Re: Going HD with Charter - round 4, the sucking
- From: "Jim" <jimmy AT hotmail.com>
- Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:42:45 -0500
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Charter-Gets-Cable-Operator-Of-The-Year-Honors-90181
I think you would agree with the 'Really?' part.....
"JXStern" <JXSternChangeX2R@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7ni1m3hcorjmnapdqalhta8fqugufns4ou@xxxxxxxxxx
OK, Charter guys came out Monday and put in a box and DVR at my
parents house. DVR was not knowingly requested - for that matter,
it's not clear that the install was even knowingly requested, my Dad
had called in to ask some questions, and next thing we know there's an
appointment set up. OK, that's where we were going, anyway, but
especially talking to an older man, unless that DVR is free, there has
been some miscommunication.
But that's not why I called.
I finally got down there today to see wassup.
Box takes the cable, connects to the Sony 32S3000 via component
cables. OK, right? Wrong. We'll get to that. I mean, it works, but
the results are poor.
Bottom line: image quality sucks, I presume it's the cheapo decoder
that gets used instead of the Sony's own.
For the first week, Mom and Dad were watching analog signals in
stretch mode, and it looked pretty good to them, and frankly, to me.
Nice clean analog signals, and the Sony handled them pretty well.
Now, note that carefully: the SONY handled them prettty well. See
where this is going?
I paid a premium to buy the Sony - actually, got one for myself, I've
been running purely OTA, and another for the folks, running on
Charter. I've been *very* happy with the quality of the OTA images on
the digital and HD stations.
Now I've seen the quality of the HD images on the same set on Charter
cable and - they suck. You know just how they suck? The same way a
Vizio sucks sitting next to a Sony. Cheap decoding, I expect. I know
the Sony can do better, so it must be the tuner/decoder in the Charter
box, or an overcompressed signal, or ... whatever. Completely wastes
so much of the nice work Sony does. I suppose I can try fiddling the
color and gamma and whatnot, that should work even on the component
inputs, right? Well, we'll see. And as for the other channels, I
cannot even tell if they are now coming in digital or analog, but they
seem fuzzier than the analog when it came right into the TV! I think
they are digital, but again, the image quality is terrible. Mom says
she prefers the old analog in stretch mode, and I believe she has a
strong case.
Here's another thing. The cable box effectively lies to the TV, even
when the program is 4:3 digital, the TV reads it as 16:9 1080i. So
you can stretch it on the cable box or on the tv - or on both, not a
good idea. But, the box menu system to switch wide mode sucks, so I'd
rather leave the box on normal, and stretch it in the TV. Why not
just leave the box in wide mode? Because even if you switch to an HD
channel, it doesn't know to switch OUT Of wide mode! Stupid box.
I may have garbled some of this, and if color adjustments manage to
return clarity to the image, I'll owe Charter an apology. But right
now we're ready to pull it right back out, and the advice would seem
to be, if you buy a premium HDTV, Charter is not going to be an
adequate supplier of signal.
(If we switch back (Mom still needs cable for the Food Channel) I'll
want to add an OTA signal for HD, and I'll have to see if the Sony is
after all smart enough to remember one set of channels on cable
setting and another on antenna setting, using the coax switch the
manual shows - since when you switch between cable and antenna
settings, it seems to go right back into search mode, 30 minutes down
the drain.)
(Could also try Dish or FIOS, but don't they do just the same kind of
thing?)
J.
ps - doesn't anybody anywhere know how to design a remote control
following anything like ergonomic rules for the buttons and protocols?
Even the Sony's own control is really mediocre, when I rated it during
the product registration process I think I said it was OK, but I
didn't realize how often you have to hit tiny buttons and page through
multistate menus in two seconds and preferably with two hands. The
Charter cable box control looks like it controls the space shuttle.
The menu system isn't really so bad, just ugly, compared to the Sony's
menu system that uses xbox styles. But this rant is officially about
signal quality only.
.
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