HD Cable Petition

[admin]

With the recent wave exposure about poor quality HD cable signals, a petition has been developed by one of the hosts of the popular audio/video podcast AV Rant. In the original posting, it seems that this petition was instigated by problems the host and Audioholics' staffer, Tom Andry, had with his Comcast HD service and a few vocal listeners.

Discuss "HD Cable Petition" here. Read the article

Read the post on AV Rant

Sign the Petition

 

[Pyrrho]

I think that the petition will be useless without action. What do they care if you sign a petition and still pay them for their crappy service? They can easily just ignore you. This would still be true even if all of their customers signed the petition, and still paid for the service. If you want to have an actual impact, sign the petition, and discontinue service with them, sending them a letter telling them why. Otherwise, your money will spend the same, regardless of how dissatisfied you are with what you are paying for, and it won't make any difference to them.

The point of their service, from their point of view, is to make money, and the only way you will get their attention is if you affect their ability to make money. Everything else is irrelevant.

 

[stratman]

You guys really want to get the ball moving? Get a real signed petition, tell Comcast (or other provider) you're switching over to satellite service (DirectTV, Dish), then they just might move their lazy, bloated collective gluteus, but only if they perceive profits will drop, without that......good luck.

 

[majorloser]

Come to the Dark Side.
We have satelite

 

[lonwa]

DirecTV

Unfortuantely my directv service has only been getting worse as they add more channels. Maybe its not related, but I have been experiencing the same kind of issues: audio drops outs, massive pixelation with fast motion or explosions, and out of sync audio and video. I always try and "re-set" my reciever, but that does not help. And according to the signal strength, I have over 80% on all the HD sats which the installer said meets their minimum.


Hopefully this is not the case with SAT signals, cause wireless connections must have limited bandwidth too?


Lonwa

 

[Biggiesized]

This petition is going nowhere. Look at its title: Compression-Free High Defintion Cable TV. I'm sorry but nothing is broadcasted UNcompressed. People need to get a grip on the situation. The problem is not that the signal is being compressed, but REcompressed.

 

[AverageJoe]

Interesting that the keywords on the petition page prompted Google to place nothing but Ads for cable providers on it.

 

[mtrycrafts]

With the recent wave exposure about poor quality HD cable signals, a petition has been developed by one of the hosts of the popular audio/video podcast AV Rant. In the original posting, it seems that this petition was instigated by problems the host and Audioholics' staffer, Tom Andry, had with his Comcast HD service and a few vocal listeners.

Interestingly, my local newspaper's business section this morning has an article by Bob Fernandez of The Philadelphia Inquirer about something similar:
"Comcast Looks to Bolster Faltering Public Image"

A Frank Eliason at Comcast is assigned to monitor the bolgosphere for venomous posts and respond. But, it may or may not help.

 

[aberkowitz]

Unless real competition can be injected into all major markets, cable companies will never have an incentive to change. In most places you're lucky if you can decide between 2 traditional cable companies. Satellite is not available in many large cities either due to a ban by the building (way too frequent) or not having an unobstructed line to the satellite. Fios is only available in a few markets and from everything I've heard it's terrible.

Put all this together, and the question in my mind becomes "What incentive does any one cable company have to change?" The answer: Nothing. People will pay their prices for poor service because switching costs are incredibly high (a lack of choice implies a switching cost of infinity) and the alternatives are few.

 

[Cruise Missile]

Feb 4th I had my Comcast cancelled after being embarrased by the Super Bowl being compressed to death. The problems I experieced ran the full gamut listed above. When I called for customer service I was informed that my equipment I was displaying the game with was "of a lesser quality". I cancelled right on the spot. I haven't missed TV as much as you might think. We upped our Netflix plan to 7 and have movie night every night. It's been wonderfull.

 

[stratman]

Unless real competition can be injected into all major markets, cable companies will never have an incentive to change. In most places you're lucky if you can decide between 2 traditional cable companies. Satellite is not available in many large cities either due to a ban by the building (way too frequent) or not having an unobstructed line to the satellite. Fios is only available in a few markets and from everything I've heard it's terrible.

Put all this together, and the question in my mind becomes "What incentive does any one cable company have to change?" The answer: Nothing. People will pay their prices for poor service because switching costs are incredibly high (a lack of choice implies a switching cost of infinity) and the alternatives are few.

You know Adam you're right, unless people are willing to take drastic measures like abandoning cable, going back to OTA and using their HTs for Bluray, there are no incentives in CERTAIN markets. I'm fortunate, I have access to all except Fios, which doesn't interest me anyway.

 

[smurphy522]

I can say for sure that FIOS (offered by ATT) is terrible in the Houston Market. Unfortunately Comcast is superior to it. There was nothing but channel dropouts or A/V sync issues on every channel, not only the HD lineup. The only thing that was better on Att's side was their internet, it was faster.

Just a warning to those in the Houston Market, I surely am not trying to help out Comcast though it may sound it. For me they just happen to be the lesser of the evils; much like voting for a president!

 

[moreira85]

wow

Feb 4th I had my Comcast cancelled after being embarrased by the Super Bowl being compressed to death. The problems I experieced ran the full gamut listed above. When I called for customer service I was informed that my equipment I was displaying the game with was "of a lesser quality". I cancelled right on the spot. I haven't missed TV as much as you might think. We upped our Netflix plan to 7 and have movie night every night. It's been wonderfull.

wow thats impressive, so you have no cable now?? A good cost savings at that.

 

[MUDSHARK]

Come to the Dark Side.
We have satelite

Do you really feel that way? We had Directv for 4 years before moving back to cable. I finally grew weary of the wife's complaints about signal disruptions during our many many summer storms, the HD Lite, the super compressed XM stations, and Directv incompetence in blacking out Lightning games without cause.

 

[Hi Ho]

I can say for sure that FIOS (offered by ATT) is terrible in the Houston Market.

ATT is not FIOS. Only Verizons fiber optic offering is called FIOS. ATT doesn't compare well to Verizons offering.

 

[jonnythan]

I find this whole thing highly interesting because my Time Warner cable service has been exemplary.

 

[fiosmeup]

Fios is not coming to Houston,Verizon FIos is only be availible in Verizon a service area, A lot of the US is not serviced by Verizon. Houston is covered by AT&T. IF you can't get a home phone through Verizon you will not be able to get FIOS. When they get their act together with customer service and other issues, the potential of fios is incredible.

 

[westcott]

I have had all three and in the Houston area, DishNetwork was the superior performer. Now this may have changed with Directv's latest hardware but I will not switch back. Their hardware used to stink (locked up and got really hot) and the MPEG4 support from DishNetwork really was miles ahead at the time of its release. They also had more HD programming that I watch (sports channels do not count in our house) than the others.

Have not seen FIOS yet on a good system so I will reserve comment until I do for this technology.

I agree with the others. Drop cable for all but internet service and make NetFlix your new best friend.

I will grow old before we probably see programming available on demand to increase bandwidth.

It is a reoccurring theme. "Give the people more, not better. They won't know the difference."

 

[Phil Taylor]

Dish Network is the way to go in my experience. I love the hardware and menus over DTV. Storms are a bit of a pain in the Spring but if your dish is properly peaked it is infrequent and only during the heaviest downpours. Funny but I can usually tell when it's really going to pour down about a minute ahead of time when the sat signal drops out during a storm.

 

[charles38]

fios digital cable

so far fios digital cable and digital internet hasnt arrived in my area,they have been installing fios in my state from east to west.i found out that verizon is going to update the dsl for faster uploads and downloads for my area.but eventually i think my area will have fios cable and internet,i just dont know when it will happen.time warner cable seems to suck,all they did was update there system to the 750mhz spectrum in order to have broadband thru the rusted crusted copper lines,because the high definition is all downconverted and upconverted thru anologue and some digital.my standard definition dvd player and recorder has a better picture and sound than time warner cable and puts them to shame,and its only a standard definition quality thats out doing twc lol.its hard to say if sony blu-ray high def dvd player was really better than toshibas hd dvd,because toshibas highdef picture quality is really outstanding and its better than sonys blu-ray.but as usual when more later generations are released by sony for blu-ray highdef dvd players with much better digipic digisound.