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July 24, 2009

Fallout from the Cable Wars in Philly

Jim Smith of Elkins Park,PA gives his opinions in the Philidelphia Daily News of the cable battles that are occuring in his area. IS IT MY imagination or is every other commercial on TV (or radio or in newsprint) sponsored by one of the dueling monopolies, FiOS or Comcast?  It’s hard to believe that they can [...]

Jim Smith of Elkins Park,PA gives his opinions in the Philidelphia Daily News of the cable battles that are occuring in his area.

IS IT MY imagination or is every other commercial on TV (or radio or in newsprint) sponsored by one of the dueling monopolies, FiOS or Comcast?  It’s hard to believe that they can afford that much advertising. Of course, if you have a near monopoly, you can bleed all the suckers you’ve already hooked.

The Federal Communications Commission goes ballistic over a small breast being exposed for four seconds from 75 yards away. But the agency does nothing about escalating cable/Internet/phone costs.  I’d love to see the paper trail showing the role of lobbyist money in the switch to digital TV. That was a giant stimulus package for Verizon and Comcast. And I’m totally sick of the FiOS cable guy, Ben Stein and Shaq.

Great rant Jim.  The truth of the matter is that the cable mafia would LOVE if the FCC stepped in and limited their advertising the same way they did with the tobacco companies back in the 60s.  It would keep the playing field level and the executives could pocket all of the money they would save on advertising.

Keep it real & DVR through their commercials.  They have no way to overcome that technology (-;

June 11, 2009

Verizon Accuses Comcast of False Advertising

…and hit them with a “cease and desist” letter.  Read the details at Philly.com Verizon says that Comcast’s ad claimimng that ”a comparable triple-play bundle of TV, phone and Internet service from Verizon can cost $400 more a year, after promotions expire, than one from Comcast” is outright false and Verizon would challenge the advertisements’ truthfulness [...]

…and hit them with a “cease and desist” letter.  Read the details at Philly.com

Verizon says that Comcast’s ad claimimng that ”a comparable triple-play bundle of TV, phone and Internet service from Verizon can cost $400 more a year, after promotions expire, than one from Comcast” is outright false and Verizon would challenge the advertisements’ truthfulness through the National Advertising Division of the Councils of Better Business Bureaus if Comcast failed to change them.

Comcast responded with the “They did it first!” defense.

Regardless of all of this BS, remember that this is nothing more than SMOKE & MIRRORS.  There is no real competition between these companies.  The higher-ups of all of these companies colluded long ago against the consumers that they will not compete on price!  That would eat into their profits.  It’s all about market share now.

The only way to bust their model is to CUT-THE-CABLE, (and have a nice day!)

April 14, 2009

April 8, 2009

Comcast Reduces HD Quality to Cram in More Channels

See the detailed proof and picture quality comparison between FiOS and Comcast at AVSForum Forum member BFDTV has been conducting a detailed and intense comparison of HDTV signals being broadcast by various companies, Comcast and Verizon included.  His study continues and all of his findings along with the details and sources are included. Here is [...]

See the detailed proof and picture quality comparison between FiOS and Comcast at AVSForum

Forum member BFDTV has been conducting a detailed and intense comparison of HDTV signals being broadcast by various companies, Comcast and Verizon included.  His study continues and all of his findings along with the details and sources are included.

Here is one example…you be the judge:

FiOS - Red Hot Chilli Peppers Live on MHD

FiOS - Red Hot Chilli Peppers Live on MHD

 

ComCrap - Red Hot Chili Peppers Live on MHD

ComCrap - Red Hot Chili Peppers Live on MHD

There are pleanty more examples availble.  For those of you that have been on Twitter or other forums complaining about pixelation and the overall Comcast signal quality…IT MAY NOT BE THE SIGNAL AT ALL!!!  It may be the result of Comcast OVER COMPRESSING certain channels so that they can fit more garbage channels into their lineup.

Here is a sample of the SIZE of the signal being sent down the pipe by these two carriers.  The difference in size directly translates to picture quality.

                                            FiOS          Comcast           Difference

AETV HD                                18.66 Mbps      14.48 Mbps           -28.9%
Discovery HD                       14.16 Mbps      10.43 Mbps           -35.8%
Discovery HD Theater      17.45 Mbps      12.60 Mbps           -38.5%
Food Network HD               14.32 Mbps      13.73 Mbps            -4.3%
HGTV HD                                14.76 Mbps      12.43 Mbps           -18.7%
MHD                                          17.73 Mbps      13.21 Mbps           -34.2%
National Geographic HD   13.40 Mbps      11.92 Mbps           -12.4%
Universal HD                         12.72 Mbps      11.01 Mbps           -15.5%

HBO HD                                     8.87 Mbps       8.81 Mbps           -0.7%
Cinemax HD                          11.40 Mbps      10.77 Mbps            -5.8%
Starz HD                                  11.93 Mbps       9.76 Mbps           -22.2%

BFDTV comments, “The greatest differences are seen with movement. With slow movement on Comcast, the first thing you notice is added noise and a softer image, as fine detail is filtered from the picture signal. The greater the rate of movement, the more detail you lose and the more noise you see. With intense movement, you see more blocking and skipped frames. In VideoRedo, I noticed that a number of frames in the FiOS signal simply did not exist in the Comcast signal during motion intensive scenes. This may be responsible for the stutter and excessive motion blur seen with some video sequences on Comcast.”

…and the saga continues.  Remeber all of the money you spent on that nice wall mounted HDTV set?  Here’s an idea, take the money you are throwing away on Comcast and build up your BLURAY disc collection!  (-;

April 7, 2009

Comcast & Sprint: A Marriage Made in Hell

How can 1+1=0?  See the Business Insider to find out. Speculation of Comcast buying Sprint heats up after Comcast CEO Brian Roberts spoke at a cable show in Washington D.C. on 4/1/09. “Wireless is a conundrum for the cable industry”  Conundrum..interesting!  Kinda like “how do you make cable wireless?” “AT&T and Verizon are not the elephants [...]

How can 1+1=0?  See the Business Insider to find out.

Speculation of Comcast buying Sprint heats up after Comcast CEO Brian Roberts spoke at a cable show in Washington D.C. on 4/1/09.

  • “Wireless is a conundrum for the cable industry”  Conundrum..interesting!  Kinda like “how do you make cable wireless?”
  • “AT&T and Verizon are not the elephants in the room, they’re the super elephants, They’ve got all the market share, and it’s going to be a tough road to hoe” If they are the ‘Super Elephants’ then you must be JABBA THE HUTT.  Quote from JTH: “This bounty hunter is my kind of scum: fearless and inventive.”
  • “Putting a bunch of us in a company with the benefit of Sprint and their infrastructure felt like an interesting road for us to go into” Hey!  There’s an idea.  Let’s BUY a company with an infrastructure that actually…WORKS!
  • Roberts also avoided a clear answer to the question as to whether Clearwire was Comcast’s sole wireless strategy, indicating that Comcast’s “current” focus was making Clearwire successful. Hmmmm, I can’t image anyone from Comcast avoiding a clear answer to a queston (-;  It appears that Comcast’s Customer Service takes their marching orders right from the top!

March 31, 2009

Jim Cramer of “Mad Money” Doesn’t Like Comcast

Filed under: CMCSK — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 6:12 pm
We agree that Comcast SUCKS.  Read this portion of he MAD MONEY broadcast on 3/30/09 at WallStreetPit “I am recommending no cable companies. I was hoping that Apollo would not get Charter. And Comcast the would get their teeth into it. I don’t like this titanic battle between Fios and Comcast. I just think that [...]

We agree that Comcast SUCKS.  Read this portion of he MAD MONEY broadcast on 3/30/09 at WallStreetPit

“I am recommending no cable companies. I was hoping that Apollo would not get Charter. And Comcast the would get their teeth into it. I don’t like this titanic battle between Fios and Comcast. I just think that Comcast is inexpensive but I can’t think of a catalyst to buy it. So, in other words I say, I got better fish to fry. Better cable companies too. Wow that’s mean. No, I don’t mean it.”

Sure you meant it Jim, and for good reason too.  BOOYA!

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