After far too many years suffering under the idiocy of Comcast, we were quite thankful to finally move to an area where other options presented themselves – Dish, DirectTV, Charter Communications, and so forth. After examining the options, and deciding not to bother dealing with DSL, we decided to go with Charter Communications, and things seemed to be going relatively well – the technician they sent for the installation was amazing knowledgeable and helpful, the internet speeds were appreciably and significantly greater than those offered by Comcast at less of a cost, and the channels available were about the same.
Then they got stupid, by doing the same bloody moronic thing that Comcast did. And now I have yet another cable box that we will never use, just because the discounted plan required me to take it home. *sigh* ‘Cause, you know, that makes sense.
And now they have gotten stupider. After a little over three years of enjoying TiVo
, we finally came to the conclusion that paying on a month-to-month basis for their service does not make sense, given the same functionality is available for free through Windows Media Center, MythTV, and other options. So, I called up Charter, and tried to get some specific information about how they broadcast their channels, given that things have been shaking up a little over the past few years.
I called them three separate times, and spoke to three separate customer service representatives who were varying degrees of helpful. However, on all three occasions, the representatives confirmed that Charter broadcasts all their channels digitally, in the clear (unencrypted). One representative in specific assured me that Charter uses clear-QAM formatting for all of their channels, regardless of whether you use a cable box, or have any kind of special channel line-up (we do not).
On that basis, I went and purchased a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Tuner, so I could turn the all-too-tiny and surprisingly awesome Acer AspireRevo into an HTPC. Well, the tuner got here yesterday, I plugged it all up… and damned near nothing happened.
Oh, sure, it turns out we get a whole lot of music channels that our TiVo does not actually pick up, and we were able to snatch the Big Three (ABC, NBC, and NBC) off the cable in both high-definition and standard-definition… but that was pretty much it. When compared to the over-sixty channels we get now, three actual channels is not going to cut it… especially since SyFy (*sigh*) and TLC were lacking.
On a whim, I hooked the cable straight into the television (something we have not done for years) to see if it could figure out what channels were being broadcast and analog, and it turns out that while it does its little, automatic channel-finding, it actually lists out what channels are digital, and what channels are analog.
60-something analog, one digital.
*blink* Sonofamonkey. Wish I had known that before I went and ordered the tuner…
So, on three separate occasions, on three separate Charter customer service representatives lied through their respective teeth about how Charter broadcasts their over-the-wire signals. If that is not a fan-frakking-tastic way to piss off customers, I am not sure what is. So, thanks, Charter, for lying to me, a paying customer, and indicating that I would be fine purchasing a certain product – a rather expensive product, at that. How very kind of you to show us that there is no such thing as a “good” cable company any more.
Speaking of, would anyone be interested in that SiliconDust HDHomeRun Tuner? When I say it is “like new in box”, I really mean it – we still have all the packaging, all the documentation, all the wires, and it has been actually used for all of about two hours. Works great. Charter just lies. We could probably be convinced to part with it for about $130 or so – drop me an email or a comment.
Yeah almost every cable company sucks pretty hard. I’m with Comcast at the moment (it was between them or Qwest, and Qwest had shit Internet speeds) and determined how to actually get in touch with knowledgeable technicians, get a business account.
Although I’m not sure about Charter (they aren’t even available in my area) but with Comcast a business account nabs you a few things. First of all when you call you automatically get level two tech support (which from my experience means you can skip the total dumb asses and go straight to the lesser dumb asses). But being you’re a business (at least according to them, I most certainly am not a business) they’re willing to give you far more detailed information as well as correct information (their business account technicians actually seem somewhat knowledgable most of the time).
You may want to look into whether or not Charter has a business account option and what additions they give for business customers. I know Comcast has an Internet plus television deal for business owners that’s roughly the same price as their residential service after the initial “cheap” introductory six months.
Ooh… good call… We had not even thought about pursuing a business contract with them, but if it gets us to someone who might actually have a gorramed clue what they are talking about, it might just be worth the money for us. Granted, we have ordered a replacement tuner that will be able to handle the analog signals Charter is obviously broadcasting, but I am still more than a little miffed at the company for lying to me.
[...] near perfect, and installation, setup, and use were a breeze… the only problem was that Charter lied, repeatedly, through its teeth, and while the HDHomeRun does an outstanding job with digital television signals, it has no analog [...]