Alternatives to Time Warner cable?

Matthew Fortner · **Joined:** Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:21 am **Posts:** 384

Research is not really turning up any obvious alternatives to TWC. Anyone have any suggestions? It looks like sat TV is priced and packaged such that it does not directly compete.

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:10 pm

What channels do you want? I've always found that prices and packages were in the same ball park. The only reason I'm with time warner is the HD DVR...

Matthew Fortner · **Joined:** Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:21 am **Posts:** 384

SPEED, HBO, Local channels...I don't need HD.

steve remchak · **Posted:** Fri Feb 16, 2007 11:03 pm

DirecTV. 3 years now. Cable Blows.

a side note. i don't know if anyone else has had the priviledge of Charter Communications service, but i gotta say, THEY SUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i would hate to think i had TV service from these people. i would have gone postal by now. my internet service goes down at least every 5 days for a period of 3 or 4 hours in the AM. i have called them 3 times in under 60 days and they are just plain stupid. the last tech i spoke with said it might be the cold weather or maybe my router was interfering with the Charter signal. complete bullshit.

i had TWC internet service for three years and the only problem i had was cured with a new modem and very quickly i might add.

TWC TV service, not for me. i could be wrong Matthew but for about $45 a month with DirecTV you could get what you want sans HBO. DirecTV offers premium channels in package form i believe. $125 a month gets everything. don't believe that bullshit about weather interruptions. it just isn't true.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:16 am

Matthew Fortner wrote:

I don't need HD.

I'm still trying to comprehend this.

--Donnie

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:57 am

Matthew Fortner wrote:

It looks like sat TV is priced and packaged such that it does not directly compete.

I haven't looked at pricing recently, but where are you seeing Sat not being competative??

I see your options as...

1. Sat
2. Antenna (not going to give you the channels you want)
3. Download shows off internet (pretty cutting edge and not as easy as the others)

I have been with DirecTV since 1995 and have been pretty happy. I do use Earthlink/TWC for my intenet access (which while speedier, it hasn't been as reliable as my old Verizon DSL setup)

I also think you should consider HD as well.

Richard

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

the main problem with satellite is that there are some up front costs, especially if you want HD Tivo. My HD/Tivo boxes cost about $400 each. I got all the other stuff free (and non-HD boxes are cheap if not free usually). Monthly bill is WAY less than TWC was. We get TotalChoice plus for ~$45, and a sports package add-on for $11 (includes SPEED, ESPNU which isn't available on TWC, and a whole bunch of other sports channels). We get basically EVERYTHING except the movie channels (we had them, but never watched them, for that, it was about $90, and included all of them, HBO, cinemax, showtime, starz, and a bunch of others).

The other bonus to DirecTV, NFL Sunday ticket, you can't get it anywhere else, that was actually the reason we switched, but I've really liked the cost savings we've had by switching. It'll take a while to recoup the equipment costs, but in the long run it will be cheaper, and as I said, if you don't want HD, there will be almost NO equipment costs up front, particularly if you are a new customer.

A quick note, be careful when you get your equipment, make sure to read everything over. Make sure to determine whether you are purchasing or leasing your equipment.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:21 pm

I pretty much agree with what Brice said. The main issue with Sat is the up-front infrastructure. But generally if you commit to a year (or two?) it is zero cost to you (last time I checked). You do pay extra for the HD DVRs as that is considered a premium service. DirecTV has for the most part broken ties with "TiVo" (existing DirecTV TiVo models continue to work just fine) and are now selling their own DVRs (including an HD model).

But if you (Matthew) wants to go with Standard Def and the channels he specifies are not generally premium than it should be done pretty cheaply or with zero up front cost. Brice also mentions about the purchase vs. lease issue. Again I have not been following this as closely as before, but you had a lot of cable TV ads that would try to beat up on Sat because you were forced to "own" the receiver. I personally viewed that as a bonus, but DirecTV is (or has) moved toward a lease model.

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

if you want to own your own equipment, ebay is the way to go, by far the best prices on DirecTV equipment. When I bought my 1st HD Tivo box, it was $700 to get one from DirecTV, I got a new one, sealed in its box off of ebay for $450. My second one was only $350, Circuit City wanted $199 for a 2 year lease, what a rip if you ask me.

The TWC boxes are pieces of crap, thats one problem with them, we went through 3 of them in the course of a year and a half of having an HD, neither of my DirecTV boxes has failed, the remote reacts much quicker, its just a more pleasing package.

Matthew Fortner · **Joined:** Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:21 am **Posts:** 384

Thanks for chiming in.

What I am finding is that to get the programming we have now with TWC, I must buy into tiers and add ons that come close to what I'm already paying. Part of that is my wife and I have diverse requirements that are not typically packaged together.

I think I need to make some phone calls to see how flexible/aggressive everyone can be.

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

I still sometimes think that I must be the only person on the planet who is happy with Time Warner Cable. $60 a month gets me everything but the premium channels including HD channels and a really really good HD DVR, plus $50 for Roadrunner. Outages are extremely rare and bandwidth is excellent. Hell customer service is actually pretty good. And I don't need anything extra to get 77 channels on the garage TV, upstairs TV, bedroom TV, etc, and I'm running at least 4 PC TV tuner experiments to get all the standard analog stuff. Every box I have gotten has worked flawlessly, and when I hear of new equipment coming out I call and have someone drop off an upgrade. The service guys have even left me multiple free component cables and re-crimped new terminals on old crappy cables with no charge.

Every time I look into satellite to replicate close to what I haeve now the upfront costs are obscene -- 4+ boxes, no thanks. And a bill that might be a few $$ cheaper.

For those who say cable sucks -- must be your cable. Mine's fine.

Matthew Fortner · **Joined:** Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:21 am **Posts:** 384

I was never unhappy with TWC, but I felt like I was being squeezed. I called TWC and they worked with me to get an reasonable offer worked out. They have retention discounts for qualifying customers. I had done all my homework on DirecTV and Dish Network which seemed uneccesary during the call. I told the rep I was looking at Sat given the greater value and said I'd prefer to stay with TWC. I asked if there was something they could do. I'm happy for now. I pay less than I was before and I have more channels.

BriceJohnson · **Joined:** Thu Apr 13, 2006 7:33 am **Posts:** 2230

TWC was pretty good actually, I probably would have stayed with them if they carried NFL sunday ticket. I'm happier now with Satellite though, a much better box, a cheaper bill each month (only slightly), MUCH better sports coverage than TWC.

For internet, TWC is still by far the best though

Graham Jagger · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 12:53 am **Posts:** 1718

MikeWhitney wrote:

I still sometimes think that I must be the only person on the planet who is happy with Time Warner Cable.
For those who say cable sucks -- must be your cable. Mine's fine.

You're not alone. I've been happy with them. Every time I look at the other options I end up dropping the idea. I think I have had 1 bad cable box in the past 10 years. When I went to digital cable the service techs that came over ran into problems with our lines. Just couldn't get a clean signal. They tried a bunch of things that made it work ok. Then said that it was the cable out on the street and they would have to dig it up and replace it. I really didn't think they would go that much trouble. I called back and told them the signal was still flaky some days, like when it rained. They dug up the lines and ran new ones. Signal came out very clean. It's hard to complain about their service.

Now that's not to say Ann doesn't complain when the bill comes in. She'd be fine with basic cable plus. I want all the premium channels. So the monthly bill is $100 or so. I don't use Road Runner though. I've had DSL for a number of years and I'm happy with it.

Todd Breakey · **Posted:** Sun Feb 18, 2007 2:52 pm

I'm happy with TWC also. I don't have HD, yet. I REALLY want it, but we are going to wait until we are in a new house before buying a HDTV. I do, however, have a DVR. The thing I liked about having the TWC DVR is the ability to trade it out. My old 8000 series unit got REAL flaky, so I just took it by the customer service center on Atlantic and swapped it with a new model. No questions asked, no money exchanged. I don't think you can get that with satellite and deffinately not with a stand alone Tivo unit.

This isn't to say that I wouldn't want other options, competition is good. I really wish that we had other cable options like Columbus has (had?). They used to have price wars and subscribers basically got EVERY channel for next to nothing.

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