Comcast buying Time Warner Cable

[mrschimpf]

Anyone who was thinking that Charter was going to snap up TWC like me is shocked tonight...Comcast is laying down $159/share for Time Warner, well above the $130-140/share range Charter was offering.

Announcements of more tomorrow and somehow I don't think this is the final word by far since Charter's aggressive about getting Time Warner, but Comcast, with their one Manitowoc system, would probably get to keep the TWC Wisconsin cluster for sure.

[gparris]

Oh great. Comcast has crap TV service. I guess the first thing that will happen is Comcast will end the good service I get with Signature Home. Maybe I should stop throwing out those DirecTV mailers?:bang:

[Jack 1000]

If this deal is not approved, struck down in the courts, than what happens?

Jack

[PONIES]

Have fun with the bandwidth caps, guys.

Comcap's latest scam is implementing a 300 GB cap and $10 per 50 GB overage fees on their subscribers.

So if you were to subscribe to Comcast's 300 Mbps tier and use it 24/7 the whole month they will send you a bill for over $20,000.

Meanwhile, on Time Warner, if you get their 100 Mbps tier and use it 24/7 for a month no ****s are given.

I hope you don't actually use your broadband connection for any sort of modern technology because your bill is fixing to shoot up like crazy.

[Jack 1000]

Comcast uses I-Guide in some markets,

But they have also rolled out a Tivo based guide in other markets that makes Navigator look like Pong!

http://tivo.com/discover/cable  (Scroll down)

I have been talking to subs about Comcast's bandwidth caps.  They say in many markets,  they aren't even turned on, and I know one guy that downloads like 1TB of stuff a month and Comcast has said nothing, so I wouldn't worry about it.

It would be nice if we get better boxes and a better guide though.  Remember, this could all die in the courts and with the FCC.

Jack

[Jack 1000]

Comcast uses I-Guide in some markets,

But they have also rolled out a Tivo based guide in other markets that makes Navigator look like Pong!

http://tivo.com/discover/cable  (Scroll down)

I have been talking to subs about Comcast's bandwidth caps.  They say in many markets,  they aren't even turned on, and I know one guy that downloads like 1TB of stuff a month and Comcast has said nothing, so I wouldn't worry about it.

It would be nice if we get better boxes and a better guide though.  Remember, this could all die in the courts and with the FCC.

Jack

However, just like TWC, being able to get the newer boxes depends on your market with Comcast and what they have in stock:

http://forums.comcast.com/t5/XfinityTV-and-Equipment/How-do-I-get-the-newest-HD-DVR-cable-box/td-p/1170993

Jack

[LoadStar]

Comcast uses I-Guide in some markets,

But they have also rolled out a Tivo based guide in other markets that makes Navigator look like Pong!

http://tivo.com/discover/cable  (Scroll down)

To be accurate, the image displayed is the retail TiVo Roamio interface, not one running on a Comcast box.

I've heard that the TiVo interface running on Comcast boxes is DOA.

[PONIES]

I have been talking to subs about Comcast's bandwidth caps.  They say in many markets,  they aren't even turned on, and I know one guy that downloads like 1TB of stuff a month and Comcast has said nothing, so I wouldn't worry about it.

Irrelevant. It isn't going to stay that way forever. Comcap is clearly on a path of rolling out a cap nationwide and implementing overage charges. You'd be a fool not to see it.

They want to strangle your bandwidth usage and wring out some extra cash just like the mobile providers, and as a monopoly they're in a position to do it. By the time this deal is completed I'm sure they'll have rolled out their caps and overages to more of their territory.

I couldn't give two shits about if Comcast has a better guide on their crappy boxes or not. That is wholly irrelevant. CableCARD tuners work on Comcast and on Time Warner so there is no need for a cable company provided box on either provider. A CableCARD tuner + Media Center interface blows away any cable company DVR. I see this much like the console peasants who get so excited over their new PS4s or Xbox Ones... who cares? You guys are literally debating over which pile of crap emits the least amount of odor. I've had a gaming PC for years that blows every console out of the water just like I've had a media center PC that blows away any cable company box. When such a superior option exists to you it's like fighting over table scraps when a nice juicy steak is sitting right there.

[Tivoman44]

speaking of TiVo and cable .   is it true that comcast allows two way multi streaming cable cards.....no more need for a tuning adapter or SDV?  

and what about copy control being able to transfer shows from one TiVo the other.   I thought I remembered hearing how TWC was the only provider using copy control and one way cable cards

[Jack 1000]

Good article here:

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/comcast-to-acquire-time-warner-cable-143000745.html

Jack

[LoadStar]

speaking of TiVo and cable .   is it true that comcast allows two way multi streaming cable cards.....no more need for a tuning adapter or SDV?  

and what about copy control being able to transfer shows from one TiVo the other.   I thought I remembered hearing how TWC was the only provider using copy control and one way cable cards

For the first, not true. There is no such thing as a "one-way" or "two-way" CableCard. The only two types of CableCards out there are single-stream and multi-stream. What determines "one-way" or "two-way" is the device they are placed into.

As long as SDV is in use, non-cable-company-owned set-top boxes will require tuning adapters.

As far as the copy control (CCI byte), Time Warner Cable does seem to make the most prolific use of it, but there isn't anything stopping the others from doing the same. As long as they don't apply it to broadcast stations, they're legally fine.

[Tivoman44]

Thanks for the info Loadstar.  You said TWC uses Copy Control the most which I can say is true, all I can transfer is over the air channels, do we know for sure if Comcast allows it differently?

[Jack 1000]

Good article on Internet Broadband caps.  As of May 2012, it says Comcast raised the limit to 300GB's of download per month and now they don't enforce it.

How much data would that be considering movies and streaming?

http://gigaom.com/2012/10/01/data-caps-chart/

Jack

[Talos4]

I couldn't give two shits about if Comcast has a better guide on their crappy boxes or not. That is wholly irrelevant. CableCARD tuners work on Comcast and on Time Warner so there is no need for a cable company provided box on either provider. A CableCARD tuner + Media Center interface blows away any cable company DVR. I see this much like the console peasants who get so excited over their new PS4s or Xbox Ones... who cares? You guys are literally debating over which pile of crap emits the least amount of odor. I've had a gaming PC for years that blows every console out of the water just like I've had a media center PC that blows away any cable company box. When such a superior option exists to you it's like fighting over table scraps when a nice juicy steak is sitting right there.

That's all well and good for you, myself and others, That doesn't address the majority of cable customers who have no clue what a "media center" or "Cable Card" is.  

Just in my family alone which encompasses about two dozen people they look at me like I have three eye's when I tell them that I watch a majority of TV through my PC with HD and Surround sound. They ask me why I have a set of rabbit ears tucked behind my TV.

When we presented my parents with a new WS tv at christmas my dad asked why does it have to be that shape and why do we have to have a cable box. They complained about having to change remotes for cryin out loud.

Business models have to appeal to the masses, That's where the money is, Not the niche markets, early adopters etc.

I'm probably an exception when it comes to the "average cable customer", I'm in my mid 50's, fairly fluent in "PCease" I got into HD, surround sound in 2005, have two of the latest android phones, two tablets on so on.  

WE on this board are the ones expecting software and GUI to be at least somewhat up to date. Not my parents or even my brothers who when I complain about the guide and the DVR think I 'm nuts.

Superior options don't concern the majority of subscribers, They want to turn on the TV after dinner and watch this mornings episode of Kelly and Micheal.

[PONIES]

Good article on Internet Broadband caps.  As of May 2012, it says Comcast raised the limit to 300GB's of download per month and now they don't enforce it.

How much data would that be considering movies and streaming?

http://gigaom.com/2012/10/01/data-caps-chart/

Jack

That would be approximately six dual layer Blu-rays or six 4K movies assuming you didn't use your Internet connection for anything else that month.

I hope you don't like PC gaming either as games like Max Payne 3 from Steam require a 30 GB download or Call of Duty: Ghosts is 50 GB.

Also, if you subscribe to a porn site, I hope you like only being able to download 100 movies instead of being able to subscribe to a porn site for one month, download the entire site, and then cancel your membership to that site. Under Comcast's stifling caps you can no longer cost effectively save entire porn sites whereas with a Time Warner connection you can subscribe to a site like Brazzers for $20, download their entire site, and be set with a massive catalog of 1080p porn for life.

Also, I hope you guys don't care about actually being able to back your data up to a offsite cloud storage provider so that you're not one of the legions of people crying when their hard drive fails or they get robbed/their house burns down/floods/gets hit by a tornado, etc.

I have over 50 TB of data I have to keep backed up to the cloud and Comcast would expect me to pay them $10,000 in overage fees or spend 14 years spacing out my uploading to use under 300 GB of data each month for 167 months in order to do that. To put that into perspective, you can buy EIGHTY 4 terabyte hard drives (yes, PHYSICAL products), for a total amount of 320 TB of storage space, and then rent a safety deposit box at a bank and store some of your data in there, for the same amount of money that Comcast wants to charge you in 'overage fees' to send 50 TB of data via the Internet.

Something ain't right with this picture. Remember in the 1990's when it was more cost effective to physically buy hard drives and pay for shipping to move data around than it was to just use your Internet connection? Comcast wants to take us all back to those days. Comcast wants to introduce us to an Internet dark age.