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Charlotte, NC - TWC - Page 239

post #7141 of 7469
11/16/11 at 9:36am
Ha!..someone finally noticed it! Tho I have been complaining quite often and loudly about the rate and PQ for some time now. Especially since they have ~5 mb of null stuffing being wasted.

That also allows me to know whether they are on the fiber feed or the antenna...
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post #7142 of 7469
11/16/11 at 9:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcalabria View Post

Woke up to all four boxes updated .

I noticed a video input alarm on my QAM modulator this am is how I knew something had changed. Mine came back with no video only audio on Nooz14,
and had power it off/on to restore.
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post #7143 of 7469
11/16/11 at 4:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcalabria View Post

Woke up to all four boxes updated from 4.1.0_7 to 5.0.0_6. No discernible differences on the face of things.

Only update issue was that the 8640 did not re-establish connection to the SDV server after the update (confirmed in diagnostics) and needed to be rebooted, after which the connection to the SDV server was restored almost instantly. Before I rebooted, most SDV channels (which is just about all of them here) were off-line except those in the carousel, despite having been running post-update for almost three hours. The two 3260s and the 4250 had updated and reconnected to SDV server with no issues.

When I turned on the bedroom 8642 this morning it came up on channel 1, always a sign that something was updated.
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post #7144 of 7469
11/16/11 at 7:39pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rdgcss View Post

When I turned on the bedroom 8642 this morning it came up on channel 1, always a sign that something was updated.

The more recent channel guides look like they're trying to quietly re-map Channel 1 to Channel 100.
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post #7145 of 7469
11/16/11 at 10:40pm
Just switched from Dish Network back to TWC, hadn't planned on keeping cable for anything but Internet, but they offered me that WinBack promo to switch from Dish. I got Triple play plus HD DVR and HD Box for $79.99 a month for 2 years. I upgraded to Road Runner Extreme for $20 extra, so my total is $99.99/month. They even waived all installation fees, couldn't pass that up! Been a while since I've had TWC, but the compression is up and the boxes are still slow. But I love my 30Mbps internet They had to come to my house twice, the first time they didn't have enough fittings, but they were 2hrs late both times so I got two $20 On Time Guarantee credits.
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post #7146 of 7469
11/17/11 at 6:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmccurrytech View Post

Just switched from Dish Network back to TWC, hadn't planned on keeping cable for anything but Internet, but they offered me that WinBack promo to switch from Dish. I got Triple play plus HD DVR and HD Box for $79.99 a month for 2 years. I upgraded to Road Runner Extreme for $20 extra, so my total is $99.99/month. They even waived all installation fees, couldn't pass that up! Been a while since I've had TWC, but the compression is up and the boxes are still slow. But I love my 30Mbps internet They had to come to my house twice, the first time they didn't have enough fittings, but they were 2hrs late both times so I got two $20 On Time Guarantee credits.

How long were you on Dish? I am paying $225 and in this economy I can't justify it. Just wondering how long I would have to be on Dish before I could qualify for the WinBack?
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post #7147 of 7469
11/17/11 at 6:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rcase13 View Post

How long were you on Dish? I am paying $225 and in this economy I can't justify it. Just wondering how long I would have to be on Dish before I could qualify for the WinBack?

I'm doing 2 year flip flops between Dish, DirecTV and TWC. Also, my bill generated today, they actually got it right! I was so worried about them fudging it up. By the looks of the way they billed it you could have just one box on the deal for $67.71, but I don't know how that works, I'm happy with the deal I got.

MONTHLY CHARGES
11/30-12/29 Digital Cable, Road Runner and Digital Home Phone Unlimited
Nationwide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67.71
Includes unlimited local and long distance calling within
the United States, and U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico.
11/30-12/29 Digital Cable (1 additional TVs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.35
11/30-12/29 DVR Service (1 TVs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.93
11/30-12/29 Movie Pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.95
11/30-12/29 Sports Pass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.95
11/30-12/29 RR Extreme 30x5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
$109.89
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post #7148 of 7469
11/18/11 at 4:47am
I think my neighbor does this switch as well. It seems like I see a different vendor in his drive way everyday.

My wife would never let us go back to Sat so I am stuck with cable.

Right now we only have one problem. Our recordings end about 1 to 2 minutes early. If I tell it to record over by 5 minutes it causes a conflict if the next hour has both tuners tied up. What can we do to fix this? We end up watching the end of shows at the start of another show. If nothing is recording in the next hour we miss the last few minutes of a favorite show.
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post #7149 of 7469
11/21/11 at 10:16pm
What happened to HBO HD On Demand?
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post #7150 of 7469
11/28/11 at 6:32pm
http://www.multichannel.com/article/...Basic_Tier.php
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post #7151 of 7469
11/28/11 at 6:51pm
On or about December 7th, the following additions are planned for the Digital Tier: TV Guide Network ch 331, Ovation HD ch 1326, Style HD ch 1357, Fox Soccer Channel HD ch 1511 and Sundance HD ch 1628 (will also be available with Movie Pass).

Game Show Network HD and Gospel Music Channel HD have been omitted
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post #7152 of 7469
11/28/11 at 10:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmccurrytech View Post

On or about December 7th, the following additions are planned for the Digital Tier: TV Guide Network ch 331, Ovation HD ch 1326, Style HD ch 1357, Fox Soccer Channel HD ch 1511 and Sundance HD ch 1628 (will also be available with Movie Pass).

Game Show Network HD and Gospel Music Channel HD have been omitted

That is weird because my TWC division is adding GSN HD and announced it last monday as to be added.
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post #7153 of 7469
11/29/11 at 6:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ke4pym View Post

http://www.multichannel.com/article/...Basic_Tier.php

So Clear QAM would be gone and everyone would need a set-top box? If that's the case, it might just be the final straw that makes me cancel my cable service completely and invest in a good antenna.
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post #7154 of 7469
11/29/11 at 6:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gedd View Post

So Clear QAM would be gone and everyone would need a set-top box? If that's the case, it might just be the final straw that makes me cancel my cable service completely and invest in a good antenna.

There essentially is no ClearQAM now except for broadcast channels - that is unlikely to change. It's the analogs that would be gone.

I do, however, agree with your conclusion... forcing STBs for secondary outlets will negate one of the competitive advantages cable has historically held over other multichannel providers. With that edge gone, it's sure not the picture quality that will keep subs in the cable fold, at least not what it's degraded to here in Charlotte over the past 9 months or so.

Every day it seems to get easier and easier for me to realistically consider jumping to DirecTV after having Vision Cable/TWC service since 1977. The biggest obstacle is no longer TV-related... it's high-speed internet service... and I think TWC is aware of that "edge" and is counting on it.
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post #7155 of 7469
11/29/11 at 9:22am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcalabria View Post

There essentially is no ClearQAM now except for broadcast channels - that is unlikely to change. It's the analogs that would be gone.

I do, however, agree with your conclusion... forcing STBs for secondary outlets will negate one of the competitive advantages cable has historically held over other multichannel providers. With that edge gone, it's sure not the picture quality that will keep subs in the cable fold, at least not what it's degraded to here in Charlotte over the past 9 months or so.

Every day it seems to get easier and easier for me to realistically consider jumping to DirecTV after having Vision Cable/TWC service since 1977. The biggest obstacle is no longer TV-related... it's high-speed internet service... and I think TWC is aware of that "edge" and is counting on it.

Has the PQ really gotten that bad?

As far as TWC counting on HSD to save their hides, I think, by the numbers, they see people leaving video and keeping internet. I'd have to go pull the numbers, but the last report I saw on Broadbandreports.com was that it is pretty obvious what some people are doing now.

Until such time as the cable operators in general give up on analog, increase their plants to +1GHz, kill SDV, and embrace MPEG4 things won't get better. But they won't do those things. Because it costs too much money. Well, except for perhaps getting rid of analog. That'll save them money.
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post #7156 of 7469
11/29/11 at 11:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ke4pym View Post

Has the PQ really gotten that bad?

As far as TWC counting on HSD to save their hides, I think, by the numbers, they see people leaving video and keeping internet. I'd have to go pull the numbers, but the last report I saw on Broadbandreports.com was that it is pretty obvious what some people are doing now.

Until such time as the cable operators in general give up on analog, increase their plants to +1GHz, kill SDV, and embrace MPEG4 things won't get better. But they won't do those things. Because it costs too much money. Well, except for perhaps getting rid of analog. That'll save them money.

It is as far as I'm concerned... but I may be more sensitive/critical than the average customer is. I know this because I will make note of things I see and other folks I'm with will not have noticed them previously (but do see them once I point them out).

By far, WTVI is the worst (as bad or worse than WBTV was earlier this year before they fixed it), but WCCB, Showtime, WSOC, Discovery and a few others are particularly bad. I see artifacts on virtually every camera pan or scene cut - hell, even fades to black block up much of the time. On WTVI and WCCB (worse on WTVI), I can see relatively static shots start to block up until the next full frame is transmitted... ends up looking like the picture is pulsing. I see it on all of my TVs, with or without STBs, and I see it at friends houses throughout Charlotte. I have good signal level and S/N, and bit error counts as reported in the STB diagnostics are virtually always zero. It is bit-starvation introduced at the headend, pure and simple... and it was not happening to anywhere near this extent prior to the beginning of this year.

I still record my full complement of series as a backup, but I watch what I can "On-Demand" because the compression artifacts are better there than it is on the regular channel. Hell... Hulu+ 720P streaming has less compression artifacts than the above channels have.

Regarding your comment about killing SDV... SDV has no direct effect on PQ - bit rate allocations and clamping points can be set for those just as they can on a linear channel. All else being equal, SDV should, in fact, help PQ because even the low bit-rate allocations we have now would not be possible if all channels were running concurrently. For sure SDV can introduce command and control issues (which I, for one, virtually never see), but whether a channel is delivered on a linear or switched basis has no direct connection to PQ.
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post #7157 of 7469
11/29/11 at 11:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcalabria View Post

It is as far as I'm concerned... but WCCB, Showtime, WSOC, Discovery and a few others are particularly bad. .

I have complained quite often and loudly about the quality on WCCB on TWC..tho it has gotten better of late..it still is NOT where I think it should be.

Also.. be advised..performing software and firmware updates in our +60 encoders and +20 multiplexors for our 7 stations that are controlled out of here in the next few days..so you may see a disruption or two with WCCB..
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post #7158 of 7469
11/29/11 at 2:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcalabria View Post

It is as far as I'm concerned... but I may be more sensitive/critical than the average customer is. I know this because I will make note of things I see and other folks I'm with will not have noticed them previously (but do see them once I point them out).

By far, WTVI is the worst (as bad or worse than WBTV was earlier this year before they fixed it), but WCCB, Showtime, WSOC, Discovery and a few others are particularly bad. I see artifacts on virtually every camera pan or scene cut - hell, even fades to black block up much of the time. On WTVI and WCCB (worse on WTVI), I can see relatively static shots start to block up until the next full frame is transmitted... ends up looking like the picture is pulsing. I see it on all of my TVs, with or without STBs, and I see it at friends houses throughout Charlotte. I have good signal level and S/N, and bit error counts as reported in the STB diagnostics are virtually always zero. It is bit-starvation introduced at the headend, pure and simple... and it was not happening to anywhere near this extent prior to the beginning of this year.

I still record my full complement of series as a backup, but I watch what I can "On-Demand" because the compression artifacts are better there than it is on the regular channel. Hell... Hulu+ 720P streaming has less compression artifacts than the above channels have.

Regarding your comment about killing SDV... SDV has no direct effect on PQ - bit rate allocations and clamping points can be set for those just as they can on a linear channel. All else being equal, SDV should, in fact, help PQ because even the low bit-rate allocations we have now would not be possible if all channels were running concurrently. For sure SDV can introduce command and control issues (which I, for one, virtually never see), but whether a channel is delivered on a linear or switched basis has no direct connection to PQ.

In regard to SDV I will respond to yes and no in regard to picture quality. Let's talk some basic math here. 90+ HDTV channels and 200+ SDTV channels into 20 SDV channels= a tuner count per sub of X amount service groups.

A DVR counts as 2-tuners and if you go on the low side of how many tuners in a service group, it could be acceptable in terms of picture quality. Go on the Accounting side of how tuners in a service group you can push to, not so good picture quality.

Also keep in mind that Edge QAM's cost $$ and that is how SDV is distributed. Depending on the manufacture and cost it will determine how a SDV service group is built in a Head-End/Hub site.

Everything in theory on this forum sounds good, until the math is layed out on paper it all falls apart with some simple calculations.

Rob
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post #7159 of 7469
11/29/11 at 3:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ybsane View Post

In regard to SDV I will respond to yes and no in regard to picture quality. Let's talk some basic math here. 90+ HDTV channels and 200+ SDTV channels into 20 SDV channels= a tuner count per sub of X amount service groups.

A DVR counts as 2-tuners and if you go on the low side of how many tuners in a service group, it could be acceptable in terms of picture quality. Go on the Accounting side of how tuners in a service group you can push to, not so good picture quality.

Also keep in mind that Edge QAM's cost $$ and that is how SDV is distributed. Depending on the manufacture and cost it will determine how a SDV service group is built in a Head-End/Hub site.

Everything in theory on this forum sounds good, until the math is layed out on paper it all falls apart with some simple calculations.

Rob

Agree... but... bit rates assigned are still an operators choice to be made regardless of whether its SDV or not.
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post #7160 of 7469
11/29/11 at 3:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jcalabria View Post

Agree... but... bit rates assigned are still an operators choice to be made regardless of whether its SDV or not.

Not if the number of channels you put out exceeds your bandwidth...
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post #7161 of 7469
11/29/11 at 3:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ybsane View Post

Not if the number of channels you put out exceeds your bandwidth...

Then maybe it's time to take out all those Ch-7 traps and reclaim that 6 mhz being wasted..
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post #7162 of 7469
11/29/11 at 4:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bdfox18doe View Post

Then maybe it's time to take out all those Ch-7 traps and reclaim that 6 mhz being wasted..

in Gaston County ours is channel 5
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post #7163 of 7469
11/29/11 at 6:25pm
My biggest complaint with WCCB is overscan. I turn overscan off on my TV (primarily for BluRay). Since all my video sources are connected to my AVR, I have only 1 HDMI input to the TV. So I can't control it by input. Usually the overscan shows up on 4x3 commercials but lately it been showing on 16x9 non-commerials HD content.
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post #7164 of 7469
11/29/11 at 7:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Grateful11 View Post

What happened to HBO HD On Demand?

They're allocating that bandwidth to "Manhandle on Demand".
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post #7165 of 7469
12/3/11 at 11:41pm
Service From To
Broadcast Cable........................$ 14.86................$ 16.15
Cable Programming Tier .............$ 49.13................$ 52.34
Basic Cable..............................$ 63.99................$ 68.49
Basic Cable when bundled with Road Runner Broadband and/or
Digital Home Phone Unlimited Nationwide .......$ 63.99................$ 67.99
Digital Cable includes Basic Cable, Digital Tier,
digital equipment and Navigator interactive guide...$ 80.99................$ 85.49
Digital Cable when bundled with Road Runner Broadband and/or
Digital Home Phone Unlimited Nationwide ......$ 77.99................$ 82.49
Nuestra Tele Package includes Broadcast Cable
digital equipment and Nuestra Tele tier ........$ 26.95................$ 28.95
El Paquetazo Package includes Broadcast Cable
digital equipment, Nuestra Tele tier and El Paquetazo tier...$ 39.95................$ 41.95
Digital box ..............................................$ 6.84...............$ 6.46
Digital remote ..........................................$ .34................$ .36
Cable Card ..............................................$ 2.50...............$ 2.00
Navigator interactive guide.........................$ 4.66................$ 5.52
DVR Service, per outlet..............................$ 11.95..............$ 12.95
Road Runner Broadband, bundled with Broadcast Cable or Basic Cable .......................$ 52.95................$ 55.95
Road Runner Broadband, bundled with Digital Cable.....................................................$ 47.95................$ 50.45
Earthlink, bundled with Broadcast Cable or Basic Cable.................................................$ 52.95................$ 55.95
Earthlink, bundled with Digital Cable.........$ 47.95................$ 50.45
Private Listing......................................$ 3.29................$ 3.50
* All services not available in all areas
that will be in effect with the
7606 0000 NO DO 02 12022011 0006127 004
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post #7166 of 7469
12/4/11 at 8:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ybsane View Post

In regard to SDV I will respond to yes and no in regard to picture quality. Let's talk some basic math here. 90+ HDTV channels and 200+ SDTV channels into 20 SDV channels= a tuner count per sub of X amount service groups.

A DVR counts as 2-tuners and if you go on the low side of how many tuners in a service group, it could be acceptable in terms of picture quality. Go on the Accounting side of how tuners in a service group you can push to, not so good picture quality.

Also keep in mind that Edge QAM's cost $$ and that is how SDV is distributed. Depending on the manufacture and cost it will determine how a SDV service group is built in a Head-End/Hub site.

Everything in theory on this forum sounds good, until the math is layed out on paper it all falls apart with some simple calculations.

Rob

Also doesn't cable plant design factor into how the SDV service groups go such as when was the system upgraded to 750MHz/860MHz and how many amps you have after the node such as node+2 or node+6 also does the amount of QAM space go into how many SDV QAMs there are going to be for instance in my TWC system they recently (in october) have added another 8 SDV QAMs to the 16 SDV QAMs that were activated when SDV launched. Here they rebuilt the system from 750MHz to 860MHz in 2008 which means were likely node+2 or node+3. I do know that there a lot NC4000SG Aurora 1GHz nodes deployed here where motorola amps used to be in addition to a lot of SG2000 860MHz motorola nodes.

We have 2 continuous groups for SDV QAMs:
687MHz
693MHz
699MHz
705MHz
711MHz
717MHz
723MHz
729MHz
735MHz
741MHz
747MHz
753MHz
759MHz
765MHz
771MHz
777MHz

819MHz
825MHz
831MHz
837MHz
843MHz
849MHz
855MHz
861MHz

We got these wednesday:
Hub HD
E! HD
Style HD
OWN HD
Oxygen HD
Showtime Extreme HD
Showtime Beyond HD
Showtime Next HD
Showtime Women HD
TMC Xtra HD
ThrillerMax HD
MoreMax HD

Still to come likely before the end of the year:
Sportsman Channel HD
Ovation HD
Reelz Channel HD
Bloomberg HD
Fox Deportes HD
Halogen HD
IFC HD
GSN HD
Game 2 HD

TWC North Texas right now has 125 HD channels and will have 134 HD channels when the above mentioned channels are added.

also SDV does not mean infinite channel adds. there is probrably a limit as to how many channels can be switched and not have have a tuning failure before there has to be more channels moved into the SDV pool to dedicate more QAMs to SDV and this probrably varies by market.
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post #7167 of 7469
12/9/11 at 8:32am
TWC here in Charlotte pushed an MDN update out a few days ago. At first, it looked pretty innocuous - some cosmetic changes to the delete/save banner. Then I noticed the biggie:

1 hour buffers on the two tuners have been cut in half to 30 minutes.

We've been gradually losing DVR functionality over the years. The buffers used to honor a pause if you swapped between them. That was sweet - you could watch 2 programs essentially at once. When one of them went to commercial, you could hit pause, then switch to the other tuner and watch that channel until it went to commercial. You could then swap back to the first one and it would still be paused at the point you left, enabling you to pick up from that point. You could then swap back and forth at will. Now the buffers reset every time you change channels or swap tuners. That was bad enough.

Then they mirrored the "jump-back" feature on the FF button, where it actually is useful, to the REW button causing it to "jump-forward", which usually necessitates another couple of button presses to get back to the point you're trying to rewind to. People don't use a DVR that way and indeed, no other provider's DVR works that way. Many of us have complained about that for years, yet they continue to link FF and REW in this inconvenient manner.

But this is far worse. Cutting the buffers in half? Why?? My SA8300HD worked fine with an hour buffer. I can see no advantage to TWC for reducing its functionality in this manner.

I was surprised to pop in here this morning and not see any mention of this. Has anyone else noticed it? Did they cripple the ODN platform's buffers as well?
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post #7168 of 7469
12/9/11 at 6:18pm
The buffer thing does suck, but this version is a LOT faster. I can actually put in a channel number and it's almost instant.
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post #7169 of 7469
12/11/11 at 6:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by archiguy View Post

Then they mirrored the "jump-back" feature on the FF button, where it actually is useful, to the REW button causing it to "jump-forward", which usually necessitates another couple of button presses to get back to the point you're trying to rewind to. People don't use a DVR that way and indeed, no other provider's DVR works that way.

TiVo's have done this since the inception of the company. It is due to a the reflex time of users hitting the button so it auto corrects. It makes perfect sense to me and i can't imagine using a DVR that doesn't (I wouldn't touch a TW DVR with a ten foot pole so I can't comment on how much it adjusts).
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post #7170 of 7469
12/13/11 at 7:54am
hi Charlotte TWC folks

I'm looking to start service with TWC cable (internet + TV) sometime in near future, but I dont want to spend any more then is absolutely necessary

my tv is the Samsung PN50B650 50" plasma which apparently has built in Clear QAM digital tuner. I dont think my TV is CableCard compatible.

My question is this:
-what service do I need to ask for in order to utilize my TV's tuner instead of paying an additional $11/month for HD/Digital set-top box ? If I can utilize my TV tuner and pick up most (if not all) my channels in HD that I would normally get from the set-top, i would much rather go this route and save the money. I dont mind losing features like on-screen guide or Start Over, etc..

- what are other down sides to using built in QAM tuner instead of set-top box?


Thanks!!
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