Cutting the Cable Guide

[Huntn]

There is

I'll say in Eastern Europe you can get cheaper internet for higher reliability (at least in cities) and 2-3x the options for ISPs, because it's not a cartel there.

There is really not a cartel, except maybe fir price? Where I am living in Houston, now that the Fiber is here, I’d say 4 options for internet.

 

[Renzatic]

How’s the price you guys are paying for fiber?

I'm paying $65 for my connection. Your options are more expensive, but not outrageously so.

 

[Huntn]

After spending the weekend watching virtually everything on a 77” 4K, arrived home to watch some Game of Thrones and was alarmed that I was watching an image on HBOMax that seemed less than HD, but then it seemed to recover. I realize there are different factors that may effect image quality.

So I am wondering, I have 2 streaming boxes 4K capable Roku and Apple TV and internet service that rated at 400Mib. Should I expect 4K for a viewing of GoT? Part of me is suspecting my cable service of manipulating or unable to control its internet speeds based on a variety of factors.

In addition I noticed on Roku Disney+ a Marvel movie was listed as HD but the same movie on AppleTV Disney+ was listed as Dolby Vision. Is this because… Apple TV offers a higher quality product?

I’m thinking that I should give the new 500MiB fiber optic service a shot and see how it does.

 

[Pumbaa]

After spending the weekend watching virtually everything on a 77” 4K, arrived home to watch some Game of Thrones and was alarmed that I was watching an image on HBOMax that seemed less than HD, but then it seemed to recover. I realize there are different factors that may effect image quality.

So I am wondering, I have 2 streaming boxes 4K capable Roku and Apple TV and internet service that rated at 400Mib. Should I expect 4K for a viewing of GoT? Part of me is suspecting my cable service of manipulating or unable to control its internet speeds based on a variety of factors.

In addition I noticed on Roku Disney+ a Marvel movie was listed as HD but the same movie on AppleTV Disney+ was listed as Dolby Vision. Is this because… Apple TV offers a higher quality product?

I’m thinking that I should give the new 500MiB fiber optic service a shot and see how it does.

Your units are all over the place. I assume you mean Mbps (megabit per second), also frequently written as Mb/s or Mbit/s.

According to the HBOMax help center a download speed of at least 25 Mbps is required to stream 4K HDR. Unless your ISP is shitty/your home network sucks/you have too much going on, 4K should be a breeze.

I am so not a fan of how HBOMax starts out with extremely shitty quality. I’d rather wait a second or two and get the maximum sustainable quality from the first frame than have a blocky stream start immediately.

 

[DT]

@Huntn

You should be able to get some kind of signal info on the TV that indicates the resolution and the HDR spec. There's a few variables:

Your ISP/internet, the bandwidth and how well it sustains the requirement for the expected stream

The streaming service, whether it provides 4K/HDR, the quality/compression - and if you've subscribed to the 4K option (i.e., HBOMax, Netflix, both have HD and 4K tiers)

The streaming device, if it supports 4K and HDR10 and Dolby Vision and how well it decodes

The TV, again, what it supports, as well as how well it's calibrated

 

[Citysnaps]

How’s the price you guys are paying for fiber?

In the San Francisco Bay Area I'm currently paying $51.88 per month (including taxes and a voip number) for Sonic's 1 Gbit/sec 1 year promotion service. In a couple months the normal price kicks in at around $62 per month.

It has been super reliable with no outages that I've detected. Much better than my previous provider that seemed to have 10-15 minute outages almost every day.

 

[Joe]

I have AT&T Fiber. My bill is $45 a month for a year.

 

[sgtaylor5]

I have AT&T Fiber. My bill is $45 a month for a year.

<<squeal>> My Lord, that's a good price. I'm paying $106/month for 20d/1.8u on CenturyLink.

 

[Edd]

The internet bill is the only one my wife deals with. I’d bet we’re paying $120/month for Comcast. She never mentions it because she knows I’d fly off the handle. Fuck me.

 

[Pumbaa]

Thanks folks. Makes me really appreciate my around $26/month for 1Gbps up/down ethernet (and cable TV I don’t use) even more.

 

[DT]

Thanks folks. Makes me really appreciate my around $26/month for 1Gbps up/down ethernet (and cable TV I don’t use) even more.

Goddammit.

 

[Huntn]

I'm probably going to jump on TACHUS service, a relatively small fiber network internet provider based in the Woodlands, Texas that was recently purchased by a grain company because it was financially struggling. They want $65 for 100MB and $80 for 500MB.

I was told over at MR's that I probably don't need more than 100MB internet speeds. What do you all think? I have been using 400MB primarily because there are no data caps associated with this tier with my current internet provider. Is there a way to test?
At any one time:

• there could be a TV streaming a movie.
• my PC playing an online game (more infrequent these days as I have soured on online gaming)
• a couple of iOS devices connected to the net.

Thoughts?

 

[Pumbaa]

I'm probably going to jump on TACHUS service, a relatively small fiber network internet provider based in the Woodlands, Texas that was recently purchased by a grain company because it was financially struggling. They want $65 for 100MB and $80 for 500MB.

I was told over at MR's that I probably don't need more than 100MB internet speeds. What do you all think? I have been using 400MB primarily because there are no data caps associated with this tier with my current internet provider. Is there a way to test?
At any one time:

• there could be a TV streaming a movie.
• my PC playing an online game (more infrequent these days as I have soured on online gaming)
• a couple of iOS devices connected to the net.

Thoughts?

100 Mbps should be good. I had no problems with that speed before getting upgraded to 1000 Mbps for free, but I wouldn’t want to go back.

Faster is nicer. Less time waiting for things to happen in front of the computer for example, things are more instant. Headroom for more concurrent streams. Faster downloads for updates to games and software. With 1000 Mbps the three or so gigabytes of updates to Big Sur just downloaded in half a minute instead of five minutes.

 

[Joe]

The internet bill is the only one my wife deals with. I’d bet we’re paying $120/month for Comcast. She never mentions it because she knows I’d fly off the handle. Fuck me.

A friend of mine told me her cable/internet bill is over $200 - but she won't cancel cable because she loves all her channels. I told her to call them and at least negotiate a better promotion/deal.

 

[Edd]

A friend of mine told me her cable/internet bill is over $200 - but she won't cancel cable because she loves all her channels. I told her to call them and at least negotiate a better promotion/deal.

I used to do that stuff when I had cable and the account was in my name. Here, Comcast is the only option for internet so not sure if that would work. I should probably start sticking my nose into that bill.

 

[Joe]

I used to do that stuff when I had cable and the account was in my name. Here, Comcast is the only option for internet so not sure if that would work. I should probably start sticking my nose into that bill.

Yeah I call every year when my promotion ends and just get another promotion lol

 

[SuperMatt]

I have starry Internet - $50 a month for 200/200. They have a 100/100 plan for $30 that I might switch to.

 

[Huntn]

A friend of mine told me her cable/internet bill is over $200 - but she won't cancel cable because she loves all her channels. I told her to call them and at least negotiate a better promotion/deal.

Several times I’ve called Suddenlink in the past and threatened to quit them. They send me over “retention“ and cut a deal. This time, I predict I’ll be dropping their interenet but keeing their “basic” cable and home security services.

 

[Huntn]

After some more thought, and concurrence with the wife, I have scheduled 29 Dec as the install date for Tachus 100% fiber internet. I spoke with them today and I can switch from 100MB to 500MB with no fees, no service call at the house, so I am going to start with the 100 service @$60 to see if I can live with it.

This tier will double my upload speed and I’ll get a chance to evaluate just how good 100MB service with Fiber as a comparison to what I had with Suddenlink coaxial listed as 400 down, 40 up.

Most significantly we are cutting Suddenlink cable and internet completely, but will be keeping their security service. But if they jack the prices on that which is currently $17 a month for monitored with cellular backup, I’ll be open to reconsider that too.

Quite frequently with Suddenlink, we are streaming a show, and we get a freeze, along with a spinning circle for a minute or two. Either this is a mini-outage, or the network is bogged down. Fingers crossed, this service is better.

 

[Huntn]

We got fiber internet today and so far so good. I could swear the image we are getting on our TV is better, noticeably better! I’m starting out with the 100Mbit service and see how it goes. What I have is $65 per month.

Of possible interest, fiber cable can’t be spliced, it comes in premade sections. So they figured how much they needed and chose the appropriate length, which to run outside up the wall, inside our attic from one side to the other, was 100’. I assume this was more than needed, but the next shortest length was not long enough. The fiber which is a tiny cable, the quarter the size of coaxial, below the junction box outside is in a rigid pvc conduit as well as the fiber in the ground which is in a flexible conduit, that could withstand a hit with a shovel, but maybe not standing on the shovel.