Adelphia

[fourizonly]

Hi,

Anyone here with Adelphia in So. Cal? I currently have analog cable and I'm thinking about purchasing a Panasonic PT-53WX53.

I was wondering if I'll get better picture quality with Direct TV or Adelphia's Digital Cable? Read the FAQ and it seems the preference is 50/50.

Anyone has first hand experience? Thanks.

[mikehbkwm]

fourizonly welcome to the forum.. I work for a cable co. I have also worked for Direct and Dish... Ill honestly give you an unbiased opinion... If your cable co. where your at has rebuilt there entire system and depending on how well there headend is and how much compression they use for their digital cable it will look better then small dish... Again it depends on if you cable system is rebuilt and if all those channels they are pulling off of the C-Band sats are being reproduced well. IFFFF not then small dish would work for you fine and the PQ is good. The only reason cable can look better on the digital side is that its not being reproduced twice like small dish is..................

[fourizonly]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply. I've always enjoyed your posts and I've learned much. Is there anyway I can check with Adelphia and inquire if they had rebuilt there entire system, and how well there headend is and how much compression they use for their digital cable?

The local office is less than 2 mins from my work, but I'm hesitant to go there and ask any question. I've inquired about Adelphia HD and they don't have any clue? Thanks.

[mikehbkwm]

well id call their customer service and ask those same questions. ask them are you running on a 750mhz system how many digital channels are you putting into one analog channel... if that person cant answer that then ask for a tech who can answer that over the phone. if that person cant answer that then email their ecommerce dept. if all else fails and they dont know then dont mess with them. go with small dish because most reps from a cable co. should be able to answer a ? like that ............

The way that i can best explain it to you is Cable is just a huge ext off of C-Band.... The C-band sats. are where mostly all your programming comes from and cable just takes that signal and sends it out to their customers. Just like a actual C-Band subscriber has a big dish in their yard and the programming is sent to their receiver and to the TV etc. The problem I have with small dish is they receive the programming just like cable does butttt they then uplink it back up to their own sats and send it back down to their customers...... kinda like a 2nd process and they also compress their channels alot more then some cable co. do...... The cable co. I work for puts about 6-8 digital channels to one analog channel which is really nice because then the PQ is a little better then if we were putting 12 digital channels into 1 analog channel.............

[fourizonly]

Mike,

Just called Adelphia and the customer rep couldn't answer if they are running on a 750mhz system. He did tell me the digital channel is compressed 12 times, so I guess they are putting 12 digital channels into 1 analog channel.

Well, Adelphia HD won't be available in my area until later this year. Maybe I should just wait for HD. Thanks.

[mikehbkwm]

hey no prob... if your wanting HD and theyll offer it Id maybe wait till the end of the year. again if you wanna go with small dish then go that route aint nothing wrong with it.........

[chadJ99]

I'm in OC and...
I just got hooked up as a beta tester for Adelphias HD service on Fri (8/8/03). My impressions so far is that is is great. The Moto5100 box only has a few "quirks", but all are minor.

1. Volume on HD channels is quite a bit lower then the reg channels, so it can be "shocking' to switch from an HD channel to a regular one.

2. I have noticed a few times that when switching from 971 (SHO-HD) to channel 2 using the CH+ button (971 is the highest channel #). The box sometimes skips channel 2 and tunes in channel 3, it does this while is seems to be "switching modes" from the HD tuner to teh reg. tuner.


Other then those minor things I've had a great experience so far.

As for the channels, currenly I have NBS< ABC< PBS< HBO<SHO for the digital / HD feed. They told me they plan to add CBS soon, but no info about ESPN HD.



Chad
TOSHIBA 34hdx82

[fourizonly]

Hi Chad,

Thanks for the reply. I'm in Diamond Bar and HD won't be available until end of this year. :mad:

[chadJ99]

For whart it's worth, they Adelphia folks told me they were "trying" to get HD service up for everyone in the OCT/NOV timeframe.

[ppsstt]

I live in LA and called Adelphia to find out my availability. They told me that I'd have to buy the digital box for about $500-$600. Is that true? I was thinking that it would be a rental type thing.

[57U]

Some cable companies rent, others make you purchase the STB. With the financial situation at Adelphia, I'm not surprised they make you buy the unit.

[chadJ99]

From what I've heard Adelphia is "renting" the boxes. I believe it will be $9.95 a month for the service when it starts. I spoke to a CS rep on the phone (becuase my first bill with the "FREE-trial HDTV" service was screwed up) and they said that because I have the "advantage package" (with digital everything, all movie channels + internet serive, currenlty $101.63 mo.) that my bill will only go up $3.00 if I "switch out" my current regular digital box for the HD one, (that is a $9.95 rental on the HD box vs. $6.95 for hte regular digital one)

Or my bill will go up $9.95 a month if I keep both the digital box and the HD box, with is what I'm doing now during the HD trial.


It seems pretty resonable when compaired to HD with a Sat provider, since basically I'm paying $65mo for HD cable service and $40mo for high-speed internet access.


And again to report, so far I have not had any problems with the HD box, other then the occasional channel skipping I mentioned before when switching some channels. HD programs look awesome, and 5.1 sound with reg and HD movies and shows is great. (The 5.1 is really important to note, since Adelphia's "regular" digital cable box DOES NOT have a 5.1 audio out)

[SephirothX]

The only difference between HDTV cable and non-HDTV cable is in the converter box. They are renting to you Motorola DCT2000 for $3.50 a month and for HDTV they are renting Motorola DCT5100 for $10. Difference is $6.50 per month. 5.1 audio can be achieved only through digital cables and outputs. DCT2000 doesn't have digital analog or coax outputs which means you can't have 5.1 sounds no matter what. All in all, getting DCT5100 is preferable.