I have Broadstripe for the cable modem and get the cable TV as a benefit (really just for Yo freaking Gabba Gabba, but I digress) In a year I have had one "outage" and it was because some douchetard chopped the lead cable with a weed whacker, my wife fired the wild whacker and does it herself now. Now that I have a bunch of free time I was able to fix that cable and spend a bunch of time of the Facebooks!
Funny thing, the Comcast guy just left. We've been on it for two years and it's just been in the past week that we've had any trouble with it at all (North GA).
The problem? A bunch of 20yr old coax connectors in the box down the street (I had already changed the ones in the house). Which I kinda suspected out here in the sticks.
I canceled Dish after they got "creative" with my billing
Switched to Direct TV and loved it.
Parents have cable and it goes out much more often than my DTV and takes longer to come back on. Especialy in a thunderstorm. If the DTV is out in a storm you should be in a tornado shelter here.
Folks,
Progress report:
After talking with Dish and DirectTV and getting their best offers, I went back to Comcast and let them know they had to get price competitive to keep the business....
Bottom line: They cut my Web and TV costs by 40% for the next 6 months....Much better than I expected.
We'll see how it plays out, but at least I know the pricing landscape for all the competitors.
Thanks to all for your inputs.
Rog
Loving my setup. Where I'm located I can get both Dayton and Cincy network channels as well as more PBS channels than I could ever want. I'm using this OTA antenna with my Win7 Home Premium (i.e. Media Center) HTPC to watch and record live TV, stream NetFlix and Hulu, watch BluRays, etc. I have about $650-700 in the entire setup including antenna, mount, custom built PC, etc. That's only 8-9 months of the hi-def DVR package we had thru DirecTV, not too bad of a ROI.
fastEddie wrote: Loving my setup. Where I'm located I can get both Dayton and Cincy network channels as well as more PBS channels than I could ever want. I'm using this OTA antenna with my Win7 Home Premium (i.e. Media Center) HTPC to watch and record live TV, stream NetFlix and Hulu, watch BluRays, etc. I have about $650-700 in the entire setup including antenna, mount, custom built PC, etc. That's only 8-9 months of the hi-def DVR package we had thru DirecTV, not too bad of a ROI.
Can you give some details on the HTPC?
I've got a bigass antenna on order that should pull in a lot of Atlanta stuff. I'm currently streaming Netflix thru the Wii. Assuming the antenna works, I was planning on going with Tivo for an easy button solution, though I think that HTPC would be the better option. I just don't know what all is involved and there doesn't seem to be an easy button solution yet.
Just this past weekend I ditched comcast and got Direct TV. Our Comcast bill was about $100 a month and shot up to about $150 a month over the summer with no additional services. It wasn't the sign up special either, we've been customers for about 10 years. Anyway, Direct is about half the price with more services, and I'm stunned with the difference in the HD picture quality. Customer service so far has been light years better with Direct TV, we'll see if it lasts. Unlike Comcast, everyone I've talked to seems pleasant, where Comcast is like someone is repeatedly hitting them in the head with a bat.
Very happy with Direct TV, super easy to do business with. Will switch to U-verse when I can, though.
Not a fan of dish. When i had it a couple of years ago a tech came while we were out of the house and left this note:
I use netflix and Playon through my PS3 to get my fix these days.
Antenna Netflix and other sources here!
I've had all 3 and Direct has had the best combination of good things for me.
The #1 weakness of Comcast is the guide. Both Dish and Direct TV give you access to all parts of the guide at any time plus more info than Comcast. My mother in law has Comcast and they still have that dumb scrolling guide. You can also easily go into the future on the Dish and Direct TV guides.
Dish lost my business to creative billing as well. Direct is slightly more expensive than Dish when you have multiple TVs (5) and the DVR. Dish allows you to have a few more shows set up to record than does Direct and it allows you to watch them on 2 different TVs whereas I'm stuck with the TV I recorded it on for Direct.
Both satellite providers have much better picture than does Comcast and many, many more HD shows. When you've tried HD you simply can't watch regular TV - It's like watching a VCR.
Tomorrow I will be playing Dish against Direct to try to get my bill down to a more bearable level but I will be happy with either as I've heard the billing issues have disappeared from Dish.
carguy123 wrote: I've had all 3 and Direct has had the best combination of good things for me. The #1 weakness of Comcast is the guide. Both Dish and Direct TV give you access to all parts of the guide at any time plus more info than Comcast. My mother in law has Comcast and they still have that dumb scrolling guide. You can also easily go into the future on the Dish and Direct TV guides. Dish lost my business to creative billing as well. Direct is slightly more expensive than Dish when you have multiple TVs (5) and the DVR. Dish allows you to have a few more shows set up to record than does Direct and it allows you to watch them on 2 different TVs whereas I'm stuck with the TV I recorded it on for Direct. Both satellite providers have much better picture than does Comcast and many, many more HD shows. When you've tried HD you simply can't watch regular TV - It's like watching a VCR. Tomorrow I will be playing Dish against Direct to try to get my bill down to a more bearable level but I will be happy with either as I've heard the billing issues have disappeared from Dish.
There are 2 new guide updates for comcast in the next year that might interest you if your having guide concerns. As to the comcast picture quality, currently comcast outputs their signal for HD content at 720p, but in the very near future(new technology) that'll be 1080i. The only company for comparison offering 1080p is verizon fios fiber customers. Comcast also has dolby digital 5.1 surround sound for all their movie's, something none of the other satellite or cable offerings have, which if your a movie buff does make a difference. There is a new comcast dvr coming out soon enough as well, that has now an even bigger hard drive then the current one, faster processor and the guide will be flash based.
For you other users that posted about satellite, I have had mixed results with direct tv for one, they have ok service, but going out during thunderstorms happens often. The OP lives in colorado, with the storms and winter weather(snow) out there I'm betting it goes out alot more often then it would if you lived in florida. A couple times in PA the direct tv went out for an hour or two, and the most frustrating part being that there is nothing you can do about it.
If your having a problem with the cost of comcast, I'll suggest that you call and talk with them about you switching services, if you tell them your going to switch they'll put you in a customer retention services, cutting your bill almost in half. If your still having problems email me and I'll have a option for you.
Andrew
DILYSI Dave wrote: Can you give some details on the HTPC? I've got a bigass antenna on order that *should* pull in a lot of Atlanta stuff. I'm currently streaming Netflix thru the Wii. Assuming the antenna works, I was planning on going with Tivo for an easy button solution, though I think that HTPC would be the better option. I just don't know what all is involved and there doesn't seem to be an easy button solution yet.
Let's see if I can get a decent looking list going here, everything is from NewEgg -
APEX DM-387 Black Steel Micro ATX Media Center / Slim HTPC Computer Case w/ ATX12V Flex 275W Power Supply Item #: N82E16811154087 $39.99
ASUS M4A785-M AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard Item #: N82E16813131595 $69.99
AMD Athlon II X3 440 Rana 3.0GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Desktop Processor ADX440WFGIBOX Item #: N82E16819103843 $74.99
Kingston HyperX NVIDIA SLI-Ready 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model ... Item #: N82E16820104008 $46.99
LG Black Blu-ray Disc Combo SATA Model CH10LS20 OEM LightScribe Support - OEM Item #: N82E16827136195 $79.99
Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1250 Hybrid TV Tuner /Video Recorder 1196 PCI-Express x1 Interface Item #: N82E16815116028 $49.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive Item #: N82E16822148433 $74.99
IOGEAR GKM561R Black 2.4GHz Wireless HTPC Multimedia Keyboard with Laser Trackball and Scroll Wheel Item #: N82E16823176018 $49.99
Total Price = $499.81 shipped to my door
Things I'd do differently -
I'm running Win7 Home Premium to a newer 60" Mitsubishi DLP rear projection tv at 1920x1080 resolution via HDMI from the motherboard above using it's integrated graphics. Win7 Aero features sometimes turn off but I haven't had any issues playing any content and I'm rarely outside of Media Center to even notice the Aero fluff.
In reply to carguy123:
Whole Home DVR on my DirecTV setup solved the "I can only watch what I recorded on the DVR/TV I recorded it on" problem. Of course, it took 4 service visits for them to get that working correctly, I was one of the first locally to get it when it came out and the install techs had no clue that I needed additional hardware to make it all work nicely.
I'm a big DirecTV fan, picture quaility and useability worlds better than the Time Warner Cable I had. I chose occasional outages for a much cheaper monthly bill and better programming options. TWC also basically told me "bye!' when I told them I was thinking of going back to DirecTV. I do miss the TiVo functionality from my 8-year-old DirecTiVo from my first go round with DTV; that thing was great but doesn't do HDTV. The current crop of DTV DVRs work well though, and a working RF remote is a nice touch.
I haven't chimed in on this one yet.
We ditched television in general two years ago. Got a refurb Mac Mini hooked to a projector in the living room and a digital TV converter box for over-the-air signals. Add in a Netflix account with streaming and an internet connection. Shake well. The Mac MIni doubles as our DVD player. I piped everything through my stereo. The Mac works great but is no match for a scratch built HTPC. I wanted small form factor so it fit my needs.
We are so spoiled by watching video online that when we had access to cable TV on vacation we hated it. "What do you mean I have to wait until a program comes on to watch it? I missed the first half of that show and it won't be broadcast again this week, crap. I can't watch that show at that time but I want to see it..." Pretty much we are used to watching what we want, when we want.
Any reason something like this - http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0337331 - with Media Center turned on and a TV card added wouldn't be a good option? I'm OK with plugging in a card or 2, but I don't want to build something from the ground up.
I'd probably skip the Blu Ray, at least initially. I'd love to get away from physical media all together.
Direct TV has 1080p on some shows. I don't know what determines it, but I was just talking to them and then checked my listings and discovered that some are p and not i.
I'll have to check on that whole home DVR thing, that would be awesome.
As far as outages, I live in the tornado and thunderstorm alley and I rarely lose the signal. I have much less outages on my satellite than I did from the cable company and the outages are much shorter on the satellite than those from the cable company.
As far as waiting for new cable guides, I can only look at what's available today. If I were to listen to all the "great things we had coming" I might as well buy some swamp land in Florida.
canoe
Double canoe. What are the odds?
I had directv for years and loved it but I had to drop it about 4 years ago. Paying $80/mo for tv just for myself was getting to be too much for me. I am thinking of going back now that my partner and I are moving in together and we can share the cost. Looks like we can get it for about $50/mo for the first year, and about $80/mo after that, full house DVR with HD and the package that has SPEED.
I had cable from cox before I got directv and I didn't find the service all that good many of the channels would just get fuzzy or go away for no apparent reason at random times, many complaints filed, obviously it would never happen when a tech was there.
I have been doing the online services + torrenting since I got rid of the dish. It's not bad and a nice way to save money. Netflix is raising their prices, I can see Hulu doing the same in the not so distant future. My partner is not as tech savy as I am so I think its time to pay some more for convenience.
zombie canoe, no less
You'll need to log in to post.
