Continuing along with our saga of the triple play saga, this time out it’s the television service. I’ve had a protracted journey as I worked on getting a hi def signal to my HDTV over the last year. While the internet breaking was the primary need for switching to cable, the HD was a secondary selling feature.
As part of the triple play package, Optimum includes their family package, and their iO upgrade. To view the iO channels, that’s where the set top boxes come in (more on this later). For my Samsung LCD I got a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD DVR, and for my Hitachi 20″ CRT, a Scientific Atlanta 4200 would get the job done. I passed on the upgrades to the iO Silver or Gold that would include the premium channels (HBO, Cinemax, Starz, TMC etc.), and went for the more “affordable” package. I still admit that paying for TV is a little bit of a new concept to me. BTW, each box with a remote costs $6.28, and the DVR is $9.95 additional. Once the box is hooked up, just put the TV to input source, and then the STB controls the content via the iO Remote. Thankfully the remote double as a universal remote so it can control the basic features of the TV as well like power and volume.
I’ve already covered the install ad nauseum, so I won’t repeat that here, and skip to the other aspects. With so many different aspects to Optimum iO TV, this is the most complicated of the segments to write compared to the phone and internet, so we’ll break it down and deal with it bit by bit.
The regular video offerings include the local channels, and the standard cable channels that one would expect to be bundled into the mix. The locals include CBS, NBC, FOX, CW11, My9, and the local PBS affiliates (I have two). They also include on channel 3 something called ION which is a combination of paid advertisement, mostly reruns, and an occasional older film, but is generally not worth much. With the exception of this ION, the locals get broadcast in both standard definition, and in HD simultaneously both digitally (as well as analog, but we’ll get to that later). The standard STB can only receive the standard definition feed, while the HD box can receive both feeds. The standard cable channels include History, Discovery, TLC, HGTV, Food, CNN, etc. and both YES and SNY for baseball fans. I won’t bore you with all the channels, but you can see them all here, and I’m receiving up to 199 (except 82-97,) and then 502, the 600’s, the 700’s and the 800’s.
I would characterize the video quality as uneven. Certain channels are clearly overcompressed to fit this all in. When I look at some of the news channels, like News12 (the local news broadcast that cable puts out), or the Cablevision Channel Guide on 14, while they look ok on my 20″ TV, when viewed on an HDTV, the astute eye will pick out telltale artifacts of compression including the type of pixelation that is seen in an overcompressed JPEG. I guess this is ok as this does allow some bandwidth to be devoted to some more important channels. The feeds from the locals are clearer in HD, which is good because the standard local feeds are no clearer than my antenna, but without any static. The HD content from the locals is generally pretty good, but not perfect. Some shows have some gradient issues when they show skies or waves on water, but seated on the other side of the room look quite good. I’m still sorting it out, but some of the standard def channels, like History, Hallmark and Discovery, often look almost as good as the hi def channels so they’re not bandwidth hungry, while others don’t look nearly as good.
Speaking of high definition, Optimum claims that they have 45 hi def channels, and the standard iO package includes 40 of them. While it’s true, it’s not quite correct. It does include HDNews (channel 710) , which has all news 24/7 all in HD. While the picture is quite awesome, with all the field cameras HD as well (unlike my local news where only the studio cams are HD and the rest are quite fuzzy), they do the weather three times every 10 minutes so you can’t watch it too long without mental novocaine taking effect. Also, to get to that number of HD stations, it includes the Voom package of HD channels. These 15 channels (which includes HDNews) have become a bit of an orphan, have limited content, no other cable or satellite customer is carrying them (Dish dropped them recently), they’re not in TV Guide, and most online guides don’t even have their content (as an aside, they probably need to prune them down to around 5 channels which wouldn’t repeat their content so often). So, taking away Voom, and the locals, the national HD channels I receive are as follows: Mojo HD, YES HD, MSG HD, MSG Plus HD, SportsNet NY HD, Versus/Golf HD, WorldSport HD, CNN HD, National Geographic HD, Discovery HD Theater, HGTV HD, ESPN HD, ESPN 2 HD, TNT HD, TBS HD, Universal HD, and Food Network HD. These are only 17 channels aside from locals and Voom in HD, and aside from the sports in HD that I don’t generally watch (YES once in a while, the rest not), this leaves a mere 8 non-local, non-sport, non-Voom channels that I’d actually watch. My point is that Optimum isn’t going to win any contest for their HD channel lineup, should add some more to keep up with the neighbors (Hallmark HD is planned), and should probably dump consolidate the Voom package to free up space for some more recognizable HD offerings that others have, and they don’t currently carry (History HD, Bravo HD, A&E HD, USA HD, Discovery HD come to mind). In the meantime, when I signed up, I hadn’t even seen HD before, so Optimum does serve my purpose, but I’ll pay more attention to this when my triple play deal runs out in a year, and definitely compare who has the most HD for how much at that point (by then I expect to have two HD’s so it’ll be twice as important).
With so many channels, it has become a bit of a challenge to figure out what to watch. While I get TV Guide magazine, it doesn’t cover all the channels, and only for the primetime, which means it doesn’t cover the majority of the content. The best way to find out what’s on is actually to use the internet and the channel listings straight from Optimum. While that is the best, it’s not the most efficient as it doesn’t help me when I’m sitting on the couch. One alternate is to go to channel 14, the Cablevision Channel Guide. This overly compressed channel with the annoying music and incessant Optimum ads has the listings for the channels up to 100, and it rotates around showing the next two hours. It gets the job done to hit the highlights, but it’s also hardly complete, and distinctly low tech. Thankfully, for iO users, there is an electronic channel guide. By pressing the button on the remote and selecting it, now there is access to all the stations, and what is on for days ahead. It’s a little clunky, and not for the less technologically savvy household members, but it does get the job done. It’s also what is used to program the DVR.
With iO, one of the arguments for it is that it allows access to video on demand (VOD) offerings. While much of it comes at an additional fee (this is still Cablevision after all), there is at least some of it included in the already inflated monthly fee. Some of it is spread across various stations. When I want news at the “off time” I turn to 612, which is News12, On Demand. With this offering, I can get the local news I’m interested. Each day there are around 5 new stories, and I can watch them as I want. Before you think this is so great, realize that the stories are less than full screen, and they each end with an ad for more News12. There is also a Free On Demand Channel (502). This channel has videos from many of the popular cable networks, including Discovery, Food, Science, TLC, Military and more. The content doesn’t change that often. Still, there are pages of videos to be viewed. Some are rebroadcasts of popular shows, and some are extras that would normally be found on the show’s website. The videos that I watched on this are full screen, and are regular standard def quality. They start in less than 10 seconds to allow for buffering, and then play fine, and can even be stopped and fast forwarded, etc, just like on a VCR. This VOD is clearly still early in the game, and in a few years, likely represents how we may be viewing more of our TV as the internet and video converge. For now, it’s nice to have as an extra feature, but I don’t find myself using it often enough that I’d miss it, or be willing to pay more for it.
Much of what makes the iO package what it is, including the channel guide and VOD depends upon the STB. Unfortunately, with my 20″ TV, it only has one set of composite inputs. That means I could either have my Philips DVR connected, or my STB. Over the first two weeks of cable, I found that I left the DVR connected, and didn’t use the cable box, and still was relying on the antenna for the signal. I decided to experiment, and leave the DVR hooked into the TV, but to plug the cable directly into the DVR, leaving the STB out of the mix. What this got me was analog cable. While this is slowly disappearing, for the time being, it does provide more than I had from the antenna. I get cable channels up to around 82, without the premiums. The picture for a 20″ is fine. I can even record the analog cable with my Philips DVR. I’m still on the fence if I should return the STB, but in the meantime, this is the best mix for this older set. Having an analog unencrypted feed is one of the bonuses of cable currently, and not requiring a STB for each set to have any signal, which is true for both satellite providers, and what Fios is quickly moving towards. For how much longer the analog signal will last I don’t know, but it’s good to use for those older and smaller TV sets that it’s hard to justify their own box for as they are only infrequently watched. If you’ve got many TV’s in the house, figure this aspect into your competitive pricing of other providers if you can live with analog on some of them and forego the box with its “additional monthly fees.”
In conclusion, I’m generally pleased with iO TV. The channel selection is good, and some more HD channels would make it great, which they’ll have to add to remain competitive, and to keep this customer. With the triple play package, the cost is almost reasonable, when I compare my total monthly fee of $45 for Verizon phone and DSL, versus $104 for all three services. What the cost will be after a year is still somewhat enigmatic, but I’m prepared to negotiate a good deal, and jump back to Fios if they are offering more for less. Assuming they are the same price, and offering similar packages, I probably would stay with Optimum. One thing is for sure, I don’t miss my old antenna one bit since cable got strung into the house.
Jonas
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