In my experience Cable Providers have only slightly better PQ than U-verse, and both are far behind Dish and DirecTV.
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Should I Switch From Cable?
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In my experience Cable Providers have only slightly better PQ than U-verse, and both are far behind Dish and DirecTV.
Directv charges $10/month for dvr service, Charter charges $20. With MRV included, it's $13/month for Directv. Are you saying there is no charge per month for the clients?
Your experience is incorrect and/or biased because the technical specs just don't back that up.
Most cable providers are using MPEG-2 and packing 3 HDs to a QAM resulting in an effective bitrate of 12-14 Mbps on most of their channel lineup; in addition, they typically pass through the local affiliates untouched. Some channels uplinked as MPEG-2 they can pass through untouched because their bitrates are sufficiently low enough and they've been designed for cable providers to pack them 3 to a QAM.
DirecTV and Dish Network on the other hand, re-encode everything on their channel lineup to H.264 @ ~4-6 Mbps. This is an incredibly low bitrate and the definition of bitrate starvation. Dish Network adds an additional quality ruining step of down-rezzing 1920x1080i channels to 1440x1080i in the process.
AT&T actually seems to be using similar bitrates for their HD channels but for some reason they just look like pure ass. They must have incompetents running them with sub-optimal settings because I don't see why they should look worse than DirecTV but they do.
He's saying that a CableCARD costs $2 a month to rent from the cable company and it can power a CableCARD tuner with six tuners like the Ceton InfiniTV 6.
One can then use Xbox 360s or Ceton Echos in other rooms to act as media center extenders for no additional monthly fee and they act like a DVR or a receiver only better.
You can save hundreds of dollars a year in equipment rental fees by using CableCARD tuners and media center extenders.
Windows 7 or Windows 8 both have Windows Media Center and the CableCARD tuner support is a free add-on. All you have to do is buy a CableCARD tuner and then run the Digital Cable Advisor plug-in in Windows Media Center.
That may be what he meant, but that's not what he said. He said his whole home dvr costs $2/month.
Cable providers use MPEG-2 which uses H.262 compression ok
Dish and Directv use MPEG-4 which uses H.264 compression ok
To achieve the exact same DVD quality H.262 requires more data ok
But to that effect H.264 requires LESS data to achieve the EXACT same level of DVD quality ok
Again, I can't stress enough how pitiful the picture was from Charter on HD for years through every box they had, and how stunning the picture quality is I get today from Directv. Specs aside if I tried to change back my wife would stab me in the eye with a knife. What I am saying is it doesn't matter how good those specs are if what I see on my screen blows.
In Fort Worth Charter in now all digital with over 200 HD channels (more than Direct or Dish) but their DVRs are crap with only 2 tuners and about 40 hours of HD recording with no whole house viewing. I have Charter for internet (60 down and 4 up) but I am sticking with satellite until they get some decent DVRs. We have Charter where I work and their picture quality looks about the same as Direct or Dish.
I don't even know what you are trying to say here.
What's with all the "oks" ?
H.264 is only about twice as efficient as MPEG-2 under optimal conditions. Real-time re-encoding are not optimal conditions.
A 4-6 Mbps bitrate using H.264 is still inferior to a 12-14 Mbps bitrate using MPEG-2.
The only thing "stunning" about DirecTV's picture quality is how bad it is.
How many times does the word "CableCARD" need to be repeated?
Poor DVR quality is not a valid excuse for any provider that has to adhere to the CableCARD standard.
I'm sorry, it seemed very simple to me. I'm saying that a cablecard isn't necessarily the same thing as a whole home dvr, since it can be used on only one tv. It can be set up like it's a whole home dvr. The average consumer can't do that.
That is not true at all.
A CableCARD setup offers even more whole home DVR functionality than a cable company provided DVR.
The Ceton InfiniTV 6 or HDHomeRun Prime can be controlled from any unit connected to the network in the home.
A central PC running one of these cards can play back TV to any media center extender connected to the network in the home.
That is the definition of a "whole home DVR."
It is irrelevant what the "average consumer" can or cannot do. The average consumer certainly can accomplish this however if they decide to remove their thumbs from their ears and take ten minutes to look up how to set it up.
I consider acquiring this knowledge a worthwhile investment as it will save hundreds of dollars in equipment rental fees every year.
You guys are familiar with DirecTV I assume. They have a 5 tuner Genie for $25/month. You can watch TV or recordings on any other TV with a $6/month client box that goes through the Genie.
My system works the same way but with a 6 tuner $2/month cable card tuner, and each client box is free. I happen to have 5 TVs, all of which get live and recorded TV through the main box. That's what whole
-home means. So the equivalent DirecTV system would cost me $25 + 4 x $6 = $49. Does that make sense?
DirecTV DVR service is no longer $10 for new customers, it's $25, by the way.
My system works the same way but with a 6 tuner $2/month cable card tuner, and each client box is free. I happen to have 5 TVs, all of which get live and recorded TV through the main box. That's what whole
-home means. So the equivalent DirecTV system would cost me $25 + 4 x $6 = $49. Does that make sense?
DirecTV DVR service is no longer $10 for new customers, it's $25, by the way.
The dvr service is still $10, but it's included in the advanced receiver fee which also has the hd and mrv fee.
Yeah, but if a new sub got a Genie it would be $25, about the same as DVR + HD + MRV as you said. Either way, a lot more than $2.
And to be clear, I can watch any channel or any recording on any TV. My only fees are my one $2 card plus my programming package, 175 HD channels, HBO/MAX/SHO for $60 in my case, also far cheaper than DirecTV. I used to pay that much for DirecTV's worst package that had almost nothing.
And to be clear, I can watch any channel or any recording on any TV. My only fees are my one $2 card plus my programming package, 175 HD channels, HBO/MAX/SHO for $60 in my case, also far cheaper than DirecTV. I used to pay that much for DirecTV's worst package that had almost nothing.
It's too bad that government mandate didn't make its way to Satellite. Adding to my comment in the AT&T/Direct merge thread, that's another competitive advantage that Cable has over DBS.
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