PensFanInDC wrote:So here is our situation.
We pay $220 a month for cable (HBO and Showtime) and internet. This includes 3 HD DVR boxes. That is way too much for us. We are thinking of getting a roku. Has anyone done this? I understand that if I wanted HBO or Showtime that I would have to subscribe to them separately. It also seems that AMC is not available on Roku. We don't watch too much TV and most of what we do watch can easily be found online. Has anyone had experience with this?
1) That bill is insane.
2) You have to subscribe to cable tv first to then subscribe to HBO. You can't call them up and order it directly. I think Showtime is the same way.
3) Most of the TV channels that have some sort of app for Android or what have you use whats called conditional access. For example I have an app to watch TBS live, but I need to use my Comcast username and logon to access it.
4) Depending on exactly where you live an antenna could be a huge asset. That gives you NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, FOX, and the CW all in better quality than your cable company. Potentially more given that DC is a larger media market.
I just called and re-negotiated my cable bill with Comcast. I have three televisions in my home. $90 a month (plus tax) for 20mbps internet, Digital Preferred tv in HD (TBS, ESPN, NHL-N, NBC Sports, Encore, Retroplex, Smithsonian, Military, etc), and HBO.
I formerly had 20mbps internet and Digital Starter. It was something like $70 a month, and after my promo ended it jumped to around $110. I called and asked if there were any "double play" bundle deals available that would make sense for me, and if not it looked like I'd have to cancel my tv subscritption.
His first counter was to take $10 off the bill. No thanks. Second was to offer me Economy tv service (some channels like USA but not Root or NBC Sports) and 50mbps internet for $60some. Then I said thats too much for not getting the few cable channels I like. After that he came at with $90 and HBO free for a year.
Right off the bat I save money by using my own cable boxes. For starters, I don't pay rental fees. Secondly, I don't pay their stupid HD Technology fee which is another tacked on fee for using their equipment to access HD programming.
Do you NEED DVR access? For some very sad reason, this box doesnt have that. But it has streaming access to most of the same services Samsung smart televisions do and will allow you to get all of your cable subscription channels without renting a box
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I use a regular old PC running Windows as one cable box, an Xbox 360 as a second one, and a discontined Roku-esque box from Linksys as the third. Running Windows gives you whole home DVR access too.
I also save $8 a month by buying my own modem. Thats almost $100 a year saved by buying a $65 box.
