Cable TV Next

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That's odd, I was thinking the other day that the service was getting better, I rarely, if ever, have any buffering. The only buffering we get is when the microwave is run on the same circuit as the TV. The guide, were you using the Mayfair guide? It's not 100% accurate, but pretty close.
begreen said:
Well, we've given it a few months and truth be told our impression is meh. We have been getting buffering issues that always come at the worst times. It's odd because for the programs following there is no issue. This has happened for a couple weeks now and drives my wife crazy. The other issue is the out of sync scheduling and difficulty finding view worthy content.
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It might just be that Friday night is a heavy load? This has happened a few times now. Yet we watched Outlander last night and it was fine.

Yes, we use Mayfair, but what we need is something we can view a week ahead of time so that we can plan around the off-synch scheduling. Is there a way to preview the schedule, ideally on a computer, so that I can print up a schedule in advance for the upcoming week?
 
begreen said:
It might just be that Friday night is a heavy load? This has happened a few times now. Yet we watched Outlander last night and it was fine.

Yes, we use Mayfair, but what we need is something we can view a week ahead of time so that we can plan around the off-synch scheduling. Is there a way to preview the schedule, ideally on a computer, so that I can print up a schedule in advance for the upcoming week?
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You should be able to either print a listing from a cable provider for national channels, since they're all the same. Or from a local provider for local channels. My listing appears to be ~1.5 days into the future. There is a website for users to ask questions, report issues. Do you have that link?

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That was my first thought. However, the Gears TV schedule on the West coast at least does not jibe with cable provider schedules that I have looked at. And sometimes they start programs at odd hours like 8:45pm so you miss part if you tune in at 9pm. I haven't been on any forums for this yet. We're not diehard tv watchers so I just grumble and wonder if it's worth it.
 
Now that think about it more, it might not be possible to get 100% accurate. Gears TV aggregates streams from many cable providers and satellite providers nation wide, for US channels for example. Getting the time/programming differences across all the various streams is next to impossible for them, Google they ain't!

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I would rather they just time shifted equally for mainstream US cable channels. Say 1 hr after normal. The randomness without a weekly program guide (even online) is what's frustrating.
 
I’ve been using PhiloTV lately. $16/mo for a bunch of networks, but no sports channels. Slling is the next best deal if ESPN is a requirement.

-SF




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I had been subscribing to GearsTV but just pulled the plug. It has a bazillion channels but we actually only watched a few. The scheduling was erratic for us on the west coast and the Mayfair guide was poor. They recently did an upgrade to the guide which crashed a lot, forgot our account, lost favorites settings, etc.. We usually only watched on Friday night and weekends. It would often take 5-15 minutes before the program we wanted to watch just to get through updates, locating the channel and actually being able to watch. Just not worth it.

Looked at Philo, but again, we don't watch most of these channels. May just end up individually subscribing to something like Netflix, HBO or Starz. Or maybe none. We don't need the latest programming and have an excellent library system that we can get DVDs through. The online live broadcasting we watch is local news, MHz and some PBS programs.
 
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The savings from eliminating the high cost of TV programming is now being spent on Internet access. My internet is $96 a month. Just under my electric bill. TV programming is $20 or nothing. Depending. These days the Internet runs everything so its not like theres a substitute. Kids are in Cyber school so they pay $50 of it. Cant get squat that works or a decent speed for $50.
 
We're fortunate I guess. Up until about 15 yrs ago our options sucked. I had to work over ISDN and it was painful, but then Comcast strung cable and it was a world of difference. The speed steadily gets faster. I think we pay about $70/month.

Signed up for Hulu today. At $5.99/month we'll try it for a bit and see if we like it.
 
begreen said:
Comcast strung cable and it was a world of difference. The speed steadily gets faster. I think we pay about $70/month.

.
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I had lousy service and low speed from verizon for yrs. And high cost for what you got 3 to 7 MBS for $73 . Finally for a bit more $96 we get 150Mbs and 2 terabytes of data a month from Cable Internet. Was $86 for 1 Terabyte but going over the data was way too costly, so had to go up to the next tier.
 
The last 6 months I have used directv now. Its $40 a month but your allowed 2 streams. I split it with my mother ( different house ) we each use one stream ( well I pay for it but at least she is saving on cable ). Directv now has posted on their forums its ok to share they really dont care. Although they only give you the local channels where your billing address is so if the person you share with is outside your billing area they dont get any local channels.

Something to consider if you have someone to split it with its a really good deal.
 
moey said:
The last 6 months I have used directv now. Its $40 a month but your allowed 2 streams. I split it with my mother ( different house ) we each use one stream ( well I pay for it but at least she is saving on cable ). Directv now has posted on their forums its ok to share they really dont care. Although they only give you the local channels where your billing address is so if the person you share with is outside your billing area they dont get any local channels.

Something to consider if you have someone to split it with its a really good deal.
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Does DirectTV give you 2 sat antenna and receiver boxes, or is this internet based?
 
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