Does anyone have any experience with Time Warner cable TV service?

I've been a DirecTV subscriber for many years. I upgraded the dish once (to receive HD signals) and also bought another (expensive at the time) receiver that can handle HD signals.

Now I find that in order to get my local HD signals, I need to upgrade the dish again (3 LN->5LNB), and buy another HD receiver (present one won't work with the new dish). If I wanted to add HD-DVR, I would have to buy a $300 unit, plus pay an additional $6 per month.

DirecTV is currently advertising new receivers that can pick up 150 HD channels, triple what cable offers, but that receiver won't be available until the Fall (and then whatever receiver I have would be obsolete).

Time Warner cable's picture quality is supposed to be inferior to satellite, but all their equipment is leased and I don't have to buy new equipment when it becomes available. In addition, I can bundle my Time Warner RoadRunner ISP service, add a HD-DVR, and my overall total monthly cost will be less than it is now. One other advantage of cable is that the transponders on my present dish freeze up when the temps. get really cold, so I can't receive anything then. I don't think cable service would have this problem.

I've checked the Internet and there are plenty of horror stories about both Time Warner cable as well as DirecTV service, so did I make a mistake in switching?

 

Can you just get an antenna and get over-the-air HD local channels? That's what my father-in-law (to be) is doing, Dish for "cable" and antenna for everything else.

 

Yes, I was using a rabbit-ears type of indoor antenna to get local HD stations, but because the transmitters aren't all in the same place, I had to be continually move the arms of the antenna around whenever I changed channels. Plus, the local signals aren't the strongest in the area.

The winter freezing of the transponders was one problem I could never solve. The DirecTV service person suggested buying a dish heater, but I nixed that idea due to the cost.

 

I meant a big-a$$, mounted-on-the-roof antenna. I helped him install a 8' ariel a few weeks ago.

We are in a pretty metropolitan area, though, it might not be feasible for those outside of a big city.

 

I've had Adelphia Cable, now just changed to Time Warner, for about 10 years. I've never had any issues beyond the (maybe) once a year outage, usually due to extreme weather. There are occasional issues when they were upgrading hardware, like when they converted to all fiber optics. The internet has been pretty reliable, maybe a day or so offline every 6-8 months or so. In general, cable has been plenty good to us. Not enough history with Time Warner to really tell, though.

As for image quality, maybe the difference matters more on a huge screen, but at 37", I doubt I'd care about any small differences.

I haven't even looked at dish TV since I found out that all the satellites are behind the trees for me. Besides, even the smallest dishes are ugly, and we like the looks of our century home the way it is.

 

Cable service is area-dependent. I have had DTV for over 10 years. At one point, I actually tried Adelphia(now Comcast) on the promise of more HD programming. What a farce! That, and the local service, both in terms of picture quality and service calls, was pathetic.

Once I experienced HDTV in the home about 5 years ago, the addiction took over my senses. Almost no cost is too great for for me to justify. I have had two HD receivers(we have 2 HDTV's) and a 5-LNB. One of the receivers kicked the bucket, so I replaced it with an HD DVR. Because I do spend a fair amount of $$$ with DTV(I'm guessing this is the reason), I can't remember the last time I was on hold for more than 2 minutes. Try that with a cable company!

Lastly, I do not know the extent of the following, but I do know that DTV now sells/leases/rents all their own equipment. Retailers are beginning to not sell or have already stopped selling equipment for DTV. What I am gathering is that they(DTV) will be swapping out defective or outdated equipment as needed.

www.avsforum.com is a good source for some info about all facets of the audio-visual realm.


*** I've owned a Toshiba A1 since April and a PS3 since November. Junkie I am.

 

Yep that is a fact that DirecTV is now only renting the equipment. I just ordered an upgrade and for $299 they rent me the HD receiver/DVR, 5 Lnb dish, and installation. That makes it a little more feasable as the equipment becomes obsolete, they get it back instead of me paying out $700 for a receiver, $100 for a dish, and $100 for install and end up with a box that I either put in my basement or throw away. I look at the $299 as an upfront rental fee. I pay $10/month for a digital cable box, and $2 for a remote from Comcast and no monthly fee from DirecTV for the equipment. That may not seem equitable but when the equipment lasts more than 2 years it becomes less expensive for DirecTV.
I do have a rather large screen (100 diagonal) and the difference in picture quality between cable and DirecTV is stunning. On my smaller sets I can still see the cable noise but it is not as annoying.
I have always enjoyed DirecTV with no complaints.

 

Time Warner's customer service does not really deserve its name (though it's still better than Comcast, but that does not mean much), and they are nickel-and-diming you to death. Their latest ploy is that when you subscribe to Road Runner, they will charge you a $3/month "modem lease fee". If you do switch to their service, consider buying your own cable modem instead; it will be cheaper in the long-run.

 

Wholeheartdedly