Good information. BTW, I have never heard from Suddenlink about their CableCards. I gave up.

If you too are having problems with Suddenlink and can run trace routes to show the problamatic connection please send them to me and Ill post yours there too in effort to get some one to pay attention to us who arent getting High speed from thier ISP SUDDENLINK!

Dishnetwork has a great picture - (blows away Suddenlink ) and Is also cleaner than any Dtv signal I have seen, although I admit I havent seen DirectTV’s high Def package in person…

Dish network has DVR - get the dual tuner - tell them you are only using it in single mode - and you can DVR two different programs at once ! I also went a step further and spent a hundred bucks on a pocket dish (20 gig hd with small viewing screen) now I can easly transfer my DVR recorded programs to the pocket dish to my PC and burn them for storage - they arent Rippable - but oh well (they used to be but not any more) - Its great to take something that you dvr’ed to your friends house and use three rca plugins to your buddies tv and play that DVR event easly - the pocket dish also handles files AVI and Mpeg, so you can use to view those to - they have several sizes to choose from if you want bigger screen to view on the go - the hundred buck one is only like 2×2 or somthing - …

I am curently having problems with Suddenlink High Speed internet - Its slow from 6 pm till like 1 am - cant even google at times - 400ms times are killing my high speed enjoyment - have been trying to get Suddenlink to fix it but word is they have just sold more internet connections than they can really handle - GET OFF THAT WALLET Suddenlink and please BUY MORE BANDWITH!!!

Photog5 (HUMBOLDT COUNTY CA)

First let me express my greatest frustration (this may be hard to understand if you don’t or have never owned a Tivo but…) The providers DVR’s, Home Media PCs, etc are NOT Tivos. I think the brand name, Tivo has become like “Kleenex” and used to mean anything that records TV. This cannot be further from the truth. I cannot tell you how maddening it is to walk into Suddenlink and ask how there service is going to work with Tivo and they say, “Oh, you will just use our Tivo.”

If you’re not familiar with Tivo, here is the biggest difference, Tivo is a SERVICE that works in conjunction with Tivo hardware, it is not the hardware itself. You can subscribe monthly, annually, or with some devices you can purchase a lifetime subscription. The Tivo box connects to this service via the Internet or telephone lines and downloads regular program information and more.

I just don’t think you can compare a Tivo with a Suddenlink DVR. They both record shows, allow you to pause LIve TV, and thats where the similarities end. I won’t get into the integration with my desktop computer, and the ability to download content from the Internet, but let me mention just one important feature; Tivo learns what you watch and keeps the storage drive filled with programs you might like. For example, if you regularly record ER, and have space available unused by recordings you scheduled, Tivo may record a few episodes of House, MD. The Suddenlink DVR (usually made by Pace) only records what you specifically tell it to, and as many have learned; it doesn’t even do that very reliably.

So, I begrudgingly scheduled the installation of the Suddenlink DVR because I am evidentially too stupid to install it myself; and enjoyed HDTV but sorely missed the myriad of Tivo features. In fact, I probably missed the Tivo user interface most of all. It was a royal PAIN to find a program with the Suddenlink box. With Tivo, I could find anything easily, or even setup my recordings online. But even with all this, the biggest problem was that the Suddenlink box just would not work. Usually in the middle of a football game when I had guest over. It would just go to the Weather Channel and stop. They came out and replaced it four times. Then I ordered a Tivo HD box.

I was aware that I would have to get a CableCard from Suddenlink and I dreaded it because every previous dealing with them confirmed the internet consensus that they are booger-eating morons and they didn’t’ let me down when it came time to get my cards. As other posters have experienced, they would not give me the card to put into the Tivo, they sent someone out who had never seen a Tivo or installed a CableCard and charged me $70 bucks for the “installation”.

Here’s how the “installation” went. I showed the tech where the CableCard slides into the front of the TivoHD, he put it in there and asked me to sign the work order. I asked if we should check some channels first and the “installer” told me, “Well, if they don’t work there is really nothing we can do because we don’t support Tivo.”

I told him goodbye and that I would take my chances getting it to work. It didn’t of course, and I started calling Suddenlink customer service.

I hope that someone that is about to take this on finds this post like I did and if so, here is the only perl of wisdom I can share, When you call Suddenlink and are told that they can’t support CableCards or Tivo, just hang up and call back, and back, and back until you find someone that wants to be helpful (it may take a few calls.)

I called Tivo and they confirmed everything was working like it was supposed to on the Tivo end and they told me to ask the cable company to re provision the card, When I finally found someone at Suddenlink willing to work with me, they did this and everything magically came up and has been working flawlessly for 7 months. I love the TivoHD and highly recommend to anyone suffering through those awful Suddenlink DVRs and their excessive monthly charge to get one. Especially when Tivo runs it’s Lifetime Service offers. It will take about a year to pay for itself and then it’s just the $3 monthly charge from Suddenlink for the privilege of renting the credit card size key that unlocks the channels I pay for separately.

Tivo good. Suddenlink bad.

I have a friend that works for AT&T in the Bay Area and he has no idea of a possible time-line for Uverse. Although I did sign up for any updates about Uverse in our area via their website.

Do you know something about the AT&T service? I imagine it will be quite a while before that reaches the north coast.

At $22.95/mo. the cost for a year of Suddenlink DVR $275.40. The Tivo I got cost $300. Plus $130 for a year of service. So, that’s $430 for the first year and $130/yr thereafter. In 2 years I will have paid $560 for Tivo. But with the extra Suddenlink charges ($60 install of the cards, plus $24/year service charge, plus we ordered a $60 wireless adapter for the Tivo) that’s $728 over 2 years vs $550.80 for the Suddenlink DVR. However, the 3rd year is $154 for Tivo and still $275.40 for Suddenlink (assuming neither changes prices).

When I total it up, after 4 years, Suddenlink will have cost $1,101.60. Tivo will have cost $1036. Not much of a savings.

And by then, the whole landscape of TV and how we receive it will have changed.

A month ago I got a LCD HD TV. So, of course, I switched to a HiDef DVR. I have had no problems.

Tivo does have more options. I’m not entirely sure what these are.

A friend of mine has Suddenlink and HIS OWN DVR. He uses a ReplayTV system. Much like Tivo, he owns this system. The best part about it is, he can rip stored shows to his PC. His system can never be to full. You run out of room, rip it. Of course if one wanted to… you can rip and burn anything you want.

Would love to hear from someone who has Suddenlink system and how they like it.

Price-wise, equipment-wise, etc?