[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Dear Comcast (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 1/14/2009 7:32:25 PM EDT
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Fuck you, fuck the FCC and fuck whoever decided to ram this digital changeover bullshit down our throats.
The "War Department" aka my wife has give ragging for hours about her VCR's not working. If those sorry assholes had to deal with the wrath of "The Imperial Red Headed Scorpio" they would have never tried this horse shit. Progress my ass 
That is all. I return you to your regularly scheduled GD circle jerk. |
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What does Comcast have to do with the digital changeover? Comcast is changing over to digital sooner then they have to. Their converter boxes don't work with analog VCR's. Their idiot CSR's told us our old gear would work with the new boxes. What Abu the broken English major neglected to tell us is that we can't watch channel A and record from channel B. We have to be watching the channel being taped. But Comcast would be happy to rent a DVR for $8.99 an month per box. We would need two DVR's. Another $19 a month in this economy is more than we can pay. Nope. We gave them back their converter boxes and downgraded our service. We can get the lower channels under channel 31. Her Majesty can watch/tape the Law and Order crap from the networks. But no more FX, TNT or any of the stuff from the cable networks. She's not happy about running the cable stuff down on Hulu or Fancast. She doesn't do technology as well as I do. |
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What does Comcast have to do with the digital changeover? Comcast is changing over to digital sooner then they have to. Their converter boxes don't work with analog VCR's. Their idiot CSR's told us our old gear would work with the new boxes. What Abu the broken English major neglected to tell us is that we can't watch channel A and record from channel B. We have to be watching the channel being taped. But Comcast would be happy to rent a DVR for $8.99 an month per box. We would need two DVR's. Another $19 a month in this economy is more than we can pay. Nope. We gave them back their converter boxes and downgraded our service. We can get the lower channels under channel 31. Her Majesty can watch/tape the Law and Order crap from the networks. But no more FX, TNT or any of the stuff from the cable networks. She's not happy about running the cable stuff down on Hulu or Fancast. She doesn't do technology as well as I do. Ouch. I've not heard of anyone else doing this 
-Foxxz |
| lol, who still uses a vcr. Even if you do, there are many ways to hook it up to your television without Comcast being to blame if it wont work. You might be suprised to learn that humans have figured out how to create fire without having to create friction with a stick until the flint ignites. |
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lol, who still uses a vcr. Even if you do, there are many ways to hook it up to your television without Comcast being to blame if it wont work. I prefer VCR's to DVR's. I'm really tired of being nickle and dimed to death by Comcast, Verizon and others of their ilk. There is a proposal from the "War Department" (ie the wife) to scrap cable TV altogether and do other things besides sit on the couch. I'm taking this under advisement. |
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lol, who still uses a vcr. Even if you do, there are many ways to hook it up to your television without Comcast being to blame if it wont work. I prefer VCR's to DVR's. I'm really tired of being nickle and dimed to death by Comcast, Verizon and others of their ilk. There is a proposal from the "War Department" (ie the wife) to scrap cable TV altogether and do other things besides sit on the couch. I'm taking this under advisement. Do it, you'll be better off. If you really want to watch TV though, satellite is the way to go. Dish Network is much much better to deal with than the cable company, and your VCR will still work. |
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Yea, we should all just stick with the 1960s analog tv technology, nevermind the fact that you can put a dozen SD channels or 2 or 3 HD channels on one analog channel, and it is not as suseptible to noise influx.
As far as taping multiple programs, if the overlap, usually you can find it repeated on a different day or later at night. As far as a VCR is concerned, it is pretty much useful as a player for converting your home movies to DVD or MPEG. Once you got them all copied over put it in mothballs with the 8-track player. |
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I have comcast too and they DO suck!
For example, half the freakin' ads are so garbled I have to mute the damn TV till my show comes back on! And, just cuz you get cable DOES NOT mean you don't need to worry about digital transition! YOU NEED THEIR BOX to watch! When they "go digital" what used to be called, "basic cable" (cable from wall jack goes directly in back of TV), will no longer be available. At least, not w/o renting a box for another $20.00/month - unless you have a digital TV. (And even then, that may not be the case.) And if you cancel your cable TV service, your internet service rate goes through the roof - and it's outrageous as it is!!! ComCast is rated as having the WORST customer service of ANY company in the US - INCLUDING THE IRS! And I'm on my fifth Hi-Def DVR in 1 year! They keep taking a shit and my local office WILL NOT buy new ones. They just keep passing the bad ones around: over and over again! Oh! And my little town STILL doesn't get the entire Hi-Def line-up! Yet . . . you guessed it . . . I still pay the same as the next town's customers, who DO! Aside from all that . . . they're great! |
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You know you CAN buy a DVR instead of renting...
VCRs are just 'eeewww'.... But you *can* also buy a digital VCR if you really want it... Still not going to help you with digital cable channels that are encrypted... The 'VCR' issue is not Comcast's fault - it's the nature of the beast - VCRs use an internal TV tuner to record TV - if it's not a digital tuner, the only way you can record is direct from a video-out source - which eliminates the ability to change the channel... The same thing applies to folks who buy the 'Converter Box' for antenna-TV... No more record and watch something else with an existing VCR.... A digital VCR can tune the digital channels like the older VCR, BUT it won't be able to view scrambled channels... |
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What does Comcast have to do with the digital changeover? Comcast is changing over to digital sooner then they have to. Their converter boxes don't work with analog VCR's. Their idiot CSR's told us our old gear would work with the new boxes. What Abu the broken English major neglected to tell us is that we can't watch channel A and record from channel B. We have to be watching the channel being taped. But Comcast would be happy to rent a DVR for $8.99 an month per box. We would need two DVR's. Another $19 a month in this economy is more than we can pay. Nope. We gave them back their converter boxes and downgraded our service. We can get the lower channels under channel 31. Her Majesty can watch/tape the Law and Order crap from the networks. But no more FX, TNT or any of the stuff from the cable networks. She's not happy about running the cable stuff down on Hulu or Fancast. She doesn't do technology as well as I do. I hate to call BS on this as much as I hate comcast myself but some of that simply isn't true. Every single box comcast provides be it Cisco(Scientific Atlanta) or Motorola has analog video and audio out so it will work with your existing VCR. Also, judging by the price you quoted for a DVR rental, you must also be in verizon FIOS territory. In non-competition markets, everyone else pays at least 13.99 per month per DVR. 8.99 is a steal for most people using comcast. |
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What does Comcast have to do with the digital changeover? Comcast is changing over to digital sooner then they have to. Their converter boxes don't work with analog VCR's. Their idiot CSR's told us our old gear would work with the new boxes. What Abu the broken English major neglected to tell us is that we can't watch channel A and record from channel B. We have to be watching the channel being taped. But Comcast would be happy to rent a DVR for $8.99 an month per box. We would need two DVR's. Another $19 a month in this economy is more than we can pay. Nope. We gave them back their converter boxes and downgraded our service. We can get the lower channels under channel 31. Her Majesty can watch/tape the Law and Order crap from the networks. But no more FX, TNT or any of the stuff from the cable networks. She's not happy about running the cable stuff down on Hulu or Fancast. She doesn't do technology as well as I do. I hate to call BS on this as much as I hate comcast myself but some of that simply isn't true. Every single box comcast provides be it Cisco(Scientific Atlanta) or Motorola has analog video and audio out so it will work with your existing VCR. Also, judging by the price you quoted for a DVR rental, you must also be in verizon FIOS territory. In non-competition markets, everyone else pays at least 13.99 per month per DVR. 8.99 is a steal for most people using comcast. The local cable company here charges 15.99 for their DVR. I wish I could have Comcast service here, out cable co hasn't upgraded shit since they added 2way communication for Moto boxes. |
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suck it up, we'll all get past this in due time, this is transitioning to a better, more efficient way of doing things.
TV channels and vcr's are ancient technology this change to digital is really needed as everything in the fucking world is now demanding some sort of RF spectrum (I know, I deal with it on a daily basis) are they doing it correctly? no, it's the government, what the fuck do you expect? The BS with TV is minor compared to the LMR and Cellular shit I have to deal with on a daily basis. eta: yeah, fuck comcast and obama! |
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Its time to join the 1990s and move on to DVD technology. Its not as if DVD are cutting edge technology or are expensive in any way.
I still have a VCR (for a few remaining old family videotapes) myself - but the whole point of the digital conversion is to move everyone along to the mainstream of technology and not have providers funding/maintaining/servicing <1 percent users holding on to very, very old technology. |
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And, just cuz you get cable DOES NOT mean you don't need to worry about digital transition! YOU NEED THEIR BOX to watch! When they "go digital" what used to be called, "basic cable" (cable from wall jack goes directly in back of TV), will no longer be available. At least, not w/o renting a box for another $20.00/month - unless you have a digital TV. (And even then, that may not be the case.) This is completely wrong. Let me repeat: THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG. If you have a cable ready TV (like every TV made in the last 20 years), the jack from your wall will work just fine. The only people affected by this change are those who get over-the-air analog broadcasts. |
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lol, who still uses a vcr. Even if you do, there are many ways to hook it up to your television without Comcast being to blame if it wont work. I prefer VCR's to DVR's. I'm really tired of being nickle and dimed to death by Comcast, Verizon and others of their ilk. There is a proposal from the "War Department" (ie the wife) to scrap cable TV altogether and do other things besides sit on the couch. I'm taking this under advisement. We just did exactly that. I used to get my TV from Dish Network as part of a Dish/DSL bundle from Embarq (aka Sprint). With local phone service, unlimited LD, DSL and a mid-grade HD package, the bill was about $160. My wife's cell phone (Verizon) was just inder $50. My cell is provided by my employer. We were spending over $200/month on phone/internet/TV. I added a second line to the wife's Verizon account and transferred the home # to it. The Verizon bill is now about $80. I switched to 10Mbps internet from the local cable co. (Charter) for about $60/month. For Christmas, my parents paid our Netflix bill for the next year - we're on the three-at-a-time/unlimited plan. Between the changes I made and the Christmas gift, we're saving like $75/month. The thing that finally broke the camel's back was the utter lack of good television. We had 400 channels of shit and Dish is in some kind of war with our ABC affiliate. I'm paying for HD and had to go to the in-laws to watch the Rose Bowl on a shitty 27" TV. We all grew quite tired of flipping through the guide and finding nothing of interest. We've started getting TV series' on DVD through Netflix. We just got the disc 1 of the first season of Get Smart. Hopefully, my 9YO daughter will like it. 
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And, just cuz you get cable DOES NOT mean you don't need to worry about digital transition! YOU NEED THEIR BOX to watch! When they "go digital" what used to be called, "basic cable" (cable from wall jack goes directly in back of TV), will no longer be available. At least, not w/o renting a box for another $20.00/month - unless you have a digital TV. (And even then, that may not be the case.) This is completely wrong. Let me repeat: THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG. If you have a cable ready TV (like every TV made in the last 20 years), the jack from your wall will work just fine. The only people affected by this change are those who get over-the-air analog broadcasts. Comcast's own commercials say you need to be using a cable box. Why would they say that then? *I'm not doubting you. It just seems rather counter-intuitive - not to mention their ads saying the opposite. |
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And, just cuz you get cable DOES NOT mean you don't need to worry about digital transition! YOU NEED THEIR BOX to watch! When they "go digital" what used to be called, "basic cable" (cable from wall jack goes directly in back of TV), will no longer be available. At least, not w/o renting a box for another $20.00/month - unless you have a digital TV. (And even then, that may not be the case.) This is completely wrong. Let me repeat: THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG. If you have a cable ready TV (like every TV made in the last 20 years), the jack from your wall will work just fine. The only people affected by this change are those who get over-the-air analog broadcasts. Comcast's own commercials say you need to be using a cable box. Why would they say that then? *I'm not doubting you. It just seems rather counter-intuitive - not to mention their ads saying the opposite. They are separate issues. The over-the-air digital transition happens in February and you need a converter box to receive the digital signals. Unless, of course, you have a newer HDTV that has a digital tuner built in. The other issue is Comcast. It's not required for them to cut off their analog signal, however, they may do it by choice. They've actually been wanting to do it for some time, considering that it would free bandwidth on their network so that they can provide more HD channels to attempt to compete with the larger lineups of DirecTV/Dish/FIOS/Uverse. So they may be doing that in your area, hence the need for a Comcast digital cable box. A built-in analog tuner would no longer be able to receive the cable channels. |
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Comcast's own commercials say you need to be using a cable box. Why would they say that then? *I'm not doubting you. It just seems rather counter-intuitive - not to mention their ads saying the opposite. Because the commercials talk about their digital tier programming (music stations, movies) as well as their on-demand and DVR services. Standard cable will continue to work: Comcast FAQ What do I need to do to prepare for the end of analog television broadcasting? If you are an existing Comcast customer, you don't need to worry - Comcast has you covered. If your television is connected to cable, you will not have any impact and your TV will continue to work. If you are a Comcast customer but have some TVs in your house that use an antenna (rabbit ears), Comcast can connect those TVs to cable for you. If you only use a rooftop antenna (rabbit ears) to get your TV signals, you will need to do one of the following: * Buy digital-to-analog converters to use with your current TV(s) and antenna * Buy a new digital TV (still requires an antenna) * Subscribe to Comcast or another pay television service provider. Comcast has service options starting as low as $15 per month with no equipment required. |
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And, just cuz you get cable DOES NOT mean you don't need to worry about digital transition! YOU NEED THEIR BOX to watch! When they "go digital" what used to be called, "basic cable" (cable from wall jack goes directly in back of TV), will no longer be available. At least, not w/o renting a box for another $20.00/month - unless you have a digital TV. (And even then, that may not be the case.) This is completely wrong. Let me repeat: THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG. If you have a cable ready TV (like every TV made in the last 20 years), the jack from your wall will work just fine. The only people affected by this change are those who get over-the-air analog broadcasts. don't waste your breath... the idiots on here don't understand what this change is doing, nor do they care... they believe it is a cable TV conspiracy and the government stealing their television programs that they don't pay for... i think this conversion tops Y2K as the most annoying ridiculous technological "dilemma" of all time... |
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I hate comcast but the changeover is painless if you are not broke or technically illiterate. I bought the converters (like $10 after the fed coupon) and I'm trying to convince the family to cancel cable. The internet has to be a cable modem here if it's going to be useful.
You get more channels and better reception the new way. Change happens, adapt or die. |
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And, just cuz you get cable DOES NOT mean you don't need to worry about digital transition! YOU NEED THEIR BOX to watch! When they "go digital" what used to be called, "basic cable" (cable from wall jack goes directly in back of TV), will no longer be available. At least, not w/o renting a box for another $20.00/month - unless you have a digital TV. (And even then, that may not be the case.) This is completely wrong. Let me repeat: THIS IS COMPLETELY WRONG. If you have a cable ready TV (like every TV made in the last 20 years), the jack from your wall will work just fine. The only people affected by this change are those who get over-the-air analog broadcasts. don't waste your breath... the idiots on here don't understand what this change is doing, nor do they care... they believe it is a cable TV conspiracy and the government stealing their television programs that they don't pay for... i think this conversion tops Y2K as the most annoying ridiculous technological "dilemma" of all time... Somewhere there's some guy who still has one of these, and is pissed it doesn't work: 
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Wanna hear something more stupid? The local cable company offers a SUPER DUPER DIGITAL SERVICE! with Hbo, all the cool channels and whatnot, in digital transmission, the works...
Connection from the box to the tv? A/V RCA only... 
No wonder I cancelled them years ago. |
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Yes, comcast had nothing to do with the changeover, and trust me i am not a fan of them. But the FCC on the other hand, there is your problem. They wanted to auction off parts of the spectrum to raise money to use as toilet paper in federal buildings. No, this is Comcast's fault. This has nothing to do with the FCC's taking the VHF frequencies from TV stations. This was Comcast's internal decision to no longer broadcast a standard signal over cable. Comcast could have continued to transmit those signals as long as they wanted to. Comcast did this just to screw their customers. I agree with the surveys that say Comcast has the worst service in the country. I ordered my cable in April 2007. It doesn't work yet. I live in a large apartment building in a downtown area, and Comcast only has enough amplifier power to service half of the apartments. They claim that their employees that are technically competent enough to swap it out have been book solid on other projects for almost two years. That's how few technically competent people they have.z |
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Apparently (according to my friend who works for Comcast's main accounting office), my county is one of the oldest segments of their network. We're still using cable boxes from 5 years ago and half the movies hbo.com says are on-demand this week are not available. ~10% of my premium channels do not work at any one time, if something I want to watch is on one of those channels, I'll have to call Comcast, reset the box, dick around with it for 10min, etc, and then if I'm lucky I'll get that channel back but lose a different one.
The Comcast network is actually a giant patchwork of all the old cable providers they've bought out over the years, it's a huge mess. When I go to trade in my cable box (every 6mo cause they die that often in my area), they have two stacks of boxes at the service center, one for my county and one for the next county over because we're on completely incompatible systems. The other county's shit is all new, box about the size of a paperback book, very few problems with service according to my friends that live there, etc, while mine's as big as a laptop I had in '98 and sucks ass. Quoted:
Every analog channel they drop is 3 digital channels they can add.
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Yes, comcast had nothing to do with the changeover, and trust me i am not a fan of them. But the FCC on the other hand, there is your problem. They wanted to auction off parts of the spectrum to raise money to use as toilet paper in federal buildings. No, this is Comcast's fault. This has nothing to do with the FCC's taking the VHF frequencies from TV stations. This was Comcast's internal decision to no longer broadcast a standard signal over cable. Comcast could have continued to transmit those signals as long as they wanted to. Comcast did this just to screw their customers. Kharn |
| The problem with that theory is that if comcast didn't start adding in HD and digital channels people would bitch and cry even more, it takes bandwidth and the easiest way to get it is to kill and analog channel and throw in a few HD's. People bitch and whine about how Dish is all digital and cable sucks because it isn't, well how the fuck are they going to compete without switching over. Not to mention that they are doing it slowly on purpose, imagine the shitstorm if millions of cable customers needed digital boxes overnight. |
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Yes, comcast had nothing to do with the changeover, and trust me i am not a fan of them. But the FCC on the other hand, there is your problem. They wanted to auction off parts of the spectrum to raise money to use as toilet paper in federal buildings. not quite more and more things are using RF nowadays, the fact that analog TV that has been lingering around since the 40s/50s is sitting there consuming a large portion of the spectrum which could be used for new digital technology is a waste... analog TV users are the minority and nearly every TV purchased in the past decade is digital broadcast ready... i'm sure there were a lot of people pissed off when TV hit the market and old-time radio serials went the way of the dodo... similarly when VHS beat betamax and DVD beat them both, and now Blu-Ray is taking over as the primary format... get over it. |
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You guys will love me as I am a Comcast Headend Tech. I certainly understand all the frustrations of dealing with the largest cable provider in the US - trust me as it's not fun dealing with certain problems as an employee either.
On a technical note, not all Comcast systems have the same time line for projects. The "Digital" transition is a Government mandate, but forcing current cable customers to have a box is an individual system/corporate decision. For instance, the "City" of Chicago requires their cable viewers to have a converter. This really cuts down on cable theft as all channels are encrypted. That theft is rampant and cost millions. Some Comcast areas will not see a required converter for a few years yet. The others in between somewhere. For quality of service, it depends on where you are on our plant, the quality of line techs/service techs/customer service, etc... When it's functioning like it's supposed to, it's a great product hands down. Video/High speed data and Telephone is a nice thing to have wrapped up in a package deal. My system has so many HD channels now and tons of HD VOD content that some satellite viewers are coming back after a long hiatus. Satellite is also worthless for internet and always has been. If you are an avid TV watcher and have the optimum conditions for a dish, then it's obviously a great product too. I have personally known a lot of folks that constantly bitch though when the weather, trees and crappy signals let them down. Get whatever works for you I say. I get it all free so how can I complain? By the way, you think Comcast sucks? You should here the customers that move in from areas with Cox, Charter, Mediacom. They want to kiss our butts! |