Some Time Warner customers think there is more up the cable company's sleeve than "subscriber convenience."

Time Warner Cable customers across the country have been coping with some dramatic channel realignments over the past year, in some cases finding as many as a half-dozen channels gone missing from their analog basic cable lineup when it’s all said and done.

Communities in South Carolina, Ohio, and Nebraska are the latest to find dozens of channels assuming new positions on the dial, some now requiring a $7-10 digital set top box rental to keep watching.

The reasons for the changes?  To make room for an increasing number of HD channels, upgrade to DOCSIS 3 technology to support faster broadband, and to simplify finding networks on a lineup with hundreds of choices.

In Lincoln, Neb., Time Warner Cable will be aligning all of their analog and digital standard definition channel numbers with their HD counterparts.  So if CNN occupies channel 120 on the standard definition cable lineup, CNN HD will be found on channel 1120.  Customers simply have to add a “1” in front of the three digit channel number to get the same network, when available, in HD.

Lincoln residents may appreciate the fact some channels will be easier to find, but many analog customers without a cable box are not happy several of those channels will be gone from their lineup altogether.  The “victims” of the analog to digital switcheroo are familiar to those who have already been through channel realignments — C-SPAN 2, ShopNBC, TruTV, Travel Channel, and Oxygen will be available only to those who have a digital cable box or CableCARD.

In the Myrtle Beach, S.C., area, Time Warner Cable also moved the Speed channel to a new digital-only home.  Brett Phillips who lives in Georgetown called that a hidden price increase, telling The Sun News Time Warner was effectively taking away a channel while not reducing his cable bill.

In Nebraska and Ohio, Time Warner is handing out “free” digital boxes for 12 months, but only to those who do not have one now.  Those with existing digital boxes cannot obtain a second one or get their existing box for free.  Some critics, including our Lincoln reader Marta says that is a ripoff.

“As a good customer who already pays for two digital boxes and spends almost $200 a month on my cable service, why am I paying for my digital boxes when those who want the lowest priced analog service get one for free,” Marta asks.  “Clearly this is a way to get those boxes into peoples’ homes so at the end of the year they will reluctantly pay for the $7 a month to keep renting it.”

Marta was turned down when she asked if she could get a free extra box for her kitchen television.

“No, Time Warner only gives these free boxes to people who never had them before,” she said.  “I understand the company needs to make room for new things, but they have got to get these box prices down — they could turn the whole system digital as far as I care -if- the boxes were free, or at least much cheaper.”

Some other subscribers have their own conspiracy theories about the channel realignments.

One Nebraska resident noted Time Warner Cable was moving Fox News Channel to channel 44 — an ominous turn of events for this individual:

“It seems that the liberal unionized TWC is putting Fox News on channel 44. Obama is the 44th President. [George] Soros is behind this I just know it.”

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WEWS KSHB Time Warner Channel Changes 4-6-11.flv[/flv]

WEWS-TV in Cleveland and KSHB-TV in Kansas City tell their respective viewers about the grand shuffle in their channel lineups.  (3 minutes)

Time Warner Cable’s “Whole House DVR” service has arrived on the east coast, and it’s no longer only available to the company’s super-premium customers.  Now every subscriber in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina can get the service without signing up for a $200 monthly service package.

The service’s biggest selling feature is the possibility of starting a recorded show on one television and picking up where you left off on another — perfect for late night viewing that continues in the bedroom before nodding off.  By networking set top boxes to communicate with one-another, customers are no longer tied down to a single television set watching their recorded shows.

The cable company is a bit late to the party.  Verizon FiOS, AT&T’s U-verse, and even satellite providers like DirecTV have offered this functionality for a few years now, but for customers who can’t or don’t do business with those rivals, it’s a nice addition to the company’s offerings.

But how well does it work?  Stop the Cap! found out after having our existing DVR boxes switched out for the new service last week.

Time Warner currently sells the service at different price points.  Bundled customers, especially those buying the company’s expensive Signature Home package for nearly $200 a month, will find the service included in their package.  Customers with bundles of services can upgrade their existing DVR units to Whole House service for just a few dollars more.  Standalone customers will spend $19.99 per month for the service, which includes the DVR box.  (Additional set top boxes on other televisions are provided at the usual rental price, around $7 a month.)

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/TW Cable Whole House DVR.flv[/flv]

Time Warner Cable’s promotional video introducing Whole House DVR service.  (1 minute)

The cable company is deploying different boxes in different areas.  You will end up with the Cisco Explorer 8642HDC, the Motorola DCX3400M or the Samsung SMT-H3272.  These boxes replace any existing DVR equipment already installed, so be prepared to lose your recordings when you upgrade — they cannot be transferred.

Time Warner requires a service call to upgrade your service for the new Whole House DVR.  That’s because the company must install new filters on your cable line which block signals that can interfere with the boxes.  Time Warner uses the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) home networking standard.

Motorola DCX3400M

In our area, the favored box is the Cisco unit.  It’s larger than its predecessor — the Scientific Atlanta 8300,and has an updated look.  The older box was silver in color.  Today’s look demands basic black and the 8642 delivers.  Heat dissipation was obviously a major concern for Cisco, and the box is well ventilated, and even carries a fan, about the size of a CPU.  Hard drive failure is the single most common reason for DVR problems, and a spinning hard drive often throws off considerable heat.  Stacking boxes together in an enclosed home entertainment center cabinet eventually spells doom for many DVR units.  Hopefully, the improved ventilation will reduce those failures.

Capacity has also been an ongoing concern for DVR users.  The hard drives in most traditional DVRs were designed to accommodate standard definition cable programming, not today’s world of HD channel choices.  Time Warner has dramatically beefed up capacity offering Whole House DVR service with 500GB of storage — a major improvement over earlier boxes.  The company says this should allow customers to record up to 75 hours of HD programming.

After Time Warner installed the necessary filters, checked line quality, and verified where we wanted the boxes placed, in came the new equipment.  In addition to the 8642 DVR box downstairs, an accompanying “client” set top unit replaced the existing box we had in the bedroom.  The client boxes are similar in style to the DVR, but considerably smaller.  Time Warner will install the Cisco Explorer 4642HDC, Motorola DCX3200M or Samsung SMT-H3262 on any television where you want to watch your recorded shows.

After installation is complete, Time Warner adds the set top equipment to your account and that authorizes the service.

Recording and watching shows will be very familiar if you have used DVR service from Time Warner before.  Recordings are accessed from client boxes just as if you were in front of a traditional DVR box.

Basic Whole House DVR service allows customers to record two shows at once while also watching a recorded show.  If your home needs additional recording capability, you can obtain additional equipment that will let you record four shows at the same time for an additional charge.

Overall, everything about the service feels evolutionary, not revolutionary.  Time Warner is simply extending the DVR service to additional televisions in the home without the need for DVR equipment on every set.  Taking shows with you from room to room is by far the biggest selling point of Whole House DVR, but it carries a price.  What originally began as a $9.95 add-on for DVR service is quickly getting more costly.  Two rate increases just a few years apart have upped the price for traditional DVR service to $11.95 per month, and now Time Warner is breaking the cost of the recording service out of the price to rent to equipment.  That means you can expect to pay up to $20 a month for DVR service, plus additional rental fees for every additional box in the house.  Packaged bundles can bring those costs down, and asking about special deals and offers before signing up can make a major difference in price.

One thing we do expect in the future: additional leveraging of MoCA technology, which can support far more than just multi-room DVR service.  This technology can handle multiple simultaneous HDTV, SDTV, DVR, data, gaming, and voice streams. It can support up to 1 Gbps home networks and is consistent with DLNA, CableHome, UPnP™ Technology, and 1394.  That means applications like multi-room gaming, or delivering all of your home entertainment system streams across a single coaxial cable is possible.  That could eventually challenge Ethernet cabling common in many newer homes, if improvements in wireless don’t make the very concept of cables obsolete.

What Works

• The service works consistently to record programs as requested, with no missed shows or failures;
• We were able to consistently access recorded shows on the unit with no pixels or glitches when playing them in full;
• The Cisco box remembers where we left off when we partially view recorded shows, for every show. This is an excellent new feature;
• There is plenty of recording space to handle today’s HD viewing choices;
• The box is virtually silent. We never heard the hard drive or any cooling fans, something we could not say about the earlier generation of DVR boxes;
• The menu options now let us consistently watch standard definition channels in “stretch” mode on our television without fussing with the picture settings;
• On demand channels are far more fluid and responsive, especially when accessing shows or flipping channels between them.

What Sort of Works

• Playback functions on client boxes are sloppy. Fast forward and rewind functions are imprecise at best;
• 4x fast forward and rewind functionality is gone;
• We found an inexcusable audio thumping sound present all-too-often during fast forward and rewind functions on client boxes;
• The ponderous Navigator software remains as awful as ever. Intuitive design is lacking, navigating through the on-screen program guide is torture, and managing and finding new shows to record is tedious. When will cable companies simply give up their bad designs and license Tivo?
• Remote recording through Time Warner’s MyServices website or from smartphone applications remains an inconsistent possibility. All too often this service is unavailable, and we found repeated instances when requested shows simply refused to be registered for recording. This remains “beta”-ware;
• If one of your cable boxes crashes, it can mess up your in-home viewing network. Boxes can sometimes become “de-registered” and forgotten by the primary set top DVR box.

What Doesn’t Work At All

• You cannot manage recordings on client boxes. That means you cannot delete old shows or schedule new ones unless you are in front of the DVR box;
• You cannot attach external storage devices to the Cisco set top box we tested, at least not yet. It appears add-on expanded storage, which can increase your recording capacity, is presently disabled;
• Our earlier DVR, the Scientific-Atlanta 8300, recorded several seconds before a recording was scheduled to begin, to make sure the start of a show was not cut off. The 8642 does not do this, so many shows we’ve recorded miss the first 10-20 seconds of the program;
• Multiple DVR homes do not benefit from the ability for one box to pick up recording a show if another is busy or full. This elegant add-on would be a real convenience;
• Rogers Cable customers in Ontario report their boxes do allow external add-on storage, but programming recorded on external hard drives cannot be accessed from client boxes;
• The equipment remains expensive. Canadians can purchase this equipment for under $400CAD, while Time Warner customers will pay rental fees… forever.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/MoCA DVR Installation.mp4[/flv]

Learn more about how MoCA-enabled services like Whole House DVR are installed in this video from the MoCA Alliance.  Ignoring the appalling acting, reminiscent of one of those late night movies on Cinemax where clothes start to come off, the video closely mirrors how our own installation went.  (7 minutes)

One of the biggest impediments to freeing up space on cable television systems is the amount of analog television programming viewers still watch over televisions not connected to set top boxes.  Time Warner Cable customers, already weary from paying $7 or more a month per television to rent digital boxes could eventually be in luck, if they own certain televisions made by Sony or Samsung.

The cable operator announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show it would begin testing delivering cable television directly to some television sets equipped to receive the Internet.

Time Warner Cable’s test of IPTV would deliver the cable lineup over its broadband network, which removes the need for an expensive and unsightly cable box.

Since the cable company would only deliver the channels customers were authorized to receive, boxes with complicated digital tuners and encryption schemes would be unnecessary.  For the first time in years, consumers could once again get the full cable lineup just by plugging a single cable into the back of their television.  No boxes, no TV set remotes rendered useless, no cableCARDs, and no more tangled cables behind the set.

The company could also eventually dump their DVR boxes, which require regular service to maintain and replace worn out hard drives.  The future of DVR’s is “cloud storage,” — your recordings would be stored at the cable company on their equipment, ready for on-demand access.

Could the days of the set top box be numbered?

The new IPTV service can also deliver advanced graphics and provide better on-screen programming guides, and even open up the potential to integrate Internet applications with the television experience.

IPTV already exists today with AT&T’s U-verse, which delivers all of its video programming over the same bandwidth their phone and broadband services rely on.  But U-verse still has a box attached to each television in the home.

Consumers could end up saving plenty if they got rid of expensive rented cable equipment.

But there are some downsides — the biggest being the currently limited number of televisions equipped to handle Time Warner’s proposed implementation of IPTV.

IPTV has often also opened the door to concerns from content producers about stream security — could a consumer capture perfect digital copies of movies over the cable company’s IPTV network?  And what happens politically if the cable company tries to deliver unlimited cable TV over the same broadband network it tried to limit in the past.

Cable providers and phone companies are trying to keep video subscribers happy in hopes they won’t drop service.  Comcast and Time Warner Cable both announced last week they are trying to build virtual cable systems that would deliver their channel lineups live to tablet computers, starting over home Wi-Fi networks.  Verizon and AT&T are also working on similar features.

Big Apple Day

Residents on Long Island are learning what Cablevision subscribers in Bronx, Brooklyn, and Connecticut have known for a few years now — if you want to watch Cablevision’s TV lineup, be prepared to shell out almost $7 a month for every television in your home.

It’s part of Cablevision’s march to an all-digital, encrypted cable lineup.  If you want cable TV, you’ll need to lease one of Cablevision’s digital set top boxes or CableCARD devices.

Cablevision says it will provide customers with free boxes for their televisions for the first year, available in limited quantities at Optimum stores or shipped free to your door by UPS.  But after 12 months, customers with several TV’s will find steep increases to their monthly bills, just to cover boxes many don’t want in the first place.

“It’s just more gouging from Cablevision,” writes our reader Stephanie who lives in Lindenhurst, N.Y.  “We used to watch television box-free at the kitchen table or on the computer with our Slingbox, but now our home will need three more boxes when we already pay them $14 for the two we already have.”

Cablevision's Conversion Schedule for Western Long Island

For customers like Stephanie, that adds up to nearly $35 a month just in equipment fees.

“Our bill is already $170 a month and next year it will probably run over $200 with the boxes we don’t want and whatever their next rate increase turns out to be,” she writes.

Cablevision claims they are not doing anything their competition isn’t.

“In fact, every other TV service provider in the New York metropolitan area already requires digital boxes for each TV,” a Cablevision spokesman stressed.

Those upset with the change are considering making some changes themselves — some by switching to a promotional package from satellite TV or Verizon’s FiOS.

“I am well aware they both want you to use boxes on those services as well, but for a year or two, we could probably knock $30 or more a month off our current cable bill with a promotional deal,” Stephanie says.

What about after the deal expires?

“We’ll just switch back to Cablevision on one of their promotional deals,” she says.  “For this family, it’s about the ‘total amount due’ at the bottom of the bill.”

Cablevision’s ongoing transition to digital caused panic when it blanked out broadcast basic cable service for more than 500 residents of a Coney Island complex housing numerous senior citizens, almost all watching local television signals delivered in analog.  When Cablevision made the digital switch in August, every local channel suddenly disappeared.  The NY Post explained what happened next:

Cablevision also announced this week it had upgraded its set top boxes to support several new applications and services on the way.  Multichannel News covered the story:

Cablevision Systems has now deployed Zodiac Interactive’s interactive TV platform — including support for the industry’s EBIF specification — across the MSO’s entire New York-area footprint serving 2.9 million digital cable subscribers.

The operator is using Zodiac’s PowerUp framework software, running on Cisco Systems’ native set-top box environment, to run several interactive applications and services. These include iO TV Shortcuts, search, an enhanced program guide, video-on-demand navigation and dedicated ITV channels.

The companies also are working together on Cablevision’s remote-storage DVR — which the operator has been planning to launch this year — and the MSO is using Zodiac’s PowerUp Advanced Messaging Solution (AMS) software to integrate Web and mobile applications with set-top boxes.

Some other families are considering a different change.

“Maybe we just should stop watching TV in the kitchen,” Dominick Galletta of East Northport, N.Y., told WNBC-TV.

[flv width=”597″ height=”356″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WNBC New York No Cable Box No TV for You on Long Island 9-16-10.flv[/flv]

WNBC-TV covers frustrated Cablevision customers on Long Island now forced to obtain digital cable boxes for every television in their home.  (2 minutes)

Anita Brown (left) watches as a January fire took everything she owned, including her two beloved cats.

A Reno, Nevada woman has learned that even after a disaster, Charter Cable wants their money and will stop at nothing to get it, even if it means holding your personal e-mail hostage.

Anita Brown lost everything in January after a tragic fire, started by another tenant in her building who left a candle burning unattended.  While she watched nearby as all of her possessions burned in the fire, her only thoughts were for her two companions  — her beloved cats.

They didn’t survive the fire. Neither did a cable box, phone jack and broadband modem belonging to Charter Cable.

As Brown tried to contemplate starting her life all over again, the cable company found out about the fire and began demanding their equipment back.

Brown was stunned to find the local cable company so insistent about the matter, so she showed them a picture they requested of the “modern art” her cable box now resembled.  It literally melted in the fire.  She also presented the cable company with a copy of the fire marshal’s report showing the fire was not her fault.

Charter’s response?  Pay us $1,000 immediately for the damaged equipment or else.

Brown, who faced replacing every article of clothing she owned and locating a new place to live had other priorities for her dwindling financial resources.  Still, she offered to make monthly payments to cover the loss, if only to avoid Charter’s collection department and damage to her credit. They told her someone would be in touch.

That someone was a Charter technician who turned up a week later to disconnect her relocated cable service.  A payment of $25 made him go away, service intact.  A week later, while she was attending a family funeral, a technician returned and disconnected service anyway.  Then the bills started arriving.

Charter had subsequently reduced the amount owed for the damaged equipment to $500, still out of reach financially for the Reno woman.  She signed up with another provider.  Meanwhile, Charter keeps sending her bills demanding payment and Brown worries they’re on the verge of trashing her credit.

Brown's cable box literally melted in the fire

A local Reno television station reporting on Brown’s plight found Charter’s local employees less than helpful, refusing to work out a solution to the cable nightmare.  A national media representative for Charter was sympathetic, however, and the company may find its way to a mutually acceptable resolution soon.

It can’t come soon enough for Brown, who isn’t even sure she should owe a penny for a box burned in a fire she didn’t start.

Even worse, the only contact list of friends and family Brown has left is locked up in her e-mail box, now held hostage by Charter Cable, who refuses to let her access it until her current bill is settled -and- she promises to stay with Charter Cable.

Cable customers often discover they are on the hook for lost or damaged company-owned equipment.  Most cable company subscriber agreements hold customers responsible for replacement or repair costs for returnable equipment. 

Stop the Cap! strongly recommends consumers obtain a signature or receipt when returning cable equipment and hang onto it at least six months after disconnecting service.  That evidence will save you hundreds of dollars in case the company claims you didn’t return equipment.  With today’s digital cable requiring set top boxes, many homes have several.  The cost of replacing all of them could become astronomical.

If you rent, purchasing inexpensive renter’s insurance is a must to protect your possessions.  Your landlord insures the building you live in, not the things inside your apartment.  Many homeowner and rental insurance policies cover damaged cable equipment in case of a fire or other natural disaster.  Ask your insurance agent to check your coverage.

After a loss, don’t forget to claim the value of that equipment so you can reimburse cable companies that do not forgive these types of losses.

As for Brown, she is still waiting to find out if Charter has a heart.  The damage stories like this do to a company’s reputation may carry a price higher than the cost of the cable box.  Some Reno viewers saw the story and are taking their business elsewhere.

“Thanks for the heads up. We just moved here, and are weighing our cable/satellite options,” writes Diana from Sparks. “That makes my decision a bit easier.”

Kelly in Reno added, “Sounds about right for Charter – big corporate, heartless, money-sucking [profanity deleted]! What do they think is going to happen if they just void this bill, that everyone will start burning down their houses to get out of paying for equipment? Come on, have a heart Charter!”

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KOLO Reno Charter Cable Pursues Fire Victim 9-11-10.flv[/flv]

KOLO-TV in Reno told Brown’s story.  The ironic part of this story is that an advertisement preceding the clip was from none other than… Charter Cable.  (1 minute)