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109

Eddie
@sbcglobal.net

Eddie

Anon

CableCard = Consumer Choice, Freedom From Lousy UI

I am fed up with the lousy user interface on my cable STB (I have TWC at one house and U-verse at another).

I had Tivo a few years ago at different house and the difference is beyond night and day.

Tivo is simple, elegant, intuative, and easy to use.

Compared to Tivo, the UI on the TWC and U-Verse devices is horrible. Seriously TWC -- to delete a show from your PVR is a totally convoluted process that can take up to 5 separate steps... and the box is sooo slow. Are you kidding?.... It's really crap.

Now that Tivo has come out with new "Roamio" box, I am going to dump cable/U-Verse box and get the new Tivo... primarily because of the _far superior_ UI. It also has more storage, 6 tuners, and lets you download content to portable devices. My TWC box has a small hard drive, 2 tuners, lousy interface, poor remote control etc

Of course, this means that I will need a CableCard because I am voting with my wallet for a better product and better user experience... that's what happens in a free market. Cable is a local monopoly that restricts choice, other products/services like Tivo bring choice to the market.... competition is a good thing for the consumer.

At the end of the day, this is all about money. Cable and IPTV providers give you a crappy user interfaces because they don't want to pay a license fee for a better service (to Tivo etc). Many have tried to "work around" relevant patents, but they've all ended up in court, and they've lost (to Tivo)... total waste of time and money (only lawyers win) that drives up the cost to consumers.

If TWC had Tivo UI, I would stick with them. Since they don't I will switch to Tivo, and ultimately may cut back on TWC channel bundle and switch to OTT providers such as Netflix and Hulu once everything is available to me in one unified user interface. Of course I will have to continue to pay TWC for broadband service, including a $50 surcharge for "extreme" speed.

I am guessing it would cost $1-2 per month per sub for TWC to license a better UI (which adds up when you have millions of subscribers. But they could stop paying for the crappy PowerTV interface, which I am sure is not free.

Unfortunately, instead of providing a better user experience to high value customers like me (~$250 bill per month) TWC will count on consumer inertia and continue to offer a crap interface and STB... this will drive people like me to buy Tivo (who then charge $15/month that could be going to the cable companies).

JimMcCoy
join:2011-08-20
Midlothian, VA

JimMcCoy

Member

What is the make and model of your box?

Eddie
@sbcglobal.net

Eddie

Anon

SA Explorer STB.

But its the crappy TWC PowerTV UI that's the problem... the box and poor remote control layout just make it extra slow...