San Francisco, CA - Comcast - Page 90

Thanks for the reassurance, but I still think Comcast should pro-rate those on older systems that receive less HD channels - we play the same yet receive FAR less. Is there a way to determine what city has what bandwidth, so when I'm ready to buy a home I can move to an area with more bandwidth?!

Neil,
Comcast has plans to have all areas in the Bay Area upgraded in 18 months ( from last December ) so by the time you get ready to buy that house, all areas should be upgraded... or at least that's the plan...

Laters,
Mikef5

Just be ready to move every 7-8 years....I moved to Saratoga ~9 years ago and one of the Big Benefits was they had just been upgraded TO 550Mhz and had Cable Internet... That was a huge jump from San Jose's A/B Cable system that only had 300Mhz combined (and dialup)

Now San Jose has 860Mhz...and Saratoga is in the Ghetto with 550Mhz

But instead of moving, I just took a 1Yr sabbatical from Comcast and have been enjoying Dish-HD for a while (maybe I'll move back when Comcast finishes the Saratoga upgrade..since they offer those nice welcome back discounts

I'm assuming its not news that with Comcast and the NFL having their dissagreement, the NFL network is no longer in the digital package at 180. That is even though its listed on their website as in the package and my TiVo doesn't know that its gone. I didn't find out until my TiVo was recording a blank channels for last week's Thursday 9ers game. (I saw the second half on KPIX instead.)

So I just rang Comcast to complain that they hadn't told me or updated the website, so I missed the game. I signed up for the Sports Tier, and they said they'd waive the usual $1.99 change fee and give me the sports tier discounted to $2.99 until February. I'm assuming, if you complain about the NFL Network getting dropped, you get the freebies.

I'd originally got the sports tier when I sign up with Comcast last year, all I really wanted was SPEED. I noticed it was also in the "Premier Tier" as well, the 2 tiers have a lot of channels in common, so I decided change over to that and got charged the $1.99 fee. Then this year they dropped half the channels in the Premier tier so you got less than the Sports for 4c more a month. Quite annoying, but as I still got SPEED I never bothered to pay the $1.99 to switch back.

Speaking of NFLNET.....
What happened to channel 725?
It's gone from my Guide and Favorites list.
(Yes, I have the sports tier package)

I just checked and we still have channel 725 in Rohnert Park, nothing on it of course.

does anyone know what HD channels santa clara (the city) should be getting?
At the moment I have comast hooked to my mythtv box with no HD cable
recvr box. I get the locals which is mostly what I care about.
was going to upgrade to a digital cable box when hockey season starts.

thanks

Bay Area Neighbors:
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Some Bay Area Locations:
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I do apologize for the diatribe but I am feeling quite frustrated, and now that my 1-year special price has ended the monthly cost for such a pittance of HD is galling.[/quote]

DirecTV is launching these channels on the 14th:

A&E
Big Ten Network
Cartoon Network
CNN
Food Network
Golf/Versus
HGTV
History
NFL Network
National Geo
Simithsonian
TBS

Dish beat DirecTV for History Channel HD though, that just went active on their STB's a few mins ago.

Looks like Comcast SFBA will be dead last in HD channels (again) in a week or so.

PS DirecTV is turning on 6 MORE HBO HD channels next month or so, or so I heard from a friend working with them.

This is even more galling for me, as I'm in 860 Mhz plant, and there is a ton of capacity that doesn't even have a QAM carrier up on it at all. I feel badly for the 550 areas, but how come we have all this empty capacity that could be filled with HD channels that the DBS guys are already broadcasting, at a lower price than Comcast is charging?

Thx
Mike

Can anyone in the Rohnert Park/Cotati/Sebastopol area confirm that Digital Preferred Plus is required to get an HDDVR? I have a new HDTV coming Friday and my dad went in to pick up an HDDVR box for me but was told he would have to switch from Digital Preferred $14.95 to Digital Preferred Plus $45.95 and would be charged $6.99 for a Digital Programming Access Fee as well as the $7.00 for the HDDVR box.

Hey all, just got my new tv, now trying to figure out the cable situation in west san jose/ saratogi

I currently have comcast digital cable with premium channels. I would like to upgrade to comcast hd with dvr and premium channels (hbo mostly)

First question is wheter its worth it these days to stick with comcast, or switch to direct tv or dish network. I will probably stick with comcast (for Now) unless one of the other providers has a killer hot deal.

2nd question is whether or not i should provide my own dvr box for use? im sure comcast gives/rents you one, but im sure it costs more than it should and has a small hard drive space.

Any info would be appreciated. Will be calling comcast tommorow and threatening to cancel my current package and see what they throw at me.

Thanks in advance

I didn't expect it when I got my HDTV and the Comcast HD box three years ago, but I've been very spoiled by KTVU's (mostly*) gorgeous newscasts in HD, as well as KGO and now even KRON. It's especially great for text and graphics. Big movies and 5.1 surround yeah, but I guess I'm a news geek as well.

So now I find myself wondering how many months it will take to get CNN HD on Comcast. Or worse. Is there good news coming?

*If only KTVU's helicopter shots weren't always chock full o' glitches, and their remote feeds weren't so often covered in digital noise (or upsampled?).

im all the way from Virginia, and saw this was a specific Comcast thread for San Francisco...

I dont know how you all feel about Comcast, but people around Richmond,VA absolutely hate the company. Horrible service and customer service. Just wanted to let you all know of something I found yesterday thats pretty funny...

I was looking at websites to create a forum for Comcast Horror stories...so naturally I tried IHateComcast.com. And of course it was taken, but the funny thing is...Comcast Cable Communications actually OWNS IHateComcast.com...pretty sh*tty when you are a company and you have to buy websites that are degrading to you so it can't get out as quick as it normally would....PM if you have a comcast horror story and I plan to make a forum solely for comcast problems

oh yeah...GO NINERS

Sorry we all here are Comcast fanboys

jk!

does anyone in bayarea on comcast cable have analog radio FM?
milt

dslreports.com has a forum dedicated to bitching about comcast. suggest you try there.

honestly comcast has been a pretty good thing for the bay area, compared to the 2-3 cable companies that preceeded it.

I mean when they took over here we had no HD at all, no DVR, and 1.5mbit cable modem. Now we have many HD channels with more coming all the time, at superb quality I might add, unlike satellites, and 6-8mbit cable modem with "speed boost".

not bitching, just asking for information.
milt

Milt,
I don't think the bitching comment was meant for you but for the Va. poster.
To answer your question, I don't think there is analog FM radio left in the Bay Area, I believe it's all gone to digital or soon will be.

Laters,
Mikef5

We might still have it in Santa Rosa but I'm not sure how to even check.

Nope.....gone for three days now in San Jose. I can't even manually
punch it in anymore. So, I'm paying extra for NFLNET, but now the
HD channel has been taken away from me??? C'MON COMCAST!!!

That's weird that you lost it and it's still on here on a 550 MHz area in Milpitas. It is just listed as 725 with no name and the guide says To Be Announced. Go figure...

Laters,
Mikef5

I lost ESPN today, or yesterday... Not sure what the deal is with that.

Jim,
You lost it ?? or it's there but can't access it ?? or not there at all ??

Laters,
Mikef5

probably a dumb questions, but i'm concerned whether the upgrades in saramilgatos will be finished by next year as comcast has promised.

i'm in l.g. and haven't seen any evidence that the upgrade to 1mil hz is actually happening. i don't see any trucks or people out working on the lines or boxes. is the upgrade all done internally by new/improved equipment or software, or do they also need to make hardware upgrades out in the field?

It's not tuning, says "Searching for signal on : Basic Cable In" with an S3. It's not getting any signal at all. IOW, no signal being sent because if I use the signal meter for stations I don't get, like HBO, it does give a reading and then the CC screen pops up. With ESPN, nothing.

A lot of the work is done at the head end and not normally visible to the customer but some of the work is done outside where you may or may not see trucks rolling around, it really depends on your area on what needs to be done. I can tell you from some of the info I've been able to ascertain the upgrades for the SaraMilgatos area is on schedule or ahead of schedule. My best guess is that this area will be done before the end of the year if not sooner. Some nodes in this area are going to light off soon, you will know when you get a letter with the new channel line up in it and it will tell you when you will be activated ( some people have already received their letters ) . So far I have not received the letter

Laters,
Mikef5

So you're using the Tivo ?? Do you still have a Comcast box or know someone that has one ?? The reason I ask is I've been losing and regaining channels on and off for weeks now and it's do to the upgrades happening in this area. Some times they forget to return the system to normal and that may of happened in your area. If someone else in Santa Rosa that is using the Motorola box could tell us what channel 723 says or if they are still getting it that would help a lot in trouble shooting.

Laters,
Mikef5

Hopefully someone will chime in, all I have is the S3 and the HDHR which doesn't tune encrypted stations. It will show whether there is a signal or not, but it seems apparent there is no signal being sent, at least that's my assumption.

The no signal being sent was exactly what happened to me last week when I lost 702 and 705 ( I think ) turned out the system was being worked on and they didn't return the system back to normal. You'll have to get Comcast to get a hold of the head end to find out if they are working on the system and why it's been out for so long ( see if there's an open trouble ticket on the system ).

Laters,
Mikef5

I had it until a month or two ago. I used it to tape Cartalk and Prairie Home Companion from the Comcast analog FM signal to listen to while commuting (proving that there is still use for audio cassettes). But I got only static one weekend and analog radio has been gone ever since. I now tape those shows off of KQED, which is carried by Comcast on channel 960. If you use an optical link from the Comcast box to your receiver, this will not give you an audio signal that reaches the tape out jacks; you need to go from the audio out RCA jacks on the Comcast box to the receiver. The signal strength was too low until I changed the audio settings on the main menu of the Comcast box from "matrix" to "stereo."

p.s. Cartalk is also available via podcast, but only a small part of Prairie Home Companion is podcast. But if my car can play cassettes, it is a good bet that it does not have an iPod port.