Going back to Comcast!
- Thread starter Dishnetisforme
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bruce said:
Current cablecards (CC 1.0) are just one way devices so they cannot get program guide information, VOD or PPV. Anything that requires talking back with the cable company cannot be done with CC 1.0 devices.
Now Cablecard 2.0 devices are two way so if your TV set supports CC 2.0 it will work to get the cable companies program guide, VOD and PPV ordering without a box. Now it isn't known today if current cablecard slots on TV sets and other devices will work with CC2.0 devices for two way features but rest assured a CC2.0 card will work at least in a one way mode on all cablecard slots.
In the future we will have HDTV sets with a CableCard 2.0 slot that can do all the things a digital box does including HDTV, SDTV, VOD and PPV.
so basically "free on demand" is not so free when you have to lease a box for 5-10 bucks a monthbruce said:
juan said:
If you put it that way than yes but how does that make satellite look when you must pay an extra 5 bucks a month for each box beyond the first to view anything and worse you get no On demand features at all.
The fact is that for those of us who want a digital box (ie.. all digital lineup, more channels including premiums, HDTV box and channels and/or DVR features) we are getting On Demand free. Lets look at things this way.
Before On Demand was rolled out I was paying for a digital box and for all my premium channels. Now with On Demand I'm still paying for a digital box and for all my premium channels like I always did but now I get Free On Demand and HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, TMC, Starz and Encore On Demand and I don't pay extra for the premiums themselves nor for the access to get the On Demand programming from each.
Its all how you look at things and my view is that I'm getting everything for free because I'm still paying the same per month with and without it as I would still always order a digital box for all my rooms.
- Nov 29, 2003
- 14,520
- 18,635
I agree with LonghornXP, all we do is pay $5.00 or so a month to lease a box with Comcast which cost them a whole lot more.
I also look at it this way, when folks say I pay a lot more for Cable vs. D*/E* per month ( I don't by the way thanks to the triple play discounts ), I tell them to add that $299.00 ( to lease HD-DVR from E*) and divide it up for about 18 months ( avg. time till new box comes out ) and add that ( and the DVR fees per month) into the monthly bill which Comcast lets us lease for $9.95 a month and give us lots of free stuff with it.
I also look at it this way, when folks say I pay a lot more for Cable vs. D*/E* per month ( I don't by the way thanks to the triple play discounts ), I tell them to add that $299.00 ( to lease HD-DVR from E*) and divide it up for about 18 months ( avg. time till new box comes out ) and add that ( and the DVR fees per month) into the monthly bill which Comcast lets us lease for $9.95 a month and give us lots of free stuff with it.
ecchh!!!
How can anyone go to over rated and over priced Comcast Cable? i'll stick with Dish. Would switch to Directv or better yet verizon fios tv if i could.
Ron
How can anyone go to over rated and over priced Comcast Cable? i'll stick with Dish. Would switch to Directv or better yet verizon fios tv if i could.
Ron
ronfelder said:
What is over priced about it? I know what Comcast, Charter, & Adelphia has around here along with what I offer, and I would drop DirecTV if I had access to cable in a heart beat. Verizon, I don't think will offer a lower price down the road. Cost for there venture is racking up a lot of money and that cost will eventually get passed along to the customer.
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Here's numbers...
Comcast basic digital cable with ONE SD box is $65.
D* and E* are about $45 for digital cable with one SD receiver.
Of course, these are just the BASE digital packages, and are useless for me (an HD DVR customer). The upfront D* and E* costs (around $300) outweigh any monthly savings for me.
However, you can directly compare to Verizon FIOS.
Basic Digital + 1 SD box is only $35. Thats a lot cheaper than Comcast. Heck, you can even add in the movie pack (Sho, TMC, Starz & Encore) at $12 and still be cheaper than comcast.
Oh well, whatever works. I'm currently with Comcast, btw. Not real happy with it, but here I am.
-John
Comcast basic digital cable with ONE SD box is $65.
D* and E* are about $45 for digital cable with one SD receiver.
Of course, these are just the BASE digital packages, and are useless for me (an HD DVR customer). The upfront D* and E* costs (around $300) outweigh any monthly savings for me.
However, you can directly compare to Verizon FIOS.
Basic Digital + 1 SD box is only $35. Thats a lot cheaper than Comcast. Heck, you can even add in the movie pack (Sho, TMC, Starz & Encore) at $12 and still be cheaper than comcast.
Oh well, whatever works. I'm currently with Comcast, btw. Not real happy with it, but here I am.
-John
- Nov 29, 2003
- 14,520
- 18,635
For me, Comcast is a blessing vs Dish based on pricing and what I get for SD and HD.
Price-
Dish-For the HD Platinum (everything pack+HD )-$99.99 a month + local channel charge of $5.00
Now if I just had cable from Comcast-Digital Platinum-$99.99 upgrade to a HD Box-$5.00 more a month.
But what I get is their Triple Play package, Every Channel, Broadband and Local/ Long Distance Phone Service for $160.00 a month ( includes two HD-DVR boxes and one SD box ).
If I left Comcast to go back to E* I would have to get all these services from three different companies, Dish-$104.99 a month, Broadband-$57.95 a month and Phone service-$40-50 a month at least, so the total is at least over $200.00 a month.
And don't forget the upgrade cost for E*'s HD DVR, another $299, divide that up by, say, 18 months ( avg. life of unit till you have to upgrade )= another $16.61 a month.
Comcast just up-graded me to a 3412 from a 6412...no charge.
Quality of picture and service.
SD-Better then E*, I left E* Feb./05 and the first thing I noticed was that the SD picture is a little to a lot better, for example, Sci-Fi on E* was un-watchable on E*, with Comcast it is a lot cleaner looking, and all SD channels are digital in my area, no more analog for me.
SD-On Demand, I like it, tons of stuff for my kids to watch, a few things I have watched, D* and E* folks dismiss On Demand, but Comcast is giving it to it's customers for free, what is D* and E* giving out for free.
HD-yes I know that E* offers a couple of channels ( ESPN 2 and UniversalHD, the Voom channels don't count in my book ) that Comcast does not have, but so does Comcast, we have our local sports in HD, we have InHD 1 and 2 ( but E* has HD-Net and HD-Movies so that equals out ), and we have have Starz-HD and Max-HD which D* and E* do not, and if you get your locals in HD from E* and D*, does that include the UPN and WB ( soon to be CW and myNetwork ) in HD, I get those via Comcast.
HD Picture-It has been proven over and over that Comcast does not do HD Lite ( which is why I don't count the Voom channels on E* or D* at all ), Comcast does the full 19 bitrate and full 1920x1080i / 1280x720P resolution, so that means no macro blocking or studder during fast moving scenes because of the high bitrate.
Price-
Dish-For the HD Platinum (everything pack+HD )-$99.99 a month + local channel charge of $5.00
Now if I just had cable from Comcast-Digital Platinum-$99.99 upgrade to a HD Box-$5.00 more a month.
But what I get is their Triple Play package, Every Channel, Broadband and Local/ Long Distance Phone Service for $160.00 a month ( includes two HD-DVR boxes and one SD box ).
If I left Comcast to go back to E* I would have to get all these services from three different companies, Dish-$104.99 a month, Broadband-$57.95 a month and Phone service-$40-50 a month at least, so the total is at least over $200.00 a month.
And don't forget the upgrade cost for E*'s HD DVR, another $299, divide that up by, say, 18 months ( avg. life of unit till you have to upgrade )= another $16.61 a month.
Comcast just up-graded me to a 3412 from a 6412...no charge.
Quality of picture and service.
SD-Better then E*, I left E* Feb./05 and the first thing I noticed was that the SD picture is a little to a lot better, for example, Sci-Fi on E* was un-watchable on E*, with Comcast it is a lot cleaner looking, and all SD channels are digital in my area, no more analog for me.
SD-On Demand, I like it, tons of stuff for my kids to watch, a few things I have watched, D* and E* folks dismiss On Demand, but Comcast is giving it to it's customers for free, what is D* and E* giving out for free.
HD-yes I know that E* offers a couple of channels ( ESPN 2 and UniversalHD, the Voom channels don't count in my book ) that Comcast does not have, but so does Comcast, we have our local sports in HD, we have InHD 1 and 2 ( but E* has HD-Net and HD-Movies so that equals out ), and we have have Starz-HD and Max-HD which D* and E* do not, and if you get your locals in HD from E* and D*, does that include the UPN and WB ( soon to be CW and myNetwork ) in HD, I get those via Comcast.
HD Picture-It has been proven over and over that Comcast does not do HD Lite ( which is why I don't count the Voom channels on E* or D* at all ), Comcast does the full 19 bitrate and full 1920x1080i / 1280x720P resolution, so that means no macro blocking or studder during fast moving scenes because of the high bitrate.
bruce said:
I just left Dish for Comcast. I agree with most of what you said except for the excert above. I have found that my Comcast SD to be lower quality than that of Dish. Its very much noticeble in the old analog channels that are now carried as digitial (I have the 3412 too). I see a lot of these channels freeze from time to time in video while the audio keeps going. I have seen this quite a bit on all the channels below 100. Otherwise the true digitial SD channels are about the same as dish.
berck said:
I've noticed something simular as well. When I had HBO, 310 (HBO Zone, I think) was horrible. I couldn't record a movie on there without it doing the picture freeze thing. Now that I don't have HBO, I don't notice it as much. But it does happen occasionally.
I think keeping the box ventilated helps (my SA HD-DVR runs HOT!).
-John
charper1 said:
To answer your question, On Demand also gives you access to hit series on premium and cable channels. For example, I enjoy being able to watch the first episode of the Sopranos this season, and not having to use hard drive space to do it. It gives you a lot of flexibility accessing a large amount of movies, hit series, etc. I think of it as having a blockbuster available 24/7 On Demand. The only difference is the New Release section is still a per viewing charge.
If you have Kids its great. No need to spend a fortune on DVD's. It also has a lot of family stuff like Karaoke, signing and music lessons. I actually used it to learn a new guitar songs. I also get 480P on all On Demand thus the picture is better than what I get on D*.
The cons are with an up-convert DVD player and HD sources, I prefer to use those media sources for improved PQ. I also wish they had a searchable menu across the channels that you subscribe to. Hopefully when they implement Tivo, they can use the Tivo search functionality. I think the pros do outweigh the Cons, and Like LonghornXP I always check the Starz Early Premiere. Something about getting the movie 2 weeks before non On Demand folks, that makes it exciting.
On a side note. I do have my Comcast box connected to my Slingbox. When I travel, On Demand, is really cool as I can access hundreds of movies form my laptop and cell card. Road trips are also more fun since I do not need to carry DVD's and have so much to watch.
Hope this helps answer some of your questions.
For me Directv offers wider variety of channels (non-premium) and better cost then comcast. I don't have a HD tv but do have a HD comcast box with limited basic cable, I do like watching local broadcast channel HD broadcasts in 16x9 dvd quality video.
My directv bill is $56 including dual tuner Tivo service. Digital Plus cable would start at over $60/month not including DVR, which I think is like $10 more.
There's only one cable channel I wish Directv would offer... there are some cool channels on Directv that cable doesn't offer. The same can be said about Dish Network vs Directv or cable each has a few channels the others dont' carry and depending on your interest you may enjoy one over the other.
I have limited cable, limited dish network, skyangel and directv, each gives me a few extra channels that the others don't give.
Jim
My directv bill is $56 including dual tuner Tivo service. Digital Plus cable would start at over $60/month not including DVR, which I think is like $10 more.
There's only one cable channel I wish Directv would offer... there are some cool channels on Directv that cable doesn't offer. The same can be said about Dish Network vs Directv or cable each has a few channels the others dont' carry and depending on your interest you may enjoy one over the other.
I have limited cable, limited dish network, skyangel and directv, each gives me a few extra channels that the others don't give.
Jim
I agree. I can watch a movie anytimne I want to onDish. I own a dvr which allows you to watch anything when you want. VOD is just a gimmick.charper1 said:
Ron
Wrong , Dish is upgrading dvr's to have VOD now. My duaghter and her mom have now.korsjs said:
Ron
why would anyone in the proper mind stay iwth something that they aren't happy with? you don't even get the same number of HD channel;s as you do D* or E*. I'm not a HD subscrbier fsoit's certainly chaepaer for me. I just dropped Comcast internet for it's slow. Around where I live Verizon DSL is faster. Cheaper too.jgantert said:Here's numbers...
Comcast basic digital cable with ONE SD box is $65.
D* and E* are about $45 for digital cable with one SD receiver.
Of course, these are just the BASE digital packages, and are useless for me (an HD DVR customer). The upfront D* and E* costs (around $300) outweigh any monthly savings for me.
However, you can directly compare to Verizon FIOS.
Basic Digital + 1 SD box is only $35. Thats a lot cheaper than Comcast. Heck, you can even add in the movie pack (Sho, TMC, Starz & Encore) at $12 and still be cheaper than comcast.
Oh well, whatever works. I'm currently with Comcast, btw. Not real happy with it, but here I am.
-John
