Comcast HDTV (1 Viewer)

[Darren_Fu]

I was wondering if anyone out there in HTF Land had Comcast HDTV. If so, is it decent? Also, I assume they give you some sort of HD Box. Do you have to have the box even if you already have a TV with HD Tuner built into it? I would call and ask Comcast all of these questions but I wanted to get an idea from a better source and not a big sales pitch if you know what I mean. One last thing....are those HDTV Antenna's worth the money? How many channels can you pick up with them?

Thanks a bunch,
DF

 

[Stephen Tu]

How many channels depends on your area; go to www.antennaweb.org to get an idea what channels you can pull in and how big of an antenna you need. Don't spend extra money for the "HDTV antenna" label though; there is nothing special required for HD. Ordinary UHF antennas (in some areas VHF also required) work fine, and often better than those Terk antennas, which tend to be high priced and poor performers.

 

[Darren_Fu]

Thanks, Stephen

All of your information was very helpful.

DF

 

[Wes Gibson]

Hi there! I'm pretty happy with Comcast HDTV, but that's in the Detroit area. We get ESPND, INHD1, INHD2, ABCD, NBCD, FOXD, CBSD, PBSD. Not ALL of them broadcast in HD OR widescreen 24/7 so keep that in mind. CBS, IMHO, has the best HD, especially for sports. C'mon Superbowl! But this thread brought up a question for me too. A lot of my non- HD channels, especially the lower ones 2-7 have really lousy signals and pq. I never noticed it until I got my Tosh 57HX83 and Comcast HD box, of course almost at the same time, so I'm not sure which would be the culprit. I have all new lines and I'm wondering if there is anyway I can boost those signals. My Toshy has "DNR" which is supposed to help weak cable signals but it does nothing. Some channels look great for not being HD, are these just better signals?

 

[Mark Murphy]

The lower channels are probably analog and were probably bad to begin with. I don't know what you were using for a display before you got your Toshiba, but the bigger your display, the more flaws in PQ you will notice. The saying around here is "Garbage in, Garbage out". That means no matter how much you try to improve the PQ of a source, in your case analog cable, if its low quality to begin with, then thats what your going to end up with.

 

[Van Walker]

In Knoxville comcast has INHD 1 and 2, ESPN, HBO, Showtime, and the local ABC, NBC, and CBS stations. Box rental is $5 a month. Supposedly a HD PVR unit may be available in March or April.

 

[CalvinCarr]

So if you have a built in tuner do you hook up the external antenna to that then the HD box from cable to another input?

 

[Anthony_J]

That's what I'd do, although Comcast carries all of my locals in HD so I don't need an antenna.

I'll echo the sentiments above, I'm very happy with the HD service (PBS, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, ESPN, INHD1, INHD2, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, and a local sports station), but regular cable quality isn't the greatest. Having never tried another provider, I don't know if this is specific to Comcast or if it's just something that happens when trying to watch basic cable on a 53" screen.

The quality of the HD and the ease of use (one box for everything) is more than worth it though.

 

[CalvinCarr]

But with things like this I will never get my HD equipment....:frowning:

"Comcast's digital basic package will rise from $49.99 a month to $52.99 and its Digital Silver package, which includes one group of premium movie channels, will rise from $63.99 to $67.99"

 

[Darren_Fu]

I just now thought of this.....I currently have Comcast Digital Cable. The only TV I have hooked up is the 32" Sony Wega in the living room. I am putting the new HD set down in the basement right next to the existing cable that was ran by the previous owners of the house before I bought it. Now to the question....will I still be able to get all the digital cable channels and the new HD channels? I really hope so cause that will suck if I can't. Also earlier in the post, Van from K'ville was mentioning something about a PVR box? What is that exactly? I have not heard of that as of yet.

I also found a really good website that has a lot of HDTV stuff on it. www.hdtvpub.com Check it out.

Thanks for all the input and opinions

DF

 

[christian_w]

calvin, if price is an issue with digital cable, check to see if your cable service provides HDTV without the digital cable package.

In my area (Comcast Philadelphia, PA), HDTV is available with the standard analog cable package. The only additional charges should be a $6.50/month box rental fee.

I am going this route since I don't watch enough of the extra digital channels to make digital cable worth the extra charges.

 

[Stephen Tu]

In a nutshell, a PVR records shows onto a hard disk drive so that you can basically record everything you'd ever feel like watching then watch entirely on your own schedule (you can play back while a recording is in progress, not like VCR where you have to wait for the program to end). Watch whatever you want whenever you want it, skipping the commercials, no more "100 channels but nothing on at the moment" since you'll have a library of your shows to pick from. It's an absolute must-have in my opinion. More discussion over in the "Personal Video and DVD Recorders" section of this forum.

 

[Darren_Fu]

I am sooooooo mad
Comcast came today to hook up the HDTV box and of course with my luck. The box was bad and only gave the installer error codes. I have to go to their office tomorrow and get another box. After he had left, I went ahead and just hooked up the regular plain old cable (analog). I get no channels at all when I hooked the cable up to the "Cable input on the back of the TV. (BTW, the Comcast guy checked the line and was getting a great signal) So I then screwed it into the UHFVHF input and now I can actually get some channels but only 16 channels. The 16 channels I do get look awful but hey it is plain cable. Why can I not plug into the cable input and receive just the basic channels for my area? That would be channels 2-72 plus channels 98 and 99. Any suggestion? I am puzzled? :frowning:


Thanks,
DF

 

[Stephen Tu]

(1) Make sure your TV tuner is set to "cable" not "antenna". (Cable frequencies differ from UHF OTA frequencies).
(2) If you aren't getting the "extended basic" channels there might have a filter on the line preventing reception of all but the local broadcast "basic cable" stations.

 

[Tim K]

Regardless of your TV set and whether it has an HD tuner built in or not....you will need the comcast box because the HD transmission is most likely in a scrambled format that only their box can decode. Your built in tuner would work fine to pick up over the air HD broadcasts from your local stations if they are on the air. All you would need was an antenna to pick them up. Cable HD broadcasts are typically in a different format.

 

[Ralph B]

Im in Mass and just got it. looks great and ch.7 is best looking. INHD are excellent depending on source they are playing.

I get PBS,4,5,7,fox25,ESPN,HBO-HD,INHD 1, INHD 2

$2 extra a month.

 

[Hector.B]

i'll be getting my comcast hdtv service next wednesday! Can't wait to see the Chicago Cubs lose in HD!