WOW what happened to Comcast HD quality?

last year i left Comcast for D* with some reserve. i thought i was making the right move because D* was getting all these HD channels and they offered me a very good deal. after a year of issue after issue i decided it just wasn't worth the headaches. for all the minor issues i had with Comcast boxes they atleast recorded my shows and the picture quality was great. when i left D* it took some time to get used to the HD quality but i did.

well i came back to Comcast today thinking i was coming back to a great HD picture again. Man was i in for a day of surprises and headaches. at first i thought it was my new tivo. this was my first tivo and i just thought that was the quality of the picture tivo gave off when working with a cable card. well after a little research i came accross some sites which compared the tivo series 3 and tivo HD. they pretty much said they have almost identicle parts and only the audio should be noticable and only if you have a super system that can handle the extra omph. My thinking then was, no way would THX put their name on a product like this if it downgraded the picture this bad.

Then i did a little more research and i came accross some articles which confirmed that Comcast was at fault for the bad picture not my Tivo. for those who don't know apparently Comcast is now compressing more then ever to offer more programing. they are not even hiding this fact. a spokesperson pretty much said it's a fact of life when it comes to HD. honestly some of these channels are down right blurry and shouldn't even pass for HD. once in a great while i would see why so many people would complain about TNTHD and their streached picture but for the longest i never saw that issue. the picture quality was outstanding but now every channel outside of the major major networks looks streached.

it's amazing to think D* had improved their picture just as much as Comcast had destroyed their picture over the past year.

all these people up here in the north east honestly should have never voted against letting fios into our communities. Fios was named the #1 provider for service and customer service plus they have advanced their services to well beyond Comcast with their multi room DVR.

I hooked up my first Tivo today thinking maybe i over payed but in the end i came away thinking maybe i owe Tivo a couple more bucks and i'm getting the bill in the mail. this thing is light years ahead of Comcast and D. the guide alone is way better then either then throw in all the other features and i quickly realized why so many people purchased their tivo instead of renting one from Comcast. it's to bad i will never know the true powers of this machine simply because Comcast needs to save bandwidth for animalplanet HD and the Weather Channel HD :crying: .

once in a great while i would see why so many people would complain about TNTHD and their streached picture but for the longest i never saw that issue. the picture quality was outstanding but now every channel outside of the major major networks looks streached.

You might consider some capital letters, commas too. Try spelling stretched. I like the Google tool bar on my browser for spell checking.

Keep in mind that cable is regional. I can give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps your cable really is all stretch, and upconverted. Must really suck to be you. I have Comcast just outside Seattle, Washington. Most of the channels look great to me. There is little stretch, except for some of the oldest shows. It is a mystery to me that these are major nationwide networks, I get them fine, and you do not.

all these people up here in the north east honestly should have never voted against letting fios into our communities. Fios was named the #1 provider for service and customer service plus they have advanced their services to well beyond Comcast with their multi room DVR.

I heard from a friend that Verizon has lousy customer service. I think that life is rough all over. The grass is always greener, no matter which company you choose. You had DirecTV. You made a choice to leave it. I too had DirecTV. I switched to cable, and am very happy.

all these people up here in the north east honestly should have never voted against letting fios into our communities.

Bboncorr,
Which communities are you referring to...I thought most of the people in the NorthEast were welcoming the unrolling of Verizon Fios, if at a sleepy snail's pace.:zzz

Bboncorr,
Which communities are you referring to...I thought most of the people in the NorthEast were welcoming the unrolling of Verizon Fios, if at a sleepy snail's pace.:zzz

nah man Fios was shot down during the last vote in NH and Mass. that's why Verizon sold their Fios service to Fairpoint communications. fairpoint not only upped their prices without notice but they also started cutting employees.

i was hoping to get Fios in this area but the last vote prevented it from happening. the vote was to allow more cable providers into towns and get rid of the 1 provider contract per town contract. verizon wanted the support from each town but they ran into town asking for extra help like useing their trucks for extra stuff like fixing street lights and stop signes. it's crazy to think they pretty much nixed any fios tv simply because some towns wanted street lights to be fixed by them.

wow someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed. I don't need the benifit of the doubt. all i need is all the articles and tests on the net which prove they are cutting down on HD quality to get more programing into their lineup. not only are there tests that prove this but Comcast themselfs even admitted it was a necessary move so they could keep up with what other providers could offer.

that's great that your friend hated verizon but it still doesn't change the fact that they won a national vote for service and customer service. comcast BTW finished 10th.

i came to that realization that comcast wasn't so service friendly when i decided to add comcast internet yesterday. i called Comcast directly and came away very pissed off. i called about a 19.99 deal and was pretty much given line after line that they could not do that deal for just me. not only that but i had to say about 20x that i didn't want phone service so please stop asking. even after the last time the lady kept saying well if you ordered phone service we could give it to you for x amount of dollars. then when i informed her that was regular price so how was it a deal she stayed quiet. she then said i can't do any better then $42. a month no matter how much you ask because there are no promotions on internet unless you get phone service as well. i then told her the 19.99 deal was listed on the comcast website and that was the deal i wanted. she then was quick to say, "ok i can give you internet service for $29.99 a month". i then laughed and told her that was still $10 more then the advertised deal on their own website. she then informed me i could not qualify for any offers since i already had cable services. i told her the advertisment specificaly said for current comcast customers. she again stayed quiet and suddenly the phone hung up.

wow talk about a slime ball. i then ordered the internet via online ordering. not only did it go right through but i stayed in my current cable promotion. the lady kept saying i would lose my currect cable promotion if i added internet services.

sorry but service like that is why comcast rated 10th overall.


You might consider some capital letters, commas too. Try spelling stretched. I like the Google tool bar on my browser for spell checking.

Keep in mind that cable is regional. I can give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps your cable really is all stretch, and upconverted. Must really suck to be you. I have Comcast just outside Seattle, Washington. Most of the channels look great to me. There is little stretch, except for some of the oldest shows. It is a mystery to me that these are major nationwide networks, I get them fine, and you do not.



I heard from a friend that Verizon has lousy customer service. I think that life is rough all over. The grass is always greener, no matter which company you choose. You had DirecTV. You made a choice to leave it. I too had DirecTV. I switched to cable, and am very happy.

I agree with you. That's why I'm dumping Crapcast for FiOS. Their customer service sucks, HD lineup sucks, internet that's slow, and an "interactive" program guide that fits right in with Windows 3.11 and the only "interactive" feature about it is that I can get text-based weather reports (that gets cut off).

I don't think they've changed anything in at least 4 years.

Comcast HD quality?

That's the biggest oxymoron I've ever heard.

today for some odd reason the HD quality improved. i ended up switching my Tivo to the bedroom so i could still get VOD and a couple hours later the picture quality improved greatly. i know for a fact that comcast has high up techs scan the forums, today a tech had mentioned to me a couple in house techs names that come on here looking for issues.

as for the service you guys have to remember it's regional. your CSR's are not the same as the ones I have. honestly the CSR's where i live are way better then any csr i ran into from Directv.

also hope you're not from Mass because chances are Verizon sold their services to Fairpoint and they are barely keeping about the water. they are raising prices and cutting employees and that was planned before the whole financial meltdown so i can only imagine what they have planned now.

i would love to switch to verizon fios though. they have better features on their boxes and from what i hear way better picture quality.

as for the HD lineup i have almost 50HD channels and all but 1 i usually watch is available.

last and not least changes. what are you talking about. i left comcast a year ago for directv and back then i only had less then 20 HD channels. yup there was no added channels between now and then. i guess 47 is a downgrade from 20. also comcast has upped their internet speeds twice in the last year. they did it just before i left last year and again yesterday. the tech came here rigth from a meeting and had corporate paperwork on the new speeds being offered today. i guess 50Mbps is not fast enough for you.

i don't know from region to region it's different. maybe they don't offer you alot of this stuff. maybe you don't get the Tivo boxes so you hate the comast interface. if you want to see bad boxes then you should switch to Directv. their boxes are so bad that i'm almost willing to give them another $150 and the boxes back which i purchased just to get out of my contract. Directv has had the same issues with recordings being deleted for the last 2 years. maybe they don't offer you 50Mbps in your region. honestly having been in school learing technology i know most people don't even need that kind of speed. unless you're running a business and have tons of employees running on the same connection the there is no use for that speed. it's like owning a supercomputer just to check your email and browsing ESPN once in a while.

but hey i can't blame you for leaving them because i did it as well and if Fios was here i might as well switch again, that is if i knew i could trust fairpoint communication again.

Did you get a bunch of new channels all at once? i doubt it and I also doubt the quality improved (that's still makes me laugh when talking about Comcast's so called "HD choices"). Enjoy Com(pressed)cast's price gouging and worst ranked customer satisfaction!

I'm more interested in HD channel QUANTITY thats why I'm getting DirecTV next week.

wow someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed. I don't need the benifit of the doubt. all i need is all the articles and tests on the net which prove they are cutting down on HD quality to get more programing into their lineup. not only are there tests that prove this but Comcast themselfs even admitted it was a necessary move so they could keep up with what other providers could offer.

Sorry, I am a stubborn son of a ..... You said upconverted and stretched. That is not the same as the heavy compression that has been spoken of on the internet. My USA HD is not very good, the exception to most of my channels. I do not understand how HD could be so radically different. Does not sound like the same channels at all. Perhaps I agree with you. I have not seen it with my own eyes. My HD is great.

i came to that realization that comcast wasn't so service friendly when i decided to add comcast internet yesterday. i called Comcast directly and came away very pissed off. i called about a 19.99 deal and was pretty much given line after line that they could not do that deal for just me. not only that but i had to say about 20x that i didn't want phone service so please stop asking. even after the last time the lady kept saying well if you ordered phone service we could give it to you for x amount of dollars. then when i informed her that was regular price so how was it a deal she stayed quiet. she then said i can't do any better then $42. a month no matter how much you ask because there are no promotions on internet unless you get phone service as well. i then told her the 19.99 deal was listed on the comcast website and that was the deal i wanted. she then was quick to say, "ok i can give you internet service for $29.99 a month". i then laughed and told her that was still $10 more then the advertised deal on their own website. she then informed me i could not qualify for any offers since i already had cable services. i told her the advertisment specificaly said for current comcast customers. she again stayed quiet and suddenly the phone hung up.

I have heard about bad Comcast customer service. I get my Comcast from Snohomish County, in Washington. I call a direct local number. The CSR are always courteous to me, even when I am stupid. I do not understand how it is the same company. Why is my Comcast experience so much better than other peoples?

today for some odd reason the HD quality improved.

Maybe some day your spelling and grammar will improve.

You should at least try starting sentences with a capitial letter.

It's pretty funny seeing new paragraphs starting with "as", "but", and "nah".
:lol:

I have heard about bad Comcast customer service. I get my Comcast from Snohomish County, in Washington. I call a direct local number. The CSR are always courteous to me, even when I am stupid. I do not understand how it is the same company. Why is my Comcast experience so much better than other peoples?

Probably because Crapcast is a patchwork of different companies. It seems as if they buy these dying cable companies and don't really do anything with them and their infastructure.

I really can't expain it better than that, but you're really still with your old cable company. If you were in an Adelphia region that got bought up by Comcast, you're still really with Adelphia although your bills say Comcast because nothing really has changed.

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Did you get a bunch of new channels all at once? i doubt it and I also doubt the quality improved (that's still makes me laugh when talking about Comcast's so called "HD choices"). Enjoy Com(pressed)cast's price gouging and worst ranked customer satisfaction!

I'm more interested in HD channel QUANTITY thats why I'm getting DirecTV next week.

i'm telling you i just double checked just for you. i'm getting exactly 45 HD channels. it seems my market area gets a lot of what comcast offers first. we got a huge HD rollout last year just before i left comcast. i broke the news here and nobody believed me. we ended up getting it around 1am in the morning. i came right here and so many people laughed and called me a liar. we also got the Comcast Tivo boxes first. we just get stuff first from comcast here up here in the northeast. NJ is testing switches to help limit bandwidth which is supposed to help comcast blow out the HD market and help them improve quality. it's become an accepted method of improving bandwidth by every other cable provider and is starting to be rolled out nationwide. once the Beta phase is over, which it almost is, things will improve quality wise. right now comcast is sending 3 programs per channel. the issue is these channels are not meant to carry 3. by cutting down on bandwidth these converters will open things up and the HD quality should improve back to the way it was last year.

right now 45 channels are active on my HD box.

why would i lie about the quality improving when i first started the thread saying it sucked. i switched rooms with the boxes and called comcast to complain. suddenly my picture looked a little better. i'm not saying it was as good as directv but it still looked better.

honestly if it wasn't for directv's horriable customer support and defective boxes then i would have never left. their HD quality improved greatly from the time i started with them to now. at first i was stumped and decided just to stick it out but then it just improved one night bigtime.

sorry but as far as their customer service it's really not that bad here in the northeast. i have run into 1 bad sales person in the last x amout of years. with directv i have run into dozens of issues with mindless service reps who disconnected my service without cause and couldn't figure out why. which then leads to another 45min to and hour phone call. this was a once a month thing. everytime my service came back up i had new channels which i never wanted and was paying for. when i complained late they charged me even though they admitted it was their fault.

then when i call to complain about the service i met with "you're in a valid contract so we don't have to do anything". that came right from the VP's customer service reps.

to me that's much worse then anything Comcast has done.

as for pricing i'm saving way more money with Comcast. i'm getting a free DVR and every channel for way less then directv. directv wants you to believe they are charging you less but they are not. those boxes you are buying are not yours. you will pay hundreds on boxes and if you cancel your service at anytime those boxes go back to directv. they charge you $5 per box but the first one is free. not only that if your box breaks you have to replace it even though they are charging you a rental fee per box, unless you have the protection program which adds another $5. they charge you $9.99 for HD access, so you don't get HD free. you also have to pay another $5 for the HD extra pack, which is a lame deal.

add all that and the fact that ON Demand doesn't work and it's really not that great a deal. directv's on demand is garbage. it's a beta and sucks. you have to download the shows to your box and that's really not on demand. plus the selection sucks. they have a huge selection but it's all the worst programing. hope you have a hub or router next to each box otherwise you won't be getting ondemand anyways.

Comcast is horrible and always will be. My box cost(ed) 7.00 per month and my HD access fee is (was) 6.95 per month. The box was made 5 years ago too. Their sports pack is 7.99 per month and you only get 10 channels and only 1 of them is in HD. Comcast's CSR's are the worst out there. Most of them don't speak English as their first language because they're in India. I've had 32 HD channels and when I got it installed there was only 28. I just placed my DirecTV order and its getting installed Tuesday.

I have a router so I'm worried about On Demand. I dont like On Demand anyway. I'd rather just tape shows.

I have a router so I'm worried about On Demand. I dont like On Demand anyway. I'd rather just tape shows.

Tape shows? What do you use to tape shows? After I got used to HD, I have not used VHS. Even SD is better than VHS.

bboncorr, you seem to have changed your tune. You could not say enough bad things about Comcast picture quality, and thier customer service. Now you are saying they are way better than DirecTV.