Thanks again. I'll be looking for their launch of the Worldbox when/if it actually happens. Supposed to be early 2015..............ain't seen it yet.
Ed
switching from dish to charter tv
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Thanks again. I'll be looking for their launch of the Worldbox when/if it actually happens. Supposed to be early 2015..............ain't seen it yet.
Ed
Does Time Warner use cable cards? I had Time Warner for several years and never heard of a card, nor have I ever met anyone who used a Tivo on TW service.
Every cable company has to give you the option to use a cable card and third party devices that support them. That doesn't mean they advertise it. If you just take the standard Motorola DVR they offer instead of buying your own TiVo you might never know It's an option.
Time Warner employees in Rochester just started testing the 6 tuner DVRs again within the past few weeks. They are the Arris boxes that were codenamed Hydra, I think the actual model number is something-3600. No word if the Cisco equivalents will be tested or not. They've been available in Maxx markets for a while now but other markets (at least in the Northeast) will roll them out shortly. 6 tuners, 1TB hard drive, probably no external HD. Hopefully I'll have one of these boxes in a month or two. I personally saw these boxes (not in action, but rather unplugged, on a desk) in the office of a higher up that works at 71 Mt Hope about a year and a half ago.
Thanks. I was reading the info on Tivo's website. They offer a lifetime service, but it's only for the lifetime of the box. So, if your box goes bad after two years, you just lose a bunch of money?
I've had negative experience with Charter TV, but the Charter internet is our area no worse in reliability with anyone else by my experience. However, you will find Charter is NOTORIOUS for all sorts and headaches and the MOST hated/complained about cable/sat of all. There are billing issues, reliability issues, poor customer service, etc. You can find these complaints documented all over the internet all this in ALL of Charters service areas. Also, price complaints, but it seems we would be less upset if Charter delivered as promised.
Now, keep in mind that Charter has NO whole home DVR solution. So, if you are OK with separate DVR's in each room and losing what the Hopper (and Genie) offer, you may be OK, but I find it a deal breaker after having the Hopper, which was something I was waiting for, especially how our household watches TV.
Charter is the smallest of the big MSO's, and that cheapness will rear its ugly head at some point. I won't go into the very long list of detailed dissatisfact I've had with Charter, just research what people are still saying TODAY. I was personally in favor of a Time Warner Cable/Charter merger because Charter needed to be elevated and the merge would have, IMHO, improved to Charter customers and provided a real competitor in my area and brought a TWC/Charter close to a competitive size to Comcast, who does NOT need to grown any larger. As Chater stands today, I have only Dish and DirectTV as legitimate options, but I sure wish Charter was up to snuff to provide me with at least one more reliable option.
If you do want Charter and want a far better DVR or a whole home solution, then, I agree, TiVo is your only option to getting DVR like, not as good, as a Hopper. However, TiVo is a VERY EXPENSIVE investment. I would only invest the THOUSANDS it will cost you ONLY if you really feel you are going to stay with Charter for a long time. Then it becomes worth it. TiVo is still a good product offering their version of whole home DVR, streaming to remote locations and moving content from DVR to tablet/phone, but those features aren't as robust as Dish's, but TiVo will do the job. Good luck.
Now, keep in mind that Charter has NO whole home DVR solution. So, if you are OK with separate DVR's in each room and losing what the Hopper (and Genie) offer, you may be OK, but I find it a deal breaker after having the Hopper, which was something I was waiting for, especially how our household watches TV.
Charter is the smallest of the big MSO's, and that cheapness will rear its ugly head at some point. I won't go into the very long list of detailed dissatisfact I've had with Charter, just research what people are still saying TODAY. I was personally in favor of a Time Warner Cable/Charter merger because Charter needed to be elevated and the merge would have, IMHO, improved to Charter customers and provided a real competitor in my area and brought a TWC/Charter close to a competitive size to Comcast, who does NOT need to grown any larger. As Chater stands today, I have only Dish and DirectTV as legitimate options, but I sure wish Charter was up to snuff to provide me with at least one more reliable option.
If you do want Charter and want a far better DVR or a whole home solution, then, I agree, TiVo is your only option to getting DVR like, not as good, as a Hopper. However, TiVo is a VERY EXPENSIVE investment. I would only invest the THOUSANDS it will cost you ONLY if you really feel you are going to stay with Charter for a long time. Then it becomes worth it. TiVo is still a good product offering their version of whole home DVR, streaming to remote locations and moving content from DVR to tablet/phone, but those features aren't as robust as Dish's, but TiVo will do the job. Good luck.
Not really. The most common reason--by far the MOST common--a TiVo DVR may fail is because the HDD has died. With the Roamio line, You can either slip in a NEW HDD and boot it up and DONE!! Videos on YouTube showing how EASY it is to do--no special software required like the previous generations of TiVo's. All you do with the Roamios is take out the old HDD and put in the new one, and then turn it on and DONE! In fact, you can even install the new HDD with MORE capacity than the original or even solid state drives.
OR if you prefer, you can send the TiVo out to Weaknees and let them do all the work for you, but it is a bit pricey, but either way you get a working DVR just as good as new with even MORE HDD capacity if you want. Also, Weaknees can replace the dead HDD with either the same capacity or MORE capacity.
As for other things that might go wrong, but very rarely, things like power supply (internal ONLY on the Plus and Pro, but EXTERNAL on the Roamio (base model), you can DYI, if you know how, or you can send it to Weaknees and they can fix just about ANYTHING wrong with your DVR.
And while the Lifetime subscription (the best value as opposed to month to month) only stays with the box, changing out HDD's or having repairs on your TiVo does NOT affect your Lifetime subscription to the box. The only thing that does kill the Lifetime is if the motherboard is shot, an extremely rare occurrence and only after many, many years IF the motherboard ever fails at all (probably why TiVo chose the motherboard to harbor your account info and Lifetime status), because TiVo uses the motherboard to relate to account information and your Lifetime subscription, so except for that, you do NOT lose any use of the TiVo box and Liftetime status is preserved. Motherboards can be replaced for an existing box, but since all the account info is on the motherboard, one would have to start from scratch and add the box as a NEW TiVo on your account. This is what is meant by the Lifetime of the BOX.
I should also add that if you decide to put an active TiVo away in a closet for storage for some reason, the TiVo DVR MUST make contact/communication (you need to have the TiVo connected to your internet) with the TiVo servers at least ONCE every SIX MONTHS. If the TiVo box does not make contact with the servers in that time, then the account data in annulled and you will have to add the TiVo on your account as a NEW device and select a monthly or pay Lifetime--again--but the box still qualifies for discount subscriptions if you currently have an active TiVo on that account.
Further, AFTER your FIRST TiVo, you then pay a slightly discounted monthly rate or Liftetime rate. The Lifetime subscription for each subsequent TiVo on your account is discounted by $100 ($499 for first TiVo box, then $399 for each subsequent TiVo box).
Please be aware that Romio (base model) has only 4 tuners and functions with OTA or Cable, but ONLY ONE or the other, not OTA and Cable at the same time like TiVo's older boxes. The Roamio Plus and Pro are for DIGITAL CABLE (or Verizon FiOS) ONLY with NO OTA capability at all but have 6 tuners. The TiVo OTA is OTA only and offers NO Lifetime option, only a monthly rate that never goes away.
Finally, if at some point things change for you, you can always sell your TiVo (s) and accessories on ebay and if you keep the equipment in good physical condition, you can get A LOT--MOST-- of you money back. However, the ONLY TiVo's that command high bidding prices are those with LIFETIME, and you get a bit more if your TiVo box looks well cared for. At the end of bidding, you may be only out $100-200 out of your orginal investment (cost of TiVo DVR itself, plus Lifetime, plus any accesories you wish to sell or package with your item on ebay). Just price it so people save at least $100 compared to their buying retail.
Let us know what you decide.
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As has been stated, if you using a TIVO you will not have any access to on demand content. I personally do not care about that and never would watch it if I could. With the TIVO and a Netflix subscription I find plenty enough to keep me busy watching what interests me. I also should have said that I put a TIVO mini in the bedroom and this handles my whole house issues. You can use the mini to watch a live program using one of the TIVO's tuners or anything that is already recorded on the TIVO without tying up a tuner. Just plug it into my network and it works fine. I really have had no issues with Charter since I made the switch. Never worry about nightly reboots or weather related outages has been a nice plus. An outage because of a downed pole from an accident, but Charter had it rerouted and back up within an hour. It is in their contract with the municipality they have only so many minutes they can be down since they provide phone service as well.
Three years ago, I would have agreed with this 100%. Charter was indeed the worst company in the country. I had my share of issues with them in the past as well. But today, Charter is a very different company. Satisfaction numbers, quality and service are way up. Lineup is the best in the country at prices significantly lower than satellite. I get 80 more HD channels than I did with satellite.
And Tivo is NOT the only option. My Windows Media Center whole home DVR system (serving 6 TVs) costs me a whopping $2/month versus about $50 for the same thing from satellite or Tivo. Overall, I'm paying about half what I did with satellite and am getting far more content and functionality. Unless Charter does a complete 180 back to the way it did business a few years ago, I don't see myself ever going back to satellite.
Agreed, I'm very happy with Charter TV in the couple months I have had it. I wouldn't use their boxes but my Tivo Roamio and Tivo Mini are at least as good as the Hopper and Joey they replaced. I'll probably go back to OTA after baseball season but I can see myself adding Charter TV back every spring because it really is pretty good service and value.
I will probably never go back to satellite either after only having Dish or Directv for about 10 years before canceling all together about a year and a half ago. My reasoning is that I'm never signing a contract for TV service again. They are too one sided with the providers being able to raise prices and drop channels at any time and you not being able to cancel service without a big ETF.
With cable I can subscribe at promo prices for 6-7 months for baseball season and go back to OTA whenever I want. Also, since I'm using a Tivo I use the same DVR and don't lose my cable recordings when I go back to OTA. None of my other entertainment services require a contract. I'm done locking myself in for 2 years with TV providers too.
Bu
I'm glad things improved for you at Charter. In our area I still know people who are PO'd and although Charter has slight improvement taking all its service areas into account, there are still extremely recent posts for all parts of the country ranting on Charter in very high number and with more vitriol, but most for its TV service, and it's Internet not being reliable in those areas (reliable in my area), but recent happy folks now with 50Mbps (from 30Mbps) at no additional charge.
In theory, I agree with the WMC solution (I use it for some OTA). The problem is that WMC is for the tech savvy. Further, many people are just principally opposed to having a PC on all the time as their primary DVR. It's just the way they think. Microsoft, while at first trying to kill WMC, has backed off a bit and decided to take the TiVo approach and slowly kill WMC with a thousand cuts. WMC is not making MS any money, and they want it dead. In fact, last I heard, Windows 10 will require one to purchase an "upgrade" for WMC. Also, I can't remember exactly, but I believe there was a recent change imposed upon WMC and tuners where a lot of users were PO'd because they lost some functionality. Perhaps you know of of it?
Further, WMC does not easily support remote viewing (now we are talking software to re-code and then PLEX, etc.? more things for the average Joe to track down, acquire and learn to use) nor transferring recordings to mobile devices is as intuitive as it is for TiVo, Dish, or DirecTV, the fastest growing way to watch content, including one's own DVR recordings or LIVE TV channels from a cable co or sat box. There are some other devices one could add (and additional software like My Logos), but some require connections and/or cards that are NOT on most PC's (PC's not designed for media when purchased) that require one to open the PC and switch out or add some cards. Joe Blow and Betsy Wetsy haven't a CLUE how to proceed, and would be forced to pay BIG bucks to someone like Geek Squad to do for them, after buying the hardware. There are other "accessories" one needs to get WMC going great, and Joe Sixpack aint even ready to imagine the work. In other words, unless one buys a new Media PC (and even then, not necessarily good to go on day one), one is having to "BUILD" a WMC experience. It requires an immersion in the whole WMC/Home Server universe with all sorts of required tech knowledge and all sorts of pieces of software from several different companies an sources all to make a whole, and Ceton products are fine (are the Echo's still constantly buggy, crashing, re-booting,or otherwise flaky?), but cost more money.
Yes, if one has the tech savvy and TIME to commit to it, WMC is the way to go and get high satisfaction, and I agree that WMC is far LESS expensive than the TiVo model, but WMC requires too much trouble for the average consumer, and this is why WMC NEVER become popular, even though it really is pretty great once it is up and running. People can easily comprehend and even install a BOX that connected directly to a TV and has all the software and hardware installed ready to go with built-in streaming and ready to transfer your recordings to your mobile device: a finished product as opposed to some "kit" where the consumer has to put things together like a model of a ship. All they do is connect the traditional DVR box to a TV and plug the power in, and after very simple process, they are UP and going with a DVR. This EASE of install and understanding even trumps the "on-line" new DVR solutions like Tablo because Tablo, et al. depends upon a home network and mobile devices and connected devices like Roku, NOT directly a TV. The Tablo etc. experience is an abstraction to most people, especially if they were born before 1990 or haven't the affluence while growing up to even have a decent computer to become tech savvy, and puts them a bit out of their depth compared to that "box" they just connect to their TV AND can get support. With WMC, you are your own support person.
My point is not to say WMC is bad, but to point out to EVERY WMC/HTPC enthusiast who suggests WMC as if it were "plug and play" sound simple, is that it is FAR from simple, and this is why it never took off. WMC is for the tech savvy who have the time to make it all work and keep up with changes.
The only time not having On-demand may be a problem is for special events like boxing, etc.
Well said. I wish Ceton had not abandoned its Q product. That would have given us a WMC box as simple to set up and use as a Tivo, giving cable card and WMC a much needed shot in the arm. Alas, it was not meant to be. At least we got half of the equation, the Echo (which is still buggy and flaky).
You can make a PC that is more energy efficient than Tivo and doesn't have to be on all the time. Mine runs 10-20W when on and less than 1W when sleeping (which is most of the time). But I agree it takes knowledge, skill and time to set up, maintain and troubleshoot. This is why I have a WMC system myself but would never in a million years build one for my parents.
I mainly see WMC versus Tivo the same as any DIY versus contracted project. Joe Six Pack could probably install a new faucet in his bathroom and save a lot of money and end up with a faucet that works just as well as one installed by a plumber. He'd also have to acquire the knowledge and skill to do the job and troubleshoot if/when something goes wrong. But most people are just going to hire a plumber.
If you have some tech savvy and are the DIY type and looking for ways to save some money, I still recommend WMC over Tivo. That said, you can get a used Tivo Premiere with lifetime on CL or ebay for about $300 and get the best of both worlds, ease of use and installation plus a low cost approaching that of WMC.
