On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 2:58 PM, Mark Knecht <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:markknecht@gmail.com">markknecht@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="Ih2E3d">On Tue, Dec 2, 2008 at 7:42 AM, Brad Fuller <<a href="mailto:bradallenfuller@gmail.com">bradallenfuller@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 1:16 PM, Mark Knecht <<a href="mailto:markknecht@gmail.com">markknecht@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
>> I agree. My wife and kid don't. They want stuff on basic cable<br>
>> channels - Monk, Psych, The Closer, etc. Like you I've got more than<br>
>> enough. NetFLix discs, plus Watch Instantly, plus Watch Instantly on<br>
>> the Roku box is more hours than I can devote. Problem I see coming is<br>
>> that Comcast Internet will segment download bandwidth based on whether<br>
>> I'm a cable TV subscriber or not. They will give 250GB to TV<br>
>> subscribers and only 100GB to those of us who quit cable TV. Less<br>
>> bandwidth makes watching Watch Instantly & Hulu more problematic.<br>
><br>
> Sounds like you are in the same boat as me, Mark. I have extended<br>
> analog basic and my family wants TNT, FX, TBS, etc. I'm also worried<br>
> that Comcast will do something, like move them to digital and I'll<br>
> have to get a set top box and screw around with IR blasters and such.<br>
> Yuck.<br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Brad Fuller<br>
<br>
</div>Brad,<br>
I'm assuming that we will, but probably not on day 1. Comcast has<br>
made a big deal that things won't change and that if someone is a<br>
customer, as you and I are, then come the day of the switch nothing<br>
will have changed. I expect that will be true. come March 1st I expect<br>
that there won't be any changes necessary to record all, or at least<br>
most, of what we can record today on our PVR-150/250 setup.<br>
<br>
What I also assume is that Comcast, being a publicly held company<br>
responsible by law for maximizing shareholder returns, will want to<br>
get more money from each subscriber. their job is to figure out how<br>
much they can take away from us (by putting it on digital) without<br>
having us cancel our accounts, with the idea being that if we want MTV<br>
which had been moved to digital then we should just pay for another<br>
box.<br>
<br>
As for us here, the more we can get online - like NCIS, Heros and<br>
more on NetFlix Watch Instantly - the the less we are held prisoner by<br>
Comcast cable subscriptions. However Comcast does lower Internet<br>
access fees when you subscribe to TV so if we drop our TV subscription<br>
then we pay more for Internet.<br>
<br>
I expect it's all going to end up being sort of a game of chicken.<br>
Only time will tell how it might work out. I want to investigate over<br>
the air HDTV antennas and then recording those. Maybe look for more<br>
online services and start paying more attention to what the broadcast<br>
networks offer over the Internet.</blockquote><div><br>I just refuse to use Comcast for Internet as well. AT&T was happy to sell me a naked DSL line. 1.5Mbps is actually plenty right now for streaming non-HD content. Hopefully FIOS or U-verse will be more available as HD streaming become reality<br>
<br>Kevin</div></div><br>