[mythtv-users] OT: RCN cable opinions?

[Kevin J. Cummings]

Brian Wood wrote:
> On Friday 20 February 2009 08:39:29 Steven Adeff wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>>  Comcast is burning their already short string with me these last few
>> months, and since I'm lucky enough to have the ability to switch to a
>> different cable providor, RCN, I'm thinking about doing it. The costs
>> are basically the same though RCN seems to have more basic HD
>> channels.
>> So, my question to you all is, what are people's experience with
>> RCN?Would I be trading one rabid dog for another?
>> Do their HD boxes work well with firewire capture in Myth?
> 
> I've not dealt with RCN on a consumer level, but I had no problems with them 
> as a common carrier, but that was years ago.
> 
> BTW - Did you know the name is an acronym for what they started out 
> as? "Rockefeller Center Network". They did the telco/communications work for  
> the Rock City complex. Some have claimed it was "Radio City Network", but I 
> believe the former is correct.

You mean it doesn't stand for "Residential Cable Network"?

> The fact that they are a smaller outfit than Comcast alone would probably make 
> them easier to deal with, or at least easier to get in touch with.

No, they have a single call center somewhere's in PA.  Everyone gets 
queued up there for support/help, no matter where your service is.

> It's hard to imagine anyone could be worse than Comcast, but you never know.

I've been very satisfied with RCN until recently.  On their analog 
network (which ended last October for me), things were great.  Their 
cable-modem service was always faster than Comcast's (10Mbps vs 3Mbps, 
then 15-30Mpbs vs 6Mbps w/Speedboost).  I also have their phone service. 
  No difference from TPC, except that they've sold me 5 add-ons in their 
basic package and the monthly charges aren't all the less than TPC's 
would have been.

They had an analog Basic Cable service where PVRs were very useful and 
could record lots of channels.

But, lately, they've started migrating their local service to Digital 
Only and the only thing un-encrypted is the local broadcast (half of 
which is shopping, religious, or foreign language channels).  Also I 
receive more channels OTA here than RCN supplies (including a number of 
"out of market" channels which come in OTA ATSC which didn't used via 
OTA NTSC.

I can't speak about their HD service as there are only 2 un-encrypted HD 
cable channels on my cable (TWC-HD and MGM-HD) and neither play very 
well on any of my computers (does that mean they have high bit-rates?). 
I don't own an HD TV yet, and my 6200 MBE is only an Athlon 2600+, and 
while my laptop is a Core 2 Duo, its Radeon Mobility x1600 isn't up to 
the task of full quality HD.  And I miss being able to record SCI-FI and 
other basic cable channels!

I wonder how they will end up responding to Comcast's new claim of more 
free HD that I've seen in recent adds.  Right now, their RCN's HD is 
tied up with encryption and requires the more expensive STB to even 
view.  (And I imagine an even more complicated MythTV setup.)

So, while I have more complaints lately (like thy wipe my favorite 
channels daily when my monthly payment is late, or the 5c encryption)
they still compare very favorably to the service I used to have in the 
past (Cablevision/Comcast/whatever they called themselves, its Comcast 
now if I were to switch back).  I got them for the cable modem speeds 
and haven't been disappointed.

-- 
Kevin J. Cummings
kjchome at rcn.com
cummings at kjchome.homeip.net
cummings at kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Registered Linux User #1232 (http://counter.li.org)