Detroit, MI - HDTV - Page 306

Gah! Stupid TV software! It must've gone down sometime earlier today, and both our TVs must've noticed it was missing and removed it from their channel lists. I cannot imagine what possessed the software designers to think such a "feature" was a good idea. Re-scanned with both TVs and now we have it back.

Thanks, guys!

If your TVs didn't notice WKBD was missing, nobody would.

Admittedly, we don't watch it much, ourselves, anymore. Mainly just Legend of the Seeker and the occasional Saturday or Sunday afternoon movie.

I enjoy Legend, and syndicated Two and a Half Men, and King of Queens on WKBD.

Hockey Fans w/Comcast:

The Flyers / Bruins game, not seen on Versus tonight, is currently on 784 in SD. Feed is from NESN.

Awesome - thanks!

Woke up in Belleville this morning to all standard basic channels being encrypted (still have my limited basic channels). Anyone else?

I'm in Birmingham and the same thing happened to me.
Although Weatherscan came up as I browsed the channels.

same here

According to the main Comcast thread it looks like HDNet might get added to the Comcast system this year.

Same in Northville/Plymouth. Oh well....

Great news (available here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...24081&page=352). Actually, it would be great news, if it included HDNet Movies. Looks like HDNet's highlights are Smallville, JAG, and Bikini Destinations. Not exactly a life-changer.

Westland as well.

WJBK-DT now offers syndicated programming in HD, as observed with 'Seinfeld' at 11pm tonight.

Hopefully this means they're done doing whatever they've been doing that has caused them to constantly drop down to SD.

For the first time, WWJ will be stepping up to the plate and broadcasting all four Lions preseason games in HD. It's about time!

Source: http://www.prideofdetroit.com/2010/5...on-games-to-be

They'd have to give me a free suite & tickets before I'd be even remotely interested.

Channels gone here in Bloomfield Hills, as well. If all the channels above basic are now encrypted, the last incentive I have to stay with Comcast will be gone. I'm definitely going to be reshopping my TV lineup.

Speaking of that. When I was in the Comcast office last year, where they make you go to return the modem they rent you, there was a long line of people returning their equipment and switching to AT&T U-verse. Comcast can expect the exodus to continue now if they've pulled the ClearQAMs.

So what are our choices.
AT&T, Wow (some areas), DirectTV, Verizon???...etc.

AT&T = Limited HD streams, less than average HD image quality, good bundle pricing, whole house DVR.

WOW / Brighthouse / Charter (depending on where you live) = Low number of HD channels, average HD image quality, decent intro bundle pricing.

DirecTV = Decent HD image quality, lots of HD channels, lots of sports including exclusive NFL ST, no internet or digital phone.

Dish Network = Decent HD image quality, lots of HD channels, very good HD DVR, no internet or digital phone.

Verizon FiOS = Not in this area.


Since none of the other alternatives allow you to watch any channels at all without a box, I'm not sure how Comcast still having at least locals, edu, gov, public service in the clear, both digital and analog, is a deal breaker? Makes no sense.

Once you compare prices, you'll find all of them are very similar for what you get.

WOW still has their full basic lineup available in analog.

Thanks for the correction, I misspoke. I was referring to the non-cable alternatives.

Thanks for the info. I think the entire cable "buffet" model is too expensive. In order to get that one odd channel or two they make you ramp up into services that include hundreds of channels you don't watch. For example, everything we watch is on maybe 12-15 channels, yet we are paying for over 100 to get them. On top of that, being forced to buy cable card devices or rent them is enough to make me cry uncle.

Most shows are now available on free or pay as you go download services and unless you watch over 4 hours of TV a day, it is cheaper. The hi-def still isn't to the level of OTA or cable, and it isn't quite as convenient, but I suspect TV entertainment will move further and further toward this model.

My brother actually dropped his Verizon TV service this month and will live with OTA and internet for all his entertainment.

The last piece of the puzzle, for me is the internet. Like you mentioned, Comcast does have internet bundles, but IMHO, they are moving toward multi level expensive upsells on that as well. I really hope we can get more competition there too. I know Sprint is working hard to bring their 4G service to the entire country and already pushing adapters (though there is no 4G service in the Detroit area.)

In the end, I think the best model is one where you pay for your internet service on a usage basis (not in upsold increments but actual megabytes) and also pay for download rights for content. I can imagine seeing two services growing from this, one where you pay a small fee for each show and another where you pay for a subscription to a service like Netflix (which starts to look a bit like cable except they aren't pumping the entire bandwidth into your house all the time.)

By the way, don't underestimate the backlash from this change. Many people are fed up with Comcast to begin with and will look at this as the last straw. Comcast has one of the lowest satisfaction ratings of the competing services, I suspect because of their problems with reception and outages and their poor response fixing them. I have dealt with this myself, waiting hours for someone to show up only to have them tell me they didn't have the equipment to diagnose or fix my problem and they would have to send someone else...which turned out to be someone another person who didn't have the equipment...and on and on.

Also, many people are finding AT&T cheaper already, and don't see the difference in HD to be worth the cost. Once they do jump it is going to be very difficult for Comcast to get them back.

To your last point, edus, govs and school channels are not something I watch and I suspect that is true with most subscribers.

I think you grossly overestimate the impact of this "change." As a former DirecTV subscriber who was forced to Comcast when the new satellites went up behind the neighbors giant oak tree, I went with a bad attitude toward Comcast. I've had my own incidents with phone CSRs, but the service has been amazingly free of "problems with reception and outages" for over three years since I switched. I'm not exceptionally happy with the price I'm paying, but, as Ken pointed out, you will be hard pressed to find equivalent service at any price with another provider. Bottom line: I ain't going nowhere soon.

The overwhelming majority of cable subscribers use some sort of converter box, so I doubt most will even notice this "last straw."

IMO Comcast is very reliable. For the most part their CSR's are not that bad. I had a issue with my phone service that I wanted changed this week the CSR told me it would take up to three days. It was fixed the next day. I would take Comcast's CSR's over AT&T's any day. AT&T's are all around just bad. I feel like many people on this forum that complain about Comcast reps do so because they don't know when HD Net is coming to Comcast. Too many people think they are insiders. They are not and they are not repair people either.

We brought Stafford out to introduce him to the Hoedown crowd before Dierks Bentley. Half cheers, but a very dominant amount of booing. Don't imagine he'll be coming out to wave, tonight.

When I downgraded to limited basic, I let Comcast know I did not like the choices available and wanted an ala carte option. Such an option may come someday, but I am not holding my breath. Frankly I was paying too much money for what we watched. Limited basic supplemented with OTA and Netflix streaming is wife approved in my house.

We are happier watching less TV. Since we were paying so much we felt compelled to watch lots of shows. Now we pick and choose what to record on the TiVo. We actually do more reading and talking to each other.

Yes, all the non-OTA alternatives for most people require a set top box. But I assure you that Comcast subscribers will blame Comcast, even though it is not totally their fault. Content providers are driving this change in addition to raising rates to Comcast. All cable providers are low rated in customer surveys, it is just how it is. And my dealing with Comcast have often been less than satisfactory and I hear the same from others.

I am less than a mile from WOW territory and have often thought that if I were to move in the area, I would strongly prefer to be in an area I could get WOW. I wouldn't necessarily use WOW, but it is another bargaining chip.

This sounds more like personal sentiment than anything else. The fact Comcast is the largest multichannel provider, by far, and has been doing this across the country for quite sometime with success contradicts your opinion. As they have upgraded the system and introduced advanced services, their revenue continues to climb.


It's not a surprise to find large number of users who feel the same as you do, but you'll also find large number of unhappy users from DirecTV, Dish, AT&T, WOW, Brighthouse, and Charter. The forums bear this out in spades.


Not if they need more than 1 or 2 HD streams at a time, and not if they need the bandwidth to access HD content via the Internet, like you plan on doing. The U-verse hybrid fiber/twisted pair system is technically crippled compared to what Comcast's fiber/coax system can do.

Yes, for some it will be fine, but U-verse has been available for a few years and it hasn't made significant inroads as yet, around here or anywhere else.

Boos for Stafford? Huh, kind of surprising. I would have expected boos if you brought out, say William Clay Ford, but not for the kid.