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Cable HD

Cable HD Consumer Education Home Theater

There’s More To The Story (There Always Is!)

Chasing a maddening WAN dropout problem through spectrum analyzers, faulty ground blocks, and noisy neighbor cable drops reveals how a single cheap component can destabilize an entire cable system. Comcast's Special Operations team ultimately confirmed what the test equipment suggested: intermittent connections create standing waves that tilt QAM carriers and corrupt upstream channels. The full diagnostic breakdown, including RF measurements and fix details, surfaces at InfoComm in June.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Cable HD Cabling & Wiring Home Theater

Now You See It…Now You Don’t

Intermittent Internet dropouts plagued one home theater installer for months despite modem swaps, new coaxial runs, and shielded Cat 6 cables. A spectrum analyzer finally exposed the real culprit: a Comcast X1 set-top box blasting broadband RF interference every two seconds, coupling noise back through its own RF input and killing upstream modem signals. Swapping the offending Samsung-built unit for a compact replacement restored clean service instantly. The full diagnostic story holds lessons every cable subscriber should hear.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Market Trends & Analysis Streaming HD Cable HD

Cord-Cutting: A Slow And Steady Drip, Drip, Drip

Pay TV companies risk losing $1,248 annually per departing subscriber, yet cord-cutters report growing satisfaction the longer they stay away. A new survey finds 83% of cord-cutters access nearly all desired content without a cable or satellite subscription, while cord-nevers spend just $71 monthly on broadband and streaming combined. The real future of Comcast, Time Warner, and other major providers may already be written - and it has nothing to do with channel bundles.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Cable HD Consumer Education Market Trends & Analysis

xFinity: “The Future of Awesome” Is Looking A Bit Less Confusing…

Six service outages, a no-show technician, and nearly 30-year-old buried coaxial cable finally pushed one Comcast subscriber to escalate beyond standard customer service. A three-truck crew eventually traced the culprit to a corroded street drop where the cable literally pulled free of its connector. A new waterproof line, upgraded junction box, and a dual-band Cisco 802.11ac router delivering 50-plus Mb/s later, relief arrived - though whether the outages are truly finished remains an open question.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Cable HD CableCARD HD DVR

Xfinity: The Future Of Confusion (Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Tried To get Along With Comcast)

Eighteen years as a Comcast customer, a spectrum analyzer in the basement, and a working knowledge of cable infrastructure still couldn't save one HDTV veteran from a weeks-long spiral of botched self-installs, phantom charges, and six rounds of tech support. What began as a simple modem upgrade cascaded into crashed TiVos, unrecognized hard drives, Samsung set-top boxes that refused to initialize, and missing channel packages. The full accounting of what went wrong - and why - reveals something worth knowing before your next Xfinity upgrade.

Pete Putman •
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Market Trends & Analysis Streaming HD Cable HD

Trends: Ignore Them At Your Peril

Broadband subscribers at major U.S. cable providers just outnumbered pay TV subscribers for the first time ever - a milestone most industry watchers missed. Cable giants are losing video customers while Netflix surpasses 50 million worldwide subscribers, dwarfing even Comcast's base. The DVR, triple-play bundles, and traditional channel packages all face an uncertain future as households quietly rewire their entertainment habits in ways that will reshape the entire industry.

Pete Putman •
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Cable HD Streaming HD

HDTV Expert - A La Carte TV: No Blue Plate Special?

A Needham and Co. analyst estimates that a la carte pay TV delivery could eliminate at least 124 smaller channels, costing $80B to $113B in U.S. consumer value, while a typical cable channel requires roughly 165,000 annual viewers just to break even at $280 million per year in operating costs. Cord-cutting continues to accelerate, with Netflix approaching 30 million subscribers and services like Aereo charging around $10 per month to stream over-the-air broadcasts via the Internet. Canada's upcoming mandate to unbundle TV channel packages will serve as a real-world test of whether a la carte models benefit or burden consumers.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Cable HD Streaming HD

HDTV Expert - Time To Stop Whistling Past The Graveyard?

Pay TV providers in the U.S. lost 316,000 subscribers between June 2012 and June 2013, with cable operators alone shedding 591,000 video subscriptions in Q2 2013, according to Moffett Research. Competing services like AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS gained 371,000 subs in the same period, while over-the-air antenna reception, Netflix, Amazon Prime streaming, and digital downloads are increasingly viable alternatives for cost-conscious viewers. For consumers paying upward of $185 per month for bundled packages, the math increasingly favors dropping channel tiers and supplementing broadband with streaming.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Streaming HD Market Trends & Analysis Satellite HD

HDTV Expert - Zero-TV Households and the Second-Season Crunch

Nielsen's Q4 2012 Cross-Platform Report identifies over 5 million Zero-TV households, up from 2 million in 2007, with 67% consuming video via PCs, smartphones, and tablets rather than traditional sets. Network broadcast ratings are declining sharply, with shows like New Girl dropping from 8.4 to 6.16 million viewers in their second season, while cable originals such as Homeland and Game of Thrones command stronger audience loyalty. Notably, 23% of Netflix subscribers have cancelled cable or satellite subscriptions, signaling a structural shift that improved smart TVs and faster streaming will likely accelerate.

Ken Werner •
Columns
3DTV Cable HD Sports

Cox Communications brings Masters Golf Tournament to customers in 3D on ESPN 3D

Cox Communications launched ESPN 3D channel 896 for Cox Advanced TV Plus customers in Virginia, delivering stereoscopic Masters Golf Tournament coverage from April 11-14, 2013 using 6-9 dedicated cameras with 3D-specific graphics and commentary. Viewers require a 3D-compatible television manufactured March 2010 or later, Cox HD service, and an HD/DVR Trio receiver with HDMI output to access the channel. Customers without 3D hardware can still watch full Masters coverage on standard ESPN, making the 3D tier an optional upgrade rather than a replacement broadcast.

HDTV News •
Bulletins
IPTV Cable HD DTV Transition

Is Cord-cutting Hurting the Pay TV Market?

Strategy Analytics forecasts digital TV subscriptions growing from 114M in 2011 to 129M in 2016 at a 2.36% CAGR, but their methodology bundles IPTV with traditional pay-TV, obscuring meaningful subscriber trends. When IPTV subscribers are subtracted, combined digital cable and satellite subscribers barely grow from 106M to 109M over the same period. Deloitte's survey data reinforces the concern, finding 9 percent of Americans have already cut the cord and 11 percent are actively considering it, signaling real pressure on traditional pay-TV providers.

Ken Werner •
Columns
Cable HD Streaming HD

HDTV Almanac - Net Neutrality: Justice Department Investigates Cable

The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation into cable television practices, focusing on Comcast's policy of exempting its Xfinity content streamed over Microsoft Xbox from subscriber data caps while counting competing services like Netflix and Hulu against those caps. Investigators are also scrutinizing 'TV Everywhere' authentication schemes that require bundled cable or satellite subscriptions to access online streaming content. The outcomes could reshape the subscription television market - either by forcing equal data cap treatment for all streaming services or by compelling providers to offer standalone online access without a traditional bundle.

Alfred Poor •
Columns
Satellite HD Cable HD

HDTV Almanac - Comcast Partners with Skype

Comcast and Skype have partnered to bring HD video calling to Xfinity subscribers via an adapter box and high-quality camera added to existing set-top boxes, enabling calls to any Skype user across smartphones, tablets, and PCs. The service supports picture-in-picture display and will roll out initially in Seattle and Boston, priced at $9.99 per month after a free three-month trial for triple-play customers. For households with broadband already in place, this could meaningfully lower the barrier to living-room video communication, though the monthly fee may limit broader adoption.

Alfred Poor •
Columns
Cable HD

HDTV Almanac - Cable Loses; Telco Wins; SatTV Draws

Leichtman Research Group data for 2011 shows the top 10 U.S. cable providers shed over 1.6 million subscribers, with Comcast down roughly 2%, Time Warner down 4%, and Charter losing 5% of its customer base. Telco services FiOS and U-verse collectively gained 1.5 million video subscribers, while DirecTV added 660,000 and DISH Network lost more than 160,000. Despite cord-cutting pressures, total pay TV subscribers still grew by a net 380,000, suggesting cable operators may need to restructure pricing or pivot toward broadband to remain competitive.

Alfred Poor •
Columns
Cable HD Streaming HD OTA HD & Antennas

HDTV Almanac - Olympic Online Coverage Will Include Every Event

NBC will stream all 302 Summer Olympic medal events online, totaling an estimated 3,500 hours of coverage, but access requires an existing cable, satellite, or telco subscription that includes CNBC and MSNBC. Supported platforms include computers, smartphones, and tablets, making it broadly accessible for authenticated subscribers. This authentication model mirrors rumored plans by Hulu to require TV subscriber validation, signaling a broader industry shift toward pay-TV-gated access for major broadcast content online.

Alfred Poor •
Columns