I decided to save $125 per month and took my DVRs back to TWC today and cancelled TV cable access for my home. There is no reason to spend $125 so I can watch Velocity and my wife can watch HGTV. We mostly watch the network channels and PBS anyway. I never even mentioned to the TWC personnel that the lack of LHN was a huge factor. TWC and ESPN both just lost my business. I'm going with over the air reception and watching shows via the Internet since both my TVs are linked. Unfortunately, I am still connected with TWC for Internet and home phone (and am paying an exorbitant amount per month), but as soon as I transition to new email addresses I will go with a much cheaper provider. It is my approach to not having LHN. As soon as Grande or Verizon get to my area I'll be glad to sign up for phone, Internet, TV and mobile if they offer it. I can wait.
I went for some time a few years ago with TWC internet and did elect to pay for cable. I found that I could receive the basic cable channels through the co-axial supplying internet to the cable modem so I put in a splitter and hooked up a TV. Grande is in my neighborhood so I fired TWC just before this year's longhorn baseball season and made it clear to Time Warner that LHN had everything to do with it, but a big part of the decision was cost as fees for Time Warner had gotten ridiculously high and every time I took a closer look the rates had increased again...
I could go with Uverse and get all the channels I regularly watch for about what I'm paying for Internet and phone from TWC -- but no LHN and I'd have to stay with them for a year or pay a substantial fee. I'm not locking in to anyone that doesn't offer the LHN.
I meant to type that I elected NOT to pay for cable but was able to get basic cable channels from the coax feeding the modem.
Dogbert, Consider eliminating your land line from TWC and just using your cell phone as your home number. I did it about five years ago and have not missed it at all..
The above is true as true can be. I only have internet coming into the house and I save a ton. I get over the air channels clear as a bell and in better quality than you can via satellite or cable. I have ESPN3 online so that helps with sports. Just about every show I want to watch is online at the network website or at huluplus or netflix. I sync up with hdmi or watch on a good sized hd computer monitor. It works like a charm and I have saved just about 2 grand in the year and a half of cutting the wires, so to speak. The first few days it was weird but now I cannot envision ever going back to cable. I pay a fraction of what I did and am so happy.
With only an internet connection, you can add a landline for virtually nothing with service from Ooma. Been using it for a couple of years with no issues. #1 by Consumer Reports for landline service, too.
Far from pretending to understand the cable industry, I did read this... maybe that has something to do w/ Grande expanding.
I did get ESPN and ESPN2 and FOX Sports SW but not in HD. Pretty much all the channels that don't require the digital box. I believe they can turn off all the channels when they put in a feed for the cable modem but at two addresses for me the coaxial provided basic cable channels without paying for cable. Later, when I paid for a digital box at the main TV our coaxial split to the kitchen without a box picked up channels 1-99 or so and there were also HD channels for the locals. Now I pay for cable and digital receiver because I got Grande and LHN.
For those of you who have switched to Grande, how is their service? I've read some reviews where some have complained about their internet service being slow or down frequently. Looking at their combo packages for high speed internet and cable, it is a much better deal than TWC. And I would be able to get ESPN through Xbox Live, which I can't with TWC due to some conflict between TWC and ESPN. Are current Grande customers satisfied?
I used to have a bundle of phone, cable and internet with Grande. I now only have internet as I kicked cable to the curb. I have not had any problems with the product or service and again, rely only on it for everything so it needs to be on the money. The original Grande was a locally owned company based out of San Marcos and their rates were even more stellar in comparison to that of TWC or anybody else. Better product, faster speeds and bigtime savings. Now they have been bought out and their rates went up yet are still cheaper than their competition. Imagine that. I have not had any problems with the newer version of Grande either but again, I only use internet so I am pretty streamlined. Hope that helps.
I got the grande bundle and I have my gripes: 1. I don't lke Tivo as a DVR, except that I like being able to tell it to record every college football on a particular channel, i.e. LHN, and it will do so and not duplicate when LHN plays the ATM game from last Thanksgiving multiple times. 2. I hate that Tivo always tries to record "suggestions" because it is always on some stupid chanel when I turn it on and it informs me when I am watching a show I want to it is changing the channel to record some **** I don't care for and didn't ask for. Then I have to cancel the recording I did not want. 3. Tivo is set to show only the channels I receive, which to it means anything and everything I could possibly pay Grande extra for, so it doesn't filter out and I flip through lists of crap to get where I want to go. 4. Because of Tivo's need for internet, they moved the hard-line internet connection to where the big family TV is upstairs and now the office downstairs where intenet used to come in is on wireless. Internet is slower in the office due to wireless even though overall internet speed upstairs is faster than TWC. Good thing is that I have LHN and my bill is less for same services. I wouldn't go back, just hate Tivo. Even if TWC gets LHN they will not get my business again for many years, I will adjust to Grande and the stupid Tivo.
So tempting to hear you guys talk about cutting the cable. I guess I am a cable addict and always have been. I lost the digital phone years ago and just go with the cell phone. Of course I had to do that to equal the pay increase I saw when I jumped to the iphone. Hard thing for me is I love many of the shows on AMC (Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Mad Men) and I love sports across all the cable channels (ESPN, TBS, etc) and I love many of the HBO / Showtime shows (Dexter, Boardwalk Empire, wife loves trueblood, etc). maybe I just need to watch less TV.
I purchased a Magic Jack a while back and paid for a bunch of years in the future for a pittance. It works great. I can call anyplace in the US and talk as long as I want for no additional charge. It plugs into a usb port so my computer has to be on to use it. A regular phone plugs into the unit. There is one available now that plugs into the cable modem. Oh as long as I am on high speed internet anywhere I can use it. I have minimal minutes on my cell and never use them all.
I said farewell to TW and am giving Uverse a go. Time Warner is all about securing the new customer and screwing the loyal long term customer. Their business model stinks and their services... well... depending on where you are are good and poor. My Road Runner service stun it top and never could achieve decent speeds for any given period of time. Will I go back to them..... well if the LHN is picked up and UVerse does not get it.... I guess I may subject myself to crappy service, short term savings just to get the LHN.
Time Warner is the absolute worse, I have had all but Dish and experienced every TV provider but Verizon. I love DirecTV but they dont bundle Internet so it was quite expensive. Uverse in my opinion is by far the best value of everything. TWC is pathetic and stuck in the 90's I dropped everything as of now (still have Uverse Internet) I was with TWC and called to cancel the TV but keep the Internet, they said it was going to be a $60 charge to disconnect the TV. I said that's BS, how much to cancel everything, they said no charge. I told the guy that's the worst policy I've heard, charge a customer who wants to stay and not the guy who is leaving I wouldn't go back to TWC even if they got LHN. Im debating if I need to move out of Bee Cave and to ghetto east Austin to get grande
blym: You may be aware, but I believe that your picture of Clark Field is reversed. I'm fairly certain that the scoreboard was in left-center field. Looking closely at the scoreboard will help, I think, since it shows the team names on the right, instead of on the left, where they should be. I enjoyed that National Championship in the first year of Disch-Falk, but even so, I preferred games at Clark Field.
Seriously looking at cutting the cord and going the ROKU route for now to be honest. You can actually access ESPN through either the WatchESPN app or through one of the private channels listed below. I'd love for LHN to be made available through ROKU. Here are a couple links to give you an idea of the content available at this time. Private Channels Standard Channels
Well, I'm gonna pull the plug on bundling, after the info on Ooma. Even though its sacrilegious to do without LHN on Grande. I've gone through Grande's the Retention Dept. - 2 yrs. ago and the outcome was pretty decent. (that was before they were acquired by who-knows-who). But renewal time is coming up by the Oct. billing and I am sure there will be another rate increase... can't stomach this any longer. So I'll get only internet thru Grande (fiber in my 'hood) and probably go thru this online retailer for DirecTV. Weakknees dot com has been highly touted in the techie webcsts... what they do is fit their DVRs with bigger hard drives. At least with DirecTV, your rate is preictable for 24 months.
Yup. When Grande was Grande, before the buyout they shredded. They are still better than TW and others but I can see a steady digression. I have internet through them with no need for a home phone. I save, well, I save a bundle! Netflix, Huluplus and websites for networks get me by just fine. For over the air sports I watch the best possible quality through a HD antenna. No complaints. A reminder for anybody considering this move the first couple of weeks are downright freaky. Cable is like a drug addiction yet I still watch the shows I like, legally, without being penetrated by the overlords.
I've gone a month without cable and it simply hasn't been a big deal -- plus I'm saving substantial bucks. The OTA picture is actually better than cable and the online options are there. I miss the DVRs only slightly, but that is only on OTA broadcasts. I watch less TV and that has been a good thing. I think this is going to work out just fine.
