Cutting Cable

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Cutting Cable

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Panty Saluter: Jan 17, 2004; Making learning fun!

Don Lapre posted:

It's possible with mpeg4

Which will finally be adopted about the time MPEG-16 becomes available :smithicide:

# ¿ Oct 7, 2015 03:51

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 03:45

Panty Saluter: Jan 17, 2004; Making learning fun!

Zogo posted:

All this technical chat reminded me.

Recently Comcast seems to have changed something. For many years we had an HDTV set to the "dot by dot" TV setting so that all SD content would display in 4:3 (so there were always black bars on both sides). But recently all the SD channels are coming out stretched so that a 2.35:1 movie on an SD channel is stretched to the far ends of the TV and looks closer to something like 2.65:1. Obviously the picture is stretched too. And of course the other three TV settings are full screen, zoom and smooth stretch and all distort the picture further.

What's going on here?

Check to see if there are resolution/aspect options in the cable box. Something may have gotten changed with a box software update. Otherwise Comcast or the channel are stretching all content so they won't have to listen to people grousing about how "thuh picksher dont take up muh whole teevee!!"

# ¿ Oct 9, 2015 20:12

Panty Saluter: Jan 17, 2004; Making learning fun!

Zogo posted:

Yea, I have a Pace RNG110. A lot of the manuals were out of date and didn't correspond to what was actually displayed when I followed the instructions.

The good news is that I finally go it to work by using two Comcast remotes simultaneously (had to turn box off and immediately hit the MENU button on the other remote to get into the deeper settings). The problem was that the remote turns off the cable box, tv and aux in order (without allowing for input while that's going on) and by the time that's happened it's too late for the menu button to register as being hit. No manual, Youtube video or Comcast support forum had anything explaining this issue exactly.

Now I can finally watch SD properly. And the HD zoom button now allows for the proper stretching of a 1.85:1 and 2.35:1 movies.

Why on Earth would you bury aspect ratio options in a secret menu :psyduck:

# ¿ Oct 11, 2015 02:15

Panty Saluter: Jan 17, 2004; Making learning fun!

I'll be honest, I think you should cut cable just to rid yourself of that hosed over interface.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2015 13:47

Panty Saluter: Jan 17, 2004; Making learning fun!

If it's two story that's trickier. Unless you're not shy about cutting access holes in sheetrock and long bits to go through headers :v:

# ¿ Oct 29, 2015 21:13

Panty Saluter: Jan 17, 2004; Making learning fun!

Shaocaholica posted:

I'm not trying to cut cable entirely but I want to get rid of this lovely tuning adapter box for SDV channels. Is there a way to find out which channels are SDV so I can gauge if I'll miss the tuning adapter?

If it's the Cisco STA1520, just power it off with the little button on the front.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 20:38

Panty Saluter: Jan 17, 2004; Making learning fun!

Shaocaholica posted:

But if I turn off/remove the TA, SDV channels will still work for a little bit longer right? I just want to be absolutely sure.

AFAIK they MIGHT still work if they've been tuned recently. I thought the Tivo would remove the channels if it didn't see the adapter.

Worst case remove the TA and reacquire the channel lineups. Comedy option: call the cable company :v:

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 22:08

Panty Saluter: Jan 17, 2004; Making learning fun!

Don Lapre posted:

Keep in mind after getting rid of cable, you will forget about 90% of those dumb rear end shows you used to watch.

...and Netflix has more than enough dumb white noise stuff to throw on in the background.

# ¿ Jan 16, 2016 03:56

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# ¿ May 13, 2024 03:45

Panty Saluter: Jan 17, 2004; Making learning fun!

FogHelmut posted:

Spent two hours tracing cable wires around my house. There have been several past installs of cable, possibly ATT Uverse, and DirecTV. Lots of cut wires and terminated connections. If I were a scrap man, I'd be drunk on copper wire.

Anyway, old attic antenna is possibly beyond resurrection. I'll just buy a new one. I can hook it in to the latest DirectTV wires and have it going to 3 rooms in the house. The cable internet is on a direct line to a 4th room. Looks easy enough to reroute if needed.

Most cables for dish and cable use copper clad steel for the center conductor and aluminum foil and braid. There is shockingly little copper in them, so you can probably save yourself the trouble of stripping the cables down and bringing them to the recyclers :v:

# ¿ Jan 16, 2016 18:55

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