Cable Provider: Time Warner or Direct TV
I have had increasing trouble with Time Warner digital service and am thinking about the switch to Direct TV. Does anyone have thoughts on the two providers? If you have Direct TV how is the service?
I have had increasing trouble with Time Warner digital service and am thinking about the switch to Direct TV. Does anyone have thoughts on the two providers? If you have Direct TV how is the service?
got twc triple play, its advertised as 90 or 99 a month but the bills are coming out to 167 a month… I do have 3 tvs hooked up and one of the tvs is an hdtv so i ordered hdtv channels for it but didn’t realize i would be paying though the nose for it. Going to try direct tv or just cancel the hd service (but then have a expensive hd tv and no hd channels 🙁
Iris, thanks again for all of the helpful info. It’s very much appreciated. It sounds like the switch from TW is a no brainer. I’m actually more concerned about losing cable (Internet and TV) access than the phone – my cell is always a perfectly fine backup and I’m not a chit chatterer (despite my personality on this blog!)
remyching, thanks for your comments too. I guess the concensus is nothing sucks like TW. (NFL ticket…NICE!)
I run a custom A/V business and I can say that DirecTV has a significantly better HD picture than TW. I think in the city it it split too much. I am always seeing color-blocking on TW HD picture.
They also have far superior HD-DVR’s Every issues I have ever had is with TW’s hd-dvr. they are terrible.
I also have DirecTV at my house and love it (NFL ticket helps). Yes during bad storms I have lost a picture, but I do not have to deal with TW’s constant outages or bad customer service.
If your DirecTV picture is going out when there is not a storm, you may have an issue with the aiming of your satellite.
FIOS installation seemed to be a lot more complicated than cable; there’s a lot of hardware for one thing, at least out here in the burbs. A fairly large box was mounted to the outside of the house, a smaller box is attached to the wall inside. In addition to this, there’s a regular-looking cable box, and a router for phone and internet. Because I run a Mac, some experimentation was needed to sync up with my with my Aiport, but the installer was great. Whole process took about three hours. Only problem I’ve had in the past year has been with my phone, which goes out from time to time. (I’m not sure, though, that this is actually a FIOS problem, cause I get my VOIP through Vonage.) The TV picture is spectacular, and a big improvement from cable. Internet is also very fast, and consistently fast, unlike my old cable connection.
Iris, sounds like the only unanimously positive solution so far is FIOS. Thanks for the feedback. I’m going to sign up for it as soon as it’s available. I was considering DirectTV, but it sounds like it’s not much more reliable than TW.
How was the installation/conversion process to FIOS? Can you do your phone and cable through it? Any service issues so far with it?
Out here in NJ, Cablevision made me miss TW. Service was simply awful, with TV picture going out at least two or three times a week, extremely slow internet access and terrible customer service. As soon as FIOS became available I switched, and am very glad I did.
Boerumresident, thanks for the info. Every time TW fails (and I have to go through hell of calling them and sitting around for hours waiting for them), I swear to switch to something else. I’m not quite sure what you mean wrt FIOS killing your existing line for good and depending on a power source. With TW, I’m obviously dependent on a power source to keep the TVs on anyway.
We canceled TW after being fed up with them — lousy customer service and overpriced IMO (once the initial discount expires). We now use Directv and it works great — I’ve noticed interruption of the signal only once in the last 18 months.
The only problem with Fios that I have heard is that Verizon kills your existing line for good, which means that your landline going forward will be permanently dependent on a power source. If that doesn’t bother you, it’s probably worth checking out; after the last blackout I intend to stick with an old fashioned wire as long as possible.
gkw, I know that feeling, although I’ve never physically attacked the cable guy. I didn’t have problems like this until moving to the new place. If nothing else, at least others here are confirming I’m not the only one with TW issues that seemingly can never get fixed. Misery loves company…