Wednesday, November 05, 2014

HawaiianTelcom TV vs. Oceanic Cable

I'm considering switching from Oceanic to HawaiianTelcom.

The pitch is always to save money.  But really after the first year of savings (when they give you special deal), you don't really save all that much.  The question comes down to features.

Advantages of HawaiianTelcom.

Better DVR with more space.  Upgraded internet speed.  And really that's about it.

Advantages of Oceanic.

OC16 (High School Sports).  On Demand.  Ability to work with TIVO.  Which might really be the ultimate.

I think the best for me might be switching from my HawaiianTel DSL and going all Oceanic.  That way I'd have better starewide free wifi coverage when I'm not at home.  And my TWC app wouldn't be limited when I'm at home (I think).

The lack of On Demand is not quite as bad as it sounds as I usually would watch the shows on Hulu+ on the AppleTV or Roku or on my iPad.

But not everything is available on Hulu+.  Notably CBS shows.  (Well I guess they'll have some old CBS shows.)  But you can watch CBS shows on the iPad and on the computer.  And maybe they'll have an app for the recently launched CBS All Access service.  And I guess TNT and TBS.

One small advantage that HawaiianTelcom has over Oceanic is that they seem to support nearly every service where you can watch TV via the internet.

Oceanic is getting better as they have recently added support for Fox and CNBC.  But they still don't support TBS and TNT.

But hey, who needs to watch that much TV?

*** 11/12/14

Here's another one that HawaiianTel supports, that Time Warner doesn't.  DirectTV doesn't either.  The Watch ABC app on the iPad.  But most of this, if not all, is available on Hulu Plus.

*** 3/19/15

Another minus for HawaiianTelcom.  No Prime Ticket (Clippers).  It was taken off at the end of 2014.

No comments: