"The Bible is a remarkable fountain: the more one draws and drinks of it, the more it stimulates thirst."
- Martin Luther
Sunday, July 8, 2007
The Family De is about to join the twenty-first century and get cable TV. We're not looking for lots of channels. What we'd like is a basic package (local stations, Disney channel, Nicolodean, History/Discovery channel), plus a sports package so we can get Fox Soccer Channel and regional sports.
We're also open to bundling high speed internet with this (although we currently have DSL and are good with it).
Any Houstonians out there who are happy with their cable (and potentially internet) service and have a recommendation for us?
(p.s. - money is definitely an object).
Thanks!
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Comments on "A Little Help From H-Town Cable Customers?":
2. Sherry Early
- 07/08/2007 11:12 pm CDT
I have cable internet, not TV, from Comcast, used to be TIme Warner until this month. I have found my internet to be much more reliable than it was when I had DSL. Sorry, we don't do the cable TV thing.
3. David
- 07/09/2007 7:29 am CDT
If you can get the AT&T Uverse package in your area I would check it out. It's fiber-to-the-door and supposed to be pretty good. I think they will bundle cable-internet-phone all together for ~$100. The cable comes with a DVR.
We have Time Warner/Comcast for cable and bundle Earthlink cable high-speed internet with it and use SunRocket for our phone service. It works pretty well and we come in around ~$80/month.
4. GL
- 07/09/2007 11:01 pm CDT
Alas, alas.
Desiderius Erasmus wrote, "When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes."
Buy books! Or get them free at the library. It's the time spent on cable that could be spent on books that is loss.
5. De
- 07/09/2007 11:06 pm CDT
GL,
I can't argue with that.
But we really, really want to get the Fox Soccer channel :-)
6. Bird
- 07/10/2007 7:44 am CDT
But we really, really want to get the Fox Soccer channel :-)
De wants his MTV. :-)
7. De
- 07/10/2007 8:07 am CDT
Actually, no kidding, we want the Fox Soccer channel (among other things - better reception on our local station, history channel, disney channel, discovery)
Is it possible to get a package that doesn't have MtV? If so, I'm there . . .
8. nhe
- 07/10/2007 9:09 am CDT
I too can live w/out MTV - BUT - "The World Series of Pop Culture Trivia" season II just started this week on VH1.......that's a must have, and VH1/MTV is a package deal I think.
You "Lost" fans would have liked one of the tie-breaker questions this week.....two contestants had to go back-and-forth naming "Lost" characters until one of them couldn't name one......they did pretty well, but neither could think of "Jin" or "Sun".
9. De
- 07/10/2007 10:44 am CDT
"The World Series of Pop Culture Trivia"
. . . "that's a must have"
[De stares blankly ahead, rendered temporarily immobile by a tall wave of cognitive dissonance]
10. nhe
- 07/10/2007 10:57 am CDT
I'm tellin' bro.....don't knock it till you try it......its "Jeopardy" for the under 45 crowd.....this reply from the guy who gives Fox News Soccer channel as a reason for cable?????????........$14.95 per month to watch paint dry? :)
11. shrode
- 07/10/2007 12:53 pm CDT
You have choices in cable companies in Houston? Here we only have one choice for cable - TimeWarner. That's it.
Unless you want to go satellite, then it's dish network or DirectTV and those two are basically interchangeable.
My biggest beef is that you can't get channels "a la cart". Case in point, to get the Fox Soccer channel (I still can't believe there is one!!!???) you'll probably have to get some huge package that costs way more than you can afford and gives you 800 zillion channels you don't need.
12. stroke
- 07/10/2007 4:52 pm CDT
de,
-satellite is cheaper
-there are not, to my knowledge, many a la carte options with any service except for packages like "sports" which would get you the soccer but also like rowing or something weird
-you can always block channels and stuff. technology allows for that pretty well these days
-i have cable now because my apt faces the wrong direction, but i woulda stayed with dish if i could have.
13. Quaid
- 07/11/2007 12:30 pm CDT
De - Listen to Stroke.
Before I got married/moved into the apt with Jennifer, I had Dish. Seriously - it is cheaper and better than cable.
The dish only went out once or twice in the year due to weather (one of its chief drawbacks), but it is cheaper, overall, and the quality is just as nice.
If you decide to do Dish Network - order it through the Dish Network site, not a third party vendor such as Radio Shack or GoDish.com - you might want to check, but when I researched, it was more money to go 3rd party.
Also - YOU HAVE TO GET THE DVR! This machine will change how you watch TV. Fast Fwd through Ads - save time (so you can read books?). Also, if I feel like I'm watching too much TV, I'll force myself to only watch things I've DVRd (plus sports) to save time and not waste my life surfing.
Here's my personal preference:
1. Dish (and get DSL through the phone company)
2. DirectTV (Direct is a tad more expensive, but has more variety in channel lineup, such as the NFL network which I don't think Dish has - check their lineups on their respective sites)
10. Comcast
I would agree that internet is faster/more reliable through Cable over DSL, but make certain you have a good firewall, if you go this route. Personally, I don't feel that the internet speed is worth the preice jump to cable.
I'm in Dallas. I have direct tv. I like it except that for some reason the screen freezes quite often. I don't know much about cable but satellite isn't as great as everyone makes it out to be.