Cable

We use DirecTV. It's cheaper than cable. It does go out during strong rainstorms, but not often enough for me to change to TW.

I agree Time Warner Cable customer service blows. Takes forever to get a repair guy out (especially if you need a weekend, and they only do Saturdays), they frequently show up much later than their 4-hour time slot or not at all, and many (but not all) of their repair techs are surly and incompetent. Is that your problem with them?

[begin rant]
I love my high-def DVR and digital cable, but the price is a bit steep (I pay $112 a month including their internet). What I have a problem with is that their $@#*ing internet service keeps going out. I have Earthlink as my ISP (not Road Runner; you get to pick), and I've not once had software issues like the way some ISPs have slowdowns (I get 6 Mbps always, or nothing at all) or lose DNS service.

It's never the modem or the wiring in the house. After having them out here 4 times in the past year, I looked into the wiring extensively myself (I'm geeky that way) and figured out that I have to explain that it's an outside the building wiring issue (the connectors keep rusting on the coax) and that they need to install rustproof heavy-duty connectors of some kind (which they finally did on the 3-way splitter that supplies the building on the last trip out.) Note to the nerdy: those gold-plated corrosion-proof outdoor coax connectors you can buy at electronics stores or Lowe's/Home Depot to install yourself are not as conductive as the cheap aluminum ones they put on, and if you have a weak signal, the dB loss will be too high for internet. I've never seen an all-copper coax connector; it looks like what they put on last time is rubber-coated heavy-gauge stainless steel.

I'm waiting for the connection at the pole to corrode through again, just because I enjoy dealing with my psycho landlady and neighbors, who seem to think no utility repair people are ever allowed on their property (especially roofs) if the repair isn't for them (so how'd the wires get strung in the first place?) The oudoor coax around here must predate cable internet, and aren't shielded enough, so they leak signal, thus requiring exceptionally good connectors where there are splitters or joins. No, the cheap asses at Time Warner will not do a new cable run if they can make the existing wires work—it costs too much, and like I said, getting onto all the shared roof property is a nightmare.
[end nerdy rant]

Verizon FIOS digital TV, phone, and internet (www22.verizon.com/Content/ConsumerFiOS are at least a year or two away for the Slope from what I've heard too, and may never make it to the shitty semi-industrial part of Gowanus I currently live in. So you have no choice for cable, but I know a lot of people around here who have satellite. Problem is that you have to have a dish (which many leases forbid) pointing in the right direction with a clear line of sight to the right point in the sky (impossible on many buildings), and it still gets wonky when it rains sometimes, not to mention satellite internet sucks (most people I know with a dish just use DSL for that.)

Wow, that's the longest post I've written /

Cablevision has the territory east of Flatbush Ave ... PS is all Time Warner.
DirecTV does have pay-per-view movies, but doesn't come close to the free on-demand channels TW has.
I'm not a shill for TW, but have been a long-time customer and only had one service problem in over 15 years.

erikka wrote: What about internet service? We're getting secret free cable (I don't know how it works--put the cable into the TV and voila! there was a picture) and I need to get internet but I don't want to tip off TW on the free cable thing.

You could always get DSL as an alternative. If you must get TW cable internet, chances are that you'll still get your basic cable TV signal anyway. They would have to install a video trap on your line to prevent you from getting it - but most installers don't bother to do that. Just make sure you don't have your TV plugged into the cable when they walk in the door.