Comcast – Page 2 – Geoff Fox: My Permanent Record

New TV For The Bedroom

Circuit City offers a service where, for a fee, they’ll come to your home and set the TV up. Does anyone really need this? It was out of the box with the base screwed into place in two minutes.

We went out today to buy a new TV for the bedroom. This is a set used by me when I wake up and by Helaine before she goes to bed.

Is it possible nowadays to not feel guilty when spending money? I definitely felt guilty. Isn’t that attitude going to take us farther into recession?

We decided we’d like something similarly sized to what we already have. Our old set is 27″, but it’s 4:3. All TVs today at 16:9. Have no fear there are websites that will calculate and compare. A 32″ TV is within 6% of a 27″ “old school” monitor in area with lots of extra real estate when the content is HDTV.

This was definitely a price based decision. We went with a Circuit City “Element” brand 32″ LCD TV at $399. It is a no-nonsense model with a single HDMI input, VGA and the other standard methods of moving video and audio.

Circuit City offers a service where, for a fee, they’ll come to your home and set the TV up. Does anyone really need this? It was out of the box with the base screwed into place in two minutes. I couldn’t believe there was a Phillips head screwdriver included!

I attached the coax and power cable turned it on and went to the menu to scan for channels. A few minutes later I was ready to go.

The analog channels are what I was expecting. The digital channels are a mish mash of repeats and weird channels with few things of interest. At least two digital channels don’t seem to be on my Comcast provided digital tuner in the family room. That’s some sort of screw up on Comcast’s part.

The digital companions to our local on-air stations are at their on-channel positions. So, though WCTX is usually Cable 9, WCTX-DT is on Channel 59. WTIC, the local Fox affiliate, is 61-1 squeezed between CNN Headline on 61 and CNN on 62. Now Homer Simpson is in the middle of a cluster of news outlets.

As I tuned I began to notice a lot of channels running HD programming on their SD channels but formatted 16:9 so it doesn’t fill the entire screen. What you get is a 16:9 picture on a 16:9 set but with loads of unused black on all four sides. I could hit a button an expand it, but it’s a manual job on each channel and the video will be pixelated as it’s stretched.

The tuner on this set reminds me of the tuner in an LG set at work. It probably is the same tuner. I assume there are mix and match modules used to build modern televisions. Companies like “Element” are more marketing than manufacturing.

The picture is bright and sharp and it’s an improvement over the old set. I’m looking forward to watching it.

Comcast Giveth–Comcast Taketh Away

Jose Candelario who I work with said he’d heard from friends this was typical and they’d disappear over the weekend. They did, just after midnight Sunday.

I didn’t want to write about this sooner because… well, I didn’t want Comcast to know what was on my new DVR/cable box. Remember the card from Monopoly: “Bank Error In Your Favor.” After we got our new HDTV DVR from Comcast it got ALL the premium movie channels.

“Wow, this is cool,” I thought.

Jose Candelario who I work with said he’d heard from friends this was typical and they’d disappear over the weekend. They did, just after midnight Sunday.

A few brief observations from my moment of free-pay-TV:

I enjoyed seeing Bill Maher. Pre-HBO we ran Politically Incorrect on the TV station until Bill became too politically incorrect.

Helaine and Stef have tried to get me hooked on Entourage. Now I am. I’ll probably continue to watch it via DVD.

I like Bruce Willis action movies.

Is it possible to find nubile young actresses willing to take their clothes off who can act? If so, Cinemax has not yet found them. These are a lot more explicit than I remember.

There are a lot of movies being played I’ve never heard of. Is there that much direct-to-cable?

Right now, for me, there’s not enough to make me want to subscribe. I already have enough channels with nothing worth watching.

The HD DVR Pick-up

Sweet. This is a brand new DVR model which has gotten reasonably good reviews from the on-line “gotta have it” community.

My “Secret Location in the Valley” friend from California thinks I’m crazy.

“You’re going to Comcast?” he asked. “Why?”

He’s correct. Comcast will come to me DVR in hand and make the swap moving me to HDTV. It’s what they do. It’s how my friend works. It’s how most people work–waiting for the cable guy.

I’m a hands on geek. I want to screw the N-connector hooked to the coax cable and string the HDMI cable between the DVR and my set. This is my fun. No one’s taking that from me.

I headed to Comcast on the way to work. They have a New Haven office a few minutes from the TV station.

The line was long. Only two of the four windows were open.

Standing in line at the cable company isn’t always pleasant. People are there to pay past due bills and get their service restored. Some are angry. Many are perplexed. Few people are there for routine customer service. The place is not built for privacy. You hear everything.

The long line moved surprisingly quickly. I put my old DVR in a large drawer which delivered it to the agent across the glass from me. She went to a cabinet, looked, stopped, moved farther down the cabinet and came back with a Cisco RNG200 HDTV DVR.

Sweet. This is a brand new DVR model which has gotten reasonably good reviews from the on-line “gotta have it” community.

The back is loaded with plugs and sockets. There’s a USB 2.0 connector. Why? I want to know. Same for the Firewire (aka IEEE 1394) port. What can I do with it? There’s HDMI to provide highest quality video to the HDTV. It looks like there’s a port for an external SATA hard drive.

As far as I can tell, there’s no instruction manual online. None came with the box.

Tonight I start the final phase of the switch-over. The new TV table gets moved into position and the DVR, DVD and possible VCR go underneath. Then the TV gets lifted into position.

Helaine can reclaim the family room.

The New HDTV Makes Work

Meanwhile, what about all the saved stuff? You know the shows you just want to keep over time.

Imagine a home with just Stef and me–no Helaine. That’s what the family room looks like now! It’s is ripped apart and randomly strewn. Welcome to HDTV.

It started innocently enough with the old TV going kerflooey. Finding and buying a new set was its own adventure (does anyone really know?). We’ve now got a 47″ Vizio which seems very nice.

Today I built the TV stand, a low, black two shelved table chosen to fit in our old school 4:3 ratio space. My electric screwdriver wasn’t charged so I brought it down and plugged it in, but never needed it. Actually, the TV table is very nice and went together easily. The instructions seemed to be in the original English. All the parts were neatly sealed in plastic–present and accounted for, sir.

We have a Comcast issue SD DVR. That’s gotta go. I stopped in at the New Haven Comcast office yesterday and was told “no extra charge” to go from SD DVR to HD DVR. We’ll see.&#185

Meanwhile, what about all the saved stuff? You know the shows you just want to keep over time. That sent me upstairs to a combo VCR/DVD-R in the bedroom. It’s now inserted in the chain between the DVR and HDTV. Sheesh!

Unfortunately, you dub in realtime. A 60 minute show takes 60 minutes.

By tonight the copying will be done. The VCR/DVD-R will go back upstairs. The DVR will head back to Comcast for a swap. The HDTV will go on its new table. The wires will be tucked away. We’ll be back to normal.

In the meantime it looks like a bomb went off.

&#185 – Over the weekend I mentioned that at&t’s u-verse looked like a good alternative to Comcast. One of my blog readers who works for at&t in Connecticut was nice enough to check out its potential availability for me. Not a good result.

“I hate to tell you, or any any potential customer, that according to the schedule she has, it will be a while before it is deployed at your location. Basically, Stef may be in graduate school…or worse…married by the time it is deployed there.”

The New TV Seems Like The Beginning

Yeah–this TV is going to cost us more money. As soon as I watched a little HDTV, SD (old school analog television) looked shabby.

A few weeks ago our family room TV died a horrific death during a thunderstorm. You can still see the picture, but the blue gun no longer lines up with the other two. It’s not a linear error either. Straight lines from the offset blue channel now form an arc. Everything appears on the TV twice… on the TV twice.

I did a little shopping and some online searching before deciding on a 47″ Vizio SV470XVT1A, which we bought this afternoon. Our old projection model was a hassle getting home. This LCD model fit nicely in the back of the SUV and Helaine and I were easily able to carry it in.

Yeah–this TV is going to cost us more money. As soon as I watched a little HDTV, SD (old school analog television) looked shabby. We’ll need HDTV service and our SD DVR will need to become an HD DVR.

Actually, this whole episode sent me looking at AT&T’s U-Verse service. The website says it’s not available on my street. I suspect it is, because it’s available one street over and I’ve seen AT&T’s boxes in the neighborhood.

If you work for AT&T or know someone who does, will you help? Drop me a line.

The U-Verse package (including moving my home phone and Internet access over) looks like a good deal. Plus, AT&T’s DVR is in the midst of becoming a real media center, feeding any TV in the house from one location. It looks like they offer more than Comcast for less money. Gotta pay for the TV somehow.

Back to the TV for a second. It set up easily and has a very sharp picture. Right now it’s on the floor, but we’ve got a stand on order. This set was bought as much for its ability to fill a ‘built-in’ physical space as much as anything else.

Head Of The Family–Carl Reiner’s 1961 Sitcom Pilot

What was missing was love and humanity. I am astonished to say this was a mean spirited sitcom–something it did not set out to be.

I just watched the pilot that ended up becoming the Dick Van Dyke show. It’s part of what Comcast offers on their Fancast page. Dick Van Dyke was nowhere to be seen, nor were Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie or Morey Amsterdam. This was Carl Reiner’s show, written, created and starring Carl Reiner and featuring a cast with New Yawk accents so thick I thought I was back at PS 163.

I’m a huge Carl Reiner fan, but this was awful. Truly. It wasn’t bad because the jokes didn’t work–they were like all the other jokes on all the other sitcoms. What was missing was warmth and humanity. I am astonished to say this was a mean spirited sitcom–something it did not set out to be.

I can’t understand how Reiner didn’t see it. And, if he didn’t see it, I worry about who he was in 1961. The protagonist in this autobiographical show had big issues.

Luckily “Head of the Family” became the “Dick Van Dyke Show.” Lucky Barbara Britton was replaced by Mary Tyler Moore and Morty Gunty (Morty Gunty–my father will enjoy seeing that name) was replaced by Morey Amsterdam.

There are no TV pilots any more. If it’s made, it’s aired (and it certainly doesn’t run 26:20). There is no sandox to experiment in. I can thank and blame the Internet I got to see this 45+ years after the fact. I will never look at Carl Reiner in the same way.

What’s Up At Comcast?

What’s odd is this has happened without any advance warning I can see.

Something’s afoot at Comcast. They’ve moved TruTV (formerly Court TV) and Hallmark Channel to the digital tier. The Weather Channel has gone from Channel 69 to Channel 98&#185–an oddball channel that’s strangely placed in the actual spectrum. As far as I can see nothing’s been moved down to take their place.

What’s odd is this has happened without any advance warning I can see. Even Comcast’s own website still shows Hallmark and TruTV where they were.

AT&T’s u-verse seems like an interesting alternative, but it’s not available where I live. Neither is DSL. That makes satellite TV a poor choice, since I’d need an alternative to Comcast for data.

I’m just trying to figure out why, in the face of increasing competition, Comcast is doing this?

&#185- As far as I’m concerned, the Weather Channel is a competitor. Comcast can totally remove it from the system and get nothing more than a smile from me!

Cable’s On-Demand Weakness

On-demand is a good idea. This execution of it is not.

When this entry was written, I didn’t know about DirecTV’s on-demand service. A few friends have written to say it’s pretty good. As is my policy, I’m not going to change the original text. Obviously, when I said on-demand isn’t available except on cable, I was wrong.

I am a Comcast subscriber&#185. Along with High Speed Internet and the usual broadcast channels, we have a Comcast DVR and their ‘basic’ digital package. That means we also get their on-demand offerings.

Comcast advertises this mainly free service all the time. It’s something satellite can’t offer.

In the abstract, on-demand should be a good thing. On-demand means I can see what I want when I want it. The problem is, Comcast’s on-demand is so difficult and cumbersome to operate, it might as well not be there.

There are probably thousands of individual clips or programs available. To find them, you need a well organized system. That’s not what’s there. Some of the menu classifications are meaningless. Some of the offerings are buried two or three clicks deep!

On the Internet, if I have a bookmark to a Youtube clip, I can go directly there. Not so with Comcast. I still have to wend my way through the menus. On top of that, clicking doesn’t bring an immediate response. It’s click and wait.

Finally, after you’ve played a clip, you’re basically where you started. So, two karaoke songs or two autos for sale or two anythings means a trip back to the menu tree. It’s frustrating.

Comcast, and the vendors they use to package their clips, throw logos and animations on the front of what you’re viewing. How many do I really need to see? If I’m watching two of something, must I see this tribute to navel gazing?

On-demand is a good idea. This execution of it is not.

What Comcast offers is much less friendly than Youtube or other websites with video on-demand. They can promote the service ’til the cows come home, but one run-in with it was enough for me.

Except in cases where Comcast has exclusive content, like some movies, I’ll be on-demanding of others. I’m sure that doesn’t make Comcast happy. Maybe it will make them re-evaluate their user experience…. maybe.

&#185 – I am also a Comcast stockholder. It’s a very small amount which is part of my retirement fund.

Ziff Davis – Bankrupt

At the moment, I can’t think of one business sector in America that’s doing well or has a promising future. I’m sure I’ve oversimplified and one of you will point that out in a comment. But, by and large, business sucks.

I just read that Ziff Davis, the big tech publisher, has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They publish eWeek and PC Magazine, two big tech publications, plus a slew of others. They were the owners of TechTV, before selling out to Vulcan, which sold it to Comcast, which promptly folded it.

Somehow, ZD has a quarter billion dollars of debt. It always boggles my mind to find how deep in hock companies can get. Aren’t the lenders doing research?

Maybe I don’t want that answer.

When this is over, the company will have ‘only’ fifty some odd million dollars in debt… but those who owned 100% of Ziff Davis will then own 12%. Ouch.

Among those doing the worst are print publications, which is where Ziff Davis comes in. The print business model seems very last century – though so do plenty of others.

Computer Shopper used to be a favorite magazine of mine. It was hundreds and hundreds of ad laden pages. Now, Kate Moss thin, I am dropping it.

In fact, I have allowed a few of my tech magazine subscriptions to expire rececntly. By the time the magazine gets to me, I already know what’s in it! The Internet has trumped pulp.

There’s some good news in all this. Business tends to be cyclical. Once the weakest players in an individual sector fold, or are absorbed, the remaining companies should thrive again.

That’s little solace to those cast aside in business closings and downsizings.

ZD won’t be the last bankruptcy we’ll be hearing about this year. It’s still sobering to hear an 80 year old business can get that deeply in trouble while staying pretty true to their historical core model.

Reporter Or Flack – You Make The Call

Helaine and I are watching tonight’s broadcast of the Pats/Giants game. Comcast has it on five channels, plus NFL Network (which I don’t buy).

Before the game began, an on-field ‘reporter’ ‘interviewed’ NFL commissioner Roger Gooddell. Well, at least that’s how it appeared. Certainly, that’s how it was intended to appear.

Don’t be fooled. It was not a reporter. It was not an interview.

Roger Gooddell was quizzed on NFL Network by an NFL Network employee. As NFL commissioner he controls NFL Network. He is the interviewer’s boss.

Which tough, embarrassing questions are you prepared to ask your boss on national television?

Gooddell answered with no follow-up.

This wasn’t an interview. It was a stealth press release. That wasn’t a reporter. Tonight, he was a PR flack.

That NBC and CBS allowed this to happen on their air is nearly as distasteful as NFL Network doing it.

High Def At My Desk

I’m at my desk this Sunday evening and not away at dinner because of strong wind and rain moving through Connecticut.

Say what you will about my job, there are some benefits. While the radar loops in a monitor to my right, I’m watching the Sunday night football game on NBC in HDTV. That’s right, somehow I’ve been blessed with an HDTV set at my desk! It’s an LG 20LS7D, which I assume means it’s a 20″ screen.

Football in HD is amazing, but not 100% what I expected. There are lots of compression artifacts whenever there is motion. You can especially see it where there is high contrast.

By compression artifacts, I mean slight video distortion where an approximation of the actual picture replaces the full fledged version. If you play with JPG images, you’ve probably seen something similar.

It’s possible this degradation of the picture isn’t the TVs fault or the fault of HDTV in general. I’m getting this via an unencrypted feed on Comcast. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were taking what they get from the local broadcaster and compressing it a little more to save on precious bandwidth.

Whatever it is, HDTV ends up as M(edium)DTV.

That being said, the picture seems sharp because of the astounding contrast. The blacks are blacker and whites whiter than what I’m used to seeing on TV. That brilliance makes the picture jump out at you.

To your eye, high contrast implies high resolution, even when high resolution isn’t there. Programs like Photoshop create this effect with a filter called ‘unsharp mask.’

I’ve been surprised to see the programming on our local PBS station. They seem to be running a full HDTV feed (still with artifacts) which differs from the PBS programs being run on their standard definition channel.

I spent a good 45 minutes watching this PBS feed a few evenings ago, staring at penguins and seals on South Georgia Island, not far from Antarctica.

Someone who walked by my desk said he’d pretty much watch anything in HD. I think I understand.

I’m not ready to bite the bullet and go HD at home. A set large enough for our family room is still prohibitively expensive for the amount of use it would get.

After seeing this presentation, I’m glad to say we’re not in HD at work yet. I’m not sure my trowel-like application of makeup would serve me well. The world is a better place with a slightly fuzzy Geoff.

Comcast Problem Solved

I’ll hand it to Comcast for very good customer service.

My father said he received a phone call, an apology and a service technician came out and fixed his problem. This is the way a company should react to a troubled customer.

Now, like everyone else who gets HDTV, he’s watching Discovery Channel 24/7!

Comcast And My Parent’s HDTV

My parents are still watching standard definition TV, even after a visit from a Comcast installer. It’s frustrating enough to require an email from me to Comcast’s corner office.

Dear Mr. Roberts,

I am writing as both a shareholder and customer, but mostly as a son on behalf of my parents, Harold and Betty Fox of (redacted), FL.

Recently, my folks ordered HD DVR service from Comcast. Today, your Comcast installer told them the proper way to use the system was by tuning their TV to Channel 3. In other words, they were told to use the internal modulator in the DVR and the internal tuner on their TV. This method is only capable of delivering standard definition television, not HDTV. Only by using a DVI cable or 3 composite video cables, could they have actually received an HDTV picture.

They didn’t know this, but your installer surely should have.

I am disappointed for my parents, who have not gotten what they paid for. I am disappointed as a shareholder that installers aren’t better trained. Considering the fierce competition from satellite, I would have expected a better outcome on what should be a high priority product.

Any assistance from Comcast to correct this problem will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Geoff Fox

ps – Comcast’s system prevents me from sending this directly to the proper department. I hope you can forward it on my behalf.

I’ll let you know if anyone responds.

Blogger’s note – Comcast to the rescue. Here’s the follow-up.

HDTV Or Not HDTV – That Is The Question

A confession. Back in 1968, my college radio station was broadcasting in mono. A fellow engineering type and I decided we’d change that.

We had no stereo equipment at the studio nor a stereo exciter at the transmitter site, but we hooked up a tone generator on the audio line and inserted a 19 kHz sine wave. The tone was too high to be heard over-the-air, but perfect to enable the stereo light on any radio so equipped.

Anyone listening to the station who saw the light probably thought we were in stereo. Perception is reality.

Another station I worked at inadvertently turned off our ability to broadcast in stereo (though that pilot tone was still transmitting and turning on stereo lights). There wasn’t one call of complaint.

All that happened decades ago, but some things remain the same.

A few weeks ago my folks bought an HDTV television. Then last week they got an HDTV DVR from Comcast. A few cable connections and voila – HDTV.

Just one problem. That’s not what they were watching.

My dad, who had hooked up as many TVs as anyone, did what he’d always done. And that did produce a picture. There was no way for him to know what he did coiuld never produce real HDTV.

Since my folks were watching programs that filled the 16:9 screen on their HDTV, and since it was being fed by their HDTV DVR they were happy.

An article at Audioholics.com points out:

A recent survey by Leichtman Research Group came up with the following interesting facts:

* Nearly half of the 24 million households with HDTVs don’t actually watch high-definition programs because they lack an HDTV feed from either via cable or satellite

* 25% of those surveyed didn’t even realize they were watching non-HDTV transmissions

As the author, Clint DeBoer, points out “Sleeping in the Garage Doesn’t Make You a Car.”

I don’t want my folks to miss out on what they paid for, so I’ve tried to help get the right cables in the right sockets. It’s not easy as all the connections are behind or under the TV or the wall unit it sits in.

Right now they can get HDTV… just without audio. The solution is easy, once the TV and DVR are moved.

Oh – I knew they weren’t getting HDTV when my dad told me he had to tune the TV to Channel 3 to see anything. Using the TV’s tuner meant they were watching everything in “SD” or standard definition.

Their DVR to TV connection was a single coaxial cable, instead of the five separate connections they really need. How is anyone supposed to know this?

Believe me, they’re not the only ones.

Yikes It’s Cold!

Sometimes this blog is written to be read immediately. At other times, right now for example, I’m writing to document something, so I don’t forget. Like today’s weather.

Holy cow, it was cold.

There’s a strange weather record – lowest high temperature, which was broken today. On the Connecticut shoreline, it was more smashed than broken! The old record fell by a full ten degrees.

In the midst of all this, Helaine said to me, “There’s a Comcast truck outside.” So there was.

We’d had some minor trouble with the cable. A few channels, most of which we don’t watch, weren’t available. I didn’t cry, without AZN or Oxygen, but I did want National Geographic.

I opened the front door and saw it was actually two trucks beside our telephone pole. One was a bucket truck. They were working on the pole… in the wind… in the bitter cold.

“You guys want me to make some coffee,” I asked. They said no.

Pangs of guilt overtook me. Was National Geographic worth wind chills of twenty below (really – no hyperbole necessary)?

As they continued their work, they came in the house (and fixed the problem). We talked and they said the weather wasn’t so awful, because they were dressed for it. I wasn’t convinced.

As I type this, the worst of the wind chill is gone… but it’s still 9&#176!

Hearing about the weather, a friend from California called to tell me he was sitting by his pool, enjoying the day. Grrrrr.

A few days ago I wrote how I sensed spring was just around the corner. Maybe it still is, but right now that corner looks a long way off.

Plus, the groundhog won’t return my calls!

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