I'm leaving DIRECTV

[tgr131]

Greetings,

I've been torn for almost a year, paying the cable man AND the Directv man. My cable PQ is superior to D*, and they have HD. The Directivo is superior in almost every way to the SA8300HD. But the wife says I have to give up one, we can't afford to pay for both. I have to go with PQ, and HDTV Goodness.

It's funny, when I was showing my sons how to work the TWC DVR, I kept having to say "No, it doesn't do that either". :(

I promised they wife I'd have the boys try the TWC DVR. However, if they can't manage with it, I'll be digging my S1 Sony out of mothballs for them, or buying and S2 DT.

I'll miss the Dtivo. The S3 isn't an option for me because of SDV. :(

David

[20TIL6]

How many channels are SDV on TWC in your area? I live in Houston and none are SDV here.

[tgr131]

ESPN HD and Universal HD are on SDV right now. I anticipate any new additions will be on SDV as well.

[20TIL6]

Another quick thought:

Would you have stayed with DTV if they had further support of TiVo? Meaning that they offered an MPEG4 capable HD DTiVo as an alternative to the HR20.

Just wondering because I left DTV to go to cable because of HD and TiVo. My cancellation phone call with them was a marathon.

[tgr131]

Another quick thought:

Would you have stayed with DTV if they had further support of TiVo? Meaning that they offered an MPEG4 capable HD DTiVo as an alternative to the HR20.

Just wondering because I left DTV to go to cable because of HD and TiVo. My cancellation phone call with them was a marathon.

I haven't cancelled quite yet, but I did have the cable guy out saturday. I'm going to cancel this week.

If D* had offered an MPEG4 HD DTivo, it would have been a no brainer. I would have cut down any trees I needed to in order to get the signal. I'd still be a D* customer.

[20TIL6]

ESPN HD and Universal HD are on SDV right now. I anticipate any new additions will be on SDV as well.
Yeah, those two would be pretty important channels for me as well. Losing ESPN HD, that would be tough.

Hopefully this new lower cost HD TiVo will have some answers for SDV. And with it, something for the S3. I know, that debate rages on and on.

I am fortunate that Houston TWC has no SDV. If they did move important channels to SDV, I'd have to live without them until FiOS could possibly come to my rescue. Personally, I would search in earnest for that content from another pipe rather than give up my S3. Most of my viewing and recording is actually from OTA. But I would really dislike not having ESPNHD. I can appreciate your situation.

[hornblowercat]

Deepest sympathies. The SA 8300 is a real pos compared to TiVo.

I couldn't get D* because of line of site so that's why I didn't have it.

On the bright side, there is the announcement that TiVo is comeing out with a lower cost HD DVR in the future.

[marrone]

The bundle packages that brighthouse offers its customers are pretty tempting, considering DTV keeps raising their rates.

The ONLY thing that's keeping me with DirecTV is the Tivo. I don't like the cable co's DVR.

-Mike

[yunlin12]

That's tough, sounds like you only have two options to get local HD, ESPN HD and UHD:

1) TWC with SA8300HD
2) DTV with HR20

You picked option 1 because of ...? My understanding is that HR20 is still a superior DVR than the SA8300HD, even though it's no Tivo. The only feature that SA8300HD has that no other DVR has tight now is that the eSATA port on that thing is actually live, in many areas.

[tgr131]

That's tough, sounds like you only have two options to get local HD, ESPN HD and UHD:

1) TWC with SA8300HD
2) DTV with HR20

You picked option 1 because of ...? My understanding is that HR20 is still a superior DVR than the SA8300HD, even though it's no Tivo. The only feature that SA8300HD has that no other DVR has tight now is that the eSATA port on that thing is actually live, in many areas.

Greetings,

I picked TWC for several reasons:

1. I had trouble with OTA at my location with an indoor antenna. I have lots of trees, and didn't want to put up and external antenna, only to find it didn't work.
2. I would have to remove trees to get D*'s HD, with no idea whether the HR20 would be sucky or not.
3. TWC's PQ has improved tremendously since I left them in 1996. Their HD is fantastic in my area, and their SD was much superior to D*.

I wanted reasons to keep D*, but to get HD, I would have to spend $$$ cutting down trees and installing antennas, with no guarantees that it would work.

David

[tfederov]

The only feature that SA8300HD has that no other DVR has tight now is that the eSATA port on that thing is actually live, in many areas.

eSATA is enabled on the HR20.

[yunlin12]

Didn't know about the HR20 with eSATA, that's good to hear for all the DTV folks.

[tgr131]

Greetings,

I may stay with D* after all.

I had the tech out to run all my drops, and now the sub 100 channels look horrible on my big screen. BSG on TW looked awful.

I was under the impression that all the channels on digital cable in my area were digital. I guess the sub 100 channels are still analog, and therefore affected by splitting?

Sci Fi, Nick, National Geographic, ESPN2 -- they are all sub 100 channels, and they all suck after the splitters were added to the line.

DAvid

[dswallow]

The tech should've checked signal levels at each outlet after installing the splitters; if there's insufficient signal, they'd make adjustments to the amplifier feeding your home or installing one, whichever is appropriate.

SDV shouldn't be a serious consideration for your S3/no S3 decision. You've been paying for two services for a year, you say? You realize you could've bought one and possibly two S3's by now, right? Get a S3 and a DVR from TWC. Use the S3 for everything that isn't SDV. That'll give you the familiar TiVo experience. For the few SDV channels you might ever watch or record, you have the 8300HD. That's certainly better than having only the 8300HD for everything.

[tgr131]

I just disconnected the splitter and used a barrel connector to get the signal straight into the main TV. It still sucks. The tech replaced all of the connectors and the main splitter that splits the cable and the road runner. I'm guessing that perhaps the old splitter must have been a better one than the new one.

[DonDon]

Hi, I was enjoying the discussion as I am in the same pickle. I love my Dtivos, but want to move on to HD, and the DTV offerings in that area are unacceptable.

But what does SDV stand for?

I am a Comcrap or WOW hostage in my town. At least I have some kind of choice for cable unlike most people. I will probably wait until the mythical Comtivo makes an appearance and decide on that or the S3 after it is released.

Thanks

Don

[pl1]

But what does SDV stand for?http://www.cable360.net/ct/video/22337.html

March 2, 2007

SDV Off and Running
By Mike Robuck

Time Warner Cable reaffirmed its commitment to roll out out more switched digital video (SDV) during last week's conference call with analysts, and the switch is on for SDV at most of the large MSOs.

TWC, an early adopter of SDV, had SDV in eight of its systems by the end of last year and hopes to have it deployed in three-quarters of its footprint by year's end. Cablevison came out of stealth mode last month to announce what it claimed was the largest single SDV deployment to date in its New York and surrounding area footprint.

Cox has two SDV trials underway - one in a Motorola headend and one in a Scientific Atlanta headend - with plans for commercial deployments at some point this year. Comcast also has two trials underway in Motorola and S-A headends to its own employees and other "friendlies" and intends to use SDV-based services later this year.

The benefit of deploying SDV, or switched broadcast video, is that it frees up bandwidth for other services and technologies because it only sends the channel a customer is currently viewing instead of all of the digital channels. Viewers in the same node who are watching the same program can be grouped together.

Mark Hess, Comcast senior VP of digital TV, said that SDV is one of several tools the company can use to more efficiently manage bandwidth, which translates into being able to offer more HD channels.

"If you know how we behave, if we can make something work, we rapidly deploy it as fast as we can if it's important to us," Hess said when discussing Comcast's SDV rollout schedule. "We definitely think this is an important technology, so that's why we're in the tech trials with it."

Gearing up for SDV
While Comcast hasn't announced which vendors it's working with for SDV, Hess said the company was "working with them all to start, and then eventually we'll chose some." One area of focus has been integrating SDV technology into the GuideWorks programming guide.

"There's a little bit of work there that is ongoing, and we're doing some initial testing there as well," Hess said.

To prepare for SDV, Comcast's work at the headend included installing video clamper/re-encoders, switched digital session managers and edge resource managers. For the IP network, additions in the regional area networks included installing QAMs at hub sites and upgrading the guide in customer set-top boxes to support SDV.

Another benefit to SDV is bringing addressable advertising to customers.

"Right now, we're just looking to make the technology work, but when you start talking about SDV, then you can start to think about addressability," Hess said. "We're actually doing addressable trials the old-fashioned way, but we're looking at how those technologies work together. I don't think you'll see us right out of the chute doing that, but from an engineering standpoint, we'll figure out how the two technologies work together."