Boston, MA - Comcast - Page 17

I'll leave out all the irrelevant crap you wrote and post the first statement in the FCC Order. This should suffice to shut you up or at least provide everyone else with the clarity that you are full of shite. Furthermore, this order is directed toward benefitting consumers not MSO's.


Washington, DC - In its ongoing effort to promote competition and assure the
commercial availability of cable-ready DTV equipment, the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) today adopted a Second Report and Order in the Commercial Availability of
Navigation Devices proceeding.

I will add this, if you don't understand what the above reads you really are a moron.

Thanks to the posts above for all the good information.

I am potentially subscribing to service, but when I called they told me I had to pay an extra fee to hookup more than 1 TV ($14 install + rental fee for another box). Is that true? There's no way to simply get another wire and hook it into my second TV?

Other info: My first TV is HDTV w/ QAM, so I obviously don't need their HDTV box. My second TV is an old tv w/o HD. I can't imagine having to pay an extra fee to hook that one up.

THANKS!

Here's an old way to get what you're asking. When installing cable service as a new customer, in a home that was already wired for cable to say the living room, you can indicate to the installer that you want the primary tv in your den. The wiring in your home is yours and NO technician can remove any wires without your authorization, unless the wiring is being replaced due to signal leakage from damage. So, have the installer install your primary outlet in the den, then after the tech leaves install a splitter and connect the original leg which was already there. You can pretty much dictate where you want the cables run in your home except for wall fishing, so it shouldn't be a problem to have the tech start the run to the den at the same location as the original one. This is called a move outlet and is included in the install of new service.

How convenient. Despite your protestations to the contrary, The 7/1/2007 date affects only which physical boxes the MSOs can offer for rental. It has nothing to do with the silliness you asserted, "enabling consumers to have a choice in the way they wish to deal with settop box rental." Again, I'm sorry you're mistaken, but you are, and there's nothing I can do to make what you're saying any less mistaken.


Which doesn't contradict what I've said one bit. The 7/1/2007 date has nothing to do with the customer's ability to purchase STBs commercially. MSOs have been required to provide CableCards for quite a while already. Nothing about that changes on 7/1/2007 in a legal sense, nor will it necessarily reverse the trend in the last year or two whereby support for CableCard in commercial products has generally been reduced, not increased. There is a hope -- but nothing more than a hope -- that the 7/1/2007 date will simply make the MSOs more talented at supporting CableCard. Nothing more.


No, it's not. It is directed towards placing a burden on MSOs. BIG difference.


Glass houses, son. Glass houses.

For those interested in the truth: The laws supporting CableCard have been in place for years. 7/1/2007 has no direct effect on that. Again, the only tangential impact is that, since starting on that date, MSOs will generally start having their own CableCard-enabled equipment in service, the assumption is that they might get a little more talented at getting CableCards to work. That's it. The only effect will be that the tech installing CableCards in your personal CE might know a bit more about how to get over the technological challenges that CableCards represent than he does today.

You're tilting at windmills thinking you're going to convince Corporal Comcast to change his ways by way of logic and reason, sorry to say. In his world, Comcast can do no wrong, listens and responds to every customer query with honor and integrity, and is being wronged at every turn by the government. Needless to say, this is not the world in which the rest of us live...

Simply add him to your Ignore List, and lead a happier life.

Seems like it's how every thing is interpreted. When some things are really not clear an individual can percieve what they think a statement means while another may think differently. I think bicker is right about cableCard being phased out and being in less CE devices but I also think Motortree is correct in his interpretation of the FCC statement and that it will try to reverse that trend and make cableCard more acceptable. Whether the date itself is suppose to reflect that is really not that clear and remains to be seen.

read in other threads on AVS that many more cable networks will be in HD. Discovery is adding 5 new HD channels, the Weather Channel,but does do me any good if they are only on Direct TV. If the majors get on Comcast, they would be adding 25 new HD channels, but will they??

Seems to me they will just be more channels filled with reruns. It's not like networks like Discovery has more HD programming to go around, they will just spread it around more thinly.

As it stands now Starz hardly shows any HD programming as it is. They used to have another HD channel called Encore-HD and practically nobody wanted to carry it. I doubt this will be much different.

Whoa! I never said anything about CableCard being phased out! I said that major CE manufactures have reduced the extent of their deployment of CableCard. I haven't seen any indication that they'll phase it out completely. They're treating it simply as a high-end option, aimed at only the rabid video enthusiast, rather than at the general public.


Motortree's problem is that he's taking statements as rules and ignoring the rules themselves. People in a political system will say whatever they want to make their ruling sound good to whatever audience they're talking to at the moment. Talk is cheap; actions are what matter.

The FCC Chairman, especially, is renowned for saying one thing and then his agency does something completely different. Whether it is because he's just being a politico, making it sound like he favors something but then when he goes behind closed doors and votes or acts he has a completely different perspective, or rather because he simply reflect a minority perspective that has little resemblance to the prevailing perspective in his agency, is something only he knows.

Look at the rules they've actually put in place, and more importantly, look at how they're being enforced, or not. That's the true depiction of reality.

If we go back to the statement I made in response to mgpt6 you might see that my response was to him. You're clearly lacking intelligence in your responses and that is realized by the fact that Tivo makes their Series 3 unit. Wilbur and Orville didn't have a ban on making an airplane and neither does the settop box manufacture industry to make cable boxes. But we didn't see jet airplanes for decades. Eleven years for the Tivo3 pal.

I stand to inform from a well informed position. You should really eat ten or twelve avocado pits and then make public addresses on the green in Burlington. I think this way you'll get the attention you seek, which is clearly the reason why you're here.

Just some scattered thoughts as I learn from you, by your examples, of how things should be stated.

Thanks for your direction. I think bicker1, although, is like one of those 5'4" drunk guys at the bar who goes up and picks a fight with the 6'2" guy that was chatting jubilantly with friends. I'll probably find myself swatting him away or reading to him the label on the raid can before I spray it on him.

Thanks for the tip.

Perhaps someone in the know can shed some light on this:

My buddy lives in Abington, formerly Adelphia and he was switched over to Comcast last year. He retained a few Adelphia channels: HDNET and HDNET Movies...........

Well he just got the letter from Comcast that effective June 1, 2007 those are going away, however, in addition to the expected channels he is going to be getting (MHD, NGHD,WLVI and Universal) he is getting the following:

A&E HD
FOOD Network HD
HGTV (Home and Garden)
Versus/Golf HD


My question is should we expect those as well? I actually live in the Providence DMA (Bristol County, MA) but I usually get the same new additions that Boston does.

Thanks

I'm in the same boat up here in NH (former Adelphia sub with both HDNets still active). My TiVo guide data changed a couple of weeks ago, indicating such channel activity was coming, but then mysteriously changed back a couple of days later. They probably jumped the gun a bit, but there's no doubt we're going to lose the HDNets and get a bunch of other ones. It's just a matter of when it happens...

Also, does anyone know the cheapest way to get every single available HD channel (including the 4 movie channels)? I could care less about non HD programming, so I am wondering, in all the confusing packages comcast offers, what the cheapest route to getting the max HD I can out of the system is....anyone??

Well, judging from my cable bill, I think I've found the most expensive way to get them all, but I'm sure that doesn't help you any.

You call and whine about not being able to afford your setup and threaten to stop your service. They'll usually ask for a deal, then say you can't afford that and ask for something better. It usually works (at least for short-mid term anyways).

For those of us in Southern New Hampshire (I'm 90% sure Boston is included) these are the things we can expect to see.

We all will indeed see A&E HD, Food Network HD and HGTV HD. I've also been told that all six of the Discovery HD channels will be offered within 45 days of each channels launch. So the first four will be offered this summer I'm told. I've also been told that we can expect to see all the new Starz HD channels very close to their launch as well. I'm also told that they are working very hard for carriage of SciFI HD, USA Network HD and TBS HD. They aren't having problems or anything just a lack of time when you doing deals for what ten total HDTV channels. Those are the only specific HD channels I was told about but they will work to get the others but they won't overpay either. They are willing to pay a fair price which is what is being offered thus far from all the channels I listed above.

Also the delay of the Tivo software was caused because the downloading of the software was wiping the hard drive thus removing all recorded content so of course that is a big enough bug to halt things. I've been told that this issue is either fixed or very close to being fixed. Once fixed they will start about a month of testing maybe a little more. I'm told they feel very good about a Tivo release date via a soft launch (you need to call to get it as no advertising will be done for another few months) that will occur around the middle of June.

I hope this helps you all out and just hang in there.

LonghornXP, somewhat off topic but are you aware of any news with Comcast offering the Big Ten Channel? They are promoting some HD coverage so I guess it's not completely OT.

Nope I haven't heard anything about this but I haven't asked either.

What dates are you hearing for these to debut?

Mickey

June 1st, 2007 is the date I've been told. That is also the same date that is given in the letters going out so I'm about 99.9% sure this is the correct date.

What about NFL HD? Any news on that?

Science Channel HD is a great news. Kids love the programming and they always comment that it would be great if the shows are in HD.

Yes, the 11- and 7-year-olds know the difference.

We former Adelphia subs already have NFL-HD, so I guess a corollary question would be whether we're keeping it or not.

I am also amazed that there are no fewer than 6 additional Discovery HD channels on the way. They repeat so much stuff now with just the one channel. What are they going to do, have an "Extreme Engineering" channel, a "Monster Garage" channel, and so on ?

We get the EncoreHD onDemand movies. Though they are usually nothing to write home about.

More importantly, I'm getting my wife to switch to watching the HD channels or recording shows in HD rather than in SD. FINALLY!

All the channels will be simulcast of the SD channels, rather than dedicated. So if a show is HD, it will be in HD, if its SD, it will have pillars.

Also, in the History Channel press release, they have stated that many series are HD and are ready for the HD channel

aw, and I was so looking forward to an HD version of "Deadliest Catch."

Translation: Comcast will have every HD channel under the sun with 2 exceptions, both starting with the letter H.

Meaning we will get every channel except the two I care about.

Oh how I wish I lived one block over and could get Verizon FIOS. They get HDNet and HDNet movies and 2X as fast internet for the same price. Just one measly block...