I’ve been a bit bummed that neither Dish Network (who we’ve used) nor Direct TV have gotten close to delivering high definition local channels. Direct TV said they were planning mid-year 2005, but still nothing. So I’ve been following the introduction of Verizon’s new fiber optic service. They’ve had high speed internet in our area since the spring, but they just started carrying cable. I was curious about it, then I got a letter offering two free months of cable. They even gave me a month of free internet if I installed it at the same time. Sold!
So they were here Tuesday installing it. It took all day – they got here around 9 in the morning and left at 8:30 in the evening. The phone and internet went smoothly, the problem was the new high definition set top boxes. They tried three of the ones I was supposed to get without success. Finally they gave me a high definition set top box with a DVR, and the second one of that finally worked. It’s not clear if they’re going to try and charge me a monthly fee after the trial is over, but everything’s working well now. Err – except I’m not actually watching their high definition output, because now I have two HDMI sources (cable and DVD) and my TV only has one HDMI in, so I ordered a switcher yesterday. Hopefully it will arrive soon, then I’ll do the final rewiring of the entertainment center. Only bad thing is they still don’t have local CBS yet. But since I’m only watching one show on CBS right now (Threshold, which moves to Tuesday next week), it’s not a big deal.
Jill wasn’t very happy about having to be around home all day, but she’s already loving the internet. She despised dialup (not a multitasker like me, and it would frequently kick her off for being idle), and it’s much faster than what she’s used to (we’ve got the low end plan – up to 5 Mbps downstream/2 Mbps upstream). My only issue was Mozilla not working, which has been fixed (I thought there might be some weird proxy setting, turns out I had the work settings on, but I downloaded SeaMonkey anyway).
Want a wireless hub? I’m pondering upgrading to Wireless G, so the existing Wireless B will go begging.
Sure, a B would be cool!