 | | we're better Sounds like all the ads I hear here from Charter saying their DVR is 'better than Tivo'. They are saying that because they have a survey which shows people like their DVR more than they like Tivo. What they're not saying is who they gave the survey to. Their own employees? The guy who designed the Charter DVR? If anything was better than Tivo then Tivo would disappear, since it's subscription based and the knockoff DVRs aren't.
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What's certain about Darwinism is that it would take less time for (1) a single-celled organism to evolve into a human being through mutation and natural selection than for (2) Darwinists to admit they have no proof of (1) - Ann Coulter | |
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 |  fcislerPremium
join:2004-06-14
Riverhead, NY | Re: we're better It's also very dependant upon the AGE GROUP that they survey.
How about asking my dad the question? Show him the cable DVR (Cablevision, SA8300HD in this case). Hook it up and your done.
How about tivo? Hook it up to the DVR (or cable cards), then use a different remote - different layout - pay a FEE?
Guess which one my dad picks? The same as me, the cable company. | |
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| |  moko
join:2002-12-22
Fayetteville, GA | Re: we're better good point.......i agree | |
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| |  Anonymous_AnonymousPremium
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1
kudos:2
 ·RoadRunner Cable
·Comcast
 ·Time Warner VOIP
1 edit | said by fcisler:It's also very dependant upon the AGE GROUP that they survey. How about asking my dad the question? Show him the cable DVR (Cablevision, SA8300HD in this case). Hook it up and your done. How about tivo? Hook it up to the DVR (or cable cards), then use a different remote - different layout - pay a FEE? Guess which one my dad picks? The same as me, the cable company. fcisler do more research before posting
um the Cable co charges 3 fees
one to rent the box and DVR service fee that is about 30$(includes remote fee)
+or- 3$ | |
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| | | Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | Re: we're better No they don't. They roll up your rental, and DVR fee into one, and for Comcast it's $13's rounded up. | |
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| | | | Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: we're better don't forget the remote charge and the additional hd outlets fee.
At that point my comcast drv comes out to $24 and it just keeps freezing constantly. Not something I enjoy.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
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| | | | |  amarryatVerizon FiOS
join:2005-05-02
Marshfield, MA
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Re: we're better said by BosstonesOwn:don't forget the remote charge and the additional hd outlets fee. At that point my comcast drv comes out to $24 and it just keeps freezing constantly. Not something I enjoy. Which model is it? I had the SA8300HD and it was rock solid. I don't think it ever rebooted or had to be rebooted, at least not while I was using it. | |
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| | | | | | Reviews:
·Comcast
| Re: we're better moto 6412. Im on my 4th in 14 months I just gave up on it and am waiting for a chance to buy a new house in Verizon fios land.
Ill be sure to get a nice clear view of the sky as well so I have a shot at both dbs providers.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!" | |
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| | | | | | | amarryatVerizon FiOS
join:2005-05-02
Marshfield, MA | Re: we're better I'm on FIOS now, but had Comcast in a former Adelphia area, thus the SA boxes. So far the Verizon Motorola boxes are OK, but I have seen them get stuck and reboot themselves. Luckily only a couple of times in the 10 days I have had FIOS. | |
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| | | fcislerPremium
join:2004-06-14
Riverhead, NY | I get charged $10 more a month.
You go do your research. Because you get charged $30 with TW does not mean that i do with CV.
And my point about the remote was that I can still use my original cable remote - but tivo then gets screwed (IE: recording and I change the channel). THAT would happen frequently with my parents.
I don't want the tivo because i'm not paying a couple hundred dollars (several if I want HD and dual tuners) PLUS rent TWO cable cards - and not get any on demand features.
With the amount of times i've had the SA's die (the HD), I really would be screwed if I actually PAID for the unit.
Thanks - but no thanks. For my $10/mo, I will ALWAYS have the "latest and greatest". Now how much did you spend a year ago for the "top tivo". A couple hundred dollars? What's it worth now? $50?
My SA8300HD works great. When something new comes along, I will get it - for $0! | |
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| | | | said by fcisler:It's also very dependant upon the AGE GROUP that they survey. How about asking my dad the question? Show him the cable DVR (Cablevision, SA8300HD in this case). Hook it up and your done. How about tivo? Hook it up to the DVR (or cable cards), then use a different remote - different layout - pay a FEE? Guess which one my dad picks? The same as me, the cable company. Of course it a different remote did your tv remote control your sa dvr no you had to learn a different layout. Same as the tivo you will take a couple of days to learn the set up like you did with the sa remote.
Comcast dvr is $13.95 a month my Tivo sub is $12.95 plus there is a lot more that can be done with tivo then can be done with a sa box.
There survey bias to them since it was only taken using there customer's.
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Caddy | |
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| | |  NYR 56Premium
join:2000-12-05
Smithtown, NY | Re: we're better said by Caddyroger:Of course it a different remote did your tv remote control your sa dvr no you had to learn a different layout. The remote is actually nearly identical to the non DVR version. Tivo may have more features but the generic DVR is hands-down easier to setup/use. All this leads to is a coexistence which is beneficial to us. | |
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| | | Every sat and cable company I see that has a DVR service does it as a service that you pay for as well. I am not sure what the cost for TIVO is, but I know I play $8 a month (like an idiot) to be able use the DVR. | |
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| | | | Re: we're better said by Skippy25:Every sat and cable company I see that has a DVR service does it as a service that you pay for as well. I am not sure what the cost for TIVO is, but I know I play $8 a month (like an idiot) to be able use the DVR. I pay five dollars a month for the DirecTivo, but the standalone Tivo goes around $13 a month.
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What's certain about Darwinism is that it would take less time for (1) a single-celled organism to evolve into a human being through mutation and natural selection than for (2) Darwinists to admit they have no proof of (1) - Ann Coulter | |
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| | b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA Reviews:
·Comcast Formerl..
1 edit | If you watch for specials you can still get a lifetime subscribed Tivo.
It's not cheap, about the cost of three years of monthly service charges, but it is a one time fee for the life of the box.
Considering I bought my origonal Tivo in 2000 I came out ahead lifetime subscribing that one. So when I upgraded to an HD Tivo in November it seemed like a no brainer to transfer the lifetime subscription to it. | |
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| | | Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | Re: we're better What are the chances your Tivo will last 3 years? | |
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| | | | | | Re: we're better said by Ahrenl:What are the chances your Tivo will last 3 years? I'd say pretty good, considering my original TiVo circa August 2001 is still hooked up and running like a champ. | |
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| | | | | Ahrenl
join:2004-10-26
North Andover, MA | Re: we're better So there's one. I was thinking more of a % chance.
Considering it's essentially a cheaply made computer, running 24/7 under constant durress, (auto recordings, 20+ hours a week of play back) three years sounds like how long it takes a pre-built system to all but kick it. | |
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| | | | | | | | Re: we're better Mine died after about one year. But I put a new hard drive in it and it's been a champ ever since. | |
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| | | | b10010011Whats a Posting tag?
join:2004-09-07
Bellingham, WA Reviews:
·Comcast Formerl..
2 edits | said by Ahrenl:What are the chances your Tivo will last 3 years? Considering my original Tivo is 7 years old and still works, I would say pretty good. 
You have to consider, unlike cheaply made PC, a Tivo is designed to run 24/7. | |
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| | Satellite Every one knows you get more HD channels with satellite.. Fios will catch up in a few years, but satellite will always be #1..
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...Wicked Night Demon... | |
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| openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:2 | Re: Satellite I wouldn't say always. It's much quicker for Verizon to add capacity with their FiOS TV (once it's sufficiently deployed) than for a sat TV company to engineer, build, launch, and operationally test new satellites. | |
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 ropeguruPremium
join:2001-01-25
Mechanicsville, VA | This is what happens when marketing companies are not held in check. Remember back when commercials used to only state "compared to the leading brand"? Then, they actually started naming the other brands and the law suits have festered ever since. My opinion is that marketing companies that come up with these commercials and ads are some of the most immoral and unethical people around. Next to FCC chairmain Martin that is. 
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FWD#: 223611 | |
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 Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4
2 edits |  Comcast won if they can continue to use same commercals
»www.multichannel.com/article/CA6514715.html
the agreement lets Comcast continue to cite that survey, according to Comcast senior director of corporate communications Jenni Moyer. | |
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 kyler13Is your fiber grounded?
join:2006-12-12
Arnold, MD | So what's the point? Not surprising that Comcast would win such a comparison considering they pass on the native HD resolution instead of resampling like satellite. Most won't tell the difference, but cable HD is technically higher resolution, at least horizontally. My guess is that Comcast had the background to support the study, hence why the settlement doesn't bar the ad from continuing to run. I'll stick with terrestrial delivery to give me the full HD quality I'd expect. | |
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| boggaf05CCNA, SCVUPremium
join:2006-06-21
Gaffney, SC | Re: So what's the point? Comcast or satellite has to recompress their signals(not talking about resolution, but MPEG2 compression), any company has to do some recompression in order to get the signal on to their system, ex. any cable headend receives the national channels via satellite, which comes in as MPEG2, then they will change the signal to get it onto their system, using MPEG2 usually again. A good test of quality is to use an OTA channel without any subchannels then compare the same channel via sat or cable to see if there are any differences. I did this and found that DirecTV has higher quality than OTA of the same channels since DirecTV uses MPEG4 compression vs. MPEG2 which yields less compression artifacts and higher overall quality. | |
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| | | | Re: So what's the point? Not quite. DirecTV does use MPEG-4 now, and it looks superb, but it isn't as high of quality as an OTA feed. Close, but not quite. OTA is the best picture possible. | |
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| | | boggaf05CCNA, SCVUPremium
join:2006-06-21
Gaffney, SC | Re: So what's the point? OTA is MPEG2 which has more compression artifacts, when you have MPEG4 from the source to the customer the results are much cleaner. BUT this can also vary from area to area. | |
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| | krichek
join:2004-02-15
Roseville, CA | said by boggaf05:Comcast or satellite has to recompress their signals(not talking about resolution, but MPEG2 compression), any company has to do some recompression in order to get the signal on to their system, ex. any cable headend receives the national channels via satellite, which comes in as MPEG2, then they will change the signal to get it onto their system, using MPEG2 usually again. A good test of quality is to use an OTA channel without any subchannels then compare the same channel via sat or cable to see if there are any differences. I did this and found that DirecTV has higher quality than OTA of the same channels since DirecTV uses MPEG4 compression vs. MPEG2 which yields less compression artifacts and higher overall quality. Sorry but that is not always the case. Comcast in my area has a direct fiber link to the local stations. They do not re-encode that signal at all, it's identical to what I would pickup over the air. Where as at least in my area, I believe DTV actually picks the locals up over the air and re-encodes that to MP4. Whether you can see the difference or not is up to you, but certainly DTV's signal can't be better than Comcast's where I live. | |
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| | | boggaf05CCNA, SCVUPremium
join:2006-06-21
Gaffney, SC | Re: So what's the point? It all depends on the area, many DirecTV local links are fiber to direcTVs POP, some are microwave, but few are OTA, but in these cases I am talking about local HD feeds, many local SD feeds for direcTV are OTA. In my area SD and HD feeds of locals to DirecTV are fed via fiber or microwave, only one is OTA. And yes comcast has to recompress everybodys locals at the CTMS, but they can use an extremely high bit rate in their link from the local station then rematch their OTA bitrate at the CTMS, yielding identical picture quality. | |
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boggaf05CCNA, SCVUPremium
join:2006-06-21
Gaffney, SC | And not to forget.... This survey was commissioned when DirecTV was still accused of having HD lite, before the launch of their new HD channels and MPEG4 compression. Since then this has made this study a moot point now that there is no difference in the picture quality. Before the launch of the MPEG4 and additional capacity there was a noticeable difference in picture quality. | |
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| | Who's bettah? ok let's try this again... when I had comcast I was paying more and all I had were 14 HD Channels, now I have directV, It's 40 bucks cheaper, and I am getting 85 HD Channels.
3 HD TVs, 2 SDs... so what if I don't get public access channels. | |
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Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
| Wow, your 10 HD channels are so much clear... I get over 70. HD quality or HD capability?
Ok, I have DTV w/HD on my 50" plasma. I love it, and to me a few lines of horizontal resolution vs. the over 70HD channels vs. Cox's like 20, if that, who do you think wins?
Customer Service?
I'd like to see any of the cable co's try to sue over DTV's customer satisfaction. After two service calls to get a new dish properly setup DTV finally fixed my problem and gave me a nice credit plus an extra credit for the new receiver. Have to love that. DTV is most excellent with customer service over most any other company I've worked with (not just TV service).
Overall Quality?
Cox has always sucked on most local channels for me at my old house and trip after trip never fixed. The never even got it fixed for my parents after a new line, new box, etc... With DTV, as stated by the redhead, all you need is a clear view of the southern sky and you get excellent quality all the time. Albeit there is that rain cloud or two during the spring. When it gets signal, it never fails.
Enter FiOS?
I'm too pleased to switch from DTV to FiOS TV, but I've only heard good things and except Verizon billing, my FiOS internet has been perfect since day one (at least 4 solid months now, if not longer). I'm more curious to see how it does in hurricane season. Again, a simple generator for the food and tv and DTV is perfect, will FiOS work or will the hurricane shut it down until well after the storm (as it was for cable).
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»www.fairtax.org | |
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| | My take I've used Cox and Time Warner. Never had satellite for two good reasons.
Cox...charges you for EVERYthing. I mean they apply a fee for having HD service plus a fee for renting the box plus a fee for "Gateway" if you don't want the expanded tier, plus the basic cable, plus install fees. It's crazy. And on top of that the picture quality isn't even all that. My bill would be nearly $160 for their triple play and that wasn't even the best they had to offer. I think their best is nearly $180 NOT including HBO/Cinemax/Showtime or some 'premium' HD channels.
Enter Time Warner. I was nervous at first but slowly I see they run Cox in circles. My bill hasn't exceeded $120 a month for the triple play, which includes the box rental, HD service, and the fastest internet they have. Install was free, additional jack is free, it's great. One small fee for DVR service.
I thought about satellite but there are two things stopping me, which I DO NOT like.
1: They run hard credit checks and will deny you if there's something they don't like. They're not extending credit therefore they shouldn't be allowed to do this. Promotional inquiry to verify your address and identity? Fine. Reasonably additional deposit? Sure. But to outright deny you service just because you had one credit card that was late one time? Come on now - SDGE will give you service even if you have a bankruptcy and collection accounts. They just charge you a reasonable $75 deposit, which you get back plus interest.
2: They require credit card payment upfront each month for service. No. I like cable because they do it the way it should be done - the way ALL utilities should be done: Send me a bill, I'll pay it with the method I choose (be that money order, bank check, cashier's check, or credit card if allowed), when I choose (provided I'm not over the due date).
There are other issues - not liking an unwieldy dish out on my balcony, distorted service during storms or (my personal favorite) smoke-filled skies when people set fires out here, etc etc etc. | |
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|  antwanpBeyond FM, Beyond AM, XM Satellite RadioPremium
join:2002-05-14
Cedar Hill, TX | Re: My take Wow... Where do you get your info from? Yeah, DirecTV and Dish perform credit checks, but guess what, so does TimeWarner, Comcast, Cox, Suddenlink, etc... It sounds like to me that if your credit is that bad, you shouldn't be thinking about cable/satellite tv...
With my DirecTV service, I get a bill with options on how to pay it. Credit/Debit Cards, checks, and money orders are all accepted. I pay with online Bill Pay (which is just an electronic check...). Cable and Satellite both bill for services in advance. The only thing they would carry over would be PPV purchases.
You sir, just have a grudge against Satellite with no real reasoning...
-Antwan L. | |
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| | | | Re: My take I said HARD credit pulls. Time Warner and Cox never pulled a hard inquiry. They pulled a promotional inquiry. In fact, as I recall, Time Warner didn't pull credit at all. Now maybe that was a mistake, but I called and they set me up. I've got credit monitoring and never was any type of inquiry pulled.
My credit is good enough. I don't need some TV operator negatively affecting it when they're not *GASP* extending credit. | |
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| | | You're kidding right? 1. Hard credit checks? I'm sure that DirecTV doesn't deny service to someone who was late on one credit card payment. And they are extending credit - a bill that is due (for service in advance) is not considered late until after the service is rendered. Therefore, they are extending credit.
2. They absolutely DO NOT require upfront credit card payment each month. I pay my account using the bill pay feature from my credit union - I don't use a credit card to pay my DirecTV bill.
By the way - I used to have more problems with reception and outages from cable when it would drizzle let alone rain or snow.
I agree - Cox is terrible - they are considerably more expensive than I am paying for DirecTV. But FIOS and cable are both more than DirecTV with no where near the number of HD channels and both Cox and FIOS have totally inferior DVRs. | |
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