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Comcast Defends Low Quality HD Signal
'We will work towards getting it right.'
Last week we spotted a thread over at the AVS forums that compared Comcast HD image quality to FiOSTV HD image quality. Given Comcast is now cramming three HD channels into each 38.8Mbps QAM to try and compete with DirecTV and FiOS channel counts, the actual image quality has taken a hit. The quality comparison has since made the rounds to the NY Times blog and elsewhere, and the fact that Comcast HD makes Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith look like a mooninite has now been amply documented.
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The Consumerist explores how Comcast has been addressing consumer reaction to this sudden realization. They post an exchange with a Comcast support representative that's epically unuseful ("I am sorry but we are not degrading services"), as well as the response from a higher-level Comcast exec:
quote:
Thank you for the feedback to Brian Roberts. As you are aware, we are constantly striving to provide improved services to our Customers, including a wide variety of HD content. In an effort to do this, we have recently started using a new system to deliver some HD channels. While this system works well with clean 1080i signals, we're making some adjustments to improve how it handles other types of HD signals so we can bring you the best HD picture. We apologize this has not created the HD experience that we intended, but we will work towards getting it right.
So for those of you annoyed by Comcast HD pixelation on some channels, please stand by...
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ztmike
Mark for moderation
Premium Member
join:2001-08-02
La Porte, IN

ztmike

Premium Member

CC=Joke

Basically, Comcast is cramming to much data (hd) when their system can't handle it..all to compete with Directv.

To say they have "more" hd channels...Comcast is seriously a joke.

en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

en102

Member

Re: CC=Joke

I'd demand a refund... or take my service elsewhere/
Comcast's TV service isn't known for being cheap/inexpensive.

SlickEnW
Premium Member
join:2003-01-21
Seattle, WA

SlickEnW

Premium Member

Of course

Of course crapcast will try to BS its way out of what is wrong. Same "technical reasoning" (read:excuse) for overloading nodes with users and then going on a trip fest when said users try to utilize their connection.

Silly Crapcast, n00bs aren't for large scale implementation of services that you have the audacity to charge us for

castknower
@comcast.net

castknower

Anon

Re: Of course

for one you really dont know what your talking about the nodes are not over loaded two there is more than enough room for all the HD channels and they are well above what the fcc requires now to compare it to dish is just stupid due to if you look at there hd yes the have lots of #channels with hd but most are repeats of the east coast already ran show so in fact they actually have 1.2 of what they are really advertising's as with comcast each HD channels is actually a differant ch al together SO DONT TALK WHEN YOU DONT KNOW YOUR FACTS

Titus
Mr Gradenko
join:2004-06-26

Titus

Member

it blows. Did we expect real HDTV through their crammed full silver-goo coax?

I don't sub to their HD service, but I get a few HD channels on the dot channels using my HDTV's tuner. They look better than the normal fare (basic cable - no box), but nowhere near as good as OTA HD channels (not even close) or my neighbor's HD SatTV.

They'll cram even more junk down their little pipes until you're looking at digital blocks of garbage and tell you it's gold. Sorta like the old "piss on your boots and tell you it's raining" thing, only at over a C note a month. hahahahah!!! Gotta love these guys cutting their own throats.
--
plat2on1
join:2002-08-21
Hopewell Junction, NY

plat2on1

Member

Re: Of course

so far there is no evidence of recompressing OTA channels, so if you are seeing a difference that's just a placebo effect.
Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

I'm watching Comcast HD right now and it looks awesome.

Actually..one of the best HD pictures I've ever seen.

And, scanning through my whole lineup the rest look great as well.

I guess the Satellite salesmen are resorting to anything these days to try to sell their 2nd rate service.
plat2on1
join:2002-08-21
Hopewell Junction, NY

1 recommendation

plat2on1

Member

Re: Hmm...

man you are one piece of work...
Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

Re: Hmm...

said by plat2on1:

man you are one piece of work...
Thanks. I'd tend to put much more reliance however in my own experience as an actual user of the service rather than some of those above who, by their own admission..don't even have the service but yet who choose to bash it.

Now THAT is what i'd call a real piece of work.
plat2on1
join:2002-08-21
Hopewell Junction, NY

plat2on1

Member

Re: Hmm...

said by Rick5:

said by plat2on1:

man you are one piece of work...
Thanks. I'd tend to put much more reliance however in my own experience as an actual user of the service rather than some of those above who, by their own admission..don't even have the service but yet who choose to bash it.

Now THAT is what i'd call a real piece of work.
evidence be damned! comcast is great!
Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

Re: Hmm...

said by plat2on1:
said by Rick5:
said by plat2on1:

man you are one piece of work...
Thanks. I'd tend to put much more reliance however in my own experience as an actual user of the service rather than some of those above who, by their own admission..don't even have the service but yet who choose to bash it.

Now THAT is what i'd call a real piece of work.
evidence be damned! comcast is great!
Evidence? I don't need any evidence. I have the service and it works great.
I'm sorry if your experience has been less than satisfactory..but mine hasn't.

I have yet to see a HD picture that looks anything close to what has been presented in these "news" stories.
My HD pictures look great. Awesome in fact.
And so too is my 30,000k HSI speeds.

Sorry if that seems to trouble you. But that's how comcast performs for me.

tiger72
SexaT duorP
Premium Member
join:2001-03-28
Saint Louis, MO

2 recommendations

tiger72

Premium Member

Re: Hmm...

said by Rick5:

Evidence? I don't need any evidence.
Bush Doctrine strikes again!
moonpuppy (banned)
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD

moonpuppy (banned) to Rick5

Member

to Rick5
said by Rick5:

Evidence? I don't need any evidence. I have the service and it works great.
I'm sorry if your experience has been less than satisfactory..but mine hasn't.

I have yet to see a HD picture that looks anything close to what has been presented in these "news" stories.
My HD pictures look great. Awesome in fact.
And so too is my 30,000k HSI speeds.

Sorry if that seems to trouble you. But that's how comcast performs for me.
One person being happy does not constitute a valid statistical survey. Let's add your obvious bias and you can hardly be neutral about the matter.

Hes a troll to Rick5

Anon

to Rick5
The guys avatar says comcast rick, and we are supposed to take his word on a comcast article. Yeah right, troll somewhere else.

Ytsejamer1
join:2008-01-18
Somersworth, NH

Ytsejamer1 to Rick5

Member

to Rick5
That is the reason I kicked Comcast to the curb for TV...that and more channels being taken away, crap shopping channels being added, and prices going up on top of all that...

Watching HD on Comcast varied...sometimes it was fine, but other times it was completely unwatchable. Especially with action scenes. Some channels altogether just would just go black, then pixelate back into view. Lovely.

The internet and phone has been rock solid, but tv service has been lackluster.

JamesPC
join:2005-10-12
Orange, CA

JamesPC to Rick5

Member

to Rick5
I agree rick. Some of these people have nothing better to do than hate on something they done even understand.
Dilligas
join:2007-10-30
Windsor, ON

Dilligas to Rick5

Member

to Rick5
Actually I am not defending comcast but the images presented looks like pixelization issue with signal and not the compression.

Honestly I see no diffference with comcast or any cable company for that matter along with the satellite...they all look relitively fine to me...plus the kiddies cant get over the fact coax works just as well, not every company can lose billions investing into a complete fiber network just so joe blow can sit 5 feet away from a tv set and compare pictures.
emptywig
Huh? What?
Premium Member
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX

1 edit

emptywig to Rick5

Premium Member

to Rick5
The only thing for which your experience is evidence is how the service is in your home. You cannot extrapolate your experience to Comcast markets across the country. I'd bet there's far less demand for HD in Waterbury than there is in more highly populated areas.

Please come to Houston and I will show you pictures that look every bit as pixelated as those in the news stories. I'll show them to you any day, every day. I'll take you next door to my neighbor who also gets the same crappy pixelation. And the folks who live behind me, and everyone on the block, and all over the city.

I'm happy you are getting a great picture, but your experience is not the same as everyone else.

wig
orangelemon
join:2003-01-29
Woodinville, WA

orangelemon to Rick5

Member

to Rick5
Someone owns Comcast stock.
wolfhouse
join:2001-03-01
Westfield, NJ

wolfhouse to Rick5

Member

to Rick5
I have Comcast, and the HD is really bad.
Can't get satellite because of trees arouns, and FIOS Tv does not carry the NHL center ice package. So i ma stuck with lousy Comcast. In spite of cramming lots of HD on little bandwidth, they still have an issue with capacity. I was told, sorry we don't carry the HD game of the package... They are terrible.

tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Gulfport, MS

tc1uscg to Rick5

Member

to Rick5
said by Rick5:

said by plat2on1:

man you are one piece of work...
Thanks. I'd tend to put much more reliance however in my own experience as an actual user of the service rather than some of those above who, by their own admission..don't even have the service but yet who choose to bash it.

Now THAT is what i'd call a real piece of work.
Ok.. I'll chime in..
I just went from Wideopenwest to CC. I got the HD pack as well. Since I have no standard to compare to, other then the stuff people say and post on the internet (just like when everyone was saying how Sunrocket was GREAT... NOT!), I have to go with my experience so far. My channels look outstanding. I just recently installed a HDMI cable and seen even a better difference just on standard channels. Getting over the air HD channels will never compare to getting them through numerous coax connections, splitters, etc.. so that's apples and oranges as far as that goes. Hmm.. OTA HD vs miles of coax, jumpers and old inhome coax.. time to up the meds if I expect them to have the same end result.

This all sorta reminds me of my first HD LCD tv. Picture looked so great in the store. The brightness, clarity and sound. Ok.. sold me.. so take it home, hook it up to my "coax".. Dang.. must have got a tv that's been dropped. Picture looked so "putty", jagged and blah.. But tune in some OTA HD channels and holy crap batman! CC may be crap but short of not having a life that revolves around watching the History channel in HD.. I'm more then happy with what I get and the price (WOW winback deal), the price is worth getting a drop out from time to time. Sorta like the FiOS fanboys who will put up with billing issues and the aholes at Verizons customer service department just to get that 15mbps HSI and a little better HD experience. Sorry guys put some of you are pushing this a little over the edge. Well.. time to take the dog for walk.

Thisisdigital

Anon

Re: Hmm...

This is all digital, so what you're saying isn't correct. It shouldn't matter how many times the signal is split or anything like analog. Either the signal is there, or it is not. I find is laughable that people go out and buy Monster brand HDMI over a cheaper HDMI cable... The signal is DIGITAL! As long as the signal gets there, you're gonna have an image!

You would be correct about the over compressed HD channels comcast is offering. They would still look better than SD to most people. Compared to OTHER HD from other providers, they're crap. There are two different issues going on here. There's the "this is good enough of a picture" issue, and then there's "How does this HD picture compared to a standard, reference HD picture." Two issues.

cuda
@sbcglobal.net

cuda

Anon

Re: Hmm...

wrong, digital signals suffer from loss and deterioration. Noise interference also can cause loss of bits and will cause the error correcting software to have to re-stream data causing freezing while being rebuffered. Even through fiber there can be loss and noise caused by things such as reflection, refraction and certain types of frequency interference. Every time there is a splice in the fiber or a connector..etc, it does affect the data stream quality which can be degraded to the point that a digital amplifier can not repair it. When that happens... your screen will start dropping pieces of the image and cause a blocky effect until the error correction can re-buffer enough good data which is when you see a frozen image for a second or 2.

tc1uscg
join:2005-03-09
Gulfport, MS

tc1uscg to Thisisdigital

Member

to Thisisdigital
said by Thisisdigital :

This is all digital, so what you're saying isn't correct. It shouldn't matter how many times the signal is split or anything like analog. Either the signal is there, or it is not. I find is laughable that people go out and buy Monster brand HDMI over a cheaper HDMI cable... The signal is DIGITAL! As long as the signal gets there, you're gonna have an image!

You would be correct about the over compressed HD channels comcast is offering. They would still look better than SD to most people. Compared to OTHER HD from other providers, they're crap. There are two different issues going on here. There's the "this is good enough of a picture" issue, and then there's "How does this HD picture compared to a standard, reference HD picture." Two issues.
Ok.. read what CUDA said.. On top of that. I'm not buying into that "digital" theory your holding on to. That allows the provider to CRAM more crap onto existing coax. People think just because it's digital, your guaranteed the best picture no matter what. In a perfect lab. Yes. To someones house a few miles from the node, no. Digital from my 20+ years of communications experience just means using less bandwidth and putting more data on the same size pipe. Didn't make it any better, just more of it. Garbage in, Garbage out. The end result is only as good as the highway it's riding on. But now, that's just me and I don't have a degree in electrical engineering to back it up..
emptywig
Huh? What?
Premium Member
join:2002-08-05
Pasadena, TX

emptywig to Thisisdigital

Premium Member

to Thisisdigital
The same kind of signal goes in one end of that coax whether its "digital" or "analog."

wig

weartherman
@comcast.net

weartherman to Thisisdigital

Anon

to Thisisdigital
boy someone is stupid its the sheilding in the cable that can make a diffarnts if the signal is there yes it does matter how many times you split it and you will get the same quality pic weather you have dish or cable because either way you have to go through coax and dish usally uses the cable wiring anyways and if you have dish i hope its not down pooring if so just wait to see what happens to your pic now

ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA

ninjatutle to plat2on1

Member

to plat2on1
A loyal VP, thats all.
Rick5
Premium Member
join:2001-02-06

Rick5

Premium Member

Re: Hmm...

said by ninjatutle:

A loyal VP, thats all.
LOL! Let me say in NO UNCERTAIN TERMS...

I am NOT that rick.

pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium Member
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD

pnh102

Premium Member

Re: Hmm...

How about this one?

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· 8GIRUd_g
MySpareBrain
join:2000-06-12
Houston, TX

MySpareBrain

Member

Re: Hmm...

said by pnh102:

How about this one?
LOL nicely done!

N3OGH
Yo Soy Col. "Bat" Guano
Premium Member
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs

N3OGH to Rick5

Premium Member

to Rick5
My Comcast HD service has been problematic from go.

I remember watching the Mets Vs. Phillies game on Comcast SportsNet at the end of last year's season. The dropped frames and pixelization drove me INSANE.

Compared to my buddy's Fios TV, my Comcast service is definitely second rate. I'm patiently waiting for Verizon. Supposed to have it by the end of June.

Sure, Comcast's light beams might technically pass more homes, at least according to their commercial, but when those light beams actually come to my doorstep. Well, the result is more gooder...
sullim4
join:2003-05-18
Redmond, WA

1 recommendation

sullim4 to Rick5

Member

to Rick5
What do you want us to do, pat you on the back because Comcast has such a great picture in Waterbury?

We get it - you like love Comcast. You'd find some way to justify continuing to love Comcast if they literally took your first born.

And please explain to me what exactly is second-rate about satellite. The fact that they cooperate with Internet forums on releasing beta software for their boxes containing new features? The fact that they've been continuing to increase picture quality by shifting to MPEG4 compression? The fact that DirecTV has more HD channels than any other major provider? The fact that DirecTV offers remote booking and media share/networking capabilities?

You say rain fade is a problem with satellite? Then perhaps you should talk to the thousands of customers in the Seattle area who went without Comcast's services for a month after the December 2006 windstorm.

If anything, it's Comcast's bogus ads about having "more HD", omitting the word "channels" after those two words, that wreaks of desperation.

•••••••••••

RadioDoc

join:2000-05-11
La Grange, IL

RadioDoc to Rick5

to Rick5
Something tells me a satellite salesman posting made-up crap at AVS would meet the same fate as a spyware vendor talking trash here in the Security forum.

The evidence is there. Maybe you need a new TV to see what a good HD picture looks like.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

badtrip
Premium Member
join:2004-03-20

badtrip to Rick5

Premium Member

to Rick5
said by Rick5:

I'm watching Comcast HD right now and it looks awesome.

Actually..one of the best HD pictures I've ever seen.

And, scanning through my whole lineup the rest look great as well.

I guess the Satellite salesmen are resorting to anything these days to try to sell their 2nd rate service.
I've subscribed to both DirecTV's and Comcast's HD services. DirecTV's HD picture beats Comcast's HD picture hands down, no comparison...etc. To be honest, Comcast's HD picture is not much better than thier STD picture. It's pretty pathetic, actually.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium Member
join:2005-03-14
Woodstock, CT

ptrowski to Rick5

Premium Member

to Rick5
Pretty simple, Comcast admitted they have an issue.
"We apologize this has not created the HD experience that we intended, but we will work towards getting it right."

GeekJedi
RF is Good For You
Premium Member
join:2001-06-21
Mukwonago, WI
ARRIS TM1602
Apple AirPort Extreme (2013)
Ooma Telo

1 recommendation

GeekJedi to Rick5

Premium Member

to Rick5
In the eight years that I have had DirecTV, I have had a weather outage seven times. Yep, one a year.

If the dish is installed and aimed correctly, it takes a torrential storm to disrupt the signal.

What caused me to move to DirecTV? Comcast's failure to provide reliable HSI and CATV. The CATV would frequently go down (the HSI would occasionally go down as well). It would take days to schedule a repair sometimes. So, instead of complaining about it, I dumped them.

What do you know...DirecTV - decent price, decent picture quality! Went to DSL for my internet needs (got that rockin' thanks to guys like Splitpair and Icon) and I'm a happy camper.

I'd never be so self-absorbed, however, to insist that my way of doing things is superior to anyone else's way. Especially in the face of piles of evidence suggesting that I may not be right.

What I have works for me. Your mileage may vary.

fuziwuzi
Not born yesterday
Premium Member
join:2005-07-01
Palm Springs, CA

fuziwuzi to Rick5

Premium Member

to Rick5
Comcast is glad you enjoy your HDLite, I'm sure they'll give you a virtual pat on the head.
mglunt
join:2001-09-10
Fredericksburg, VA

1 edit

mglunt to Rick5

Member

to Rick5
said by Rick5:

I'm watching Comcast HD right now and it looks awesome.

Actually..one of the best HD pictures I've ever seen.

And, scanning through my whole lineup the rest look great as well.

I guess the Satellite salesmen are resorting to anything these days to try to sell their 2nd rate service.
They probably have not started jamming 3 HD channels into a single QAM in your area yet. This thread is about Comcast beginning this practice to add more HD channels. What you see now is irrelevant to this discussion. You should actually look at the thread on the AVS forum and the evidence / proof to back up his claims.

bludude
@verizon.net

bludude to Rick5

Anon

to Rick5
Well,

Ive been a television engineer for about 35 years and sat thru the transition from analog to digital and these guys are right about the nasty compression comcast uses just to try to appear to compete... they over charge and throttle data on their broadband connections as well and are not forthcoming about it to boot... you decide!

Perhaps you dont see the compression artifacts but they are there.....

PolarBear03
The bear formerly known as aaron8301
Premium Member
join:2005-01-03

PolarBear03

Premium Member

At least they're admitting it, which is quite surprising. Usually they'd minimize it or blame it on the customer's TV or lack of Monster Cables.

•••
majortom1029
join:2006-10-19
Medford, NY

majortom1029

Member

Couldnt they move to sdv and remove some analog channels insead of compressing the hd signals?
plat2on1
join:2002-08-21
Hopewell Junction, NY

plat2on1

Member

Re: couldnt they do sdv and remove analog channels?

analog is still a huge portion of cables business, they don't want to lose those customers.

Mr Anon
@k12.il.us

Mr Anon

Anon

Re: couldnt they do sdv and remove analog channels?

Tell that to places where they have already killed analog (I think there was a story here about Chicago). They are pitching and moving most appealing services to digital anyway. They aren't afraid to loose Analog customers although they are not ready to kick them all out just yet.
ebubman
join:2002-01-17
Mechanicsburg, PA

ebubman

Member

here's how it usually reads if/when bothersome consumers try to ask questions of comcast:

consumer: "what's up with the hd quality?:
comcast: "shut up. take what we give you and like it"

in one way or another, we've all been on the catching end of such a dialog with team roberts. go figure.

mmainprize
join:2001-12-06
Houghton Lake, MI

mmainprize

Member

Well it is true that the only HD you will ever get that is true HD if from OTA broadcasts.

Both cable and Sat system still compress there signals. Granted cable has to compress it more, as they have less bandwidth at this time. The sat company's have had to put up new sat's just to handle the HD bandwidth to avoid the over compression. Still even with sat i see over compression on regular channels. Nothing makes me mad-er then paying for a PPV movie and then seeing it all blockey and over compressed so if i record it , while let me just say i should of not ordered the movie just by the DVD. This has it own set of problem now also, what you going to do with those HD DVD's now.

I think the Government need to make some laws, to stop this practice. That is if we are going to have to pay extra for HD signals and equipment then they should have to deliver the HD signal in full uncompressed format. If that means that cable company's need to upgrade to fiber networks so be it.

••••••••••••••••••
defaultPlay56
join:2007-11-30
Collegeville, PA

defaultPlay56

Member

"We apologize this has not created the HD experience that we intended, but we will work towards getting it right."

It's Comcastic!
jukeboxmel
join:2004-03-19
Havre De Grace, MD

jukeboxmel

Member

I had both compresscast and Direct tv here in our home, I had directv on the 70in dlp set in the family room and compresscast in the bedrooms. Free trial made it attractive to do a side by side comparison. Both Samsung plasma tv's in the bedrooms looked blotchy to me, especially in the dark or action scenes, so I ran a feed from the dish to the bedrooms, connected both to the tv sets using hdmi, and the difference was stark, the set's looked like dvd quality.

I did not tell mom, I programmed the tv with 2 hdmi inputs and a universal remote, she complained about the poor pictures on some channels, turned out that the compresscast channels were the ones she was complaining about! we are now free of compresscast and totally on direct tv.

My neighbor watched a movie at our house the other night and asked if he could borrow the dvd to watch again later, he was shocked »i.dslr.net/v2/lite/grey/ ··· ised.gif
[:o] when I showed him that it was on HBOHD on the satellite! He too is now free of compresscast and on direct tv. Works for us! Guess Rick get's better signal quality at the comcast corporate headend »i.dslr.net/v2/lite/grey/wink.gif
[;)] than us peeons out in the field, and by the way, bose does not make a 901 surround system.... Not that I can find!!»i.dslr.net/v2/lite/grey/ ··· mile.gif
[:D]

anooonnnnnn
@comcast.net

anooonnnnnn

Anon

Its too bad we dont have broadcasters like they do in europe. They use like 20-30 mbps broadcasts with Mpeg-4 check out this extensive comparison of several broadcast sources »home.arcor.de/madshi/ser ··· ity.html

•••

Seandhi
Seeing From a New Level
Premium Member
join:2003-04-19
Humble, TX

Seandhi

Premium Member

Comcast is admitting that they're wrong? I thought that April Fool's Day was yesterday...

AZTrac
@cox.net

AZTrac

Anon

I recently moved and had Comcast HD, now I have DirecTV. I was VERY skeptical of getting Directv, but opted to choose it over the only other choice, Cox, which I only use for internet.

Because I have seen first hand how awful Directv's SD Mpeg2 channels are in the past, I was worried that the HD channels would be the same. Let's just say that I am a big time anal person when it comes to picture and sound quality. The slightest imperfections irk me.

Well, let's just say that i couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. DirecTVs MPEG-4 channels are just as good, if not better than Comcast.

I am sorry Rick, you are basing your opinion on what is possibly an antiquated experience. As for the Directv SD channels, they still irk the living hell out of me and i won't watch them. Luckily directv has enough hd channels to keep me busy. Also, the vast majority of the channels on cable come to them via satellite. It is generally only your local channels that are fed to the head end via fiber. But even that is not always the case, as they can generally be picked up over the air.

Mr Anon
@k12.il.us

Mr Anon

Anon

However I'd like to know how U-Verse stacks up in this contest or if it doesn't I'm not sure what to make of their HD service because its the first I've had in my own house and the first that I've seen thats not a store display. I'm starting to wonder if perhaps my eyes are bad (with corrective lenses) because none of these samples I've seen in this news story has been of any great wow factor and what I watch at home and when I walk into say best buy is all just lack luster?

I don't have an HD turner so I can't tune into OTA which is supposed to be the best. I can saw with out a doubt wide screen shows look better but than with my older service when I'd cut the bars to zoom in but then again a SD show over a SD channel looks better on the HD channel and I'm not sure if its extra bandwidth or maybe some sharpening tricks or booth that makes it so.

Heck I don't even think my HD games are that incredible of a jump in quality over SD games (although they do look great compared to SD games in my new Monitor)

anonomous
@comcast.net

anonomous

Anon

have to disagree about OTA HD . I know I am only
ONE person with my experiences here in Atlanta, so don't yell and scream . My relative, who lives just a 15-20 minutes away from downtown Atlanta gets their HD from OTA. The picture is ok, but not as good as Comcast HD. Not only that, but when there is rain, NBC starts to skip and pixelate. They do have a different TV than us, but before we signed up for Comcast HD, after we got our HDTV, I bought an amplifing HD antenna. Where we live we were only able to get 2 HD stations, CW and CBS. Comparing CBS and CW OTA vs Comcast, was no competition at all.

footballdude
Premium Member
join:2002-08-13
Imperial, MO

footballdude

Premium Member

As soon as I saw the headline for this article, I knew Comcast Rick would be in here telling everyone "There are NO American troops in Baghdad!". Top quality entertainment.
Expand your moderator at work

anonomous
@comcast.net

anonomous

Anon

there is an episode of Emeril from 2003 on Food HD, and it looks kind of blocky and a little grainy too. Looks like it's just being up-converted to HD and then stretched. It looks BAD !
Usually Food HD looks excellent, so I think it might just be this particular episode.

Mywhatfun
@comcast.net

Mywhatfun

Anon

Cracks me up, everyone getting all freaked out over 6 frakin pictures!! LOL BTW, all QAM distribution of HD channels uses Forward Error correction, for all anyone knows this guy's (the one that took the picture) cable has RF problems effecting his DATA.

Hey, I bet $100,000 I can show ANYONE a picture of a little part of the leather used to make the seat for a BUICK and the seat for a BMW and NOBODY can tell which is which!

The AVS forum is full of people EXPECTING PERFECTION. More people buy HD-TVs for their THINNESS and ASPECT ratio then for High Def resolutions! This is a bunch of nothing and hyperbole.

anony23332
@fujitsu.com

anony23332

Anon

Get rid of the SD channels that only 1% of the people watch and boom, instantly more bandwidth for HD! Who watches Soap TV?, and who cares!
bjbrock9
join:2002-10-28
Mcalester, OK

bjbrock9

Member

The $52 billion they spent for BT could have gone a long ways to upgrade their infrastructure.

This is what happens when no serious competition exists. Satellite looking better all the time.
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