Comcast
OK. This is kind of … well… I want to say bad things about Comcast, especially the move to digital cable TV. What this ultimately means for high-end audio is unclear, the rush of people abandoning TV for internet video will probably be good for computer audio – since people will be used to using a computer for ‘living-room type entertainment’ and bad for old-style components-in-the-livingroom setups. But do not know for sure. Obviously.
Anyway, the move to digital cable from analog has been disastrous. I have some programs still recorded on a TiVo from the analog cable days, and here are the differences:
* The audio is both brighter and more muffled at the same time. Words are MUCH harder to understand now. When the sound gets a little too loud then it is hard, edgy and harsh.
* Roughly half of the picture is chopped off (all the sides have been cropped off about 25%)
* Blacks and grays are now black (many darkish movies are now unwatchable)
* changing channels now takes about 5 to 10 seconds (presumably it is sending a signal over the internet for each button push, and they are very slow at responding, unlike Google search which responds immediately each letter you type. for example)
* As people migrate away from TV, the quality of the programming has declined to primarily appeal to the types of people who do not feel comfortable on the internet.
—————————–
Like most people, we have no choice but to use Comcast. We used to have a small cable company for Boulder County, Jones Intercable, but Comcast bought them out. What happens is that companies here in the U.S. can buy out a small competitor, take over their customer base, lower services and raise prices for those customers, and then use the resulting profits [and promise of future profits] to leverage and buy out yet another small competitor, repeating the process over and over until there are no small competitors left.
I do not really bemoan the end of TV, as such – but to have it end this way is kind of sad. I understand Google TV will offer internet video (YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, etc) in a large screen format in our living-rooms, which is great but I do not see that having a high-end sound system hooked up to your video system is going to be of much benefit [it definitely WAS for analog cable, which I heartily enjoyed for 25 years; with digital cable it has been hit and miss… the source quality being so bad. Now with internet video… it isn’t as bad as digital cable, but it ain’t ‘CD quality’ which all of a sudden we are looking *UP* to… ? *sigh*].
Guys, I see no quick end to TV as it is now, until internet speeds to most homes improve. I know in your case you do not want to install directv, and if you did you would see improved picture quality and sound, very quick channel changes with newer boxes. You could even set up something like a Channel Master CM-7000PAL Antenna HD DVR CM7000PAL DVR, add an antenna and at least improve getting local channels. There are alternatives………..
Hi Mike,
I guess my thesis with that post was that Basic Cable is the backbone of America 🙂 and that is what most people have (and want to pay for) and that is where most of the audience is (who watch commercials, which pays for the content) and that this move on Comcast’s part is going to, in a viscous downward spiral, reduce the funding for content, reducing its quality, and further reducing the audience, which further reduces the funding….
EEEEeeeeewww…. local channels?!?! The local PBS stations are OK, but the rest is sensationalistic trash or reruns [although one of them is rerunning the Monkeys on Sundays…! but they hardly ever show the entire episodes anymore…. better to buy/rent the DVDs]
[And just to clarify, since Neli is worried that people will think we aren’t competent enough to figure out that we can pay more money to get better quality TV – yes, we can pay more money and get better quality Cable – we pay about $60 now; I think the next level up is $100/month – and/or Satellite TV (which we would do if we were staying here, if only for the NFL channels… for Neli… if there is still going to be an NFL… ;-))] .
Take care,
Mike
Sorry for the trouble. I can reach out to my local colleagues to assist you in getting this resolved. You can contact me, provide your info and a link to this page if you’re interested in my help.
Thanks in advance,
Mark Casem
Comcast Corp.
National Customer Operations
We_can_help@cable.comcast.com
Mike: Could it be that you are NOT feeding your digital signal directly into a multi channel controller and then into multi channel audio…i.e., HOME THEATER? My last Comcast experience was in Arlington, VA 6 years ago with first, Lexicon and then Meridian controlers driving a fine Meridian 5-speaker system for serious $$$ and the sound was splendid. Crystal clear voices through center channel. Doing the same on a tv speaker, or, probably, stereo is another thing. I’ve solved the voice problem by using remote ear phones…voice is loud and clear…otherwise the multichannel signal on regular tv speakers has the voice overwhelmed by info consolidated from the other channels and I can’t make out many words..especially when spoken with accents. All this can now be done for a song and I’ve heard it recently in an Alexandria VA basement (Comcast). HD signals on big screens with good electronics and audio systems will still behave according to garbage in/garbage out but you can test them agains DVD or, better yet, Bluray and A/B against a tivo’d program. PBS Great Performances and other programs have sounded pretty good to me…that is until I dismantled all the stuff and traded it in for high-end stereo! Now my tv experience sucks like yours!
Hi Jim and Mark,
First, my post was about comparing apples to apples, the Analog cable signal and performance to the Digital cable signal, now the only option available – and what this means for TV, and for our hobby, as the vast majority of people are using Basic Cable, and as they grow more and more dissatisfied… WHERE will they migrate to. [THIS is what I think is interesting to talk about – all this rest here in these posts is context]
Ignoring Comcast’s predatory business practices, and the – now seemingly quite common and open by the overly large corps here these days – convincing$$$ of the FCC et. al. members of the govt. to allow a tiered pay-as-you-go network bandwidth scheme [which will do the same thing for the internet as digital cable is doing for TV – because as a webapp developer I have to write my app for the most common type of web surfer and that will be someone on the lowest tier – which means shitty apps for all of us], …..their basic internet service is quite acceptable:
at Speakeasy Speed Test
Download Speed: 11859 kbps (1482.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 4158 kbps (519.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
As for how my TV is setup… I run it into a Lexicon DC-1 (our newer MC-1 had a problem and it cost more to fix than to buy a used one – about $500 for this $6500 component but the DC-1 keeps on trucking.). Please understand that digital is not the same as analog – and I believe Comcast does some scrambling of the signal as well – which may or may not be lossy.
Yes, I could upgrade my TiVo and get a better signal – they now have support for Comcast digital built in. But at the same time I could also get a $100 card for my PC to significantly improve it’s DAC as well [or feed the whole thing into a somewhat more expensive Emm Labs DAC. 🙂
The whole point is that TV has now been relegated to the dust bin technologically and content-wise, and the internet is the remaining option for ‘live’ (as opposed to DVD) high-end audio enriched AV solutions.
Take care,
-Mike
DISH Network works best TV provider for entertainment and programming by far! I have a 56 inch TV and surround sound system hooked up and it works great, I cant believe the picture quality it gave me and in 1080i. There VOD selection is in 1080p the sharpest picture quality for your HDTV and free HD programming for life! Working for DISH I can tell you are DISH online is the only online video portal offering 150,000 movies, TV shows, trailers, and clips. Check out this cool link http://besttvforme.com/.