Is Comcast worth switching to ?

[dishfan82]

Our contact is up soon with Dish . We have been considering switching to Comcast . We have directv now and it's ok but with no dvr it's not worth keeping if we switched from dish. Vue is nice but no Disney channels or MTV and my daughter and wife watch those . how is the x1? Has it gotten any better? I heard it was unstable when it was released. How's the picture quality vs dish ?


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[Bruce]

Vue is nice but no Disney channels or MTV and my daughter and wife watch those .

Vue has Disney but you are correct about MTV.


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[Bruce]

Our contact is up soon with Dish . We have been considering switching to Comcast .how is the x1? Has it gotten any better? I heard it was unstable when it was released. How's the picture quality vs dish ?

I recently left Comcast (2 months ago ), the X1 was unstable at first but works great now.

For HD picture quality it just sucks, for a long time Comcast was just as good as DirecTV but for the last year they are now down converting 1080i to 720P and over compressing also, it looks like DVD quality.

The main reason I left was price, Comcast's package price was great but the extra fees ( 5 boxes, locals fee, regional sports channel fee ) put it over what I was willing to pay for live TV.

Now have Vue, very happy with it, every room can get it with no box fees and have been quite surprised at how much better the picture is then Comcast.




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[klang]

I'm quite happy with Comcast and the X1. My picture quality seems very good. I had Dish at my previous home and what I see now seems just as good. The X1, which I've had for three years now, has been more stable than my previous Dish VIP receivers. I do miss not having the option to move stuff to an external hard drive. I enjoy their vast On Demand library.

No idea why bruce had to pay extra for locals but I sure don't. Hard to beat the package price combined with internet service.

 

[Tampa8]

No idea why bruce had to pay extra for locals but I sure don't. Hard to beat the package price combined with internet service.

Are you sure?
https://arstechnica.com/information...ial-broadcast-tv-and-sports-fees-48-per-year/

It's possible some Markets don't have one I guess.

 

[klang]

Are you sure?
https://arstechnica.com/information...ial-broadcast-tv-and-sports-fees-48-per-year/

It's possible some Markets don't have one I guess.

I suppose it is there, buried at the bottom with all the other taxes. Hadn't paid attention to it before as it isn't listed with the other programming. I do watch and record the locals quite a bit so I don't really care.

 

[Tampa8]

I suppose it is there, buried at the bottom with all the other taxes. Hadn't paid attention to it before as it isn't listed with the other programming. I do watch and record the locals quite a bit so I don't really care.

Exactly what they all are banking on.

 

[Bruce]

I'm quite happy with Comcast and the X1. My picture quality seems very good. I had Dish at my previous home and what I see now seems just as good.

From Comcast's forums-

Originally Posted by ComcastTeds "official employee

In regards to 720p delivery, your HD channels have transitioned from 1080i to 720p60. As part of our ongoing work to improve and modernize the way we deliver HD channels, we are transitioning all of our HD streams to “progressive” format. We are making this change in conjunction with the transition to MPEG-4. This means that some channels that were delivered in 1080i will now be delivered in 720p60.

The progressive format offers a number of advantages, and is an important component of the transition to IP video delivery.

In addition, the transition to progressive format allows us to offer a uniform HD experience across all devices, apps and screens, ensuring a consistently excellent experience.

The interlaced format reduces the effective resolution of 1080i significantly. Most video delivery is moving toward progressive formats. Many leading HD channels already deliver video in 720p60, and the progressive format renders motion more effectively.

Based on extensive testing and research, we’re confident the combination of MPEG-4 encoding and the progressive format will allow us to deliver superior video performance to our customers.

No idea why bruce had to pay extra for locals but I sure don't. Hard to beat the package price combined with internet service.

Again I had no problem with the package price, it was the add ons, locals-$5, local sports-$5, each extra box-$9.99 for the x1 client or $5.99 for the HD DTA, HD Tech fee-$9.99 ( some packages include that fee) X1 DVR fee ( some packages include).

All these extra fees are helping pushing people away and Comcast is not the only one with these fees, Dish and DirecTV are just as bad and I assume other cable providers.

Now we have Vue at $35 a month and Comcast 1G broadband at $70 a month ( add to agree to a 3 year contract ) with no data caps, can run Vue in 5 different rooms at the same time, no extra fees.




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[Tampa8]

From Comcast's forums-

Originally Posted by ComcastTeds "official employee

In regards to 720p delivery, your HD channels have transitioned from 1080i to 720p60. As part of our ongoing work to improve and modernize the way we deliver HD channels, we are transitioning all of our HD streams to “progressive” format. We are making this change in conjunction with the transition to MPEG-4. This means that some channels that were delivered in 1080i will now be delivered in 720p60.

The progressive format offers a number of advantages, and is an important component of the transition to IP video delivery.

In addition, the transition to progressive format allows us to offer a uniform HD experience across all devices, apps and screens, ensuring a consistently excellent experience.

The interlaced format reduces the effective resolution of 1080i significantly. Most video delivery is moving toward progressive formats. Many leading HD channels already deliver video in 720p60, and the progressive format renders motion more effectively.

Based on extensive testing and research, we’re confident the combination of MPEG-4 encoding and the progressive format will allow us to deliver superior video performance to our customers.

People can scoff but I do agree with Comcast. (I never said that before...lol) Some in the industry put 720P above 1080I anyway. Interlaced only exists to save on bandwidth but Progressive does produce a better picture particularly faster moving scenes. It can produce better saturated color also. And the vast majority of people will see no visual downside to it though those with very large screen TV's could possibly. And I see the advantage for mobile use not having to do anything before sending it. OTA made a mistake in not going Progressive but they too wanted bandwidth for sub channels. You will notice 4K is progressive only.

 

[Bruce]

People can scoff but I do agree with Comcast. (I never said that before...lol) Some in the industry put 720P above 1080I anyway. Interlaced only exists to save on bandwidth but Progressive does produce a better picture particularly faster moving scenes. It can produce better saturated color also. And the vast majority of people will see no visual downside to it though those with very large screen TV's could possibly. And I see the advantage for mobile use not having to do anything before sending it. OTA made a mistake in not going Progressive but they too wanted bandwidth for sub channels. You will notice 4K is progressive only.

Going 720P was not the problem, going overcompressed 720p is, when I did the free trial on Vue (also 720P ) I was amazed at how much better the picture was.


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[harshness]

Some in the industry put 720P above 1080I anyway.

We call these people "yes men".

Interlaced only exists to save on bandwidth but Progressive does produce a better picture particularly faster moving scenes.

Interlaced video exists because it works. It uses the brain's amazing ability to fill in gaps and smooth out things that aren't complete. In the end, it is presented on the TV in a progressive manner, so it really isn't much different other than the frame rate that is still well above what theatrical films used to be shot at.

It can produce better saturated color also.

Where did you learn this this?

And the vast majority of people will see no visual downside to it though those with very large screen TV's could possibly.

Who doesn't have at least one relatively large screen at this point? Remember that pretty much any TV that is over 39" in "class" now is 1080i native. The cheaper the TV, the less likely it is to have high quality conversion capability. This means that all of the Comcast HD content is going to have to be upconverted either by the receiver or the TV and more than a few TVs can't handle 1080p through their HDMI ports. If it was 1080i and was somehow scaled and scan converted to 720p only to be converted back to 1080p in the TV, that's a boneheaded move of epic proportions.

And I see the advantage for mobile use not having to do anything before sending it.

This is what really frosts me. There's absolutely nothing that says that MPEG4 can't do interlaced video. DBS providers have been doing it for over ten years and there's a whole lot of the Blu-ray content in that format as well. All of the premium movie channel (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Movie Channel) content is 1080i MPEG4 as it comes from movie service. That it can't be done or doesn't work well isn't supported by what's actually going on in the real world.

You will notice 4K is progressive only.

You will notice that a lot of "4K" (UHD) is 24fps. I suspect that the ATSC progressive directive is a result of how h.265 works.

It may be folly to assume that what Comcast is doing is 60fps. They wouldn't be the first service that delivered 720p30.

 

[klang]

Exactly what they all are banking on.

I watch enough TV that I'm not going to sweat the $10 a month. I just want to watch what I want when I want and without any hassles. Comcast does that. I was mostly happy with Dish for many years but the package price with Comcast was too good to pass up.

To me the picture looks great, no matter what format it is sent in.

Edit to add: Also want to watch where I want as well.

 

[dishfan82]

Doesn't Comcast have a 2 year contract now ??


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[klang]

Doesn't Comcast have a 2 year contract now ??


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I think that is the standard for the package deals. Last year I went in to add another client box to my account and they asked if I wanted to re-up for another two years at current prices. Sure, it reduced my monthly charge by $20 even with the extra box.


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[dishfan82]

Their triple play offer is tempting. Says after 12 months , president price goes to 129. Not sure if I trust that .


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[harshness]

Their triple play offer is tempting. Says after 12 months , president price goes to 129. Not sure if I trust that .

Trust that the price will go up unless you're under some sort of contract. The price will be much greater than $129/month once you are out of your contract period.

Around here the price for the Preferred Double Play starts at $140 and then they add a staggering amount of fees on top. I'm not sure whether Comcast or DIRECTV is worse about tacking on fees.

 

[Claude Greiner]

If anyone is considering going to Comcast send me a PM. If your doing a double or triple play I can credit back the install fees up to $60.

 

[Claude Greiner]

As far as fees, get a TIVO and your own modem and pay NO fees.

 

[harshness]

As far as fees, get a TIVO and your own modem and pay NO fees.

While that's true if you don't have a Double or Triple-Play package, once you add TV or phone service, there WILL be regulatory fees (franchise fees, 911 fees, etc.) in addition to the broad palette of fees for stuff like local channels, RSNs and all of the stuff that they used to throw in.

Comcast charges for CableCARDs for the TiVos don't they?

 

[dishfan82]

If anyone is considering going to Comcast send me a PM. If your doing a double or triple play I can credit back the install fees up to $60.

Possibly in November of this year we may switch to comcast. That would be awesome if you did that. I only saw one gift card offer with a double play put it was with the lower channel package.


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