San Francisco, CA - Comcast - Page 198

Considering this knocks out home phone service, which means no E911 for 24 hours, I do not find this is acceptable in the least. Sure many have cell phones, but what if your home has an intruder in the middle of the night? I know for me, first instinct is to grab that home phone and dial 911.

But with your situation, that can't happen. Could be a life or death kind of thing. I agree with another poster that you should demand a credit and give this example as to why it is vital to have these problems (Especially digital voice) resolved immediately.

If I were you,
I'd write a letter to the Action Line at the Merc (actionline@mercurynews.com). This is the kind of thing they will print and put pressure on Comcast. It's unacceptable for someone at comcast to physically disconnect service (for no reason), which includes phone (E911), and then say you need to wait at least 24 hours for repairs (Reconnecting your service).

File a complaint with the FCC as per my previous post.

AT&T/SBC is likely going to make you wait until the next day to fix a problem with your home line also...it's just their service is so much more mature that it's much rarer to have an outage on their phone service (you can always switch back...people leaving them is about the only thing that motivates them ($$'s talk)

For those of you doing 1394 recording with these boxes, and have a PS3, you'll be happy to know the latest PS3 update as of yesterday (version 2.20) finally fixes the problems with longer recordings (over 2GB), they now play back flawlessly. You still have to change the container from MPEG2-TS to PS to get Dolby Digital sound... but that's pretty easy and quick (and no loss of quality) using ie. VLC.

Next day? My home phone service went out a year or so ago (DSL was fine, though). When I called SBC (before changing their name to ATT, but after they were called PacBell), they set up a service call for about a week later. A WEEK!!!! I was shocked. Back in NY, they would come the same day.

Who can be without phone service for a week? WTF is wrong with these people? I'm sure if they could have fixed it remotely by using some guy in India, they would have. They, like all US corporations nowadays, don't want to spend a penny on labor costs. Yet, they have no problem giving their execs multi-million dollar bonuses. Assclowns.

You mean DOESN'T seem to care, don't you? They've been in the pocket of the NAB and other corporate interests for the past seven and a half years. They care as much about the consumer as the Chinese gov't cares about product safety.

From today's merc:
http://www.mercurynews.com/columns/ci_8718530

Comcast says it plans to ease video and music complaints, will team with b_i_t_t_o_r_r_e_n_t
Plus: AMD offers slew of new chips; Cnet told to seek expertise; Sun bolstering Moscow operations
By Steve Johnson
Mercury News
Article Launched: 03/27/2008 01:51:15 PM PDT

Seeking more speed: Under fire for delaying delivery of Internet video and music, Comcast announced today that it will enlist San Francisco-based b_i_t_t_o_r_r_e_n_t to resolve such gripes.

The Philadelphia Internet service provider, which has been lambasted for hampering online file-sharing by its subscribers, said it will work with b_i_t_t_o_r_r_e_n_t to find better ways to transport large files over the Internet instead of delaying file transfers.

Consumer and "Net Neutrality" advocates have accused Comcast of stifling delivery of Internet video, an emerging competitor to the cable operators' core business. Comcast has said its practices were necessary to keep file-sharing traffic from overwhelming local cable lines, where neighbors share capacity with one another.

P.S. You can't say b_i_t_t_o_r_r_e_n_t here? Wow.

Haven't been able to for quite some time, I use Bit-Torrent when I need to use the name in a post, or BT.

Seeing as up to 70% of internet traffic is bitorent and that what... at least 60-70% of that is probably piracy... I don't mind them throttling heavy users at all if it means I can play my 15k/sec online video games without getting massive lag!

Getting really sick of the ADS quality here in Sunnyvale (94089). Watching the Sharks game (FSNBA, ch40) right now, and the PQ just flat out sucks. Even the screen overlays (score, time) have tons of artifacts. Can't even read the sponsor logos (not just the ones along the boards on the rink, I'm talking about the ones on the screen overlay), much less see who actually has the puck at any given moment.

I'll see if I can get a decent photo of it in the second period...

Here are some shots of the Comcastic bitrate FSN is being carried at on ADS in 94089. Taken from a tripod in a completely dark room on a 42" LCD rear projection at 9 feet (pure optical zoom, not digital, to fit the 4:3 image frame). Original image resolution was 2272x1520.









This power play is sponsored by... ? (No points given if you're a regular Sharks viewer) Might be interesting to see how the sponsor's marketing department feels about their sponsorship dollars being spent on something that's hard to see due to compression artifacts...

Can you guess which player has the puck? Answer: the guy (*cough* pixels) behind the net...




Just in case you're thinking, "yeah, but hockey is a fast moving sport, and it's hard for MPEG2 to keep up at even moderate bitrates..." -- this is after play has stopped, and the players are just coasting through center ice (this is a stationary shot!!!). Wanna take a guess as to which company's logo is on the ice, top-left? If you didn't know beforehand, it might be hard to tell...





And to think... Sharks games used to look really good (in comparison) back when they were analog...

If you think Sharks games are bad, try watching a Warrior game on TNT on analog channel 37 from San Lorenzo. It was painful watching this broadcast knowing that TNT offers a nice, crisp HD version that Comcast has yet to launch in this area. The NBA play-offs are coming up and I was really hoping we'd be upgraded by now. It really sucks to be at the bottom of Comcast's priorities...

Has your analog always looked bad? I know some folks have crappy analog (snow on some channels, etc.), but honestly, I never had any problems with my analog PQ before we went ADS. The reason I'm pissed off is that my basic/expanded-basic PQ has gone down significantly since ADS was turned on and I'm in an upgraded 1GHz area!!! No excuses for cutting corners on bandwidth guys!!! If there isn't enough bandwidth to provide a decent digital stream, why bother with digital simulcast? Just stick with the analog...

HD channels updated! This is in Sunnyvale, 94087, Fremont @ Hollenbeck. Now we have HGTV, Discovery, MHD again (we moved from Mountain View, which had the updated lineup a year ago).

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum and registered because last week I seemed to have lost NBC's HD channel for Fremont. On my TV (Sony bravia), the channel was 116.1. Now I'm getting "unauthorized" message on my tv when I try to load it.

Anyone know what the new channel # is? Or was it completely removed? Also how come my channel numbers don't quite match Peter's here even though we're both comcast users? BTW, I don't use a digital box for my TV if that makes any difference?

I thought the game looked good PQ wise. especially given it was just in SD.

why it wasnt in HD is a major annoyance given that it was in SJ and they have
HD cameras...

(santa clara 95051/comcast 3416 dvr/42" dlp tv/upgraded neighborhood/no freaking blast on internet though/)

And to think... Sharks games used to look really good (in comparison) back when they were analog...

Was ADS turned on recently for you? Local Comcast might still be going through adjustments. You should complain. How is CNN?

If it is any source of hope, for me (95134) and many others, ADS digital channel quality pretty good.

Last nite I discovered here in San Jose that KNTV was changed to 79.3 from 79.1 and KBCW went to 79.1 from 91.2. Almost missed recording Smallville on my sony dvr.
On my Phillips plasma KNTV still shows at 11.1 and KBCW now shows at 44.1.

Could be that your area is getting a higher bitrate for FSN (and perhaps other expanded basic channels)...

Would have been nice to have it in HD, for sure (no complaints about HD PQ here, those games look nothing short of fantastic!!)


I don't recall the exact timeframe ADS was turned on here (upgrade happened 11/07), but I think it was sometime in late Jan, early Feb. Hopefully you're right about my local area going through adjustments (I know upgrades are underway in other parts of Sunnyvale, though I don't think this should be affecting my loop, should it?).

CNN looks... somewhat ok. There's some noticeable artifacting (i.e. analog looked better). To give a general idea of the overall PQ on ADS channels -- you know at the end of some commercials, there's about half a screen of fine print? It's completely unreadable, as in maybe I can make out a word or two. I'm young, and I have good eyes, and I've always been able to make out the text. The amount of compression in use is just too much to allow a sufficient/acceptable level of detail.

Any suggestions as to how I should complain to Comcast? I mean, I doubt this is something a regular CSR can help me with... supervisor? I was hoping that these posts would be a good way to bring the issue to light.

Most likely it says unauthorized because NBC was moved (in your area) from 116 to somewhere else. The replacement is likely encrypted.

The reason your channel #s don't match is because potentially every head-end can have different channel locations. In many cases there are similarities, but you almost never see every single channel in the same location unless you are on the same head-end.

Rescan for new channels, then step through every one until you find NBC.

digital versions look better than analog here, especially the 704x480 ones (some are less, I think 512x480 on some channels...)

the warriors game was on TNT last night.. in High Def. Looked great.. maybe you should upgrade to HD

Thank god tomorrow's road game vs. defending Cup Champ Ducks, where the Sharks have a chance to clinch the Pacific Division Title and the 2 seed in the Western Conference Playoffs, is one of the few road games in HD.

I would have to agree, for my area too. They do not look as good as ATSC OTA signals, obviously. But, they do away with the snow and grain of the analog cable signals, at roughly the same underlying PQ otherwise. I've been happy with ADS.

OT but: .. at least the 2 seed in the west, they could still pass detroit for #1 if the stars
align properly....

My area already has pretty good analog without lots of snow or scrolling lines. I've seen areas that have much worse analog.

IMO ADS gets rid of analog artifacts like snow and lines so many people will feel the PQ is much better. However it does introduce mpg artifacts like macroblocking and mosquito noise so others that are more sensitive to those think the PQ is worse, especially if their analog was pretty good to start with.

For me ADS is acceptable (and so was analog). Mostly it is trading off one type of artifact for another, with individual sensitivities to the different artifacts varying.

Yes, most of us are so accustomed to seeing NTSC snow that we tend to ignore it. But MPEG artifacts jump out to our eyes.

Having said that, I'm surprised to see "PQ" even mentioned in a discussion of SDTV reception. I thought that those of us who cared had stopped watching such stuff.

sharks fanboyism trumps anti-SD fanboyism

and since no SCIFI-HD yet.....
granted its possible to grab the HD version of SG-Atlantis off the net before
it even airs out here in SD I still end up watching it "live" most of the time

Who else has encountered these problems in the last week or two?
I began having problems almost 2 weeks ago.
I was unable to see HBO, ESPN & ESPN 2 were out, channels 36-42 were out
and so were channels 3-6 and channel 505(Sundance) was out as well.
When I say out, the screen would read, "one moment please" and was all dark.

Eventually a Comcast tech came to visit and his solution was to replace my
HD Box w/Dvr with a new one.

5 nites later and most of the problems have been solved.
My ESPN or ESPN 2 will still have major tiling issues and audio drop outs.
This morning while watching channel 2, more audio drops out were occuring.

Wondering if anybody else is having similiar trouble in the area

I'm in 94611 and I'm not seeing it on 720 - the feed on 40 is there and working, though. Is anyone seeing this game on FSNHD?

not in 95051 yet no.