Hi,
Some introductory fuzz and some notes on my upcoming TWC-Austin install. Then my analysis of SDV's impact on TWC-Austin viewers with S3s.
New forum user, old-timer Tivo user here. I bought my first Tivo after hearing rave reviews from friends back in 2001 or so. My first PVR was the SA SD unit from Time Warner the very minute they became available. Yuck, they were buggy. To SA's credit over the past 8+ years they have managed to incorporate 2 or 3 improvements making the SA PVR almost functional, but useability still suffers a 2 out of 10. I currently have 2 40 hour Series 2's and 1 SA HD PVR.
I ordered my S3 from Circuit City about 8 hours ago with the 10% discount and it'll arrive Tuesday. I also grabbed the 5 year warranty - something I never do. I figure $800 warrants a warranty given the failure rate of harddrives.
My CC install is scheduled for this Wednesday. The poor call center employee that took my order for CC install early this morning could only smile at my ignorance when I told her I would be having the cards installed in my Tivo. I proceeded to try to explain to her the situation and after a couple of minutes of futility finally provided the model information for my "two" Mitsubishi 65" TVs. It's all I could do to continue the order process!
TWC-Austin charges $3 and some change for CCs, but proudly wants $30 per card install. I will be requesting a service credit for the second install, once installed. We'll see what happens. I'll also let everyone know how the install goes.
On the subject of SDV. This has been discussed at length in another thread and I agree that it represents a potential problem that will potentially grow larger over time. First, the bottom 100 channels on TWC-Austin are analog. Sure, there are channels that are digitally simulcast, but this does not affect the availability of the lower 100 channels on CC. If a channel on 100+ is SDV and also exists in the lower 100, the CC will get the channel on the lower 100. So, no missing channels, just analog signals, right?
So, when I do the math:
Food Network - channel 32, lower 100, not lost.
HGTV - channel 31, lower 100, not lost.
Weather Channel (may mean doppler and TWC and possibly News8) - all available on lower 100, not lost.
KAKW - channel 13, lower 100, not lost.
KADF Azteca America - channel 14, lower 100, not lost.
KLRU-2 - channel 20, lower 100, not lost.
KBEJ-UPN - channel 23, lower 100, not lost.
Disney - channel 42, lower 100, not lost.
CNN - channel 46, 47 (CNN HN), lower 100, not lost.
Animal Planet (soon) - channel 37, lower 100, not lost.
** National Geographic - channel 232, upper 100s, lost.
I've heard mumblings of selected east or west coast premiums being lost. I don't have any premiums although I will be grabbing HBO soon for Rome. We'll see.
Am I missing something here?
All but one of the channels listed above are available to standard cable users without a box and, therefore are available outside of SDV. Sure, not digital, but they are available with cablecard. I know there's a lot of worry and chatter around SDV, but I just don't think the sky is falling.
I count one lost channel - National Geographic. I don't watch it, I could care less. In fact, even if all the listed channels are unavailable only 2 really raise any concerns - Disney and CNN. The wife and kids occasionally view those.
Does anyone with TWC-Austin have an S3 up now? Can you confirm my analysis? Perhaps someone with a CC and TV could chime in?
Is my analysis insane? Have I lost my mind? Or is there a little misinformation floating around with regards to the sky falling? FUD is in the cable companies best interest. They won't be running around in the forums correcting out misconceptions as they stand to benefit from them. Surely there must be a TWC-Austin Tivo S3 beta user out there somewhere? Come forth young man (woman) and spread the gospel!
In any event, I will post my findings Wednesday.