AfterDawn: Tech news
AfterDawn > News > Comcast HD quality suffers under compression

Comcast HD quality suffers under compression

Written by James Delahunty @ 03 Apr 2008 1:26 User comments (22)

Comcast HD quality suffers under compression A very interesting article by bfdtv on the AVS Forum revealed the effects of a HDTV provider choosing to sacrifice quality for quantity. Comcast is degrading HD video on some of its systems to make room for more HD channels in response to increased competition from DirecTV and Verizon FiOS.
By early April, most Comcast systems will recompress and degrade their HD, much like DirecTV and Dish Network do on their MPEG-2 channels. Comcast has allocated a maximum of two HD channels per 38.8Mbps QAM and has now changed, attempting to squeeze three channels instead.



Bfdtv compared the quality of the same programs on Comcast and Verizon FiOS, recording the same program from the same channel, at the same time. A test the user ran last year had shown no difference between the two providers, but things are a lot different now.

The difference in average bitrate (determined by size of recording) ranges from 0.7% for HBO HD, right up to 38.8% for Discovery HD Theater.

How did other channels compare and what exactly does the difference "look like"? Check out the thread to see.

See: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008271

Get regular news updates from AfterDawn.com by subscribing to our RSS feeds using the Subscribe button below. If you have been living in a cave for a few years now and don't know how to use RSS feeds, then Click Here to read a Guide on how to use RSS (and other) feeds.

<TiVo 9.3 update to speed up interface >Blinkx offers Joost-like BBTV
Previous Next  

22 user comments

13.4.2008 02:07
iluvendo
Send private message to this user
AfterDawn Addict

All in the name of market share and money (profits)

23.4.2008 02:48
itago
Send private message to this user
Newbie

Why does anyone still use Comcast after all the shit they have pulled off?

33.4.2008 03:04
ripxrush
Send private message to this user
Junior Member

what a bunch of pompous A$$ h0lez! thats about all i have to say!

43.4.2008 06:30
SamNz
Inactive

ok i SD satilite tv and it looks better than that,

53.4.2008 07:16
21Q
Send private message to this user
Senior Member

As long as I can see what I'm watching, I'm fine. I still haven't gotten into this HD stuff. I mean, I have an HD tv, but I never find myself watching HD channels.

63.4.2008 10:41
spydah
Send private message to this user
Junior Member

The HD quality between Comcast & Directv sucks. I had Comcast HD boxes on both of my HD-Tv's and it was never as clear as my Directv HD. Especially after Directv launched their satellites producing more HD channels. It seems their quality has improved. I would never switch back to Comcast if they paid me.

73.4.2008 11:15
r0b0t3ch
Inactive

Originally posted by itago:
 Why does anyone still use Comcast after all the shit they have pulled off?

AGREED!!!

I hate Comcast, hate their company, customer services, quality, selection and prices. I wish that money grubbing company would burn to the ground or get shut down.

What's worse............they claim "the most HD channels; more than DirecTV, more than Dish" That's BULLCRAP!!!!! Blatant lie. little fine print at bottom of page says "HD content on 'ON-Demand' at any given time".

Now............anyone that takes the time to visit their crap website and find out exactly what channels are in HD will find MAAAAAAYBE 15 channels NON ON-DEMAND. No Discover, No TBS, No Animal Planet, No NGC, etc. (I may be mistaken about a couple of those) but I counted DirecTV's HD channel lineup at OVER 70 and Comcast at about 15. WHO FRAKKIN' CARES ABOUT ON DEMAND?

Die Comcast CEO/Execs DIE!!!!!!!

83.4.2008 11:19
atomicxl
Inactive

Wow. I was expecting negligible differences. The comcast one looks like PS1 CGI with blocks galore.

93.4.2008 11:22
r0b0t3ch
Inactive

Originally posted by 21Q:
 As long as I can see what I'm watching, I'm fine. I still haven't gotten into this HD stuff. I mean, I have an HD tv, but I never find myself watching HD channels.

I can respect that. You're obviously not much of a tv watcher or a HUGE tv fan. I have a couple of friends like that (that don't really care about the quality of tv). Reading is their thing. My only question would be ..............if ya' don't care about HD then WHY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH DID YOU FORK OVER FOR AN HD TV SET? That's just pointless and senseless seeing that you "don't get into this HD stuff" That's like running for president and then purposefully leaking out negative information about yourself.


Oh...........and "SamNz"

Learn to spell and write buddy. Can't even tell what you were trying to say. You speaka Eng-lish??

103.4.2008 12:01
emugamer
Inactive

Quote:
Originally posted by 21Q:
 As long as I can see what I'm watching, I'm fine. I still haven't gotten into this HD stuff. I mean, I have an HD tv, but I never find myself watching HD channels.

I can respect that. You're obviously not much of a tv watcher or a HUGE tv fan. I have a couple of friends like that (that don't really care about the quality of tv). Reading is their thing. My only question would be ..............if ya' don't care about HD then WHY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH DID YOU FORK OVER FOR AN HD TV SET? That's just pointless and senseless seeing that you "don't get into this HD stuff" That's like running for president and then purposefully leaking out negative information about yourself.
lol, I agree it's pointless, if by "HD stuff" 21Q meant everything HD. But maybe he only meant HD Television signals. I have to disagree on the analogy. I think it's more like running for President and then not campaigning.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 03 Apr 2008 @ 12:38

113.4.2008 12:38
bobiroc
Send private message to this user
Senior Member

Comcast and Quality is an oxymoron of terms anyway. Unless you put the word bad, terrible, or unsatisfactory before quality that is.

123.4.2008 14:36
engage16
Send private message to this user
Member

i do not have hd at my house... but a friend of mine has comcast hd at her house and they pay around $120 a month for their programming which is nearly identical to mine... i'm paying $60 a month on directv and for an extra $10 a month i could add hd... why are people paying so much for P.O.S. service???

133.4.2008 21:04
DXR88
Send private message to this user
Senior Member

Originally posted by engage16:
 i do not have hd at my house... but a friend of mine has comcast hd at her house and they pay around $120 a month for their programming which is nearly identical to mine... i'm paying $60 a month on directv and for an extra $10 a month i could add hd... why are people paying so much for P.O.S. service???

I dont know why mabey they got her in a corner with a Contract
Comcast has been known to do that.

I have Bright House And i see Good Quality From them.

If you plan to get Bright House. Do not get there three in one deal its Crap. they Have A Cable switch overload issue with there 3n1 witch will kill the phone and cable modem for about a day.

143.4.2008 22:16
engage16
Send private message to this user
Member

thats the price off the little brochure they left when they had to come repair it... the cable companies got you by the balls... no other way to say... i'll be happy just to get dsl... never mind fios

153.4.2008 22:59
snowlock
Send private message to this user
Junior Member

Originally posted by itago:
 Why does anyone still use Comcast after all the shit they have pulled off?
because they have no other choice for the services they provide.
i know that's my reason, and i'm sure i'm far from the only one.
comcast is the only cable provider here and has the only worthwhile broadband.

164.4.2008 02:08
LOCOENG
Send private message to this user
Moderator

Originally posted by r0b0t3chOh:
 ...........and "SamNz"

Learn to spell and write buddy. Can't even tell what you were trying to say. You speaka Eng-lish??
Please observe rule 6.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 04 Apr 2008 @ 2:08

174.4.2008 12:50
georgeluv
Send private message to this user
Member

because of municipal tv deals i cant get fios tv with my fios internet! BS! all this crap just drives me further and further to get a coolsat and "legally" watch the streams that happen to enter my property.

i have time warner and let me tell you they suck just as much as comcrap. some channels are pretty good but some look like hot garbage during an angle switch or an action scene. not entirely the compressions fault, they just need to learn to use the compression more efficiently, but still mostly the compressions fault :P

one of the other reasons they are compressing is because they got the internet going through the same line a lot of the times, and people are demanding more and more bandwidth every day too. they are writing checks they cant cash via totally misleading advertising (6mbps? "true" HD?, yeh right) and we will all see a day very soon when "hd" carries a bitrate minimum as well as a size standard and internet providers will be mandated to state exactly how much "on tap, all the time" bandwidth each subscriber is legally entitled to. and the sooner the better, most people are just to dumb to call them out right now.

184.4.2008 13:06
DXR88
Send private message to this user
Senior Member

That depends on the Cable Switch. When i got HD they Came out and removed the the old switch and replaced it with a nice shiny silver box.

it has 32Mbps in and 16Mbps out thats not bad, but im not even using all of it. HD channels are about 12Mbps a stream so if i have 3 tv's using HD Channels then i would us all of it. while one tv would look worse than the other 2.

The out is mainly used for Internet and On demand Stream.

the IN is usally 6,8 or 12mbps depending on your contract for internet.

195.4.2008 21:35
wetsparks
Send private message to this user
Member

Comcast isn't totally bad, they donated a bunch of hd cameras to some MLB teams, like Seattle, so that all the games are broadcast in HD. They aren't tottaly great either, there was an article in todays newspaper about advertising a MLB package for $170 to watch "all" MLB games when in reality it is only 100 games from each team. And that is some TERRIBLE HD quality, normal upscaling on an HDTV would give you a better picture than that. I guess if you want good HD you need Dish Network or Direct TV.

208.4.2008 01:03
dallas4u
Send private message to this user
Newbie

Quote:
Originally posted by itago:
 Why does anyone still use Comcast after all the shit they have pulled off?
because they have no other choice for the services they provide.
i know that's my reason, and i'm sure i'm far from the only one.
comcast is the only cable provider here and has the only worthwhile broadband.
Dood, come on... you can get DirecTV or Dish practically anywhere. I have had DirecTivo and now Dish HD, all the while with Comcast HS internet. I'm in Portland, OR where you either get Qwest DSL or Comcast cable for internet... and that's it, but you still have a choice for TV, even if we CAN'T get Verizon FIOS (yet). Seriously, my Dish channels are so much better than Comcast. I would have stayed with DirecTV (switching to HD) if they would have offered (it's always a crap shoot when your contract runs out), but I'll never go to Comcast for TV.

218.4.2008 10:30
snowlock
Send private message to this user
Junior Member

Quote:
Quote:
Originally posted by itago:
 Why does anyone still use Comcast after all the shit they have pulled off?
because they have no other choice for the services they provide.
i know that's my reason, and i'm sure i'm far from the only one.
comcast is the only cable provider here and has the only worthwhile broadband.
Dood, come on... you can get DirecTV or Dish practically anywhere. I have had DirecTivo and now Dish HD, all the while with Comcast HS internet. I'm in Portland, OR where you either get Qwest DSL or Comcast cable for internet... and that's it, but you still have a choice for TV, even if we CAN'T get Verizon FIOS (yet). Seriously, my Dish channels are so much better than Comcast. I would have stayed with DirecTV (switching to HD) if they would have offered (it's always a crap shoot when your contract runs out), but I'll never go to Comcast for TV.
i have no interest in hd cable/satellite service, to be honest;
besides that, i've had nothing to complain about comcast's tv service.
when my uncle had directv next door, he would always lose picture in a storm.
plus comcast takes care of that option by making it inherently more expensive;
their broadband costs more if you don't subscribe to their cable tv.

i don't like comcast, but satellite is simply not for me.

228.4.2008 14:15
wetsparks
Send private message to this user
Member

If your uncle lost his picture during a storm he should have called up and gotten some one out to his house because something was wrong on his end, not the providers end. I live in the North and we get snow storms that will cover up my dish with a couple inches of snow and I still get a signal (though not very good, usually have to go out there and dust it off).

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

YouTube Premium starts showing ads to subscribers YouTube Premium starts showing ads to subscribers (13 Nov 2024 3:09)
For years, YouTube Premium has been marketed as a way to enjoy an ad-free YouTube experience. But apparently, that is no longer the case, as Premium subscribers are now starting to see ads on the platform.
1 user comment
Android 16 will launch sooner than expected Android 16 will launch sooner than expected (01 Nov 2024 6:45)
Google announced that upcoming Android 16 will break the traditional once-a-year cycle of major Android launches. Next Android is poised to launch in Q2 of 2025, so Android 16 should ship before end of June, 2025.
Winamp ends its open source project that wasn't really open source Winamp ends its "open source" project that wasn't really open source (20 Oct 2024 11:12)
Less than a month after the legendary MP3 player Winamp made its source code public, the company has made a sudden U-turn and removed its code from distribution.
2 user comments
Winamp released its source code - but didn't go open source Winamp released its source code - but didn't go open source (25 Sep 2024 12:38)
The source code of Winamp has now been officially released. However, it hasn't become a pure open-source project, as its licensing terms prohibit the creation of new, different versions.
Does your phone rattle? Here's why it happens Does your phone rattle? Here's why it happens (25 Aug 2024 8:30)
When you shake your phone and hear a light rattle, clatter, or jingle, it's likely not broken. The culprit is probably the optical image stabilization (OIS) system in your phone's camera, meaning everything is functioning as it should.
2 user comments

Reviews

Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review - obstacle avoidance doesn't work as it should, otherwise almost perfect robot vacuum Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra review - obstacle avoidance doesn't work as it should, otherwise almost perfect robot vacuum
We put the Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra through a very, very long review process. The $1800 mopping robot vacuum is almost perfect, but its obstacle avoidance was surprisingly bad, considering the price - and compared to its competitors.
Sharge x OnePlus Pouch review: Beautiful power bank that supports SuperVOOC charging Sharge x OnePlus Pouch review: Beautiful power bank that supports SuperVOOC charging
In our review, we take a look at Sharge's power bank that supports OnePlus SuperVOOC quick charging technology as well as standard USB PD charging. It has small design flaws, but despite those, the Pouch is very nice product.
1 user comment
Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.

Guides

Guide: Phone battery drains quickly - how to fix (iPhone / Android) Guide: Phone battery drains quickly - how to fix (iPhone / Android)
In this guide, we go through the most typical reasons for rapid battery drain with phones, and look at potential reasons or solutions.
What IP rating for dust and water resistance means What IP rating for dust and water resistance means
An IP classification (such as IP68) is given to mobile phones, Bluetooth speakers, and other devices, but what do these classifications mean?
1 user comment
GUIDE: Wi-Fi speeds are slow? Here are some tips GUIDE: Wi-Fi speeds are slow? Here are some tips
Having problems with Wi-Fi speed and stability at home? Here are some tips to follow to alleviate the issues.
1 user comment
Guide: Is Your Wi-Fi Sluggish or Slow? Here's How to Fix Guide: Is Your Wi-Fi Sluggish or Slow? Here's How to Fix
Do you have problems with you Wi-Fi? Slow connection or is it cutting off constantly? This guide aims to remedy these problems.
1 user comment
What happens if you don't update Android? What happens if you don't update Android?
Sometimes it can be tempting to avoid updating to a new Android version. What happens if you decide to delay major updates to the OS?

News archive

Sections:

Follow us:

© 1999-2024 AfterDawn Oy. All rights reserved
Back to Top ⇧
AfterDawn is powered by Powered by UpCloud