Cablevision Does It Again!

[hiss srq]

Well, all Fox channels are now off the air in Cablevision areas.... This is the last straw for me personally. The only channels I actually watch in New York are FOX, FOX NEWS, YES and ESPN... So 50 percent of the reason I spend 130 a month doesnt even work now... It's time that Dolan find's a new game of chess to play... He runs a horrid company inside and out... From personal experince with the company it's not too rosey on the inside either... I feel bad for all of the Field Service Tech's that are going to have to listen to customers tomorrow as a result of this. Everything Dolan touches except his G4 turns to a pile of crap... Knicks, Rangers, The Garden, Newsday couldnt turn a profit if you gave them 100 million, and the cable/internet suite of products is pure trash... The system is padded down, there is all sorts of noise and interfearnce in it degrading signal quality etc etc... Maybe if they spent a little less money on toys and more on actually giving subscribers to their products some quality it would be worth the money but it's not.... Rant over... Former tech #674 OUT!

[adscram14]

Cablevision is a complete joke. My grandparent's have it and the box itself is so slow, we can't even change the channel (takes 5-6 seconds). We have U-Verse at my house; really good service.

[Gerard]

Cablevision is a complete joke. My grandparent's have it and the box itself is so slow, we can't even change the channel (takes 5-6 seconds). We have U-Verse at my house; really good service.

Interesting but I have no problems with my Cablevision service. The HD works fine and love my DVR. Yeah maybe it takes a few seconds when flipping channels but seriously, what are we talking about....SECONDS? :tongue:
The real joke is as consumers we have to be caught in the middle of two billion dollar mega companies battling for more of our hard working money. I'm no fan of the Dolans (God knows as a Knick & Ranger fan) but I definitely have
no use for Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. This is ridiculous and we all get screwed in the end no matter what the eventual outcome.

[gonzalu]

Sadly, it is still the fastest Internet service you can get... I get about 2ms latency which is much better than nearly all the other service providers and consistently faster than anyone else. Believe me, I am an avid gamer and this is the difference between a frag or a kill :-)

However, their TV service is just horribly old. They use Cisco netwrok gear for routing all TV service and use Multicast for delivery and for channel streams. When changing channels, you are either pruning or joining a multicast stream... thiscan be OK if properly done, but in my experience, it is better to have a dedicated stream for the channel guide, channel data, graphics etc. And they really should keep the box joined to at least 3 or four multicast streams adjacent above or below the center channel at all times to speed it up.

My feeling is that the bandwidth allocated to their TV grid is not as high as they need. It may have been good with 100 channels but now that they have over 1000 it suffers.

ESP2 HD and similar channels are gorgeous, little compressed etc. But some movie channels are heavily compressed to the point they look like 720p instead of 1080i or even SDTV at times. I can go on and on... I would love to have a choice but in my neighborhood, there is no FiOS, no U-VErse and no way to get Dish NEtwork or DirectTV :-(

This is the best example of monopolistic practices...

[adscram14]

Hey Gerard, I think it might be a problem with their box/DVR. When you switch from any channel to another, it turns black, then grey, then flashes green and pink and finally switches the channel. It's literally painful to watch at all.

[JHNA57]

If your Cablevision box gets slow, unplug it for about 20 seconds, then plug it in and let it re-boot. I find that I have to do this about once every month and it seems to work.

[hiss srq]

Cablevisions system is a weird setup.... It's what you call a "hybrid" system... It starts from the head end's where the system transmits out from the receivers as Fibre and than goes to something called a node. The node is the fiber to RF conversion point. From there a node will feed signal in the form of RF to between 250 and 500 houses... The taps themselves vary in size from 2 drops to as many as 8 drops. Each drop is a different account. One of the problems with these taps is the more down the line you go the less the signal quality is from my experince.... Kind of like a stream of water.... The water gets progressivly more dirty as it goes furthur down... Same applies to signal... Cablevision has a pretty high CLI number generally.. CLI is the acronym for Cumulitave Leak Index... When you leak it goes both ways which means there is signal interfearnce and degridation of the quality of what you see. Cablevision is not very proactive in these issues... From my experince it was a "wait untill it breaks totally" mentality. Pretty much, if someone screams and hollars than it gets addressed... Or at least a bandaid on it. If Cablevision was truely commited to being a quality product they would invest in going completely fibre to the house. They would not be worrying about combating Verizon right now if they did it right in the first place.... When they decided to go fibre they went half assed. Had they gone to a completely fibre system right to the ground block the quality would be tremendously better considering the service and BS people have to put up with. Instead, they decided to half ass it so they can say they have fibre... Fact is, it's not... Fibre does not have leakage problems the way RF based does. If Cablevision had gone fibre right to the house the only risk factor is that when there is an outage it affects a greater number of people. At the same time, it would require a tremendous number less staff as well to maintain the system. The bulk of the staff would be dedicated to the transmission sources and the residental techs would pick up the field problems... Again, Cablevision snubbed themsevles in that department because they didnt want to pay for training or pay the residental techs a few more dollars an hour for the new talent.

[mirrodie]

I am going to to try and convince my wife to get rid of Cable vision and stick to a digital tuner and broadcast channels. There is no need for us to feel sorry for Cablevision.

[Gerard]

Hey Gerard, I think it might be a problem with their box/DVR. When you switch from any channel to another, it turns black, then grey, then flashes green and pink and finally switches the channel. It's literally painful to watch at all.

Yeah mine goes black then grey then the channel. About 2 seconds. Geen and pink are nice colors but.......:smile:

[moose135]

Don't blame Cablevision for the deal with Fox (Yes, I'm actually defending Cablevision...) Fox has pulled the same thing with Time Warner and Dish Network. They want to more than double the rights fees Cablevision pays (it may even be tripled - up to something like $170 million per year) Who do you think is going to pay those additional costs? That's right, Cablevision subscribers. I don't have a problem with them standing up to Murdoch and News Corp. They have offered to submit to binding arbitration and asked Fox to keep the channels available until this is settled, but Fox is refusing on all accounts. I'll listen to the Giants on the radio Sunday, if that's what it takes.

[Fighting_falcon_51]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/16/news-corp-removes-hulu-from-cablevision-escalating-carriage-dis/


Newscorp is blocking anybody with a Cablevision IP from accessing their content on Hulu.

The proxy server of your choice should do the trick though.

[T-Bird76]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/10/16/news-corp-removes-hulu-from-cablevision-escalating-carriage-dis/


Newscorp is blocking anybody with a Cablevision IP from accessing their content on Hulu.

The proxy server of your choice should do the trick though.

FOX programing on Hulu is back on.

Both these companies are scummers to the highest order who have very little regard for their customers.

[Fighting_falcon_51]

FOX programing on Hulu is back on.

Both these companies are scummers to the highest order who have very little regard for their customers.

That's good. It was a low blow on Newcorp's behalf because Cablevision doesn't pay them a dime to put their content on Hulu and it was a stunt to hold Cablevision customers hostage.

[Gerard]

I'll listen to the Giants on the radio Sunday, if that's what it takes.

Yup and the weather here is beautiful today and will head out to enjoy a beautiful Fall day. And when I am in the car pop on the radio to see what is going on. I'll watch
highlights on SportsCenter later. And after today the Giants will be on MNF next week then a bye week after that and this childish pissing contest between two mega-companies
should be resolved.

[mirrodie]

Moose, for the amount of $$ I pay for cable and to say that maybe we watch......15, 20 , AT MOST, of all the 200 channels we have.....

And FOX is really what I do watch....

Maybe they ought to FINALLY give customers an A LA CARTE Option as I would gladly pay for Fox channels and NOT pay for any of the other 180 channels we dont use.

Gonna start looking at Apple TV vs a tuner quite soon.

[hiss srq]

Mario, what is Apple TV? I would love to do away with Cablevision.... If I could find a way to have just YES, the ESPN suite, the Fox channels and BBC I would be content.... If I ever watch TV those are really the only channels I watch... Maybe in a pinch if I need a sports fix I watch SNY but that is rare.

[Fighting_falcon_51]

http://www.apple.com/appletv/

It is a tiny box that runs iOS and you can hook it up to your TV and rent movies and tv shows, stream media from your computer, watch Youtube, and stream netflix. It isn't a bad creation but there are other options that I feel are better but they are more money. Also it only supports 720P so you wont be able to take advantage of 1080P if your TV supports it.

[puckstopper55]

I am surprised nobody has mentioned FiOS TV. It blows cablevision out of the water in terms of quality, channel selection, and the internet is insane. I have had both services, and can honestly say that FiOS beats cablevision in every single category. Cable is so scared of FiOS that they paid off the town of brookhaven to not allow Verizon to run the wires on the poles, and they are also holding local sports HD feeds hostage in spite of a FCC ruling prohibiting them from doing so.

As mentioned earlier, cable has been the only game in town for a long time, and half assed their way with everything. Now that they have competition they are running scared.

[moose135]

I had FIOS for about two years, and didn't notice any significant differences from Cablevision. Granted, I don't have a 72", Super High Def, Ultra TV, just an old 26" tube type, but the picture looks about the same, the channel lineup is the same - in fact, for the longest time, MS-NBC, which I do watch, wasn't available on FIOS, and the price wasn't all that different. Internet service wasn't any better, either. To me, both were very much the same.

[puckstopper55]

I had FIOS for about two years, and didn't notice any significant differences from Cablevision. Granted, I don't have a 72", Super High Def, Ultra TV, just an old 26" tube type, but the picture looks about the same, the channel lineup is the same - in fact, for the longest time, MS-NBC, which I do watch, wasn't available on FIOS, and the price wasn't all that different. Internet service wasn't any better, either. To me, both were very much the same.

I dont think you will notice a picture difference unless you are using a larger, HDTV. The phone, I will agree and are about the same. I notice the biggest difference in internet speed. Cable claimed to give me (at the time) 15 mbps down, and 2 up. I never even came close to getting that, even during off peak hours. During peak times, LOL, good luck. With FiOS, I am on a 25/25 plan, and have always been close to 25 down (sometimes 24, sometimes 26), and usually am about 23 on the up. The great thing about FiOS, is that even during peak times you have full bandwidth because they dont overload the fiber cables.

Cable has been using the same copper wire for years, and you can only multiplex (I believe that was the word used in EE 201) so many times before the signal is total crap.

[mirrodie]

I was against FIOS simply b/c as Cablevision and Time Warner have had similar problems, it can also happen to Verizon so I was really looking to break all ties.

I may look int oVerizon TV. Apple sounds good but the 720P limit kills that idea.


Honestly, all we would really want is an option to view just the broadcast channels in high def. 2 ,4, ,7, 9, 11, 13, 21

[T-Bird76]

Mario there is no option currently that will allow you to do what you want. The over the air channels will only give you ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and FOX...and two others that I've never heard of. You should look into Dish Network, they have HD only packages that IMO are a decent value. I might look into them...I'll let you know what I find. Also again, check out Google TV, for my needs Sony just came out with a great solution, a combined Blueray player and Google TV in one for $399.

[NLovis]

You should look into Dish Network, they have HD only packages that IMO are a decent value. I might look into them...I'll let you know what I find.

The one MAJOR dropout to dish is when you have bad weather you cant watch anything. We used to have dish network over here before returning to cable. Whenever it rained bye bye signal feed. If you go with a dish company of any sort be ready to fight the weather year round.

[hiss srq]

Dish isnt a bad. Like Lovis said, when there is weather sometimes there are reception problems but thats what the internet is for! LOL... More so snow than rain though. When snow gets into the dish bowl it will screw the sweet spot up on the dish receiver because the signal bounces on weird angles. In rain as long as you dont have a near flat tilt on the dish though you shouldnt see an issue. It all depends on where exactly your house is, what obsticles are near the mount and how it's tilted. When I lived in Point Lookout growing up we had Direct TV and would have problems... They relocated the dish mount and we never had another problem.

[NLovis]

Dish isnt a bad. Like Lovis said, when there is weather sometimes there are reception problems but thats what the internet is for! LOL... More so snow than rain though. When snow gets into the dish bowl it will screw the sweet spot up on the dish receiver because the signal bounces on weird angles. In rain as long as you dont have a near flat tilt on the dish though you shouldnt see an issue. It all depends on where exactly your house is, what obsticles are near the mount and how it's tilted. When I lived in Point Lookout growing up we had Direct TV and would have problems... They relocated the dish mount and we never had another problem.

True but when it rains heavy enough you will have signal problems. No matter where the dish is. Scenario. Watching the superbowl when a storm moves in. Lose the signal. Now what? I went there

[moose135]

For those of you still blaming Cablevision on this, a couple of items that might interest you...

On October 1, Fox pulled the FX channel, National Geographic channel and 19 regional Fox Sports channels nationwide off Dish Network in a dispute over transmission fees. To date, that has not been resolved, as Dish claims Fox is looking for an increase of more than 50% in fees paid by Dish. In addition to that, the contract between Dish Network and Fox for transmission of the Fox broadcast network (Fox-5 in NYC, for example) expires on October 31, in the middle of the World Series, and from reports I've read, it doesn't look promising for an easy resolution.

[hiss srq]

Lovis, would you rather be jerked around by Dolan and his little Mafia constantly? That is what bars are for anyway....

[puckstopper55]

For those of you still blaming Cablevision on this, a couple of items that might interest you...

On October 1, Fox pulled the FX channel, National Geographic channel and 19 regional Fox Sports channels nationwide off Dish Network in a dispute over transmission fees. To date, that has not been resolved, as Dish claims Fox is looking for an increase of more than 50% in fees paid by Dish. In addition to that, the contract between Dish Network and Fox for transmission of the Fox broadcast network (Fox-5 in NYC, for example) expires on October 31, in the middle of the World Series, and from reports I've read, it doesn't look promising for an easy resolution.

I really see both sides to this. Fox spends millions making great tv, and spends even more for the rights to the sporting events they televise. Cable companies, then take this feed and sell it to "us", thereby making money off of Fox's investment. Fox is right to want to recoup some of their money, especially since advertising revenue is down.

On the flip side, fox transmits the signal "over the air" and anyone with a digital antenna and converter can get the feed for free. Cable companies feel "if others can get it for free, why should i pay you for it".

Really this is a simple business decision. Fox has a product to sell. If you want it, pay their asking price. If not, dont buy it. In order to buy it, if you have to charge customers more, then so be it. Customers should always have a choice .. however in this corrupt area, some consumers dont have a choice and are forced to have cablevision or have nothing.

If cablevision chooses not to buy Fox programming, then Fox could lose 3 million viewers, which would hurt their advertising power. So these 2 huge *******s should play fair, but in the end they are only ****ing the customer, who doesnt have a choice. If everyone had a second option (ie Fios) I have a feeling this would get resolved real quick once cable saw people jumping ship. Once they leave the **** of cable, they wont come back.

[moose135]

If everyone had a second option (ie Fios) I have a feeling this would get resolved real quick once cable saw people jumping ship. Once they leave the **** of cable, they wont come back.
I left Cablevision for Fios, and returned, Fios wasn't anything special. And given the way Fox has been operating of late, how long until they do the same with Fios?

[puckstopper55]

I left Cablevision for Fios, and returned, Fios wasn't anything special. And given the way Fox has been operating of late, how long until they do the same with Fios?

I think Fox wont be as big of an ass when it comes to Verizon for a few reasons. 1) FiOS has many more subs then cable, so the impact would be much greater to Fox, and 2) FiOS is a national service, not local, so they would really be hit hard with lost ad revenue.

As far as
I left Cablevision for Fios, and returned, Fios wasn't anything special. And given the way Fox has been operating of late, how long until they do the same with Fios? I dont know what to say other then maybe you didnt notice it, werent looking for it, or happen to be one of the few people who are unaffected by cablevisions old copper lines.

[Gerard]

[QUOTE=puckstopper55;431241As far as I dont know what to say other then maybe you didnt notice it, werent looking for it, or happen to be one of the few people who are unaffected by cablevisions old copper lines.[/QUOTE]

I guess I'm one of those "few" unaffected people also. I have the whole Optimum iO package and am quite satisfied. I've been a Cablevision customer for the whole 12 years I've been on LI and any issues I've had, which have been few, were resolved quickly. My only problem with CV is their owner and his meddling with two of my favorite sports teams.

[NIKV69]

You guys blacked out today?

[mirrodie]

Mario there is no option currently that will allow you to do what you want. The over the air channels will only give you ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and FOX...and two others that I've never heard of. You should look into Dish Network, they have HD only packages that IMO are a decent value. I might look into them...I'll let you know what I find. Also again, check out Google TV, for my needs Sony just came out with a great solution, a combined Blueray player and Google TV in one for $399.

Tom, You confused me. The over the Air channels will only give me abc, cbs, nbc pbs and fox. If that's the case and that is all I want, what am I missing? Let me know what you come up with. But to be honest, I feel that any provider (time warner, cablevision, dish, etc) all have the potential to do the same, so why fuss with them at all, you know?


I left Cablevision for Fios, and returned, Fios wasn't anything special. And given the way Fox has been operating of late, how long until they do the same with Fios?

But why did you return? What drove you to return?


Tom, looking forward to your research.

[moose135]

But why did you return? What drove you to return?
Seemed like we were forever having problems with one Fios box or another, and after the latest hassle, Cablevision gave us a reasonable deal on their Triple Play service, so we switched back. Not that they are perfect by any means, but so far we have had fewer problems than with Fios.