Maybe TW cable will start to figure us out

[Admin65]

Wow, Comcast seems to have issues, but I have relatives who live in MN who also have them, and they seem happy. I do think that those 3 million subscribers are in unprofitable markets. It will be great for Comcast to have access to TWCSN which broadcasts the Lakers and Sportsnet LA which is a 24 hour access to Dodgers programming.

 

[bookertdub]

Expect data caps and overages to come once Comcast takes over. Now in fairness I have AT&T u-verse and while officially they do have a data cap and overage policy it is not being enforced. Here's just a snapshot of what some Comcast markets have in terms of data caps and overages.

http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/data-usage-plans-expansion-data-plan

 

[fblack_111]

Expect data caps and overages to come once Comcast takes over. Now in fairness I have AT&T u-verse and while officially they do have a data cap and overage policy it is not being enforced. Here's just a snapshot of what some Comcast markets have in terms of data caps and overages.

http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/internet/data-usage-plans-expansion-data-plan

In doing a little research on Comcast and Data Caps, it looks to me like they are rolling them out in a few locations only. Maybe it's a test. They have a tool you can use to see how your data usage is affected by your various devices and usage habits. So I tested it.

You can add the number of Computers, tablets, cell phones, Voip, TV's and other Internet connected devices. Then select how many movies you stream from say Netflix and Youtube. Or how many hours you use Pandora. Or keep Outlook running in the background, check emails, visit web sites, Etc. For me, their caps may be a problem.

And lastly, today's Wall Street Journal said Comcast is looking to save at least a Billion dollars by eliminating nearly all of TW's overhead. Just try to get a customer service rep then.

 

[fblack_111]

Are the ISP's slowing (shaping) their Internet speed to their customers? That is a question asked in today's WSJ based on Netflix subscribers complaints and information from Netflix. The WSJ story has a chart showing Netfix average primetime performance and the various ISP speed drop off when watching Netflix. The Netflix speed drop-off is causing buffering even for customers paying their ISP for higher speeds. And which ISP provides the lowest Netflix speed? Comcast. Down to around 1.51 megabits per second.

The story is picked up in the link below.

2/19/2014: Summary: A Wall Street Journal story confirms other recent reports that Netflix traffic on FiOS and other ISPs is slowing, as the companies battle over bandwidth costs.

A report in the Wall Street Journal states that Netflix traffic on the Verizon FiOS network is slowing. The two companies are in a dispute over who should cover the cost of the considerable bandwidth consumed by the streaming video service. The story confirms other reports from customers recently (such as this one) that Netflix was slower on FiOS than it had been and slower than through non-FiOS connections. ...The story provides both anecdotes and traffic performance data supplied by Netflix to show that their performance on major Internet providers has suffered in recent months. FiOS is not alone in the chart; traffic is slowing on Comcast, AT&T U-Verse, and Time Warner Cable as well. Netflix says their average prime-time speeds have declined by 14 percent last month, just as they are rolling out the new season of House of Cards...."


http://www.zdnet.com/netflix-traffic-slowing-on-verizon-fios-7000026500/

 

[bookertdub]

Interesting, I've never had a problem with Netflix speeds when watching on my PS3 hardwired via Ethernet directly to the router whether when I had Netflix or currently have u-verse. I'm always getting Super HD (provided the show is actually produced in HD).

 

[fblack_111]

Interesting, I've never had a problem with Netflix speeds when watching on my PS3 hardwired via Ethernet directly to the router whether when I had Netflix or currently have u-verse. I'm always getting Super HD (provided the show is actually produced in HD).

I don't superscribe to Netflix. But some people say it's just congestion with so many people trying to stream House of Cards during prime time viewing after dinner.

 

[fblack_111]

So now Netflix has decided to start paying ISP's directly to insure Netflix streams smoothly. Comcast has struck a deal with Netflix. What happened to the concept of net neutrality? And now that the gates have been opened, watch the ISP's start going after lots of content providers. Maybe on line game companies will have to pay extra, or maybe buying stuff from Amazon, or Best Buy or Petco on line. Or they will extract cash from other streaming services. What about mutual fund and stock trading companies. On line Banking. And trust me when I say, all the extra costs will be passed on to the consumer in some fashion. And will Comcast or other ISP's pass on that extra income to customers in the from of reduced costs? Don't hold your breath.

2/23/2014: Netflix to pay Comcast for smoother online video streaming
The pact between the nation's leading online video service and the largest U.S. provider of home Internet access could result in higher rates for consumers.

"...the cost of Netflix's new deal with Comcast will one day be felt by the streaming service's 33 million U.S. subscribers.
Comcast will "raise the price to whatever the market will bear," Pachter said. "This will ultimately compel Netflix to raise prices to consumers." Netflix declined to respond...."The last-mile ISPs have gatekeeper control over many millions of consumers," Bergmayer said. "These customers don't have competitive options to switch."... .

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-fi-ct-netflix-comcast-20140224,0,1476262.story

 

[Admin65]

Other providers such as AT&T and Verizon are also working on similar deals with Netflix.

 

[Admin65]

Fox Sports San Diego will be on CH. 61 for Standard Def and 732 for HD. Also those in the ex Adelphia will lose Prime Ticket on March 30.

Edit: FSSD is available on the Standard tier and not the sports tier.

 

[fblack_111]

Well our free 90 day trial of Epix channels has started on 590+. Most are still not shown in full screen 16/9 HD. Is it just me, but I never watch anything that's not full screen HD. I know I can press "Expand mode" etc., but with what the cable companies are charging now, just about everything should be broadcast in full screen 16/9 HD by now.

 

[kevinc]

Well our free 90 day trial of Epix channels has started on 590+. Most are still not shown in full screen 16/9 HD. Is it just me, but I never watch anything that's not full screen HD. I know I can press "Expand mode" etc., but with what the cable companies are charging now, just about everything should be broadcast in full screen 16/9 HD by now.

As a cablecard customer using Windows Media Center, I don't seem to have access via my TV tuners yet (I need to investigate that more), but as a TWC customer you also get three months free streaming service (on demand and the EPIX channel feeds). It is easy to sign up at www.epixhd.com for it using your TWC signon. I then installed the EPIX app on my Roku and it is working well with HD quality 720p equivalent picture.

 

[Admin65]

Epix has HD feeds, but there are movies that they tend to show in their original Aspect ratio, so it is HD, but not 16x9. I personally prefer the OAR over a cropped 16x9 picture on my 55" Sony.

 

[Rick Shaw]

Epix has HD feeds, but there are movies that they tend to show in their original Aspect ratio, so it is HD, but not 16x9. I personally prefer the OAR over a cropped 16x9 picture on my 55" Sony.

OAR uber alles.

 

[fblack_111]

More on the Comcast buyout of Time Warner. As part of that deal, it was known that Comcast would have to divest itself of some Time Warner customers. Looks like it won't be San Diego customers. Basically Comcast has agreed to let Charter pick up a number of Time Warner customers. While some will be from the L.A. market, most are from Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana and parts of Alabama.

Now if we can just get the regulators to prevent Comcast from imposing caps or tiers on us.

4/28/2014: "Cable companies Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications have agreed to a $20-billion deal that would exchange subscribers in numerous markets, including Los Angeles, should Comcast prevail in its bid to acquire Time Warner Cable....Charter would (also) pick up Time Warner Cable customers in Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana and parts of Alabama. ..."


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-comcast-charter-deal-20140428,0,1948597.story#axzz30CYhPd6Y

 

[Marco]

More on the Comcast buyout of Time Warner. As part of that deal, it was known that Comcast would have to divest itself of some Time Warner customers. Looks like it won't be San Diego customers. Basically Comcast has agreed to let Charter pick up a number of Time Warner customers. While some will be from the L.A. market, most are from Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana and parts of Alabama.

Now if we can just get the regulators to prevent Comcast from imposing caps or tiers on us.

4/28/2014: "Cable companies Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications have agreed to a $20-billion deal that would exchange subscribers in numerous markets, including Los Angeles, should Comcast prevail in its bid to acquire Time Warner Cable....Charter would (also) pick up Time Warner Cable customers in Ohio, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana and parts of Alabama. ..."


http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-comcast-charter-deal-20140428,0,1948597.story#axzz30CYhPd6Y

It looks like Comcast will have a huge presence in California if everything goes through as planned. It makes business sense for Comcast because it ties into their ownership of the NBC Owned and Operated stations. Two of the markets they expect to come into (LA and SD) have NBC owned stations- KNBC and KNSD. This would create some synergies between both entities as it allows them to sell advertisements across multiple platforms and ensures that these stations won't be pulled off the cable system due to retransmission fights. Much as people complain about Comcast, from all accounts it looks like Charter is much much worse.

 

[Admin65]

Charter is divesting it's LA systems to Comcast.

 

[fblack_111]

I have been reading up on the proposed ATT/DirecTV merger. The more I learn, the better I think it may help us after the Time Warner/ Comcast merger. IE: More competition for high speed Internet which should hold prices down. While many analysts think that ATT really wants all of that Live Sports programming from DirecTV (which is true) I think it will allow ATT to increase their Internet speeds and help compete against Comcast in the Mbps race.

About 12-18 months ago ATT Uverse started using two pairs of their thin copper wires to deliver Phone, TV and Internet to Uverse customers. Even then, if you are at the far end of the line from their hubs, quality can suffer. My new neighbors has it. They said it works OK, but Internet speed does not compare to TW. But after the merger with DirecTV, from what I read, they may just send some TV via a dish and then use those two pairs of wires to increase Internet speeds substantially.

 

[fblack_111]

One of my biggest gripes with Time Warner and cable TV in general, is paying a lot of money for so many channels I never watch. And they keep raising their prices. A few other companies have been looking at different business models and the new Sling TV by Dish Network has apparently finally been launched.  And it's streaming over the Internet. While they do not offer local channels (which most of us can get OTA away) and for now really only have a handful of channels, I like their format of letting the customer choose what channels they want to some extent.     So for a no contract fee of about $20 a month you get such channels as: ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, CNN (and a few lessor channels) and soon AMC, BBC America, BBC World News, and  Sundance TV)

So far it's not clear to me if you can watch a season of old programs on demand, or how I would watch on one of my Samsung Smart TV's.  I think you can get it using a Roku stick. While it's not a perfect combination of programs for me, ( I watch some Fox news shows and business programs, CNBC, and USA network), I like the new competition and it's not bad for some cord cutters.  Here's a recent story about Sling TV.

2/9/2015:   Sling TV now available in the US, and it's adding AMC to the channel lineup
                Suddenly Dish's internet TV service is about way more than ESPN

"... Dish's Sling TV service is now available to all consumers in the United States. You can sign up for a week-long trial to decide if internet TV is worth the $20. But there's better news: the company has announced that will be adding AMC to the core channel lineup. ...".

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/9/8004187/sling-tv-now-available-adds-amc

 

[kevinc]

One of my biggest gripes with Time Warner and cable TV in general, is paying a lot of money for so many channels I never watch. And they keep raising their prices. A few other companies have been looking at different business models and the new Sling TV by Dish Network has apparently finally been launched.  And it's streaming over the Internet. While they do not offer local channels (which most of us can get OTA away) and for now really only have a handful of channels, I like their format of letting the customer choose what channels they want to some extent.     So for a no contract fee of about $20 a month you get such channels as: ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, CNN (and a few lessor channels) and soon AMC, BBC America, BBC World News, and  Sundance TV)

So far it's not clear to me if you can watch a season of old programs on demand, or how I would watch on one of my Samsung Smart TV's.  I think you can get it using a Roku stick. While it's not a perfect combination of programs for me, ( I watch some Fox news shows and business programs, CNBC, and USA network), I like the new competition and it's not bad for some cord cutters.  Here's a recent story about Sling TV.

2/9/2015:   Sling TV now available in the US, and it's adding AMC to the channel lineup
                Suddenly Dish's internet TV service is about way more than ESPN

"... Dish's Sling TV service is now available to all consumers in the United States. You can sign up for a week-long trial to decide if internet TV is worth the $20. But there's better news: the company has announced that will be adding AMC to the core channel lineup. ...".

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/9/8004187/sling-tv-now-available-adds-amc

Yes Roku looks like the way to watch it. However, if I read it correctly you can only watch it on ONE device at a time - so for example you can't watch something on your connected TV while somebody else on the house watches something on a tablet/phone/bedroom TV. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so. Also even when they get all the channels linked for on-demand viewing of the past three days TV shows I don't think that will include sport on network TV - so no way to watch the Chargers say other than completely Live (of course you can subscribe to NFL Game Rewind to get round that particular one, but it's a general point about sport and other special programming).

 

[fblack_111]

On the day the story broke that Sling TV was starting, I sent them an email asking some questions like:  Would they have a Samsung Smart APP for Smart TV's, can you watch more than one stream at a time on different devices, why limit re-runs of shows to only 3 days, etc. After waiting three days I got an email back that said: "We have received your email and want to make sure we help with your request as soon as possible.   Due to the overwhelming response to Sling TV, it may take us a few days to respond.  If you need immediate assistance, please call us ...".   I assume I will get an answer eventually. I also hope they expand their choices (even at extra cost)  and let customers just pick and choose their channel lineup.

And one other slightly separate issue.  I put HBO Go on my Tablet. It's fine via wi-fi in my home. Then I took my tablet outside and used it's 4g feature rather than wi-fi. The app said that it only works on wi-fi. I thought that was odd. And I am not sure it would work at say an airport using a public wi-fi. Or only your home TW wi-fi. I wonder how the Sling TV would work on portable devices outside the home.