At&t Digital Cable #@$%&^ (1 Viewer)

[Louis Stettiner]

OK OK its time for a little rant. I was Sucked into getting Digital cable because of all of those commercials saying its better than SAT. What a Bunch of BS.
I get the Box(Motorola) and Right on the front it says DOLBY DIGITAL but here is the KICKER no DIGITAL OUTPUT WTF . Oh wait it gets better no "S" out put either I am so PO'D. I'll see Blurb for the movie and it says that in 5.1 digital But Guess what that right. They claim it is so much Better well F@#$ING make it beter. Does any one Know if there is a DIGITAL BOX WITH DIGITAL OUTPUT???????? I can get sat And have 5.1 and an "S" out put or maybe even componant. I just dont get it. Man I rambled SORRY
OK I'M DONE

 

[Greg_R]

Switch back to DSS... I have never had a positive experience with AT&T cable. "Digital" means that they've digitally multiplexed all the channels (so they can fit more into the same bandwidth). This equals poor picture quality...

 

[Louis Stettiner]

I Live in a Town house sO I cant I never Had DSS I Just know about it(friend has it) If they are compairing it to DSS make it as good as not some half baked doesnt do me better then regular cable.

 

[Adil M]

The first two lines...Thanks for the Laugh .
What are you doing slumming w/ AT@T? This is the HTF and we don't accept that kind of behaviour.
Request/demand a new box and explain how their "digital" cable is completely misleading. Talk to managers and keep asking for their boss's number till you get a result.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

I'm in the same boat with Comcast - box is labelled "Dolby Digital" with only a composite and L/R output... Call your local PSC (Public Service Commision) or whatever local Govt agency regulates this monopoly.

As soon as the intro deal is over, I'm returning everything except the cable modem.

 

[Louis Stettiner]

I'm Keeping the Modem thats all

 

[MikeAlletto]

Dolby Digital

I think I remember something about this a long time ago. The sound is actually transported as encoded in dolby digital but then converted in the box. So technically it is. You just can't get 5.1 out of it.

The Scientific Atlanta boxes with Time Warner have optical output for getting 5.1

 

[Randy_Sh]

I have ATT Digital down here in Richmond and the reason that I got it was it (the box) has a S-Video out and both optical and digital co-ax outs for 5.1. I get 5.1 for movies that are broadcast that way.

I specifically asked for this box though when I went signed up for service...have you asked ATT about it yet? They himmed and hawed at first about "just introducing these boxes, but I was persitent about it.

There wasn't an extra $$ for it either. I didn't get DSS because the boxes that they offered here only had the composite outs.

 

[Ken Garrison]

I'm happy with Directv. If Digital cable has a shittier picture, I don't want it. Advantage of Directv, better picture. Advantage of cable, won't go out in a big rain storm. Very rarely does this happen on Satellite. I don't really mind it at all. Just don't purchase your favorite letterbox movie on PPV during a rain storm.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

I always hated that about AT&T's digital cable when I had it. The quality of the digital channels was poor compared to sat, and most of the channels were analog.

Go with the satelite if you can. However the laws regarding this on rental property are limited. They don't have to let you have it if it would require drilling through their walls, or putting the dish in common areas. Basically if you have a deck or patio that has a southern view, and you can run the cables through a door or window, you can do it, otherwise its up to the landlord.

 

[Ryan Wright]

Actually you can. There is a law out there that says that a rental property cannot keep you from putting up one of the small dishes.

Yep, I was just about to post this. Nobody can keep you from putting up a dish. They can stop you from anchoring it to their wall, I believe, but you're allowed to set one in a window or balcony or other area. Some heavy bricks will hold a dish down just fine. Hell, I've seen people set them on 5 gallon buckets. Even saw one bolted to a tree once.
Around here, the digital cable people are scam artists. They've come to my house twice trying to sell me this crap. I told them I'm not interested until they get HD, to which they replied "It is HD!" One of the guys then proceeded to argue with me about how much better digital cable's picture is vs. the component outputs on my progressive scan DVD player. I tried to explain the difference between composite, svideo (which his box didn't even have) and component with no luck. The guy was 100% ignorant and just didn't care. He was taught that digital cable meant widescreen, high definition television and nothing I could say would change his mind.
Wasn't two weeks later another one of their salesmen tried the same crap with me.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I'd love to see someone come by MY place trying to sell me cable!! I'll tell them I was getting it for FREE for a while and I STILL wasn't watching it because of all the onscreen logos, and many channels weren't even carried in stereo!

 

[Ken Garrison]

Yeah, that's one thing that sucks about cable. Some channels aren't stereo. Sometimes, it's either mono, or the phase is incorrect, causing the sound to come outta the rear, or the stereo is backwards making airplanes going left sound like their going right. That really pisses me off. Also, on Directv 354 Techtv, it's in mono. There's a part where Adam Sessler on Game Spot told us to have a listen at the 5.1 surround sound in this one game, and it was only coming outta the front/middle. TechTV needs to go stereo and any movies they show need to be in WIDESCREEN. Really pissed me off when they showed Forbidden Planet in Pan and Scan.

 

[MikeAlletto]

Yeah, that's one thing that sucks about cable. Some channels aren't stereo.

The company is only broadcasting what they get from the network...blame the networks, not the cable company.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Channels like Nickelodeon are in stereo on some cable systems, but it wasn't on the one I was getting. Reason is some companies don't want to spend the money to have a stereo signal on every channel, which is why I won't spend my money on their so-called "service" (and the onscreen logos, and commercials on scrambled channels, and having no say in what gets shown, and a thousand other reasons why I don't have cable.)