Thread: SD channels above 99 - Picture Quality

I currently have DirecTV HD and I am considering switching to Comcast with their DVR deal and HDTV. DirecTV over-compresses their SD channels so that when viewed on a digital big screen HDTV it looks like a carpet of squares and a really fuzzy picture. Does comcast compress their upper digital channels? or does it look like my over the air digital broadcasts of SD programming. I understand that the channels 1-99 are analog for now and nothing can really be done to improve them on a big screen HDTV. IVe also heard the rumors about comcast going fully digital within the year..Is that a plus or will those channels look like the little dish compressed crap?



I live in the suburbs of Chicago.

Analog definately sucks. As for the digitals, they look ok. I've compared some of them to the Voom SD channels and they looked simular. Of course, there are variances between channels. I think some of the Encore East channls look better than the Encore West channels.

I've had D* in the past (3ish years ago), and I didn't notice much difference from D* to Voom, or from Voom to Comcast.

-John

nytevizion, I am in the same exact boat as you are. I live in a Chicago (western) suburb and am thinking about switching as well. Directv jacked the prices up for the HIgh Def Football Sunday Ticket so I cancelled it from them. I believe Chicago Comcast offers the locals in High Def. (so I can watch the Bears in High Def if I wanted to), whereas Directv blacks out the Bears in High Def. Have you made the switch or not? I might try Comcast for 6 months and then make a decision as to which way I want to go Directv or Comcast.

Originally Posted by tonysoprano

nytevizion, I am in the same exact boat as you are. I live in a Chicago (western) suburb and am thinking about switching as well. Directv jacked the prices up for the HIgh Def Football Sunday Ticket so I cancelled it from them. I believe Chicago Comcast offers the locals in High Def. (so I can watch the Bears in High Def if I wanted to), whereas Directv blacks out the Bears in High Def. Have you made the switch or not? I might try Comcast for 6 months and then make a decision as to which way I want to go Directv or Comcast.

I switched to comast last week here in philly. I now can get all of my local teams in HD Flyers,sixers phillies and eagles. I know i will miss DTV especially around football camp time there is something about the anticiaption of NFL season starting and having the chance to view them all.

I know for a fact that Comcast here in the burbs offer all the locals, 2,5,7,9,11,32 and 50 in HD, same as Over the air, they also have INHD 1 & 2, ESPN-HD, TNTHD, Discovery HD, and supposedly Sports Net in HD when you get the digital classic package... I also here they are adding Universal HD soon and a few others...I'm sure the HD quality is the same if not better than Directv because supposedly they dont DOWN RES the video to save on bandwidth. Plus comcast has 4 premium movie channels in HD, HBO, Showtime, Skinimax and Stars...So I figure, I will save 20 bucks a month for my internet service because Im paying the full 60 a month for the Cable internet because I dont subscribe to their TV and I figure they will offer a better deal since I am switching from a dish TV provider... Its a win win situation... In Fact I am calling tomorrow for the switch over..

My real question is "Are the comcast standard upper digital channels over compressed like the standard channels on directv. Obviously you dont notice the compression artifacts on smaller TV's but you really notice them on big screen TV's especially HD digital TV's..

I haven't switched yet, but there is no doubt I am going to because this whole upgrade your receiver and dish crap for mpeg 4 is for the birds. And its even more disturbing to know that they arent going to increase the picture quality for the standard definition channels...

Last week I switched from Dish Network to Comcast, primarily to check out their HD and take advantage of their promo. The digital channels are quite good. The quality of the analog channels varies quite a bit. I was surprised that the analog channels are generally not mirrored to the digital range. My favorites, SciFi, History are analog only.

Another factor to consider is the quality of the set top boxes Comcast provides. The HD Motorola 5100 with component connections to a Sony HD 51" set displays the some analog stations pretty good, and I haven't had any problems with the digital ones. However, the 2nd STB is a General Instruments SD box. It does not have S-video outputs. It only has composite video and RF. That is a real limitation.

Said it was 39.99 for the dish buy back program which is their Digital Silver, HBO, plus you get a DVR thats capable of HD recording and all the HD channels they have minus the other 3 movie channels. For 12 months. any addtional recievers are 4.99

But they want my recievers...Im putting the HD-HTL reciever away and giving them one regular SD receiver...Somone told me comcast takes your dish and card, but comcast said to me that they take the reciever! Bastards!

Tell them you can't give them the equipment because you need to return it to DirecTV to avoid the early termination fee. Comcast will accept a copy of a recent bill instead. Actually, my installer never even asked to see my Dish bill. It mentioned the dish buyback promo on the install sheet, and I'm getting the special pricing of $25 off for 16 months on my bill. (They gave me a choice of that or the $39.99 package. I chose the $25 off.) I guess they don't need proof. It seems that any new customer can claim they gave up dbs.

Originally Posted by nytevizion

I know for a fact that Comcast here in the burbs offer all the locals, 2,5,7,9,11,32 and 50 in HD, same as Over the air, ...

You're getting WPWR-DT on you cable system, I didn't think that Comcast was carrying them in the Chicago area yet.