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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 19, 2009 17:04:39 GMT -5
This has nothing to do with net neutrality, that's another beast altogether. It's asymmetric because they have X amount of bandwidth and they want to get the most use out of it. Since people download more than they upload, a higher percentage of the available bandwidth is allocated for the downstream than for the upstream. That allows them to share the pipe with more users. If you have 20/20, you are are potentially using 40mbs. You can be uploading and downloading at the same time. For typical residential use, most of the 20mbs upload bandwidth will be wasted. I mean the whole idea of having such a terribly low upload speed is basically made up. The internet works both ways, it is one "pipe" so in the real world you can have as much download as upload but if you can upload as fast as you can download then things like torrents work much better so they chop it way down to discourage that sort of thing. So basically everyone with RR should have 20/20 instead of 20/1. So much for net neutrality.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 18, 2009 21:25:35 GMT -5
A few years back I got a special deal from Verizon where I get the 20/5 plan at the 10/2 price.
I really, really like the 5 mbs upstream. I'm not going back to anything else if I can help it.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 18, 2009 12:50:18 GMT -5
At the risk of taking this further off topic, I got to keep the m-card. The TWC technician came out and was able to boost my signal by 5db and we decided to keep the m-card in place.
He also told me that they plan on getting me back to RoadRunner. They plan on seriously blowing past Fios speeds. And I told him that when they can beat my 21/5 speed that I have now, I would drop Fios.
For all of my complaining, TWC support still beats Verizon support.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 17, 2009 21:15:05 GMT -5
That's a good question. If that's their plan, I'll keep the m-card.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 16, 2009 14:08:22 GMT -5
I'm starting to feel like it was the lottery. In the endless journey to keep my tuning adapter from losing it's connection, TWC is coming out on Wednesday to replace my m-card with two single stream cards. I don't get how that will fix the problem. If I have a bad m-card, just replace the m-card.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 15, 2009 13:33:12 GMT -5
Microsoft and Cable Labs have dropped the OEM BIOS requirement, anyone can add a cable card tuner to their PC, providing they have hardware and OS support for it. Windows 7 has added support for the Motorola and Cisco Tuning Adapters. I was talking to a TWC CSR last night over a problem with my STB and he had some interesting information to share: - They already have at least two customers using Tuning Adapters with Windows 7 Media Center with the ATI adapters.
- TWC Albany will be buying one of the Ceton Cablecard adapters when they become available in Q1/2010. The Ceton adapter is an internal card that can take multiple cablecards and record up to 4 channels under Windows 7. OEM versions will have special drivers and can record 6 channels simultaneously.
- They are are still working on licensing issues with the CCI Flag with the content providers. According to the CSR, a number of employees at TWC have Tivo HD's and they want the CCI flag set to copy freely too.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 12, 2009 11:00:47 GMT -5
Somehow I missed that one. I can't wait to install Streambaby tonight.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 9, 2009 15:34:27 GMT -5
If you have Windows 7 Media Center, it looks like you can get access to SDV CableCard channels. There is an update to the ATI CableCard tune that adds support for the Cisco and Motorola Tuning Adapters. It also drops the DRM for recordings where the CCI flag was set to Copy Freely (yeah I know, don't get me started about that one). A second update was pushed out that allows non-OEM PC's to add ATI CableCard tuners to your Win7 Media Center. Previously, you had to buy the PC with the ATI CableCard tuner, now you can just buy the tuners.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 4, 2009 19:41:07 GMT -5
Came home from work and my TA was not working either. Lovely.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 4, 2009 12:33:27 GMT -5
I'm getting the impression that TWC Albany is limited by their equipment and the quality of the signal coming into them.
With 8 to 10 additional HD channels coming in the next month, I think the signal quality will get worse. It feels like the megapixel war in the camera world. Each new generation had a higher pixel count, but the sensor size stayed the same. The end result was noisier pictures. The same thing is happening here.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 1, 2009 20:55:10 GMT -5
After having the maintenance job, most of the tiling is gone. I haven't done a full check of the channels, but SyFy HD is much better now.
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 1, 2009 20:52:47 GMT -5
Has anyone tried calling Roy at TWC to see what the current status is?
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Post by Chris Miller on Nov 1, 2009 20:43:13 GMT -5
There's been all sorts of rumors about SDV support with Windows media Center, but I'll believe it when I see it. We have enough trouble getting our Tuning Adapters to work with the only supported platform, can you imagine TWC having to take calls from some guy who rolled his own Media Center and now he can't get some of the SDV channels?
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Post by Chris Miller on Oct 25, 2009 21:13:22 GMT -5
The tiling tonight on BBCA HD is pretty bad. It comes and goes, but when it's around, the show is unwatchable.
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Post by Chris Miller on Oct 24, 2009 11:36:20 GMT -5
The tech came out on Monday and saw that signal was off from where it was supposed to be. The signal coming into the house is off. It's too strong at channel 2 and too weak in the SDV frequncies. They put in cable amp years ago and that was boosting the noise, which didn't help things.
He was able to clean up the signal a bit by taking the cable amo out, but he had to put in a service request to their maintenance department to fix the outside signal.
Sometime between last night and this morning, the tuning adapter stopped working again. I had to reboot the TA to get the channels back. This is getting old.
I called TWC back and they could not tell when or even if the maintenance order has been scheduled. The support guy, "Mike", told me to reboot everything to get the TA back online. I tried explaining that you only need to unplug and then plug the TA back to get it back online. I mentioned that you didn't to do that, but he insisted that I needed to. While he was saying this, the TA came back online through the Tivo again. He told me that my case was different and everyone else needed to reboot.
At this point, I should know better when I talk to these people so I dropped it. He gave me a care reference number and promised that some one would call when the maintenance order was put through.
Meanwhile I have a Tuning Adapter that can't stay online for even week. No point getting worried about the status of the CCI flag when you can't even record a show.
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