Hi again;
Glad to help.
If you are going to spend the money for Time Warner cable I would suggest don't waste your money on cable... it is simply awful compared to
DirecTV satellite.
I went through that route myself & was never satisfied with the so-called "Digital Cable"...
- Sound was ok.
- High cost for what you get.
- Less then great picture especially channels 2 -99 which are still analog. This is especially true in an apartment. I had a cable TV service man work on my cable system for the best part of a day. When he was done it was better but... a week later the quality of the picture dropped again. Every time someone new was added to the system it seemed like the quality suffered.
- All channels from 2 - 99 are still analog & they suffer the most in picture quality.
- Then there is the problem of people trying to rip the cable company off by stealing service. Twice I was cut off because someone broke into the outside cable box & stole my line for their own use. Each time it took at least 24 hours for the cable company to schedule a service man to fix it.
- Had a lot of other service problems with digital cable. Seems like they never knew what they were doing or what had to be done to resolve problems.
- They try to tell you that satellite goes out a lot. Well, cable is worst because it too is downloaded from satellite plus there is simply a LOT of other service related problems.
- They will try to tell you that every time it rains satellite goes out. Well guess what, the so-called "digital cable" is downloaded from satellite at a central location & is carried by optical cable to an area junction box where it then is distributed to a multi-block area & finally your apartment over standard copper coax wire. That is a lot of copper wire for signal loss & that is some of the reason cable can never be as good as satellite. The problem was for me that the satellite downlink was less then a mile from my apartment & every time it rained I lost my digital cable... especially channels 100 & up.
I yanked digital cable out & had DirecTV satellite installed for
FREE no less...
-
Best decision I ever made.
- Save $30 a month.
- Applied $26.95 of that to SBC DSL service... the second best decision I ever made.
- DirecTV service is simply wonderful, very dependable, great all-digital picture & superb 5.1 digital surround sound.
- I also get 46 channels of digital music... simply wonderful.
- As far as satellite going out in the rain... forget it. I set the dish up myself on my balcony & tuned it to the maximum signal that I could get. I get a very reliable 97 out of a possible 100 signal strength. Yes, it will go out for very brief periods (usually seconds or a few minutes) in a very bad thunderstorm as the signal will be blocked enough by a bad storm to cause the signal to drop below 35 which is the minimum trip point for a digital signal. But, cable would also go out in the same storm. Most thunderstorms have no effect on the picture or sound as it is ALL digital... no analog like cable. Usually during a storm the signal will stay at 92 or above. DirecTV says that any signal over 70 is ok. I have found that all is well down to 35.
- DirecTV is VERY dependable. I have not had one single service man out for any problems of any kind in almost a year since I have had DirecTV! With cable I had a service man out almost every month.
- Customer service is the very best I have ever experienced. Each time I called them with a question, a real person quickly answered & they always had the correct answers. It's no wonder JD Powers has awarded DirecTV the best overall customer service satisfaction award two years in a row. I believe it!
Some apartments will try to tell you that you can't put up a satellite dish but, there is a law saying that they must allow you use a satellite dish. Check your lease over VERY closely. Also, ask for the
"Satellite Dish and Antenna Addendum to Lease Contract" which very precisely spells out your rights & the requirements of putting up a satellite dish.
I have found that usually the apartment management do not understand the Satellite Dish requirements themselves. I have on several occasions pointed out my rights in the "Satellite Dish and Antenna Addendum to Lease Contract" & they backed off each time.
I don't know what it is, but some apartments try to fight anyone that wants to put up a dish but, you have rights, so use them.
Hope this all helps.