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Comcast SUX

J

Junk Junk

What am I paying for?! More and more channels seem to migrate to the "digital tier" every time I surf!

Here's a sample of what I'm missing:

05 - Religious Channel...
16 - WPBA
45 - CSS
52 - History

Not to mention, there are channels like CSPAN-2, ESPN Classic, Oxygen, Game Show Network, Hallmark, and NatGeo that were removed a number of years ago. We don't even get MSNBC for chrissakes! :mad:

I think I'm switching over to dish (either Dish Network of Direct TV). Advice and suggestions are welcome.

:)
 
Thanks... I just updated my channel list on TiVo.

During the the analog shutdown broadcast of WAGA on Friday, they did an interview with someone at Comcast. He said that all analog channels except the broadcast would be gone within the year. A box will be needed for everything else.
 
Junk Junk said:
What am I paying for?! More and more channels seem to migrate to the "digital tier" every time I surf!

Here's a sample of what I'm missing:

05 - Religious Channel...
16 - WPBA
45 - CSS
52 - History

Not to mention, there are channels like CSPAN-2, ESPN Classic, Oxygen, Game Show Network, Hallmark, and NatGeo that were removed a number of years ago. We don't even get MSNBC for chrissakes! :mad:

I think I'm switching over to dish (either Dish Network of Direct TV). Advice and suggestions are welcome.

:)
Click to expand...

I work for Comcast, so here's the deal. They're trying to do away with basic cable period. Did u know that you can recieve "Digital Starter" cable package for the same price you pay for basic. Basically, its a FREE upgrade, but I don't know why Comcast hasn't been exlaining this to its basic cable customers. It comes with 1 free digital box and a free comcast remote. Of course thats where TV Guide, Oxygen, CSS, etc have all moved plu you get ON DEMAND. I feel like I should be paid for this info, LOL.

Good luck with Dish and Direct. I see people all over town with the little gray satillites so it seems to be popular. Only thing is I heard when it storms the channels go crazy!
 
ShawtyBlack_ATL said:
Junk Junk said:
What am I paying for?! More and more channels seem to migrate to the "digital tier" every time I surf!

Here's a sample of what I'm missing:

05 - Religious Channel...
16 - WPBA
45 - CSS
52 - History

Not to mention, there are channels like CSPAN-2, ESPN Classic, Oxygen, Game Show Network, Hallmark, and NatGeo that were removed a number of years ago. We don't even get MSNBC for chrissakes! :mad:

I think I'm switching over to dish (either Dish Network of Direct TV). Advice and suggestions are welcome.

:)
Click to expand...

I work for Comcast, so here's the deal. They're trying to do away with basic cable period. Did u know that you can recieve "Digital Starter" cable package for the same price you pay for basic. Basically, its a FREE upgrade, but I don't know why Comcast hasn't been exlaining this to its basic cable customers. It comes with 1 free digital box and a free comcast remote. Of course thats where TV Guide, Oxygen, CSS, etc have all moved plu you get ON DEMAND. I feel like I should be paid for this info, LOL.

Good luck with Dish and Direct. I see people all over town with the little gray satillites so it seems to be popular. Only thing is I heard when it storms the channels go crazy!
Click to expand...

Ah, thanks for the good information, Shawty. And I hope you were not offended by "Comcast Sux" proclomation!

I have a digital box in my family room, but recently got rid of the other two I had in my bedrooms because of the additional cost. So I can still get those channels in my den, just not in my bedroom. It's really not a huge deal because I don't watch a ton of TV, and I haven't really missed any of those channels. But it still made me angry to see that so many channels were steadily disappearing.
 
You can get up to two of the Comcast "DATA BOXES" at no charge. The just give you the digital channels and non of the on demand of movie channels. They work prefectly for me.
 
As most people who have kids these days, we have multiple digital boxes in our house. We need and have 4 boxes already as the kids go from room to room. We need at least one more. Anyway, the costs for the boxes adds up. We even subscribed to one box being HDVR just so we could see the HD channels on our main analog tv. It would be great for Comcast to simply just sell the boxes as a whole or allow rental until the boxes are paid off. These monthly rentals add up over time.
 
I agree...if Comcast wants to force everyone off of analog then they need to not charge for the extra boxes. The whole reason the rest of my house is on analog is because the boxes cost so much and there is less wiring involved especially on my bathroom tvs. My kids can watch their cartoons at bathtime and I don't have that bulky converter box on my bathroom counter. I understand that you increase more bandwidth by shutting analog down (1 analog channel for 6 digital channels), but make the converter boxes more affordable or free for those of us with multiple outlets. I see this as a huge money maker for Comcast as everyone will be forced to rent and pay for more boxes when analog gets cut.
 
What is the purpose of wanting to completely do away with the so-called basic cable service, though? I live in Alabama and have been putting up with the transgressions of our cable service for a long time. In recent weeks they removed Fox Movie Channel from our basic lineup, and increased basic fees to $50 a month. As it stands today, we get just over 50 channels, 4 of which are shopping networks, several others being sometimes-on, sometimes-off public access channels.

The excuse they continue to give is that it requires more and more bandwidth to do the things they want to do, so moving channels off of basic cable to a digital tier is their only feasible option. I'm sorry, but in 2009 that argument is weak as water! Cable companies today think that they have to provide residential users with 8-meg Internet, 20 HBO channels, and home phone on top of all of that. Services on those levels are totally unnecessary. I have yet to run into a local business that fully utilizes Internet at those astronomical speeds, let alone a home user. And home phone is pointless too, with more and more people going exclusively to cellular.

I have yet to hear a good justification for wanting to do away with basic cable and move people to a more expensive, less user-friendly, converter-box-based system. The only thing that people like me are left to assume is that it's a cash grab for cable companies, who know that they have exclusivity in their markets. Am I wrong? Would love to hear Shawty or any other cable insiders expand on this subject.
 
After the analog cutoff later in the year, does Comcast have any plans to allow us to view these lost channels with a built-in digital QAM tuner that comes with newer TV sets?
 
RadioDoogie said:
After the analog cutoff later in the year, does Comcast have any plans to allow us to view these lost channels with a built-in digital QAM tuner that comes with newer TV sets?
Click to expand...

Yes, they do, but no formal support from Comcast. This is because you have to tune the QAM channel (like 80-201 for WSB-SD, 84-2 for CNBC, 104-207 for CNN) rather than the cable position. It can get highly confusing. They can implement a system where QAM channels can be accessed with virtual channels (3-1, 36-1, 34-1...they do this with some of the HD locals), but they will not implement it. Channels that are 100 plus (with the exception of local HD and subs) are encrypted (but they are not a part of the basic service anyway).
 
hi feloow comcasters..
once eveything is switched to digital and we wold need to use those DAT boxes on channel 3 or 4, we lose ability to program our DVRs and VCRs to record record various channels?
any ideas about this?
 
You can use the IR blaster output of your TiVo.
 
This isn't rocket science... tho it ain't right.

"Local franchising authorities are empowered to enforce the basic tier rates... there is no regulation of higher tiers of service, such as "expanded basic service" premium or pay-per-view service." (http://www.ci.livermore.ca.us/cfr/CFR-regulations.html) Additionally the FCC sets limits on reasonable rates for basic cable. No one has the power to set rates or limit them for so-called "add ons", including converter boxes.

Comcast is shifting their revenue stream out from under regulation by providing the absolute minimum required channels at the maximum the FCC and local government allow. If you like WPBA, History, or whatever will disappear in the fall from "wire-only" service, multiply your converter rental fee by the number of tvs in your house- tyhen multiply that by the number of households like yours. My household is 4 tvs, one converter= $18.00 per month rate increase no one was warned about, no one had to approve...

The Direct installers are here Wednesday, and we're deducting from our final Comcast bill $47 per outlet they charged us to "install"... we wouldn't have ever thought of that, but when we called to cancel they tried to charge us a service call fee to come pick up the converter box.

Don't apologize for saying it: Comcast, indeed, SUCKS.
 
Thanks, everyone, for reassuring me for keeping my DirecTV. For $50/month ($60 including the box lease), I get over 150 channels, including iFC and Fox Movine Channel. Plus, holding on to one part of my redneck heritage, NASCAR Track Pass is free this season, and it has been awesome. I don't have a DVR, and I don't have HD (I've got a 13yr old 19" GE as our main TV), but I don't need them right now. Speaking of which:

Tolya: I don't think it's possible with Comcast's basic "free" box. My parents have Comcast, and they lease one of the digital boxes for the living room, but got one of the basic boxes for the bed room. I couldn't even pull up a guide with the basic box. If you have one of the other boxes, you can program the box to tune to individual programs, then program your recorder to record whatever source you've got the box plugged into it (Line 1 or Ch3, etc). That's how I record at home. I can "autotune" a program on my DirecTV box, then program my VCR to Ch3. There's a couple of snags you might run into, but send me an email [email protected] if you need more info, so I won't turn this message board into a novel.
 
It looks like now that QAM is fully supported on Comcast after testing it out on my digital tuner the other day. It looks like on basic we now get everything carried now on the analog spectrum plus Oxygen, Lifetime Movies, msnbc, CMT, GAC, Weatherscan, AIB, CSPAN2, Fox Business, and History. It is really jumbled up, the tuner runs very slow, and the channel positions make no sense, but if you are willing to put up with no guide, a slow tuner, and no idea where anything is(I suggest a notepad) then you will receive all of the basic channels soon to go away on analog and more plus all of your local stations free in HD...all with no converter box!
 
Comcast sucks here in WA too. You have to have a box to view ANY channel above 29, or you get static. No CNN, TBS, TNT, NOTHING! Just locals, crappy religious channels, Univision, and crappy government channels. Oh, and CBUT, but that's if you don't get a box here in the Seattle area. We are ready, got 2 boxes free, but only 1 is plugged in. And those are crappy too! There are VERY few digital cable channels, Bloomberg, Sprout, G4, Jewelry Channel, some digital subchannels, all channels above 30 up to 99, and no programming guide. Know what makes it even more crappy? NO ON DEMAND!! AND NO MUSIC CHOICE CHANNELS, ONLY FM CHANNELS!

-crainbebo
 
I think when you get a free box from Comcast, it excludes the bells and whistles a "regular" box has -- meaning that you don't get On Demand or the triple-digit channels without ponying up extra cash for it, and perhaps the digital cable package as well.
 
Wow, I was in Ravensdale/Black Diamond, WA only six months ago and they had about as many analog cable stations on Comcast as we do now. Sounds like they have really cleaned up house on the analog spectrum up in Comcast Seattle since then. I remember there was virtually no QAM support back then either.
 
Re: Comcast Sucks

You get one free full-featured box, and two free DTA boxes. The DTA's do not support encryption.

And no...Comcast does not support QAM. If they did, you would tune 34-1 for CNN and 3-1 for WSB-TV rather than 104-207 and 80-201. The only reason the expanded basic channels are clear QAM is because the cheap DTA's cannot have their encryption features turned on because of the FCC's seperable security requirements. The minute the FCC either issues a waiver to Comcast or changes the rules...the encryption will come to life on the DTA's, and the channels will be encrypted once again.

To the poster from Seattle...not all areas have DTAs. Just those systems that are recent converts (starting with Portland). The first systems (including Chicago) don't have them because they converted before DTA's came out.

Also...here in NW Cobb, the transition to digital expanded basic was delayed from last Tuesday (7/14) to this coming Tuesday (7/21). Anyone know why?

Any does anyone know why Cobb still has three service zones and they have not been consolidated (NW and Central Cobb came from the old Wometco, NE Cobb from Time Warner, and SW Cobb)? All three zones have different dates for conversion to digital expanded basic.
 
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