Tech DC » Home Theater

Comcast Lies

Rick — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:02:00 +0000

Not that it’s surprising to anyone who has worked with them, but Comcast regularly lies. They do whatever they can to perpetuate the idea that there is no such thing as over-the-air digital TV, which is available for free if you have a TV and a small antenna.

This Wednesday, Comcast changed most of their analog cable channels in the Arlington, Virginia, area to present the following message.

Comcast has been doing this around the country for years, shutting off analog cable and moving customers to Comcast digital boxes so that they can charge more for each TV in the house and upsell pay-per-view content.

So an Arlington client of mine decided to cancel their Comcast cable instead of going through the hassle of a cable box or cable card. Given that the client watches the major network channels, they are okay with just using digital TV over-the-air for free.

When we called Comcast, Sam (Comcast Employee ID HEI) asked how the customer would watch TV without Comcast. “Over the air for free,” I said. Sam said that even if that was possible, it wouldn’t last long since all over-the-air was going away. So Sam was outright lying to us. Sam asked why we didn’t want a Comcast box since we’d need some kind of box to watch TV. I said that digital over-the-air can be plugged directly into a TV without a box. Sam said that he had no idea about that. He spoke with a tone of disbelief as if I was making it up.

Had I not been on that call, the customer would have been bullied into buying Comcast digital cable after being told that was their only option.

I find that most people have no idea about digital over-the-air, which in the DC metro area has about 20 channels. During the over-the-air TV conversion from analog to digital, Comcast mailed advertisements telling people to convert to digital TV from Comcast. This confused people into thinking that the digital conversion meant that you needed to get Comcast digital TV.

This is why I use the word “Comcastic” as a derogatory term. As in, “That guy just stole my wallet. Comcastic.”

Google TV Worst Product Ever

Rick — Sun, 26 Dec 2010 22:02:25 +0000

I like Google and knew that they were attempting something new and audacious with their Google TV. I knew that it had been horribly reviewed and that all the major networks blocked their content from the device. But it wasn’t until I opened my review unit of the Google TV Revue by Logitech that I fully appreciated what a disaster this product was.

It’s “Open”

Yes, Google TV is open, which I now see means that there is no consistency in App design and interface. There are no standards for layouts or buttons. Do I use a mouse or click buttons? Use whatever you want.. it’s different in every app and very confusing.

It Feels Like A Computer

At a few points, I got the message that an application was not responsive and asking if I wanted to force-kill it. That’s not something most people want to deal with on a TV.

It’s Low Quality

The Logitech Revue takes in the video feed from your cable box or DVR and then overlays its content on top of it. This way you can put the live TV feed in a corner box while browsing the web. The downside? The video is re-encoded and therefore degraded in this process. I wasn’t even looking for it, but noticed that the colors and shadows were far more muddy than they should be. I then switched back and forth on the same content and could easily see the problems introduced to the video feed. Audio? Your 5.1 surround sound is converted to stereo.

DVR Integration Fails

The whole idea of Google TV sitting on top of my TiVo DVR doesn’t work for me. If I search for content and the Google TV thinks it’s on live, it will attempt to change the TiVo channel for me. But if my TiVo responds, “Currently recording something else. Do you want me to cancel that other recording?” the Google TV doesn’t know it. It’s clunky and confusing. Just keep my boxes separate or fully integrated (Google TV built into my DVR).

No Content

There is remarkably little content for the Google TV. Most of the content felt like shells for the web pages. I had to click on the option to expand the video to full screen.

Google TV does have Netflix (what box doesn’t today?), Amazon, and Pandora, but many of the other applications either didn’t work or worked sporadically. This is on the latest firmware as of Christmas 2010.

Conclusion

Google TV might be an upgrade if you’re running a Web TV 2.0 box from 2004. But with Apple TV, Roku, Windows Media Center, and a host of “hacker” systems from Boxee, XBMC, and Plex, there are many alternatives now that do far more for less money.

I applaud Google for trying to move into the living room, but this box needs to be redesigned to be user friendly for non-engineers. It needs a consistent user interface and more content.

Google says that they’re continuing to develop Google TV, but Logitech has stopped making this Revue unit and the products planned for CES have been cancelled. Lets hope that Google takes this break in product development as an opportunity to rethink their approach to entering the living room.

3D Video and Nausia

Rick — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:05:48 +0000

The Consumer Electronics Shows (CES) just wrapped up in Las Vegas and one of the main themes was 3D video coming to home televisions. Along with this, the big movie Avatar is being shown in many locations in 3D.

While 3D adoption will grow, there are some problems such as having to wear silly glasses and the “depth of field”.

Depth of Field Problem

About 20% of the people I know who saw Avatar in 3D said that they felt nauseous or got a headache. This is primary due to a “depth of field” problem.

When you look at a close up object in the real world, you focus on it and things in the background are out of focus. You then look at something far away and then can focus on that clearly.

In 2D movies, the camera focuses on what is important and other items are out of focus, especially when there is a wide depth of field.

In 3D movies, our eyes expect to be able to look at an out-of-focus area and have it come into focus, just like in real life. But if it was shot out of focus, this is impossible. Further, the shallower the depth of field (meaning the more that the foreground and background are both in focus) the more cartoonish a video can look. This is a reason that cartoons, because they have no depth of field, work great with 3D.

An article at Shadow Locked explains How to avoid getting a 3D headache while watching Avatar. You have to look at what is in focus. See picture:

3D Does Work in Many Cases

For cartoons and sports, we do not expect to see a depth of field. And typically James Cameron shot Avatar with little depth of field. But, to the extent that depth of field is an important tool for movies, it will limit adoption of 3D movies for many people.

Harmony Remote Favorite Channel Icon Image

Robert — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 22:17:52 +0000

If you’ve got a recent harmony remote such as the Harmony One and have hard to remember 3 or 4 digit TV channels, setting up favorites can be very useful. Then you just have to select the channel on the remote and the right numbers are sent. To make things even prettier, you can define icons for each channel.

A great place to download icons is iconharmony.com. The interface is a little strange but you can search for each channel icon image you want and select it. Once you have selected each image you want, you can download them all in one zip file. You use the logitech harmony remote software to define your favorite channels and browse files to assign the icons.

Buying a Home Theater Projector

Rick — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:12:29 +0000

Why you should buy a home theater projector

Screen size. For the ultimate large screen (100+ inch) theater experience, a front projector is the only solution under $80,000. There are large LCD, Plasma, and rear-projector televisions, but none over 100 inches that can practically be purchased or fit through your door.

Why you should not buy a projector

Lighting. Ambient light from windows and lamps immediately washes out a projector’s colors and dark details. To have a proper picture with correct colors and darks, you need to be able to completely control the light in that room, for example, by having heavy drapes on the windows. This creates a theater environment but can be impractical for casual viewing.
Installation. Projectors need to be mounted properly and focused so that there are no distortions. A screen also needs to be installed for best picture quality.
Maintenance. Projector bulbs need to be replaced every year or two, depending on usage and bulb life. Some projectors also need to be vacuumed for dust periodically.
Noise. Fan noise can be loud and irritating on some models.

Researching a projector

ProjectorReviews.com by Art Feierman. Art has by far the most in-depth reviews of home theater projectors. People in forums anxiously await his reviews and refer to him when making arguments for projectors. Manufacturers sometimes send him test units prior to producing projectors. His daughter helps with the photographs and his friend Mike helps with calibrations.
AVS Forum’s Projector’s Under $3000 page. As with other home theater gear, AVS Forum has intelligent discussions of projectors by shoppers and owners of the equipment. They also have forums on projector screens and making your own DIY screens to save money.
Projector Central. Not as detailed as ProjectorReviews.com, but another resource for reviews.

Some things to consider

1080P versus 720P resolution. Three years ago, 720P resolution was much cheaper than 1080P. But as with LCD TVs, projector manufacturers are putting all their effort into 1080P which can be purchased now for $1000.
Brightness. Ambient light in the room can be somewhat compensated for by a brighter projector.
Noise. If you are sitting close to the projector, you will want one that is relatively quiet, below 30db.
Bulb replacement. Look at replacement bulb costs as well as how many hours of life you can expect for a bulb.

My current favorite

A TV is a personal choice depending on your needs, room environment, and budget. My favorite at the moment is the Epson Home Cinema 8100 (see a review at ProjectorReviews.com) because it has:

Brightness while maintaining good colors. Many other projector’s brightest mode will create much poorer colors.
Shadow detail better than cheaper 1080P projectors.
Quietness. 27db or less. Cheaper 1080P projectors such as the Optima HD20 and Vivitek 1800 are significantly louder. Panasonic makes quieter projectors, but they are not as bright as this Epson.
Good warranty and long bulb life. Epson is easy to work with if you need a repair.

Runner-up

I also recommend the Mitsubishi HC3800. It uses DLP technology instead of the Epson’s LCD, which leads to these trade-off’s: Pros: great colors, smaller body. Cons: louder fan, minor rainbow effect which some people notice and some don’t (caused by the DLP’s spinning color wheel).

Where to buy

As with other electronics, there are better deals if you shop online instead of going to Best Buy. I usually start at Amazon, but there are many online stores that will provide competitive pricing.

Wireless Video Sent to a Second Room

Robert — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:57:09 +0000

It is common for a household to have their DVR in their living room. But how can you watch your recorded shows in another room? If you’ve got Tivo, you can transfer some allowed shows between tivos but that requires paying for a second tivo and hence a second monthly fee. A cheaper alternative is to send the video wirelessly to another room. The RF-Link AVS-5811 Audio and Video Transmission System is a cheap one time purchase alternative to having to pay for an extra tivo, cable box, or satellite box.

There have been wireless video systems in the past similar to this that just never worked very well. This system improves upon those in 2 ways. It has an IR repeater so you can bring your tivo remote in the other room and this catches the signal and sends it back to the tivo so it is like you have the box in the room. Without that, you’d have to run back and forth changing shows. The second improvement is that it operates at the currently less crowded 5.8GHz. That gives it more of a chance to have less interference and hence a clearer picture.

There are a few downsides. This is not HD. It uses old standard RCA connections. However, if you send a widescreen picture over it and then set your TV to display in wide mode, the aspect ratio will look correct. The end result can be a good looking picture that just looks a little fuzzier than HD. If picture quality is less important in your secondary room, then this is the ideal option. The biggest possible downside is if you can actually get it to work or not.

The Amazon reviews show that plenty of people can get it to work but there are definitely situations that it won’t perform well. The biggest factors are how many walls it has to go through and how far away it is. Generally speaking, the further it has to go wirelessly, the less likely it will be to work well. When it starts to underperform, you’ll see lines over the video as well as audio distortions or pops. I recently set this up for a customer sending the signal about 20 feet through 3 walls. It took about 15 minutes to adjust the directional antennas just right but we eventually got to a point with no audio or video distortions. Now this customer simply brings their tivo remote into the second room and they’ve got access to the same shows they would in their living room.

Dish’s DTVPal DVR for Over-The-Air HD TV

Rick — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:11:01 +0000

Dish, the satellite people, sell the DTVPal DVR, a small box that is a digital video recorder (DVR) similar to TiVo. But this box only works with digital over-the-air TV. It gets its guide information for free digitally over-the-air as well. Therefore, unlike TiVo, it has no monthly fee. It costs $300 but is currently being sold with a $50 instant discount.

If you don’t need a cable tuner, this is a great alternative to TiVo. And if you mainly watch over-the-air programming such as NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, then you can consider ditching cable or satellite for the DTVPal.

Dish subscribers will see that the DTVPal DVR’s Program Guide is the same as that in Dish’s satellite boxes:

When we purchased this box, it was clear that the Dish company is still setup to only deal with satellite sales. We got an email welcoming us as a Dish subscriber and referencing their satellite offerings. We even got a service bill for $12.95. After calling Dish, we found out that this was actually just the tax due on the purchase of the box. But the bill made it look like we were Dish satellite subscribers.

Despite those annoyances, this is a great box that makes your television viewing more productive by allowing you to time shift your TV shows.

Rural Virginia HD Antenna Installation

Rick — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:46:10 +0000

We recently helped a local farm near Leesburg, Virginia, setup a Wineguard HD 8200U High Defintion Platinum VHF/UHF/FM Antenna. This is a massive 17 foot antenna. It’s size allowed it to pull in all the available digital television signals with a strong signal.

Best TV Antenna For DC Metro

Rick — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:37:42 +0000

At Tech DC we have helped many people set up their TVs with antennas for digital over-the-air TV. This is a great way to get high quality digital programming without a cable or satellite bill.

Channels Available

Washington DC is mainly in the UHF spectrum, but channel 7 (ABC) is in VHF so an antenna should work for both UHF and VHF. This is a channel list for Washington DC from antennaweb.org, a great site for determining what kind of channels you receive and how far and what direction the towers are located.

Try An Old Antenna

We have experimented with many different types of antennas. If you have an old antenna, definitely give that a try before buying something new. Generally, you want an antenna to have as good a line-of-sight to the towers as possible, meaning that placement near a window can help. Rooftop or attic antennas are great. Old antennas capture the same spectrum (UHF & VHF) as is needed for digital TV, so don’t be fooled into thinking that you need a digital antenna. The antennas the same.

Digital TV Requires A Good Signal

The tuning difference between digital and analog is only that digital is less forgiving if you have a poor signal. With a poor analog signal, the image is snowy but still viewable. Digital signals will become jaggy and then quickly black out to nothing. This means that sometimes a better antenna is needed for a stronger signal in order for digital to work.

Best Antenna for DC Metro

Our favorite TV antenna for people in the DC metro area is the Winegard SS-3000 Amplified Indoor UHF/VHF Antenna. This antenna picks up a solid signal in most locations that we have tried it. Still, you need to be careful with placement and spend time determining the best position using your tuner’s signal strength meter.

Grandma Dealing With Digital TV Transition

Rick — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:03:02 +0000

In honor of today’s shut-off of analog over-the-air TV, we’re posting a link to this humorous video showing the difficulties of the digital transition.