Benie's General Blog

I am starting to see a pattern with TV companies (satellite and cable), and how they nearly relate to the three types of (known to me) VR systems;
Spectrum TV = Windows Mixed Reality
DirecTV = Oculus
DISH = Vive (as my mother says “it’s the best”)
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But I’m digressing here. So, what happened today? The installer came in a quite odd way, using his car instead of a company truck. Came around 4:05pm, and my parents were across the street eating at Taco Bell. Had to be the man of the house, praying they would come home sooner as the guy’s asking me of where I want the dish installed.
Stood out there watching him on the roof, said he was going to take off the old dish and install theirs near it. Of course I’m slightly panicking, not knowing if this is where father will allow it.
Ask him a question about this claim that the wood was rotting. Where DISH’s dish currently is, he claimed it was fine. As I was talking.. I turned around and saw my parents’ car pulling up behind me. Thank god they’re home! I left the guy with father, who oversaw the rest of the work.

And now everything’s installed. So here’s my like/dislike/neutral list;
Likes..
-Moodscapes’ brother (Soundscapes) is here, from Music Choice. Also got ’70s, ’80s, and Classic Rock. Don’t even need SiriusXM now.
-The DVR can be used for the entire household.
-We all have the same remote, so no one has been short changed.
-Two ‘turn TV/box on/off’ buttons, instead of wondering if I’m hitting the button hard enough.

Dislikes…
<None so far>

Neutral…
-The Weather Channel is only included with (and above) this ‘Choice’ plan. But I have found three alternatives to it. One is another weather channel-like station, one is an app, and the last one is a local severe weather alert channel.
-Having to hit the Exit button on the remote after switching to a channel. A slight annoyance, but I’ll eventually get used to it.

I feel somewhat happier than I did with Spectrum TV (still a bit unsure about Soundscapes, if it’s really the channel I remember). Though it doesn’t really matter if I’m happy or not anymore… as we’re stuck with it for the rest of our lives (so says father).
So, there’s not much else to say. But at least things are back to normal.

I have extremely promising, MUCH better news about my controller (compared to before). It seems, battery life determines just how responsive the controller is (be it a console controller, or hand trackers for a VR system).
Also, the old proverb of “Have you tried turning it Off and On again?” actually works.
I also found out, DS4Windows isn’t the way I need to go (for VRChat at least). In addition, I learned Steam’s Big Picture mode is actually better than DS4Windows (when it works, that is). The reason is because, you can import profiles made by others for any game you’re playing with a controller.
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So what lead up to this? Well since I was done ranting about the greed in the world, I tried playing VRChat again with my PS4 Controller. This time, NO disconnects! This proves the battery level matters. A 100% battery gives off the most tracking. I didn’t even have the issues I had when I first used it! WOOT! This brings back faith in getting VR one day.

Realizing I couldn’t manipulate objects (spin them around, etc) with DS4Windows, it became apparent that Steam’s Big Picture mode is needed for this (to get that functionality).
Closed out DS4Windows and launched VRChat in Steam Big Picture. Immediately when the world loaded in.. the controller ‘died’. Ugh. Did another Google search and found this. The second response was my fix; shutting down Steam completely and relaunching it. Because ever since then, the controller has been behaving beautifully. Not a single disconnect.
So, YAY! Finally some GOOD news this month!! 😀

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In other news, my father has made an about face and will allow a company to install a dish on the roof again. The stipulation is this will be the final time. And the only reason is.. he actually feels sorry for me for how SiriusXM is treating us; not allowing a shared account (for multiple listeners with one flat fee). Even this radio, only one person can listen to it at a time. And my family, we don’t share shit. We have our own tastes in music.
Decided to get DirecTV out here (still waiting for the guy as I type this), since they promise to have SiriusXM with their plan (including this ‘MusicTap’, that I think I remember from before).
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This means I’m also going back to Satellite TV. I just can’t stand Spectrum’s TV service anymore. I have been unable to sleep soundly for three days. I need my easy listening music at night.
Can’t stand the DVR controls (they are so clunky). Can’t stand the fact my favorites aren’t set by default when I turn on everything. Can’t stand how the locals aren’t their actual channels.. and I definitely can’t stand the way how my TV requires two presses on the power button (before it actually turns off). And it’s even worse for my parents, with how ridiculously over-complicated their remotes are.
With DirecTV, we’ll have the same remotes, and the locals on the guide will actually be the same as their stations (hitting 11 for WHAS11, instead of 4).

Hopefully.. some NORMALness as the second half of September is happening. Already starting to see more and more Halloween-themed commercials. I can feel my teeth aching in anticipation.

The guy from DISH came today, to switch my parents away from my plan. I’m all “meh.. whatever. As long as they’re happy, I’m happy”. But at the end, the ones that are
happy, are the greedy TV providers with their costly packages (that the customer has very little wiggle room to save money). And how this is still a concerning sign of what’s to come for internet access, once they do the same thing.
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So what happened — why aren’t they back with DISH? The guy wanted to move the dish, saying the previous installer put it in a bad place, and that the wood was rotting around the bracket. Yay.. more holes. And my father wants none of that BS. And no amount of talk from the tech guy claiming the satellite will fall if it’s not moved, is going to sway him.
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And so, no changes will be done. He also feels that patching the holes will do no good, and that the wood around the patch will start to rot away. Said the only true fix, is to re-shingle the roof, and they doesn’t have the finances for that. So they’ll be sending back the boxes, and my parents will try to get one of our neighbors to take the dish down.
So that means, the guy that was from AT&T (and if he had stuck with the current plan of re-aligning the dish), we would had been in the same predicament (where we would be possibly more screwed).
But now mother feels it’s “an excuse” to put more holes in the roof.. *frustrated sigh*
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On top of that, I was hoping to save some more money on my Spectrum bill by seeing how much it’ll be, if I were to downgrade my internet speed back to 300MB. But on the day I got the services installed (and without them telling me prior to installation), the 300MB I had is no longer available. The options are 200MB, 400MB, and 960MB.
Apparently I was ‘grandfathered’ on this old 300MB plan (when Time Warner still existed). I was supposed to be auto-upgraded to this 400MB plan (and save some money in the process). But something went wrong, and I was excessively billed for using an old plan.
I can still downgrade to 200MB, but I’ll only be saving $25 on the bill. I was hoping to save that much by only going down 100MB. But… I dunno. The fact they didn’t fucking warn me, I feel burned.
But, after talking to my mother, we’ve decided to keep the 400MB plan. But the catch is, if the bill goes over $200 (by something like 2020-2021), I will then have to do some drastic measures to get the cost back down.. even if this means no one has TV.
Thing is, my mother’s all “we would be fine without TV”, talking about how overly complicated the remote is and how it’s hard to see the guide.

Yeah, they’re scummy, and lied by saying this and that channel would be available (and it turned out they weren’t)– just like any cable/satellite TV company. But at least they provide decent service.
It could be worse, though. This could be a thing…

Ugh… what a mess. I feel like choking a child and then ripping its head off (figuratively, of course). But this shows just how unbelievably frustrated and pissed I am at both my provider, and my mother.
Broken promises, and missing channels (Sirius XM and VH1 Classic) are just some of the problems I’m facing with this. And at the end, my parents are getting DISH back, and I’m going to be the only one getting Spectrum TV (this Friday).
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Started off him coming an hour earlier than expected (10 minutes before I typically wake up). Didn’t have much time to get ready, before he was already in my room.
And before he got to work, I said again that I didn’t want a new phone line. And thankfully he was able to work with this.
Then he looks at my cable modem and router and asks if I’ve been having any problems with it. Other than the router maybe possibly interfering with my Bluetooth 4.0 adapter (trying to play VRChat with my controller wirelessly).. but that’s for a later blog post. Overall, no issues with disconnects. And because of that, he didn’t have to replace them (for me to get the speed upgrade). Yay for that.
As for TV, he used the existing cable lines DISH made, to avoid having to make any more holes in the walls. And it worked great.
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But the fireworks happened after the guy had left. I felt blamed (by my mother) for things I couldn’t prevent (with the missing channels I mentioned at the start of this post). Maybe the person was looking at ‘MTV Classic’ by mistake! How is this my fault?!
My father on the other hand, seemed willing to deal with this. But my mother.. me and her rarely get along. It’s like a sibling dispute, with my father caught in the middle of it.
And no matter how many times I try to defend myself (even saying “I’m SORRY, alright?!”).. seemed to work. Because when my mother feels she got ripped off, she lets the entire neighborhood know.

But, am I happy (at least)? .. Yes and No. Neutral.
Yes;
-Year long holiday music channel.
-DVR recordings are saved to a secure cloud server on my account (that’s located at the branch), so they won’t be lost if I have to swap the box.
-Not having a dish, I’ll be able to stay tuned to my local channels during severe weather events (without the signal going out due to very heavy rain).
-All the channels I usually watch are part of the basic packages, which keep costs down (a bit).

No;
-Local channels, like WHAS 11, aren’t Channel 11. It’s Channel 4 with Spectrum TV. Odd…
-For some channels, I have to increase the volume somewhat higher than I remember (just to hear at a nominal level). I don’t get why.

Neutral;
-The DVR’s controls feel clunky (having too many rewind/fast forward speeds), but I’m starting to get used to them.
-The Weather Channel actually shows the “Local on the 8’s”.. however, it seems to only show Kentucky’s temps (instead of both Kentucky and Indiana).

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This eventually lead mother to try and get DISH back (just for them), and I would keep Spectrum TV (and my internet access). Apparently, this is a thing. Something that wasn’t possible before. So they’ll have their channels and familiar remotes back, and save money by not having me attached to their plan.
And though my bill is going to be $25.38 more (than what I’m paying currently) for the first year, she’ll even help me by paying a quarter of the WiFi access that they use. They don’t have to, but they offer to.
But, once this is done… finally things can start to calm down, and I can get back to focusing on saving money for a new PSU, and finally WMR. ..Or, is it really worth it?

What a month it’s been, and it’s only started. Besides getting a new graphics card, and having the issues of a faulty DVI-D port, something else came the same day I got that rush order. Something unexpected, that would change things we might not even need to be changed.
Had a guy from AT&T come to the door (about 2-3 hours after I got the rush order), asking about the health of our DISH service. He claimed that it happens to satellite dishes, that within a few years, they have to be realigned. The guy came in my room, and saw he was right (showing a signal strength between 68-69). I actually said “nice” under my breath.
Yet after telling him just how much my parents are paying monthly for their DISH bill, he suddenly changes from sending a tech guy out to realign the dish (and that would be
it)… to trying to get us to get back into DirecTV (claiming we would “get a better deal”).
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But at the end, my mother decided to cancel the offer, saying she’s heard this crap before. Basically, they keep promising us that they’ll take the other dish down and install the new one in its place. But when the tech guy shows up, it always turns into “we cannot legally do this”. We have gotten this treatment, time and time again. And each time, a new set of holes are in the roof.
Enough is enough. No more switching TV providers. No more holes in the roof. So she tried to call DISH in hopes of saving money on their bill. .. No dice there.

And now, we’re switching to Spectrum (after I just said no more switching.. however, this is cable and not a dish), using my account to do so. Though we’ll save money (by splitting the bill 50/50), we’ll get less in features. 100 channels (compared to 250 with DISH), and the DVR only works for the room it’s installed in (compared to any room in DISH). It feels like a massive downgrade, just to save a few dollars.
May not even keep it, or even this speed upgrade from 300MB to 400MB (that comes with it in a bundle (by switching from this old TWC plan, to Spectrum)). It would be sweet, but I also want to feel I got my money’s worth.
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What ‘slightly’ worries me even more (even though I still have the authority to say “no” to everything), is they also bundled phone service (and tried to get me to make a new line), to keep costs as low as possible. Though the guy told me that I don’t have to use the service (or even agree to have it installed). But I feel I’ll get the same thing that my parents get with the dish; the first person saying “yes”, then the tech guy saying “no”.
I have to ask before he does anything to the lines. And if I do get a “no, you have to have the new phone line for the bundle to work”, then I’ll say “no” (and to take your boxes back, because we’re sticking with DISH).
Hopefully, I’ll get a “that’s right, you don’t have to have the new phone line.”
We currently have phone service with AT&T, where my parents have DSL internet through it. And I rather not do anything to screw that up. That’s why I don’t want a new line.

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*sigh* Things were better off if that guy never showed up, and BS his way into our lives.
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And you could say “then just drop the TV service and go with the internet speed upgrade”. I tried this, but after hearing the price (that would start at $89 something) would go up $20-30 in a few years, I would literally be paying the same amount I’m paying now, just to be 100MB faster.
Not really worth it. And honestly, I feel my internet speed is fast enough. I don’t really need it (especially since the last time they upgraded it from 30MB to 200MB, I had issues the day after). Though they ironed themselves out overtime, I don’t really want to go through that again.