Cable Bill too high, ready to look at options


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Old 03-24-11, 02:43 PM
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Cable Bill too high, ready to look at options

I have Everest for all of my TV cable (HD on 2 sets, one of which has a DVR), Phone (includes 2 lines one for home & one for business) & Internet (highest speed available). The $200 per month total bill just eats at me every month. I am looking at other options that might be available.

My house is fully wired with all runs going to a central station in the basement. Each run normally includes: 2 Cat 6 cables and 1 quad shield RG6. For my two main TV's in the house I can run extra lines as needed. We have a patch panel at the central station for network wiring, cable splits, & 66 block for phone.

We have a home based business from our house thus the 2 phone lines and my wife does not want to change our Email address, thus must keep Everest for our internet access. But I am willing to split-out the phone & TV cable to save $$.

Can I get TV programing thru the internet, thus getting rid of cable TV? If so, can you still get a server or DVR to record shows? Can anyone give me some options or places to look to accomplish this. I can most likely wire it, as I was the one that wired the whole house initially. Thanks for your help. Mike
 
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Old 03-24-11, 03:22 PM
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Well It shows online that basic cable for your area is 53.99. They should have a basic - basic option but they probably do not advertise.

Here in NJ our basic is the same at 56.00. Its called family cable. They have a basic- basic for 14.00 which I have. I get local channels only, and just a few up there channels. About 30 channels. 5 are spanish, and others are worthless. I have it for the news and local programming.

Did my wife and kids complain? Yes. What did I do? I got net flix. It is not live tv, but I can watch any movie or recently played TV shows. 7.99 month.

Total with tax 23.50. for both.

Home phone we dont use. Incoming calls only and can only dial local numbers. 12.00 a month

Cable 23.50- home phone-12.00 = 35.50

Internet DSL, which is as fast, if not faster then cable because dsl is dedicated line to the server. I have the slowest available at 1 Mbps. 19.99 ( must have home phone for this price hence the stripped down house phone) My friend have cable and at 5 pm when everyone is on the internet its like a snall. And 1 mbps to 3-5 mbps is a difference in 2-3 seconds before the web page opens. Ohh I can wait the 3 second to save 30 bucks.

35.50 + 19.99 = 55.49. Cable, phone,(we use the cell phones) internet.

Thats the best I could do here in Jersey. Your results may vary.

Mike NJ
 
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Old 04-09-11, 07:11 PM
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How about an antenna? Why pay for your TV at all?
Andy
 
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Old 04-10-11, 03:41 AM
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Type your zip code into AntennaWeb to see the over-the-air stations an antenna will pick up in your area. In KC you'll at least get ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.

You may be able to change to DSL and keep the same email addresses. Some ISPs allow it, but may charge a few dollars a month to keep them active. In any case, consider your own domain. If you run a business you probably have a web site. A domain will host both the site and several email addresses. The business site would be www . mybusinessname . com and the email addy's would be names @ mybusinessname . com. (I put in spaces to prevent this site from parsing those fake addresses.)

Netflix and other streaming video sources don't work well with two or more computers watching on the 1mps DSL. The upgrade to 3mps is only $10 a month in our area.

Same with telephone. I paid $3 a month to keep the same telephone number when I moved. A couple of years later I called and asked why I was being charged. They removed the charge.

You will lose the convenience of a DVR's scheduling, but devices like the Hauppage HD PVR (or even a DVD recorder) can take its place.
 
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Old 04-12-11, 09:43 AM
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I personally refuse to pay for TV at all. TV isn't that important to me, and I cannot understand people paying all that money for tons of channels they don't need. I had basic cable and I cancelled that for free-to-air TV. I use a good TV antenna and pick up whatever digital signals in my region. I get all the major TV shows, sports and PBS

I also have a decent library of DVD TV shows and movies. It more than makes up for the lower selection of TV programs on free TV. Just personal preference I guess. My TV viewing has probably dropped by 70%, even with the TV episode DVD's I own. I spend more time reading, listening to music, and exercising in my spare time. I'm better off for it

Don't know if anyone remembers. The advent of TV programming came out of the need for mass advertising back in the late 1940's. We got free TV programming, and in return we bought the sponsors' products. We've sure come a long way
 
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Old 04-13-11, 03:32 AM
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Yeah, and cable TV was originally touted as "commercial free". We paid for the likes of HBO to avoid having to sit through commercials. The Superstations (TBS and WGN) killed that idea. At the time, Network TV had about 48 minutes of programming per hour, with four short 3-minute commercial breaks. Today's ratio has tilted to less than 40 minutes of actual program content per hour. One of our local stations is down to 16 minutes in a half-hour local news show. Today's HBO movies are shown with no commercial interruptions, but to fill time between the end of one and the start of another they show 20 or more minutes of promos.

When you see reruns of 60's TV shows they are edited to fit the new format. If their story lines seem disjointed, it's because entire scenes are cut from each episode. Some are also sped up so the providers can squeeze in more commercials.

Ask any TV person what a "program" is and they'll tell you it's the stuff that fills the time between the commercials.
 
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Old 04-15-11, 12:43 PM
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I dumped cable and to my surprise I now have about 35 good working channels with just the cable direct into my TV. About 6 to 8 are high definition.
 
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Old 04-15-11, 04:00 PM
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If you are getting those channels without paying a bill to the cable company then you are stealing the service. Not all cable systems require the use of a converter box.
 
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Old 04-15-11, 07:14 PM
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I am also in the OTA (Over the air) digital TV using a boring plain Jane roof top antenna. That's right...DIGITAL! Your paying for HD programing, I get it for free in all its 1080i or 720p glory. Not all channels, all the time but the big four in prime time for sure. You will need a TV with an HD tuner in it to receive these channels. You can use a converter box but it will not be HD quality.

I also have Netflix for movies and streaming. My internet is 1.5 Mbps and does pretty well. Not HD streaming but watchable for sure.
To stream Netflix you also need a compatible device like a game console, DVD/Blue ray player, or internet TV, etc.

We also use a Tivo Premier box for our DVR. I like to watch TV when I want to watch TV, and you can zip through the commercials! This is also a Netflix compatible device and records in HD. There is a service fee for this which is about $10-$12 a month. You can also of course build your own DVR and there many places on the net that can help you. It just might not be as easy as a Tivo box.

The home Media Center PC for streaming internet content is one that I have my eye on. Streaming shows from the TV networks or a place like Hulu is looking like a good option as time goes by.
 
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Old 04-19-11, 01:18 PM
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Thanks for all of the replies everyone. I have not done anything yet, yes another month of high cable bill paid. What I was really inquiring about were alternatives to the cable company, such as streaming video via internet or some other alternative.

Over-the-Air TV does not really appeal to me, as we simply do not watch that much standard TV. I think that standard TV programming stinks and what shows we do watch we record on the DVR. Then watch it, sometimes immediately following the show time, so that we can buzz thru the commercials. I think we watch 25% regular network TV (excluding local news) & 75% cable channels (sports, Discovery, HGTV, history, SciFi, A&E, Food Net, Disney).

I am just trying to find a cheaper way of watching what I already have. Yes I know I get what I pay for, but really, the cable bill seems out-of-line. Especially compared to other similar entertainment (NetFlix). Its a near monopoly in most areas & they know it.

BTW, the cable company must be getting pressure or competition somewhere because we just received a notice that they have a "special package" that should save us some $$. Yes I am very skeptical & wonder what the "catch" will be.

Anyway, thanks for the comments. Anymore suggestions are welcome.
 
 

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