Speed TV (F1) in HD on Comcast
#17
02-27-2009, 09:35 AM
Comcast is HD-lite anyway -- highly compressed, constant digital artifacting; they simply don't have the bandwidth to compete quality & quantity with DirecTV or FiOS. Comcast (and most cable companies) are more interested in pushing more home-shopping channels down the throats of their users...
#18
02-27-2009, 09:39 AM
Here's the response I got back from Comcast. Pretty quick response.
Originally Posted by Office of Rick Germano
Dear Mr. Boyer:
Thank you for contacting the Comcast Office of Rick Germano, Senior Vice
President of Customer Operations in regards to having the Speed HD
channel added to your channel lineup. I can understand how frustrating
it can be to want certain channels such as the Speed in HD, and to not
be able to see them. At the same time, we realize that there is certain
channels available that you would rather not see.
We are constantly working to upgrade our systems and expand our HD
offerings.
Comcast is committed to deploying HDTV service. We are working to
provide as many high definition channel broadcasters as possible to all
markets including Everett. Here are some of the factors involved with
expanding our high definition lineup:
-the negotiation and contract process required to obtain the rights to
carry a specific high definition broadcast, such as TNT-HD and HD-Net.
-the increased bandwidth resources which are required
-the relatively low number of subscribers (currently only a small
minority of customers have high definition compatible television sets).
We will continue to explore additional HD programming opportunities as
more content providers make plans to offer their programming in HD
format. What this means is that we take all requests for new networks
very seriously, and that we carefully consider the overall impact of
adding each network. While we cannot honor every request, we do take
each request into consideration in planning future changes to the
line-up.
Mr. Boyer, thank you for taking the time to provide us with your
suggestion on how to improve our service. I have forwarded your
suggestion to the appropriate management team for further review and
action. We appreciate your interest in making the Comcast Cable Service
the best experience possible.
Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to assist you, Mr. Boyer.
We appreciate that you have chosen Comcast as your service provider and
we thank you for your business. Please do not hesitate to contact us
again in the future, if you have any further questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Laurie Clark
Office of Rick Germano
Original Message Follows:
Thank you for contacting the Comcast Office of Rick Germano, Senior Vice
President of Customer Operations in regards to having the Speed HD
channel added to your channel lineup. I can understand how frustrating
it can be to want certain channels such as the Speed in HD, and to not
be able to see them. At the same time, we realize that there is certain
channels available that you would rather not see.
We are constantly working to upgrade our systems and expand our HD
offerings.
Comcast is committed to deploying HDTV service. We are working to
provide as many high definition channel broadcasters as possible to all
markets including Everett. Here are some of the factors involved with
expanding our high definition lineup:
-the negotiation and contract process required to obtain the rights to
carry a specific high definition broadcast, such as TNT-HD and HD-Net.
-the increased bandwidth resources which are required
-the relatively low number of subscribers (currently only a small
minority of customers have high definition compatible television sets).
We will continue to explore additional HD programming opportunities as
more content providers make plans to offer their programming in HD
format. What this means is that we take all requests for new networks
very seriously, and that we carefully consider the overall impact of
adding each network. While we cannot honor every request, we do take
each request into consideration in planning future changes to the
line-up.
Mr. Boyer, thank you for taking the time to provide us with your
suggestion on how to improve our service. I have forwarded your
suggestion to the appropriate management team for further review and
action. We appreciate your interest in making the Comcast Cable Service
the best experience possible.
Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to assist you, Mr. Boyer.
We appreciate that you have chosen Comcast as your service provider and
we thank you for your business. Please do not hesitate to contact us
again in the future, if you have any further questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Laurie Clark
Office of Rick Germano
Original Message Follows:
#19
02-27-2009, 11:57 AM
The epitome of "lip service".
This sentence captures where "Comcast's head is at" : (currently only a small minority of customers have high definition compatible television sets).
Of course. Customers with decent TV sets (with a choice of alternative service) do NOT use Comcast ("Friends don't let friends watch Comcast") -- they use a service where quality is considered, by companies whose agenda does not consist solely of appealing to the lowest common denominator of Fresh-Prince/Friends/Frasier re-runs and QVC/HSN drivel, companies that understand the difference between 1080i and 1080p, companies that understand the benefits of MPEG-4 when carefully managed for quality rather than quantity, and companies subscriber-focused rather than content-provider-focused. Anyone who's dealt with Comcast's "customer service" realize very quickly that the word "service" is being used in the broadest possible sense.
In a world of VuDu, DirecTV, DishHD, FiOS, Comcast only makes sense for people who have no other choice or don't know any better...
This sentence captures where "Comcast's head is at" : (currently only a small minority of customers have high definition compatible television sets).
Of course. Customers with decent TV sets (with a choice of alternative service) do NOT use Comcast ("Friends don't let friends watch Comcast") -- they use a service where quality is considered, by companies whose agenda does not consist solely of appealing to the lowest common denominator of Fresh-Prince/Friends/Frasier re-runs and QVC/HSN drivel, companies that understand the difference between 1080i and 1080p, companies that understand the benefits of MPEG-4 when carefully managed for quality rather than quantity, and companies subscriber-focused rather than content-provider-focused. Anyone who's dealt with Comcast's "customer service" realize very quickly that the word "service" is being used in the broadest possible sense.
In a world of VuDu, DirecTV, DishHD, FiOS, Comcast only makes sense for people who have no other choice or don't know any better...
#20
02-27-2009, 12:01 PM
The epitome of "lip service".
This sentence captures where "Comcast's head is at" : (currently only a small minority of customers have high definition compatible television sets).
Of course. Customers with decent TV sets (with a choice of alternative service) do NOT use Comcast ("Friends don't let friends watch Comcast") -- they use a service where quality is considered, by companies whose agenda does not consist solely of appealing to the lowest common denominator of Fresh-Prince/Friends/Frasier re-runs and QVC/HSN drivel, companies that understand the difference between 1080i and 1080p, companies that understand the benefits of MPEG-4 when carefully managed for quality rather than quantity, and companies subscriber-focused rather than content-provider-focused. Anyone who's dealt with Comcast's "customer service" realize very quickly that the word "service" is being used in the broadest possible sense.
In a world of VuDu, DirecTV, DishHD, FiOS, Comcast only makes sense for people who have no other choice or don't know any better...
This sentence captures where "Comcast's head is at" : (currently only a small minority of customers have high definition compatible television sets).
Of course. Customers with decent TV sets (with a choice of alternative service) do NOT use Comcast ("Friends don't let friends watch Comcast") -- they use a service where quality is considered, by companies whose agenda does not consist solely of appealing to the lowest common denominator of Fresh-Prince/Friends/Frasier re-runs and QVC/HSN drivel, companies that understand the difference between 1080i and 1080p, companies that understand the benefits of MPEG-4 when carefully managed for quality rather than quantity, and companies subscriber-focused rather than content-provider-focused. Anyone who's dealt with Comcast's "customer service" realize very quickly that the word "service" is being used in the broadest possible sense.
In a world of VuDu, DirecTV, DishHD, FiOS, Comcast only makes sense for people who have no other choice or don't know any better...
#21
02-27-2009, 12:06 PM
FiOS has the biggest, baddest PHAT pipe, it's sick. I haven't seen the product, but am familiar with the technology. They have just an insane amount of bandwidth on their fibre network that they really don't have to do any significant compression on their content. They have invested an immense amount of capital in rolling this network out. In 5 years or so I expect them to dominate the market.
#22
02-27-2009, 12:08 PM
FiOS has the biggest, baddest PHAT pipe, it's sick. I haven't seen the product, but am familiar with the technology. They have just an insane amount of bandwidth on their fibre network that they really don't have to do any significant compression on their content. They have invested an immense amount of capital in rolling this network out. In 5 years or so I expect them to dominate the market.
#24
02-27-2009, 12:14 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/te...gy/19fios.html
This is how capitalism is *supposed* to work -- investing in long-term future, and the market fostering competition. Comcast are a lot better today than they used to be (of course, leaving a LOT of room for future improvement) *because* of the competition from satellite and FiOS and others.
#26
02-27-2009, 12:31 PM
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Bothell WA
Posts: 778
Rep Power: 63 
Brit,
You are spot on for most of what you are saying here. I have a 9yr old in the house who watches 90% of his programming through OnDemand. Fios does not offer the same amount (yes I am talking quantity, but for a 9yr old that is all that matters) of programming for him to watch. So while I have many choices in my area, Comcast does win out in that fight. I am willing to make a change and find other solutions for my son if I can't get HD Speed, but it would be a big deal to change in my household.
James, regarding Fios. I close friend of mine who used to work on the MS TV projects as a coder and tester (they made the early HD guides for Motorola and Comcast) says the Fios guide and DVR are a long ways ahead of Comcast. Much easier to use and more features. One nice thing that they have done is that they came up with a Analog -> Digital convertor box that allows the use of older non digital DVR's. So he can use is old Replay system for the kids non HD stuff and he is not limited to 99 channels, the Replay sees them all. He kept both systems for a few days and we used Extron broadcast quality DA's to test both images on his display. Fios wins hands down by a large margin!
In regards to Brits comment about Mpeg4. You are spot on! You can either use that compression to stuff more channels into your line up or you can use it to improve the quality of fewer channels. My friend who I reference above about the Fios and I were on the forefront of Mpeg4 Part 10 AVC H264 live streaming technology in 2004. We were working with Tandberg TV, Motorola and others. We did live feeds from HD cameras on the beach in Cal over t3's to NC and then up to satellites and down to our tests in Columbus OH. We did tons of tweaking bandwidth and encoders and decoders to find the sweet spot of image quality vs $'s for our client. The picture quality difference through the whole test went from incredibly bad to some of the most stunning stuff I have ever seen. So I have had the opportunity to play with this technology in real wold tests over a 18 month period watching it go from complete Beta to a ready for market product. If only the providers of content would see the value of offering native HD content at it's fullest capacity many of us would be happy to pay a premium for said service.
You are spot on for most of what you are saying here. I have a 9yr old in the house who watches 90% of his programming through OnDemand. Fios does not offer the same amount (yes I am talking quantity, but for a 9yr old that is all that matters) of programming for him to watch. So while I have many choices in my area, Comcast does win out in that fight. I am willing to make a change and find other solutions for my son if I can't get HD Speed, but it would be a big deal to change in my household.
James, regarding Fios. I close friend of mine who used to work on the MS TV projects as a coder and tester (they made the early HD guides for Motorola and Comcast) says the Fios guide and DVR are a long ways ahead of Comcast. Much easier to use and more features. One nice thing that they have done is that they came up with a Analog -> Digital convertor box that allows the use of older non digital DVR's. So he can use is old Replay system for the kids non HD stuff and he is not limited to 99 channels, the Replay sees them all. He kept both systems for a few days and we used Extron broadcast quality DA's to test both images on his display. Fios wins hands down by a large margin!
In regards to Brits comment about Mpeg4. You are spot on! You can either use that compression to stuff more channels into your line up or you can use it to improve the quality of fewer channels. My friend who I reference above about the Fios and I were on the forefront of Mpeg4 Part 10 AVC H264 live streaming technology in 2004. We were working with Tandberg TV, Motorola and others. We did live feeds from HD cameras on the beach in Cal over t3's to NC and then up to satellites and down to our tests in Columbus OH. We did tons of tweaking bandwidth and encoders and decoders to find the sweet spot of image quality vs $'s for our client. The picture quality difference through the whole test went from incredibly bad to some of the most stunning stuff I have ever seen. So I have had the opportunity to play with this technology in real wold tests over a 18 month period watching it go from complete Beta to a ready for market product. If only the providers of content would see the value of offering native HD content at it's fullest capacity many of us would be happy to pay a premium for said service.
#27
02-27-2009, 12:45 PM
I used to have TiVO with DirecTV, then later TiVO HD/DirecTV. TiVO really is the gold-standard of DVRs. Unfortunately, DirecTV decided to develop their own DVR technology, and the older TiVOs didn't support MPEG-4, so there was really no option to stay with TiVO. The first-gen DirecTV DVR was nowhere near as good as TiVO, but with each new software update they have improved the user-interface, features and speed of response. It's still not as good as TiVO, but the margin has reduced by a substantial margin and it's now quite easy to live with. With a 250GB HD, you could keep quite a bit of material in SD for your son to watch. One of the main reasons for my Kaledescape purchase was for my kids to have easy-access to their DVDs, and they use that extensively. It's amazing to see a 4-yr old whizzing through the system to pick out the movie/show he wants to watch.
I am sure that the size of Verizon's FiOS on-demand library will grow exponentially over time. The limitation is likely licensing issues rather than technology issues; comcast have a lot more bullying-power to negotiate licensing with content-providers compared to new-kid-on-the-block Verizon.
I am sure that the size of Verizon's FiOS on-demand library will grow exponentially over time. The limitation is likely licensing issues rather than technology issues; comcast have a lot more bullying-power to negotiate licensing with content-providers compared to new-kid-on-the-block Verizon.
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