High speed internet in Houston - Roadrunner or SBC DSL?

Ditto. After my friend switched to RR, he finally got to enjoy broadband. He also thought that SBC's DSL service department was a joke.

DSL speed varies with the distance your house is to the nearest junction box. If you are too far away, you are SOL.

 

Have you gotten anything back from them about a PVR/DVR? They told me they don't have them and don't know if/when they will... that sucks. Guess I will just have to buy a TIVO/Replay they are getting cheap now for 60/80hr systems. I just hate the monthly fees.

 

Overall, the TIVO is much better. I have the DVR box and it doesn't compare in one important aspect.

There is no "season pass" where you can record an entire season of one show.

For example, say I want to record the entire new season of "Friends." With TIVO, I can state that and only the Thurs. 7pm "Friends" episodes will be recorded, up through the season finale. After that, the recording stops and the data self destructs.

With the DVR box, if you want to record "Friends", it records every SINGLE showing everyday. This includes all those pre-primetime showings on local channels. So you end up with nearly 30-40 "Friends" episodes in a week and your storage on the cable box is eaten up.

This is a huge drawback to me personally. I had to go and set recording timers for shows like "Friends", that are still on air in primetime and in syndication. What's the point? I might as well use my VCR for that!

Plus there is no "learning process" that the TIVOs are famous for. You know, where they learn your television watching habits and start recommending/recording similar programming. I'm happy without this, b/c I don't want my hard drive cluttered with shows that I don't purposefully ask for.

The TIVO still beats out the DVR box, but rather than paying $300 for a TIVO box, you pay $16/mo. for the DVR box. I guess its just up to what you value in your digital recording... monetary savings or extra recording options.

 

this is so true.

RR users... how's the surfing during peak usage hours?
slower at certain times of the day? 5-7pm

i've often wondered.

 

I know you always hear about speed going down with more users. I have never noticed this, I have had a cable modem for about 4yrs now.

My biggest problem initially was getting a stong enough signal in the room with the cable modem. This was fixed pretty easily by Time Warner.

 

what do you mean by "signal"???? and how was it fixed?

I ask b/c my download speeds are very slow... usually 30-40kB/sec.

 

Well it wasn't a strong enough signal, since it was getting split in another room for cable tv. The light on the cable modem would blink, sometimes really fast, sometimes slow. They boosted the signal and it was fixed.

Signal meaning the data flowing through the cable line, I think. Does that help? You should have that speed problem checked out.

 

I've had RR for 3 years and never had any serious probs. Awesome speeds, great customer service.

I tried to get SBC DSL at first, but they jerked me around for about a month, saying that they needed an "engineering order" to determine if I could even get DSL. I canceled, called Timewarner and I was up and running the next day.

 

Been running RR for about four years as well. For the first year or two it seemed like the signal was dropping a lot. Since then it's been rock solid. Very fast. Haven't seen a big speed difference between certain times in the day.

 

No new back from TWCHouston about DVR other than, we'll let you know if/when.

My roadrunner is always fast. I never have any slowdown at peak surfing times that i've noticed.