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Cable subscribers WILL be affected by digital TV switch
- Thread starter Nate Wesley
- Start date
Like Yogi once said "it ain't over till it's over." 20%+ HH'ds depend on OTA reception and many elections are decided by 1-2% or less. Many of those 20% ers are located in areas with decent analog reception and poor digital reception. They don't want or can't afford cable.
If the cable companies continue their historical pattern of greed, greed, greed, then existing current cable subscribers WILL be affected by the digital TV switch. They will get rid of the darn thing!
If the cable companies continue their historical pattern of greed, greed, greed, then existing current cable subscribers WILL be affected by the digital TV switch. They will get rid of the darn thing!
poledo said:
Not likely. The only thing they'll offer is their basic service that includes the local channels for your market, or the national broadcast networks if your market isn't covered. It's pretty much what they offer now. No "lifeline", just whether you want a dish on your house/in your yard or not.
Comparitively, I'd rather pay $35 a month for DirecTV that gives me 100+ channels as opposed to cable that offers $50 a month for maybe 50 channels.
FloydB said:
Don't want to hijack our topic, but the only thing you can for around $35 from DirecTV (and some more on top that of that amount with tax figured in) is the 45 channel + 2 XM channel family package, on one set for $29.95 + taxes and DTV fees, giving you about 30 or so channels you'll probably never watch. The next step up programming-wise, from DirecTV, is is the 150 channel CHOICE package, starting at $53 before credits or discounts helping bring that down, taxes & fees to bring that even higher. I mean, DirecTV and Dish are pretty comparable to cable prices nowadays, when you conside they have very similar programming within the packages amongst each other as well as the larger cable providers.
Byron
Byron said:
My business manager (wife) handles all of that for me, but thanks for the lesson anyway. I know we get a discount through AT&T, since they partnered with DirecTV in offering a bundle package to give them time so they can upgrade their systems here in the Atlanta area to offer their own Advanced TV package. Either way, the cost of phone and DiecTV is still much cheaper than what Charter has to offer here.
The Dude said:
Yes I have to agree.Digital cable looks like crap, On my moms 27" tv I watch movies and other shows which I don't get at home on extended basic cable,The quility sucks,the video is too blocky, The sound is to tinny, The video look like it was recorded on EP on vhs or those Mpeg1 videos I.ve downloaded off the internet and burnd to VCD format.I still think this transition is a big mistake,but I think they could of do this some other way.
I don't think it is possible to compare cable PQ nationwide as there are so many different companies and infrastructures involved. Two years ago I switched from digital cable (Cox) to DirecTV and didn't notice any significant difference....at first. As time wore on and I began watching more DTV I noticed some of them tended to 'skip' (not pixelate) video while the audio was normal. The only channel now doing this is TNT and then only on selected programs (L&O reruns). I very rarely experience any other problems on DTV. PQ and audio is easily the equal of cable, if not marginally better. I don't have HD service so can't compare that.
The primary reason I switched was outages on Cox. They'd drop signal for hours at a time and two times it was a couple of days before it came back on. No refunds, nobody to contact, no reasons given so adios Cox.
DTV has been much better except during our summer thunderstorm season when the sig can drop out during heavy rain. I'm not happy paying what I consider big bucks for literally hundreds of channels I never watch but at least those I do are very watchable.
I might add that in my town the only cable option is Cox digital. There is no analog service available.
The primary reason I switched was outages on Cox. They'd drop signal for hours at a time and two times it was a couple of days before it came back on. No refunds, nobody to contact, no reasons given so adios Cox.
DTV has been much better except during our summer thunderstorm season when the sig can drop out during heavy rain. I'm not happy paying what I consider big bucks for literally hundreds of channels I never watch but at least those I do are very watchable.
I might add that in my town the only cable option is Cox digital. There is no analog service available.
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