f13.net

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008271 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1008271)

I can't wait until I can get fiber internet from Verizon. And they get a new HD sat for Dish network.

If those pictures are real that's pretty dreadful.

In other news they were forced to revisit their bitorrent throttling due to unrelenting pressure from the FCC and congress.

Recently my cable/internet provider sent me a letter, the first paragraph went on at lengths about how committed they are to quality and how much they love me as a customer, so I naturally knew I was about to get screwed over.  Sure enough they have decided to start charging more money if you go over an arbitrary total usage cap.

Firstly, I love AVSforum.

Secondly, content providers will screw quality in favor of profitability every time it's possible. Comcast today, Verizon tomorrow. Whatever.

Thirdly, fuck bittorrent users. Stop stealing stuff and plugging up the tubes.

Bittorrent has nothing to do with this.

They have X bandwidth dedicated to sending TV. They filled alllll that bandwidth up. it's at capacity.

Now, they need to get onto the HD bandwagon but oh no, they have no bandwidth to do it! What do they do? They can't cut a bunch of channels, oh no, they can't do that. Instead, they do surveys to pick a picture quality that is slightly above warm shit, but that is high enough that they won't get too many complaints.

Then, they compress the hell out of their channels until it looks like that picture quality so they can squeeze more crappy looking channels into their already bloated lineup.

The fiber is good.

I'm afraid of FIOS.  I think they might peek at me.   :ye_gods:

I am a dunce when it comes to this stuff (and most other stuff, for that matter), so forgive me if this is a wildly retarded question.

Will the switchover to all digital signals in February 2009 have any effect on this? I have heard that digital signals take up FAR less bandwidth than analog signals. Once the analog signals are gone, that should free up bandwidth for HD, right?

I wonder if I can sue Comcast for lowering the value of my TV? I am stuck with them, since apparently 1 tree > any satellite HD signal known to man. Glad these geniuses aren't running NASA.

My understanding was that was about broadcast only, to free up the radio waves for other things. I suppose however, that does mean no more analog "hard line" feeds as well, all analog is going bye bye.

Most cable companies are already digitizing analog signals to deliver them to you.  You really only get analog with rabbit ears these days.

Yeah, that was what I was afraid of. Ugh.

Every time I hear about this, I think of the bank they built up the street from me, and wonder.   They have their own mini-dish on the 'back' side of the bank, I suppose for internet connection or whatever else a bank might use satelite for.  It's about 24" down from the top of the wall and pointing directly through the bank.

Apparently, the trees are emitting a signal dampening field that clay brick and steel girders do not.  Unlucky for you, Way.

I had FiOS for all of three months before I sold my house, and  I miss it. 

I think I read that the cable companies have agreed to keep sending the old "cable ready" TV signal until 2012.

Fios is barely faster than Cox cable in AZ. There's a reason Verizon doesn't offer it out here.

It's only really faster on the upstream, and even then, only by 50kbps.

Don't say I didn't warn you people about Verizon peeping at you when the feds break in and drag you away for watching porn films involving girls who are only 17 1/2!

The agreement is they have to service analog tv's. They can either continue to offer "straight" analog service or they can give you a converter box to convert digital standard definition to standard analog. After that they can just tell you to throw your analog tv away if they don't want to service it.

But that's kind of irrelevent.

The thing is that there's a large "Ma and Pa Kettle" group out there that doesn't want a converter box period and I'm willing to put money that this has a large crossover with the group who doesn't have a digital tv or even understand what one is. I was on a cable tv committee and the need for cable boxes was our single biggest comment. The system next to ours had History on analog, ours was on digital and required a box. We had people at every meeting show up and complain about this. Even if they're not the most lucrative customers, there's a lot of these "no box" people and in my experience they're among the loudest with lots of time to write their local government and crank in the letters to the editor.

So the cable companies have two sides pulling against them. They built systems under the assumption they were going to get rid of analog television, but they have a large customer base that will go ballistic if they do. Then on the other side, they have DirecTV obliterating them on HD conent because they simply don't have the space for HD channels. (It's like 1 analog = 2 HD = lots more standard digital)

DirecTV just launched another satellite for HD which hopefully will let them up the quality and add the few national HD's that they don't already have.

For April Fool's I hear Comcast is offering a real internet service :(

Well, here it goes like this:

Cable:
Premier     15 Mbps     2 Mbps     $51.95 with 12-month contract


FIOS:
Faster Plus   15 Mbps download    15 Mbps upload  $64.99   1st month FREE   $10 off months 2-7  $20 Target gift card


That would be a direct comparison of the best (fastest) packages from COX and Verizon.

When ever a plan I'm on expires with Comcast, I negotiate with them.  Using the excuse that you're thinking of switching to FIOS to cut costs is a good excuse.  I get just about everything except phone.  Blast, HD, premium channels, DVR, etc. for about $130.  It would normally cost about $180.  My sister who gets much less than we do, and only one premium channel, pays $155.  For some reason they refuse to cut good deals outside of what they advertise in her area.  I've had a few burps with Comcast, but nothing major.  At least I can use my router.  Dammit.

FiOS is the shit.  I cannot go into too much due to insider knowleadge regulations, but the retention rate is insane.

Also, the bandwidth for the FiOS network has barely been touched.  Many areas got a free bump recently just because Verizon can.  Also, the pipe you get is YOUR PIPE.  It is not shared with the neighborhood (like regular cable companies).

In addition the HD is not compressed by Vz at all.  I will try and find some publically released stats at some point when I have spare time- most of my stats are internal. 

Eh, Fios is a fuckton faster than Cox, Cable can't touch that shit right now.  Verizon doesn't offer it because Verizon isn't in AZ, AZ is all Qwest.

If I actually ever get this new house, this might be the reason for switching for me. In my current neighborhood, up until about a year ago, the cable pipe was ALL MINE. There was almost nil traffic on it for 5 years, very nice connection. Last year a cableco guy moved in next door, so he games it up on it, too. In the new neighborhood, everyone has cable modems :|

Can't vouch for Cox Cable in other locales, but Cox Cable in Phoenix area offers DL speed equivalent to my parents Fios in PA that they recently setup… …5M DL speed I typically get and that is around where they benchmarked (a tad higher than that)…

I'm basing this on the Fios package that was shown to me when I typed in my Parent's address in Bethesda, MD.  15 down and 15 up for 65, that is fucking unbelievable.

Comcast sucks regionally. They are great here in the bay area.

I'm on the Blast! package and I download from usenet at a steady 2 MB/s. It bursts to 3.75 MB/s, but that's just the powerboost crap.

Uploads will powerboost to 400 kps and it holds steady at ~220 kps.

$58/mo.

I need to call sales at some point and mess with my package...basic broadband here is costing me like, $61/mo.  :uhrr:

 :hello_thar:

What's this about packages?