Comcast Puts the Screws To HDTV

Todd Spangler writes "Comcast, like every video distributor, compresses its digital video signals. But to fit in more HDTV channels, Comcast is squeezing some signals more than others. The cable operator claims it is using improved compression techniques, so that most subscribers won't see any drop-off in picture quality. But A/V buff Ken Fowler claims the differences between some of Comcast's more highly compressed channels and Verizon's FiOS TV are indeed noticeable. He's posted his comparative test results on AVSForum.com — and the results are not pretty."

Comments

Not suprising at all

[realmolo]

Anyone who has worked in the cable TV industry saw this coming a mile away. It's not like Comcast and pretty much EVERY OTHER "digital cable" providers wasn't already doing this.

Here's the thing: Coax cable networks, even hybrid fiber/coax cable networks, just don't have the bandwidth to handle very many HD channels without compressing the hell out of them. They just don't. It's not going to improve. The ONLY thing they can do is either drastically reduce the number of digital and HD channels they offer their subscribers, or bite the bullet and start massively upgrading their network. Basically, they need to run fiber to every home. Which they aren't going to do.

This is why I laugh at people who buy HDTVs and expect some kind of massive improvement. In most of the country, the infrastructure just isn't there to give people very many full-res HD channels over cable. Digital satellite has many of the same issues. There just isn't enough bandwidth.

What about OTA, you say? Yeah, OTA broadcasts only have to be *digital*, not HD.

Re:Not suprising at all

[ScrewMaster]

That's not the only problem, either. The people that own the shows precompress the video stream before transmitting to the broadcaster (cable, satellite, whoever) to save transmission charges. That means the broadcaster has to take what he can get, and if he wants to recompress it even further ... well. Occasionally I'll watch an old Stargate re-run, and honestly they're so heavily compressed as to be almost unwatchable. I mean, you're paying these people good money each month to watch video that's little better than YouTube after clicking on the full-screen button. We're not even talking Hi-Def here, either.

Ridiculous.

Re:Not suprising at all

[turbofisk]

I wouldn't say that's true... Your coasts are densely populated, so you have the ability to give a huge portion of the population fiber, ethernet etc... Do even 10% of New York apartments have fiber-connection? Why not one might ask? My belief is that US companies do not invest in new technology in the same manner that some other countries do. The US (instead of competing) is using protectionism to keep industries competitive. Corn-syrup vs Sugar is an example... Heavy tariffs. Iron, Car-industry and Lumber are some of the industries that aren't doing so well (last time I checked) either... And FYI, more than 50% of Sweden is not densely populated at all. Mostly pine forest... However, every time something is replaced, say new power lines, new sewage lines etc, fiber are also installed. The municipally, powercompany etc then rents them out. The extra cost is nearly null... Basically every small village now has fiber running to it's town's phone exchange, which in turn gives you the ability to at *least* have 8Mbpbs if not 24 Mbps ADSL2+... In Stockholm, when a apartment building is changing water pipes or putting in new electric wirings they also add ethernet in the house... The extra cost is small... You then call ISPs and say, "Hey, we are 50 apartments and we just need you to pull in a fiber to get us to sign upp...". Which is exactly what we did in our complex. I pay $41 for my 100/100 connection... You then have the ability to choose the ISP you want and change if they screw around... It works great!

Re:Not suprising at all

[billcopc]

Why not ? Because Sweden is not in North America.

I honestly don't know much about Sweden (despite a few visits), but I think it is safe to assume your telecommunications providers are nowhere near as enormous, corrupt and heavy-handed as American ones. There is no competition at all in North America, everyone just gouges like mad, and when an independent tries to push out better services and/or lower prices, they get sued into oblivion or often times bought out and destroyed.

If there were some form of harsh punishment for such blatant abuse of the capitalist system, maybe things would be better for everyone here, but the people drafting the rules are on the receiving end of significant lobbying from the telecoms, so it won't happen anytime soon.

Re:Not suprising at all

[DarkProphet]

MOD PARENT UP!

This stupid dickering over population density and whatall manages to totally miss the point. In the U.S. there IS NO FREE MARKET for telco. Not even close. In which case, inertia is the biggest culprit, which explains why a very significant minority of the populous STILL can't get anything better (bandwidth/latency-wise) than freakin' dialup. The 'last-mile' problem exists for the same reason. When there is one telephone company and one cable company in town (in some cases they are one and the same), there is absolutely NO reason why that company would roll out last-mile fiber. The CEOs of those companies would be flogged by the shareholders for even suggesting what would be perceived as an unnecessary and costly venture. It is a chicken-and-egg scenario for a lot of companies. For the majority of internet users, anything beyond bare-bones 1024/256 DSL is really not necessary. People would likely find a use for it if it existed, but don't demand the upgrade in infrastructure because it is a white elephant ATM.

For example, I live 18 miles from the nearest town, and get 1024/256 DSL by pure accident because I live on a well-traveled highway. Us lucky folks get to watch streaming video without hiccups. Our modem-bound neighbors a mile to the north have no such luxury. :-/

Re:comcast

[griego]

Your bill.

FIOS testimonial

[emacs_abuser]

Lots of people saying, "if only FIOS was in my area".

As a former Comcast customer, what can I tell you but keep checking.

When FIOS reached my block, I called Verizon the next day. The install went smoothly and all the contacts I've had with Verizon have been great.

I'm done with those thieves at Comcast.

Internet is unbelievable, I shelled out extra money for higher speed. Downloading a distro used to be an overnight undertaking. Now it's more like 20 minutes.

I got a bunch of new phone features I don't need and the TV signal quality is great.

Best part is I'm paying a little less than I used to pay Comcast for TV and internet but
I'm getting TV, Internet, phone and long distance with the price locked in for 2 years.

I'm still waiting for my free 19inch LCD TV from Verizon, but to make up for the delay they sent me a $20 gift certificate.

Re:what does this mean for 1080?

[interiot]

There's a bunch of things that end up degrading the usefulness of 1080 unfortunately:

• half the stations broadcast in 720p instead
• it can be hard to tell the difference between a 720p station and a 1080i station except when the source material has been done really well
• the distance from your couch to your TV can limit the resolution you can see (for instance, I had *one* dead pixel on my 1080p TV, and I decided to not return it because even when I knew exactly where to look, and had a white motionless feed, I still couldn't see it from the couch)

If you're ever thinking of hooking your computer up to it though, then 1080i/p can be great.

Please fix the headline

[HangingChad]

Please fix the headline by dropping "Puts the" and "To" from the sentence.

Thank you.

Re:FIOS TV Has one HUGE Limitation IMO

[Anonymous Coward]

Incorrect. You can still roll your own router with the Actiontec. All you need to do is disable DHCP on the Actiontec and release the WAN's IP.

There's lots of great FIOS/FIOS TV help over at BroadbandReports: http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/vzfiber

Re:Screws to HDTV? Not exactly

[Kjella]

Why? because they invested hundreds of millions of dollars on mpeg2 equipment and commercial quality h264 and xvid equipment does not exist. That's strange, I'll tell everyone using the new terrestrial broadcast system using H.264 here in Norway that it doesn't exist. Never mind that almost the whole country is live (last go live in november) and that analog broadcasts are already shut down in some areas and will be gone all over the country by end of next year. Friend of mine has cable, AFAIK it's H.264 signals too. The US has standardized on MPEG2, but the rest of the world is moving forward.