Is TWC Bad?

[John L]

It appears from many of the posts that TWC is NOT the recommended cable service.   Seem to me most people on these forum have problems with TWC.  I've been happy with TWC also getting Phone, and RR.

-John L.

[Jack 1000]

It appears from many of the posts that TWC is NOT the recommended cable service.   Seem to me most people on these forum have problems with TWC.  I've been happy with TWC also getting Phone, and RR.

-John L.

It depends on your State and division.  There is such disparity in employee knowledge and equipment depending on the services you are talking about.  The biggest positives of TWC are their incredible high speed Internet service.  All standard Internet service subs are getting a 50% speed boost.  The Internet has been very reliable with TWC.

Phone service is great as well!  You get tons of features that you have to play extra for with other companies.  The Caller ID on TV included with Digital Phone and Digital Cable is really nice as well.

The cable TV HD line up is great and TWC's on-Demand line up is great.  They are the best at retention deals when contracts expire.  With other companies like AT&T U-Verse and Satellite, they are less likely to work with you on discount pricing when your deal expires.

The biggest drawback with TWC is their mediocre program guide and the boxes.  The original Passport software was so much more reliable.  In one of the stupidest decisions ever, six years ago, in an effort to save money, because TWC was to lazy to want to pay quality outside vendors like Passport the money to do software updates, they developed an in-house guide, the *******-child known as "Navigator".  It is slow unreliable, unresponsive, and lacks the essential features of a modern guide.

Small updates have been made over the years with some improvements to the guide.  However, the set-top-box guide is still barely tolerable in most markets.  TWC finds it too costly to swap out all the boxes for newer models, and this is understandable because there are about 17-20 million set tops and DVR's out there.  Each box runs two different versions of the Navigator software:

MDN:  For the older boxes that do not have a C in the model number and are not a Samsung.

ODN:  For the newer boxes that have a C in the model number or are a Samsung.

Within those two software versions, there between 15-20 different boxes for which to write and test code.  Customers have no way of knowing what boxes they are going to get in an exchange because of the tons that are in the field.  Even if you go to an outlet center, the inventory changes daily.

In most divisions, including Milwaukee Wisconsin, the only way you can be assured of getting a newer box is to subscribe to multi-room DVR or Signature Home Service.  Signature Home subs pay more, and get new boxes with better service and support. but it will cost over $200 a month and with no Premium channels.  Premium channels with Signature home are $230.  I don't know if Starz and Encore are included.  But all HBO's Cinemax, Showtime ,and The Movie Channel stations are.  You get better techs, and shorter wait times with Signature Home, but the problem is the new boxes still run the crappy old Navigator software.

U-Verse and Direct TV only have to write program code for maybe four different boxes.  If TWC could write code for only four different boxes instead of 20 different models, the cable TV experience would be much better.  TWC wants to move off off the analog platform completely, and is in the process of trying to standardize all these boxes to streamline them with mobile services.

The problem is that the older hardware is memory strained, so TWC has to write backwards compatibility code for each ODN or MDN box when updates come out.  The long term goal is to get all the boxes to a cloud based service to free up memory.  Meaning that Settings and shows on the boxes will sit on a secure server. instead of on the boxes.  In about five to eight years, the system will be cloud-based, and those dreadful boxes and DVR's will be a thing of the past.

The boxes are the worst thing about TWC.

Jack

[LoadStar]

TWC Voice: drastically overpriced compared with what you get. Definitely *not* recommended unless you get a killer deal on a bundle. It works fine, but there are equivalent alternatives that work as well (Ooma, Vonage, even AT&T, Verizon, or StraightTalk wireless home phone).

TWC Internet: I'm very satisfied with them. Compared to AT&T U-verse, you get better speeds at a lower price. Only Earthlink cable internet comes in at a lower price, but keep in mind that they only offer up to 15 MBps (and possibly less, depending on your area). If you want something faster, TWC internet is your best bet. Honestly, you can't go wrong here.

TWC television: as noted above by Jack, TWC's boxes are HORRID. I happily use TiVo with my TWC television service; their boxes work SO much better than TWC's putrid boxes. I'm satisfied with TWC television, although frankly, if I could, I'd switch to satellite television instead (can't, though, I face the wrong direction).

AT&T U-verse might attract with a comparatively low price for their television service, but once you realize that the advertised price is for U-Family, which is not worth even considering, it becomes much less appealing. My parents are with U-Verse, but the only reason is because they got huge price concessions from AT&T when they threatened to cancel the install appointment and a price guarantee for 2 years.

So, tl;dr: TWC voice overpriced, TWC Internet is very good to great, and TWC television is crappy if you have to use their boxes.

[Jack 1000]

TWC Voice: drastically overpriced compared with what you get. Definitely *not* recommended unless you get a killer deal on a bundle. It works fine, but there are equivalent alternatives that work as well (Ooma, Vonage, even AT&T, Verizon, or StraightTalk wireless home phone).

TWC Internet: I'm very satisfied with them. Compared to AT&T U-verse, you get better speeds at a lower price. Only Earthlink cable internet comes in at a lower price, but keep in mind that they only offer up to 15 MBps (and possibly less, depending on your area). If you want something faster, TWC internet is your best bet. Honestly, you can't go wrong here.

TWC television: as noted above by Jack, TWC's boxes are HORRID. I happily use TiVo with my TWC television service; their boxes work SO much better than TWC's putrid boxes. I'm satisfied with TWC television, although frankly, if I could, I'd switch to satellite television instead (can't, though, I face the wrong direction).

AT&T U-verse might attract with a comparatively low price for their television service, but once you realize that the advertised price is for U-Family, which is not worth even considering, it becomes much less appealing. My parents are with U-Verse, but the only reason is because they got huge price concessions from AT&T when they threatened to cancel the install appointment and a price guarantee for 2 years.

So, tl;dr: TWC voice overpriced, TWC Internet is very good to great, and TWC television is crappy if you have to use their boxes.

If the TWC boxes didn't suck so bad, the HD line-up and VOD selection is really good.  TWC has really got to start putting all their efforts into improving the boxes and the guide.

Jack

[Ralph Kramden]

It appears from many of the posts that TWC is NOT the recommended cable service.   Seem to me most people on these forum have problems with TWC.  I've been happy with TWC also getting Phone, and RR.

-John L.

It depends on what you want. If you want TV only, TWC sucks. You would have to be insane to choose their cable service over satellite.

Broadband internet - The price is out of hand. I recently switched to Earthlink to save a good amount of money. It's literally the exact same service, much cheaper, and is even billed by TWC.

Phone - Never tried it. We have cell phones only.

[REVM1M]

Left TWC 17 years ago and got Directv and never looked back. I have Road Runner for internet , because I still get it for less than $50.00. When that goes up in couple of months, I will try to get a good offer, otherwise will be going with earthlink or AT&T Uvers.

[LoadStar]

Left TWC 17 years ago and got Directv and never looked back. I have Road Runner for internet , because I still get it for less than $50.00. When that goes up in couple of months, I will try to get a good offer, otherwise will be going with earthlink or AT&T Uvers.

Based on what I've seen, U-verse internet is just simply not anywhere close to competitively priced. Right now, Earthlink is the best deal below 15 MBps, and TWC Internet is the best deal above 15.

We need someone like Google Fiber to come into town to really shake things up.

[Jack 1000]

Based on what I've seen, U-verse internet is just simply not anywhere close to competitively priced. Right now, Earthlink is the best deal below 15 MBps, and TWC Internet is the best deal above 15.

We need someone like Google Fiber to come into town to really shake things up.

I heard U-Verse picture and quality is based on the condition of your phone lines.  And in our little Hooterville sub-division in Brookfield, we had a guy years ago who said the wiring they had in place was not good enough to tie up tomato plants!

However, I know that our Digital Phone has been outstanding!  TWC must have updated the network when we got Digital Phone back in August 2007 as part of Triple Play.  But before that, we had DSL, and before that Dial Up, with a cheap POS company  and got disconnects all the time.

I have a buddy in Michigan who has U-Verse, and his picture breaks up all the time!  They used to have (might still) every Thanksgiving they would unlock ALL the premium movie channels for 24 hours for everybody.  (Not the porn though! hahahaha) which is nice.

Anyone considering U-Verse should have their phone lines tested for high-speed data capability first.  Of course, in an era where few companies ever like to admit something is wrong, they might just come out and say, "everything's fine" when that may not be the case.  

I guess the general rule for U-Verse, is if your phone lines suck, U-Verse is gonna suck.  If you live in a community that has a good phone infrastructure, U-Verse may be OK.

But TWC still has the best HD selection and VOD selection of any competing provider.  Customer retentions with TWC will give you good deals.  If only TWC's boxes and guide did not suck!

And I would NEVER consider Dish Network.  Crappy HD channel selection, and they almost ALWAYS lose station retransmission contract fights, resulting in dropped channels.  I think they just got AMC back, after a retransmission fight that lasted about as long TWC getting a deal with NFL Network.  OK it wasn't that long, but subs were without the channel for months, and some dropped stations on Dish Network because of contract disputes have never come back.

Jack

[ArgMeMatey]

Anyone considering U-Verse should have their phone lines tested for high-speed data capability first.  Of course, in an era where few companies ever like to admit something is wrong, they might just come out and say, "everything's fine" when that may not be the case.  

I guess the general rule for U-Verse, is if your phone lines suck, U-Verse is gonna suck.  If you live in a community that has a good phone infrastructure, U-Verse may be OK.

I liked the tomato wiring reference.  Using some of that wire for U-Verse would be like Time Warner providing 240 VAC over their coax.  

Don't get me wrong; I'm glad AT&T is providing some competition for Time Warner, and a lot of U-Verse subscribers seem to like their STBs better than what I hear from TWC customers.  I just wish AT&T could find a way to justify putting some capital into their outside plant!  Investors seem to like their wired attrition plan, though.

[PONIES]

U-verse is terrible all around.

They have atrocious picture quality. Their "HD" looks worse than DVD or Internet streaming video. Their maximum speed offering is 24/3 Mbps and it is more expensive than Time Warner's 30/5 Mbps tier.

Their boxes are overrated. It's true that the interface is better but that is easily remedied with a CableCARD solution on Time Warner. Windows 7 Media Center's interface is superior to any interface AT&T or DirecTV have ever released.

AT&T's boxes also have a pathetic amount of space (when I was with them my DVR had 160 GB hard drive). Then again, their "HD" channels are so bitrate starved that you don't need more space.

Their Internet product will be useless eventually as they keep threatening a 250 GB bandwidth cap (although in typical incompetent AT&T manner it's been a year and a half and they still haven't figured out how to get it working properly).

Their pricing is outrageous. For what you get it is highway robbery. I had a $160 a month bill for their 24/3 Mbps Internet package and garbage over-compressed HD. Google Fiber is $120/month for symmetrical 1 Gbps and TV. **** AT&T.

AT&T is the worst competitor imaginable. My bill is $130 a month for 30/5 Mbps from Time Warner + Digital + Digital Variety + CableCARD.

They are both **** compared to Google Fiber but AT&T is **** with vomit on top.

[LoadStar]

Well, the only point I can possibly dispute is the HD quality on U-Verse. It definitely is HD quality, based on what I've seen for the installation at my parents house. Both the parents and I were satisfied with the picture quality.

[PONIES]

I recommend consulting an optometrist if you are in any way satisfied with AT&T's picture quality.

Video sources that have better picture quality than AT&T include (in order):

-Blu-ray
-OTA Television
-ALL other pay TV providers
-Vudu, iTunes, Netflix, even 1080p YouTube videos

If you have watched any of these other sources on a high definition television and then proceed to watch some U-verse TV it's like a slap in the face.

See this? This reminds me of what U-verse looked like half the time when I had their service.

And don't give me that "it depends on the quality of the line" garbage. Every U-verse TV subscriber gets the same 5.7 Mbps H.264 digital IPTV stream. It is DIGITAL; no matter how terrible the line is running to your house the picture quality does not degrade any further. I was on a line that sync'd at 65 Mbps and I was on their highest profile level offered, 32/5 Mbps (of which they will not allow you more than 24/3 for Internet usage).

Which brings me to another thing I forgot to mention. Every time you tune/record more than one HDTV channel at a time it drops your Internet speed by 6 Mbps for each channel; so if you pay for their 24 Mbps tier and you use all four tuners on the U-verse DVR at the same time your Internet speed will drop down to 8 Mbps!

[KryptoNyte]

My understanding is that U-verse HD comes in at a reduced bitrate (compared to TWC), that can have some affect on image quality.  On the other hand, if one is satisfied with the quality on their own TV, it seems to be an okay service overall.  My parents also use it and it seems to work for them, so that's a plus.

I'll only add this, although Time Warner's Cable TV service has been a serious disappointment (even with cablecard+WMC7 solution), I have had almost zero problems with their Internet service as most others mention.  Whatever their Internet division is doing, I hope they can keep doing it.

[gparris]

I have had TWC's Signature Home for several months now and it has saved me money on my bill (it went down $25), upgraded my internet service from Extreme to Ultimate, kept my Digital home phone service nationwide and upgraded the HD boxes and access I had, then they added some extra movie channels I didn't have, too.
I have between the 2 HD DVR's that come with it (2-500 Gigabyte drives) a Terabyte of recording space and can access the recordings from any client box or DVR even as I record 4 shows at once. If there is a problem I can call a special number just for my service and get help right away without being transferred around. If you are close to the price of this service with the new non-Signature pricing increases, want better equipment and treatment, I recommend it. Every so often I get a call from TWC Signature Home, asking if everything is ok, do I have any questions, just to make sure I am happy, a far cry from basic TWC. If this keeps up, I will continue to recommend it as it is worth the price.

[Jack 1000]

I have had TWC's Signature Home for several months now and it has saved me money on my bill (it went down $25), upgraded my internet service from Extreme to Ultimate, kept my Digital home phone service nationwide and upgraded the HD boxes and access I had, then they added some extra movie channels I didn't have, too.
I have between the 2 HD DVR's that come with it (2-500 Gigabyte drives) a Terabyte of recording space and can access the recordings from any client box or DVR even as I record 4 shows at once. If there is a problem I can call a special number just for my service and get help right away without being transferred around. If you are close to the price of this service with the new non-Signature pricing increases, want better equipment and treatment, I recommend it. Every so often I get a call from TWC Signature Home, asking if everything is ok, do I have any questions, just to make sure I am happy, a far cry from basic TWC. If this keeps up, I will continue to recommend it as it is worth the price.

Is the price still $200 a month, or $230 a month with all HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and TMC channels?  I heard that TWC Movie Pass and Sports Pass are not included.  Glad you like the Signature Home!

Jack