Computer and Cable Providers

[LindaCarpenter]

We will be moving to TV at the end of this month and are looking for Internet and cable TV providers -- can anyone help? Thanks!

[logdog]

Welcome to TOTV. We use Comcast for internet and DirecTV for TV service. The other options available are Century Link DSL for internet and Comcast or Dish for TV.

Comcast customer service is terrible but their internet service is faster than DSL and cheaper. We had Comcast for TV but are very happy we switched to DirecTV. Much better picture, better DVR and more HD.

[LindaCarpenter]

Thanks so much! Your reply was very helpful.

[CarGuy]

We will be moving to TV at the end of this month and are looking for Internet and cable TV providers -- can anyone help? Thanks!I agree with LogDog. The number of people who have switched from Comcast to satellite for tv is HUGE. Comcast internet is faster than DSL although for some people DSL is adequately fast.

[njbchbum]

i believe comcast is offering their triple play promo for $99 [tv, internet, phone] inclds 3 mos hbo free - $15/mo after that. tele service inclds local/long distance calling and caller id, vocie mail, etc.; 2nd yr jumps to $115 and third year to $129.

centurylink is a bit cheaper with their promo - but internet speed is really slow compared to comcast. have also heard of difficulties with direct tv reception during storms - but those subscribers can explain more about that.

we're snowbirds and will switch to the comcast pkg when we get back. congrats on your move!

[DENNIS G]

Century Link now has TV, Internet, and Phone bundles from $99.00 or less depending on tv package. They are using what they call Prism TV, it is fiber optic, the HD is great. I just switched from Comcast and the package that we chose was $58.00 cheaper than Comcast with free HD, and DVR (record up to 4 programs at once and watch another). Can pause on one tv, go to another and pick up where you left off. No lag during channel changing.

[zcaveman]

I was under the impression that DSL had different levels of service for different $$$. For more money you can get a higher download speed. Has anyone gone for the higher speed?


http://embarq.centurylink.com/Residential/InternetAccess/HighSpeedInternet/?bp=noid


BTW: I am Comcast. Just asking.

[TonyC]

This is in reply to ZCaveman.

I have signed up with CenturyLink for phone and internet, and am paying $40 for the 8MB service, which is the highest I can get in my location (Sunset Pointe). That is, "up to 8 MB". I am actually getting around 5.5 MB download and 0.75 MB upload.

I needed the highest upload speed I could get, as I do webinars and the VOIP works best with a higher upload speed.

Both the speed you can subscribe to, and the speed you actually get appear to be very location dependent, even within TV.

Tony

[LindaManson]

We are about to change from Direct to Century link for TV. TV package will add $69 to our existing phone and internet plan. (no premium channels because we never watched them) No contract if I don't take the $20 a month discount, or 1 year if I do. But...if I cancel the TV before the year is up,I only have to pay the discount I was given (IE: $20 a month for however many months.) ALSO..I have 30 days to cancel the service and owe nothing if I don't like it.

I want the 4 recording, pausable whole house TV. Getting it through Direct was going to up our monthly and had a sizable installation/equipment upgrade fee. We are only hooking up 2 TVs because that is all we have, but was told that the 3rd TV would only be $6.99 a month extra.

I will be keeping the Direct TV for the first few weeks, to see if I like the Prism, and cancel Prism if not and reconnect the Direct TV to the TV my self. We use Netflix instant download through our Blue Ray, and may consider Hulu, for other stuff. Need to check out Hulu further to see if it is worth it. This change will decrease out monthly total by about $40 a month.

We have the 3.0 internet service and it works fine. I do serious downloading of scrapbook kits, podcast streaming and webinars all the time and never have an issue with syncing, or speed. No lag time or jerkiness. We will now have the phone, which I could do without, internet and TV with Century link.

[logdog]

Keep in mind that the 4 show recorder is not all HD. Only one or two shows are HD, the rest record in SD. Also, you can only save about 40 hours of HD with Prism versus 100 hours with DirecTV. Let us know how you like Prism.

[LivingLarge]

Keep in mind that the 4 show recorder is not all HD. Only one or two shows are HD, the rest record in SD. Also, you can only save about 40 hours of HD with Prism versus 100 hours with DirecTV. Let us know how you like Prism.

If you had 100 hours recorded, would you ever actual get around to watching them?

[deejohn1]

We will be moving to TV at the end of this month and are looking for Internet and cable TV providers -- can anyone help? Thanks!

linda
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT EACH TIME YOU GET RAIN YOU WILL LOOSE
YOUR PICTURE ON YOUR TV sometimes even in lite rain. you will get searching for satelite .when I complained to directv they said i would have to pay a 20.00 fee per remainder of the contract to break the contract this is normal for satelite receivers . THEY DO NOT TELL YOU THIS WHEN YOU SELECT THEM TILL IT IS TOO LATE i still have 22 months left so i will wait untill i can get other then satelite tv

[logdog]

linda
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT EACH TIME YOU GET RAIN YOU WILL LOOSE
YOUR PICTURE ON YOUR TV sometimes even in lite rain. you will get searching for satelite .when I complained to directv they said i would have to pay a 20.00 fee per remainder of the contract to break the contract this is normal for satelite receivers . THEY DO NOT TELL YOU THIS WHEN YOU SELECT THEM TILL IT IS TOO LATE i still have 22 months left so i will wait untill i can get other then satelite tv

I've had a lot more outages with cable than with DirecTV. And when cable goes out, it's for hours at a time. DirecTV outages are only for a few minutes in heavy rain. Even then, you can usually still get a SD signal and you can still access on demand programming. Plus you can watch all those programs that you recorded previously.

[LivingLarge]

I've had a lot more outages with cable than with DirecTV. And when cable goes out, it's for hours at a time. DirecTV outages are only for a few minutes in heavy rain. Even then, you can usually still get a SD signal and you can still access on demand programming. Plus you can watch all those programs that you recorded previously.

Comcast must be a lot worse down there than it is up north here. I haven't lost more than a hour total in the 10 years I've been with them up here. Excluding my power being out but in that event my sat. box would be out too.

[John_W]

linda
PLEASE ALSO NOTE THAT EACH TIME YOU GET RAIN YOU WILL LOOSE YOUR PICTURE ON YOUR TV sometimes even in lite rain. you will get searching for satelite .when I complained to directv they said i would have to pay a 20.00 fee per remainder of the contract to break the contract this is normal for satelite receivers . THEY DO NOT TELL YOU THIS WHEN YOU SELECT THEM TILL IT IS TOO LATE i still have 22 months left so i will wait untill i can get other then satelite tv

I have Directv since 2008 and when I moved to TV last month I had it installed right away. Never had a problem with light rain, only heavy downpours or thunderstorms. However, in most cases if you switch to the non-HD channel you can still watch TV even during rain. For example if you're watching TNT channel 245, hit the yellow button and bring up 'all channels'. Now you'll see two channel 245's, click on the basic one and your picture should reappear unless it's a major storm.

If your a sports fan Directv has much more programming, NFL Sunday is only available on Directv, and they have similar packages for MLB, college football, NHL and NBA.

I also have Century Link for my internet, and I have 'fiber to the curb' at 10.0 download speed. I have phone with unlimited long distance and caller ID combined with the internet is $54.99 per month plus tax. Originally I had 1.0 speed and telephone for $59.99 but they over-billed me and when I complained they upped the speed and lowered my price.

[LivingLarge]

I have Directv since 2008 and when I moved to TV last month I had it installed right away. Never had a problem with light rain, only heavy downpours or thunderstorms. However, in most cases if you switch to the non-HD channel you can still watch TV even during rain. For example if you're watching TNT channel 245, hit the yellow button and bring up 'all channels'. Now you'll see two channel 245's, click on the basic one and your picture should reappear unless it's a major storm.

If your a sports fan Directv has much more programming, NFL Sunday is only available on Directv, and they have similar packages for MLB, college football, NHL and NBA.

I also have Century Link for my internet, and I have 'fiber to the curb' at 10.0 download speed. I have phone with unlimited long distance and caller ID combined with the internet is $54.99 per month plus tax. Originally I had 1.0 speed and telephone for $59.99 but they over-billed me and when I complained they upped the speed and lowered my price.

Would you be happy if other services you had only went out in HEAVY rain? Reading these posts makes me think Direct is not the way to go. No one is denying it.

[TednRobin]

Welcome to TOTV. We use Comcast for internet and DirecTV for TV service. The other options available are Century Link DSL for internet and Comcast or Dish for TV.

Comcast customer service is terrible but their internet service is faster than DSL and cheaper. We had Comcast for TV but are very happy we switched to DirecTV. Much better picture, better DVR and more HD.

What does internet only service cost thru Comcast? We plan on bringing our Dish Network receiver with us, cell phones for phone service, so all we need is the internet service.

[Luv2travel]

I am not sure anyone mentioned the fact that with Direct TV you are most likely to lose service durning almost every storm, which is every day in the Summer. I guess from the comments there is no perfect service.

[logdog]

What does internet only service cost thru Comcast? We plan on bringing our Dish Network receiver with us, cell phones for phone service, so all we need is the internet service.

Internet only at 1.5 mb is just under $36 per month if you have your own modem. Faster speeds are available. I think 10 mb is about $55 and 16 mb is around $70 per month.

By the way, as a former cable customer, I'm very happy with DirecTV.