Boston, MA - Comcast - Page 86

Sorry, I rather have them drop another Analog channel instead of them going the 3-1 route. If Quality means anything, which I'm sure it does to most people here, then that is the best option. If you noticed FIOS has already picked up on this and is claiming in their commercials they have the best HD quality because they pass thru the full bitrate on their HD channels, something they couldn't do before until Comcast started this multiplexing thing so I hope they are only doing this temporarily or Subs will be changing over to the competition and that affects their bottom line, something you like to point out around here often.

I wonder when Comcast changes to switched video if they can up the quality of the HD channels.

If no one complains they won't have to change.

Mickey

I don't want the 3 for 1 compression either, but I don't want to start to pay for two additional digital boxes either. There are FAR too many analog subscribers around to just drop analog as you (and chitchatjf) suggest.

-ken

Can someone give some detail on switched video, how tv's support it, when Comcast will switch, how are cable cards affected, required hardware etc.

Dan

check out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_video

As someone with a TiVo Series 3, I'm hoping this doesn't happen for a long time. I'd much rather they drop analog channels.

Ken the future is Digital, not analog and people are going to have to face reality sooner or later. I don't know what Comcast's plans are but I would not be surprised if basic cable ( 2-23 ) is all they leave for analog and they could start that in a year from now when analog OTA goes Bye-bye.

Comcast's analog plans are right here : LINK

They keep only the truly essential analogs in the analog domain. Everything is moved to digital. For folks who only want the "analog experience", they give 'em one of the dongles discussed in the link above. They're dirt cheap widgets ($25-35 a piece) that only do one thing : convert digital to analog. No menus, no upstream (and thus no VOD or PPV), no HDTV, no CableCARD support. User puts the dongle in-line between the feed from the pole and their TV, and the dongle spits out 70+ channels and analog over a coax line.

As someone with a TiVo Series3, you should learn about the Tuning Resolver. It is the solution to the SDV problem for CableCARD-equipped TiVo users. It is currently scheduled to be released 2nd quarter of this year. Here is some detail about it : LINK.

Sincerely,
Someone with a TiVo Series 3

I'm well aware of it (I read the TiVo Community forums regularly.) Let's just say:

1. That's one reason why I said "a long time". I am more than a little skeptical about that release schedule.

2. Even then, I'd prefer to not have to use one. Comcast is already now charging $5/card (for spousal reasons, we also have an HD Comcast box), and somehow I doubt they will be giving away the tuning resolvers.

All I'm saying is that my personal preference is to keep chipping away at the analog channels before going to SDV. We don't use any of the analog channels in our house. (Yes, I'm aware that this is not the norm...)

I hear ya. Any time the cableco's try to "engineer" something, it usually takes 10x longer than necessary, and comes out fairly crappy. However, this design is not rocket science, and they're leveraging stuff that they've already got on hand. I agree that we probably won't see it Q2Y08, but I'd be very surprised to not see it this year.

Until we see a TiVo Series4 with real honest-to-goodness upstream functionality, we're stuck with the Tuning Resolver. Comcast is under too much pressure from DirecTV and Verizon to not get aggressive in rolling out new and improved services, such as more HD and faster net speeds. Unfortunately, those new services require additional bandwidth, and the easy mark for recovering said bandwidth are the analogs.

I agree, but that is a year from now. Hopefully by then I will swap out my tv tuner card and my bedroom tv for digital sets...hmmm but then again the channels above basic won't be in the clear and i dont know of any cablecard computer tv cards....

-Ken

For those of you curious about why Comcast SportsNet didn't broadcast Friday and yesterday's Celtics games in HD, here is the answer:

http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/200...-growing-pains

Audio drops on Bristol county's Ch22 (Fox25 Boston)? Last few days, I've noticed audio drops every 1-5 minutes. Happening on multiple televisions and picture doesnt change at ell. Anyone else experience this?

I'm having an odd issue with stutters recently. It's almost as if I'm watching a streaming video with ever-so-slight hiccups in the video feed. I think that it's only happening on HD broadcasts, but I'm not sure. I also just moved (Salem -> Georgetown) and still have the problem. Could there be something wrong with my box? Thanks.

Which specific channels? That's very important, given the recent switch to HD Lite for certain channels.

Good point, I'll take note of that. I know I at least saw it on ABC and HGTV.

Tin Man is replaying on SciFi-HD on Sunday 9 March from 3-9 PM Eastern.

Have you had Comcast in to check your signal quality?

Ive' had stuttering issues as well .I really noticed it this morning watching the news on 805.The scroll at the bottom would stutter as well as the video of the newscast.If it gets really bad I've found that changing the resolution of the cable box from 1080i to 720p and then back to 1080i seems to clear it up.It's very strange. I might try switching out the box as it is an older model.

I have had one issue with an HD channel of WMUR 809 that has been occurring for about as long as I have had HD comcast.
The issue is two blinking lines about 3/8" long that appear near the top 3" of the screen about 25% in from the sides on a 55" screen. Now this does not happen on the SD feed of the same channel '9' and it does not occur on any other channels. And importantly it does not happen on an actual HD program on 809.

So who is to blame Comcast,WMUR? Any ideas on what this might be?

Craig

Stuttering seems to be going on in a lot of places the last few days so I think it is widespread and not the boxes, was especially severe on all the HD channels this afternoon. I usually toggle between SD and HD channels to get rid of it but this time it did not completely eliminate it but it did improve so my guess is Comcast is tinkering around and causing boxes that are sensitive to display this issue. But it is good people are posting this here because Comcast does read this forum and lets them get some sort of feedback on whats going on and what effect it is having. Could be a result of the triple loading of the QAM channel as I just read in another thread that this is one of the results if it is not implemented correctly with the right 3 channels that it may end up exceeding bitrate capacity which in turn degrades the PQ with this required effect (stuttering).

This is the most significant indicator I think. I suspect that WMUR is to blame, based on that. I have a sneaking suspicion what it might be, but I want to see a screen-shot before I'm willing to voice my guess.

I have seen the issue you describe. It happens on some HD channels when they are broadcasting SD content. Also it does not always happen and not on all channels.

I have a 46 inch Sony TV 46V3000 and I had to change "screen size" setting from "full pixel" to +1.

That fixed the issue, but now I am missing some edge content. As far as I know there is no other option.

It seems that 802 has switched from the national PBS HD Channel (DT2A) feed to a simulcast of regular channel 2. I'm wondering if this is permanent or if it has something to do with this being a pledge period (the guide has not been updated to reflect actual programming).

Based on what I've seen so far, it's a big step down in amount of HD/WS. One notable positive, 'tho - I got to see the NewsHour in HD for the first time. As I wrote here, the NewsHour is not currently carried on the PBS HD Channel feed, though I'm hearing that will change on May 5th.

However, the PBS HD Channel will go away altogether sometime in the fall, according to this article from Current (which also predicts a speedup in HD production).

The same thing applies to OTA. 2-2 is now a simulcast of 2-1.

My old, old Tivo Series 2 (Lifetime!!!) just died - stuck on main menu unresponsive to remote, tried battery and 1 vs 2 DVR switch after many reboots, so I'm wondering when and for how much Comcast will offer the DVR with a Tivo menu?

A few comments

GBH (802) - What stinks here is that many ws shows seems to be windowboxed. 16:9 please!

Philw1776's question about Tivo - Try now Cost is $2.95 mo on top of any DVR costs.

I agree that this is a step backwards for the amount of HD programming we will see. I always watched this channel on my QAM tuners late at night when there is nothing else in HD on during that time period and now it seems this has been taken away from us until they can catch up with more HD programming on the local PBS channel. Too bad !