San Francisco, CA - Comcast - Page 488

HD content on non-HD channel (may be Fremont specific)

Odd thing I wondered if anyone else noticed...

In Fremont, for the last week or so, Comcast channel 35 is being delivered in HD. I haven't compared signals, but the HD idiot light on TV comes on, and TV goes through the same delay as would normally happen when switching from HD to non-HD channel (or vice versa). Either TNT is HD only now, or someone got their signals crossed...

It is 16x9 SD.

Ron

San Carlos has the same 429 and no 618. I never really watched GolTV and had gotten used to BeIN in Spanish on 651 (still there) - so I can't say if the changes are recent or not, but definitely no GolTV on 618 and efintiely now BeIN in English on 429.

The analog channels in 94022 no longer display the warning banner and my TV tuners claim to find only 1 analog station (I think it's channel 16).

Same in 94928, 'cept it's 26 here....

I've been taking advantage of the clear QAM signals with my TV's tuner here in 94404, with an accepted part of that being a re-scan every so often, when prompted by a formerly tunable channel dropping from my scanned lineup with a scrambled, or no signal.

The latest shuffle involved the loss of KTSF's sub-channels, so since i had some time tonight, I ordered the TV to do a re-scan. (I also noticed KGO's PSIP information had become flakey.)

Which turned out to be a mistake.

The latest shuffle has resulted in the formerly convenient KTVU, KPIX, and KGO losing their places (2.1, 5.1, 7.1) and being punted up into the 8x.x range. KQED and its sub-channels have also been displaced.

Of the major networks, KNTV still remains at 11.1.


Anyone seeing something similar?

I hope this is just some temporary weekend shuffling, since I don't really want to enter 81.1 instead of 7.1 when I want KGO, etc.

I still receive something like 14 analog channels with the placeholders on this system.

I did a rescan yesterday on one of my TVs and didn't have your problem. 2.1, 5.1 etc, are all still there.
Also noticed 0 analog channels this time. Many channels still broadcasting 4/3 low def pictures but most are fine.

I saw the same loss of virtual channel info this weekend, along with the digital transition notices on most of the former analog stations. I expect that we'll get the PSIP info back when Comcast is finished shuffling. But we may have to do some hunting for new rf channel assignments.

Sounds like the channels just lost their PSIP information. I doubt those channels were on QAM 2.1 etc, just the PSIP was mapping them to those virtual channels. Last time I looked KTVUHD was on QAM 79 in Mountain View.

Yeah, I think it's just a temporary thing.

I'm not versed in the PSIP/virtual mapping thing, but after looking at the signal diagnostics screen and seeing the real channel match the "virtual" channel, I figured that was the case.

They still must be playing with the systems here on the mid-Peninsula.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the NBA channel, as well as a bunch of Prime hockey channels are now unscrambled. With live sports being the one of the last few reasons people still subscribe to cable, I'm sure they won't let that last long, and get everything sorted out again, hopefully with the PSIP info properly restored.

Looks like there was a shuffle very recently (clear QAM using Avermedia Duet) here in Dublin.

A week ago I got 45 clear QAM channels.

After not being able to tune in ABC (7.1), I rescanned.

Now I'm getting 51 clear QAM channels.

I can't tell exactly what programming is new...

In San Carlos there were many new encrypted channels as of yesterday with the analog channels mostly gone. However, the broadcast locals (unencrypted, of course) were not moved and their PSIP streams with virtual channel IDs were back. I'm still a happy camper with my Basic subscription.

Looks like channels moved in San Francisco. I'm doing a rescan now. I have an HDHomeRun Prime that's working fine. The standard HDHomeRun lost some channels.

Now I'm jealous. I bought a HDHomeRun dual and tried twice to scan the cable channels and both times it came up with nothing. Then hooked up to OTA antenna and it scanned in the OTA channels just fine. I wish I knew what I did wrong.

Do you have and suggestions or ideas on what I might do to get the cable channels to scan. My TVs scan in just fine and the HDHomeRun box list digital QAM as a choice with the ATSC tuner in it.

Any help is always appreciated....

I recently got a HDHomeRun, but, I'm using it with a Mac (Mini Server) — EyeTV seems to scan 'open' QAM just fine. So looks like I might need to see if those of us South — the Peninsula — need to rescan.

Have you checked the SiliconDust Forum? If you run the setup app it shouldn't be a problem, I have both a 2-tuner HDHomeRun and just got a 3-tuner HDHomeRun Prime and both of then setup rather easily. The Prime took a bit of doing as you have to run the Microsoft tuner setup as well as the HDHR setup but it was basically trouble free.

http://www.silicondust.com/forum2/index.php?sid=02c0e9fcddf1ca31245de7050af24a16

Don't know if this is right forum: Have Comcast in Oakland.
Internet speed tests out at between 10-12 mbps on speedtest.net.

Never had trouble streaming Netflix movies. --Until a couple weeks ago. Now it stops to reload almost constantly. Actually had to stop watching a couple selections. Is there any "reading" other than speed I should look at that could be causing this problem? I would like to sound knowledgeable when I call Comcast. Netflix (A-1 in customer service we just discovered) ran some tests on our end and had us check some settings - and said they couldn't see anything causing problems on their end.

Thanks.

Thanks for pointing me to that forum. Not sure if it helped as I thought I had done the setup properly the first time.

Anyway, I ran through the setup again and was surprised that it worked this time. I must have not set something right the first time.
All clear channels are now working and I'm recording Alpine skiing as a test. Sad we lost our best female skier for the season. Hope she is back for the Olympics..

You bet, glad you got it working.

Snidely, if you don't get an answer here, you might try on the DSL Reports forum for Comcast Internet; it's very active.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/comcast

Currently have Direct TV and U-Verse data.

Been thinking about jettisoning both but not quite ready to ditch Direct TV yet. Reason to ditch would be to take advantage of promo pricing and faster speeds that Comcast would presumably deliver.

So I'm thinking about their offers at comcast.com/gethighspeed or comcast.com/xfinity.

Like I said, I lean towards just getting the HSI for now, possibly move to Double-Play later (can't imagine bothering with landline phones again) when Tivo may have a extender box, called Tivo Mini.

But the mailings I get offer 12 months or even 24 months for the Double/Triple Play deals.

Have people been locking in for these periods or are they able after the trials to get Comcast to extend the promo pricing?

This is for the SF Bay Area.

Hmm, nevermind, after you actually put in your address at the comcast.com site, it comes back with "those offers are not available" and the ones they list are much less attractive.

Guess I have to wait for the mailings.

Their HSI has been solid here in Oakland (and in our Miami home). We have the high speed on a special. If you call, you can almost always get a special offer. I know in the past, when a special is about to expire, I can call and get another special that's virtually the same. Like many others, we gave up landlines years ago. Why would you think you need one? If your cell goes out and you still have internet (unlikely situation) you can always use Skype. Cell systems haven't gone down in years (storms excepted) and Comcast phone isn't as solid as "Ma Bell".

Dumb question -
Our seldom used 3 y.o LCD. Panny in spare room died with less than 200-300 hours on it. We tuned it to channel 3 and used the free data converter "thing" from Comcast. Of course just gave us SD which was/is fine. Question - new panels seem to have a digital tuner in their specs. Does that mean we can hook up the Comcast cable directly w.o. going thru the data converter and tune all the Comcast SD channels we got/get before? Eg. dial 56 for CNN 3 for KNTV etc. directly on the new TV?
We are looking at a low end 32" Vizio panel.

Thanks.

No, you'd need a converter to get CNN. Your locals like KNTV would be unencrypted and you could see them but all the cable channels are encrypted.... and, you'd get those locals in HD...

Thanks. Just finished installing new Vizio 32 inch LED Panel. You are right that I get all the local channels with a direct connection. In fact, get all the "sub-channels" (like 7-2) which I never saw before. I somehow had thot w. a digital tuner I would no longet need the "data" adapter (converter) from Comcast. I saw your reply just after I finished hanging it up and hadn't realized I wasn't getting more than the local, shopping channels and some misc. local stuff and cspan. I'll now go back and route it thru the Comcast adapter.
Question - it appears with a direct connection I may be getting HD signals on local channels (didn't check closely). Thru the adapter, all I will get is SD. No big deal because when that set is used it's mainly for news. Can I ask what the best way of hooking up a new panel to get the most out of a Comcast outlet? I do not want to rent an HD converter box. (We watch most everything on a regular 50" plasma via DVR.)
A BIG thanks again.

mike

Snidely-

You'll probably be best served if you bite the bullet and get an HD box from Comcast now, when doing your initial installation and setup. The FCC recently gave Comcast (and other cable co's) permission to start encryption on ALL their content, including local/local-HD channels which they previously could not. That's why you can presently get them from the naked cable feed. Sometime in the not too distant future, none of us will be able to do that any longer and will have to go with a cable box of some sort (I presume that Tivos with Cablecards will still be able to decrypt the channels). As for the time scale of the switch, I have no idea but I think it took less than a year for them to implement encryption of the non-premium cable channels (e.g. CNN) after they got an FCC ruling allowing them to do so a couple of years ago.

In the meantime, if you want to avoid the fee for an HD box, you could put the naked cable feed into the CABLE IN port on your TV and the DTA RCA output into the appropriate jack and use your TV remote to select the appropriate input source.

Basically, the DTA units are a really poor companion for any HDTV.

Alan

When/if Comcast encrypts the OTA locals, I'm gone. I suspect that significantly many current Basic subscribers are in the same boat, so I'm not too sure that Comcast will be rushing into this, despite the FCC's caving in on it.

I think it would be a massive undertaking and might only occur in select areas at a time around here. What makes more sense would be to go to IPTV which they have in some areas of the country.

Personally I don't like Comcast's billing which is hard to figure out when your bill is suddenly going to jump when your promo runs out. I have U-Verse for Internet and phone and looking at the bill I always know what it's going to cost when the promo runs out. Comcast's style is like a carny trying to hoodwink you into something. They really need to drop that style and be more out front.

It's getting more and more like ANY TV service is not worth it for me. I can get most of the cable network shows I watch on streaming services. For one thing I only have a few select shows and sometimes during the year usually around the holidays these networks will take a hiatus leaving you paying for nothing. Figure that in and streaming is often cheaper especially when you don't pay for a DVR rental and extra fees.

If basic customers were going to leave, they would have done it when Comcast went all digital, a few months ago, forcing them all to install a digital STB. Those STBs will decode the basic channels if they start encrypting them. So most basic customers won't even notice the change.

Yes, if you have a recent digital TV, you can tune the basic cable HD signals with a clear QAM tuner in your TV or DVR. But since the channels keep moving, I found that to be very frustrating. The vocal folks on this site will complain about their QAM tuners not working any more, but I believe this is a small minority of Comcast customers.

Greg