Cleveland, OH - TWC - Page 98

Hey Steve, thanks for the reply. I guess I'll be going with cable then...I just saw a direct tv commercial that said that cable only shows some of its channels in digital but direct tv shows most of them in digital..But the local channels are the clincher for me...Thanks again for the reply.

Steve

hookbill on either time warners or comcast website i forgot where said that comcast users and adelphia users in ohio are going to time warner.

Woah! Don't get digital and High definition confused. They aren't interchangable. Directv does show digital local channels. They just don't show local channels in high def.

Ok, that makes sense. So they do have the local channels on direct tv it's just that they are in sd. So what would be the difference in comcast and direct tv other than the fact that the local channels wouldnt be in hd with direct tv? Thanks again.

Steve

The difference? Probably $20 a month more for cable. And as I noted, the signal you'll get for local channels on Directv will be better than if you used an antenna for standard definition. Directv and me got along very well, I just got tired of paying to watch Law and Order re-runs, so I'm strictly OTA now. It was cool to watch Attack of the Clones in widescreen and 5.1 over-the-air.

I recorded it on my 921

I have Dish Network. I do not pay extra for the locals since I get a lock on all the digital OTA's.
It's the best way to go since you are in control. What you get is only limited by your location and the amount of time & money you want to spend prefecting your OTA set-up.

The whole process of the antenna is a pain. I don't think Congress has a clue how much work is required to get a good signal. I've finally found a place for my indoor antenna that fully locks Fox, CBS, UPN, ABC, UNI and probably the WB. I lose any chance of NBC, but then it was only a glitchy reception for that. Time will tell if I decide to get an outdoor antenna. Hopefully NBC moves soon enough.

Keep in mind, both cable & sat. will have locals in SD. Cable will have locals HD as well & on Sat. you'll need to pull them in via over the air antenna. DirectTV has discussed carrying local HD's, although nothing has been put into motion as of yet. I find that the video quality is a touch better on the HD locals via antenna then on cable. I have both Dish Network & Adelphia. The other HD channels are about the same via Dish/cable, but the locals ota are just a tad better via antenna. I usually don't bother switching to the OTA locals anymore unless I'm watching the Dish HD's already however. The cable local HD's are very close & good enough to not have to bother changing video inputs etc...

There's pro's & con's to either. Sattelite can have issues during heavy snow if the dish gets covered. It has happened to me each winter at least once or twice. Dish network just added the original VOOM! channels so that is a plus there. They also have the VOOM! birds in the air so they have plenty of space for more. Direct may add local HD at some point so that's a plus for them. It's possible Dish might do the same. As of now, Dish Network is the king of HD. With Adelphia I have the DVR, InHD1 & 2, & ease of use. That's the advantage there. I only have the Dish HD & no regular programming.

Good luck.

I'll echo the sentiments of others here regarding satellite v. cable. I live in Medina, and I have had DirecTV since moving here three years ago. I don't have any experience with the local cable outlet, but I've been so happy with DirecTV that I haven't had any reason to switch.

Mostly what others have said is correct; about the only substantive difference you'll see going cable over satellite is that locals are carried HD through the cable while you'll need an antenna for DirecTV. But another difference is the upfront cost. Sure, cable may run you $20 a month more, but DirecTV will require an upfront purchase of some hardware. A normal HD box will set you back a couple of hundred bucks for DirecTV, while cable's will be rolled into the monthly cost of the service.

But if DirecTV moves to MPEG-4 compression later this year in order to deliver our locals in HD (which is a done deal; it's just a matter of time), you'll have some useless hardware on your hands when the switch occurs. None of the current crop of boxes is compatible.

Now DirecTV has a habit of subsidizing the upgrade to new boxes when the new technologies take over, and I'm sure this will be no different. But it will undoubtedly require at least a one-year subscription to a minimum level of service in order to qualify.

And, if you want a PVR for your HD material, cable is arguably the better way to go. DirecTV's HD-TiVO is about $1,000 upfront. And, again, it will be obsolete by the end of the year if you want the locals through the dish in HD.

I'm sure this sounds like an anti-DirecTV post at this point, and that's not entirely untrue. Yes, I'm exceedingly happy with DirecTV, but if I was making the switch *today*, it would be hard to decide for the dish over cable just due to the current costs involved.

But, there's nothing that says you can't go cable now and wait until the dust settles at DirecTV once the new satellites are operational and the locals are being pushed to us. Just remember that either way you go, you still have the option of switching down the road.

EDIT: There are a number of great sticky threads at the top of the HDTV Hardware forum about the current and future status of DirecTV.

Hi Zman, thanks for the info, it's exactly what I was looking for. My plan is to go with cable for now and see what comes down the pike with direct tv. Now I have to find a tv cause mine was really acting up when I was trying to watch some motorcycle racing I recorded Sunday..I know this isn't the proper forum for "which tv" posts, but if you have any recomendations I'd sure appreciate em...looking mostly at dlps...thanks again.

Steve

One of the reasons why I'm so high on OTA is because you get all the free subchannels OTA. As of now there is no guarentee that cable or satellite will ever carry the subchannels. In fact both have been fighting the FCC over forced carriage of the subchannels.

WKYC has "Weather Plus", which is on at least one cable system digital tier. I had access to "WP" since day one, plus I also had access to it's predecessor (a silent feed of WKYC's doppler). For awhile both were available, but they have since pulled 3-3.

I'm sure it's personal preference & to each their own, but the subchannels have never once hit me as a reason why I like OTA better. I'm not saying you are wrong as if you like them that is great, but in my opinion, I could care less about those. They show nothing aside from NBC's Weather Plus, which is info you can get on the internet & with greater detail. I wish those subchannels would go away because if more programming does eventually appear on them, expect our HD picture quality to drop like The Tonight Show did when WKYC split up. Dish Network provides an info channel customized to your zip code which has the same weather info along with other news etc... Adelphia doesn't have anything like that yet, but the weather channel has nearly the same info on the current conditions. Either way, be it on Adelphia, Dish, or OTA, I rarely look at any of those weather channels.

You can also view "Weather Plus" on line. It wouldn't have any factor in my decision over OTA vs Cable. I just think you can get more HD on cable, plain and simple.

Aside from Dish network with 16 HD channels since they added VOOM originals right? ha!

I think I saw its $57 a month for their 60 channel package and all the HD channels! That doesn't include a DVR, but that seems like a great price.

Yeah that is good. I debated which way to go & in the end, aside from just the HD package that I get from Dish, I went with Adelphia (stayed with). When you combine cable modem which would be $57 alone (I know DSL is only $29.99, but it's considerably slower & I need the full speed of cable), it just doesn't save any money at all & the cable just from pure convenience & ease for TV watching in multiple rooms in the house, is the best route for me.

But I get the best of both worlds...cable for internet, regular channels, & HD as well as Dish Network for their 16 HD channels for another $18 per month total ($8 for HD pack (it was discounted), $5 for not having any programming package & $5 for the VOOM! channels).

I am moving soon to a new home. the cable provider has a miniscule hd programing package. I am thinking of going with a satelite. My problem; I don't have a built in hd tuner for over the air. Can i connect a terestrial antenna to the satelite dish to pass the signal from the antenna to the tv?

In order to receive the satellite signals to begin with, you'll need an external set-top box (STB). As far as I know, the STBs provided by both DirecTV and DishNetwork will accept an antenna input for your local HD channels which will then integrate directly with the channels provided through the satellite provider through the box. In other words, one wire will go from the dish into the STB, and another will go from the antenna into the box. Your TV won't know the difference since it only displays what's coming from the STB.

I hope this helps, but if I misunderstood the question, let me know. By the way, I'm a happy DirecTV HD customer.

While all satellite STB's have an antenna "pass through", only the true HD model STB/IRD's have an OTA tuner.

For DirecTv I know of model DTC-100. There are some newer ones (including an HD TIVO) that I am not aware of the model numbers, as I am a Dish Network Subscriber.

For Dish Network the following IRD's have a built-in HD OTA tuner: 811, 6000 (careful with the 6000, it was an add-on module so not all 6000's have the tuner).
PVR's: 921 and 942.

If you are interested in a PVR the 942 is the latest and greatest, while the 921 was released before the "bugs" were worked out. While they have been working on the bugs with s/w updates, it's takes a hearty soul to deal with it's quirks.

Probably your best bet if you don't want to go the PVR route is the 811 - it is the only one to get guide data for the OTA's integrated into the EPG hassle-free (i.e. without having to sub to the SD locals just to get the guide data).

Samsung T-360 as well for Directv does that too

A number of issues:

* I got the Adelphia letter as well. It didn't specifically mention which company would take over...it looked more like a "no matter what you've heard, we'll still be serving you for at least a while...your cable won't go out" letter. It's already been officially announced that Adelphia's local systems - along with Comcast's local systems - go to TWC.

* Why don't I get the 8300? Good question, mostly just not getting off my butt and going to the local Adelphia service center, I guess. That, and letting go of whatever I've got sitting in there as far as recordings go.

* DirecTV IS in the process of setting up the infrastructure for locals in HD. They've already launched the first satellite that'll do so. 12 of the top markets will be doing HD LIL in the next 3-4 months or so. That list doesn't include Cleveland...which will be in the next round (top 30), possibly by the end of the year or thereabouts.

The SA8000HD has a lot of bugs and yes you probably have to worry about it happening in the future. Since the latest firmware upgrade I can now pretty reliably get solid black screens on my HD channels if I flip around too fast in Passthrough mode. The box gets seriously confused changing from a 720p to a 1080i channel -- audio pop, screen goes black, kerchunk, kerchunk, thinking, then channel may or may not come on.... Sometimes changing to an SD channel and coming back to the HD tier will work, other times, box needs a reboot. I've set it to output 1080i all the time and the problem is solved.

I too am too lazy to swap for an 8300HD and now I've got about 20 hours of BBQ programming from Food Network recorded on there in preparation for Memorial Day, so I'm stuck with this box

Woohooo!! I got me a new sony kdf50we655!! Now I have to order my comcast digital cable; Should I get the cable stand alone box or should I go with cable card? My biggest question is how does the audio go from the card to the audio system? Are there audio outs on the cable card? thanks again.

Steve

Well, you should be well prepared by the time Memorial Day rolls around if you start watching now. What time should we stop by?

I've had problems with wkyc -dt (channel 2-1 and 2-2) the last few days
Nothing has changed at my side.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say it's the trees leafing out (I know, bad pun).

I don't know if it's just me but it seems the trees in my yard and all the garden plants are unusually large this spring.

This would be true for UHF stations, but not WKYC-DT.

Skip is up, and channel 2 is the most succeptable to interference during this time. I'm willing to be that if you turned on an analog tv you might see some analog station's signal. I live 1.3 miles from the WKYC tower so I can't confirm skip on the VHF band, however I can confirm that skip was up on UHF. Last night for the first time I was able to lock onto and actually watch WFMJ-DT and WYTV-DT from Youngstown.

Thanks, this makes sense since the leaves have been around for a few weeks and it was most noticable saturday and sunday.

I don't have a Cable Card but I found this interesting link: http://forum.ecoustics.com/bbs/messages/2/107329.html I don't know how much of it applies to your local Comcast system but it raises some interesting questions to ask your Comcast rep.
Steve

Hi Steve, you know, it seems like the few times I called comcast last week I got 1 guy that actually knew what he was talking about. They made it seem like the only way I would get any hd reception was by going to digital cable, Which is obviously wrong. I hooked up the cable to my tv, did the 50 minute auto program and I get all the locals in hd and some others. At this point I have no reason to upgrade to digital cable. They can keep it. Especially if in the next year or 2 its all going to be hd anyway.

Thanks again for the reply

Steve