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Comcast HDTV! (1 Viewer)

MarkHastings

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Jan 27, 2003
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I like how they add the black bars to the sides of 4x3 material (i.e. the local news) to work with the 16x9 screens.

I also loved the DD 5.1 that came through on HBO. It was wild to be surfing tv channels and see the blue decoder light up on my SONY reciever. :emoji_thumbsup:
 

Jeff Gatie

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Still waiting for the local FOX HD ch
Just to note - FOX does not broadcast in HD, only SD on it's "digital" station. Not much of an improvement and a big disappointment for the MLB playoffs.

Boston area Comcast HD content is PBSHD, NBC, ABC, ESPN-HD, FOX (not HD, just SD), HBO, Showtime, INHD and INHD2 (INHD2 includes regular season NESN Red Sox and Bruins home games in HD).
 

PeteyG

Stunt Coordinator
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May 23, 2000
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I just moved to NJ this past weekend from NYC and had to switch to Comcast from Time Warner. I had TW HD in the city and was extremely pleased despite the fact that they had less channels (no ESPN HD, no INHD).

The Comcast HD broadcasts are good, however very disappointed that they don't carry CBS HD - any idea as to when they might be?

Installer just plugged in the new box using a component cable and regular RCA for sound. He was clueless - didn't even know where the stations were or what they should look like. Took me a while to find them.
Clark - same thing happened to me. The installer looked lost when I gave him my own set of component cables to use instead of the one's he had. He didn't have an optical audio cable to use and was confused as to why I'd want to use one!! Unreal!!

Has anyone noticed audio problems? I get drastic audio differences when I'm watching an analog station compared to a digital station, as well as an HD station? Any thoughts?

Pete
 

MarkHastings

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FOX does not broadcast in HD, only SD on it's "digital" station. Not much of an improvement and a big disappointment for the MLB playoffs.
Yes, definitely a big downer for me as well :frowning: I was so excited while I was waiting for them to hook it up because the past games were on ESPN and I was hoping to see the Red Sox in HD.
 

Jeff Gatie

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Yes, definitely a big downer for me as well I was so excited while I was waiting for them to hook it up because the past games were on ESPN and I was hoping to see the Red Sox in HD
The NESN games on INHD2 were great, as good if not better than the few regular season HD games on ESPN. All ESPN playoff games were SD, so you did not miss anything there. Why ESPN did not do HD in the playoffs is a mystery to me.
 

Bryan Toth

Stunt Coordinator
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Jun 30, 1997
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206
But I can see how it would be good for people who can't get their local OTA digital stations because of location or lack of a receiver (mine is built-in to the set).

.... which is basically the reason I've got it ... I don't have the receiver built into the set. To be honest, I don't think the analog channels look any worse than they do on my old "regular" digital box...

Bryan
 

Tim K

Second Unit
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Jul 7, 1999
Messages
402
The Comcast HD broadcasts are good, however very disappointed that they don't carry CBS HD - any idea as to when they might be?
Still no new word from Comcast on this. Last time I spoke with them was a few months ago (and it took me 3 days to find someone with an answer) they said that they were in negotiations with Viacom who owns CBS and the HD feed is tied up in the deal. Viacom owns a number of networks (CBS, MTV, etc) and they are trying to work out a new deal with Comcast and until that deal is done, no CBS-HD for us.
 

Dalton

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My set is capable of native 720p without conversion to 1080i. My question is does the Motorola DCT5100 pass the 720p signal or convert it to 1080i before it gets to my set? Thanks.

Dalton
 

GlennH

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DON'T fall in love with them...they will cause burn-in (or burn out) on your TV if it uses CRT's. I have faint lines on both sides of my screen from just a few weeks of watching. I no longer watch any programming with black bars on the side. Either watch the analog channel or crop and stretch the picture. Consider yourself warned.
Tim, sounds like you have your contrast and/or brightness set too high. A properly calibrated picture should not cause any burn-in with a reasonable mixture of programming including letterboxed, side bars, and filling the entire screen.

If you get burn in from side bars you would also get it from letterbox bars, which can't be avoided on 2.35:1 movies unless you (shudder) zoom the picture to fill the screen.

I have my set calibrated with Avia and have had no problems with burn-in watching a variety of aspect ratios including quite a bit of 4:3 material with black side bars.

The worst thing anyone can do is leave their contrast set to the "torch" mode the TV will usually come set with.
 

David Judah

Screenwriter
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Feb 11, 1999
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We got HD from Comcast about a month ago here in Albuquerque. I'm suprised that some of the bigger markets some of you live in don't have it already, since we have it in such a small market here.

I've really enjoyed it so far, although I wish they would upgrade the old Scientific Atlanta 3100 boxes they are using here. They are a bit long in the tooth and are prone to dropouts.

DJ
 

JeremyFr

Supporting Actor
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Jan 28, 2003
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794
The only HD output mode on the DCT5100 is 1080i
False!

The DCT 5100 can be user set to output 480i, 480p, 720p, or 1080i. You do this by turning the box off and hitting the select button on the remote. Once the settings menu pops up your second option will be DVI/YPbPr Output and you can select any of the 4 available resolutions here.

If you have a 720p native set it best to set the DCT 5100 to 720p the box has quite a good scaler on it and you'll be getting the 720p content in its native format and the box will downconvert the 1080i stuff to 720p.

I've got several friends with Samsung DLPs which are 720p native they've all tried both 1080i & 720p coming from the box and prefer the 720p setting.

Jeremy
 

Tim K

Second Unit
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Jul 7, 1999
Messages
402
Tim, sounds like you have your contrast and/or brightness set too high. A properly calibrated picture should not cause any burn-in with a reasonable mixture of programming including letterboxed, side bars, and filling the entire screen.
Nope, my set is properly calibrated. Please don't tell me that burn in is not a problem if you turn down contrast etc. The lines are not just because of the BLACK bars, so much as the edges of the programming. There is not a clean cut-off and whatever is going on in those couple of lines is a problem. There is burn in on my set and it is from the black bars on 4:3 digital channels.
 

MarkHastings

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Jan 27, 2003
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Please don't tell me that burn in is not a problem if you turn down contrast etc.
But what about 2.35:1 DVD's. I've had my RPTV for a few years and don't have any burn-in from 2.35:1 movies (which I watch a lot of). I just can't imagine (as Glenn can't either) that you'd get burn-in from only a couple weeks.

There just seems like there has to be more to the story. In these 2 weeks, did you watch the 4x3 material (with the bars on the side) for more than the alloted time recommended by your tv manufacturer? I believe the percentage is 20%? I just can't imagine the black bars doing that much damage in so little time.

When you say you calibrated the tv, did you calibrate the 1080 setting? My TV has different settings for every mode and each mode needs to be adjusted.

For example, when I first got my tv, I calibrated the Ant. A mode and had no problems, but I never realized that my VHS input also needed to be calibrated. And after watching many weeks worth of Simpsons episodes that I had recorded on my VCR, I now have burn-in from their damn logo :angry: form the contrast being too high.

A hard lesson to learn :frowning:
 

GlennH

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Not trying to second guess you Tim, but I was thinking the same as Mark - are you sure the contrast has been set down on the 1080i input? I do not have that input calibrated, but I put the settings similar to my DVD input settings and have seen no problems. I actually increased the contrast and brightness just a notch or two vs. the DVD because it seemed a little too dark.

If your settings are proper then I can't imagine why you would get burn-in from this source but not from DVDs with letterbox bars.
 

Craig Lorden

Auditioning
Joined
Jun 20, 2001
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6
Hello guys,

Just reading through this thread, and noticed people talking about the comcast techs. I live in Connecticut, and I just had my Comcast HD box put in. The guy who came out to my apartment was actually pretty good. I was a little worried about what he would do once he was here. Lemme just say first off, I have heard 3 stories, all of them bad about the Comcast techs. Being a custom installer for whole home audio/video for a popular retailer (no, not best buy or circuit city, if they even do that) I have had one customer who said he had 5 Comcast techs out at his house all at once. NOBODY knew what was going on. And never got it working for him. Then Another story was the Comcast guy kept asking my friend if his set was an HDTV. Um, he is the scheduler for our Install department and along with myself, used to be a salesman on the floor. Trained on all new products, salesman. So i think he knows what hes talking about. THEN another friend of mine had them come out and the tech didnt know what kind of cables he needed. All situations laughable, but on a good note, the tech who came to my apartment (Comcast wouldnt let me take a box home myself, had to be done by them) was actually very fast and good. I left out all my own wires, told him what each was, and left the room ( i cant stand when people stand over me while im working, so i didnt do it to him, i can go into that another time) and when he was done (about 5-10 min) he called me, and had everything done, hooked up properly and on an HD channel. He even started programming my PRO630 remote into the comcast remote but said he stopped after he noticed my TSU6000. Needless to say, I was very pleased. He looked like a thug in one of those "menace to society" movies, but carried himself professionally. I tipped him $20 when he left.
I guess what I am saying is, Comcast must not train their techs at all which is unfortunate, I blame the company, not the techs. And wouldnt start letting them know how disappointed you are in them unless you see them not even trying. Because then ..... ITs GO TIME !!
 

JeremyFr

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
794
Training is not the problem unfortunately what becomes the problem is 1.) if the tech cares or listens to the training, 2.) is the tech a Comcast employee or a contracted installer. Unforutnately if he is a contracted installer he prolly could give a you know what as long as he can come and go and get paid for "doing the job" as they get paid on a per job basis. Its quite sad that these 2 issues are around but thats the way the world works. Comcast really has some top notch training when it come's down to it, heck they should being one of the oldest cableco's in the country.

Jeremy
 

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