Time Warner vs. Optimum Cable/Internet/Telephone

mrraoul

I am moving into Prospect Heights and am wondering if anyone has Optimum Cable Service. I was in Park Slope and had TW and it was fine, but I want HD on Demand service, which TW does not offer. Looking for reliability, speed, service issues, quality of image in both standard and HiDefinition. Also telephone quaility.

Thanks,
Raoul

pureistheword

I have cablevision. I have IO cable (no HD), optimum online, and their digitial phone service.
overall I am happy with the service and the price. No complaints really.
as for the phone, I dont notice a difference.

stacey

Welcome to the 'hood.
I dont think you have a choice here between TW or Optimum. In my opinion the image quality on HD is amazing. I also enjoy their DVR service. In the last 3 years I can only think of 2 times that we lost cable service for more than an hour and even then it was maybe 2-3 hours. When I have called customer service for small issues (i.e. one channel is not coming in clear, not receiving a particular channel) I found the customer service reps to be very nice and helpful and even though they make you go through a couple of steps my problem is usually resolved quickly.

That being said trying to get through to a human is ridiculous. You spend 5 minutes answering dumb questions before you can even get an option for an operator. Also when I had a tech come out I was told that we should be getting a stronger signal and the main box that supplies my home as well as my neighbors to the right and left of me, should be replaced. This was 4 months ago and I still cannot get a straight answer from them.

I have their internet service and have never had a problem with them at all. I couldn't tell you about their customer service or tech support because I have never needed to call.

Now my neighbor across the street isn't as happy with their cable service and says they are lucky their office is not nearby otherwise she would wind up strangling someone there.

leeho

Hd is fine, actually pretty good, but my box doesn't have an HDMI cable, so it 's RC conversion. But, it looks great and comes in at 1080i.

IThe phone/internet always work, with very few shutdowns, and if they happen, their tech support is decent. Also they have a recording if service is down, telling you which specific neighborhood is down for the time being and that they are aware of it, etc.

I'm a bit bummed with their channel selection vs. what TW offers, though.

Also, their OnDemand HD selection only consists of about 20 movies or so.

homeowner

I'll second the HD recommendation. Its been very consistant and they have a lot of HD channels (about 20) including a HDPPV channel which is great if you are a boxing fan.

Their customer service is crap, and like Stacey I've had a hard time getting a straight answer out of them. The quality of the service techs is not very even so sometimes you get a guy who knows what he's doing and is quick about it, and other times you'll have the cable guy that just stands there and scratches his head.

Has anyone here taken the plunge for Verizon tv? I keep seeing the ads but don't know how good it is.

mrraoul

Verizon TV is currently under investgation by the city for poor service. Apparently some of their customer service is so bad, some sort of class action is being considered.
I have HD with TW now and love it. I believe Optimum only has one or two add'l HD channels, and its the HD On Demand that is the most attractive to me. Plus the option to Record HD with their DVR. It would all be perfect with my Video Projector.

alafairnadia

for people having bad service/weird channels: when I first moved in and got cablevision (regular IO) and the internets, I spent about a year losing service every 2 months or so. then I recaulked the hole from the outside universe and replaced the splitter with a $10 "gold" one from radio shack and whammy. I haven't lost service since, except the one time when some asshat at underhill and sterling decided to dig a hole and ended up cutting cablevision for the whole nabe.

the biggest complaint I have are download speeds and newsgroup access. I can only download two newsgroup threads at a time, which fuckin' sucks. when I had TW, I could load all 100 threads I wanted, go to sleep, and have 100 complete threads in the AM. with cablevision, I have two complete threads if I'm lucky and a time-out error. BLECH.

caseopele

When I moved here 2 months ago I ordered the Verizon triple package. They came and installed my DirectTV but I had to wait to get my phone installed. They promised my DSL equipment would come soon but after 3 phone calls with 3 separate agents it was discovered that they don't have DSL in my area. It took them 3 weeks to 'fess up to it. They also neglected to tell me that DirectTV has a contract so when I cancelled my service due to Verizon failing to come through with internet DirectTV said they were going to charge me a $150 cancellation fee. Fortunately they didn't since it wasn't my fault. Verizon signed me up under false pretenses.

Anyway, I got the Cablevision package (internet, phone, cable with all the movie channels) for about $140. I've been really happy with it, except for the fact you have to pay extra for each movie channels On Demand service. That kind of sucks but there's hardly anything on anyway.

jayce

I am on the 3 IO services too. HD. DVR, etc. Overall I am pleased. Occassional outages in the area, but mostly during the day when most people are at work anyway.

i just wish they did more with OnDemand. My old service in Boston, 3 years ago had everything on onDemand. like local channels programs stored in it. The DVR helps, but sometimes it is nice to have good onDemand.

i also wish Cablevision would get on the program with interactive options where I can report and check on the status of an outage of my internet and phone (it was down this morning) over the tv which is usually still up. hotels have been doing interactive check-out for years. it wouldnt be hard for Cablevision to have the same stuff on their systems so that I could bypass the annoying people on the phone and the 10 transfers to get to the person i need just by letting me report through the tv. but whatever. embrace onDemand first.

dw438

FYI for now, in Prospect Heights, Cablevision is your cable tv supplier.
The Verizon "triple play" package that's offered, as one poster correctly said, is with DirecTV. That means the ugly grey dish.
Verizon's OWN tv service is a few years down the pike, as it doesn't have a franchise agreement with NYC.

This from newyorkbusiness.com
Verizon Communications' plan to start offering television service in the city early in 2007 appears to be in jeopardy. The City Council passed a law allowing the telecom company to pursue a cable TV franchise three months ago, but the city has not yet released a request for proposals that would allow Verizon to push ahead in its effort. Verizon and city officials declined to comment.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/html/faq/faq.shtml#1

pete_c

I've had DirecTV for four years now since Cablevision got confused about which Sterling was which (Pl vs St) and then after making me blow a day off from work, attempted to charge me $90.

Check http://dslreports.com/ for good info on DSL availability, although you'll need to know your landline phone prefix (718-XXX-nnnn) to get specifics.

emmaviz

I have Optimum, and if you are used to Time Warner like I was, you will likely agree with me that Optimum sucks. Instead of BBCA it is BBCW, which means all news, all the time, and no fun british programming. Beyond that, the system Optimum uses is ineffiecient and buggy and I hate it. However, it is still better than satellite. But the moment Time Warner services the area, you bet I'll be switching.

alafairnadia

frankly, bbcw is an AWESOME thing. this is the only news channel available in the US that isn't shit. not that it's awesome. but it isn't shit.

sorry you can't watch east enders. actually, not sorry. that show is shit.

emmaviz

alafairnadia wrote: frankly, bbcw is an AWESOME thing. this is the only news channel available in the US that isn't shit. not that it's awesome. but it isn't shit.

sorry you can't watch east enders. actually, not sorry. that show is shit.

Um. Wow. Thanks for the personal attack. It was really appropriate on this message board about what our experiences with cable providers has been.

I didn't say BBCW was shit, I said it was "all news, all the time." I didn't rally for the elimination of BBCW, I simply said that I prefer having BBCA, and the lack of this channel, along with all the bugs of Optimum, made me hate Optimum cable.

And I am sorry that you think the only programming in the UK is the east enders.

doctorj

EmmaViz wrote:
I didn't say BBCW was shit, I said it was "all news, all the time."

No it's not. It's got a whole variety of other half-hour and quarter-hour shows. What it doesn't have is fiction (other than meta-fiction like movie reviews).

trini128

BBCW's awesomeness notwithstanding, I have to agree that the transition from TW to Optimum is painful. The service is MOSTLY the same, but crucially, the Optimum digital cable interface is _horrendous_, while TW's is pretty decent. It might not seem like a big deal (I mean, it's just TV), but it significantly reduces my enjoyment with using DVR and whatnot. I miss Time Warner like crazy.

alafairnadia

EmmaViz wrote: [quote=alafairnadia]frankly, bbcw is an AWESOME thing. this is the only news channel available in the US that isn't shit. not that it's awesome. but it isn't shit.

sorry you can't watch east enders. actually, not sorry. that show is shit.

Um. Wow. Thanks for the personal attack. It was really appropriate on this message board about what our experiences with cable providers has been.

I didn't say BBCW was shit, I said it was "all news, all the time." I didn't rally for the elimination of BBCW, I simply said that I prefer having BBCA, and the lack of this channel, along with all the bugs of Optimum, made me hate Optimum cable.

And I am sorry that you think the only programming in the UK is the east enders.

er - I wasn't attempting a personal attack there, darlin'. simply stating a totally opposite opinion - it was awful being in TW world because I really enjoy watching BBCW in this country (previously I'd only ever watched it abroad). most of the BBCA programming you can find on other channels, like PBS (which is where I generally turn if I want BBC programming that isn't 'newsie'). the other stuff, well, again, sorry. I'll take BBCW over BBCA any day of the week. think of Cablevision as a bit of the mirrorworld.