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[CFL] Soon to be new Central Florida BHN Customer - What to Expe

First, happy Labor Day! New to the forum and will soon be a new BHN customer. I am coming from DirecTV, which I must say I have been thrilled with (and honestly hate leaving). I am moving to a high rise apartment and it seems getting DirecTV is not possible. So I was hoping to ask this board what to expect with a switch to BH. I have been a long time RR customer.

So what STB should I make sure I get from the installer, if there is even a choice? How does the HD compare to D*if anyone knows? I realize there will be some trade offs and adjustments on my part.

Any thoughts, suggestions and questions are welcome. Thanks in advance!

Re: [CFL] Soon to be new Central Florida BHN Customer - What to

There are pros and cons when moving from Dish or Direct to Bright House.

Pros:
1) No more rain fade.
2) Service rarely goes out (in my case service has only gone out for a half day once due to a line cut, which was not the fault of BH)
3) BH picture quality is excellent and comparable to satellite.
4) BH doesn't have the number of HD channels as Direct, but they aren't far behind. Large variety of overall channels.
5) On Demand shows and movies. Good selection.
6) Customer service is excellent.
7) Request the Cisco Explorer 8642HD DVR it's a good unit. I do have to do a hard restart of it now and then as menus slow down but the restart fixes it for a while.
8) Bright House's Road Runner Lightning service is terrific. Speed tests consistently result in speeds higher than advertised. Best in Central Florida.

Cons:
1) Coming from Direct you will be disappointed in the BH programming guide or navigator as they call it. You can only view 1.5 hours of programming at a time as the guide as compressed into a box in the middle of the screen, leaving a large amount of blank space around it. No full-screen option. Black background with blue/grey font. Not easy to read for many. We are all hoping they fix it one of these days. If the guide is important to you, get a TIVO and a cable card to access the BH channels.
2) No tiered programming packages. You can order the standard cable package which is over 70 channels or the over 200 digital package. No in between package like Direct TV offers with multiple packages to chose from.
3) Separate channel numbers for SD and HD channels meaning a lot of channels to browse through, into the thousands. I suggest using the favorites feature to select the channels you want to appear in the guide to make it an easier browsing experience.

Overall Bright House is a good cable and internet provider and much better than Comcast Central Florida and AT&T's Uverse. They have some work to do to improve the user's viewing experience with a better guide and a combine SD and HD channels to one channel number like satellite does, but the pros outweigh the cons in my opinion. Excellent quality picture and good customer service is keeping me with them.

Thanks for the objective reply! It is very helpful.

Re: [CFL] Soon to be new Central Florida BHN Customer - What to

wbright,

Bright House has way more HD than Direct TV and Dish. Direct TV only might have more if you count all the RSN's.

It is also great to have all the HD in the same section.

Gator: You'll love BHN and we get some HD every quarter.

Cool. I will miss all the extra channels D* shows for sports, lie their tournament mix channels where they show 6 channels at once. And right now I am watching the Ferrer v. Tipsarevic tennis match where my mom can only watch the Federer match on ESPN2. But oh well. I guess I will survive. LOL!!!

Re: [CFL] Soon to be new Central Florida BHN Customer - What to

I agree it's nice to have all of the HD together, but it's nicer to have one channel number for each channel like on the satellite providers. Example TBS SD and HD is on the same channel. If you have a SD receiver is display in SD, if an HD receiver, it's in HD. So the line-up is much easier to browse with half the amount of channels. He asked for our thoughts and that is something I miss from being a satellite customer.

Re: [CFL] Soon to be new Central Florida BHN Customer - What to

Does anyone know if BH offers any deals to new TV customers? What is the best way to approach BH?

Also, I want to make sure I get the best DVR, so what should I make sure I get?

I currently have RR turbo service, but obviously, will need to add a TV package. I am not interested in phone service.

Thanks again for all the help and suggestions.

Re: [CFL] Soon to be new Central Florida BHN Customer - What to

Re: [CFL] Soon to be new Central Florida BHN Customer - What to

Ask for a technician and not a contractor. I've never had a good experience with a contractor. One of the happiest days of my life was when I discovered that you can specifically ask for a BH tech when needing home service.

OK, great. Thanks again!

Well as a current DirecTV customer here is what I can tell you.

I haven't seen this Cisco box that everyone talks about, but I will tell you my experience from the other BHN boxes I have seen, and the community can correct me where I am wrong.

but the other boxes that I have seen from Bright House were very slow to navigate, and the GUI was rather unfriendly compared to DirecTV.

Also, the per box cost is much higher than DirecTV. I personally have 5 DVRs in my house. To do that with BHN would be totally cost prohibitive EVEN with the triple play (quadruple play if you count the alarm).

I should add that I have HEARD (not positive it is true) - apartment buildings are supposed to allow for DirecTV hookups. I heard that they are not allowed to deny service.

Not sure how true that is.

There are Federal regulations that a landlord cannot unreasonably refuse a satellite hookup. See this site - »www.fcc.gov/guides/over-air-rece···ces-rule

The FAQs state in part:

Q: If I live in a condominium or an apartment building, does this rule apply to me?

A: The rule applies to antenna users who live in a multiple dwelling unit building, such as a condominium or apartment building, if the antenna user has an exclusive use area in which to install the antenna. "Exclusive use" means an area of the property that only you, and persons you permit, may enter and use to the exclusion of other residents. For example, your condominium or apartment may include a balcony, terrace, deck or patio that only you can use, and the rule applies to these areas. The rule does not apply to common areas, such as the roof, the hallways, the walkways or the exterior walls of a condominium or apartment building. For example, the rule would not apply (and thus would permit a restriction) that prevents drilling through the exterior wall of a condominium or rental unit and thus restrictions may prohibit installation that requires such drilling.

Q: Does the rule apply to condominiums or apartment buildings if the antenna is installed so that it hangs over or protrudes beyond the balcony railing or patio wall?

A: No. The rule does not prohibit restrictions on antennas installed beyond the balcony or patio of a condominium or apartment unit if such installation is in, on, or over a common area. An antenna that extends out beyond the balcony or patio is usually considered to be in a common area that is not within the scope of the rule. Therefore, the rule does not apply to a condominium or rental apartment unit unless the antenna is installed wholly within the exclusive use area, such as the balcony or patio.

So for me, it's likely the portable mast dish stand with cinder blocks holding it down and trying to run the connecting cable thru the sliding glass door from the balcony to the family room or go with Brighthouse.

I just wanted to thank everyone for the suggestions. I am signed up for service to be installed next week. No deals were offered except my Turbo gets bumped up to 30Mbs instead of the 20 I am supposed to get now.

The rep told me I may get a refurbished DVR and he can't tell me what model box I would get. Is there anyway to make sure I get a new, most current box? At least with D* I always got a new box when I had a new install. Refurbs were used when replacing a box under the service plan.

I would have considered a Tivo but the rep said that you can't get any PPV or on Demand programming with the cableCard/Tivo combo.

Anyway, thanks for all the help. I will post my impressions in couple of weeks.

Well, the move happened and BHN is installed. I don't know if it's because I am now in a multi-unit dwelling - a 10 story condo, but I can honestly say that BHN's HD is not close to Direct's in terms of quality. I've had the box replaced and the tech who came out and replaced the box (it's a used looking Cisco 8642 - said "it looks good to me". That was the end of story. If I had a 30-40" TV it might not be as noticeable, but unfortunately on my 60" TV it is pretty evident.

So I am going to consider other options I guess cause it seems as if this is as good as the picture is going to get. I don't know if Comcast will have a better picture or not. U-verse is not available here. So I'm probably stuck. I know it's only TV but for the money I am paying, I am truly disappointed.

I initially ran the DVR directly to the tv via HDMI. I now have it running through my receiver, again via HDMI. The picture is not nearly as sharp as I am used to. It's blotchy in many areas, like in facial shots. It used to be called clay face in the early days of HD. The picture pixulates, similar to what happens on Directv when a storm approaches. I thought cable didn't have that problem. But it's an overall softness of the HD picture, for lack of a better word.

Re: [CFL] Soon to be new Central Florida BHN Customer - What to

Make sure you have 1080 ONLY set on the box and as for the macro blocking thats a service issues and correctable.

Re: [CFL] Soon to be new Central Florida BHN Customer - What to

I confirmed that 1080p is the only resolution selected.

Still getting the macro blocking.