2008 and the Coffee Pot is still on and over 3 years. Here we gather as friends with trains. Sweet ice tea too.

[Anonymous]

Why would you down convert an HD signal? I have a 1080i HD TV and the difference is night and day between Comcast and DirecTV. Comcast's compression rate is higher than DirecTV, that is why it isn't as clear. About the same as going from Composite Video to DVI. FiOS doesn't have to compress their signal because they have more than enough capacity on their fibre network.

The only way you can do a side-by-side comparison is to have all three signals coming into your house at one time. When I was living in Pittsburgh I was able to get both Comcast and DirecTV at the same time and was able to switch between the two, there is a huge difference. I haven't seen FiOS, but my BiL just had it installed (over Comcast) and he rants and raves about its clarity and sound.

Brent, 

Yours is the best explanation yet for a guy like me.  If I understand you, signal compression (less is better) and available bandwith or available capacity (more is better) from the source drive the picture quality to your house.  No, yes, maybe?

I also heard HD broadcast (decent rooftop antenna within a reasonable distance from the broadcast tower) matches or beats them all for signal quality, though channel selection is limited to what we old guys remember as VHF and UHF broadcast channels.  ABC is a broadcast channel.  HBO is a cable channel.

Have I got that right?

Jack 

By George (Jack) I think he's got it!

The off-air broadcasts are never compressed. They have no need to do so. In my area, depending on which antennae I were to buy, I would get somewhere around 20 off-air HD broadcasts, but they are all network broadcasts. I have contemplated doing this so I could get the Baltimore channels, Harrisburg channels, and York channels. But really only for the Baltimore channels.

John,
The signals are never down converted (conversion is changing the singal from one protocol to another - HD would have to be down converted to Standard Def, and that simply is not done by either Comcast or DirecTV). They do however compress the signal (digital signals can be compressed - much like windows files can be zipped - to save space). The more a signal is compressed the more pixelated the picture becomes, and the worse the sound quality becomes. DirecTV does not have to compress the signal at all because the signal is being transmitted via open air, this is why their dishes are only capable of supporting 5 signals (rooms) at a time. Comcast has been compressing signals for years, as do all cable companies, because their infrastructure simply can not support all the channels and extra BS (on demand, pay per view, phone, internet, etc) they are trying to put through the cabling. FiOS does not have these problems because it is Fibre from source to your device, cable uses Fibre to get to your home, but then converts over to copper core - which can not support the bandwidth that Fibre can.

[sir james I]

Good morning

We have brite sun this morning but temp is only going to 31. I'm a little sore from running up and down stairs and snow removal yesterday. I think I will take some Motrin with me to the train show tomorrow.Long day. I'm going to do more cleaning today and just take the rest of the day as it comes. Tv's hmmm I was around when a 10 inch b&w was considered big then we had 12,17,21, and wow 27 inch tvs.then real color so todays tvs are great but I was happy with my 32 inch crt until as you know lighting took it away from me. Enjoy your saturday,,S.J.

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill....

It is a cloudy 30 degrees. Going up to only 32 today, with light snow. It has been raining and then snowing.

Buckeye...Buckeye...You are either up late, or up early today. All excited about your new toy coming. Huh ??

Today is a busy day. Lots of chores to do and usual daily tasks. I may work on the layout later, this afternoon. I'll need to relax.

Nascar race today and tomorrow from Nevada.

Dining car is here. Stopped at Buckeye's and he cleaned out all the donuts. Plenty left. Breakfast and then it's off to " points west ".

Y'all have a great Saturday.

Chuck

Dinning car raids .......  I never thought of that.  Reminds me of Butch and Sundance.

Trying to get all the GRITS you can.

There are NO grits served on the OTTS Railroad Dining car.

TooTs

[cnw1995]

Morning all. Just back from IHOP for breakfast with the guys. Did a few errands too - nothing finer than running around town at 6 am with no traffic. Now to vacumn the house and chip ice outside - the bride isn't feeling well and the youngest wasn't feeling well too so I'll probably stay around to keep an eye on them. Hope to run trains later.

We are laggards in the hi-tech world with Comcast for just the over the air channels - it's gone up nearly 100% over the past five years - used to be $11 a month, now $20. Funny, I've probably paid thousands of bucks renting the set-top box over the years - it's from let's see three, no, four cable cos. ago. Still works. I would love to get an antenna again. ATT isn't bad for Internet and phone...though we don't nearly use the home phone like we used to...I keep it for the number and emergencies - and talking to you guys!

I was telling the kids the other day about having one phone, no call waiting, no ans. machine; no computer, and one b/w TV, no remote, 5 channels. LOL. Those were the days!

[fifedog]

laz - I prefer rib-eye over T-bone.

[laz 57]

HI GIZ,

  Got two inches o snow last nite just got done cleaning off driveways.  Suppose to get to 56 on Monday?

  Ran trains last nite for 2hrs.  NO PILE UPs.  MILLERSBURG YARDS, DAY 4 NO PILE UPS.

  BUCKEYE, Seems like my OLD MIL supply went way low?  Must be that MUTT FIFEDOG, at it again.  Got to throw him a bone every now and then?

  HAPPY MARCH 1st everyone.

  B GOOD or B GONE,

laz57

[fifedog]

Mornin' boys.  Sunny, blustery, and 43 (you can always tell a PETTY fan) here in the Mid-Atlantic region.

mitchie - Sorry 'bout the donuts, mate; grabbed them up for the kids.  FATHER"S DAY is only 3 months away, and trying to get an early start...

88 - If those F-3's were to fall into my clutches, they would wind up looking radically different...

Buckeye - can you scratch behind my ear...?

[mitchelr]

Morning to All,

Good coffee this AM.  Had a bagel for breakfast as all of the donuts were gone

Got some chores to do aound here then heading to Mom & Dad's.  Their church is having a sour beef  and dumpling dinner.  My grandmother always made sour beef (sauerbraten) and dumplings. I just love it and neither my wfe, nor I , or my Mom have perfected her recipe, especailly for the potato dumplings.   She tried to teach me how to make them several times before she passed away, but there was really no recipe that she used, she added a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Have a great day.

Mitch 

[ChiefEagles]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill....

It is a cloudy 30 degrees. Going up to only 32 today, with light snow. It has been raining and then snowing.

Buckeye...Buckeye...You are either up late, or up early today. All excited about your new toy coming. Huh ??

Today is a busy day. Lots of chores to do and usual daily tasks. I may work on the layout later, this afternoon. I'll need to relax.

Nascar race today and tomorrow from Nevada.

Dining car is here. Stopped at Buckeye's and he cleaned out all the donuts. Plenty left. Breakfast and then it's off to " points west ".

Y'all have a great Saturday.

Chuck

Dinning car raids .......  I never thought of that.  Reminds me of Butch and Sundance.

Trying to get all the GRITS you can.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill....

It is a cloudy 30 degrees. Going up to only 32 today, with light snow. It has been raining and then snowing.

Buckeye...Buckeye...You are either up late, or up early today. All excited about your new toy coming. Huh ??

Today is a busy day. Lots of chores to do and usual daily tasks. I may work on the layout later, this afternoon. I'll need to relax.

Nascar race today and tomorrow from Nevada.

Dining car is here. Stopped at Buckeye's and he cleaned out all the donuts. Plenty left. Breakfast and then it's off to " points west ".

Y'all have a great Saturday.

Chuck

Dinning car raids .......  I never thought of that.  Reminds me of Butch and Sundance.

[Blueberryhill RR]

Good Morning from Blueberryhill....

It is a cloudy 30 degrees. Going up to only 32 today, with light snow. It has been raining and then snowing.

Buckeye...Buckeye...You are either up late, or up early today. All excited about your new toy coming. Huh ??

Today is a busy day. Lots of chores to do and usual daily tasks. I may work on the layout later, this afternoon. I'll need to relax.

Nascar race today and tomorrow from Nevada.

Dining car is here. Stopped at Buckeye's and he cleaned out all the donuts. Plenty left. Breakfast and then it's off to " points west ".

Y'all have a great Saturday.

Chuck

[ChiefEagles]

Morning.  Up and going.  Time for breakfast.  Drinking a cup of "room coffee" to get going.  Suppose to be sunny and into the 60's today and tomorrow.  Could be good or could be bad.  Turnout to store may be off if everyone goes fishing and/or works in their yards.  Probably not.  Later

[Buckeye Riveter]

Forum malfunction. 

[Buckeye Riveter]

Chief....I'm already the Mayor of Roger's Corners!  In fact I own the town, too.  Any other suggestions? 

If your charger sales were hot, then that can only mean one thing; the fish are biting! Yea!

Speaking of fishing, we are looking at two places in Michigan for this summer/fall trip.  Needless to say with gas prices and the exchange rate, trips to rustic cabins in Canada have increased drastically.  Of course it is our elected officials fault for this dramatic increase.  Rascals like the Chief manipulate the Federal Reserve against us poor folks in Roger's Corners everyday.  Haven't you ever wondered why the Chief carries that laptop with him everywhere he travels? He is setting gas prices and the exchange rate!

Less than three hours and Time Warner is toast.  I just might sit my butt if front of the tube the rest of the day with hot adult beverages and watch railroad show after railroad show.  Remember, I  went to dish in order to get my professional development hours for liscense renewal.  I am sure they will let me count "HOBO HEAVEN" and "GREEN LIGHT ON THE SOUTHERN" for liscense renewal, especially the State of West Virginia.  It might be a stretch for Michigan.

Have a good day everyone.  Nice doggy, nice doggy......Down fife, down!!   Laz, have you been giving the forum mutt more of that Old Milwaukee again? 

[johnandjulie13]

Why would you down convert an HD signal? I have a 1080i HD TV and the difference is night and day between Comcast and DirecTV. Comcast's compression rate is higher than DirecTV, that is why it isn't as clear. About the same as going from Composite Video to DVI. FiOS doesn't have to compress their signal because they have more than enough capacity on their fibre network.

Hello Brent:

I wouldn't down convert the signal but both DirectTV and the cable companies will down convert signals to save bandwidth.  In addition, networks will also downconvert for the same reason.  When viewing both DirectTV and Comcast on two televisions (both 1920 x 1080p), side by side, via HDMI, I see no difference in the quality.  However, it may be the case that Comcast is compressing the video more regularly or my eyes are just not as good as yours.

I think Direct TV is great, but in our area, if it gets too cloudy (let alone rainy), my neighbors complain about a signal loss.

As far as customer service, they are both awful.

I have not seen FiOS available in the Chicago Metro area. You have me intrigued.  Of course, it was not that long ago that cable companies were touting the size of their pipe.  But that has gotten filled pretty rapidly.

Regards,

John

[Brutus]

Chief, was that cash on the barrel head or did you let them charge it? 

Ended up doing another day of training mostly, although I did get a bad case done and gone.  Highway was shut down by an accident this morning, adding to the fun.  Then out to eat with family and now trying to get kids motivating toward bed.  Somehow, I got signed up for OT tomorrow, so won't be on very much longer.  Need to make a run to Michigan and swing by to pick up Doug and then Kurt?  Need to order John Bull tomorrow for cheap price at LHS, or might order online... Guess I need to decide soon.  TTFN!

[ChiefEagles]

Time Warner = Three service trips, nothing fixed, poor quality HD, no HD, bad HD cards, bad HD boxes, wrong box, lack of HD, local channel fights, No Big Ten, No Train Shows. 

I checked with four friends in the area who have had DirectTV from two years to two months.  Two have HD.  None of them would go back to TW.  I have seen the HD picture from Direct and it was just as good as Time Warner.  An example, History Channel on TW is not HD, on DirectTV it is HD. 

Bottom line was that Time Warner service was so poor.  Cable outages are commonplace in Roger's Corners.

Suggestion.  Run for Mayor or Town Council.  Got my private number to call for TW.  One flicker and the whole world shows up to check me out.   I guess it is because we control their franchise agreement.  Son had TW, went to dish and back to TW.  Biggest complaints with dish in the South is thunderstorms.  Rains so hard you lose the signal.  Mom's is the same way.

Long day at the store.  Sold more chargers than anyone in the other stores nationwide.    Now for dinner and sleep.  Later

[RockIsland52]

Why would you down convert an HD signal? I have a 1080i HD TV and the difference is night and day between Comcast and DirecTV. Comcast's compression rate is higher than DirecTV, that is why it isn't as clear. About the same as going from Composite Video to DVI. FiOS doesn't have to compress their signal because they have more than enough capacity on their fibre network.

The only way you can do a side-by-side comparison is to have all three signals coming into your house at one time. When I was living in Pittsburgh I was able to get both Comcast and DirecTV at the same time and was able to switch between the two, there is a huge difference. I haven't seen FiOS, but my BiL just had it installed (over Comcast) and he rants and raves about its clarity and sound.

Brent, 

Yours is the best explanation yet for a guy like me.  If I understand you, signal compression (less is better) and available bandwith or available capacity (more is better) from the source drive the picture quality to your house.  No, yes, maybe?

I also heard HD broadcast (decent rooftop antenna within a reasonable distance from the broadcast tower) matches or beats them all for signal quality, though channel selection is limited to what we old guys remember as VHF and UHF broadcast channels.  ABC is a broadcast channel.  HBO is a cable channel.

Have I got that right?

Jack 

[Anonymous]

Why would you down convert an HD signal? I have a 1080i HD TV and the difference is night and day between Comcast and DirecTV. Comcast's compression rate is higher than DirecTV, that is why it isn't as clear. About the same as going from Composite Video to DVI. FiOS doesn't have to compress their signal because they have more than enough capacity on their fibre network.

The only way you can do a side-by-side comparison is to have all three signals coming into your house at one time. When I was living in Pittsburgh I was able to get both Comcast and DirecTV at the same time and was able to switch between the two, there is a huge difference. I haven't seen FiOS, but my BiL just had it installed (over Comcast) and he rants and raves about its clarity and sound.

[sir james I]

GOOD EVENING FOLKS

We began with Comcast with bad attitude employees poor cable service. Then the old AT&T installed fiber optic system and that is now owned by a company Called Wide Open West. 150% better than Comcast. The people in our neighborhood with dishes are all watching the Iran news.No more said about that.

Well I cleaned up todays snow another 2/3 inches very heavy and wet. Also got some cleaning done in the train room,I have run out of storage space. I just got to stop buying this stuff.

I hope everyone has a good weekend,,,,S.J.

I had to edit this. forgot to tell Chewy goodnite.Brutus the freezer has ice cream,theres chips and root beer a few cookis left.and 1 slice of coffee cake.(don't eat that)bring the guys.

[RockIsland52]

FiOS is Verizon's fiberoptic technology, though I don't see why it would be any better than Comcast's.

Verizon has interesting bundling packages for local, long distance, internet, and tv....not sure if cellular is in there somewhere.  Someone else will know more about this than I do.  

Jack 

[johnandjulie13]

I've had DirecTV and Comcast, at one point both at the same time. DirecTV has a much better HD picture than Comcast, but FiOS is better than DirecTV.

In the side by side comparisons I have seen, I have noticed no difference when neither source has been downconverted.

What is FiOS?

Regards,

John

[cheapclassics]

Good evening all,

It is a quiet night in SE Indiana.  Lucas and his girlfriend watched a movie and are heading out to Starbucks.  My wife had a rough day subbing and is resting on the couch.  I went to the YMCA and did weights and track work.  I also did some eBAYing as well.  Work was very busy today, but most of the staff will be out of the office next week so I might be to get some work done.  What a concept!  I hope everyone has a good day.

Keep on training,

Mike C. from Indiana

[rtraincollector]

I have direct tv right now with no complaints to it. My complaint is with AT&T for computor access and telephone my bill is $90.00 a month and I don't make that many long distance calls a month.

[Buckeye Riveter]

Brent...Your outage rate of twice a year was the same thing that my friends told me.  Of course a power outage takes down everything including the dish.   We are seeing more and more homes in our area with dishes.  We went from none on our street to four in just the last six months. 

With all the political commercials on the air, I can't wait to see them in HD.  NOT!!!!  I bet the Texans are just as tired of them as the Buckeyes.

Just talked to the Chief.  He was ripping off someone selling chargers at BP and he wanted me to know that it wasn't snowing.  That Idaho storm has him gun shy of the Northern winters.

[Anonymous]

I've had DirecTV and Comcast, at one point both at the same time. DirecTV has a much better HD picture than Comcast, but FiOS is better than DirecTV. I've had DirecTV for almost 1 year had the only two times it has been out was during an ice storm and a very bad thunder storm (when you shouldn't be watching TV anyway).

DirecTV just announced a price increase due in a month or so. I'm locked in till June so I miss it till then, but it is only going up 10%, which is peanuts when you compare the service I get vs what I would get with Comcast.

As for their sports packages... LOL! I ordered the regional sports networks and the first two games I attempted to watch where blacked out. Called DirecTV and they said they were blacked out in my area because I could get the NHL's Center Ice package... for $164.00 for 1/2 a season. Now excuse me the regional sports package is $10.00 per month... that is $120.00 for the entire year vs $328 for one season of Center Ice, and I only care about watching the Flyers... told them I would pass.

[kpolak]

I almost bought a Harley, once.  But I spent the money on aluminum siding. LOL    ( Just like the commercial ) 

I thought it was a "Killer Dining Room set'.

Slow day today.  More snow.

Kurt

[mitchelr]

Hi Folks,

Not much CTT forum time for me this week. Have had a good week, just busy. Next week is more of the same.

88 - Great video Brent.  You have made so much progress in a short period of time. Sorry but I don't get to hire an IT guy.  They are all hired centrally.  They do have quite a few programmers as they are finding it is better and cheaper to develop DB applications in house than buying licensed apps that you can't modify or pay big $$$ to customize.

Mitch 

 

[johnandjulie13]

Bottom line was that Time Warner service was so poor.  Cable outages are commonplace in Roger's Corners.

We have been fortunate with Comcast.  In almost four years living in our house, we have not had one outage.  The HD quality is stunning.  ESPN, ESPN2, Golfversus, TLC, TNT, TBS, WGN, History, National Geographic, PBS are just some of the HD channels we receive.  However, both Dish Network and Direct TV have a better selection but my neighbors suffer outages at least once a month due to weather conditions.

Regards,

John

[Buckeye Riveter]

Time Warner = Three service trips, nothing fixed, poor quality HD, no HD, bad HD cards, bad HD boxes, wrong box, lack of HD, local channel fights, No Big Ten, No Train Shows. 

I checked with four friends in the area who have had DirectTV from two years to two months.  Two have HD.  None of them would go back to TW.  I have seen the HD picture from Direct and it was just as good as Time Warner.  An example, History Channel on TW is not HD, on DirectTV it is HD. 

Bottom line was that Time Warner service was so poor.  Cable outages are commonplace in Roger's Corners.