time warner

[Donna44]

can anyone time me which is better a dishcable tv or time warner.

thanks Donna

[VitaBene]

It depends on what you are looking for. If you want NECN you will need TW. Internet is easier with cable vs the dish.

The dish typically has more HD channels and may be less expensive but I don't think you really know until you get your first bill with all of the taxes and fees added to it!

I have TW and it is OK when compared to Comcast (especially for on demand)

[Lakegeezer]

TWC gets you the internet, and many more choices of what to watch than Dish. You can get Netflix for movies and Pandora for music. You will soon be able to get Hulu and Google TV. In a few years, the internet hose will be all you need. Dish won't give you that. I also have my phone (Vonage) over TWC Internet, saving lots of money. Reliability is very good. Channel selection on TWC, not so much.

[Seeker]

I had Dish and was happy with it until a tree grew too tall and blocked my signal. It was in the wetlands and couldn't be cut legally. Kind of a pain clearing the snow out of the dish in winter. We switched to TWC w/ internet and phone and are very pleased except for the $180/month and we don't have any movie channels.
We had a head end problem in my town a few weeks ago and TWC wouldn't consider it an outage until 3 people reported it. I know more than 3 reported it but the call center people apparently do not talk to each other. Finally got resolved but I didn't get 2 days credit for my outage.

[patman]

TWC wouldn't consider it an outage until 3 people reported it.

Heh...I use the internet for work, so I usually notice the outages fairly quickly. I had a nice chicken-and-egg situation with that a couple of times. My internet was out, called, rep said there was no outage reported in my area, so the problem must be me and not them. (I had checked my equipment already, and knew it was them.) I asked to report it anyway. Took 3 calls. Basically they wouldn't report an outage until someone else had reported it. So how does the first one get reported? They couldn't tell me that.

Back to OP's question, TW is ok, I think it is a bit pricey for what you get TV wise, but the internet service has been fairly good. I had DirecTV before, and had a very good experience with that for TV, but their internet service is not worth it IMO.

Recently I cut most of my cable TV service, got a couple of Roku boxes, and signed up for Netflix for $9/mo instead. Much cheaper, and they have a wide selection of programs. If you simply MUST have the latest stuff, Hulu Plus is coming to Roku shortly for $10/mo. That's too expensive for what you get IMO, but...some folks like it. Don't want a Roku? Netflix will send you a free disc for your Wii or Xbox that will let you do the instant streaming thing.

[Grady223]

can anyone time me which is better a dishcable tv or time warner.

thanks Donna

Neither, Directv.

[jrc]

I work for an equipment provider to the cable industry and I have Directtv. Their service is ten times better than any cable operator (mine would be Charter). They have to earn your business where the cable guys have a local monopoly.

For years I worked in the telephone and networking industry and they talked about five-nines availabilty, that means 99.999% of the time the service worked. That's less than 5 minutes of outages in each year. The cable industry isn't even close to this, they don't really care. They only measure subscriber growth. If they get more customers than last year then they are doing good enough. Think about that when you switch your only phone to cable, make sure you have a back-up.

The big pain in the butt is internet service. The satellite guys don't really have a good answer. Cable modems are fast and as long as you have service, pretty dependable. I have DSL from Fairpoint, it's OK but it doesn't measure up to a good cable modem.

[songkrai]

Some have "Contracts" and some don't. 12 months or 24 months.

So read all the fine print.

With the advent of high speed internet things do get a little complicated. Some prefer "bundles" of services including land line phone.

For the snow birds - with satellite - one can have just one account - satellite company will turn off one and turn on the other. You can lease as many receivers as you wish or just one. And bring and take with you from summer to winter home - as long as each home has a dish.

Cable allows one to go to off season rates when you are away - but you are still paying - if you have two homes.

There is no one best solution.

[Merrymeeting]

There is no one best solution.

A close one would be having the same cable company in both places that allows you to switch back and forth.

Unfortunately, given the cable companies that serve the Lakes Region, doesn't usually happen...

[songkrai]

can anyone time me which is better a dishcable tv or time warner.

thanks Donna

There is no "best" one. Each has different needs and budgets. All have drawbacks. Contracts - station choices - amount of charges/bill - and such.

Cable you can leave on with lower bill for winter months - and you still get some stations. With any receiver - you have to turn it in.

Dish satellite has huge promotions. Directv has promotions too. But both require any new customer to take a 24 month contract. Not the best if you are a seasonal customer. After the 24 month contract customer can have it turned off or on anytime. If you have satellite at you winter home - then you can use the same account for summer home - but only one on at a time. So if you are a weekend vistior - this will not work well. Or you can have two accounts - but again - have to start with a 24 month contract.

So there is no best answer with the limited information you have provided.