Columbia, SC - HDTV - Page 212

Dear TWCSC,

I was wondering.....I'm really busy over the next few months and I don't have time to deal with my cable bill, so it'll be OK if I send it whenever I have the time to deal with it, right? And, geez, while we're at it, my funds are quite low right now, so, is it OK if I knock $50 off the bill I'll be paying (much) later?

It'll be OK if I do this and it will have no repercussions regarding my future service, right?

That's a typo, doesn't impact what goes on the air. I'll get it fixed asap.

As soon as I got the info on 814 I called the headend manager - it was the 6th inning. He was going to try to locate the issue.

If anyone noticed it being resolved, I'd appreciate the input.

Ok, so next time if I don't think you'll like the answer, I'll either ignore the question or make something up.

Nucleartiger , thats noting i had no cable, phone or internet for 8 hours sunday...i called them twice. once at 2:30 and then again at 5:30 but they still had no update. missed the indy 500 and half the coca-cola 600. had to break out the TRUSTY rabbit ears around 7:00pm. I couldnt take it anymore.

It would have been a living hell 100 years ago. You would have had to read a book, take a walk, smell the roses, etc.

Diana,
I quit watching about the 5th inning or so.
When I did think about it and turned it back around 10:30 or maybe even 11pm to channel 814, the Phillys-Nationals game was still on that channel. Not sure if the braves ever made it on in between..

Diana,

Please ignore his comment and keep up the great work you do here. We like and need you. I usually can just "lurk" here now since you arrived. The answers to my questions are usually answered by you before I even right a note.

So thanks for being here and not ignoring the problems and giving straight answers.

Al

Bummer.. and on such a pretty, bright sunny day to boot!

I'll take 8 hours without a phone ANY day!

The Braves game on 813/814 are a bonus, right?

If so, why get so cranky about the program guide not always being perfectly accurate?

First post.

OK, so yesterday, I swing by the TWC office in Five Points and there's a line of about two dozen people. Never seen such a line in that office in my life; usually, you can walk right up to the counter. But it's OK, I'll wait, I just need to pick up an 8300 box for my new HDTV. Twenty minutes later, I finally get to the counter, only to be told they're all out of 8300s.

So I'm a little peeved, especially after the 20-minute wait, but I say, "OK, so when will you have more?" And the guy says, "Maybe tomorrow." I ask, "Maybe? So maybe you won't." He says, "Right, but you can call to find out." I sigh and so, "OK, well let me go ahead and reserve one." Dude says, "No can do."

So let me get this straight. I've been a loyal TWC customer for 5 years running. I've got full digital tier, plus HBO & Showtime, plus RoadRunner to boot. My monthly bill is right about $120. That comes to about $7000 worth of business I've done with TWC, and that's just since I moved to Columbia.

So after all that, you mean to tell me that I can't reserve a freaking box? Because I'm already perturbed about the whole "no ESPN2HD, no 1/2 the World Cup" thing, and now I'm this close to saying screw it and going DirecTV or Dish.

Speaking of which, any chance of resolving the ESPN2HD issue before the World Cup? Or at the very least getting the USA/Czech Republic game slated as a Special Event?

Hmmm, you get HBO & Showtime for $120/month? I pay $121.45 per month and dont even get any premium channels. Have the Speed of Light package(which is just regular digital cable plus Road Runner, doesnt include a cable box, its supposed to be cheaper), 1 HD-DVR, and HD tier and thats it.

Yea the whole TWCSC not adding any new channels is getting pretty freaking ridiculous. They started up this SDV and digital simulcast and tell us now we'll have lots of bandwidth for new HD channels only to add nothing. They add like 10 on-demand channels that are basically all advertisements. The analog channels are all still the same volume but now the digital versions of the channels in the range of 0-99 are all at different volumes. For example channel surfing in the 20's and 22, National Geographic, is so low you cant hear it, so you crank the volume on the stereo up then a few mins later switch to 23 and BOOM you're blowing your speakers out. Why in the H*LL cant they regulate the volume before sending out the signal?

Because they "groom" the program streams onto the system and have no way of changing the audio. It's a programmer issue, not TWC.

Followup on earlier post:

Just got off phone with TWC. They don't have any boxes today. They might Thursday or Friday, but won't promise. They might next week, but won't promise. And they will not reserve one. "First come, first serve." Which is great, 'cause, y'know, it's not like some of us have jobs. Meanwhile, my HDTV bought on Saturday continues to sit in its box.

Why shouldn't I switch to satellite again?

Has anyone ever had any issues like this..

I am using a 8300HD receiver set to Pass through via componet to a Dell 37 inch HDTV

Sometimes when I switch from an HD channel to a SD channel, the signal gets messed up.
its hard to explain, but it is most noticible in the text on logos, and on the On screen guide from the cable box. The graphics have lines through them like they are doubled up..

I can correct the issue by switching back to the HD channel, letting that channel come in good and then switching back.

I can also correct the issue by using the zoom button on my DVR, I zoom in and then when i get back to normal, the picture is corrected.

Not sure if this is the TV, or the cable Box...

This is still a problem. I jump every time they cut away to a local news promo. The local commercials seem fine, though.

Maybe their new downtown studio has new extra-sensitive microphones?

Posted sevral days ago..not online yet for WOLO

Isn't it rather sexist to say, "...ignore his comment..."? How do you know "his" gender? For all you know, you may have offended me, but I'll try to ignore it.

My comments weren't directed toward Diana as much as TWCSC in general, hence the "Dear TWCSC" salutation. The local monopoly they have for cable service leads to apathy on TWCSC's part about doing things RIGHT. I'm sure Diana has all the work she can do. Might that signal they need more people to do the stuff their customer base might want or that they aren't efficient with the employees they have?

Let's just say I appreciate Diana participating here but I am no big fan of TWCSC.

It was a nice day...i had steaks on the grill, cold budlight in the fridge and no INDY 500. that really makes me want to smell the roses.

USAGE NOTE Traditionally the pronouns he, him, and his have been used as generic or gender-neutral singular pronouns, as in A novelist should write about what he knows best and No one seems to take any pride in his work anymore. Since the early 20th century, however, this usage has come under increasing criticism for reflecting and perpetuating gender stereotyping.Defenders of the traditional usage have argued that the masculine pronouns he, his, and him can be used generically to refer to men and women. This analysis of the generic use of he is linguistically doubtful. If he were truly a gender-neutral form, we would expect that it could be used to refer to the members of any group containing both men and women. But in fact the English masculine form is an odd choice when it refers to a female member of such a group. There is something plainly disconcerting about sentences such as Each of the stars of As Good As It Gets [i.e., Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt] won an Academy Award for his performance. In this case, the use of his forces the reader to envision a single male who stands as the representative member of the group, a picture that is at odds with the image that comes to mind when we picture the stars of As Good As It Gets. Thus he is not really a gender-neutral pronoun; rather, it refers to a male who is to be taken as the representative member of the group referred to by its antecedent. The traditional usage, then, is not simply a grammatical convention; it also suggests a particular pattern of thought.It is clear that many people now routinely construct their remarks to avoid generic he, usually using one of two strategies: changing to the plural, so they is used (which is often the easiest solution) or using compound and coordinate forms such as he/she or he or she (which can be cumbersome in sustained use). In some cases, the generic pronoun can simply be dropped or changed to an article with no change in meaning. The sentence A writer who draws on personal experience for material should not be surprised if reviewers seize on that fact is complete as it stands and requires no pronoun before the word material. The sentence Every student handed in his assignment is just as clear when written Every student handed in the assignment.Not surprisingly, the opinion of the Usage Panel in such matters is mixed. While 37 percent actually prefer the generic his in the sentence A taxpayer who fails to disclose the source of ____ income can be prosecuted under the new law, 46 percent prefer a coordinate form like his or her; 7 percent felt that no pronoun was needed in the sentence; 2 percent preferred an article, usually the; and another 2 percent overturned tradition by advocating the use of generic her, a strategy that brings the politics of language to the reader's notice. Thus a clear majority of the Panel prefers something other than his. The writer who chooses to use generic he and its inflected forms in the face of the strong trend away from that usage may be viewed as deliberately calling attention to traditional gender roles or may simply appear to be insensitive

Well no wonder you're annoyed! The cold budlight should have been in your hand!

PS: I got my 8300HD last night. They'd gotten a shipment in the afternoon, and I managed to snag the last one. And they gave me some added discounts, which may or may not have been because of my whining, but more likely was because they're still wrestling with this new billing system and couldn't figure out how to give me the regular "new HD subscriber" discounts while keeping other discounts I have in play active. I'm still bumming about the "no ESPN2HD, no 1/2 of the World Cup in HD" thang, but I'm a lot more agreeable now that my HDTV (I just got the Hitachi 42HDS69 that came out this week) is up and running.

i'm guessing you never experienced cable service during the 70's and 80's when they were a true monopoly. i'm old enough to remember when the "weather channel" on cable was a b&w camera that panned back and forth in front of a bunch of analog displays for temperature, wind speed, humidity, time, etc. a lot of the channels were snowy and tough luck if you didn't like it. nobody was going to spend any time to try and get you a clear picture and if you wanted a service appt. you would be laughed at if you expected something within the next few days in a 3-4 hr. window. the only alternative was a big dish which was not comparable price-wise at all.

now you may believe that TWC is a monopoly but they don't. maybe i've just been lucky but whenever i've had a service issue i've never encountered anyone there who did not want to get it resolved. there are too many alternatives now that they can't afford to be complacent about it anymore.

re: Braves games in the program guide, i guess i just don't understand what the big deal is. you never know how long a game will go so you have to pad the end time. it's not that much more work to just schedule it as a manual recording.

Let's see...it's nearly 8 p.m. and the Braves aren't on 813 like the TWCSC website indicates. Wonder what's the problem now. Is everyone else getting it and it's just me or did TWCSC drop the ball again?

I just spoke with the headend and they are aware of the issue and working to resolve it.

At first you said 814. Did you make a mistake?

I didn't have cable in the 70s, granted, but I did starting about 1980 or '81. So your guess is wrong. I'm old enough to remember the days when my grandmother had a car with no air conditioner, but that doesn't mean I will settle for a car now that has a defective air conditioner. I can remember when we had a TV that was only black and white, but that doesn't mean I am going to settle for a sorry color TV now. Geez.

TWCSC absolutely has a local monopoly on cable service...there is NO denying that. What I would like to see is some cable competition. And don't give me the excuse that it's too complicated or too much fixed cost, trouble, etc. to have cable companies compete. We put men on the moon over 30 years ago, computer chips have been developed that can do billions of calculations per second, and most of the things related to the Internet have only been around for a relatively short period. We can do all of that but we can't figure out a way to let cable companies compete? Unbelieveable. I think Ted Turner was right.

It's on now, Diana. Thank you very much for your prompt attention to this.

well, that's where our perspectives differ; you view cable service as equivalent to a car with a defective air conditioner. while not perfect, i think it's much better than it's ever been. and it's because of competition. if you insist on a narrow view of 'monopoly' then yes, you can only get ESPN-HD via cable from TWC, but there's also satellite and soon probably telephone delivery. more competition=more choices=better service for everyone.

just curious though, how do you propose cable competition should work? do you think another company would want to come in and wire up the city from scratch? or should they be able to lease TWC's lines? i guess they already do it with Roadrunner/Earthlink. you might end up with a different channel selection but basically the same service issues. heck, i know people in other states who wish their systems would add HDNet. the grass is always greener...