I learned that last week Comcast upgraded their Basic Digital TV service at the local Eugene (Chad Drive) head-end to support "Digital Simulcast" (DS). The supposed end-effect is that all Comcast programming on ch 1-99, both video and audio, is now entirely digital. At least this is how it was communicated to me over the phone by a Comcast Rep in Beaverton. (Sidenote: I didn't think anything can be entirely digital, as there is always some sort of transformation along the path. But I digress).
So since last week, ESPN, ESPN2, FoxSportsNW has been showing ugly compression artifacts on fast moving images, e.g. basketball players running down the court. Whereas image quality is ok with slow moving or zoomed in or talking head images. My basic digital A/V background makes me think that Comcast has decreased the amount of bandwidth available per channel for MPEG2 transfer (higher compression) and/or this is an encoding/decoding quality control issue. I am using a Motorola DCT2000 set-top box and the Comcast rep today sent the box a unicast signal to upgrade the firmware and reset my box. The rep stated that my image quality should have improved, even though I have the DCT2000 and an analog TV, not HDTV. But the image quality issue remains. Is Comcast limiting bandwidth for analog reception, to allow more room for video-on-demand and voip service and/or is this a required after-effect to support HDTV and/or an attempt to push subscribers to higher-tier services? Also since the upgrade last week the volume differences between channels is way dramatic. I can no longer surf without turning the volume most the way down. And I am running full/advanced audio compression. FYI I now see the Dolby logo now on most channels info bar. Anyone with similar experience. Should I trade in my DCT set-top box for a newer version (rep tried to dissuade me from this... I think Comcast is getting swamped with DCT trade-up requests). And wondering if the same compression artifact issue is apparent on Direct TV or DishNet satellite? I'm not ready to go HDTV. More important things in my life. BTW I just noticed "Comcast Digital Simulcast" [by Region] threads on dslreports.com. Time for some reading. Darren _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
