What should I do?

[MarkA]

Well, my satellite trade in discount from switching to cable will be over in about 6 months and I'm deciding on a plan of action. My cable service will be $103.99 at that point. This includes HBO, Starz!, and Encore and one digital converter. I have analog on two other TVs but could easily use an antenna as I did when I previously had satellite. DSL equivalent to my cable will cost me $59.99/mo (for 3 mbps service) or I could go standalone cable Internet for $54.99/mo, though I could live with 1.5mbps DSL for $49.99 a month. DSL worked terribly when I had it before, but I've heard it's improved somewhat.

I love Video On Demand and use it for HBO and Starz! ALL the time... but I HATE the TV Guide software (but we should get the new version very soon, hopefully this week), and I HATE the analog picture (but I've heard rumor of digital simulcast). I also have Internet and signal issues with the cable, but not as bad as I had with DSL.

Anyways, what would ya'll suggest I do? (DISH, DirectTV, stay with Bresnan?). $103.99 is way too much for what I get, but I don't think I could fare much better with DSL and satellite. Or should I just get rid of it all and go back to dial up and an OTA antenna? It seems that any option is going to be more expensive than I can justify.

[MarkA]

LOL, I guess nobody had an opinion on what's better! Doesn't matter now,

We're getting the new TV Guide software this Tuesday -and-
A tech came out today and hooked us up with a 15dB drop amplifier - the Internet is great now, and the analog picture is practically perfect with the only really fuzzy channels being ones that are probably poor coming into the cable system (like some of the terrestrial channels). It actually looks as good as digital - better than some of them!

So, it looks like stick with cable it is; especially since it's got Video on Demand (I think over time, the impossibility of Video on Demand on satellite is what will hurt it)

[tsmacro]

So, it looks like stick with cable it is; especially since it's got Video on Demand (I think over time, the impossibility of Video on Demand on satellite is what will hurt it) (originallly posted by Mark A)


Just FYI Dish will have VoD this summer for those customers that have their new 625 DVR.

[SimpleSimon]

Just FYI Dish will have VoD this summer for those customers that have their new 625 DVR.Not that it matters to me personally, but the E* VoD is a poor substitute for the real thing.

[Paul Secic]

Well, my satellite trade in discount from switching to cable will be over in about 6 months and I'm deciding on a plan of action. My cable service will be $103.99 at that point. This includes HBO, Starz!, and Encore and one digital converter. I have analog on two other TVs but could easily use an antenna as I did when I previously had satellite. DSL equivalent to my cable will cost me $59.99/mo (for 3 mbps service) or I could go standalone cable Internet for $54.99/mo, though I could live with 1.5mbps DSL for $49.99 a month. DSL worked terribly when I had it before, but I've heard it's improved somewhat.

I love Video On Demand and use it for HBO and Starz! ALL the time... but I HATE the TV Guide software (but we should get the new version very soon, hopefully this week), and I HATE the analog picture (but I've heard rumor of digital simulcast). I also have Internet and signal issues with the cable, but not as bad as I had with DSL.

Anyways, what would ya'll suggest I do? (DISH, DirectTV, stay with Bresnan?). $103.99 is way too much for what I get, but I don't think I could fare much better with DSL and satellite. Or should I just get rid of it all and go back to dial up and an OTA antenna? It seems that any option is going to be more expensive than I can justify.
Either take some of those movie packages off, or get Dish's AT 180 Pack. It has all of Staz Themes plus Encore East for $42.90. Do you watch all movies? I think not!

[MarkA]

"Just FYI Dish will have VoD this summer for those customers that have their new 625 DVR."

It's not real Video on Demand, it downloads programming to the hard drive in advance and saves it for future viewing. No different from simply recording the shows and watching them later except it picks shows to record for you. Plus, then I'd have to pay for a DVR. The nice thing about VOD is that it's free :)

"Either take some of those movie packages off, or get Dish's AT 180 Pack. It has all of Staz Themes plus Encore East for $42.90. Do you watch all movies? I think not!"

Almost :) Didn't used to, but having HBO and Starz!, both with most movies available through VOD, has kinda spoiled me :) We've got a really good cable system around here (in the middle of absolutely nowhere too! Of course, until around this time last year it was a 330 MHz one-way cable system (I had Pegasus DirecTV prior to the upgrade and them having some killer good deals to get people back to cable). They just jumped oh, five or six generations in cable technology...).

[Steve Mehs]

Sounds like you have a decent cable company, and for that you are lucky and if I were you Mark, I’d stay put. [Real] Video On Demand looks pretty cool, I’ve never tried it out much, played with it at a friends house and at the TW Store briefly and it is pretty cool. I haven’t read much on the 625, but if it is what Mark says, which it probably is, it’s no different then what DirecTV has been doing for a few years with Starz On Demand. I’m really excited about going back to cable, the new technology, the great price, and not to mention upgrading to Road Runner Premium at a $15 discount. You’re cable co uses the Moto boxes right? That’s the only thing I wouldn’t like, with the ads, but if it doesn't bother you, I don't see a problem with your cable company. I'm just glad Time Warner uses SA receivers.

Time Warner :up: :up:
DirecTV :up:
Dish :down: :down:

[MarkA]

"You’re cable co uses the Moto boxes right? That’s the only thing I wouldn’t like, with the ads, but if it doesn't bother you, I don't see a problem with your cable company."

Yup, Moto boxes. The ads aren't part of the box though, they're part of the software. I HATE the ads and was considering going back to sat + DSL just because of that, but this Tuesday we're going to be getting new software that doesn't have the ads (and has video in guide, three shows of listings, etc.). I also have a Motorola DCT-2500, not the 2000. The 2500 is much faster, supports the video in guide with the new software, and has S-Video and Dolby Digital (coax and optical) outputs. It's also got a USB port and some other things that seem to do nothing (though the diagnostics screen does dee it when I plug in a USB keyboard or mouse, it can't actually control the guide. Maybe with the new guide...)

[tsmacro]

Not that it matters to me personally, but the E* VoD is a poor substitute for the real thing.

I honestly don't know too much about VoD, so I guess I need to be educated. My one experience with it was when I had digital cable about a year and half ago before I went with Dish. They had a free preview for a month and then afterwards it was going to cost me extra $$$ to have it. I checked it out and it seemed alright but in the end obviously not so awesome that I decided it was worth paying extra for. The free preview gave me a selection of movies available for the week (ea week the list would change a little, some movies would be dropped others added) and obviously I could watch any of them whenever I wanted. When Dish does it's version of VoD it seems to me they're going to download a list of movies onto your harddrive on your receiver and I imagine they'll probably update it every so often and you'll be able to watch any of them whenever you want. To me that sounds like essentially the same thing, you'll have a choice of x number of movies over a given time that you can watch whenever you want. Now like I said I don't know that much about VoD because of my limited exposure to it. So could someone explain to me why cable's version of VoD is "better"?

[SimpleSimon]

Cable has a library of thousands of movies residing on HDDs at the "head-end". When you select one, you actually get your very own private TV channel of that movie.

E*'s so-called VoD is actually just pushing a few movies of E*'s choosing onto your DVR's HDD. Except for the rumored overcharging, limited viewing time and other issues, it's the same as if you selected a movie to be recorded onto the HDD.

I would much rather have the reserved HDD space available to me for what "I" want to store there.

[Steve Mehs]

With On Demand from DBS programs are stored on the hard drive, with cable, all of the On Demand content is located on the cable co servers thus allowing much more content. Here Time Warner offers 25 channels of On Demand programming. On Demand is free for all digital cable subscribers (19 channels), except for the premiums which are included in their respective movie packages and Adult and Movies On Demand are PPV.

Here’s a list of the free On Demand channels I’ll get with cable, along with screen shots from the Scientific Atlanta box.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/rochester/products/cable/freeondemand.html

Who was your cable provider?

[MarkA]

Who WAS my cable provider here? Well, they've gone by many names over the years :) TCI, AT&T, Comcast... now they're Bresnan. The TCI and ex-TCI bunch at AT&T and Comcast didn't want to upgrade our system so we had a 330MHz one-way system (42 analog channels or so, several of which were used to provide some digital programming). For obvious reasons, it was the first system to be upgraded by Bresnan.

[tsmacro]

Cable has a library of thousands of movies residing on HDDs at the "head-end". When you select one, you actually get your very own private TV channel of that movie.

E*'s so-called VoD is actually just pushing a few movies of E*'s choosing onto your DVR's HDD. Except for the rumored overcharging, limited viewing time and other issues, it's the same as if you selected a movie to be recorded onto the HDD.

I would much rather have the reserved HDD space available to me for what "I" want to store there.


Gotcha, thanks for the info. So it sounds like if you've got a good cable company you get a better selection, that makes sense. When I had it there's nowhere near "thousands" of choices, heck I don't think there were even 50 at any given time. Of course that was about a year and half ago. Of course it would take a lot more than more VoD choices for me to go back to cable where I live. The small town I live in obviously isn't a priority for our cable company because you can pretty much count on the cable going out at least once every couple of months for hours at a time for no appearant reason. Since i've had Dish i've never had any probs, my 522 has worked like a charm and i've only seen it go out because of weather once and we we're having a really bad storm at the time and I think it lost the signal for less than a minute. Unfortunately I still have to rely on the cable company for my high speed internet (the only company that offers DSL in this town isn't known for it's reliability either so not much choice there).

[MarkA]

Argh, no new guide today :( I'm now being told Thursday. And now I'm having some video problems on analog channels - got another tech coming out today in hopes of fixing that, will update ya'll.

[KingLoop]

I love Video On Demand and use it for HBO and Starz! ALL the time... but I HATE the TV Guide software (but we should get the new version very soon, hopefully this week), and I HATE the analog picture (but I've heard rumor of digital simulcast). I also have Internet and signal issues with the cable, but not as bad as I had with DSL.
The 625, 522, and 721 make up for anything you lose in On Demand service. Personally I am adverse to spending more on my programming... If you do come back to DBS get a TiVo or a DVR... the DVR is better than On Demand in so many respects. Personally I time shift most of my viewing and thereby avoid watching commercials (that is priceless). Plus you can look through your movie channels and pick out some movies that you think you would like to watch. Before long you'll have your own personal "On Demand" menu to choose from....
You seem to be pretty happy with your current service if not your bill. Maybe you'll be happier where you are at. If you can find a programming package and price you are happy with with satellite, I'm sure you will be more than satisfied with a DVR in place of the On Demand.

[MarkA]

Eh, mixed about my current service - after two hours at my house, thinking (as I did) that the amp was introducing my hum bars, and changing the tap out so I have a higher level at the tap (replacing a 26dB 8-way multitap with a 20dB 8-way multitap) so I don't need the amp - I still have the hum bars. So he tries checking grounding out, etc. No way he can isolate the problem. One of our neighbors comes out and tells of their digital box not working correctly... so he goes over to fix it, and guess what? They've got the hum bars too... it's a system problem that coincidentally started about the same time as the amp was added. But at least now I have a good signal level WITHOUT an amp :) And they're going to fix the system problems.

I've compared price and satellite with DSL will cost a little more than cable and only get me service on two TVs, not three.

I'll lose Video on Demand but gain a digital picture of every channel.

Ah, I dunno, I'll decide at the time. I know I'd be happy with a DVR - but DVRs are pricey.

[KingLoop]

I know I'd be happy with a DVR - but DVRs are pricey.
With Dish Network you can lease a 625 for free. (Well it costs an extra $20 at the door, but with a club dish card you still have a $30 net savings), you only have to pay the usage fee of $5/mth.

[MarkA]

DISH DVR is looking more appealing... I'm looking at an "i-Guide is here" message on my cable box. Only problem is I'm looking at it in the tan guide. I'll give Bresnan a call in the morning to see what's up... or maybe I'll have got i-Guide by morning (doubtful, based on other deployments I've read about it usually downloads around 1am and I'm assuming the message was sent FOLLOWING attempted deployment)

[MarkA]

3:00AM still not a sign of the box going into download mode. WORSE YET, VOD gives me a beloved E102 error :( (haven't seen that one before, a few others, but never E102. I'm kinda thinking E102 would be incompatible software, if they've updated the headend for iGuide and we didn't pull it for some reason)

[MarkA]

Woke up this morning with i-Guide and Video on Demand. They sure did download it late enough! There was no sign even at 4AM and when I woke up at 7am the guide data hadn't finished loading (usually takes a few hours).

Nice stuff though, definitely nicer that the DISH Network guide. Not on par with a TiVo guide though. And definitely way too late, took TV Guide a LONG time to come up with good guide software (and they only finally did it because iGuide was a joint venture of TV Guide and Comcast - in other words Comcast made the guide and listened to CUSTOMER desires and TV Guide provided the data and got the branding).

Plus, i-Guide doesn't work fully (no scaled video means no video-in-the-corner) on DCT2000 and DCT1800s. But it's still a thousand times better for them, plus it runs way faster on those slow boxes than the tan guide did, so I've heard.

[tsmacro]

With Dish Network you can lease a 625 for free. (Well it costs an extra $20 at the door, but with a club dish card you still have a $30 net savings), you only have to pay the usage fee of $5/mth.

Actually you can get that 625 for free (no $20 fee) IF you're willing to go for a two year agreement.