kcharg
Kcharg
Premium,VIP
join:2000-10-28
Forney, TX
| reply to rossr5
Re: re: hdtv and vod
My understanding from meetings that I have been in, is that we are not going to be offering VOD until we can get the NRB's (Non Responding Boxes) down to an acceptable level. The Dallas Metroplex as a whole has too many, because of Contractor's going out doing Digital Installs without phone lines. Well now we are almost fully upgraded to a RF Return system. In about 2 months I think we'll be ready for VOD. That's about when all the upgrades will be long gone and we'll have had enough time to hit those NRB's that are such a big pain in the A$$. So it would be safe to say that sometime in early January we should see the release of all these new products: (HDTV being already release, DVR's which I think should be coming about a month from now and of course VOD).
kcharg
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kcharghttp://home.attbi.com/~kcharg/ |
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rossr5
join:2003-11-15
Garland, TX
| Kcharg,
Will we be getting the new tv guide with the pvr boxes or is that coming with vod? Do you know if when they come out with those boxes in a month if we can just swap out our old dct-2000 boxes for the new boxes. They had said that they had a short supply of the 5100's now. Do you know if there going to use the new dct-6200 for pvr or are they getting more of the 5100's? |
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asfdasdf
@attbi.com
| reply to OTAHDTV
Re: [COMCAST] HDTV in Dallas MetroPlex
and you don't get HBO, Shotime or ESPN HD. Plus you need to have a stupid looking antenna on top of your house and all the wiring, then you need to switch back and forth between the antenna and cable/satellite/whatever you have. With cable it's a 1-system 1-box solution (including DVR by the way which is yet ANOTHER box if you use a OTA system) |
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aasdfasfd
@attbi.com
| reply to imrf
Uh wrong. DTS is compressed. There are several DTS bitrates, one of which at least is comparable to Dolby Digital (and is the most commonly used on those DVD discs which have both DD and DTS). There is no technical reason whatsoever they could not put DTS over cable. |
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imrf
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Utica, MI
 ·WOW Internet and C..
| DTS do use minor compression, but there is NO comparison between DTS and DD. DD sucks compared to DTS. If you can not hear the difference between a DD and DTS track on the same DVD such as Terminator 2 then you shouldn't be wasting your time with a home theater. And yes there are technical reasons why they can't do DTS right now. The broadcasting studios would have to apply for the SDK from DTS corp then get all the encoders and decorders for convert their 5.1 tracks to DTS(the local news will never be DTS, its not multi-channel). Then all the box manufacturers would then also have to lease the technology and intellectual property to have DTS boxes. They are not going to go through all this just for the small hand-full of people who really would care about it. |
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aasdfasfd
@attbi.com | Exactly - there is no *technical* reason. I didn't say anything about marketing or licensing issues.
Both Dolby Digital and DTS use lossy compression. |
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imrf
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Utica, MI
·WOW Internet and C..
| Wrong. DD uses lossy compression, DTS does NOT. it uses a minor amount, and the amount that it does increases its audio quality and bandwidth. Go to »www.dtsonline.com and read their technical information and you will find out the information that you still are missing. And yes there are technical reasons, DTS audio uses too much bandwidth to fit in the the same stream with video and stereo or dolby digital for the rest of the people. It will NEVER happen. |
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aasdfasfd
@attbi.com | DTS is lossy the same as Dolby and all other digital audio compression formats (MP3, etc..) |
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imrf
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Utica, MI | Ok, stay in your dream world and believe what you will. You don't have your facts straight but since you posting anonymously I will just ignore what you think is correct. |
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asdfasdfas
@attbi.com
| Right.... I'd love to see how you are going to take over 700kb/sec of raw audio data (per-channel, so 5 channels would be over 3500kb/sec) and compress it to 754k/sec without losing anything. Magic?
Just because I choose not to give my email over to yet another potential source of spam and/or remember yet another username and password for yet another internet forume (I probably read/post regularly on 20-30 forums) doesn't mean my opinion is any less valid than yours. Get over yourself LOL. Anyway I think we've derailed this thread enough so I won't go on any further with you who obviously think you know everything. |
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sonofjay
Mission Accomplished - Bush May 1, 2003
Premium,MVM
join:2001-05-14
North Attleboro, MA
 ·Vonage
·Earthlink Cable Mo..
| It's my understanding that DTS strips out the audio that cannot be heard by the human ear and then compress what remains using non-lossy encoding. DD does not strip out any audio and because of this it has to use a "lossy" compression in order to achieve the same compression level as DTS. So "technically" they are both lossy but the loss experienced using DTS is not discernable to the human ear. I myself think that DD has a more natural, fuller sound and that DTS sounds too "artificial" for lack of a better term, but everyone has their own opinion on the matter.
imrf, although I agree with you that some DVDs sound better with DTS, I disagree that DTS is the better sounding encoding option. I think T2 (and other such movies) have more to do with the sound engineers and producers than the actual technology used to encode them.
Finally, I agree with "anonymous" that there is no technical reason that DTS couldn't be used. The real reason is that DD is the choice of the majority of film studios and is the standard of SD as well as HDTV.
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The war is over?? |
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StormyQ
join:2002-10-24
Mckinney, TX
| reply to kcharg
Back on topic....
I'm scheduled for 11/24. Thought I would give Comcast a try in our new home before taking the plunge w/ satellite. The lineup of HD channels will have to improve soon though. I like cable for its simplicity of installation & use but once I get hooked on HD it will be hard to do w/o CBS, ABC, HDNet, PBS, Discovery, etc.
I know there are contractual issues in negotiation but you have to think that Comcast will catch up to satellite in its HD offerings as subscribers & demand continue to grow.
By the way, anyone know if the INHD channels are or will be offered soon? I read somewhere that Comast is a stockholder in that company so it seems that shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. |
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notchbak
@comcast.net
|  havent heard anything on the INHD channels yet.. but im scheduled for 11/21 at 10am (.. so maybe if i can peel myself away from my samsung 50inch DLP ...) i will let some peeps in on how im coping with my first experience with tv addiction. hehe
grand prairie |
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hugenstein
@comcast.net
| I am scheduled for a Sunday install, can't wait.
Did anyone else get in on the deal where you get 2 months free of HDTV or High speed internet service?
I was only able to get 2 months free of HDTV(i guess $5/month off). The rep I talked to said you had to sign up for internet service to get two months free, but I have two different offers sent to me in the mail and neither one says anything about signing up for internet. The offer simply reads "Subscribe to digital cable and receive 2 months free of High Speed Internet service or 2 months free of High Definition TV."
Just curious if any existing internet customers were able to get 2 months of internet free? I would much rather get $45/month of for 2 months rather than $5. |
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kcoutant
join:2003-11-10
Dallas, TX | I called and they said they had to check to see if it was available. I'm a new customer. What's up with that. I haven't heard back |
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bradhill
@swbell.ne
|  reply to kcharg
Well, I ordered my service last Saturday, and was able to get an install on Monday afternoon (live in the Village, which has dedicated technicians)! It's great, as long as you don't actually want to WATCH HDTV! The signal quality is messed up -- with 1080i output, the picture slowly fades in and out, making it unwatchable. I have the box downconverting the signal to 480p, which looks okay.
Comcast tried replacing the Moto 5100, then had several network techs come out. The last response was to "wait a couple of days -- if it doesn't look better by Friday, call in another problem report." Horrible customer service. |
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Comcablrtl
join:2003-10-25
Midwest | What TV are you using with the service? |
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cokyq
join:2002-04-12
Euless, TX
| I called yesterday (11/19) and they will be installing on Friday 11/21. That was pretty quick.
Can't wait to see the HD picture in my new Sony KF-50XBR800!
I hope they continue to expand the HD channel selection soon. Particularly CBS.
Macanudo |
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aasdfasfd
@comcast.net
| reply to bradhill
Now you know why those 2 months are free 
But seriously, give them some time.
I was one of the first 300 people in my county to have digital cable (then TCI), and it was awful for the first couple of months (constant outages, poor reception). It's fine now.
I don't have an HDTV or I'd sign up. Satellite is not an option for me and there is almost no OTA reception here either... :/ |
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bradhill
@swbell.ne | reply to Comcablrtl
TV is a Samsung HCM4215, supports 1080i and 480p on its component inputs. |
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