Emailed Comments

MT writes

I 'killed' my tv by not watching it.  We'd be rid of the instrument too, except for video games and netflix.

TVs make great monitors. LWP says

I love watching stuff on the computer -- I can skip or mute ads, watch what I want when I want.  So superior to TV.

Content providers directly over the web are gutting not only cable TV, but first generation services dependent on signal like TiVo. Newer TiVos cover the gap; CS writes

We never had cable, just a TiVo (Premiere now) on an antenna, and there are a lot of stations in Long Beach most in HD.  We use [TiVo] to watch older shows from Netflix too.

The house is 60 miles and two mountain ranges away from the transmitters that serve Long Beach and the Los Angeles metro area, otherwise the new simplified setup would include an antenna too.

FS says

 Yeah, we have TM-Basic and saw the Hi-Def (QAM-compatible) disappear and the nasty artifacts on analog appear. I pushed analog cable to every computer in the house using small cheap analog amplifiers and PCI tuner cards.  Everyone [...] [is used to] watching TV in a window on their computer and taping shows with Windows Media Center.

FS say putting D/A boxes for Time-Warner's signal no option. Another nail in TWC's over-priced coffin.

TWC has put out DH as well

I've had the same F#%!ing problem with the Time Warner service. I've had them out here 3 times last week but I still get fluctuations with the cable TV and (sadly) the Internet too. (The Internet has been just a little better the last few days.) I've got all the battle stories too trying to call TW and talk with tech support weenies; dropped calls, mis-information, long hold times, etc. - absolutely crazy.


If you see a guy in Front of Time Warner with a sign that says "Time Warner Sucks!" that's me!

Seems like things haven't improved much since 2008. DH is now looking into U-verse as well.




Finally, KT asks

What bandwidth are you getting now?


I have a friend who is thinking about the switch but was told the DVR function of uverse was lacking. Namely that you can't rewind a live show unless you are recording it. True, not true?

With the service upgrade, pretty stable around 12 Mbps.  No idea about the U-verse DVR's features as it went back in 2008 and AT&T keeps upgrading their software over the line.