On 07/01/2013 10:12 AM, Rick Archer wrote:
From: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com [mailto:FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Bhairitu
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2013 11:52 AM
To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [FairfieldLife] Dexter off to a good start
The final season of Dexter launched last night on Showtime. Sunday is
a pile-on night by all the networks and summer is no exception. This
season we find Deb has left the department and out of touch and a
possible new compadre or nemesis of Dexter played by Charlotte
Rampling. At least the finale of Dexter should come before my
Showtime bill goes full price.
I think they started Dexter now rather than in the fall so that it wouldn't
coincide with Homeland, like it used to. That way people have to subscribe
longer.
People around here play provider roulette when the subscription runs
out or call customer support to see if they get a deal. I need to
cancel the second tier which is the extra tier in Extended Basic that
has IFC, MGM, TCM and a few others. I got that for $10 a month for a
year with a premium channel thrown in. So I told them I wanted HBO as
the premium. About 3 months later in July HBO wasn't there. So I
called and they told me that HBO would only give 3 month free so I would
need to call every three months. Well someone there thought that wasn't
right so actually I wound up with a year and three months on that deal
and no need to call again. It may be that they'll offer HBO for $10 a
month and throw in that second tier free.
But if Comcast encrypts the Basic channels then I have no more need for
them. Comcast will no longer work with my numerous computer tuners of
which I have several including recently picking up a WinTV Aero USB
stick at Fry's for $20 after rebate. I'm in a valley so don't get any
broadcast TV reception but at Starbucks with the tuner plugged into my
laptop I got 11 channels. The stick also can tune in Open QAM cable.
U-Verse (ATT) has been trying to get me to sign up for TV since I have
their U-Verse broadband and phone. That would be a good savings
actually but it is all IPTV which means that instead of providing all
the channels like Comcast does when you switch a channel on their box it
sends a signal to their server to switch to that. They can provide 4
channels at once BTW. But their signal is MP4 which is cleaner than the
dated MPEG-2 signal that Comcast provides which will pixelate on action
scenes. Comcast will at some point be IPTV too.
Bottom line though is the TV world is changing with lots of people
finding streaming more compelling and cutting the cable or not watching
over-the-air TV. Christians and Buck may have to shield their eyes
because the broadcast networks to compete need to be more like the cable
networks.