15 HD Channels on TWC

[borghe]

Originally posted by gparris

I would not be entering useless information on this forum unless I try to get the facts straight, borghe, at least on TWC...the Directv thing is your baby.
:rolleyes:

Originally posted by borghe
Can someone with multiple DVRs please confirm?

:confused: where did I enter useless information? I was asking if what I was reading was correct. grrrr...

I have TWO HD DVRs and get billed $7.95 for EACH box rental EACH month and on that billing I get billed for TWO HD DVR service fees for $6.95 EACH BOX.

This means I pay, before taxes and franchise fees added, a total of $29.80 a month,

Thank you for answering without the rude comments in that paragraph.

However, if I spent the $1600 (with that discount) or even the $2000 for TWO HD-Tivos it could still take me awhile to recoup the difference over the TWC HD DVR boxes WITH service charges.

For two units you would pay $10 per month ($10.50 after tax) vs. the $30 you pay right now. At $20/month it would take 80 months or just under 7 years. In that 7 years you could upgrade storage space, digitally archive movies, get channels 18 and 24, and a whole bunch of other stuff.. but yes, it would take 8 years in hardware costs alone.. oh wait, and DirecTV's service is cheaper as well, so it would be even less time, but we don't need to turn this into one of those threads.

No, TWC does not operate like Directv does, where you get one DVR fee per household billing, or none,  as with Total Choice Premier package at $90.99 a month plus the $10.99 monthly for HD package plus another $4.99 for the extra box, so "mirrored".
And considering the SA8300 HD DVRs could be coming out sooner rather than later, it will be like an ungrade I don't have to buy, again.

Wait until Murdoch goes into MPEG-4 mode for local HD delivery-or whatever he decides to do next year-will he exchange your expensive HD Tivo, for free, then?

DirecTV will be using MPEG2 still, just using Ka band istead of Ku band. As for future upgrades, all interactive and networking upgrades being worked on by NDS have already been confirmed by DirecTV employees on dbsforums to be designed to work on the Series 2 Tivo platform (including HD Tivos). To translate that, any upgrades coming down the pike (including in home sharing) will be free upgrades from the NDS team. The only poeple who are left out in the cold in the coming few years from DirecTV are the series 1 Tivo people who will have their units replaced by DirecTV with series 2 units.

As you said, DirecTV is my thing.

Anyway, all of that aside, I was just asking about the ridiculous DVR fee per box. Needless to say I'll be sticking with DirecTV for QUITE some time to come. At $32 for hardware alone that is like 1/3 of my bill right there.

oh, and the HD package is free for 6 months right now. If you already have it, log on to D*'s website, drop the package, readd it, and you will get it free for the next 6 months. If you don't have it yet, go on the site, add it, and you won't pay for it until May 2005. So basically for the next year my HD package is only $5.50/month.

[gparris]

Thanks for clarifying the Directv information...knew you had it in you.

borghe:
I wasn't being rude at all, just aggravated that TWC does not clarify things with its advertising ("15 HD Channels!)
NOR does it explain clearly what it offers with all the pricing out there, including the HD DVR existance and its required service pricing.

Hiding the information or simply not having it accessable... then having to deal with CSRs that seem everytime (some of us) call them up, like they are still in training makes it even more difficult to get straight answers.

So I clarified things best I could-their website still lacks clarity and should be easier to find information on simple pricing like this, but doesn't and it took several calls to get a straight answer.

Per this thread, it still is 14 HD channels plus that extremely- temporary HD channel 531, to make "15 HD Channels".
TWC: Advertise that when you have 531 viewable all-the-time!
Thanks!:)