are $1.99/mo. if I remember correctly.

I didn't say they will necessarily switch, I said they won't take to kindly to it. There will be a lot of complaints, especially for non-tech inclined (including the elderly) and newspaper articles. Like I said, I am all for it, but it won't be as easy as making premiums Digital-only.

I was just reading about this, again, on another forum. It is the first three STBs for free for a year, then $1/mo. for each addtl STB, then it goes up to $5.

But this isn't clear to me. After the one year discount, do only boxes over a qty. of three become $5 or do all boxes become $5?

What if one already has a digital box(es); do they still provide three for free or just enough to reach three in the house?

I guess, only somebody from that area would know the answers to these questions, but this will be interesting to know as this almost-all-Digital rollout will be everywhere eventually.
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post #336 of 11882
7/27/05 at 11:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bkozlowski View Post

On Motorola's website they have a DCT700 STB that is very small and would work in those applications.

Not my parent's kitchen, they have a TV in the corner of the counter, so an STB on the CRT TV would work. But what happens if they get an LCD? (Some people have LCDs there already.) Maybe the STB would would fit behind the TV, but what about IR signals? I can't see how an IR/RF tensmitter would help with no line of sight.

See, it isn't as easy as it looks, that is why they want a CableCard LCD, but nothing exists less than 26". They need one of those new 19" 16:9 LCDs, but no CC exists yet. Heck, I have room in my kitchen for an STB, but I am waitng for CC there also.

They should have integrated CC into the most popular TV sizes first, not the largest. By now, the smaller TVs would have been mandated for CC already.
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post #337 of 11882
7/27/05 at 1:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by QZ1 View Post

No, the FCC mandate for cablecos to use CC STBs was delayed. I am talking about CC STBs at retail, they were delayed a year so far. They were mandated to be supported as of July '04, as I am sure you know. I think we might see some inexpensive SD CC STBs, but nothing HD until CC v.2, but who knows.

Maybe, but I think the cost would be too high for what you get. With a dual-tuner CC DVR the cableco could charge for 2 CCs, and in my area, that would be $14 a month. CCv.2 would be the one that might present opportunities for some third party equipment.

I have read that the Sony single CC DVR is not that great of a unit, the obvious being the one tuner with a $700-1000 price tag being the other.

I would like nothing more than have CC become more mainstream, It bugs me that I have to depend on a mass-produced, low-cost piece of equipment to decode my HD signals.

I think conditional access might have a better chance than further iterations of CableCARD.
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post #338 of 11882
7/27/05 at 3:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by keenan View Post

I think conditional access might have a better chance than further iterations of CableCARD.

How do they differ?
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post #339 of 11882
7/27/05 at 3:55pm
I don't have much info, but what was explained to me was that CA would work with customer or third party equipment for the decoding of the encrypted signal by just plugging the cable feed into the equipment. This would include two-way communication for things like VOD, PG, and PPV, etc.

Even though I have a CableCARD display, and the picture is better than from the STB...and obviously, the use of CA would require new equipment at the customer, I would like to see the effort put into CA rather than any more CableCARD versions.

CableLabs, the ones that came up with CableCARD are also the one's working on Conditional Access.
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post #340 of 11882
7/28/05 at 4:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by QZ1 View Post

Not my parent's kitchen, they have a TV in the corner of the counter, so an STB on the CRT TV would work. But what happens if they get an LCD? (Some people have LCDs there already.) Maybe the STB would would fit behind the TV, but what about IR signals? I can't see how an IR/RF tensmitter would help with no line of sight.

See, it isn't as easy as it looks, that is why they want a CableCard LCD, but nothing exists less than 26". They need one of those new 19" 16:9 LCDs, but no CC exists yet. Heck, I have room in my kitchen for an STB, but I am waitng for CC there also.

They should have integrated CC into the most popular TV sizes first, not the largest. By now, the smaller TVs would have been mandated for CC already.

I didn't say it was simple, I just said it would work in those applications with a LCD in a Kitchen. The perfect addition to that STB would be a infared receiver port, but we have infared repeater systems now that would do the same thing.

I did't say it was cheap either.

b
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post #341 of 11882
8/1/05 at 5:18am
Does anyone have any clue if Comcast, will ever add MSG HD to it's lineup for Northern NJ or any new HD channels at all?
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post #342 of 11882
8/1/05 at 7:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lah5135 View Post

Does anyone have any clue if Comcast, will ever add MSG HD to it's lineup for Northern NJ or any new HD channels at all?

Comcast has been showing Mets home games on MSG HD on INHD2.
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post #343 of 11882
8/1/05 at 5:31pm
Any new info on when Comcast's going to get Espn2HD?....last we heard it was August/September and it's August 1st btw.
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post #344 of 11882
8/1/05 at 8:36pm
Hope they add it soon, I wanna catch all as much MLB in HD as I can before the season ends. Although I've noticed that INHD's broadcasts have way better PQ than ESPNHD's.
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post #345 of 11882
8/2/05 at 7:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by theman23 View Post

Hope they add it soon, I wanna catch all as much MLB in HD as I can before the season ends. Although I've noticed that INHD's broadcasts have way better PQ than ESPNHD's.

I am also anxious for ESPN2HD for baseball, especially Sunday night baseball when ESPNHD has the NFL. Also, 2HD has college football friday nights which would be nice.

Yes, INHD does have good quality HD baseball. I believe their contract runs through 2006. My guess (just pessimism, no evidence) is that they will lose the contract after that, much as HDNET lost it a few years ago.

Can someone can tell us if it is likely INHD will continue showing baseball after 2006?

Thanks,

Rich N.
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post #346 of 11882
8/2/05 at 7:58am
I thought Universal-HD was going to be the next HD channel added to Comcast, then ESPN-2?
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post #347 of 11882
8/2/05 at 9:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by boo View Post

I thought Universal-HD was going to be the next HD channel added to Comcast, then ESPN-2?


I don't know that anyone can predict an order, it depends on which negotiation concludes first. Both are being negotiated and have been for a number of months. In both situations, HD is not the only piece of the negotiating puzzle with the content provider. In fact, it may not even be the most important aspect of the overall scope of the respective negotiations.

I do know though that including it in the final scenario that is agreed upon is important to Comcast.

Regards,
GoIrish
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post #348 of 11882
8/12/05 at 9:02am
OK - looks like D* has their date for ESPN2-HD, any Comcast "informants" out there with an update?
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post #349 of 11882
8/12/05 at 1:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by boo View Post

I thought Universal-HD was going to be the next HD channel added to Comcast, then ESPN-2?

The SF Bay Area still does not even have TNT-HD
which was announced as a channel addition in April!
It seems that channels are added selectively and will definitely
vary throughout the country. Who knows what you'll see?!!!
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post #350 of 11882
8/12/05 at 2:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mds54 View Post

The SF Bay Area still does not even have TNT-HD
which was announced as a channel addition in April!
It seems that channels are added selectively and will definitely
vary throughout the country. Who knows what you'll see?!!!

When the 64>256 QAM conversion is completed here hopefully they will add it.
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post #351 of 11882
8/12/05 at 2:50pm
The Phila. metro area (QAM 256) (860 MHz, IIRC) doesn't have TNT-HD either. Word is, that we have more On Demand content than others areas. Whoopee!
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post #352 of 11882
8/13/05 at 4:21am
Quote:
Originally Posted by QZ1 View Post

The Phila. metro area (QAM 256) (860 MHz, IIRC) doesn't have TNT-HD either. Word is, that we have more On Demand content than others areas. Whoopee!

Last I read we were to get ESPN2 HD & TNT HD this fall (Philly market). I haven't read any updates for some time now. Hopefully we will very soon. Digital simulcast started last week.
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post #353 of 11882
8/18/05 at 12:13pm
13 days til September and still no word as to when Espn2HD's coming.
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post #354 of 11882
8/18/05 at 1:28pm
Too bad OLN is not in HD, too... anyone hear that Comcast just made a deal to show hockey on OLN, since ESPN decided not to renew (?) the contract they had.

It's really too bad. Hockey, IMO, is one of the best sports in HD. 2/3s of the ice shown... great pictures..
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post #355 of 11882
8/18/05 at 2:32pm
They are going to broadcast the games in HD according to what is being said on Comcast sportsnet right now
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post #356 of 11882
8/18/05 at 2:52pm
INHD at first and then they are launching OLN-HD later this year. Too bad I can't get Comcast, they will find some way to keep the channels off D* and Adelphia has a crappy selection. No HD hockey for me.
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post #357 of 11882
8/18/05 at 2:59pm
For once I'm happy I have Comcast. Too bad we still have no TNT in Philly, and no ESPN2, HDNet, or UHD.
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post #358 of 11882
8/18/05 at 3:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by neeshu89 View Post

For once I'm happy I have Comcast. Too bad we still have no TNT in Philly, and no ESPN2, HDNet, or UHD.

And soon to be many more we won't have, like the FOX HD channels and the others coming soon. hey but i am sure we will have OLN-HD soon i bet the bandwidth is found for that mysteriously
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post #359 of 11882
8/18/05 at 3:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PRMan View Post

INHD at first and then they are launching OLN-HD later this year. Too bad I can't get Comcast, they will find some way to keep the channels off D* and Adelphia has a crappy selection. No HD hockey for me.


OLN is availabe on Satelite, they can only keep CSN philly off because of a loophole
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post #360 of 11882
8/18/05 at 3:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shades View Post

And soon to be many more we won't have, like the FOX HD channels and the others coming soon. hey but i am sure we will have OLN-HD soon i bet the bandwidth is found for that mysteriously

Probably a very solid bet...
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