The Achilles Heel of Cable Companies' DVR Plans: Monthly Cost
PVRblog has come up with more details about Comcast's impending rollout of a settop box that will provide DVR and HDTV reception. Matt Haughey seems to think that this "could be another huge setback for TiVo's financial future" and he may be right.
But, as a Central New Jersey Comcast customer, I'd like to point out one factor in my decision making process that doesn't seem to come up too much on PVRblog: my monthly bill. My wife and I pay $73.37 per month for a package of services that includes LTD Basic Service, Expanded Service, Value Pac, and Digital Plus. We pay for access on two TVs with settop boxes and remote control. Our bill also includes $0.30 per month for Cable Guard, a service that means that Comcast comes out to fix any wiring problems at our house.
My cousin, Brian Lynch, and I talked about this bill in several emails about two weeks ago. He works for ESPN and I was complaining to him that for $73.37 per month, Comcast didn't even allow me to watch ESPN Classic. We compared channel offerings and came to the conclusion that my wife and I could save significant money by switching to DirecTV or the Dish Network.
DVR fans talk about cable company DVR offerings without any idea how much the cable companies will charge for the priviledge of renting a DVR unit to us. It's pretty safe to say that Comcast will charge more than the $3.75 per month that they currently charge me for each settop box and remote control. How much more?
I believe that I can save $10 or more per month by switching to DirecTV or the Dish Network. Even if I add together my TiVo subscription payments, a comparable package of channels, and access from the same number of sets, I'll still save money. If I can save at least $10 a month, I don't care how good the DVR functions of Comcast's settop box are. I also don't think that HDTV service, where cable may have a temporary advantage, is worth paying a significant premium for. If I don't get what I want over satellite, I'd take my chances with over-the-air HDTV reception.
I've had TiVo for more than three years now, so I'm as big a DVR devotee as anyone. But, I have to ask, how much more do cable companies think we are willing to pay than we are paying now? Why shouldn't we be looking for ways to lower our bills? At least two options seem to be readily available at this point.
Comments
That's a good point, and although I've mentioned the cost of TiVo service (usually on top of another service) being a problem, I've never really looked directly at cable system average costs.
It was a factor in my own decision to get rid of Comcast cable and go with DirecTV. For about $40 a month I can get hundreds of channels, pretty much everything but movie channels that cable systems offer, and that includes a DirecTiVo box. I pay 10 bucks extra for HBO and my bill is around $53 total with everything. For about the same price, I got mostly analog, crappy cable from Comcast that was plastered with TV Guide ads all over the on screen display and it only offered about 5-10 channels in the digital side that I'd consider watching. It was a fabulous ripoff.
I should do an average cost roundup of various services, so consumers can compare them all side-by-side
Oh, if you're interested in HDTV wait a couple months on the DirecTV or Dish service, both are set to launch boxes soon that can handle recording that plus normal broadcasts. If you're not into HDTV, I'd say go for DirecTiVo. People have mixed reviews of the Dish network boxes and I've enjoyed a couple years of DireTiVo functionality (which does have an upgrade path and lively hacker community).
Posted by: Matt | December 5, 2003 2:21 PM
A few years ago, after getting a HDTV set, we decided to abandon Comcast Cable (then ATT Cable, which was TCI cable, which was Jones Intercable and God knows who else). We went with Dish Network. Big mistake.
The picture was horrid. Just horrid. It looked like I was watching a moving impressionist painting... like I was watching through a rain soaked, wet window. Apparently this is a serious problem with Dish putting digital signals through HD sets... ever little flaw in the signal shows up. Every flaw. It was especially bizarre to watch the TV suddenly revert to slow motion-like images during basketball games for NO apparent reason. To this day I have seen no explanations for this phenom anywhere. It is even more bizarre to hook up a pair of rabbit ears, roughly early 20th century technology, and get a better picture. Marconi would give a wry smile, I think.
It took a few threats of lawsuits for misrepresenation of the product, but they finally acknowledged they had problems with the digital signal playing on HD sets. They let me out of my contract with no penalties.
Before changing find out how many channels are being jammed into that signal. Too much compression = horrid picture fidelity on HD sets.
Tomorrow I get a HD set top box from Comcast. I'd like the PVR with it. But, not until all the bugs are worked out. In the meantime the set top box will cost an extra $10 per month. The equivalent box for Dish TV costs (JVC's TU6000RU) costs $500.00, with no rental. That means I can rent the Comcast box for 50 months (4 years+) for the equivalent. And I've seen no movement on the price in a year.
Posted by: Bob | December 29, 2003 4:26 PM
Bob:
You're definitely one of the pioneers and I appreciate your explanation of a real world experience. I personally can't see spending $10 more per month than Comcast is currently charging me for HDTV support with no DVR. But, there are probably a number of Operation Gadget readers that feel differently.
Posted by: Dave Aiello | December 30, 2003 7:49 AM
concast bought media-one in my area a few years back,--my bill went up $10 a month for cable internet with no speed increase. i was paying low $50 dollars a month 3 years ago and now almost 63 dollars a month. i adverage 1-2.5 megs a second even though they say i can get up to 8 megs.the tech forgot to put a filter on the cable line so i get all the analog channels on my TV except the movie channels,thats the only reason i can stomach to pay it....
Posted by: evildoer86d | April 9, 2007 10:12 PM