Considering a return to Time Warner

[Coach Knight]

Greetings! I am a current Dish Network customer considering a return to Time Warner and had a few questions for anyone who may be a Time Warner customer now. I had cable all my life until moving to Dish about 2 years ago. I have been happy with Dish overall, and can say that from my experience they are head and shoulders above what Time Warner was 2 years ago, in terms of both equipment and picture quality.

My commitment is up and Time Warner has offered me a pretty decent deal on bundling (I already have Internet with them). The bundle offer would save me about $38 per month or so based on my calculations. The offer was for 12 months with no commitment, meaning I could use this offer to save over $450 in the next year, or switch back to Dish once eligible for promo pricing again and save that way also. Or combine the two options, save $450 for a year then go to dish and save whatever the promo savings are again. I imagine the savings would be in excess of $750 or more over the next two years if employing that method. Granted, money isn't everything, but if there have been improvements at Time Warner during the last few years then it would make the move easier.

One of the main reasons I was so frustrated with Time Warner was the equipment. We had HD DVRs that constantly rebooted, many times during recordings, and the ridiculously small hard drives that allowed around 20 hours or so of HD recording. Additionally, the SD picture quality on Time Warner was very poor (not that we watch much in SD) but it is actually pretty darn good on Dish Network, with some channels being what I would term "near HD".

So I'd like to find out what HD DVR boxes people are using now (newer models) and how you like them, as well as what type of recording time/hard drive capacity you have on them. Really I think the equipment will be the deciding factor in if I make the move, although I am very interested in your picture quality (both HD and SD) and any other comments you may have about their service.

My programming wouldn't change all that much based on what I currently watch. Mainly I may lose a few games on the RSNs, and also NFL Network and NFL Redzone which gets a lot of use on Sundays in my house, but I'd pick up ESPNU in HD and would also add Fearnet in HD which would be cool since we are big horror movie fans, and Chiller in SD just doesn't cut it for us. All of the other channels we watch with any degree of frequency are on both providers in HD. I believe that the on-demand with cable is much better also from what I know, although correct me if I am wrong about that. Time Warner also has a look-back feature on some channels that would help if a recording was ever missed.

Hopefully there are some Time Warner customers (or even recent customers) who can chime in and give some input.

 

[AntiMoz]

I have both Time Warner and Dish. I have had TW at my primary residence for many years with bundled phone and Internet service. Dish at my cottage. I've also had DirecTV but changed to Dish Eastern Arc because of LOS problems with DirecTV.

Overall PQ and equipment much better on Dish. My Digital Cable box is a new Cisco Explorer model 8640HDC. The cable box is slow and clunky compared to the Dish 211k and 722k I have. The dish equipment works much better and has many more options and features.

I understand your desire to save money...I do think you get less value with TWC because of the fewer number of HD channels available, cruddy equipment and software and substandard HD Picture quality. The only real upside for me has been good onside tech service that I don't have to pay "extra" for.

Feelin the love now you have a reply here in this forum?

 

[Coach Knight]

Thanks for the reply! Feelin' a little love now, yeah. :

That feedback is about what I expected. Of course, having been gone for several years I had hoped they would have at least improved the equipment. Don't know why it's so hard to get a decent piece of equipment from the cable company. Although to hear most people talk about it, slow equipment isn't restricted to cable (see DirecTV forums).

 

[jayn_j]

I am through with my TWC commitment this month and am cutting the cable. I am not one to switch often, but the service has been less than stellar. I Have a Samsung DVR. Started out pretty nice, but a couple of months after I got it, TWC uploaded new firmware that crippled the box by eliminating 30 second skip, favorites and external HDD support.

They offer a large number of HD channels in Milwaukee, though not as many as DISH. Problem is that up to 25% of them are unavailable at any time. Lots of macroblocking, and often no signal at all. You can set your watch by the time that several of them go away at 6 PM. Quality is 'eh".

 

[Coach Knight]

Thanks for that feedback. Yes I seem to remember some of the picture quality issues like you mentioned with the macro-blocking. It's funny how when you've been gone for a while how you forget those things. That's why I posted here...for feedback on service and equipment as it stands now. Sometimes things can change a lot in 2 years.

 

[thowe21]

I was a Dish customer for 13 years till I had to move last year to a complex that included Time Warner cable in my lease. I hated giving up my 722 and 211 receivers also for Time Warner's Cablevision DVR's. My DVR's are now filling to capacity like three times faster than my 722 and have had problems with reboots. I also miss HDNET which Time Warner refuses to carry. On the plus side, I'm thoroughly impressed with all the OnDemand features Time Warner has. This has allowed me to cut back on my scheduled recordings knowing I can now just watch the replays through OnDemand. I don't watch too much SD programming so I can't comment on that but the HD quality seems comparable to me in the LA area.

 

[Coach Knight]

I had some reboot issues also when we had Time Warner before. I had hoped that perhaps they had improved in that area. I agree their capacity is a joke, although I guess the OnDemand helps. I never really used that feature much last time we had them. I remember HD being pretty good on Time Warner, maybe not quite as good as Dish but pretty darn close. It was SD that I seem to remember being pretty bad. I don't watch SD much either, but a few channels don't broadcast in HD that we do watch from time to time.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[jayn_j]

Tried 6 times in a row, including a call to customer service and couldn't get the tuning adapter to live today. So much for the ball game

Finally calling TWC tomorrow and cutting the cor.

 

[TARDIS]

I was considering switching to TWC from DTV as they are offering me substantial savings, no contract, no installation fee for a budled service. I would save $130 a month to switch but I have concern over the quality as well. Sometimes you do get what you pay for. I was wondering how the surround sound is on TWC too. My brother is telling me I would lose the 5.1 that DTV offers on a lot of their channels. Is that true?

 

[Islandguy43]

I have returned to TWC from Dish for over 2 years now, because of sports programing and the savings through bundling pricing. Picture Quality is generally good; Equipment is sub-standard compared to Dish; and I have had no issues with Surround Sound with them. However I don't always have my surround sound equipment running on every channel. TWC on demand content is excellent, with Primetime on Demand being available usually within 24 hours of original airing for the 4 major networks. I have their whole house DVR and only TWC with Cisco Equipment or Dish with their VIP receivers will give you PIP. I don't believe Directv receivers have that feature.

Ultimately comes down to programing and what you are willing to pay. If you live in NY State and want to watch New York Sports Teams (Buffalo Sabres and New York Yankees in my case), your choices are TWC or Directv. Dish doesn't offer any of the NY RSN's. However TWC doesn't offer the NFL Network either, which could become a major porgraming issue come fall.

 

[Coach Knight]

Islandguy, what equipment do you have? I have read that the Cisco 8742 is a very good box. Most say it is very fast and has 500GB of storage, which is far superior to the old Scientific Atlanta boxes we had when with them last time.

Anyone on the forum have experience with this new box?

 

[Islandguy43]

Islandguy, what equipment do you have? I have read that the Cisco 8742 is a very good box. Most say it is very fast and has 500GB of storage, which is far superior to the old Scientific Atlanta boxes we had when with them last time.

Anyone on the forum have experience with this new box?

That is the box I have, and though it is superior to the old Scientific Atlanta boxes; being a former Dish Sub I find it inferior to the VIP Recievers Dish offers.

 

[Coach Knight]

I figure just about anything will be inferior to Dish but if it's at least a great improvement from the old SA boxes then I am not nearly as hesitant. Thank you for the info. We need to get more traffic in this part of the forum!

 

[Coach Knight]

OK, I went ahead and made the switch. Was considering it for a few months as mentioned in my first post based on an expected savings of a little under $40 per month, and being able to go back to Dish as a new customer with promo pricing. However, Time Warner hit me with a win-back promo that should save me about $80 per month! This is two years of guaranteed pricing, no commitment, no installation fee. Savings are nearly $2,000 in two years for comparable channels with my bundle deal. So when I see a few little things Dish does better I keep telling myself "$2,000".

Anyway, I had the install on Friday afternoon. It was a very easy one, just switch a few connections on the box outside the house and plug in the new boxes. Took maybe 30 minutes total. I wanted the aforementioned Cisco 8742 but all the installer had was the old Scientific Atlanta DVRs. I called over to a local sales center and they told me they'd hold one for me to exchange. While going through the SA box features with the installer, I told him I was going to take it and exchange it as soon as he left. He commented on how much lag there was between pressing a button and anything happening on screen, and told me himself that I didn't want that box but it was all they gave the installers normally.

After he left, but before unhooking the box, I did spend time with it so I could compare to the Cisco box. It was horrible...very slow to respond, and I was totally disappointed in the picture quality. I actually didn't know if I'd last a week with this change if the new box wasn't a huge improvement. And that even then, if the picture quality wasn't improved I didn't know if I'd keep it. The HD was not crisp at all and the SD channels were almost unwatchable, which is what I remember about the SD channels from before.

So I go over and get the Cisco 8742 and hook it up. First thing I notice is how much smaller the box is, despite having so much more recording capacity (500 GB). After it boots up first thing I notice is how fast it responds. It's very quick with no lag whatsoever. I go to a few HD channels and see what I believe is a very noticeable difference in HD quality from the SA box. Picture is very clear, and "pops" off the screen. Just as good as Dish (if not a little better on some channels), although I never had a complaint about Dish picture quality...I think it was superb. Then I go to a few SD channels, and there is a very noticeable difference in quality from the SA box I had at first. The SD is very close to being on par with the "HD-lite" that Dish SD is so commonly praised for being. It is much, much better than what we had with Time Warner before.

I thought maybe I was seeing things from a "placebo" effect, but when my wife came in the room, she commented "That is a great picture!" and she had been commenting earlier when the SA box was on that TV what a poor picture it had and she had told me I wouldn't last a week with that picture. I had to turn down my brightness, as the Cisco box definitely put out a noticeably brighter picture. Not saying that is better, or worse, just that it was different...and in my opinion it was too bright. In a dark room it actually almost hurt your eyes.

We've been in all weekend as the wife is not feeling well...and the TV has been on a lot. I can honestly say I was very hesitant about this change, and expected I'd jump back to Dish as soon as my three months were up to qualify for new promos. However, now I am not so sure. The savings are tremendous...plus the channel lineup is very similar. I lost NFL Network (and RedZone) and that will hurt a little during NFL season. I picked up our local sub-channels without OTA being required, ESPNU in HD, and of course FearNet HD, and yes, I will watch that channel a lot as I'm a big horror movie buff. And we have tons of free On-Demand programming. Even FearNet On-Demand. LOL

I don't like the guide as much as Dish's guide. It kinda (for lack of a better word) sucks! It's not unusable, just simply doesn't look as nice (subjective I know). I haven't yet used much of the On-Demand other than just to see what is there, but the selection is impressive.

Picture quality is much better with this Cisco box than the Scientific Atlanta box. Perhaps I had a bad SA box, but the quality I saw from that box was very similar to the quality I remember from before when we were with Time Warner. If the DVR functions as well as I need it to, then I can imagine staying a lot longer than the three months, especially for $80 per month in savings. I know this promo ends at 24 months, so perhaps by then Dish will have worked out all the small bugs in the Hopper/Joey setup and will have fully integrated Hoppers and OTA. The good thing about no contract is I can switch at any time.

So that's my story (and I'm stickin' to it). I will update after using some DVR features. I'd love to see this Time Warner forum more active, but I guess that is asking too much for a satellite forum. Guess I'll just have to hang out with my old buddies on the Dish forum. :

 

[mike123abc]

The closest thing to Dish boxes on cable are the TiVo Premier DVRs. I use them with cable card.

 

[jayn_j]

The closest thing to Dish boxes on cable are the TiVo Premier DVRs. I use them with cable card.

Yeah, I did that. Had continuously increasing problems with unstable tuning adapters. Finally cut the cable. Fortunately, the tIVO boxes work great OTA.

 

[empiretc]

OK, I went ahead and made the switch. Was considering it for a few months as mentioned in my first post based on an expected savings of a little under $40 per month, and being able to go back to Dish as a new customer with promo pricing. However, Time Warner hit me with a win-back promo that should save me about $80 per month! This is two years of guaranteed pricing, no commitment, no installation fee. Savings are nearly $2,000 in two years for comparable channels with my bundle deal. So when I see a few little things Dish does better I keep telling myself "$2,000".

Anyway, I had the install on Friday afternoon. It was a very easy one, just switch a few connections on the box outside the house and plug in the new boxes. Took maybe 30 minutes total. I wanted the aforementioned Cisco 8742 but all the installer had was the old Scientific Atlanta DVRs. I called over to a local sales center and they told me they'd hold one for me to exchange. While going through the SA box features with the installer, I told him I was going to take it and exchange it as soon as he left. He commented on how much lag there was between pressing a button and anything happening on screen, and told me himself that I didn't want that box but it was all they gave the installers normally.

After he left, but before unhooking the box, I did spend time with it so I could compare to the Cisco box. It was horrible...very slow to respond, and I was totally disappointed in the picture quality. I actually didn't know if I'd last a week with this change if the new box wasn't a huge improvement. And that even then, if the picture quality wasn't improved I didn't know if I'd keep it. The HD was not crisp at all and the SD channels were almost unwatchable, which is what I remember about the SD channels from before.

So I go over and get the Cisco 8742 and hook it up. First thing I notice is how much smaller the box is, despite having so much more recording capacity (500 GB). After it boots up first thing I notice is how fast it responds. It's very quick with no lag whatsoever. I go to a few HD channels and see what I believe is a very noticeable difference in HD quality from the SA box. Picture is very clear, and "pops" off the screen. Just as good as Dish (if not a little better on some channels), although I never had a complaint about Dish picture quality...I think it was superb. Then I go to a few SD channels, and there is a very noticeable difference in quality from the SA box I had at first. The SD is very close to being on par with the "HD-lite" that Dish SD is so commonly praised for being. It is much, much better than what we had with Time Warner before.

I thought maybe I was seeing things from a "placebo" effect, but when my wife came in the room, she commented "That is a great picture!" and she had been commenting earlier when the SA box was on that TV what a poor picture it had and she had told me I wouldn't last a week with that picture. I had to turn down my brightness, as the Cisco box definitely put out a noticeably brighter picture. Not saying that is better, or worse, just that it was different...and in my opinion it was too bright. In a dark room it actually almost hurt your eyes.

We've been in all weekend as the wife is not feeling well...and the TV has been on a lot. I can honestly say I was very hesitant about this change, and expected I'd jump back to Dish as soon as my three months were up to qualify for new promos. However, now I am not so sure. The savings are tremendous...plus the channel lineup is very similar. I lost NFL Network (and RedZone) and that will hurt a little during NFL season. I picked up our local sub-channels without OTA being required, ESPNU in HD, and of course FearNet HD, and yes, I will watch that channel a lot as I'm a big horror movie buff. And we have tons of free On-Demand programming. Even FearNet On-Demand. LOL

I don't like the guide as much as Dish's guide. It kinda (for lack of a better word) sucks! It's not unusable, just simply doesn't look as nice (subjective I know). I haven't yet used much of the On-Demand other than just to see what is there, but the selection is impressive.

Picture quality is much better with this Cisco box than the Scientific Atlanta box. Perhaps I had a bad SA box, but the quality I saw from that box was very similar to the quality I remember from before when we were with Time Warner. If the DVR functions as well as I need it to, then I can imagine staying a lot longer than the three months, especially for $80 per month in savings. I know this promo ends at 24 months, so perhaps by then Dish will have worked out all the small bugs in the Hopper/Joey setup and will have fully integrated Hoppers and OTA. The good thing about no contract is I can switch at any time.

So that's my story (and I'm stickin' to it). I will update after using some DVR features. I'd love to see this Time Warner forum more active, but I guess that is asking too much for a satellite forum. Guess I'll just have to hang out with my old buddies on the Dish forum. :

Are you going to give us the details on what they offered you?

 

[Coach Knight]

I kept my home internet for which I was paying $57.95 for and added all Digital and HD channels except HD pass (which has nothing of interest for me and only a few channels) and 3D pass. No premiums with Dish, none with TWC. My total cost for all that is supposed to be $85 per month (pre-tax) for two years guaranteed. Guess I'll see when I get my first actual bill here soon if that is accurate. I was paying about $176 for Dish plus cable for roughly same channels pre-tax. So the savings may be a little more than $80 per month but we'll see.

Their channel lineup for my area is here: Time Warner Cable | Time Warner Cable | Corporate

I am very pleased with the savings. Plus the upped my internet speed from 10/1 to 15/1 as well. Hopefully, I'll be able to live with the equipment.

 

[empiretc]

How many dvrs?

 

[Coach Knight]

One HD DVR and two HD boxes. I can switch one of the other boxes for another DVR for about $11 per month, still making the savings tremendous. However, my son starts college this summer and told me not to get a DVR for him right now as he won't be home as much, plus we travel a lot during the summer and don't watch (or record) as much TV as well.

So that gives us four tuners right now, which is what I had with two 722's, although I did have OTA on one of them, so I had five usable tuners for a while. I was able to put HD on one TV which had previously had only the SD feed from the 722 second output, which is nice.