I've already done some ranting on the topic under a different thread here and have read through the negatives of the Cablecom STB. Anything else?
Has anyone had experience with both Cablecom and Swisscom TV (ex Bluewin TV)? I have Swisscom and whilst its not bad, I find the Cablecom price more competitive, especially since I also need a landline and Internet.
No experience with Swisscom but have just signed up with Cablecom.
Website in very good English. Literature all in English. Parcel (with cable modem, free wireless N router, standard non-hd non-recording digibox) arrived within a few days. Plugged in and all working.
The cable connection was already in the flat (and the "rent" for this infrastructure is already itemised in my apartment rent).
Internet works as advertised - 2MB. TV works fine. Not sure why BBC Entertainment is missing though - it's there on analogue but not on digital but it's not a biggie.
Waiting for my first bill but it'll be 34Fr for internet and 6Fr for the digibox, plus the 24Fr for the cable connection as part of my rent. Per month.
I didn't get a landline as I can't find the point of one, although this is obviously a personal opinion.
One item not to be missed is that the Cablecom system allows simultaneous viewing and recording of as many TV channels as you have receivers for, and also simultaneous internet and phone usage, with internet and phone totally unaffected by TV usage (regardless of quantity of channels in use)
On Swisscom, the bandwidth is shared between internet and TV. And limited to I think 2 TV channels at the same time. Watch TV and internet bandwidth drops...
Cheers, one question though - what do you mean simultaneous viewing/recording of as many TV channels you have receivers for? Do you mean STB? why would I want more than one? I would love to record one channel and watch another at the same time, is this possible with a single STB from Cablecom?
Im not that fused with the sharing of bandwidth, I have only 5MB/s and not HD so I think there was no issue with lack of bandwith, though could become a prob if I get HD later.
A set top box can easily have 3 receivers (mine only has 2)
With mine I can watch one channel #1 on receiver #1, and record another channel #2 using receiver #2
If I had another settop box, my kids could watch channel #3 and record channel #4
Put another settop box in my (non-existent) home cinema room, my wife can watch channel #5 and record channel #6
Add another settop box to the (also non-existent) games room, and my teenagers can watch channel #7 and record channel #8
Get the drift.... it is easy to have a house with multiple TVs and multiple people watching and recording multiple channels all at the same time.
But not with Swisscom TV
Ahh I see. Does the standard Cablecom HD recorder STB come with two recievers or is it an option etc. 2 recievers would be mighty handy. Cheers
Yep. Most have 2 x receivers. One model even had 3.
I'd like to know how the quality of the image and sound provided by the two services compare, has anyone tried both and noticed one to be significantly better in image and sound than the other?
Channel diversity is not what I'm asking
Well u see one of the reasons I started this thread is because I had Swisscom in my appartment and now Im living at the inlaws for 2 weeks before we move to Bern. The in-laws have gagnet cable, via their built-in DVB-C tuner (if this matters) and their picture quality is quite a bit better than mine was - estimate 5-10%. I doubt the quality of their LCD is a factor, but it could be. The other assumption is that gagnet cable is equivalent to Cablecom, again Id say it is.
Ive noticed that my Swisscom picture quality is slightly 'pixelly' compared to the gagnet cable.
I cant comment on the sound difference, my ears are not that discerning :-0
So Cablecom > Swisscom?
Cablecom != Swisscom
I'm comparing TV services, and then of course they both compare, adrianlondon.
I'm however wondering if Cablecom also offers EPG programming and Live TV pausing?
both offer epg and live tv pausing (I think) as long as u have the recorder box. to be honest cablecom seems like the better offer, especialy with the combo deals going at the moment, have a look at some of my posts on this thread for price comparison.
the only things with cablecom that concerns me are 1) the STB with recorder is apparently very buggy see thread here and 2) apparently the customer service is not so crash hot. It was very good with swisscom.
You're also restricted by where you live. The English channel selection in Swiss romand is very poor with Cablecom, compared with Swisscom. Having been a previous Cablecom internet customer, I was pretty disappointed by their customer care and their "best effort" on internet speed was pretty abysmal, usually about half that I had paid for. I now have the complete Swisscom Trio package (phone, TV and Internet) and couldn't be happier. I can happily record an HD channel, family watch a normal channel and I can play online with a decent latency. Couldn't really ask for very much more, and we wouldn't need it anyway.
Does the Swisscom HD STB have 2 recievers?
Don't think so, it just plugs into my wireless modem.
What I really meant to ask was, with the Swisscom HD STB recorder can you watch one channel and record another. Because the Cablecom HD STB recorder can.
Yes, but I can't record 2 programmes and watch a 3rd. It's a while since I tried, but I can't record an HD prog, whilst watching another HD prog. There's rarely a time when I want to watch 1 HD and record another, there's not enough choice. On Saturday night I wanted to record the rugby in HD and watch and record the Hockey on standard, but it wouldn't let me record the hockey, just watch it.
Cool, watching one and recording another is good enough for me. I dont think I'll loose any sleep over the 3rd channel or 2 HD channel deficiency, which I might 'want' once every blue moon. Cheers.
I've been more than happy with Swisscom TV since I got it.The quality of SD isn't really comparable to a sky connection in the UK. Which is expected.
BBC HD is good quality. But again not comparable to BBC HD in the UK.
But the difference between the rugger on SD and HD on Swisscom was HUGE!