picture quality

[house kat]

Is there much hd picture quality loss with twc? Have direct now.

 

[sonic2000]

Yes, I had direct now have TWC. Clarity of picture direct is the best, TWC has issues with shadowing in dark scenes. Price is better with TWC my bundle is 160 a month for TV (HBO,Show, Epix, Starz) Internet and phone. Direct was 150 a month.
If your into sports TWC is lacking.
Equipment direct the best, TWC (Service calls answered normally in 24 hours) is average there new 6 tuner dvr isn't bad as you can record up to 6 shows at once versus 4 with direct, but who records 6 shows at once.
If I hadn't moved and now leasing my home and the owner doesn't want dishes I probably would have keep direct.
If you can go check out a friend who has TWC and see if you like it.

 

[house kat]

Thanks for reply sonic.

 

[rad]

Since every cable system, even owned by the same company, can be different I'd also recommend doing a first hand evaluation at someone that has it now. Even then no guarantee quality from one node to another can be different, even within a node can be different. If you do decide to try TWC I'd recommend trying a package that doesn't have any commitments and put DIRECTV on suspension, cancel if you like TWC or reactivate if you don't.

 

[house kat]

Thanks rad

 

[house kat]

Thanks rad

 

[EarDemon]

I maintain subscriptions to both TWC and D*. As said above, cable is highly dependent on your area. In my area DirecTV is a notch or two better then Time Warner on most HD channels as far as picture quality is concerned. On the premium movie channels they are dead even, I tried and I cannot tell the difference between the two. Also, while DirecTV has the most NHL CI/NBA LP/MLB EI/MLS DK games in HD, I have to say Time Warner's picture quality is a tad better on this. While DirecTV is MPEG 4, most cable systems use MPEG 2, but in a lot of areas TWC uses MPEG 4 for the less viewed channels like international and season sports subscriptions. Where there are a lot of NHL and NBA going on at the same time is when I usually notice this. Downside is the most TW will have is 9 games in HD at the same time of a sport. TWC seems to have more pronounced problems with 'black crush'. On DirecTV when I notice black crush, I flip over to TWC and it's usually a little worse. Although I've noticed that seems to come and go over time. I used to have awful problems with that on FX on DirecTV years ago, before I had cable again, but it subsided.

I do like Time Warner's hardware much better than DirecTVs. I've had the HR34 since it first came out it was nice back then, but it has gotten so slow over time, sometimes it's almost unusable. My Arris 3600 is lightning fast and a noticeable improvement from my previous Cisco boxes, which I thought were decent. Also, DirecTV's HD UI doesn't take advantage of the additional screen real estate. Six channels with 90 minutes worth of programming. Time Warner has seven channels with two hours worth of programming, and best of all NO ADS! Six tuners on TWC versus five on DirecTV is also a plus. It may not seem like a big deal, but on many nights I have 3-5 things recording simultaneously, while watching a live hockey or baseball game. Or if I have extra tuners available, keep an eye on two games at once with multiple live buffers.

Both services have their pluses and minuses.

 

[empiretc]

as stated- depends on your area and your equipment.

we left dish for twc, and purchased our own tivos. the quality is excellent and definitely better than dish.

we pay $120 total for the triple play bundle. we are saving ~$100/month and have tv on every single television.

The roku app with twc is awesome too!!

 

[Coach Knight]

I can second the Roku app being great. No equipment fee is always a plus.