Comcast reports it added 50 new High-Definition channels in Philadelphia, making it the first Comcast area to offer 150 HD channels, and the new channels include BBC America HD, DIY HD, Ovation HD, PBS Kids Sprout HD and Smithsonian HD, all channels with niche content, but more HD is more HD, and we welcome it with open arms.

Comcast’s Xfinity promotion says it will dramatically boost the HD lineup in more cities in 2011, and that is long overdue and welcome news, indeed. Many markets got by with 30-50 total HD channels for years now, and now it seems they’re making up for lost time.

AT&T and Verizon customers are more satisfied with their HDTV service than their cable or satellite counterparts, according to J.D. Power and Associates, which measures customer happiness among many different products and services.

In 2010, AT&T’s U-verse ranked first in satisfaction among HDTV viewers in the West, South and North Central regions of the country. Verizon finished first in customer satisfaction in the East, while DIRECTV and Dish Network finished second and third respectively in the East. In the South and West, Verizon was second with DIRECTV third. So it seems to vary widely depending on where you are in the US.

But J.D. Power said that residential TV service customers are much less satisfied with the cost of their programs compared to 2009 ratings. The customer satisfaction score for all TV providers combined was 541, compared to 555 in 2009, so they have a little ground to make up. Cable customers in particular seemed to voice their objections to prices, but we have little confidence that companies will lower prices unless they need to.

In related news, after being on in SD since 2004, the show is now being produced in HD starting this week, and is airing in many markets in HD as of this writing. It’s about time, as the show has been pretty late about arriving in HD, and is a welcome addition for anyone who laughs at pop culture at large on a regular basis.

Oddly, DirecTV does not carry the show in HD, in yet another war with Comcast, one of its chief rivals.

In mid-June the first ‘wave’ came of 60 HD channels, but they were spread around the 700′s and 900′s in very confusing fashion in many markets, and it made for a sloppy transition to say the least. We like the idea of more HD channels, but implementation can sometimes make or break a newer format, and the rollout of this was stinky, to put it nicely.

Now in August the channels were finally placed together and the remaining 20 channels were added, making for a very nice (if overdue in many markets) influx of HD content the likes of which many paying high Comcast bills had not seen previously. More HD is always good, we say. Hopefully future expansions and changes are done in a more organized manner.

It seems that now (according to their recent press release anyway) they’re splitting the addition of the channels into two ‘phases’: one where they add 45 or so channels right now, and adding 16 more channels…in August. In the meantime, there’s two sections of HD, one in the 700′s, and one still left over from its original home in the 900′s. It’s a royal mess, to say the least, and leaving it this way another month+, even more of a mess.

Well, we’ll get our HD, which is a good thing. But i’m personally not crazy about the way they’re implementing it at all. It’s screwy and disorganized, but some new channels is better than none at all.

Talk about changing the game: most markets will add 30-50 new HD channels that don’t have them already, and it’ll be a bright new HD world for many US citizens. We celebrate the courage and forward thinking of Comcast (now branded Xfinity in some markets) to add some much-overdue content to many systems. This writer has endured 2 years+ of a paltry 32 HD channels, with little to no changes. The added 40+ channels will really do me personally some real good, and (in my area anyway) will be added June 16th, as will much of the Southwest.

It should also help push up the market for HDTV sales as well, as more content always leads to more sales.

$10 per month adds the “3D Technology Package” to your U-verse viewing package — similar to Comcast and different from DirecTV’s approach, it will work with existing boxes but will require a switch to “3d” mode on the box, which is an interesting compromise without needing to replace existing boxes, which we like.

Color us a bit skeptical even so about the future of 3D TV in the mainstream, even if others think differently, including ESPN. Here’s to hoping this HD 3D trend doesn’t fade into the sunset in the near future, wasting millions of dollars in the process.

The numbers: Comcast lost 199,000 video customers in the fourth quarter of 2009, meaning the company lost 623,000 TV subs for all of 2009, which is a pretty large number and would really hurt most companies. The setback follows a substantial decline in 2008 when it lost 575,000 video subscribers, which together is over 1 million customers. You would think Comcast would get the message (lower rates and more HD would have kept many of those customers, more than likely).

Comcast really needs to step up their HD adoption in many big markets, where it still averages around 50 or fewer channels, including large states like FL, MI and CA, to regain back some of its lost market share.

Their HD is already fairl compressed, and there are other alternatives to this sort of action: weaning off analog channels, deploying SDV and still others move VOD to IP or they could start using more efficient codecs like H.264 for their signals.

As supporters of HD in general, we oppose this sort of thing on principle. Hopefully, Comcast rethinks this sort of action, even though it may result in more choices and channels being carried to subscribers, because the more compression, the lower the quality. We like HD because it looks sharper and clearer, not similar to analog channels because of excess compression.

Channels will include Bravo HD, Hallmark Movie Channel HD, HSN HD, MGM HD, Nick HD and The Weather Channel HD (??), mostly useful and solid channels. Now we’re hoping this is a successful, easy launch, so that they’ll think about making this expansion spread westward and all over the US.

Some areas are still stuck with minimal selection of channels, and that more than anything is contributing to people not being too excited about HD in those areas.

We wait and watch anxiously.