US Cable Support > Comcast Cable TV > central PA world of more updates

reply to HankStorm

Re: central PA world of more updates

Windsor Township is good for both DOCSIS 3 including Extreme 105. According to what I see here, it was launched last year. You should be good to go.

That's great news since I am expecting my new Motorola SB6120 to replace my SB4100 any day now. Thanks!

reply to Comcast Guy
Any chance we'll get Root Sports in HD (ch. 843) also? We seem to be the only ones in Central PA without it.

Will get it the same time as Olathe/MO gets KMCI HD and Metro Sports HD/2 and Weather.

reply to motorola870
BLACKOUTS-Does State College, PA's Comcast Headend Dept have their head somewhere else? State College Comcast headend dept. blackouts State College line-up channels 13 WNEP16 and 25 WPIX claiming FCC Blackout restriction without verification of a network or syndication exclusivity. Now analog 24-TBS's Major League Baseball's Sunday game of the week is removed and replaced with a simulcast of CNN Headline News (30). There are no market competing teams playing that would justify a removal. Strange or maybe just a sign of incompetence, but while the analog TBS is replaced with CNN-HLN the TBS-HD is still available except for those viewers with only the small and very limited digital service boxes.

The Comcast front desk staff politely take your name and number and tell you that the Headend Supervisor will phone, but that call never comes. Does anyone know have a contact or way to inform Comcast that the State College Headend is misapplying the FCC and MLB blackout rules? Thanks.

miscDude, thanks for your reply which also confirms what I understand after reading the numerous pages of posts detailing the MLB and NFL "blackouts" of those in and around the NY, NJ, and Phila. markets.

What I discovered through talking with various local Comcast staff is that the local State College headend staff employ the "FCC Blackout Restriction" blue screen WITHOUT VERIFICATION of either an actual network conflict or syndication exclusivity and that the local market station's request is supported by the key terms with respect to date of notification (60 days) and local market station transmittor distances (50 miles?). Local Comcast staff described the process: the local Comcast receives a phone call or fax from the local market affiliate station saying that they want certain distant stations blacked out during certain timeslots which the local headend department puts into place on the local cable system. What annoys me is that with a little google websearch of the FCC, MLB and NFL and reading numerous pages of bureaucratic legalese documents is that I think I have a better understanding of the blackout rules and their proper application than those at the local Comcast headend dept.

State College's overall DMA is Johnstown/Altoona but falls under the Pittsburgh blanket for MLB and NHL sports, as you mentioned above. Our recent national TBS MLB "game of the week" blackouts are being imposed when the local market team (Pirates) are not playing in the "game of the week" or not playing at all. Thus not conflicting or subject to blackout or substitution. What is also interesting is that the application of the "blackout" varies between cable company services. A family member who lives nearby but subscribes to a different cable company receives all the syndicated shows and MLB & NHL games - sort of a true free market application. Also, the TBS blackout/substitution and retransmission of CNN-HLN on just the std. def. channel 24 and not the upper-end HD slot lends me to believe that the problem is isolated to Comcast's headend office and not TBS.

On a local system's related note: Comcast's State College system's dta supplemental set top boxes also provide terrible picture and sound quality. The picture appears to be Std. Def of the HD channel especially when you compare the quality when you bypass the box and utilize the cable straight through and select a station's sub-channel. Comcast's scrambling of the basic and expanded tier channel lineup and the requirement for set top boxes actually reduced picture quality to many subscribers. HD TV is great ...when you actually receive it. Due to the numerous hills and weak TV transmission towers our area can not effectively utilize aerial antennas for broader station access.

I won't go into detail on every point you make....in part because I don't have any technical information on the way Comcast specifically sets things up in your area, so I have no way of knowing what the real truth behind things are.

1. When a local broadcaster makes a blackout request of the cable company, they often rely on that same broadcaster giving the details supporting the reasons behind the blackout request truthfully. Because of the nature of the contracts between the broadcaster and content provider, the MSO doesn't usually get access to those contracts in order to verify the data the Broadcaster is giving to support their blackout request. You also run into issues with channels changing their programing schedule, which is why often those blackout requests must be renewed every so often. Once the FCC Blackout slate is configured by the MSO, they don't really have the manpower to constantly keep tabs on the scheduled programming to ensure that the blackout is still needed. If somethng is being blacked out innappropriately, the BEST way to address it is often to contact the station being blacked out and have them approach Comcast. (Honestly, while the engineering departments may set up the blackout, it's often done under instructions from the legal or programming contract departments. The people in this department who tell engineering to set up the blackout, would be the contact people the broadcaster would deal with on a regular basis anyways.)

2. TBS SD and TBS HD are completely separate feeds. The result is that you will often end up with a SD feed blacked out, while a HD feed that maybe is on a shared pod, or doesn't have a tight a localized blackout zone as the legacy SD's, are not blacked out. You see this a lot with other channels as well, including ESPN, VS, etc....

Remember also that in some areas, a national provider may have their signal set up in different blackout zones that cover mutliple DMA's. Without knowing what teams were playing in the game of the week, I can't say that maybe TBS applied a blackout because the teams playing were within your TBS Blackout zone. As I mentioned before, since the provider is the one who enables the blackout, they may for technical reasons (IE. the max number of different zones they can configure on their equiptment, and the most efficient use of what they have available) stick multiple teams/DMAs into a single blackout zone.

With channels that air multiple sports, you could also run into issues because of the different blackout requirements of different leagues, and the added difficulty placed on the provider to meet those requirements under their system's technical capabilities.

With TBS especcially.... remember that it's a "Superstation", and not a traditional Cable channel. TBS started as a broadcast station in the Atlanta market (Channel 17) that was made available to cable systems across the country. This is just like WWOR from NY and WGN in Chicago. While TBS has moved more towards a traditional Cable network (do they even still simulcast the same programming on the broadcast channel in atlanta?), their system likely still has a lot of technical limitations due to the way the channel started.

3. And as for DTA's.... there's been a lot of discussion on that subject in other threads. Just remember that for what the current generation of DTA's was designed to be.... a means to convert the programming from a digital medium to an analog one for old non-digital TV's.... It does an admirable job. Customers may even see an improvement in their picture quality since the analog conversion is done closer to the set.... ie, a 3ft RF cable away instead of miles away at the headend.

As an extra perk, Comcast is also providing customers with a few more channels on the DTA than they used to get via the analog cable. (ie, Broadcaster sidecars and other display 100+ Digital Starter services)

The shortfall of the DTA comes when you start comparing the DTA image quality to a digital signal on your digital TV. This could either be the HD signal that was in the clear on your HDTV, or maybe the broadcaster sidecars.... or for that matter, even channels you watched on a more traditional box connected to your TV.

reply to Comcast Guy
I was also told over the phone a few days ago that D3 is not deployed here yet. From what I have noticed over the last few weeks, they are still testing DOCSIS3 in York. I have a SBG6580 at home, and manage a few clients with SMB business gateways at work, and our upload has been back and forth between single and bonded channels. We are currently getting 4 bonded downstream channels, and one upstream channel in York.

Current connection: »i51.tinypic.com/2a50lc1.png

reply to motorola870
Here in Reading, were going to have 8 downstream channels, and a 3rd upstream channel shortly. We also are carrying the RNG200 alongside the DCX3400M now.

can you get the rng200 WITHOUT having MRDVR?

reply to motorola870
no, for a while they were just giving us dcx3400m's as normal dvrs, so theres around a 100 people that have 500gb dvrs and don't know it. Now that the demand is here for them, they only give them out when requested for an actual Anyroom DVR install.

reply to ComcastTech
Isn't the RNG200 a Cisco box? At least the 200n is I think (saw Ted Hodgekins say it on the comcast corporate blog).

The Cisco boxes are pretty sharp IMO.

Was helping out the mother-in-law install a new 55" TV a few weeks back - ahead of time she stopped by her local Comcast office - told her to be sure to grab "the newest HD box".

I Like the blue "HD" light on the front. Activation was simple.

(Funny story - I helped set up her install appt a few years back when she bought the place thru 1 of my Comcast contacts - she's still tagged as a "VIP" in the system, b/c the woman mentioned it to her). Gotta love it.
--
"ONE team - ONE city - ONE dream!!"

reply to motorola870
Guide update coming for SA boxes. They'll be compatible with the mobile apps when done.

Any word of more HD channels coming to the Reading-Hamburg area?

reply to Comcast Guy
when are motorola boxes going to get the mobile apps?

They already have them. I use mine on iPad 2, Android and now Blackberry.