What price - Entertainment?

[robbiee19]

Going back to what satjay asked. I am staying with D*. A couple of reasons are
1. My house is set up for everyone in the family. They know the channel line-ups. To much hassel to change. Wer' talken kids here!
2. I know the price I am paying and its worked out in my budget.
3. PQ is good to very good for me. (I know other will ague with me, but that's only their opinion of which I don't care about).
4. D* has been good to me so I'll stay.
But like I said before, I remember the days when cable was $20 per month and it seemed to me better programing.

 

[steve615]

Being new customers to D*,we are currently getting Total Choice for $29.99,free HD Pack and free HBO,Starz and Showtime for the first three months and the 2nd receiver fee.We have two H20s and the AT9 dish.We got in before the March 1 lease option kicked in,so we own the equipment,after a 1 year committment.After the "honeymoon" 3 month period ends,we are going with Total Choice and the HD Pack and drop the movie channels.The movies channels are nice,but we already have a ton of DVDs to choose from,if we want to watch movies.I like the idea of the NFL Sunday Ticket,but IMO,between the networks coverage,ESPN with Mon. Night Football and now NFL Network carriage of some (8) games,that is enough to appease our appetite for pro football.We also watch NCAA sports (football/basketball),MLB,NBA and NASCAR which for us,with network,sports channels and superstation (WGN/TBS) coverage is enough for us.

 

[rlstjohn]

Showtime on Demand? What's that?

Sorry but you must order the premium channel package itself to get its HD version. If you cancel Showtime you are also cancelling Showtime HD and Showtime On Demand.

 

[LonghornXP]

Going back to what satjay asked. I am staying with D*. A couple of reasons are
1. My house is set up for everyone in the family. They know the channel line-ups. To much hassel to change. Wer' talken kids here!
2. I know the price I am paying and its worked out in my budget.
3. PQ is good to very good for me. (I know other will ague with me, but that's only their opinion of which I don't care about).
4. D* has been good to me so I'll stay.
But like I said before, I remember the days when cable was $20 per month and it seemed to me better programing.

I like how you stick to your guns and yes I do get annoyed with those different channel lineups so that can be a very big reason why for only a few bucks difference isn't worth the hassle to train the household. What is key is that what you have "you" enjoy and it seems you have the enjoyment part quite set. Oh and do I wish cable was 20 bucks a month and it amazes me how DSL can be priced below most dialup companies but basic cable can never seem to at least stay the same.

 

[LonghornXP]

Showtime on Demand? What's that?

Showtime On Demand is an added service for Showtime customers that is only available on digital cable. Sorry no satellite at least not yet. If you have digital cable good chances you have Showtime On Demand available to you. Showtime On Demand may be an extra charge beyond the premium channel itself while some companies like Comcast and Verizon include it for free. First to get Showtime On Demand you must be a Showtime subscriber.

Showtime On Demand is simply a channel you can tune into and view a guide type listing of shows and movies that you can playback with full pause, rewind and fast forward ability at anytime you want with unlimited usage every month. You can start the show/movie at anytime 24x7 and even watch it as many times as you want. Again its unlimited and in most cases free with a Showtime subscription. The shows you can watch are chosen by Showtime and every week older shows/movies end while new shows/movies are added so new programming is rotated into the selection every week. You can view the programming On Demand at these links below for all available premium channels.

http://www.hbo.com/apps/hodschedule/hodcategory.do?CATG_ID=BTRS311

http://www.cinemax.com/apps/hodschedule/cod50category.do?CATG_ID=PMRS464

www.sho.com at this link on the left hand side you will have three links below On Demand for Showtime On Demand, TMC On Demand and Flix On Demand. These links will show the programming that is On Demand. Please note that TMC On Demand has more than what is listed but they never seem to list everything even when told they don't. The Flix On Demand is new to me as this is the first time I've seen it listed.

http://www.starz.com/appmanager/seg/s?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=on_demand

Also Comcast and Verizon carry Starz and Encore On Demand and the above link is for Starz On Demand but Encore On Demand has tons more that I can't find a listing for.

Also if your with Comcast or have access to them they carry all the On Demand channels above and they are all free as long as you order each of the premium channels. So if you only order Starz and Showtime you will only get Starz On Demand and Showtime On Demand. You may or may not get Encore On Demand so you could ask.

Also if you have Comcast they have tons of Free On Demand movies that are pretty darn good that are in addition to this. They also have a few HD movies On Demand that are free. The movie I last watched in HDTV was The Fifth Element and the picture looked pretty darn good. Also the Free On Demand movies beyond the premium channels are AFAIK only on Comcast.

I hope I gave you some information you can use without over doing it.

 

[logixrat]

Although I am quite satisfied with my D* service as previously noted, I do agree that many user experiences will vary drastically depending on their location and local cable provider.

I have seen a trend that people in "advanced" Comcast areas seem very pleased. Me personally, I live in Oklahoma and Cox is my provider. It seems we are always the last to get any upgrades or advanced features, and hence I do not consider Cox to be anything special. Of course, if you live in a "Cox test market" such as Arizona, then you may love them as they always get the good stuff.

If I were to leave D*, it would be only after I get an HDTV and after Cox offers pure digital channels. Having a big screen, picture quality is most important to me even if it costs a few extra bucks per month. The no committment and no equipment fees is very attractive, but who is to say cable is higher because of programming? They probably include those fees in their normal monthly fee so you are paying them but don't have the psychological effect of paying for them.

 

[robbiee19]

I like how you stick to your guns and yes I do get annoyed with those different channel lineups so that can be a very big reason why for only a few bucks difference isn't worth the hassle to train the household. What is key is that what you have "you" enjoy and it seems you have the enjoyment part quite set. Oh and do I wish cable was 20 bucks a month and it amazes me how DSL can be priced below most dialup companies but basic cable can never seem to at least stay the same.

Thanks LonghornXP. Just to clarify. The whole family enjoys the D*. One problem for me is when I go over to my bother and sisters homes and try to change the channel if I have the remote I have no clue! Time Warner for them. I agree 100% with you on DSL. I have SBC DSL oh AT&T or something like that as the different names go marching by. I get DSL for only $15 a month so not to bad. Road Runner cable is to much for my blood.

 

[mirage426]

Unfortunately everything is is all about supply and demand. it is an excuse to just raise prices. Just like the new lease nonsense- trends change everything. Every company does it. In this case we can thank all the people that "have to have" all 4 HD channels. Their willingness to pay extra for brand new, not fully tested service is setting the new higher prices we are seeing.
Great concept... to offer "some HD channels" that cost more money, but ALL the rest of the channels are reg SD. What good is that? It isn't like ordering HBO or other premium channels that look the same when you change the channel, this HD is supposed to look soooo much beter that reg HD. I wouldn't be able to stand that. These HD channels look good, but blea, all the other channels look like crap.*sarcastic*
Like eating steak and the chef comes out and replaces it with hamburger helper in mid-meal.
Really, I haven't met one person yet that has been able to tell the difference.. Seriously. I have done the old pepsi challenge with SD and HD side by side and so far nobody can tell the difference. Personally, there are too many factors to interfere with the HD plan. The Tv itself, the service provider, and the station that is transmitting the signal. Just like there are different levels of digital compression that we have seen all over the dial, there is no set standard in the level HD is being broadcasted.
That whole "every TV must be HD by 2007" is a load because alot of areas haven't even gone full SD yet no less HD...this is just the testing phase. I'm gonna say maybe 2010 or so. But then there will be alot more HD channels and newer better equipment. But the price standard is being set in motion now. So choose wisely.

 

[scotsmanron]

Got it. Yes, Florida has been this way since I got here in '74. Nothing new.

 

[LonghornXP]

Unfortunately everything is is all about supply and demand. it is an excuse to just raise prices. Just like the new lease nonsense- trends change everything. Every company does it. In this case we can thank all the people that "have to have" all 4 HD channels. Their willingness to pay extra for brand new, not fully tested service is setting the new higher prices we are seeing.
Great concept... to offer "some HD channels" that cost more money, but ALL the rest of the channels are reg SD. What good is that? It isn't like ordering HBO or other premium channels that look the same when you change the channel, this HD is supposed to look soooo much beter that reg HD. I wouldn't be able to stand that. These HD channels look good, but blea, all the other channels look like crap.*sarcastic*
Like eating steak and the chef comes out and replaces it with hamburger helper in mid-meal.
Really, I haven't met one person yet that has been able to tell the difference.. Seriously. I have done the old pepsi challenge with SD and HD side by side and so far nobody can tell the difference. Personally, there are too many factors to interfere with the HD plan. The Tv itself, the service provider, and the station that is transmitting the signal. Just like there are different levels of digital compression that we have seen all over the dial, there is no set standard in the level HD is being broadcasted.
That whole "every TV must be HD by 2007" is a load because alot of areas haven't even gone full SD yet no less HD...this is just the testing phase. I'm gonna say maybe 2010 or so. But then there will be alot more HD channels and newer better equipment. But the price standard is being set in motion now. So choose wisely.

I agree with some of what you said but lets look at this from the point of view of a person who is tied into this business for a second. First HDTV channels take bandwidth and lots of it.

Now also understand that when these packages were created HDTV wasn't even close to being in as many homes as HDTV is today and broadcasting HDTV was also more expensive. Now lets look at this even more now.

HDTV broadcasts require extra channels that aren't in use today thus using bandwidth on all providers. Now we must consider the fact that it costs the channels extra money to host the channel on a satellite to allow the cable and sat companies to pick them up and feed them through their systems. So ESPN HD and ESPN 2 HD must be hosted on a satellite and they pay for the amount of bandwidth they need not the channel and also keep in mind that bandwidth is limited so at some point new HDTV channels might not have any bandwidth left so other ways must be found like going to the FCC to request more transponders for hosting use which I might add isn't easy to get done. This costs money for something only HDTV customers can benefit from.

Now we must also look at the fact that the channel also needs hardware to process both SDTV and HDTV feeds, crop for SD among many other things. They need more expensive uplinking hardware to get the feeds to those hosting satellites as they are now sending much more data that also needs more error correction as well. Now if the channel shows movies all those movies must be converted from film into an HDTV format and this again costs money just for us HDTV viewers. Now what if the channel does live sporting events. Well lets see now.

Live sporting events now require different more expensive mobile trucks that can support HDTV. These trucks costs millions to buy or a company can rent them as they are available but that is also quite expensive but trucks for renting are limited as you might guess. The other option is to have the existing trucks you own converted to HDTV and this also costs at least a million bucks per truck. Now todo a decent HDTV broadcast you now need to hire more people to handle the extra load of dealing with both an HDTV and an SDTV broadcast. Now beyond that they must also buy new more expensive HDTV cameras that costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per camera. Most football games require at least 5 of these if not more.

I think this gives you all an idea that what we HDTV customers get isn't free and many keep saying why should we pay twice for ESPN to get ESPN HD. Well they again fail to understand that all the games that ESPN broadcasts in HDTV cost more money todo in HDTV compared to SDTV. Like I said above ESPN must also pay more for the bandwidth to host ESPN HD.

I believe that as times go by these channels will not be in extra packages but for now because it costs more todo HDTV the only way we will get more networks to offer HDTV feeds to us is if they have a way to get paid for that extra cost. I also believe that without an HDTV package we wouldn't have hardly any sports in HDTV. Also people might say that Comcast doesn't charge extra for HDTV but that is a bad way of thinking because you are indeed paying for it. Or should I say every Comcast customer is paying a very very very very small share of it but that is besides the point. Just don't forget that ESPN is getting paid by Comcast. I might be one of the few that thinks this but ESPN is quite a value for everything they offer considering what types of sports they cover along with their HDTV live sports coverage. Yes they could do much more in HDTV but compared to pre ESPN HD we now have tons and I know all of you would agree that having a few hundred sporting events in HDTV each year is better than not having them.

Edit...Does anyone else remember the days when Discovery HD Theater costs 7.99/month all by its little itty bitty self because I do.

 

[purwater]

I know I'd been thinking of cutting my programming package lately and after reading this thread I actually looked through the channel list and I didn't watch a single channel in the TC plus. So I logged in today and dropped to TC and HBO. Cut Starz while I was at it. Got my total down to bout 78 bucks a month which saved me 15 bucks per month. Doesn't sound like much but if you start to trim the fat from all of your bills you can save quite a bit. Now I just have to trim down that cell phone bill.

 

[stellar832000]

Auctually I was comparing Directv Cable and Dish to see who was cheaper, in the end I realized that I would be saving about 10 dollars a month with Dish HD Platinum compared to my Total Choice Premier that I have right now along the HD package, plus I would be getting more because Dish has more movie channels like HBO Comedy, I will most likely switch.