First Thoughts on Comcast HDTV
Yesterday evening, I brought home my new HDTV-capable digital cable box from Comcast. I have not by any means played wit it enough to post a complete review, but I can certainly relate my first impressions.
The box itself is tremendously higher quality than the standard digital cable box I had. To be fair, my other box was several years old, and newer boxes may be better. The picture quality is better (and not only on the HDTV channels). The HDTV capable box has component video out, S-video out, digital and analog audio out (and it decodes Dolby Digital sound for programs and networks that offer it).
There is a Firewire port (which I have not been able to test whether or not it is active, I left my cable at work) and two USB ports (which I cannot think of a use for, yet). Hopefully, I can connect my Powerbook to the Firewire port and capture video, as if it were a video camera. (Especially with the new iMovie 5 capable of capturing and editing HD content)
The picture quality of the HD stations is, as expected, stellar. I had no idea my TV was capable of such a display. However, Comcast seemingly has bandwidth problems in my area, as HD content is subject to pauses, skips, jumps, and a rather amazing selection of hiccups. This is not acceptable, but does not seem to affect the other digital channels.
Normal format commercials, when displayed on an HDTV channel, are displayed with black bars on the left and right (which, since I have a normal format HDTV, means I have bars around all four sides, and I get a “mini-picture”). But who wants to see commercials anyway? What is more odd is that the left and right edges of these commercials are distinctly NOT vertical. It’s kind of a wavy line that is pretty obvious. I have no idea where the error is (my TV, the cable box, Comcast, or the broadcaster), but again, it only affects normal format broadcasts on a widescreen channel. The picture itself is not wavy, just the black bar. I’ll try to post a digital picture later.
The HDTV box has the exact same, equally crappy on screen display when you change channels. You still cannot turn it off.
My television’s picture in picture feature does not work when I am using the component (HDTV box) or S-Video (TiVo) inputs.
For the first time, I am tempted to run not only my audio, but also my picture through my tuner. It will greatly simplify the process of switching from cable to TiVo and back. I used to watch everything through my TiVo… but with picture quality like this? No more.
The quality of my TiVo display is dramatically improved when using S-video in and out (not an option I had with my other cable box). But not nearly as good as without having the TiVo in line.
It’s not just the clarity that is better on HDTV broadcasts. HD seems to have a much wider color spectrum, giving you a more contrasty iamge, with more realistic colors.
There is nothing in the world keeping me from TiVo-ing an HDTV channel, although the playback will, of course, be normal TiVo quality. I have done it, and it works great. As a matter of fact, it does actually look better than recording standard channels. Higher quality input leads to higher quality recordings… duh.
There really needs to be some agreement on what format people are going to broadcast in. Some commercials are widescreen, some are not. Some shows are widescreen, some are not. Doesn’t sound like a big deal until you realize how much picture (in some cases) is being cut off. I just saw a commercial for “Coach Carter” where the title of the film was only half visible on the final screen of the commercial. I watched the last few minutes of the conclusion of “The Rebel Billionaire” (oh, shut up, I was looking at the island scenery in HD) and the watermark in the lower right was so cut off, I could only see the “F” in “Fox.” It ran WAY off the right side of the screen.
In summary, the box is cool, it ups the quality of my TiVo recording dramatically, and the HD picture is incredible. There are some glitches, and there are not enough HD channels. In particular, I’d love to see SciFi, History Channel, and TLC in HD. For only $5 a month, it’ll be worth it just to watch sports, and the occasional Fox broadcast (can anyone say “24″) that has full support for HD and 5.1 Dolby Digital surround.
Four stars (out of five). Room for improvement.