Regional Talk > Extended Pacific Northwest > AT&T Cable TV Trouble

reply to Meister_

Re: AT&T Cable TV Trouble

The cable companies can transmit digital signals from their head ends (tower/dish site) without a box in your house - when the new law takes effect it will be the consumers responsibility to have digital ready tv's in their homes and the box issue will no longer be a problem - they will however keep the boxes to control the premium and PPV (pay-per-view) events available because they are big money makers. In reference to the Sat vs Dish question - they are the same thing - the only difference is with digital cable the dish is at the headend and they have technicians to service them - with the Dish or Directv the dish is on your house and YOU are the service technician - in some cases the retailer where you bought your dish will promise service - but read the small print they charge on average $80.00 for a service call and they come at their leisure. Also with the dishes you must have a credit card and they will charge you for the first year even if you dont like the service and disconnect with them you still have to pay. On a good note the TIVO is a cool product.....

Scare tactics aside, I have had nothing but good luck with satellite, at a much lower price point than cable could EVER give me. The even better part? I get clearer, completely digital channels (even locals!) without the typical ghosting that occurs on the Seattle local channels.

Seattle's local channels ghost in most locations around King County because of the strong transmission towers in the region and the cable signal "bleeding" over each other, creating a small time shift in the signal (over the air travels at differing speeds than through the cable).

Also, even if you have "digital" cable through AT&T, your local channels are still broadcast to your house, through the cable in ANALOG. The upper tier channels may be completely digital - but any channel that you can split to another TV without a digital box from AT&T is in analog form (otherwise, how would your basic TV decode it?)

As for the scare tactics with billing, etc., don't forget that folks who work for the cable company often "troll" groups in an effort to boost support for their product - especially since they now consider themselves "broadband" providers (your mileage may vary - see KiroTV 7's story about the service issues from the cable giant).

If you want to continue to drop money in a huge, apathetic hole for cable and suffer less choice and inferior quality, feel free - it's your choice. Dumping money into a continuously underserved and non-competitive market (cable) is one way to "avoid" service contracts - but you as the consumer pay the price through late or unreachable service techs and lower quality transmissions at higher monthly rates.

Think about it though - isn't that even worse that having a service contract? I think so...

Pixel

REMEMBER: These are simply opinions.
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Up here in Seattle, we like the rain; it gives an excuse to get online and frag!

Hello all.

I would like to get the NFL Sunday ticket so I don't end up blowing $30 bucks at a Sports bar every sunday. However, I live in an apartment building with strict construction/modification rules, so I can't install digital satellite TV.

Does anyone know which digital cable company (if any) in the Seattle area will be carrying the NFL Sunday ticket?

Thanks.

NFL sunday Ticket was cornered by Direct TV