sweet...tampabay area,analog channels converted into all digital :)

[razorphreak900]

thats right....ive noticed the free preview on a&ehd so i went and checked to see if there was anything else new,but after a lil while of searching the cable box shut off (I did wonder why it did that) and i noticed it was rebooting.so i left it alone to see what it does...once it was back on i was wondering what was up...untill it clicked to me that i noticed the analog channels (1 thru 99) looked mad clear....thats when i realized it was all in digital .....and boy does it look good!, no pixelation or nothing,....just pure clearness so happy to finally have an all digital/hd cable,it was so obvious the diffence from analog to digital,thought u will also noticed that the channel with change a lil bit slower........so reset them boxes if you havent noticed the change,thought it should of done it for you....i live in saint petersburg fl, good luck and enjoy!

 

[Khandurian]

Wow, they are behind. Orlando and Brevard went multi-cast a year ago. I wonder what took them so long over there?

Anyways, if you do reboot your box, make sure it is NOT updating first. One sure fire way to kill a box, is to unplug it and reboot it when it's programming!

 

[razorphreak900]

Wow, they are behind. Orlando and Brevard went multi-cast a year ago. I wonder what took them so long over there?

Anyways, if you do reboot your box, make sure it is NOT updating first. One sure fire way to kill a box, is to unplug it and reboot it when it's programming!

yea you are right i always wondered why it took so long for them to do it.and wonder what was the reason,usually tampabay does it first because of local (tampa) "competitions", thought it doesnt matter.......i also agree on the programing of the cable boxes...if it is programing or doing something leave it alone! thought it should program at anytime even after they are finished......but yea better late than never lol....one thing i love about it they did a great job with the digital signals.....i have yet again not to see no pixelation so im happy they are not over compressing.....thought one thing ive noticed..unless they gotta finish tonight.....the local channels that are usually aired are still in analog....thought i could understand why....(im not talking about local CABLE channels) its about 6 channels..but i do not see them so it aint a big deal....also if you think you damaged the update or etc...just call cable and tell them to resend the update/reset signal

 

[Khandurian]

Actually, if for some reason the update failed, or you had a power outage during an update, it's not a total loss most of the times.

What will happen is when the box turns on again (gets power) part of its startup procedure is to check to see if it's running the latest firmware available. If it's not, it will go ahead and re-start the download again.

 

[korsjs]

to me, it still looks poor. i have been looking at the picture quality the past couple of days.

positive, it looks better than before.

negative, it still looks like crap. brighthouse has dish network, directv, and fios for competition in this area. i had dish network. dish looked better. fios was way better. can not comment on directv.

i look forward to the outstanding picture quality of fios very soon.

 

[Bschneider]

Not all of the Tampa area has been converted.

 

[razorphreak900]

to me, it still looks poor. i have been looking at the picture quality the past couple of days.

positive, it looks better than before.

negative, it still looks like crap. brighthouse has dish network, directv, and fios for competition in this area. i had dish network. dish looked better. fios was way better. can not comment on directv.

i look forward to the outstanding picture quality of fios very soon.

that sucks man, i honestly have no problems like that, thought remember that some channels did not convert in digital, like channels 1 thru 7, cause they are usually aired channels, and like 2 other more. so it will stay the same, besides those channels they look great, no pixelation or ghosting or nthing, just pure clearness

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

The cablecard TVs are not using the digital channels for SD - which I consider more of an oversight when rolling out the permissions. I actually hope it stays this way for a while as it will kill split screen PIP on most TVs as they cannot handle 2 digital tuners. For example, I can put 2 SD inputs side by side - but in the digital realm only 1 can go on the left with an analog on the right.

What this has done is given a unique opportunity as I can put 2-99 on Digitally through the SA8300HD /HDMI on the left and use the analog 2-99 on the right from the cable NTSC tuner.

First, there is a roughly 6 second delay in the digital feed.

But after spending a limited amount of time with this yesterday, I can say there really wasnt any major difference in the 2 feeds.

Now, whether that means that since BHN is virtually all fiber except for the final mile (in my case for example, I am fiber up to about 10 houses away), the old analog pictures running through multiple analog amps that add noise at every link are perhaps truly a thing of the past several years ago - or B, the digital SD channels look like crap - as korsjs noted above.

I guess I will have to activate some SD feeds directly off the C Band distribution bird and compare them to see which of the 2 is correct.

 

[razorphreak900]

The cablecard TVs are not using the digital channels for SD - which I consider more of an oversight when rolling out the permissions. I actually hope it stays this way for a while as it will kill split screen PIP on most TVs as they cannot handle 2 digital tuners. For example, I can put 2 SD inputs side by side - but in the digital realm only 1 can go on the left with an analog on the right.

What this has done is given a unique opportunity as I can put 2-99 on Digitally through the SA8300HD /HDMI on the left and use the analog 2-99 on the right from the cable NTSC tuner.

First, there is a roughly 6 second delay in the digital feed.

But after spending a limited amount of time with this yesterday, I can say there really wasnt any major difference in the 2 feeds.

Now, whether that means that since BHN is virtually all fiber except for the final mile (in my case for example, I am fiber up to about 10 houses away), the old analog pictures running through multiple analog amps that add noise at every link are perhaps truly a thing of the past several years ago - or B, the digital SD channels look like crap - as korsjs noted above.

I guess I will have to activate some SD feeds directly off the C Band distribution bird and compare them to see which of the 2 is correct.

well from using a cable card that i have zero idea what it looks like, but i honestly noticed a big improvement, i dont understand why others say is the same or worth lol....but atleast cable is the kinda service where one person hates it the next person doesnt lol.....depends on luck i guess....not saying im superior or something like that lol, but whats funny is, how if there was no difference in the quality,how would i kno i noticed the change?.......well im out again, peace

 

[neynme]

If i'm using a cable card, It should auto convert to digital now? I'm in st. pete, I don't see difference. So I do not know my changed or not.

 

[razorphreak900]

If i'm using a cable card, It should auto convert to digital now? I'm in st. pete, I don't see difference. So I do not know my changed or not.

i honestly do not know about cablecards, but im guessing its a digital source so the channels should be in digital, i would highlly recomend calling them........good luck

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

I guess we are just a little smarter than you then.

With the analog channel 8 - 9 or 10 for example on the 8300HD in SD Digital, there is a 6 second delay between the sources - the time it takes to convert to digital and mux the signal - which can be seen between the analog cable card set and the SA8300HD using the HDMI input.

So yes, I know for a fact that the cable card is using the Analog SD picture - no matter what you might *think* you are seeing.

Also, my TV has a diagnostic page which brings up an OSD and I can see first hand that the TV is passing the non-digital SD Channels because of the frequency.

So, yes, you can tell.

 

[razorphreak900]

I guess we are just a little smarter than you then.

With the analog channel 8 - 9 or 10 for example on the 8300HD in SD Digital, there is a 6 second delay between the sources - the time it takes to convert to digital and mux the signal - which can be seen between the analog cable card set and the SA8300HD using the HDMI input.

So yes, I know for a fact that the cable card is using the Analog SD picture - no matter what you might *think* you are seeing.

Also, my TV has a diagnostic page which brings up an OSD and I can see first hand that the TV is passing the non-digital SD Channels because of the frequency.

So, yes, you can tell.

if only i could proove what i see, yet idc. im the one enjoying the clearer images, i never said they are perfect, but w/e. is not about who is smarter, ud b very surprise what i kno, cable cards should be in digital and of course deal with analog, just like the newer tvs that are digital tuner built in...also who cares if its a lil delayed? are youlike watching to tv's on the same channel with a different quality all the times? no, when u watch tv u look at it normal. who cares how long it takes to get to the house . thought hd channels does the same thing. it doesnt keep up as well either. but again who cares....thats not the issue. all i ever said THAT FOR ME i noticed a big difference, i to have a monitor/tv that tells me the frequency the channel is running as, as well as the cablebox also tells u.....its not rocket science its no big deal, if you are having issues where ur picture looks the same or worse then that aint my problem, if it doesnt affect me then to each its own, and no matter what u use, video,component,hdmi if the channel is digital, u will notice it!, thought of course hdmi will be the best picture, i have tested and it does have a much cleaner view than the component as for example.....so yea i was just saying. not trying to start anything and not acting superior, i know what i see and thats that.......

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

if only i could proove what i see, yet idc. im the one enjoying the clearer images, i never said they are perfect, but w/e. is not about who is smarter, ud b very surprise what i kno, cable cards should be in digital and of course deal with analog, just like the newer tvs that are digital tuner built in...also who cares if its a lil delayed? are youlike watching to tv's on the same channel with a different quality all the times? no, when u watch tv u look at it normal. who cares how long it takes to get to the house . thought hd channels does the same thing. it doesnt keep up as well either. but again who cares....thats not the issue. all i ever said THAT FOR ME i noticed a big difference, i to have a monitor/tv that tells me the frequency the channel is running as, as well as the cablebox also tells u.....its not rocket science its no big deal, if you are having issues where ur picture looks the same or worse then that aint my problem, if it doesnt affect me then to each its own, and no matter what u use, video,component,hdmi if the channel is digital, u will notice it!, thought of course hdmi will be the best picture, i have tested and it does have a much cleaner view than the component as for example.....so yea i was just saying. not trying to start anything and not acting superior, i know what i see and thats that.......

Glad you know what you see - have you tried to see or read any of your posts?

Obviously for me, I've been enjoying better images for sometime. I guess your TV just had a crappy analog section.

 

[razorphreak900]

Glad you know what you see - have you tried to see or read any of your posts?

Obviously for me, I've been enjoying better images for sometime. I guess your TV just had a crappy analog section.

lol i been tired so dont mind me....i know i pretty much not follow the previous post but at least u get me,i just quite read quick and post lol,......but yea like u said i do still have like (this is on any tv,any cable box) some channels are still in analog....wich i have no idea why.....but i noticed its the local aired ones that u can get thru antenna...so maybe thats why they aint in digital?.....the channels are 2 thru 7....ummm14,15,18,19,21,the rest are in digital....so yea like i said. maybe they are ment to be like that? jw do these channels (if they are the same as mines, im in the south pinellas) are they digital for u?, but yea i kno this digital thing aint a big deal and nothing new lol, but to me it was quite a better experience so i wanted to let people kno jic, thought i kno people in the central florida, and i also knew all about brighthouse went all digital many many months ago...why dint it, in this area..i have zero idea lol........

 

[Isomorphic]

Hi, all. I'm a newb here but I thought I'd comment:

I'm seeing digital simulcast in Clearwater. It rocks. SCIFI no longer looks like fuzzy crap (although there are compression artifacts, they are less annoying than the ghosting and the noise).

 

[Isomorphic]

I have a question regarding digital simulcast:

Why is Bright House doing it?

That is, what is their economic motivation in doing so? So that they can claim better picture? (This is tantamount to admitting that their signal was of poor quality before.) Or so that they can finally truthfully refer to their service as "digital cable"?

Or is the real reason that they eventually plan to shut off the analog channels, so as to free up a chunk of bandwidth? Won't they have to issue everyone STBs in order to do this?

 

[stevenl]

You answerd the question in the question. There are many reasons, 1 being to improve the quality of the picture for the customer. To eventually phase out the analog signals to free up an assload of BW. (6-10 digital channel per 1 analog channel space) and economical it costs them more to do this from my standpoint it was done to apease the customers demands of better quality pictures. (also a more pain in the ass for me to troubleshoot) BUT better product for customer so whatever.

 

[Khandurian]

Wasn't there a rumor where the FCC mandated all channels be digital by a certain time frame? IE years 2015? Where did I read that?

 

[Isomorphic]

@khandurian: I think the FCC mandate is for over-the-air (i.e., broadcast) channels only. Cable can keep pumping out analog if it wants to. It hardly matters with the STB situation.

@stevenl: I wouldn't mind if BHN went ahead and killed the analog channels. But they have to give me some STBs for free, 'cause I ain't payin' $8/month/set. Somehow I think that's the problem.

I wonder when BHN is going to get hit with a false-advertising suit, given that they advertise their digital cable prices without any asterisks or fine print saying that you must have a STB at an additional $8/month in order to actually use it. (I'm not saying BHN is any different from D*. The cable and satellite industries have sort of created this problem for themselves. The CE industry would love to build tuners into their kit, but everybody wants their own thing.)