From Riches to Rags..From Digital to Analog
Written: Feb 07 '02
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Picture Quality: |
 |
|
| Basic Channel Selection: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
|
Pros: if you got the cash, you'll get tons of channels w/a crisp, clear reception.
Cons: sometimes looks "digitalized" for a second or two; customer service stinks.
The Bottom Line: If you have about $90/mo to blow on digital cable, you get an astounding selection of channels, but don't try to downgrade...it can be a hassle!
|
|
|
| lucypiggie's Full Review: Adelphia |
How Two Broke Girls in LA Decided to Splurge on Cable
One night last November, at around eight p.m., a strange man with a tool belt knocked on my apartment door. He had on an Adelphia embroidered workshirt and a clipboard in hand. When asked who it was, he told us he was from Adelphia and that we could get two months of digital cable for free. This included ALL the channels.
My roommate and I had talked about getting cable, but the amount (up to $85/mo) was more than we were willing to dish out for TV. However, the man's offer sounded like a good deal. So, while my roommate answered the phone, I went and hid in my bedroom with my cell phone, ready to dial 911 in case the man was a, uhm, freak.
He wasn't. He offered us a promotional deal where we could get 2 months of cable for free and we had the option to downgrade or cancel after the trial period.
We signed up!
The Trial Period
Digital cable consists of a digital cable box that allows you to watch over 300 channels. The picture is clear and crisp. The box comes with a remote control that allows you to see a Menu, which lets you search for TV or movie titles, view show or movie titles playing at a particular time, view show or movie titles by channel, and sports listings. You can set your digital cable to remind you of a particular show or movie, and a few minutes before that show or movie begins, a reminder will pop up on the screen. You can use this reminder feature for more than one movie, which I once did when I couldn't decide between five movies that were playing at the same time. The digital cable box also allowed us to get more information about a particular show or movie, which was helpful when a title sounded good, but we wanted to know what it was about and who starred in it.
There were so many channels, that to be honest, I didn't watch 90% of it during that two month trial period.
The premium cable channels, such as HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax each had several channels apiece, and each one had its own specialty. For instance, there was one HBO channel that was in Spanish, another Showtime channel that mostly featured soft-porn starting at about 9pm, and another one that had more violent programming. I spent a great deal of time watching Animal Planet, E!, AMC, Discovery, and movies that I didn't get to watch at the theatres, such as Little Nicky.
However, here are some of the channels that you get only if you have digital: HBO WEST, HBO PLUS WEST, HBO SIGNATURE WEST, HBO FAMILY WEST, HBO COMEDY WEST, HBO ZONE WEST, HBO LATINO WEST, SHOWTIME WEST, SHOWTIME TOO WEST, SHOCASE WEST, SHOWTIME EXTREME WEST, SHOWTIME BEYOND WEST, THE MOVIE CHANNEL WEST, THE MOVIE CHANNEL XTRA WEST, FLIX WEST, STARZ! WEST, CINEMAX WEST, TRUE STORIES & DRAMA WEST, MOREMAXWEST, ACTIONMAX WEST, THRILLERMAX WEST, LOVE STORIE WEST, ENCORE WEST, MYSTERY WEST, and ENCORE WEST, among others.
Another nice feature of digital cable that i didn't use very often, but i'm sure some people really like, is the music channels. It displays just a black screen and plays music, much like the radio. If you want to learn what song is playing or who's singing the song, you can find out at the touch of a button. There are about 45 channels devoted to music, and each one has its own flavor. There's the 80's, 70's, Mexicana, Tropical, Brazillian pop, Solid Golld Oldies, Classic Country, Today's Country, Dance, Rap, Metal, Body & Soul, World Beat, Classic R & B, and New Releases.
Little Recording Headaches
Yes, the picture is clear and crisp, but very frequently, in the middle of a movie, the picture will suddenly look "digitalized"...tiny black square boxes appearing on the screen and then being replaced by the picture. I had a feeling this was probably something that maybe Adelphia did on purpose so that people couldn't record a clear copy.
Also, for about 4-5 days, certain HBO and Showtime channels would come in and out. I called to complain and was told that Adelphia was aware of the problem and hopefully it would get fixed soon. Seven days later, it was fixed, but because I was getting the service for free, they couldn't credit me those days, which was a bummer, because there were some movies that I wanted to see (i.e. 'Eyes Wide Shut'..did cable show the uncut orgy scene?? i'll never know...)
The remote control that came with the cable box was a handy little tool, but you could still adjust the volute with your own TV remote control, which you needed to turn the TV on. A real pain in the butt was when I would record, say, a "Friends" episode, and I learn later that although the TV volume (from my TV remote control) was on high, because the cable box remote control volume was not high but low, my "Friends" episode was recorded with a painfully low volume. I record "Days of our Lives" when I'm at work (oh, don't laugh--i'm waiting for Brady and Chloe to hook up!!), and one unfortunate day, the cable box volume was low and I could NOT HEAR A WORD when I went to watch the episode that evening.
Then there is this marvelous device called a "A/B switch" that allows a person to watch one channel while recording another. When our digital cable box was first installed, the man said that we had to call in for one. So, I did, and when the guy came to install it, he installed it wrong. Nothing could be recorded. I had to call Adelphia's Customer Service line (which by the way is 24hours a day, 7 days a week). The person on the phone had to talk me through installing the switch step-by-step, and after forty minutes, I installed the switch myself.
But speaking of getting things installed, that leads me into my...
Nightmares
After our free two months, I called Adelphia to let them know that I wanted to downgrade to the lowest, cheapest cable, which was no longer digital. I was told that my box had to be removed and my billing plan would drop to about $32/mo and I would only have 30 channels. I was unable to get HBO (goodbye 'Sex and the City'!), Showtime, or Cinemax because you need digital cable to get those channels, and that would mean spending at least $60/mo, just for digital and then extra for each premium channel.
A man came and took our box away. At the end of the month, we get the bill and we're being charged around $57! I call and find out that the service man failed to install an analog box to filter out about 20 channels that we shouldn't have been getting. After a long, tiring argument with the customer service rep, she finally agrees to credit our account and only charge us the $32 we were supposed to pay.
This past Monday, another service rep guy came to install the analog box. The box is ugly. He sets us up and tells me how to record using this new box. My roommate was interviewed on Tuesday on a 1/2 show and when I followed the guy's directions on how to record, i found out too late that he gave me the wrong instructions. He had told me that it didn't matter what channel the box was on, as long as the VCR was set to the correct channel. Wrong! It turns out, the box has to be set to the channel you want to record, and the VCR has to be set to channel 3.
To make matters worse, we still had HBO and every channel we had before. My roommate called Adelphia yesterday and asked how much our bill was. When the customer service rep tells her about $60, my roommate wanted to know what was going on. She was then told that the service rep guy GAVE US THE WRONG BOX. My roommate couldn't remember the name of the box we were given (she said it sounded like "geriatric"..:), but currently we're waiting for another service rep guy to come out this Friday to give us an analog box.
We're praying it's the right one, because if it's not, we've decided to cancel Adelphia's service.
If you're curious about their analog (or geriatric..hee) service, the channels are not as crisp as they were with digital. Some channels are a little fuzzy. Oh, but I guess that's the price you pay when you downgrade! And you also lose Animal Planet, too. I was so looking forward to watching the Dog Championships this weekend...oh well! Maybe Adelphia will make another mistake...
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): Free
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
lucypiggie
|
|
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Reviews written: 71
Trusted by: 39 members
About Me:
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.