Re: Charter went totally 100% digital today

ShowMe · ‎09-06-2010

On 6/3/2014 LipstickDiva said:
I got a message from TimeWarner that more of their channels will be going digital and they gave instructions about getting a cable box.

Our TVs are HD so this doesn't affect us at all because we have HD boxes. I never watch standard non-digital channels anymore because the picture quality is so bad compared to HD and there are only about 3 stations I watch in digital format because they aren't in HD yet.

I would bet that TimeWarner will be going 100% digital also. My TV in the living room is an HD tv too. You will be forced to have to get the new box......

ShowMe · ‎09-06-2010

On 6/3/2014 ID2 said:
Our Charter at our cottage went all digital about 2 months ago. I absolutely HATE it!!!! We just got through building our brand new cottage and all of our tv's are wall-mounted. Then we find out about the all digital which means you must have a cable box on every single tv in your house!! I am just livid! Why on earth do I have all digital tvs then? I really hate the cluttered look of using a darn cable box. Talking about taking a step backward with technology! And yes, I never can find my channels. I could care less about having more channels that I won't watch. I just don't want to use a cable box for every tv that we watch. Ok, rant over.

Hope you feel better. I know I felt awful when the regular TV changed too, and had to get a new box for them too. I have 2 that are not on cable. I can get more channels on one of the regular TVs than I can on the other......go figure.

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

Charter in my area did this in February. I was worrying about the changes, but it went seamlessly. I happened to be awake that night around midnight, when the change took place. With my TVs with Tivos, I just had to force a restart to get the guide to change, reflecting the new channel numbers (a lot of channel numbers changed) and get my scheduled recordings on track. I was so please with how well it transitioned.

The only thing I was initially bummed about was that I would have to get boxes for my kitchen and desk TVs. Before this, I was just able to hook them up to the cable from the wall. Well, the good news is that the new boxes are very small, so I was able to tuck them away in both places.

One good thing also is that all the boxes are HD now, so you get HD without having to pay more for a special box. Plus, here anyway, when Charter made these changes they added a LOT more channels. There is no way somebody could not find something to watch!

A few weeks later they added even more new channels.

FrostyBabe · ‎03-09-2010

Charter is going all digital here by June 10th. I've found it very annoying to have my TV automatically jump to their "commercial for digital TV" channel every time I turn it on. I already had one box, but needed a second for an additional TV. The mail I got from them indicated that they's supply a second box at no additional charge for the life of the contract that my HOA has with them. However; when I went to pick the box up so I could install it, they tried to tell me I had to pay for it. I pulled out the letter and showed them specifically where they said it was free for the life of the contract and they tried to tell me that that was just a generic letter and my HOA had "different" arrangements. I argued with the CSR for quite a bit. They shouldn't have sent that letter if it wasn't the case. She finally got a supervisor who agreed that even if it was a mistake, they sent it and have to honor it so I did get the second box at no charge. Got it home, hooked it up and it didn't work. I was on hold on the phone for 2 hours for a support tech. Still couldn't get it to work, so they sent a service tech out this morning. He had to do a LOT of re-cabling and then it worked just fine. He said I'd hooked it up properly, but I had a mess in the cabling in my basement. I have Bright House at my beach place and I'd MUCH rather deal with them any day!

ShowMe · ‎09-06-2010

On 6/3/2014 FrostyBabe said:
Charter is going all digital here by June 10th. I've found it very annoying to have my TV automatically jump to their "commercial for digital TV" channel every time I turn it on. I already had one box, but needed a second for an additional TV. The mail I got from them indicated that they's supply a second box at no additional charge for the life of the contract that my HOA has with them. However; when I went to pick the box up so I could install it, they tried to tell me I had to pay for it. I pulled out the letter and showed them specifically where they said it was free for the life of the contract and they tried to tell me that that was just a generic letter and my HOA had "different" arrangements. I argued with the CSR for quite a bit. They shouldn't have sent that letter if it wasn't the case. She finally got a supervisor who agreed that even if it was a mistake, they sent it and have to honor it so I did get the second box at no charge. Got it home, hooked it up and it didn't work. I was on hold on the phone for 2 hours for a support tech. Still couldn't get it to work, so they sent a service tech out this morning. He had to do a LOT of re-cabling and then it worked just fine. He said I'd hooked it up properly, but I had a mess in the cabling in my basement. I have Bright House at my beach place and I'd MUCH rather deal with them any day!

That is exactly what has been happening here too. Now that we're digital, wonder how long they will continue to do that. Glad you got that second box.....for nothing..... That is another gripe I have with Charter. They have a company print out those letters to folks and have a mailing area they send to...... That's the same kind of letters you get for carpeting, etc. They go by zip codes, apartment or condo complexes, and sometimes amount of earnings per household. One time when I got one of those letters from Charter for a special, I called them to see if they would sign me up for that rate.....and she said no because I was already a customer of Charter. Those letter were intended to go to prospective customers. I said that's not fair, because I had received the letter sent by them. She still said no...... So, you were lucky with that 2nd box and the supervisor over the person taking care of you.