Spectrum "Choice" Retention Package? Anyone?

[king3pj]

Quite frankly, Charter/Spectrum has become impossible to get retention deals with since their bankruptcy and reorganization. They locked down and instituted a 'our way, or the HIGHWAY' policy, and rolled it out across all their systems. ONLY new subs can get any sort of a deal, and then ONLY for a max of 1 year. Then they knock you down, and take turns kicking you in the nads and screaming "YOU ARE GOING TO PAY OUR PRICE, AND YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE IT!"

This has not been the case for me unless the change you are talking about took place in the last 2-3 months. I have been on the new customer promo price for my double play for over 4 years now. Last time I didn't even have to call when my promo ran out to get it extended. I received a letter from Charter just before it ran out letting me know they were going to extend my promos for another year.

I have 60 Mbps internet and Spectrum Silver TV. This is very similar to Dish AT 250 except Spectrum Silver also includes HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime. I pay about $119 for this package after taxes and cable card rental.

Every year before my promos run out I look into the internet options and I can't find anything that significantly beats my Charter Spectrum double play. Playstation Vue would be the best option for me because of the channels offered and cloud DVR functionality. This is what it would cost me to switch to Vue.

Charter standalone internet - $64.99
Playstation Vue's cheapest plan $39.99
HBO Now - $15
Total - $119.98

I would be paying the exact same amount of money for far less channels and a less functional cloud DVR service instead of my Tivo Roamio and Mini that have lifetime service that already paid for itself. If I didn't care about HBO I could save about $15 per month but I watch far too many of their series to give that up. I won't factor in the loss of Cinemax and Showtime because I rarely watch those.

It's too bad that Charter has been a bad experience for you because they are by far the best deal available for me. The minute they stop giving me promo pricing every year I will switch to Vue or one of the other streaming TV services but they have given me zero resistance when I ask for deals so far.

 

[harshness]

...but Charter Spectrum does have a new guide coming out for their HDDVRs that looks as good a Dishs or DirecTVs,they show it on their website.

You know better than that.

DIRECTV hyped their not particularly innovative "HD GUI" for a couple of years before it went full public to lots of cries of disappointment about not getting more than a 90 minute guide and deep menus. Remember the DIRECTiVo THR22 announced in 2010?

DISH's Hopper interface took rather long time to be released and the complaints have been even more vociferous for what was lost versus what was gained.

Comcast's much-ballyhooed TiVo interface "poofed" after about six or seven years and their X1 replacement is still pretty much nowhere in sight after being announced four years ago.

As most providers have now discovered, implementing an HTML interface on a DVR isn't nearly as easy as they were assured it would be. What they apparently haven't discovered is that full functionality is far more important than gimmickry once the new wears off.

 

[jayn_j]

Another reason for my TIVO/cablecard. There have been absolutely NO guide issues, since the guide doesn't come through Spectrum.

 

[harshness]

Another reason for my TIVO/cablecard. There have been absolutely NO guide issues, since the guide doesn't come through Spectrum.

So TiVo has completely cured all the Rovi issues (wrong dates, rerun flags, etc.) that have been blamed for failed/unwanted recordings?

 

[king3pj]

So TiVo has completely cured all the Rovi issues (wrong dates, rerun flags, etc.) that have been blamed for failed/unwanted recordings?

I can't say for sure that every issue with the Rovi changeover is completely solved but the only problems I ever saw were a long time ago. When Planet Earth II aired on BBC America it was showing the British air dates so it wasn't showing up in my to-do list. I had to manually find the episodes in the guide and set them to record. Luckily this was cleared up after the first two episodes. I've never had any missed recordings but I would have if I didn't catch this.

The only other issue is that I have had regular shows like Last Week Tonight show no info in the guide and record tons of repeats a few times. This is annoying but it's much less of a problem than missed recordings. Again, this hasn't happened in a long time.

 

[harshness]

Again, this hasn't happened in a long time.

The magic of "absolutely" is that it is unconditional.

 

[jayn_j]

99%. Very occasionally I will get something strange, but it works almost all the time. I saw the same BBC issue last year with Wheeler Dealer where the flags and dates were wrong on the new episodes.

Frankly, I had more missed and unwanted recordings when I had the TWC dvr.

 

[jayn_j]

And Harshness, what exactly is it that you are suggesting as an alternative? Is there another absolutely reliable solution that meets your "unconditional" test. Or are you just spouting off your usual "I'm superior" BS?

 

[harshness]

And Harshness, what exactly is it that you are suggesting as an alternative?

I'm not promoting any alternative.

What I'm after is to not hold something up as ideal that perhaps doesn't deserve that honor.

I suffer Rovi derived guide data with my provider and it is far from ideal both in terms of metadata and descriptive content and while the metadata has improved in the last eleven months, it isn't "absolutely" accurate. The descriptive content is remarkably poor and hasn't shown much improvement over the same time. Fortunately, most DVRs don't depend on descriptions (though some computer-based recording tools can).

 

[ncted]

I can't say for sure that every issue with the Rovi changeover is completely solved but the only problems I ever saw were a long time ago. When Planet Earth II aired on BBC America it was showing the British air dates so it wasn't showing up in my to-do list. I had to manually find the episodes in the guide and set them to record. Luckily this was cleared up after the first two episodes. I've never had any missed recordings but I would have if I didn't catch this.

The only other issue is that I have had regular shows like Last Week Tonight show no info in the guide and record tons of repeats a few times. This is annoying but it's much less of a problem than missed recordings. Again, this hasn't happened in a long time.

I had the Planet Earth II problem on DirecTV as well, so not exclusive to Rovi data.

 

[EarDemon]

Similar for me with Broadchurch, Humans and Mary Kills People on DirecTV, not Spectrum. Both DirecTV and Spectrum list the original air dates of these three shows as the date their originally aired in their native country. The UK for Broadchurch and Humans, Canada for Mary Kills People. Spectrum will record New episodes of these shows when they air in the US regardless of what the original air date is in the metadata, but DirecTV records nothing. Not sure why Spectrum can get it right, but not DirecTV. After the first episode my HR44 stopped recording The Mist on Spike. Not that I really am bothered by that so much. It records fine on the WorldBox, but man that show is so awful, DirecTV is almost doing me a favor if I didn’t like to watch it for the stupid factor like Stephen King’s other mess, Under The Dome.

Personally I hate and I mean hate the TiVo interface. I don’t care how good it is, It's not to my liking and I’ll never use one again. I don’t need a DVR to do a ton of stuff. Give me a two week guide, that allows me to schedule recordings with a couple of options. Don’t need nor want all of this app nonsense. Don’t care about streaming internet radio with it, when I have a dozen other devices that can do the same. Time Warner's ODN Navigator is perfect for me, but the last update slowed it down a bit and I don't care for the side menu that pops up every time the box turns on one bit. Wish it could be disabled.

 

[ncted]

Similar for me with Broadchurch, Humans and Mary Kills People on DirecTV, not Spectrum. Both DirecTV and Spectrum list the original air dates of these three shows as the date their originally aired in their native country. The UK for Broadchurch and Humans, Canada for Mary Kills People. Spectrum will record New episodes of these shows when they air in the US regardless of what the original air date is in the metadata, but DirecTV records nothing. Not sure why Spectrum can get it right, but not DirecTV. After the first episode my HR44 stopped recording The Mist on Spike. Not that I really am bothered by that so much. It records fine on the WorldBox, but man that show is so awful, DirecTV is almost doing me a favor if I didn’t like to watch it for the stupid factor like Stephen King’s other mess, Under The Dome.

Personally I hate and I mean hate the TiVo interface. I don’t care how good it is, It's not to my liking and I’ll never use one again. I don’t need a DVR to do a ton of stuff. Give me a two week guide, that allows me to schedule recordings with a couple of options. Don’t need nor want all of this app nonsense. Don’t care about streaming internet radio with it, when I have a dozen other devices that can do the same. Time Warner's ODN Navigator is perfect for me, but the last update slowed it down a bit and I don't care for the side menu that pops up every time the box turns on one bit. Wish it could be disabled.

Well, I am glad there exists someone who actually likes Navigator. I always assumed that such a person existed, because that would validate the millions in development costs for TWC and countless hours of torture for the other TWC customers in some small way.

Tivo's UI is still one of my favorites mostly due to familiarity, but it is getting very long in the tooth these days, but so is DirecTV's which I use every day. I may have to switch soon to U-Verse's or Dish's UI due to relocation. It isn't really a big deal for me, but my wife always hates the change. I can say honestly that Navigator would have to be my only choice for me to choose to use in on a regular basis, and I would probably try everything else first, including the streaming services like DNow and Sling, first before ever considering it. Whoever designed it clearly never had a Human Interfaces class. The fact that I would have to pay for the privilege of being tortured by it would probably destroy my soul at little bit each day.

To each his/her own I suppose. I totally agree with you about The Mist and Under the Dome BTW.

 

[jayn_j]

Well, the TIVO does offer 2 styles of guide. I'm not a fan of the standard guide either, but it wasn't difficult to switch to the grid guide.
Yeah, I have a half dozen ways of watching something on netflix, but I find the TIVO is part of 1 stop shopping. I will generally just head there from the my shows page. The exception is when something is available in 4k. I could do that as well if I had a Bolt, but with my Roamio, I generally head over to the UHD player or the app on the TV for the 4k source.

 

[empiretc]

we got the tripled play a few years ago. Bought three Tivos with lifetime on them and setup all our own equipment. Bill was ~$95 total when we started. After the first year, it went up to ~$130. Then, after the second year and SPectrum took over, we are now paying ~$165.

It's still not too bad, but since we only watch a hand full of channels (a couple of them are locals), we called to ask what our bill would be like if we dropped the TV. Shockingly, the total bill would only come down by ~$25.

Considering we have our 3 tivos, 5 Rokus, and all the tablets- it works well. If the price goes up again, we will have to look into making changes.

 

[harshness]

Shockingly, the total bill would only come down by ~$25.

It shouldn't be shocking at all. It is fairly important to cable providers to be your sole source and they price the standalone and double-play products pretty high so they can maintain that choke-hold.

They may also know that you have TiVos and as such, have you over a barrel.

 

[jayn_j]

He didn't say the TIVOs were the cable only models. My TIVOs all work fine OTA.

 

[harshness]

He didn't say the TIVOs were the cable only models. My TIVOs all work fine OTA.

More than a few TiVos don't (it seems like the premium models of the line were often the ones that didn't support DTV). It is all about keeping the customer beholden and it doesn't have to make sense in every scenario as long as they snare the big spenders.

Going forward there's a different risk if the gubmint steps up and picks a replacement for CableCARD and/or DTV. That doesn't even contemplate the likelihood of cable TV going to something more advanced than MPEG2 on their own initiative.

 

[jayn_j]

There tend to be three series of TIVOS. There is a basic unit that is OTA only. A step up model that is the same, except it has a cablecard slot, and a high end model, usually with a larger HD that replaces the OTA tuner section with additional cable tuners. I always buy the middle model, precisely so I can cut the cable every time they get 'uppity' Face it, 4 tuners tend to be enough for many of us, and all of the units can drop in a 2 TB disc easily. (yes, I simplified. Please don't try to bust my balls over a trivial exception)

As for future tech, I learned to stop worrying about it years ago. Manufacturers have to worry about installed base of folks who are generally resistant to change. It took 20 years and free set top boxes to get rid of NTSC. It took 10 years and free set top boxes to kill analog cable. I am quite aware that the gov has screwed up on ATSC 3 backward compatibility, but given the installed base and customer pushback, I am confident that the transition period will be longer than I plan to be around (I'm 68) or at least care.

 

[jayn_j]

a few years old, but OTA has generally been TIVOs bread and butter. For OTA, it is market leader, but for cable they have to compete with 'good enough' DVRs which are 'free' The OTA units always sell better
TiVo reports 40% rise in MSO subs, but cord-cutting Roamio OTA sales drive revenue | FierceCable

 

[ncted]

I was pretty happy with my Roamio OTA, Stream, and Minis. The real problems I foresaw were the Rovi purchase, which turned out to be a real issue for a lot of people, the OTA Re-pack, which would totally screw me in my market, and eventually ATSC 3.