OptimumOnline → [iO] Cablevision destroying HD TV

I am very dissapointed in my HDTV picture lately from Cablevision. I read this article and realized why.
»www.usatoday.com/tech/pr ··· Briefing
Then I went to my neighbors house who has FIOS and we compared the difference on the same channels. His picture was far better than mine and we have the same Vizio tv purchased from Costco. Here is a case where bandwith availability is essential for optimum HDTV quality and FIOS has the edge. I'll give Cablevision untill June and if nothing changes I'm going to give FIOS a try.

If you have trouble with the previous webpage try this one.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/compressed_hd

I think my HD picture quality is great as well as SD. In fact it seems to me it has improved over the last month or so.

I can't compare it to any other service at the moment but I am pleased with the quality.

I'm not sure where you are, but my picture quality on OOL is top notch. I saw some FiOS screen caps from the other day and they look of comparable quality to the picture quality on my 8300HD. No pixelation or compressed blockiness like some of the SD channels.

Story was already mentioned in a different post.

See:
»[iO] Compression on TV signals

The compression is just cable for HD Cable, it really is pathetic. I hope to see much higher bit-rates in the nera future because it just isn't good enough.

Before you change from iO to FiOS, be warned, if you're a sports fan (Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Devils), FiOS does not carry MSG and MSG+ in HD like iO does. That's because Cablevision, who owns MSG and MSG+, won't let Verizon have those channels in HD. Also, Cablevision has an exclusive deal with MSNBC which keeps FiOS from showing MSNBC in the NY/Northern NJ area. Finally, FiOS also doesn't carry Versus/Golf HD. I'm a FiOS subscriber and it doesn't bother me that I'm missing these channels since I'm not a big sports fan except for Yankees baseball on YES and YES HD which FiOS has both of these channels. As for not having MSNBC on FiOS, I don't care about that channel since I get my news from Fox News Channel.

That article was about Comcast.

Remember, it's all bad!

The only time MSNBC becomes a channel that some people might watch is during the olympics. Otherwise, it's really taking up space, and I am very surprised Cablevision did not target it for a move to digital-only, instead picking SciFi (owned by NBC as well) which has much higher viewership. Of all the channels I was thinking they would dump to analog, I was thinking they'd be going after the channels that nobody watches... to keep customers from getting angry. But that exclusive deal with MSNBC probably has some clause in it that MSNBC has to remain on analog. -- I know Comcast doesn't have any deal with MSNBC, they've been moving MSNBC to digital-only all over the country.

They may also be trying to manage the transition by moving channels that will effect a lot of people at different times. If you wait and move all the popular channels last, you may end up with that move being more disruptive. If you move some popular channels as you go, each incremental move may have about the same effect.

Or they could take a look at the list of the 30 most watched cable networks that is released each month, and they can just leave those channels alone. They are usually always the same, and the only channels that fall off and come back on are the ones that just barely make it onto the list. Dump everything else. Leave the 30 most popular analog channels to maintain the competitive advantage over FIOS and Satellite, and call it a day. A cable system with Must-Carry + 30 analog channels should provide ample amounts of bandwidth for new digital channels. Maybe they want even more?

I agree that if they intended long term to leave 30 analogs and their agreements allowed it, keeping the most popular as analog would likely make sense, since it probably would maximize their revenue by keeping customers or attracting customers that would otherwise use FIOS or satellite.

They either do not intend to long term keep 30 analog, or they believe that they can not make as much by keeping them analog (though I think it is unlikely that box rentals would offset customers added/subtracted) or their agreements do not allow them to move other channels.