Learning to Love the Cable Guy 291
An anonymous reader writes "The New York Times and C|Net are reporting on new good will gestures from big cable companies. As service monopolies increasingly became the norm, quality of service began to decline across the board. Now, though, with a number of alternatives cropping up, cable companies are beginning to realize the need to ensure customers say with the often imposing service companies." From the article: "[As] service has improved slowly as satellite providers, upstart phone carriers and cell phone companies have provided attractive alternatives. And now that cable and phone companies are starting to sell similar bundles of phone, broadband Internet and television products--known in the industry as a triple play--they risk losing subscribers forever if they do not keep them happy."
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Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Interesting)
And frankly, I'd like that option too.
Since Verizon has been adding cable TV to their FioS service, it is looking like a much better alternative to Cablevision/Optimum Online. Verison's phone and internet is already available on FioS in my area, and as soon as TV is there I'm probably going to switch. Hooray for competition!
=Smidge=
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Insightful)
You're still paying for them, though.
Probably not. The cable service probably would cost exactly the same with or without them. In fact, not including them might lose the cable companies some ad revenue and increase costs.
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Insightful)
The cable co is given a package of channels from the provider; the studios.
The studio says, if you want this "cool" channel, you have to take these "sucky" channels too.
If the cable co doesn't give you the sucky channels, the studio yanks their contract, and you don't get any channels.
So I assume from your post you'd be happy with an a-la-carte cable? Fine. You pay $5 and up for each of the channels you want (a common price point in most arguments). Pick your favorite 11 channels. Congrats. You are now paying MORE than I am with my 200 channels, non a la carte. But you have what YOU want, right?
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a common and completely arbitrary price point designed to advance a specific agenda, and even if it's accurate, it's an average. The problem is the cable companies have so long enjoyed monopoly status that they have no idea how to behave in a real market. In a real market that $5 price point may become $10 for the ESPN channels and $0.10 for the Pass-The-Loot channels - they may even pay you to watch it. Of course. with proper IPTV the cable companies will become what they deserve to be - providers of bandwidth - and the only people who matter in this arguement - the customers - will get everything better, cheaper and faster. But, first the FCC has to pull their collective head out and begin trying to enforce actual markets, without monopoly status, in all their domain.
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What an awesome idea! A TV channel crammed with so many ads and really cheap content that they pay you to watch it. If you could get $1/month by adding it to your station subscription, why wouldn't you? Maybe the stipulation would
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't have 11 favorite channels. I have two. (There were three before TechTV bit the dust.)
A la carte would be a nice option for people like me.
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Exactly. Moreover, this might or might not be legal.
A year or two ago, when Dish Network and Viacom talks broke down, Dish Network pulled all the Viacom channels. [slashdot.org] They eventually settled, but one of Echostar / Dish Network's biggest bargaining chips was a pending lawsuit claiming that Viacom was engaged in monopolistic trade practices. Namely, as the sole provider of products such as Comedy Central, Viacom has a
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:4, Informative)
In addition, often times the content providers write into the cable companies contracts bundling requirements. For example, if a given tier includes ESPN, then it must also include ABC Family (not necessarily true for those exact two channels, but the idea is true). So in those cases, your cable company is contractually forbidden from selling you just one of the channels.
This comes up all of the time, and the situation hasn't changed.
Not just that... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Interesting)
You're still paying for them, though.
I very highly doubt that. I have C-Band satellite (the huge dish type) without a paid subscription except for Comedy Central, SciFi and Cartoon Network.
Despite not having a subscription to the religious or shopping networks, I can get them, even if all my subscriptions lapes, they still come through. That type of channels are unencrypted, meaning that I don't have to buy a subscription to watch them. I doubt that the cable systems are giving those networks any money.
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Interesting)
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You sound pretty cool. Wouldn't you like a bridge named after Stephen Colbert to grace your country?
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:4, Informative)
The cable companies _could_ make everything digital only over night but they risk bricking millions of TV's that have just analog tuners and no cable card support. I suspect that once analog channels go the way of the Dodo bird, a la cart programming will be a possibility, but at that point the broadcast flag could also become possible.
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And the cable company making more money off of certain customers is a bad idea why? Look at what you wrote and tell me there's not something else going on, because if the alternative is more revenue then there's no economic benefit for the cable companies not to offer a la carte. Surely you're not suggesting they're holding it back as a favor to their customers' wallets
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Here is one, how do they filter the analog channels you don't subscribe to at each home? The analog package "basic cable" tends to be all or nothing for a reason. When you get into digital channels they _can_ do a la carte (HBO, Showtime, playboy etc.) but they chose to offer non-premium digital channels in packages. They bundle digital channels in packages mostly for marketing and billing reasons, once the analog channels go away they may o
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Not quite necessary. CableCard simply isn't needed if they trashed analog and tiered the digital channels so that they could filter the channels like they used to for lifeline/basic/etc. Many new (released this year) TVs today support unencrypted QAM, meaning that they will show unencrypted digital channels, and CableCard TVs should be able to show these channels. This includes the local channels in HD in most areas, and if the
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Bullshit. Australian cable companies have done this from year dot (I believe about 1997?). If they can do it (and they've only recently switched to digital) why can't America? Isn't Australia suppose to be less advanced then America?
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For example, cable companies get paid to carry the home shopping channel and if you drop it you will end up paying more for the other chans.
Alright, then give customers a corresponding credit onto their bills for every shopping/infomercial channel I take--problem solved.
But that wasn't really the problem was it?
-Grym
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Who ever said that the credit had to be the same as the price as a regular channel?
Imagine if the shopping channels credited one tenth of the price as the average channel debited. With a minimum number of regular channels of even five, you'd need FIFTY shopping channels to make the net price zero. I don't even think there are fifty infomercial/shopping channels, but it doesn't matter because the providers will know and can EASILY design a system that can account for this specific case with those two sim
Be careful what you wish for... (Score:2)
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I'd rather pay more for things that I want and enjoy than continue to support mediocrity. Hell, that might be the only way to get rid of Fox News.
I'd also like for the cable channels to see what would happen to their demographics if they moved to a more free-
It's possible that wouldn't work for our benefit (Score:2)
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If you have the time for tele, instead of shunning it work out if the best package you can get is worth it to you. If your cable provider allows, block the channels you don't like. If it's legal get a PVR and only tape what you actually want to watch.
There's some amazing stuff on the cable doco channels where I live and best of all bec
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Many thanks to all the posters for a commercial free viewing experience.
No... I don't feel guilty.
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You're only getting spammed if you have to flip through the channels and every modern TV/Tuner can edit channels.
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Slashdoters have bemoaned the quality of "popular" programming like survivor, Dr. Phil, and Friends for time immemorial. If a la carte programming were to become the norm it is my opinion that the more esoteric channels would either be more expensive, or unavailable. Basically eliminating bundling would also eliminate indirect subsidies for a lot of less popular, but wholly worthwhile channels.
If I had to guess if the free m
Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Funny)
Ummm, I'm gonna guess it's something involving some beer, a pickup, and a gun?
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> Ummm, I'm gonna guess it's something involving some beer, a pickup, and a gun?
So you think he's going to have sex or...?
Just kidding.
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Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:5, Funny)
Ummm, I'm gonna guess it's something involving some beer, a pickup, and a gun?
I was thinking more like a pig, some vaseline, and a pack of Marlboros.
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The cable companies are already simulcasting several channels as both analog and digital to support "legacy" users who are using no set top box (ie, the analog tuner in your TV). The cable companies could drop these analog channels in many systems pretty much over night, but it would force all the users to either get a set top box for every TV, or go buy new TV's with digital tuners and cable card support. So the cost to this decision woul
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Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? (Score:4, Informative)
Cable card capability was here... and the feature (which was a slight price markup) is disappearing from production sets, on the basis that consumers as a whole, really don't care. Congress and the FCC doesn't design and market technologies well.
Cable Card 2.0 has been spoken of, with additional features.
Cox cable (Score:2)
As soon as feasible, dropping the cable TV and going to satellite.
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Did Cox attempt to do anything to fix it? About 6 months after I moved house, my cable Internet connection (Comcast) became very unreliable. I had moved less than one mile, so it was clearly a local problem (the cable Internet was rock solid at the old house). The cable company sent someone out and he found that the original installer had put a curve in the cable wit
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how to skip their BS (Score:2)
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Daily calls to the help desk, elevated to the supervisor, elevated to his supervisor. One time, I had a fleet of trucks outside. Everything from the box at the curb, all the way to my monitor, was replaced. I had the private cellphone number to at least two service techs.And yes, it was the neighborhood, and not my specific house.
The problem appeared to be a repeate
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Soudns almost exactly like a problem I had with Comcast when I first moved into my house. The previous owners used a dish for TV, and since the house is just out of DSL range I have to assume they used dialup for an internet connection. That's relevant because when I moved in I switched everything over to cable (cable TV, cable internet, screw the phone line). During
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Precisely. I had a tech visit almost weekly. One evening, I'm on the phone with the helpdesk guy, and I told him "The signal will drop offline sometime in the next 20 minutes." And about 15 mins later...poof, no connection. After 6 months of me doing their troubleshooting, I gave up and went to Verizon.
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Right. And that's what I told them, time and time again. But for whatever reason, they seemed not able to, or not interested enough, to fix it. I could not continue to pay for a service that I was getting only 50% of the time. One time, I asked the tech guy..."If you can home every day, and there was a 50/50 chance of your lights not working, you'd be pretty pissed, right? Or every morning when you took a shower, there was a 50/50 chance
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I had a similar experience here a few years ago when I moved in and [my] local cable company came to hook things up. Turns out that one of their local competitors had done some really shoddy wiring - using sub-spec connectors and hard bends (the coax was visibly crimped at two points where it didn't need to be) and after they pulled new cable thru it actually exceeded the promised specs [ "oh, we need to have the office slow this down some" - they never did]
If the cable installer d
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Drop it now, it's good. I've had Dish Network for a couple years now and haven't had any problems with it. During bad storms (common in teh summer as I'm in FL) the signal can get lost, but that's the only time there's an issue.
I can save at least $30 a month going to dish (Score:3, Interesting)
A shame cable's fixed costs are so much higher than sucking a signal down from the sky, I don't see how they'll compete on price.
Screw cable (Score:5, Informative)
Case in point: recently they upgraded my service from 10mbit / 2mbit to 15mbit / 2mbit. To do this, they had an unannounced, planned outage for 6 hours starting at midnight on a Friday night. I called and had to talk to someone before I could even verify that my service was interrupted, the person said that it was their policy to not announce these things since security systems might rely on the cable connection, and they wouldn't want potential thiefs to know when to strike. Oh, and even if they DID announce them, no one would listen (if it was on a web page) and they might not have the $(cable_company)'s email account so they couldn't use that either. Great, so now I can't find another way to protect my home (if my security system uses the cable internet / phone service), way to go guys.
The worse one though: If I use "more than my reasonable amount" of upstream bandwidth, I'll have said bandwidth capped to 20kbyte/s. I've had this happen to me, I called and they said they'd reply to this issue within 24-48 hours. 117 hours later (and three phone calls from me counting the first) they called me back and said that they sell "burst, not stream". They couldn't explain that any better, but said that long connections were against the rules and that games like World of Warcraft (I asked specifically) were ways to get capped. I apparently need to take a break every so often or else I'll have my connection throttled?
A friend has it happen to him, he actually got numbers out of the person. Outgoing connections (wtf?) can't last more than 20 minutes or else risk being capped, so he set his bittorrenting (probably not at all legal either
Screw cable, when they pull crap like this.. Now if only DSL here in America (Fairfield County, Connecticut especially..) didn't suck.
Re:Screw cable (Score:4, Informative)
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or we can get low-latency (ping times 17ms to some locations) DSL at $28 for the highest tier (6/768).
Neither have transfer limits/quotas/throttling. I haven't checked but I believe there are competing DSL carriers on many exchanges as well. They are reliable in my area, and usually send out a technician the next day if you have a pro
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World of Warcraft is relatively low bandwidth, I've seen my friend's bandwidth charts when him and his wife were both raiding at the same time. Didn't go very high at all. I can't imagine that duration the connection has been open matters more than the amount of da
And this just proves it. (Score:4, Interesting)
I think that the same can be extrapolated for Microsoft, don't you?
Duopolies may not help (Score:2)
Meanwhile, my dad is still on dialup even though he can get competing broadband from his phone company and his cable company. The problem is how to decide, because he can't figure out which he loathes more. If either shows glimmers of decent service he'll probably sign up.
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The problem is, many small businesses can't string cable/phone/power lines to your house. In this case, economies of scale DO come into play. Or, we could play the game of 'monthly dig up the front yard while some new small business strings a cable to my neighbor'.
One power line, one phone line, one coax line.
Cable blows (Score:5, Insightful)
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Comcast's video quality is pretty terrible, but at least I get marginally high-definition content without having a gigantic antenna on top of my home.
Is the cable service TERRIBLE everywhere? (Score:2, Insightful)
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Most companies will narrow it down to a 4 hour window. They can't be 100% exact because the tech has other appointments during the day and there's no way to know
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I called them. Politely. They said they were coming.
An hour later I called them again, slightly irritated. They said they were coming.
A half hour later I called them and let
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Or maybe you'll allot a 2hr time period to every service call. That way, techs that got done in 10 minutes have a 210 minute window for downtime. In which case they can drive back to your office with mileage being low on a truck, and gas being $3/gallon. Or maybe he can just take a break, you
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Service Providers (Score:4, Insightful)
I had Verizon for years, but I pretty much had to have them. There are 2 local cable companies in my area, but neither had 2-way cable going to my house. So it was get the phone and the cable service, or just get DSL from Verizon who already supplied my phoneline. Now there are numerous other ISP with DSL, but you need to get a Verizon line, because they are all subcontracted for the fibers. So I told everyone to just forget the alternative and just go with Verizon. You only had to call Verizon, not the Cable company and then Verizon. It ended up being cheaper anyhow. Then the cable companies got moving (and so did I), and now I have 2-way cable and no phone. Its more then Verizon DSL, but now Verizon doesn't offer DSL in my area. I don't have the outages I used to have with DSL, and the cable company is there that day to fix the line if there is a problem. The cable company is one of the oldest anywhere, but its small and has good customer service.
So what has been bothering me about this whole thing? I want the service, and I don't care what the infrastructure looks like. I want to connect to the internet really fast. So I don't care if its DSL or Cable. I always thought there was a better way to deal with the infrastructure, but all I could ever come up with was government run telecommunication lines, kind of like the national roadways. A system not owned by a company, and one which any service provider could use. The problem being this smacks of communism/socialism, and even beyond the political ideals we all know what the roadways look like. I don't know what a pothole looks like on the internet, but its probably got Paris Hilton in it. The government, without another competitor, will probably take forever to fix the problems, and never completely fix it right which returns me to the previous problem.
So what are we left with? I guess I'll stick with my 2-way cable until something better comes along, because at least its better then dial-up. One day everything will be wireless and million little bits will be whizzing by my head, and give me a tumor.
Selex
My two cents regarding this (Score:2)
1) I am sick and tired of poor quality television on cable. If I understand how it works, analog would be a better quality picture than digital. When digital loses some info, it really messes up the screen. This happens to much and makes me yearn for yesteryear's age of television.
2) Two tier pricing system based on the customer's income. The rising cost of these packages needs to be offset f
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Digital television looks worse than a strong analog signal simply because of the low bitrate compression they use. I don't have issues with signal quality on my connection, and analog TV looks better than the digital channels unl
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What we need are state laws mandating that any company which provides telephone and/or Internet access to more than 50,000 households must provide stuff like this...
1. 20% discount on the estimated telephone and Internet cost if someone can furnish proof they are low income (such as being on foodstamps, cash assistance, medical assistance, etc.) Estimated cost could be based on the price it would be
Too late. (Score:2)
The only
Was I the only one who found this intro strange? (Score:2)
Um... What was this writer thinking the cable companies were going to do to attract business?
The upshot of this is that ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Too bad that the FCC doesn't understand something so basic to any economy. Somebody in law enforcement really should take a look at the Commissioners' bank records for the past few years.
Main Problem: I can't build a cost-effective PVR (Score:4, Informative)
1. Onscreen guide with no ads showing only the channels I actually receive
2. Ability to record as much video as the hard drives in the box will hold
3. Multiple tuners so I can watch and record a couple different channels simultaneously.
I would also optionally like the ability to record HDTV content in the anticipation that someday I will have an HDTV.
I do not want to do a single illegal thing with my DVR. I want to do timeshifting of programs. That's all. I promise I will not even copy them to my computer or share them with friends. This is a purely selfish project.
I can get a dual-tuner DVR from my cable company for $SMALLNUM per month, but they've recently put ads on my non-DVR box's guide, won't show me just the channels I get (instead of channels I don't get, which are an ad for those channels), have limited storage capabilities, and a maximum of two tuners.
Unfortunately, it's 100% impossible to build such a box - at least, not cost effectively. In my area, they've basically cut analog cable service down to channels 2-13, plus eight bible stations, five home shopping stations, and ten foreign language stations. So, if you want to watch, say, Mythbusters, you MUST subscribe to digital cable. You have no choice.
I could get a decoder card that can decode a digital cable signal, which may or may not work, depending on whether my cable company has decided to encrypt the signal. If I'm extraordinarily lucky, I will be able to decode basic cable, but I will not be able to ever decode a premium channel like HBO. Even if I'm lucky, my cable company could (without notice) decide to encrypt the channels at any moment.
But but but, you say, CableCARD is coming, and that will let you get three CableCARDs for your three tuner boards and then build your ultimate DVR! Ah, if this were true. Sadly, it looks like you won't be able to install CableCARDs in anything the Cable company doesn't sell or authorize. Oops.
The only reasonable option is to rent one cable box per tuner. For a three tuner system, I'd need three digital cable boxes. Even if I were willing to pay the exorbitant monthly fee, then I will only be able to record HDTV from a small number of channels and not premium channels. And then only if I get the cable box that already has a DVR built in, because that's the one with the firewire port on it.
As much as it sucks, the DVR from the cable company gives me a two-tuner DVR that can tape all my premium channels, even HDTV programs, directly off the digital signal (i.e., I don't even believe it's turned into analog as it would be in a MythTV setup) with a single box. This is just plainly unacceptable.
If anyone has a good alternative for me or will point out something I'm missing, PLEASE let me know.
Is it just me ... (Score:2)
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rj
Re:Too little, too late. (Score:5, Insightful)
But as I grew up, I just started to watch less and less. I'd occasionally find a show that was worth watching, but it was a rarity.
Now, well, I still watch some, but not really much. Mainly just Cartoon Network for certain anime shows, or something like The Venture Brothers. I'll often keep Comedy Central on just to listen to the Daily Show and Colbert Report as I do something else.
I don't know whether I've grown up (slightly) or if TV has just dumbed down (or both, or we've just become more aware of just how dumb it is), but it's hard to actually devote the effort to actually watch a show when you have better things to do with your spare time. Hell, even if it's just browsing forums for links to news articles or searching Wikipedia, I actually feel LESS insulted on the Internet than I do watching TV.
It's a rather round about way of me saying, basically, that Cable companies need to wake up and learn that they can't just overcharge people for the same crap year after year. It gets old, and some people, albeit maybe not the majority and not all at once, will find alternatives. "What do you mean if I just want 5 channels, I need to order another 45? No way." This is especially true since now even if you don't get a station for that one show you like, you can most likely just find it on YouTube or DVD.
So I just offer them this message: Stop overcharging and forcing people to buy things they don't want, or people will find alternatives, or even, gasp, go without!
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But on the other hand, I rece
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As for other programming, it's not so terrible. Recently I've enjo
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But let's be honest here. If *Cable Company X* wants your dollar, it still has to work for it. If Microsoft wants it... well, it might cost them $5, but dammit, they're going to get yours, anyway. Ah well.
Re:Too little, too late. (Score:4, Insightful)
I know plenty of very smart people (scientists, high-level civil servants etc.) who enjoy TV, even though I personally find very little of it worth watching. Brainless entertainment aids relaxation, provides conversation, or just plain alleviates loneliness - are you saying my grandmother (novelist, historian, honorary doctorate) has an IQ of 79? She can certainly write rings around you.
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a la cart is the way to go, I would be happy with a couple of local network stations, some news channels, and about 5 others.
I find myself watching more entertaining stuff on the net and pbs - which I can get HD over the air for free. Now that DSL speeds are >1MB/1MB for $25/month - I'm dropping cable. I seriously d
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Actually, I am seeing a lot more people dump paid TV. Usually it happens with a move... For some reason, they can't get cable before move in, and after a while they don't bother. The best thing, out of all of this, however, is that now there is true competition on TV, phone, and net. Since price is about the same, and the product is a commodity, service will have to improve. Content, on the other hand, seems to be falling in all mediums.
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They should have mandatory Pon-Farr, too!
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I personally think the worst chanels are the discovery chanel and history chanel. They really give a skewed version of history and science (mostly crime, war, cars/guns in that order). The difference with the edu-tainment chanels is that they pretend to be real education but are far from it. The
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I have a SA 8300HD (running the Passport OS, which is supposed to work better than Scientific Atlanta's SARA OS).
In nearly three months of having the box, it's only crashed 3-4 times total -- and never when I was actually watching something (only when I was wasting my times on the stupid card games or surfing channels).
They recently updated the firmware to support the eSATA port as well.
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