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Did anyone else get their love letter from Cablevision that, effective 7/31, you need to install their antiquated digital cable boxes on every TV in the house to get anything more than "Broadcast Basic?"
With five TVs in the house, this means adding more three boxes if I want to catch the Yankees in one of the bedrooms. As a come-on, they are giving them to you "for free" for one year then whacking you with the rental charge of $6.90 per month per box after a year.
Not mentioned in the letter is a price increase on the service itself, changing from the old Family Cable plan ($58.95) to what is now the Value Plan. ($64.95.)
No multi-room DVR capability, no Media Manager, a seriously obsolete user interface (the HD DVR still gives you the option to copy to your VCR.) If I could switch to FIOS I would, but it's not available where I am.
I didn't receive any message yet but I don't have any TVs without a box. I agree with everything you've said. I keep harassing Verizon to get a move on it and get FIOS here!
About 3 months ago i bought the latest Tivo model with an extended warranty and lifetime service for $600. Its the way to go since it replaces the cable box entirely and you save $11 a month it costs to rent a DVR receiver. The interface and features are so much better and you will make your money back in 4.5 years.
Cable boxes have been required since the networks went all digital. Comcast changed over at least a y6ear ago. Cablevision must really behind the times.
I've been a happy TiVo user for the past six years, sticking with a lifetime subscription on a Series 2 box. That box cannot be used with HDTV, so I would have to change to Premiere.
I could not agree more that their interface is light years ahead of Optimum Online's Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco) cable box. I was pretty close to just switching that over and using a cable card.
What bothered me about it is this. You're spending a lot of money for the following:
1) A box that has already been out a few years, and may be subject to rapid technological change. You have to buy their box plus pay a fee to use it however long it lasts. You are in effect stuck with yesterday's hardware, as I was.
2) Frankly, TiVo could easily go out of business. A few years ago everyone had a BlackBerry. Now RIM is on life support.
As much as I dislike these cable boxes, they have you over a barrel. At least if it dies, you get a new one, and if they completely change, you're not locked in.
I really wish Cablevision would work something out with TiVo and ditch these stupid CISCO boxes.
Surprised they are making you pay for the boxes. When Comcast went all digital, you got two of their "DTA" converter boxes for free. If you needed more then that they were something like $1.99 or $2.99 a month per additional box.
Just satellite; FIOS is not available on my street for some reason. They installed conuit for Fiber Optic but never installed it. The local triple play is okay for the other services, but I just wish the TV device and interface was smaller, better, and less costly to rent. In the age of the iPad, these are pretty clunky devices.
Supposedly they do this because they can add far more channels when you are forced to rent a box than not. Given the choice, I'd ditch about 75% of those channels if it meant a lower monthly bill.
Just satellite; FIOS is not available on my street for some reason. They installed conuit for Fiber Optic but never installed it. The local triple play is okay for the other services, but I just wish the TV device and interface was smaller, better, and less costly to rent. In the age of the iPad, these are pretty clunky devices.
Supposedly they do this because they can add far more channels when you are forced to rent a box than not. Given the choice, I'd ditch about 75% of those channels if it meant a lower monthly bill.
we are fools ,today we pay for tv that has just as many commercials as when we had tv for free
thats capitalism for ya ,all you need is a bunch of dumb Americans ,me included
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