Going to Cable - Quick Thank You

[hammondc]

I have recently moved and am unable to pick up my HD locals OTA (because I am in a low elevation in reference to my surroundings). Therefore, I am moving to Cable after they (in a 'Godfather' like voice) made me an offer I cannot refuse. Hopefully Dish will get their act together in the next 12 months. If they do, I will certainly be back.

Any way, to the point of this thread------ Thanks to all you folks for your help. I haven't made many posts (because I have mastered the use of the 'search' feature) but I have gained a wealth of knowledge on here. This truly is the best satellite forum on the net. Thanks again!!

See you after the MPEG4 rollout (hopefully).

 

[LER]

Hammondc: Don't forget about our Cable forums, and feel free to just hang out here.

We welcome **ALL** folks here

(Modulo the hackers )

LER

 

[korsjs]

yes, please check out the cable forums and let us know how you are enjoying cable.

 

[goaliebob99]

Just because you leave dish doesnt Mean you have to leave us as the other staff members have said... we have a whole slue of cable forums.. If we dont have your provider feel free to pm us so we can add it.. We want to make sure that everyone has a home here no matter what service they choose

 

[hammondc]

Thanks again guys. My provider is comporium cable. I just realized after reading the responses that there is a cable forum here. I will checking that out. Can't wait to get my SA8300HD. Will finally be able to DVR in HD.

 

[korsjs]

if you have any questions about comporium, post them in the general cable forum. if enough interest for that particular cable company is seen, then a specific forum for comporium will be added. to be honest, i have never heard of them. how is their lineup?

 

[Tvlman]

I just read HammonC's "going to cable" comments and related with what he said. We all loved VOOM but DISH just has not been anywhere near as exciting. I went to Time Warner Cable months ago. I still have DISh and keep hoping something exciting will pop up but I end up watching cable each night. I think I have seen maybe 2 movies on VOOM since they became part of DISH. In the good ole days I watched 2 or 3 movies a day on VOOM. So, my feelings are the same. When DISH gets it's act together and gives us THE REAL VOOM I'll tune in again.

 

[techdood]

Everyone is welcome anywhere around here. Seems like if a person disagrees with a particular service provider, their post are very well contructive and not too many emotional outbursts. It's the reason why I enjoy all the forums here in regards to Direct, Dish, Canadian, and Comcast because I subscribe to all of them. I've recently lost my fiber delivered service for television, they had the largest pipe without a dvr/hd offering. I believe most of it was because I couldn't relate that service to other people who had it. All in all, I believe in satelliteguys.us and what they stand for. Everyone here is great and I believe nothing but great things coming for the future, whatever it may bring.
Now to tie this in with the topic, I have re-established service with my cable provider as well. Mainly because of the Hi-Def offerings and their exclusivity contract to my local NBA franchise. The HD DVR was just an added plus, considering my fiber optic pipe didn't have it. I'm still keeping my DishNetwork services tho, for VOOM and all the trials and tribulations of having a 921. Although problematic, the stubborn step-child tends to grow on you. I dunno, maybe I'm just a money spending and generous guy.

 

[RIRWIN1983]

Everyone is welcome anywhere around here. Seems like if a person disagrees with a particular service provider, their post are very well contructive and not too many emotional outbursts. It's the reason why I enjoy all the forums here in regards to Direct, Dish, Canadian, and Comcast because I subscribe to all of them. I've recently lost my fiber delivered service for television, they had the largest pipe without a dvr/hd offering. I believe most of it was because I couldn't relate that service to other people who had it. All in all, I believe in satelliteguys.us and what they stand for. Everyone here is great and I believe nothing but great things coming for the future, whatever it may bring.
Now to tie this in with the topic, I have re-established service with my cable provider as well. Mainly because of the Hi-Def offerings and their exclusivity contract to my local NBA franchise. The HD DVR was just an added plus, considering my fiber optic pipe didn't have it. I'm still keeping my DishNetwork services tho, for VOOM and all the trials and tribulations of having a 921. Although problematic, the stubborn step-child tends to grow on you. I dunno, maybe I'm just a money spending and generous guy.

THAT IS WHAT IS SOUNDS LIKE, THE MONEY SPENDING AND GENEROUS GUY PART, LOL

 

[DWS44]

My provider is comporium cable.

OH MY GOD...you have my deepest sympathy. I assume you mean Comporium in York County, SC. I won't scare you with my specific experiences, but suffice to say, I am as Anti-comporium as humanly possible. They have a monopoly here and they know it. I dropped their cable and phone services when I moved into my house...and as soon as someone comes up with an affordable satelite internet service, I'll drop their cable internet (they control DSL as well)

Their 15-year charter with Rock Hill expires spring 2006...I hope someone w/ the city commission has the decency to entertain giving them the boot from the community!

 

[Van]

Their 15-year charter with Rock Hill expires spring 2006...I hope someone w/ the city commission has the decency to entertain giving them the boot from the community!

This is something that has to start with you and everyone in your community by way of going to public local goverment meetings and voicing your displeasure with the monopoly. Get together with your neighbors, friends, family, and church group and put together a petition of people in the community who want to have a choice for cable television and highspeed internet service's from more than just one provider. Time Warner has just such a monopoly in several cities here in the metro detroit area and I hear the same thing from people when I go to theyr home to set up satellite tv service, but I never hear them say that they went before the city hall during public meetings asking for a change in the monopoly.

 

[lakebum431]

I agree with Van on this one. Make sure you talk to the responsible individuals. Things can be changed if you take the time to care about them and work on them.

 

[CPanther95]

OH MY GOD...you have my deepest sympathy. I assume you mean Comporium in York County, SC. I won't scare you with my specific experiences, but suffice to say, I am as Anti-comporium as humanly possible. They have a monopoly here and they know it. I dropped their cable and phone services when I moved into my house...and as soon as someone comes up with an affordable satelite internet service, I'll drop their cable internet (they control DSL as well)

Their 15-year charter with Rock Hill expires spring 2006...I hope someone w/ the city commission has the decency to entertain giving them the boot from the community!

Couldn't have said it better myself.

They combined Fort Mill telephone with Comporium a few years ago, now they control everything. Cable, Broadband, DSL, Phone.

 

[SummitAdvantageRetailer]

Hope you enjoy cable. Cable certainly has its advantages like VOD but I can't stand their prices and offerings. In any case, let us know how you like or dislike them. Hopefully by the time your discounts are over, satellite will have their MPEG4 programming launched. I don't know when cable will convert to MPEG4 though.

 

[dishrich]

I don't know when cable will convert to MPEG4 though.

Uh, what difference does that make - the ONLY reason why DBS has to go to MPEG4, is to get more bandwidth out of limited amount of space. Cable doesn't have this problem (they DON'T have to carry 1500+ local channels) so it's a total non-issue.

Many systems are already providing duplicate digital carriage of their entire analog service, so obviously bandwidth is not a problem for them.

 

[hammondc]

Korsjs-

Comporium is and independantly owned and operated company and DWS44 is right. They are definitely a monopoly and they know it. They have the Phone service, the internet and cable TV. You can find them on the web with a quick google search.
The HD package includes:
ABC Local
NBC Local
CBS Local
Fox Local
ESPN-HD
Discovery HD
HDNET
HDNET Movies
HBO HD
Supposedly, there are more channels coming in February

DWS44-
Nice to see some Rock Hill folks on here.
Beleive me, it was VERY VERY difficult for me to make myself give them more money but, they do have HD with HDDVR at price I can afford. I have seen their lineup on a friends Toshiba HDTV and was very impressed. I got in touch with one of the outside sales people and for around $52 I get everything including HD DVR. I also get the 22 movie channels for free for 3 months. THis pricing is good for 1 year and has no contractual ties. I was already paying $13/ mo for the cable access for cable internet. it breaksdown like this.
Before -> $72/ mo for satellite (NO HD) + $13 cable access + $40 internet = $125/ Month
Now -> $52 for cable (with HD) + $40 for cable = $92/Month
I just recently (April) got married and have been in my first house for about a month. I am a HD junkie, but cash is tight, so this makes more sense for me now. I know the contract with Comporium is actually up in January of 2007. There was a link to the Herald online about this. THe city council had a public meeting about 3 months ago for residents to express their feelings about Comporium. THe general consensus was that everyone was happy with the service (which surprised me) but thought prices were too high, the monopoly was unfair and some competition is long overdue. Since you can get Time warner everywhere in York County, except for Rock Hill, I think it will be coming soon.

 

[korsjs]

the major locals like you have now is one of the main reasons i switched back to cable.

 

[GaryPen]

Uh, what difference does that make - the ONLY reason why DBS has to go to MPEG4, is to get more bandwidth out of limited amount of space. Cable doesn't have this problem (they DON'T have to carry 1500+ local channels) so it's a total non-issue.

Many systems are already providing duplicate digital carriage of their entire analog service, so obviously bandwidth is not a problem for them.

Not exactly true. Cable has bandwidth constraints just the same as DBS. That is why so many systems are switching from QAM64 to QAM256. It is cable's version of the MPEG2 to MPEG4 switch. It allows more channels.

They are also moving many analog channels to the digital tiers, as analog takes up something like 8 times the bandwidth. That is the reason for the duplicate simulcats that you mention.

Comcast plans to eventually only offer "lifeline" (locals, news, community access, etc) channels in the analog spectrum. All other channels, even those considerd "basic", will only be digital.

 

[dishrich]

Not exactly true. Cable has bandwidth constraints just the same as DBS. That is why so many systems are switching from QAM64 to QAM256. It is cable's version of the MPEG2 to MPEG4 switch. It allows more channels.

All true, but again, the bandwidth constraint a cable co. has is a lot less than either DBS carrier - again, they don't have to offer 1500+ local HD feeds. But, as they add other things like more VOD, etc. they will require more bandwidth.

They are also moving many analog channels to the digital tiers, as analog takes up something like 8 times the bandwidth. That is the reason for the duplicate simulcats that you mention.

Comcast plans to eventually only offer "lifeline" (locals, news, community access, etc) channels in the analog spectrum. All other channels, even those considerd "basic", will only be digital.

Well, that might be true, but I've been reading in several of the trade mags, that getting rid of expanded basic in analog is NOT the primary reason why these companies are going "all digital". Why would they want to do this, when this is one of advantages they now have over DBS - they can now give the subs that want their "all digital service" the digital boxes, while the rest of their expanded basic subs can stay "as-is" & NOT requiring a box on every TV in the house.

These co. now can offer the best of both worlds - all digital quality for those that want it, while still offering the legacy analog service for those that don't want the boxes & don't care about how pristine the picture is. And, until that so-callled $50 no-frills box comes out, they are NOT going to be giving all their subs the costly boxes that are out there now. I'm not saying it won't happen eventually; I'm just saying it's not going to be in a year or even 2.

And FWIW, digitizing an entire analog lineup does NOT take up that much added bandwidth - assuming a cable system has a 70 ch. expanded basic lineup like ours does, it will only require an additional 42mhz of bandwidth, assuming a 10:1 compression. (& most systems use 12:1) That's is not a lot of bandwidth for a typical system.

 

[CPanther95]

All of that is moot if your dealing with a crappy cable system. Comporium is one of those.