Good News, Atlanta! Comcast and HDTV (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Alexander]

Comcast is ready w/ the HD-set top receivers. I have an installation appointment tomorrow for connection to my Panasonic PT-53WX42. Anyone else w/ Comcast HD service? What can I look forward to?

 

[Steve_Tk]

Wow. I live in Atlanta. I have comcast, but have not heard about this.

I'll go search for some details tomorrow.

 

[Kevin Alexander]

Well, I have everything installed, but I don't have time to play w/ it right now. I'll post some observations later.

 

[Trenton McNeil]

I just signed up myself....don't forget to get your free 3 months of HBO HD and Showtime HD.

Edit: No ABC. :frowning:

 

[Kevin Alexander]

O my God!...It's beautiful. Trenton, I already have Showtime, but how do I get 3 free months od HBO-HD?

 

[Trenton McNeil]

The sales guy told me about the HBO special, and I asked if Showtime had anything like that, too. He said 'hold on a sec' then said, yup....three months of Showtime as well.

And I was all, 'bling bling babae.' Then he told me to settle down.

 

[Trenton McNeil]

Has anyone else had a chance to see Comcast's offering in Atlanta yet? They are coming out tomorrow morning to install mine...

 

[Kevin Alexander]

I don't know if you've seen this thread yet on the AVS forum (the more recent posts on pgs. 11-13 deal w/ user experience)...... http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=188046

Hope this helps.

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Thanks but after the cable trouble I had with Comcast I will pleasantly tough it out with my DirectTV.

 

[Trenton McNeil]

Things aren't good so far....MAJOR screwup in my promised service, then major screwups while "support" tried to figure out why I wasn't receiving any HD programming...

Long story:

I was promised by two different sales reps that I could sign up for analog basic cable at 12.95/month, then add 5.00/month charge for the HD box. I thought....sweet deal for local HD only. When I called to sign up, I was told that in addition I could add on HBO-HD and SHO-HD for three months with no fee! Wow...this sounds like a really good deal...

Long story short:

Final tech told me it is impossible to provide HD programming without a digital package. Now I am being told I cannot have what I was promised, and it would cost 79 bucks a month for what I was promised. I told them bull, I expect to get what I PAID FOR. Long pause. NO.

Now, I can understand that they made a minor mistake, but they have now 1) wasted my ENTIRE day in following up on the LONG installation, 2) NOT followed through on services promised at time of sale, and reinforced through scheduling and INSTALLATION and having PAID already and signed my name, and 3) pissed me off.

Thoughts?

 

[Larry Schneider]

The basic problem is that the people running cable in Atlanta are, and have been, astoundingly arrogant and inept. AT&T made the mistake of keeping the local "executives" and apparently Comcast is doing the same. I'll stick with DirecTV too.

 

[Trenton McNeil]

I sure would like to rent a Hughes HD DirecTV receiver for five bucks a month...

 

[Patrick Sun]

Well, IIRC, the advertising campaign Comcast is launching to promote the HDTV over cable makes it pretty clear that subscription to the digital package is required to get the HDTV portion of the service. In the initial roll-out of the HDTV service, you were simply a victim of poor internal communication within the customer service ranks of Comcast. But it's probably unreasonable to think that Comcast will give you the HDTV cable package for the monthly cost of Basic analog plus $5 for the box rental.

HDTV over cable is riding on the digital side of the cable TV feed. No cable company is going to give HDTV away for the price of basic analog and $5/month for the HDTV decoder.

 

[Trenton McNeil]

I thought it was a good price...but it didn't seem 'Too Good to be True' pricing, or I would have raised questions.

THe facts remain that I haven't seen their advertising, I only heard it was available and called them up to ask about it. I was told what was available, and how much it would cost me, so I paid them, and had an installer come onsite to hook it up based on the package requested. I would just like to receive what I was sold.

Perhaps a lesson is here somewhere for Comcast.

 

[Darrel McBane]

AT&T/Comcast offered HD HBO and Showtime to their package just as I was moving into my new house back in November. I jumped on it for the opportunity to see HD on my set. They also have DD 5.1 on some broadcast. It's been 5 months now. And I'm dropping the HBO and Showtime package. I just never watch the ongoing reruns of movies. It's not true HD 1080i. But, looks very good. And I hate the fact that I can't edit out all the crap station forced on me. My viewing is pretty limited as far as interest go. So, having station after station of shopping and news channels is just too annoying to me. Just give me a list of 30 or stations of my choice and I'd be happy. It's worth trying if your dying to see a HD feed. There is talk that Comcast will be offering more and more HD station in the next few months. The digital cable box has a built in HD receiver and will send the signal that comes down the line. So, I'll keep the box for now with the hope that it won't be too long till then.

I've always wanted to try for OTA local HD. And had the opportunity to pick up a Sensory Science HD receiver from Good Guys for $499. I'm in a pretty friendly antenna area of the Puget Sound area just south of Seattle. And tried a $7.00 pair of rabbit ears just to see if I could pull in any of the local stations. I found that with a little tuning I can pull in local ABC, NBC and CBS depending on weather and cloud coverage. Local news broadcasts is amazing in HD. I ordered a new antenna and should be able to get Fox, UPN, PBS etc. soon. I'm actually more interested in OTA right now than anything from Comcast.

 

[Trenton McNeil]

The nightmare continues....even with the Gold package subscribed, no HD or any other channel I have signed up for comes through. Installer can come back Wednesday. *sigh*

I shoulda known...

 

[Trenton McNeil]

Last night is the first night it worked. It was *almost* worth the wait as well. We have been watching HBO and Showtime almost nonstop! Dare I say quite a bit better than DVD. I have had one audio drop out during "Spy Kids" this morning (it was the only thing on!!!) but other than that it has been flawless.

Gripes/Concerns (Please respond if you have any knowledge or input or opinions?)

- No ABC....my guess is that ABC broadcasts 720p, and Comcast can't carry that yet?

- My Mitsubishi doesn't seem to support 720p at all...it doesn't upconvert or downconvert, it just goes blue when you switch to a 720p signal. WS-55411. Know anything about this? I tested by changing the output of the Comcast cable box to 720p...

- If Comcast isn't carrying ABC due to 720p, that would indicate a reason they may not plan to carry ESPN-HD, since ESPN's chosen format is 720p....this is frustrating...

- Hopefully NBC will resume HD programming soon (they have stopped due to the need to 'break in' for news updates), but the 480i upconverted programming they currently show looks FANTASTIC in its own right.

- What is up with CBS? Audio/Video is way out of synch on 480i upconvert programming, haven't seen their HD feeds yet...does the same problem exist on HD material?

- Fox Widescreen has nice picture quality, but do they ever actually show widescreen programming, or is it all stretched? On my TV, I cannot vertically expand their programming with a 1080i signal (Mitsu 55411).

- HD programming seems to have a much richer color palette than Satellite or regular cable. Really, really nice!

- I MISS TIVO!

That's about it....anyone have any comments (please?)?