Comcast CEO: goal is to have 100s hours of HD VOD by year end
By Matt Burns 
posted Jun 21st 2006 11:25AM
posted Jun 21st 2006 11:25AM
Got to give it to Comcast. They are trying real hard to fill our need for more HD content. Their CEO has set a goal for them to bring certain market 100s of hours of high-def Video-On-Demand by years end. Some markets already have 10-15 hours of the programing available. They have indicated though that it is not a problem getting the high-def programming to their customers houses but rather simply finding new content. This article indicates that the current VOD system is only using about 50% of their set bandwidth and would have no issue streaming more. This may change as they ramp up the amount of content (and price 'cause, well they are Comcast) but currently they would have no problem adding more content.Do you have HD VOD in your area? Do you ever watch it?
I have Comcast in the Chicago area. Just recently they started offering free HD on demand. Prior to that it was pay for anything in HD. I check it every so often and the only movie that was worthwhile was Legends of the Fall. Otherwise it's very slim pickings for HD on demand, unless you want to pay extra for it. So to answer the question, no I don't watch it but I would if there were decent content.
I could care less about HD VOD for now. Add more HD channels like MTVHD.
I have Comcast HD VOD. I check every so often to see if they put anything worth watching, let alone paying for. Usually it's 3-4 items for $4 bucks that if you wait around long enough, will appear on Discovery HD Theater. Honestly, I have yet to find something worth buying so I can't comment on the streaming HD video quality, but if it is anything like the SD VOD (way too much compression) then I question his bandwidth claims.
I watched the 5th Element on Comcast HD VOD (it was one of the free ones). It looked much better than the DVD when the camera was sitting still. Any action shot filled the screen with jaggy squares for a few seconds, and all clarity was lost. What I did appreciate, was that they cropped the movie to fill the wide screen. When I ran the DVD to compare, the aspect ratio wasn't so accommodating.
I have Comcast VOD also, it's so annoying how little HD content there is in there. Before I had an HDTV I used VOD quite a bit but now that I have HDTV and 99.999999% of the content is SD, I rarely use it. And everytime I do I check the HD section, hoping that something has changed.. usually they've added a movie or two and taken away a few others. :( The only good thing is that most of the HD movies are usually free of charge. But considering they only have 1 or 2 new movies a month, it's pretty crappy.
HBO lost my business because they dont have HD on demand, they haev an HD channel with tons of HD shows, but none of the on demand stuff is HD. Too bad for you HBO, I would have gladly kept paying your outrageous $16/month if you had HD on demand.
So this news is very good to hear! Hopefully they follow through. :P
How does Comcast define 'HD'? I know what HD in general is defined as being, but I didn't know if they retained movie OAR, if the bitrates were kept, and if they stayed away from resolution reduction, unlike DirecTV and their HDlite.
That's nice, but all the movies are cropped, so I'll pass, even if it's free.
The town of Norwood owns a cable company that services only the town. Comcast is the alternative. I don't have Comcast since the prices are much higher so I can't compare directly. The town's cable service just got VOD last week. I haven't found any HD content on demand yet.
What surprised me, though, was the lack of widescreen movies available. Very rarely a movie would indicate "WS" or "Widescreen" in the title. If DVD sales are much higher for widescreen titles regardless of TV aspect ratio (which I believe to be true), why aren't the widescreen versions of movies being stored?
I wathced one movie (The Island) on comcast HD on-demand. I considered it unwatchable. Far below DVD quality with massive motion-blcking artifacts. Non-moving scenes looked nice and sharp as you'd expect. They must be allocating a fraction of the bandwidth for this that they allocate for say, HBO-HD.
Here Here number 2... Screw VOD... How bout giving us some HD channels that are already available and beggin to be watched... ie.) ESPN2 (forever, ie. Update the frigging guide!!!), MTV, NGHD, etc, etc.
Sheesh!
Dubya
Comcast's network I don't think is up to it. I get artifacts and delays.
Neal Saferstein