Crapcomcastic
November 12, 2009 8:36 am TelevisionLike many Americans, I have Comcast as my cable television provider. I don’t watch enough television to justify an expensive digital cable plan, so I’ve got regular analog; it’s got the channels I need, and they’re all in high-definition anyway.
While broadcast HD channels come through just fine, I’ve got a bone to pick with the way Comcast handles cable HD content. I’ve got a nice clean signal, yet I still get tiling (aka pixellation), occasional stuttering, and audio dropouts. With cable television being stupidly expensive, there’s no reason why I should have issues like this. I sure as hell didn’t have them back when I had a standard definition television!
After digging around on the Internet, I found out why this is happening: Comcast compresses multiple HD channels through a single transmission channel. Three to four of ‘em get compressed at once, and that’s why I’m getting a subpar picture. Upgrading to a digital cable package will not solve this issue, as the channels are compressed before they’re sent out, regardless of transmission protocol. The only way to solve the problem is to switch to a carrier like AT&T U-verse or Verizon FiOS…neither of which are available in my area. (They’re far too expensive, anyway.)
To be fair, other providers like Cox and Charter do the exact same thing; their HD channels are also compressed. But since Comcast is the company that I grudgingly have to pay every month, they’re the target of my ire. It’s bullshit practices like this that make me want to ditch my cable service for good, and just rely on streaming video and other services for my television needs.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:33 AM
Considering the digital artifacting that you get with SD digital cable TV, it seems…impossible, really, that it would be any better in higher res when you are asking for four times the data (or whatever). In fact, its even visible on SD analog cable now (although it didn’t use to be). I don’t really complain about it though since I rarely watch TV, and the fact that any of this shit works is a miracle, in my opinion.
I don’t have an HD box, or even an HDTV, but I have seen ATT Uverse and Direct TV’s attempts and I was unimpressed. If you want (nearly) artifact-less video you have to go with BluRay, or an iTunes download, or something like that. You aren’t going to get it from these companies. They are al about marketing terms and numbers. How good something actually looks doesn’t register in their marketing-based minds. Kind of like 10 megapixel camera phones with 1mm lenses.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:35 PM
You get cable HD channels with your analog cable plan?! I have Cox, and the only free HD channels I get are the Over The Air HD channels (via cable) and TBS! To get any cable HD channels I’d have to upgrade to digital.
November 13th, 2009 at 8:19 AM
We do, but we had to buy an HD cable box. Comcast actually forced us to buy the box; otherwise, we would’ve lost most of our cable channels completely! Yet another reason why they’re dicks.
November 13th, 2009 at 10:46 PM
Ugh, that sucks… Cox keeps taking channels away from our analog lineup (we lost three a couple of months ago), but the price keeps going up.
I get my HD networks (and OTA digital channels) through the TV’s QAM tuner, so no box needed. Only if we get Digital would the HD cable networks be available to me, compressed as they’d be.
November 13th, 2009 at 11:20 PM
I used to be able to get HD signals through my TV’s tuner, as well. But then Comcast changed their service, and it no longer worked. Scumbags.