Digital Cable sucks

[bigdawg2003]

Well, after 2 weeks of nonstop distortion on the new channels and 5 visits from the repairman, our family is ditching digital cable. Piece of shit Time Warner.

[oykib]

The proper thread title should be cable sucks.

Even better, you could've written that monopolies suck. Is it me, or were we all sold a bill of goods about deregulation some years back. I think the only thing that has improved is their ( the cable companies' ) profit margins.

[Tekneek]

I had the same experience with Charter. Despite the claims that the cable companies make in their anti-DBS ads, I have had fewer outages with DirecTV than I did with cable. You'd be better off trying to go with DirecTV or Dish Network, probably.

[rexalllsc]

I agree. I had ATT Digital Cable, and I hated the fact that it would take about 3 seconds to change channels, and that it wasn't really different than regular cable.

I'm a staunch DirecTV supporter now...

[RawIsDan]

I've had Time Warner digital cable for two years and have never had a problem, no downtime whatsoever. Same thing goes for their Road Runner service.

Guess it just depends on the area you live in.

[Kodos]

I have AT&T Digital cable, and it sucks. The picture frequently turns grainy, especially on the networks, which sucks ass when i'm watching football. It's bad enough that I have to watch the Bears. Could I at least have a better picture. I also hate the lag switching between channels. If I could get DirecTV, I would, but alas, my apartment faces the wrong direction, and there is nowhere to mount it.

[RPI-Fan]

When we first got digital cable, the first night it was out for about 6 hours. We were like, 'Oh, boy.'

Since then, you ask? Nary a problem.

[STK]

I have had no problems with Comcast digital cable or cable internet service in 6 months.

[Anthony]

it doesn't suck, you're just retarded.

i love my digital cable. i'll admit at first the only big difference i saw was the on screen tv-guide, which i thought was cool, but beyond that i didn't see the reason for it.

now that there's all the premium on-demand channels - where you can access any HBO series show, any skinimax movie or what have you - and not worry about late video-rental fees i'm loving it all the more. i can actually order a movie from the pay-per-view movie channel, and pause it, fast forward and rewind to my liking.

i live in a tempermental weather area - NYC - where we don't average 80 degrees and sunny skies , so i don't want my viewing quality being affected by the conditions outside my living room.

[Schmidty]

Originally posted by rexalllsc
I agree. I had ATT Digital Cable, and I hated the fact that it would take about 3 seconds to change channels, and that it wasn't really different than regular cable.

I'm a staunch DirecTV supporter now...

That's an outrage!!! 3 whole seconds to change channels? You must have been traumatized!!!

Seriously though, is that where we're at as a culture now? 3 seconds is too long to do something? Interesting.

[rexalllsc]

Originally posted by Schmidty
That's an outrage!!! 3 whole seconds to change channels? You must have been traumatized!!!

Seriously though, is that where we're at as a culture now? 3 seconds is too long to do something? Interesting.

Compared to the other options, it is a long time.

[Easy Mac]

Originally posted by Schmidty
That's an outrage!!! 3 whole seconds to change channels? You must have been traumatized!!!

Seriously though, is that where we're at as a culture now? 3 seconds is too long to do something? Interesting.

Well, 3 seconds is a long time in bed.

[RendeR]

I've had ATT digital for almost 2 years now, and aside from disliking the menu system a bit I've never had a single problem with it, the pictures are perfect and I have access to all teh bells and whistles.


Maybe its just me, but I think the level of service is what varies, not the product itself. Some companies don't pay as much attention to things as others (in companies I mean local providers of services, not the corporation as a whole)

[sterlingice]

We are lucky here in Lawrence because our company hasn't been bought up by someone yet. Sunflower is cheap: I only pay $30 a month for cable modem, can you say that? Relatively few problems- a cable outage is quite rare and fixed quickly. And the only downside is that if you need work, it's typically done by a contractor or if they screw it up, they send an official Sunflower guy out to make sure it gets fixed right.

SI

[Tekneek]

Whether or not your cable works well is not an indicator of how someone else's will. Each system is different, in many ways. Your distance from the head end will be a big factor as well.

A properly installed DBS system will work just as effectively in Minnesota as in Florida. As far as loss of signal due to weather goes, I've only lost signal during the most severe of thunder storms here in Georgia. I am talking about the ones that bring tornado watches and warnings with them. With DBS, you can get a new box that has different features, menus, and guide options if you want to. If you don't like the one the cable company brings you, you can either stop the digital service and return it, or deal with it. My wife and I love the choice that it brings, that cable doesn't. You decide the kind of box you want, with varying feature sets among the models. You don't just get the cookie-cutter one that the cable guy drops off at the door.

Cable has come a long way, though. I am glad that it meets the needs of so many of you. I wish I could say my experience, with 6 different cable companies now, was even close. No need to change if you are happy with what you have. If cable doesn't bring what you want, then you really should examine your alternatives.

[Daimyo]

I had AT&T Digital Cable and Internet in Evanston for over a year and I loved it... never had any problems with it. My father has DirecTV and every time he visited he always commented how he liked my digital cable picture quality and channel lineup so much better than what he was getting. Unfortunately, I moved into Chicago and my apartment has a contract with RCN so I'm stuck with regular cable... after having digital cable, I can't stand going back to regular.

[Tekneek]

Daimyo, you were lucky. I have some experience with AT&T Broadband Digital Cable, and it couldn't hold a candle to what I get out of DirecTV. It seems when you can get a great cable feed, it is superior to anything else. It seems to be tough for all customers to get that great feed though. It seems more hit and miss than some alternatives are.

[Vince]

Here in the lower left corner of the US, we have Cox Digital Cable. It's pretty cool...80 bucks a month (split four ways, mind you), and we get the basic Digital Cable package and all the extra sports channels, plus cable internet. The connection is usually pretty good; never had a problem with the TV, but sometimes we have issues with the ISP aspect. Usually, however, it's pretty good.

[Draft Dodger]

lousy digital cable quality from AT&T is exactly what sent us to DirecTV.

[Kodos]

Originally posted by Schmidty
That's an outrage!!! 3 whole seconds to change channels? You must have been traumatized!!!

Seriously though, is that where we're at as a culture now? 3 seconds is too long to do something? Interesting.

When other formats pretty much change channels instantly, then yes, this is a problem. I should be able to go through all the channels in half a minute if I like, not 5 minutes. If you enjoy inconvenience, that's wonderful. I do not.

[Craptacular]

Some people have no option to use satellite. :(

As for cable, I'm willing to pay the $10 extra JUST for the guide. It's so much nicer than waiting for the damn TV guide channel to scroll through.

[sterlingice]

Originally posted by Schmidty
That's an outrage!!! 3 whole seconds to change channels? You must have been traumatized!!!

Seriously though, is that where we're at as a culture now? 3 seconds is too long to do something? Interesting.

When other formats pretty much change channels instantly, then yes, this is a problem. I should be able to go through all the channels in half a minute if I like, not 5 minutes. If you enjoy inconvenience, that's wonderful. I do not.


Sorry to threadjack, but has anyone read James Gleick's book Faster. Quite an interesting read and deals with concepts like this, essentially: "how time affects us". If the name sounds familiar it's probably from one of his other bestsellers, which is essentially the most pallettable book on chaos theory, aptly titled Chaos.

SI

[JeeberD]

Well, my roommate and I have digital cable. The package we have is for basic, expanded basic, and HBO. Recently we started having trouble with the HBO so they had to send someone out to fix the problem. Well, a couple of days ago I recieved my cable bill and it says that we owe way more than we normally do. After closer examination, it says that we have the package that includes HBO, Skinimax, and Showtime. After seeing this I went and checked, and sure enough, we have all those extra channels that we don't need. So on Monday I'm going down to the cable office to raise some hell and get the problem fixed. But tonight I'm going to turn on the Showtime that we normally don't have and watch the Tyson fight to see what crazy crap he's gonna pull... :)

[Ksyrup]

I have to admit, I hate that channel delay as well. But I've got DirecTV, so I don't have that problem! Of course, this morning, we had a big storm blow through and the satellite went out for 15 minutes, but it really isn't that big of a deal and doesn't happen all that much.

We had Time Warner for cable, but they just sold us to Comcast (Comcast has the rest of Tally, TW had our subdivision in a trade back in the 90's). We've just got the basic cable for the local channels. First thing Comcast did was to take the total amount TW used to charge us, including taxes, and charged us that amount PLUS taxes for our first month of service. The second thing they did was charge us for the month of February, which I paid TW for last month. Mutherfockers.

[daedalus]

Originally posted by Tekneek
Despite the claims that the cable companies make in their anti-DBS ads

When Charter finally got digital cable installed here in Long Beach, they were trying pretty hard to sell it to us. So they offered it to those of us with regular cable at no charge. Even promised that there would be no extra charge for having digital cable instead. When the promotional period ended and we noticed a bit of extra in our bill. Closer inspection revealed an extra $8 charge for digital cable MENU. We returned the box and returned to analog pretty quick after that.

So we had a pretty good laugh when Charter came out with their commercial against the satellite companies and their "hidden charges".

[Tekneek]

Originally posted by Vince
and we get the basic Digital Cable package and all the extra sports channels, plus cable internet.

When you say "all the extra sports channels", what do you mean specifically?

I get the following "sports channels" on DirecTV and wonder if your cable company provides these to you (I've never heard of one doing it, so I am prepared to be amazed) :

ESPN
ESPN2
ESPNews
ESPN Classic

Outdoor Life Network
Speed Channel

Fox Sports World
The Golf Channel
NBA TV
The Outdoor Channel

Comcast Sports NetNet (Mid-Atlantic)
Empire Sports Network
Fox Sports Net Arizona
Fox Sports Net Bay Area
Fox Sports Net Chicago
Fox Sports Net Cincinnati
Fox Sports Net Detroit
Fox Sports Net Florida
Fox Sports Net Midwest
Fox Sports Net New England
Fox Sports Net New York
Fox Sports Net North
Fox Sports Net Northwest
Fox Sports Net Ohio
Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh
Fox Sports Net Rocky Mountain
Fox Sports Net South
Fox Sports Net Southwest
Fox Sports Net West
Fox Sports Net West 2
MSG (Madison Square Garden)
New England Sports Network
Sunshine Network
YES Network

I had been told that no cable company provided these. It's really cool if yours is hooking you up with them. What kind of things do you have blackouts on (I presume the same things that are blacked out for me, except for your local RSN)?

[lcjjdnh]

Just a suggestion for those who have a problem with the channel delay, although this maybe obvious. Just scroll through with the onscreen menu on the bottom and then go to the channel it will save the trouble of waiting three seconds each time.

[Tekneek]

Originally posted by lcjjdnh
Just a suggestion for those who have a problem with the channel delay, although this maybe obvious. Just scroll through with the onscreen menu on the bottom and then go to the channel it will save the trouble of waiting three seconds each time.

I know from using 3 different digital cable providers, that not all boxes offer the same features, or even that their "guide" is even reasonably up-to-date. Half the time my Charter Digital box had "No Info Available" listed for a significant amount of the channels. This renders the 'surf through the guide' idea a complete waste of time.

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

I have been wanting Digital Cable but Im happy with regular cable right now ....Reason is I dont want to pay 50 bucks and half the channels blocked out .

[AgPete]

Originally posted by Schmidty
That's an outrage!!! 3 whole seconds to change channels? You must have been traumatized!!!

Seriously though, is that where we're at as a culture now? 3 seconds is too long to do something? Interesting.

Hey, it sounds like nothing but since birth, I've never owned a TV that took more than a second to change channels. The pause between channel changes was one reason I got rid of digital cable. I'm a professional channel changer. :D I annoy the hell out of other people when I watch TV because I like to change channels so much to see what else is on. I couldn't take those delays with digital cable.

Another thing is satellite TV comes with sports packages. I couldn't believe the only thing my digital cable package had was pay per view NCAA basketball. I was sold on how hi-tech this product was and all its advantages and I couldn't even get a freaking NFL package.

[Craptacular]

Originally posted by Tekneek

I get the following "sports channels" on DirecTV and wonder if your cable company provides these to you (I've never heard of one doing it, so I am prepared to be amazed) :

ESPN
ESPN2
ESPNews
ESPN Classic

Outdoor Life Network
Speed Channel

Fox Sports World
The Golf Channel
NBA TV
The Outdoor Channel

Comcast Sports NetNet (Mid-Atlantic)
Empire Sports Network
Fox Sports Net Arizona
...


I had been told that no cable company provided these. It's really cool if yours is hooking you up with them.

With Charter, we get:
basic - ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, Outdoor Life, Golf Channel, Speedvision, and Fox Sports

digital - ESPNEWS, Fox Sports World, and 3 other regional Fox sports networks

Basically, we're missing all the other Fox Sports regions, but that's not a big deal to me.

[Ksyrup]

Originally posted by Craptacular
Basically, we're missing all the other Fox Sports regions, but that's not a big deal to me.

Especially since what you "get" with DirecTV isn't worth watching, unless you pay the extra fee. Unless you've got a hankerin' for New Mexico State junior varsity volleyball, what comes with the regional Fox Sports channels isn't much.

During college football, though, it is worth the extra $10-20 a month, since you'll get some decent regional games or alternate to what you're getting locally that you wouldn't otherwise get. But still, the best stuff is part of the GameDay package.

On the plus side, you do get about 25 times as many commercials for Best Damn Sports Show Period than you otherwise would...:rolleyes:

[Samdari]

A quick comment on the comparisons of relative quality. DirecTV and digital cable have the same quality signal delivered to your home. Cable has somewhat of an advantage in that it is easier to deliver that signal to a converter box. But, as long as the "signal" measure in DirecTV is above 50, they are delivering perfect signal.

If you are noticing quality problems, the most likely suspect is.....

a poor quality television, or reciever, cable, connection, etc.

It is just not that a superior signal is provided by digital cable, as digital satellite and cable essentially provide the same signal.

[Tekneek]

I watch tennis, minor league hockey, minor league baseball, some arena football, documentaries, pre-game and post-game shows from NHL games (I get the Center Ice package), the sports recap shows on the different networks, baseball, basketball, and hockey replays in the mornings/afternoons, extra chances to see Premiership matches that I might have missed from Fox Sports World, thoroughbred racing (such as what I am watching right now), college basketball games not included in the Full Court package (and even if they were, you can catch the replays), college lacross, Major League Lacross games, etc. I love sports, and I like all of this stuff.

If you *must* watch big league sports LIVE, then you wouldn't like the Sports pack for the most part (unless you combined it with the subscriptions), and you have to really enjoy sports. I'm no sports snob. Sports snobs won't like it. I love being able to see all kinds of different sports on a regular basis. Even with Fox Sports Digital Atlantic, Central, and Pacific, you are getting just a sampling of all the programming that you could find on these networks. In fact, not all of them are Fox Sports Networks at all. You get nothing from those.

[dacman]

Originally posted by AgPete
I was sold on how hi-tech this product was and all its advantages and I couldn't even get a freaking NFL package.

The NFL and DirectTV have an exclusive deal. No one in the US can get an NFL package with cable.

[Craptacular]

Originally posted by dacman
The NFL and DirectTV have an exclusive deal. No one in the US can get an NFL package with cable.

We had that discussion on the old board. That agreement sucks.

[panerd]

Originally posted by Craptacular
We had that discussion on the old board. That agreement sucks.

I love the agreement! My friends all chip in $40 each (since none of them own DirecTV), they always bring food on Sunday, and I can get shitcanned watching the Bengals without ever having to drive home.

I agree with a lot of the sentiments above. I don't think the two are that different with the exception of the NFL package. The cable ad's are complete BS, as I have never had one power outage. (I know I just jinxed myself bigtime) Here are three problems that I have with DirecTV...

1. Their customer service sucks. When my Directv was first installed the idiot grounded my dish to an electrical wire. They sent some local moron out whose problem solving technique was to replace the pieces of my system one by one. $120 later me and my friend went up in the attic and discovered the grounding problem. Directv covered all of the expenses, but I wonder how often they pay for stupid shit like that?

2. When you have directv you own your equipment. So why do I have to pay $4.99 a month for each additional reciever when I own them? Plus, whenever I order a pay-per-view I can only watch it on one of my 4 TV's. That doesn't make any sense at all!

3. Put me down as a fan of Skinamax. I get the HBO package and the MAX package. What I don't get is that our local cable and directv have the same exact pay channels except for MAX. My buddy with cable gets about 5 more MAX channels than I do. (Action max, thriller max, etc.) What gives with this?

[Tekneek]

DirecTV just hasn't added those. I think Dish Network has added one or two of those.

When I last had Digital Cable, I had the following premiums : HBO, HBO2, HBO Signature, HBO Zone, HBO Family, HBO Comedy, CineMax, MoreMax, ActionMax, ThrillerMax, 5StarMax, @Max, WMax, Showtime, Showtime Too, Showtime Beyond, Showtime Extreme, Showtime Showcase, Flix, Sundance, The Movie Channel, and The Movie Channel Too (I think that is all of them).

I forgot to add OuterMax in there. I used to love a lot of those channels, until they expanded and split into all these different ones. Turns out, there was mostly crap on, and not even good crap.

Out of all that, I only miss HBO Comedy. In fact, that cable system has dropped all the extra Cinemax ones from their lineup since then.