About jkozlow3

@sbwinter2 wrote: Comcast Ken - I don't think you get it. Yes, the boxes are capable of 1080, but that doens't mean the signal being given to them from Comcast is 1080. When I first got HD several years ago, the picture was great - using 1080 boxes on 1080 TVs. It still looks great with my Apple TV and PS3. Then, a couple of years ago, Comcast starting compressing signal to fit in more channels, and my 1080 picture started to look more and more like a 480 (not even 720), while the SD channels started to look worse than 480. This is on multiple HD boxes and HD TVs and while using a Comcast-supplied amplifer. OnDemand HD programs are better, but still not as good as using a different service, or even OTA antenna and coax. I miss the high-quality picture I used to get - it was almost too sharp, and I would adjust my TV to accomodate (and avoid the soap opera effect). Now, it can't get sharp enough. Also - if they are going to compress channels, why don't they include the expensive ones we pay extra for? I want all of my premium channels to be in HD, like they are in other states. Then, at least those expensive channels will air in 480. Agree with all of this.  Picture Quality is MUCH softer & less sharp than it used to be a couple of years ago.  The exact same live TV programming on internet services such as Hulu Live TV, DirecTV Now, etc. has a much sharper and higher resolution picture quality.  If you have an Apple TV or Roku, sign up for a free trial of one of these services and you can flip back and forth and compare the picture quality to Comcast on the exact same programming.  There is no contest.   It's sad that Comcast employees don't even understand this. ... View more

@Morac2 wrote: @Ji-garcia wrote: Okay, then why doesn’t Xfinity upgrade to 1080p, blu-ray quality, and forget about the “interlaced” conundrum. Because Comcast doesn't have the free bandwidth to send normally compressed 720p channels, let alone 1080p channels.  Comcast is already heavily compressing the 720p channels to get them to fit which makes them look very poor.  Compressing 1080p channels would be completely unwatchable.   I would have no issue with 720p if they weren't compressing the feed so much.  It's bad when every internet streaming television service has much better PQ than Comcast (DirecTV Now, Hulu Live TV, HBO Go, etc.). ... View more

Yep, Comcast looks like garbage now.   As soon as Hulu Live TV or DirecTV Now offers local channels in my market, I'm leaving Comcast.  Both of those services have MUCH, MUCH better PQ than Comcast currently does (I've done free trials with both, but ultimately did not keep either of them due to lack of local channels in my market).     Also, watching the exact same programming on HBO Go on my Apple TV vs. through my Comcast X1 box is a NIGHT AND DAY difference in PQ on a 65" 1080p display.  Comcast's feed looks positively blurry in comparison. ... View more

@kpeters59 wrote: Can you please post a link to the article you read that claims that 720p is a downgrade from 1080i? I'd be really interested in reading that article. What you are describing doesn't really even sound like that. Are you actually sure that every single Channel you are receiving is only being output from your cable box at 720P? There is likely a setting on your cable box that would output only 720P. There's also a setting that would let it switch depending upon what the channel was doing. - KP   Comcast is compressing the heck out of their feed.  Forget about 720p vs. 1080i.  The bottom line is, the picture quality now looks HORRIBLE.  As soon as Hulu Live TV or DirecTV Now offers local channels in my area, I'm leaving Comcast.  Both of those services have MUCH, MUCH better PQ than Comcast currently does (I've done free trials with both, but ultimately did not keep either of them due to lack of local channels in my market).     Also, watching the exact same programming on HBO Go on my Apple TV vs. through my Comcast X1 box is a NIGHT AND DAY difference in PQ - with the HBO Go streaming app winning by a landslide.  Perhaps on a 30-40" display Comcast would look fine.  Certainly not on a 65" display though. ... View more

@charissamz wrote: @Davenlr wrote: Having both DirecTv and Xfinity (dont ask, it was cheaper than high speed internet from Comcast and DirecTv for the channels I get)...  On those channels I receive on both such as CNN and MSNBC, the difference is SO noticable on my 55" 4K TV, even using a $800 video processing box on the Tivo Bolt hooked to cable.    Now of course, I dont need to see talking heads in 1920 pixels vs 1280 pixels, and recording in 720p saves a lot of disc space, but when the two year special ends, and I have to pay full price for one or the other, I am sure going to pick the 1920 (and some 4K) provider over the bitstarved 720p provider.   If by then they switch to IPTV at 1080p or 4K, well then that might be different.   Right now though, Xfinity is really mushy looking, with the processor on pass thru, and a little better with the processor.  DirecTv is the winner by far though.   I had the same thing for a week as I switched. I would agree, with all things the same - input, cables, settings, etc - the difference is night and day. Just watching a movie/show via HBO on Comcast vs HBO via HBO Go on AppleTV is night and day.  At times, the HD picture on Comcast looks the same as a DVD run through my Oppo Blu-ray player.   I agree, I hope the IPTV thing comes quick. Luckly I can watch most my stuff via apps on my AppleTV and for some reason the sports channels - NBC Sports, Comcast Sportsnet Chicago, etc all still have a decent picture.   Yep, picture quality for the same programming on Apple TV (HBO Go, etc.) blows the Comcast PQ away.  It's unfortunate that we pay so much money and have such bad PQ.  Larger TVs have become more and more popular/prevalent/affordable over the years while Comcast PQ has gotten worse.  I'm sure that their PQ would have looked fine when I had my first 42" HDTV, but not on a 65" screen - that's for sure. ... View more

MNtundraRET wrote: I would think NBC should be very upset with the  way their parent company, Comcast, is messing up their broadcast using their current method of outputting the signal over cable. All they care about is that you watch their network and see the commercials.  They don't care about anything else, believe me. ... View more

@mikeym1 wrote: Last night I watched various parts of the latest Game of Thrones episode using three different mechanisms on a 75" tv:   1) DVR recording of HBO channel 2) On-demand 3) HBO Go App (XBOX One S)   In my opinion the picture quality was significantly better via the HBO GO App than On-demand or the HBO broadcast on Comcast.  The difference was so great that I don't think there is really much room for debate...there is a big degradation in quality in the re-encoding to 720p with a much lower bitrate. Hopefully Comcast is able to work out a better solution, particularly for premium channels such as HBO.   Thankfully the workaround of using the HBO Go app is reasonable, but many stations (e.g. AMC) don't necessarily have an equivelent or always provide access to full episodes of the latest seasons.      It's sad that we need to use workarounds when we pay good money for Comcast service.  I can clearly see a difference on my 65" TV.  Comcast must test the picture quality on iPads or something.  It's rather ridiculous. ... View more

@TheKurtster wrote: All I know is that the image quality seems to be worse than it used to be and once I've noticed it I can't unsee it.    I use primarily two TiVo boxes with CableCards and they are capable of 1080p but I can't find a single channel on Xfinitiy that's 1080p. Not one. I am very disappointed in the direction Comcast is heading. With 4k on the horizon already and 1080p well-entrenched after being available for about a decade, they seem to be heading backwards.    My only other option would be to go with DIrecTV or cut the cord where I live because there are no other cable providers. I really don't like either of those options so I'm stuck. There will be a lot more cord-cutting options in the near future.  Hulu, Verizon, etc. are all coming out with streaming live-tv services soon! ... View more

@JEB11 wrote: Ok.  I think I'm beginning to understand where you are coming from.  Let me ask one more follow-up question.  Would you be satisfied with a 720p signal if it were possible to persuade Comcast to cut out (or at least cut back) the post-conversion shenanigans, like overcompressing and bit-starving the transmission signal?  I ask not because I'm trying to paint you into a corner, but because I'm trying to isolate what's really causing irreparable damage to the image.  That is where we should be focusing our efforts to get Comcast to do something.  Is it the conversion to 720p itself or the post-conversion processing creating the mischief?   I read somewhere about a petition demanding that Comcast return to the status quo and restore the 1080i signal.  But before I pick up a pitchfork and join the villagers in the town square for the corporate officer weenie roast, I'd really like to know if that alone would make much of a positive difference, on balance.  I personally believe that professional deinterlacing is very beneficial because many (maybe most) of us can't perform that function very well with our consumer-grade equipment.  And, there are only two ways that Comcast can do the deinterlacing for us starting from a 1080i base signal: go up to 1080p or down to 720p.  1080p isn't going to happen.  Comcast won't do it because it requires too much bandwidth.  It strikes me that 720p would actually be a very good alternative if upscaling isn't nearly as problematic for us as deinterlacing.  With a conversion to 720p, you'd get professional equipment applied to the deinterlacing function, leaving consumers with only the relatively easy task of upscaling to 1080p (or higher) using consumer-grade equipment generally adequate to the task.  If this is correct, then the fight really ought to be targeting the post-conversion processing (compression and bit rate reductions), not demanding that Comcast restore the 1080i signal.  Unless I'm misreading the tea leaves, it sounds like we could work effectively with a 720p signal, so long as Comcast otherwise leaves it alone.  I think you agree with me on that, unless I've misunderstood.  See Message 113 ("The critical issue... is less the 720p part.  720p can look good, and upscale well - IF the source encoding is very good.  Comcast is overcompressing the signal during the MPEG4 conversion, and reducing the bitrates on the program to just barely good enough.)"    At this point, we're simply speculating, are we not?  We don't know 100% WHY the picture quality is worse, we just know it is.   Yes, perhaps 720p would look fine if they didn't overcompress it.  But I don't know that we're benefiting as much from "professional deinterlacing" as you think.  Maybe we are, maybe we're not.  I'd personally like to see side-by-side comparisons.  I've always output 1080p from my X1 box, allowing the X1 box to do the deinterlacing.  When I set the X1 to output 1080i (allowing my TV to do the deinterlacing instead), I couldn't really tell a difference.  I personally think both devices handled the deinterlacing well enough.   Yes, deinterlacing has been an issue in the past (it was a BIG issue many years ago with consumer grade equipment such as when HDTVs were first becoming mainstream), but I'm not sure that it's still a big issue for most material.  I suspect that most consumer grade equipment deinterlaces good enough these days.  I remember testing 2 blu-ray players side-by-side many years ago (8+) with SD DVDs (480i).  I found a movie (American Beauty) that had some serious issues when allowing the blu-ray player to deinterlace the signal (it didn't matter if I output 480p or 1080p - the conversion from interlaced to progressive was the issue).  There were several scenes that had a lot of artifacts.  I borrowed another copy of this movie from a friend and hooked up 2 different brands of blu-ray players side-by-side into 2 different inputs on my AVR so that I could quickly switch back and forth.  The difference was astounding and 1 player handled the deinterlacing without any visible issues.   So, back to Comcast.  I don't know exactly what the issue is.  All I know is that the picture quality is noticeably worse now than it used to be.  Could 720p suffice if they didn't overcompress it?  Perhaps.  I'm not demanding 1080i, but I *would* like a better picture - however they achieve it.  I wish Comcast would have tested on larger TVs (65" and larger) and taken picture quality into account before choosing to do whatever they've done.  It looks bad. ... View more

@webminster wrote: As long as Comcast is going to drain all the bitrate out of the signal, overcompress it, the game ended before it started.  No amount of upscaling or other CP-end signal processing can restore the lost detail. Agree.   Perhaps if Comcast would announce plans to discontinue broadcasting SD (like DirecTV has announced), they wouldn't have to overcompress their HD channels.  I don't understand why Comcast can't just compress the heck out of SD (to the greatest amount physically possible) to allow for more bandwidth and less compression of HD.  Obviously people that still have SD televisions in 2017 don't care about picture quality.  I don't know a single person who hasn't had a 100% HDTV household for at least 8-10 years.  I haven't used a SDTV since ~2002. ... View more

Yeah, I hear you. It's my understanding that SCALING is easy but DE-INTERLACING is difficult to do well. So I'm not sure there'd be much of a difference in 720p vs. 1080p. But who knows. ... View more

720p may be correct for most channels, but some of the local channels still broadcast in 1080i. So outputting 720p would be downscaling in some instances. Since the X1 box doesn't support native resolution, I output 1080p from the X1 since my TV would have to convert it to 1080p anyway. ... View more

@eecon1 wrote: @jkozlow3 wrote: @artm_boston wrote: Below is a reply I received from Comcast ECare after filing a complaint. Interesting that he calls the switch a "regression"!       reply from Comcast ECare: ==================== I do apologize that you disagree with our decision to go to 720p. We did this as 720p is progressive whereas 1080i is interlaced. With 1080i and its interlaced functionality we can only run shows at 30 frames per second and this causes gaps in data for fast moving scenes. With 720p we can provide the same quality picture faster at 60 frames per second. With this change we can provide a better quality service and resolve the flaws created with 1080i.   The correct thing to do would have been to use 1080p if they wanted the benefits of a progressive picture vs. interlaced.  Not to downscale to 720p so that our displays can turn around and upscale it back to 1080p (which all 1080p displays will do). IMO, as a former Stockholder over the last 5 years who just sold out at a nice profit and no longer a fan (since the 720p regression attempt results have failed), the reason those people (Comcast) are not doing the right thing regarding PQ for their larger screen home clients (again, in my opinion) is that they are also trying to squeeze more channels into a limited bandwith space to plan for a growing percentage of smaller screen mobile viewers while using a just minumal amount from that $10/mo HD Technology Fee most clients presently pay.   Doing the right thing, as you recommend, would cost those people more money, reduce profit margins, possibly upset their nice publically traded stock price run from 25 to 72 over the last 4 or 5 years (I was lucky, I admit it), and limit their potentional to do potential deals or spin-offs.   Nothing personal, just simple Business 101 .... (Note: I am not the client pictured or discussed in the article from the Oct 2016 link below):   http://investorplace.com/2016/10/cmcsa-comcast-corporation-stock-rolling-over/   Why don't they just get rid of the SD channels if they need extra bandwidth?  I don't know a single person who hasn't had an HDTV for at least the past 10 years.  Seriously, not one single person.  I bought my first HDTV in 2002.  15 years ago.   Why is SD still a thing?? ... View more

@artm_boston wrote: Below is a reply I received from Comcast ECare after filing a complaint. Interesting that he calls the switch a "regression"!       reply from Comcast ECare: ==================== I do apologize that you disagree with our decision to go to 720p. We did this as 720p is progressive whereas 1080i is interlaced. With 1080i and its interlaced functionality we can only run shows at 30 frames per second and this causes gaps in data for fast moving scenes. With 720p we can provide the same quality picture faster at 60 frames per second. With this change we can provide a better quality service and resolve the flaws created with 1080i.   The correct thing to do would have been to use 1080p if they wanted the benefits of a progressive picture vs. interlaced.  Not to downscale to 720p so that our displays can turn around and upscale it back to 1080p (which all 1080p displays will do). ... View more

@FAUguy wrote: @jkozlow3 wrote: @FAUguy wrote: So over the past week, the conversion has been going on in my area of Deerfield/Pompano Beach, FL. Each day, more HD channels that were 1080i are now being converted to 720p. Sunday when I recoded "The Young Pope" on HBO it was at 1080i, now tonight all HBO and Starz HD channels are 720p. The first think to notice is that when an HD channel is using MPEG 4 instead of MPEG 2, the Live TV Buffer is about 85 min instead of 30-45 min. Freeform HD (formally ABC Family) has always been 720p, and is still 720p, but now is using the MPEG 4 codec. I see no difference in the Picture Quality. But on other HD channels that were 1080i MPEG 2 and are now 720p MPEG 4, I can see is difference, as the image is not as sharp (more soft), fast motion actualy looks like frames are missing, and color isn't as accurate. I was able to compare "The Young Pope, epp 2" that I recorded Sunday night on HBO at 1080i, and then today when it was at 720p. I've also looked at Batman Begins and the first X-Men, and all of these don't look at good as they were when broadcast last week (they are shown all the time).   I personally don't know (right now) if this is worth me changing my TV provider from Comcast to another provider (U-Verse, DTV, or Dish), but it is truly a shame that Comcast is moving away from moderatly good HD picture quality to this downconverted lower quality. I'm not sure what (expensive) equipment they are using to do this at the local plant in Pompano Beach, but they must be using a low bit-rate setting (probably under 10Mbps) during the 1080i-to-720p converstion.   With more 4K UHD set coming out each year, the strive of Comcast should be to improve the PQ, not to make it worse, just to fit more channels into 1 frequency. Do you realy think this is the best way to have good PQ (original 1080i HD downconverted to 720p by Comcast, sent over coax, box decodes it, then TV upconverts it to its native resolution of 1080p or 4k)?   FAUguy, How do you know which channels are in 720p vs. 1080i?  I know my picture is a lot softer in general now, but I am not aware of how to determine each channel's resolution since the X1 box cannot output the native resolution of each channel and forces the output of a fixed resolution (i.e. 1080p). Thanks!     You can also tell by the length of the Live TV Buffer. Before, when watching a HD channel (either 720p or 1080i), the live TV Buffer was between 25-45 minutes (depending on the channel) due to the fact that the MPEG 2 codec was used. Now those same channels have an 85 min live buffer since they are using MPEG 4. So check to see if any of your HD channels have a longer live TV Buffer than they use to. If it is over an hour, chances are that HD channel is using MPEG 4.   Good idea - I'll try that and test out a few channels. ... View more

@FAUguy wrote: So over the past week, the conversion has been going on in my area of Deerfield/Pompano Beach, FL. Each day, more HD channels that were 1080i are now being converted to 720p. Sunday when I recoded "The Young Pope" on HBO it was at 1080i, now tonight all HBO and Starz HD channels are 720p. The first think to notice is that when an HD channel is using MPEG 4 instead of MPEG 2, the Live TV Buffer is about 85 min instead of 30-45 min. Freeform HD (formally ABC Family) has always been 720p, and is still 720p, but now is using the MPEG 4 codec. I see no difference in the Picture Quality. But on other HD channels that were 1080i MPEG 2 and are now 720p MPEG 4, I can see is difference, as the image is not as sharp (more soft), fast motion actualy looks like frames are missing, and color isn't as accurate. I was able to compare "The Young Pope, epp 2" that I recorded Sunday night on HBO at 1080i, and then today when it was at 720p. I've also looked at Batman Begins and the first X-Men, and all of these don't look at good as they were when broadcast last week (they are shown all the time).   I personally don't know (right now) if this is worth me changing my TV provider from Comcast to another provider (U-Verse, DTV, or Dish), but it is truly a shame that Comcast is moving away from moderatly good HD picture quality to this downconverted lower quality. I'm not sure what (expensive) equipment they are using to do this at the local plant in Pompano Beach, but they must be using a low bit-rate setting (probably under 10Mbps) during the 1080i-to-720p converstion.   With more 4K UHD set coming out each year, the strive of Comcast should be to improve the PQ, not to make it worse, just to fit more channels into 1 frequency. Do you realy think this is the best way to have good PQ (original 1080i HD downconverted to 720p by Comcast, sent over coax, box decodes it, then TV upconverts it to its native resolution of 1080p or 4k)?   FAUguy, How do you know which channels are in 720p vs. 1080i?  I know my picture is a lot softer in general now, but I am not aware of how to determine each channel's resolution since the X1 box cannot output the native resolution of each channel and forces the output of a fixed resolution (i.e. 1080p). Thanks! ... View more

@2themax wrote: Please stop. Converting 30 frames per second to 60 frames per second does not negate losing half the resolution. Most networks broadcast natively in 1080i (with the exception of ABC and Fox I believe).   Most TVs scale the picture to 1080p for output.   So Comcast is taking the native 1080i feed, downscaling it to 720p so that the TV or X1 box can then turnaround and upscale it to 1080p.   What do you suppose all of this does to the resolution??? ... View more

Picture quality is much worse on most channels vs. a few months ago.  Local channels are the only ones that still look good, as I assume they remain un-touched.  I can't believe Comcast chose to downscale everything to 720p.  On a 65" screen, the picture is very noticeably worse than it used to be.  Comcast must have tested the picture quality on much smaller TVs before they decided to switch to 720p.   It's sad when a streaming service like DirecTV Now (which I'm trying out) has better picture quality than your cable company.     I'd suggest that anyone that has a larger TV and cares about PQ start investigating other options.     ... View more

@cldlhd wrote: So I looked thru the thread but if the reason is there I missed it: Why is Netflix picture quality worse on the X1 app compared to my PS3? On the plus side according to my receiver it's Dolby Digital Plus whie the PS3 just says Dolby Digital . My X1 box and my ps3 are both routed thru my Yamaha Aventage RX-A730 then to the same TV via the same HDMI cable. Obviously the signal comes through the same line running to the house then it splits with the internet feed going to my Arris 822 telephony modem then to my Asus RT-AC88U router then hardwired via cat6 to the ps3. The signal to my X1 box is good (downstream received power 5.9 dbmv, snr is 44.1, upstream power 41.3 ) so is it down to the box or the app. I'm not saying the picture is bad just not as sharp. I assume you want the power to the box close to zero. Back when I wasn't aware of this I bought a couple PPC evo and Commscope amps/ lossless splitters.     Yeah, Netflix picture quality on the X1 box is definitely much softer/less sharp than on the Apple TV or Roku (I have multiple devices that can play Netflix).  It's sad that this is what Comcast rolled out.  Netflix PQ should be equal across all devices, but it's definitely not as good on the X1. ... View more

      Netflix is officially out of beta today, we will keep this thread going foward just in case any previus questions come up. Please continue to let us know how the experience is going for you, we have taken a lot of feedback from everyone here and fowared this to the team that is working on it.      Comcast,   Why does the Netflix picture quality on the X1 not match the Netflix PQ on other devices?   I have an Apple TV, Roku, Blu-Ray player, etc. and all of them have Netflix built-in.  All of my devices (including the X1) are set to output 1080p.   Yet, if I start 2 identical episodes of the same show on the X1 and one of my other Netflix devices (i.e. Apple TV), the picture is much sharper and more detailed on the other devices when switching back and forth.  When watching Netflix on the X1, it almost looks like 720p in comparison, yet all of my devices are set to 1080p.  This is disappointing. ... View more