Help Choose TV provider

[greg_brady]

Change is good, right?

In the next two months, I'm moving from Germantown to Milwaukee/Tosa area.  In my current condo, my only choice is Time Warner (cannot have DTV).

Currently, I have HD DVR + HBO + RoadRunner.  I'm paying way too much - I believe around $130.  I have one cable box (my 2nd tv is OTA).  My 42" plasma is staying with the condo.

I'll be moving from a condo to a house.  New place will have a TV on 3 floors (I'll be buying a 50" for the basement, a 32" LCD for the living room and will keep my current 26" Dell LCD for the bedroom (no QAM tuner, but does get HD through OTA).  

It looks like the current owner has AT&T.  I have no experience with AT&T but have read mixed reviews.  The quality of Time Warner has been solid, but I'd like to spend less if possible.  I don't feel I need digital cable, but I seeing the Brewers is important to me.  I like the history channels and some of the HGTV channels but most of what we watch is NBC, ABC, Fox and CBS.  Obviously, HD is preferred.  

I'm considering staying with TW and using DTV and leverage to get a better package.  I'd really like to be under $100 for all my TV and High Speed internet.  I'm torn on the DVR.  I think I'd really miss not having it.  If I stay with TW, I'll probably only need 1 box for the basement and I'll use QAM in the living room (would like to mount LCD on the wall in stealth mode so I'd rather not have a box anywhere) and OTA upstairs.  

I assume my best option away from TW is Direct TV + internet through DSL or TW.  I have very little knowledge of their product line and pricing.  According to their web site, I could get most of what I need in the $65 range but that is for 12 months.  Not sure what happens for the 2nd 12 months.  And I'm not crazy about a dish and all the installation that goes with it.  The reviews on this site are very positive.  I assume I would need two boxes for the lower two rooms unless I use a HDMI splitter and have two tv's work in tandem.  However, that's not a very appealing option.

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.  If I can get Digital Cable from TW with HD DVR and Road Runner for under $100 that would probably be good for me.  If I can do better or get a better package from DTV, I would investigate that route.
Thank you,

Kelly

[vegasvic]

IMHO if you have the choice to switch from TWC to DirecTV by all means do so. They are FAR superior.  Especially if you have HD.

[basshive]

I second Vegasvic. D* is FAR superior in every way for TV service and cheaper to boot. On the flip side, *I*, believe the roadrunner service in our area is the best internet around. I use RR Turbo and I blaze along at 1.7 MEG, not mbit. There is the occasional slow down but I still think it is the best around.

Please do not do your new tv's a dis-service. Give them the most HD around, D*!

[leprechaunshawn]

I would have to agree with everyone here.  If you have the option, go with D TV.  I am stuck (hopefully not for much longer) with TWC and its nothing but frustration.  In fact I just remembered I need to call them today to discuss some discrepencies I noticed in my bill.

[vegasvic]

AT&T announced today that they are expanding UVerse in our area.  They are also a better option.

I won't use them because DTV has far more HD (for now) and the Sunday Ticket.

[tbarney]

Unless you are really into the NFL and are looking to get the Sunday Ticket package, I think you have 3 viable alternatives.

-AT&T being the new player on the block will probably give you the best up front price, including a rebate, and you only have 1 bill to pay for all the services. However, they are 10 or more HD channels behind both Dish Network and Directv.
-Directv currently has the most HD channels, but you have to pay for their HD DVR and an upgrade is necessary for OTA channels.
-Dish Network will give you an HD DVR for free, and it includes an OTA tuner. They lack about 10 HD channels that Directv has, but I expect them to be pretty close by the end of the year.

In the case of the satellite providers Dish Net and Directv do not carry CBS58 in high definiton, so if you go with either, you'd need an OTA receiver to get it in HD.  Both do carry local HD channels for 4,6, and 12.

I currently have RR for about $36/month, and Dish Network AT200 with HD and Cinemax for only $56 (promotional rate). So I'm getting roughly the same service as someone with TWC who is paying $130-$140 per month, and once my promotion expires I'll just over $100.

[greg_brady]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions.  I'm going to look into Dish and DTV over the weekend.  I might first see what Customer Retention at TW will offer but I think I'm excited about giving one of Satellite guys a chance.

Does anyone know if I can have one Satellite box feed two televisions?  I'd like to keep my living rooms without a cable/satellite box (tv on the wall).  I've read a little that this feature is offered but I don't know how well it works in practice.

Thanks!

[Bebop]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions.  I'm going to look into Dish and DTV over the weekend.  I might first see what Customer Retention at TW will offer but I think I'm excited about giving one of Satellite guys a chance.

Does anyone know if I can have one Satellite box feed two televisions?  I'd like to keep my living rooms without a cable/satellite box (tv on the wall).  I've read a little that this feature is offered but I don't know how well it works in practice.

Thanks!

Feed 2 Tvs at same time in HD, different channel or same channel?

[greg_brady]

In a perfect world, I could feed 2 TV's separate HD signals.  In reality, I'm guessing I would have to watch the same channel on both TV's.

I don't know much about how this would work.  I've read a little but not enough to get a clear idea of how this feature would work.

[tbarney]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions.  I'm going to look into Dish and DTV over the weekend.  I might first see what Customer Retention at TW will offer but I think I'm excited about giving one of Satellite guys a chance.

Does anyone know if I can have one Satellite box feed two televisions?  I'd like to keep my living rooms without a cable/satellite box (tv on the wall).  I've read a little that this feature is offered but I don't know how well it works in practice.

Thanks!

If you are willing to have SD on the 2nd tv then the Dish Network DVR does that right out of the box. The only alternative I know of is to use the Component output to go to one TV and the HDMI to the other.  That is assuming that both video outputs can be active at the same time.

[Bluto]

The DirecTV HD boxes have both an HDMI and component outputs.  Both are active, so you could feed HD signals to both TVs.  You could only watch one channel at a time on bothe TVs, though.

[bubbaridesfast]

The DirecTV HD boxes have both an HDMI and component outputs.  Both are active, so you could feed HD signals to both TVs.  You could only watch one channel at a time on bothe TVs, though.

I can confirm that this works on my D* H20 box. We have HD in the bedroom and another in the kitchen running off the same box but the downside is that the same channel is on both - no problem for our set-up but might be a negative for others.
The only problem was running the 5-line component cable through the floors :bang:

[picopir8]

I priced out D* and Uverse for a family member recently.

After D*s promotions end, it is about $30/mo more expensive than uverse (3 TV setup w/ one DVR).  Even with the promotions, the prices are about the same, EXCEPT uverse also includes an internet connection.  So figuring the cost of a high speed internet connection, D* will be much more expensive.  Plus there is the added cost of boxes with D*.

Sure D* has a few more HD channels but uverse is constantly adding more channels (both HD and SD).  Right now, uverse has more channels overall (325 on uverse vs 265 on D*).  Not to mention uverse has some other nice features (program DVR over internet, interactive channels such as phonebook, news, weather, traffic, etc., and soon the DVR will be accessible anywhere in the house).  Not to mention a solid video on demand service that will not bog down your internet connection.

[bschmidt25]

I have U-Verse and I'm pretty happy with their HD selection.  I think the last I counted they have 45 HD channels (compared with 22? for TWC).  I don't have D* as an option.  The downside I see for you is that you have more than one HDTV.  Right now you can only have one HD stream at a time on U-Verse.  That's not a huge issue for me because I have 2 TVs (only one of which is HD), but I could see myself being pretty annoyed if I had more than one HDTV.  That's supposed to change this summer though.

The thing I like about U-Verse is their pricing is transparent, unlike TWC with all of their limited time specials.  AT&T tells you exactly what the packages and internet service cost up front and you can make changes to either service online without having to call them.  The packages all include DVR service and up to 4 receivers (no per receiver/remote charge like TWC) and if you have the HD package any of the receivers can be set to output HD.  Premiums on demand are also included if you have a package that includes them (also unlike TWC) and VOD works very well in general.  The remote DVR feature is great - you can program it from your cell phone.

I have the U300 package with Express internet and HD service for $114 total per month.  The U300 package includes pretty much every channel including Showtime, TMC, and Starz, but not the sports package, HBO, or Cinemax.  I had everything with the U400 package the first month and didn't think it was worth the extra $30, especially the sports package which had most of the channels blacked out or playing the same thing more than half of the time.  Got the first month of service free and $100 rebate on the way.

[Blitzburgh]

Ummm. DirecTV is the best hands down.