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It seems that cable companies are finally getting tired of competing with all the free TV shows that are streaming over the Internet. According to an article in AdAge.com, Time Warner Cable’s CEO Glenn Britt said that they do care when TV networks put their full-length content online and essentially bypass cable TV.

This is a fight that’s been a long time coming. Hollywood studios and networks are finally realizing that they want to reach the most number of people as possible and not be constrained by traditional broadcast TV models. For example HBO has hosted many full-length shows online, as have ABC (Desperate Housewives, Lost), NBC (Hereos) and others.

Studios are embracing this new “Hollywood 2.0″ mentality that they want wider options for their content, and different mediums rather than trying to keep everyone tuned into their TV sets. In fact, a Time Warner cable spokesperson said they are prepared to withhold some subscriber revenue from the networks.

“Our point of view is that there is a segment of our audience that is living more primarily online than they are living on other platforms,” said Erik Flannigan, exec VP-digital media of MTV Networks’ Entertainment Group. “As some of our actions have made clear, the consumer will have many places they want to consume content. As long as we’re putting forth that experience and getting the lion’s share of the advertising, everybody wins.”

I don’t think that it will come to that, however. Cable companies are scared, and are trying to say and do anything to make people understand that they feel threatened by the Internet. Broadcast TV is being threatened–by DVRs, Internet delivery and even DVDs. But any major change to the established broadcast cable TV systems won’t happen for many years.

Some cable providers, like Comcast, have embraced the Internet and have developed web properties (like FanCast.com). It seems that other TV providers will have to learn how to adapt in the face of the growing Internet menace.

[tags] FanCast, Comcast, Advertising, AdAge, Ad Age, Cable TV, cable [/tags]

For anyone using a DVR and HD, it’s the classic dilemma: Do you use your cable or satellite provider’s DVR box or buy a Tivo? It’s like “Sophie’s Choice”.

On one hand, your cable provider offers a low cost DVR that works with HD content for just a few dollars a month–Comcast charges me about $5 per month. You also get just one box, rather than having to use a cable set-top and a separate DVR. Plus cable companies don’t charge you for buying the box; you usually rent the box for just a few dollars a month.

Going with Tivo means, higher initial cost of buying the HD DVR (about $600 to $800 for a Series 3 DVR).  It also means higher monthly costs–I pay about $20 per month for the Tivo service.

So lots of people are going through these issues when they upgrade to an HDTV and HD service. One blogger called “Dog Monster” wrote about this dilemma after deciding to go with a Comcast DVR, rather than buy an HD Tivo DVR.  And he writes that his frustrations with the Comcast DVR happened in less than one day of using it. He writes: “I loved watching television until I got my cablebox DVR.”

He goes on to list his 20 reasons why he decided to dump Comcast’s DVR and buy a new Tivo Series 3 box. Here’s the quick list:

1. Comcast DVR has no predictive fast-forward.
2. No Start From Beginning When Reaching the End of a Recording.
3. Not Recording Shows.
4. Searching for Shows is Clunky and Slow.
5. Finding Your Favorites Shows is Difficult.
6. The Cable Box Doesn’t Show the Time When Recording.
7. No Way of Knowing if A Show is Being Recorded.
8. Button Lag.
9. No Sound Effects like Tivo.
10. Not Intuitive Interface.
11. No Recommendations.
12. Recording Same Episode Multiple Times.
13. Doesn’t Know What Shows Are New.
14. Cannot Change Recording Quality.
15. Not Being Able to Exit the Play Timeline.
16. Doesn’t Warn About Conflicting Recordings.
17. Accidentally Recording SD Channel Rather than HD.
18. Comcast Doesn’t Group Shows Together Like Tivo.
19. Remote Control Is Not Easy to Use.
20. No Scheduling Shows Online.

Along with the points made here, I really miss the integration with the Internet for downloading photos, and other content (like RocketBoom) and the ability to save files on my computer with Tivo Desktop software. I must admit I am hitting my breaking point with Comcast’s DVR. I’ve been using it for about two months now (alongside my Series 2 Tivo for SD recordings) and have been very frustrated with it as well. Since I have multiple inputs on my HDTV set, I have both my Comcast DVR connected to watch and record HD content, and my Tivo for SD recordings and all my previously recorded shows.

But switching between the two is getting tedious. I want HD recording and Comcast’s DVR just isn’t giving me what I want out of an HD DVR.

It’s probably just a matter of time before I buy an HD Tivo and use it 100% of the time and drop Comcast’s DVR.

[tags] Tivo, Comcast, HD DVR, DVR, Comcast DVR, Series 2 Tivo [/tags]

It’s been a big week of news for Comcast and the cable industry. Aside from the new portable DVR and Tru2way announcements, Comcast also said it is now the number 4 provider of telephone services in the U.S.

Not bad for a company that: a) is not a phone company b) is the number one cable TV provider and c) just started offering telephone services three years ago.

Comcast said it has 4.1 million telephone customers, which beats Embarq’s residential numbers. Embarq is countering this claim by saying it has over 6 million phone customers if wholesale and business customers are included.

Comcast also announced other news at CES this week:

• A high-speed broadband service that can download an HD movie in 4 minutes, which will roll out this year.
• The addition of more HD videos for Comcast’s video-on-demand service.
• Fancast, a web site with full TV episodes and movies.

[tags] Comcast, VOIP, telephone, cable TV, cable, Fancast, Embarq [/tags]

In a few days, I’ll be getting a 52″ HDTV set for my home. And that means I’ll be looking for more HD content. I have Comcast cable and have already signed up for HD content and have the HD box with the HD DVR.

It’ll be quite sad to lose my Tivo Series 2 DVR, but it’s not HD so I’ll need to use the Comcast HD DVR. I’ll actually have both connected at the same time since I still have lots of content sitting around my Tivo that I haven’t watched yet. Plus, the Comcast HD DVR only has about 30 hours available for HD programming which means I’ll probably be filling that up pretty quickly. Having a backup Tivo for SD programming makes sense until I bite the bullet and buy a Tivo Series 3.

When I had an HDTV set earlier this year, I noticed a few rather interesting things.

I Only Watched HD Content. Switching to HD really made me want to only watch HD content. I watched nature shows on Discovery HD, travel shows on the Travel Channel and lots of sports in HD. It really changed how and what I watched on my TV. I thought it was just a phase, but I predict it’ll happen again.

Not Enough HD Content.  After getting an HD set, I was hungry for HD content. But I found that it was severely lacking. Sure there were a few movies, sports and some HD channels, but the majority of channels were in SD. Fortunately, some of my favorite prime-time shows–like Lost, 24 and Heroes–are in HD so I’ll be able to enjoy them in HD mode.

I saw a story recently showing research that said consumers are happy with HDTV picture quality, but want more HD programming. A survey of511 HD households found that 85% thought the quality of their HDTV sets was either above average or excellent. Only 39%, however said the same about the selection of HD programming.

Being happy with the programming usually comes down to how you’re getting your HD programming–antenna, cable, satellite or IPTV.  Cable and satellite companies are battling it out over who has the most HD channels, and it’s hard to know unless you do the research.

The survey found that sports and movies were the most popular HD programming. In fact, ESPN HD was the most-watched source of sports programming, and HBO was tops in HD movies.

Meanwhile, there’s evidence that HDTV is getting more and more affordable. With the holidays approaching and the Super Bowl just a month away, it is a great time to start looking around for HDTV deals.

A new JD Power study found that consumers love their HDTV sets and would buy HDTV again, like the sets a lot and would recommend them to friends.  Among HDTV brands, Sony, Pioneer, and Samsung are top consumer favorites. JD Power’s “2007 Large Screen HDTV Usage and Satisfaction Study” measured customer satisfaction with HDTVs.

In my quest for HD programming, I’ll report back on my search of TV providers in the San Francisco Bay Area on who has the most channels for HD. For now, I have cable but am willing to switch to a new provider if they have a better offering.

[tags] HDTV, HD, Comcast, cable, Tivo, HD DVR, DVR [/tags]

Having problems with Comcast cable? Had a terrible customer service experience with the cable company? Want to air your frustrations to the world (and with Comcast, possibly)? Then check out the Comcast Must Die blog hosted at Blogspot.

There’s a great post that contains a chat log between a customer and a Comcast customer support person. Plus, the site’s author, Bob Garfield, says he will host a podcast on December 11th, which will feature callers and hopefully, a Comcast executive to answer all our questions. I haven’t seen any specific details about it so far, but it seems kind of interesting.

Garfield encourages comments and he even tells them to include their Comcast account numbers when leaving comments because he said Comcast will call them back.

I don’t know about that, but I personally wouldn’t give out my account number on the Internet for all to see. Garfield says it’s ok, since there’s nothing personal about it, but I’m still not convinced.

If you like Comcast, you might want to check out the Comcast Rocks blog, started by a Comcast employee.

PC World’s Stephen Manes talks about one annoyance: his Comcast DVR that updated its own software one day.

“One day the device worked one way–a way I’d come to know and understand, even when it didn’t work entirely right. The next day, caramba! It had a whole new user interface that was significantly worse than the one I had grown accustomed to. The device? The DVR I lease from Comcast. I’m just glad the company doesn’t make cars.”

Apparently where he lives (Seattle, Washington) his DVR used Microsoft’s middleware with its “usual collection of bugs”. The replacement, called GuideWorks, has its own quirks. For example:

“Here’s how utterly lame the box is: As delivered, it won’t let you change channels by using the number keys to tune single- and double-digit channels directly, without pressing one or two zeros first–you know, the way you can on practically every other TV remote in the world. That default is so stupid that Comcast included a last-minute folder largely devoted to explaining how to fix it. All you have to do is go several menu levels deep, find an entry called ‘Channel Entry Behavior’, and change it to ‘Auto-Tune’. Hey, Comcast, here’s a better idea: Push software to the box that changes the default to the one people expect!”

Um, yes that’s totally lame. I wonder how many other people have experienced this with the new Comcast GuideWorks software? If you have anything to share, please add your comment here.

News outlets are reporting that Comcast has begun to roll out Tivo on their boxes. But ZatzNotFunny says that the roll out may not be as widespread as many think.

The AP says that it has been two years of “promises and delays”. New England customers started last week with “test customers” said Tivo spokespeople.

The boxes will be commercially available “in coming weeks,” a Comcast spokeswoman said. Pricing has not yet been disclosed.

Generally, the media is saying that this is good news for Tivo, and of course, long overdue. But the bottom line is that you can’t just pick up the phone and order Comcast-Tivo just yet. And I wonder how the first few customers will fare. Will there be any bugs? Will the rollout be delayed to take care of any issues?

[Via GrunchGear]

[tags] Tivo, Comcast, DVR [/tags]