more on Comcast plans 6% rate hike / Increase comes as phone firms prepare to enter cable market

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bob Frankston <Bob2-19-0501 () bobf frankston com>
Date: December 7, 2005 12:47:19 AM EST
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: RE: [IP] more on Comcast plans 6% rate hike / Increase comes  
as phone firms prepare to enter cable market

This reminds of the Telcos raising phone rates until VoIP came to the  
fore.
Now they are lowering landline rates to compete with VoIP. Of course the
VoIP charges are fiction -- the only cost is getting past the PSTN  
barrier.

As http://www.starz.com (subscription via Real) demonstrates we can  
already
distribute video even if not always in real time. They do both  
caching and
now live streaming ... the streaming looks good and the sound is  
wonderful
on my PC even as I run other apps. Too bad Real hasn't figure out  
multiple
screens yet.

The streaming and TV versions are offset by a little but what  
surprises me
is that the Computer image occupies only the middle of a 1600x1200  
screen
but when my video board scales it up it's comparable if not better  
than the
SD TV signal. Real says that the stream is 600K but I've got a 10mbps
(actually 2) connection so this even though this works well it's just a
hint of what is already possible.

Too bad SpikeTV doesn't seem to offer streaming -- why do they want  
Comcast
between you and them? 5db? Too bad you can just fix it in software at  
your
end.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Tuesday, December 06, 2005 19:28
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] more on Comcast plans 6% rate hike / Increase comes as  
phone
firms prepare to enter cable market



Begin forwarded message:

From: "Kevin G. Barkes" <kgb () kgb com>
Date: December 5, 2005 9:20:23 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] Comcast plans 6% rate hike / Increase comes as
phone firms prepare to enter cable market
Reply-To: kgbarkes () gmail com

> Comcast plans 6% rate hike
> Increase comes as phone firms prepare to enter cable market

I wouldn't mind it that much if Comcast could resolve its "minor"
technical
problems... like normalizing the audio output across its channels.
I'm not
talking about the difference between the compressed blasting that
accompanies most commercials; I'm talking about the 10dB difference
between
its digital and audio channels. For several months, Spike TV was a
good +5dB
above all the other channels on the spread on my end of their network. I
called customer support several times; they said they'd pass my
complaint on
to Spike TV. Suggesting that maybe a technician dial back the level
at the
head end was greeted with silence. "The head end of what?"

Sigh. It's a Comcastrophe.

Regards,

KGB

-----
Kevin G. Barkes
Email: kgb () kgb com | Web: www.kgb.com
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