Help me prevent hitting my TV with an ax

[Ogre Palowakski]

We live in Sandy and have Comcast internet and tv. I'm ready to put an ax through the tv because of all the commercials. It irritates me to no end that I'm paying for those bastards to advertise to me.

We need high speed internet but want to cancel the cable tv. I've heard that comcast will jack the internet rate up to what it was when the package was both internet and tv. Has anyone here experienced that?

If they do want to jack up the monthly rate, can anyone suggest another internet provider in the Sandy area with performance similar to comcast? Sorry, I don't have specs on the comcast performance but if someone can let me know how to get that, I'll post it here too.

Thanks!

 

[Kevin B.]

We're getting ready to pitch DirectTV and go without. I've got Netflix and Amazon Prime that I can stream to the TV or my computer, I can satisfy most of my brainrot needs on demand for a lot less than paying for 50,000 channels I'll never watch.

 

[jeep-N-montero]

We don't have, want, or need cable, but I know Xfinity offers some good prices on fast internet. Another option is paying to turn your phone data plan into a hot spot and tether from it to your computer.

 

[mbryson]

We have Comcast and pay $100 per month for internet and basic cable. Seems embarrassing to type. In our area we only have two alternatives if you're sick of cable. DSL and Digis. We haven't been happy with DSL in the past and have looked seriously at Digis. I utilize Digis in my professional life for a site that doesn't have high capacity internet other than dropping a T1. I'm fairly satisfied with Digis at that location. A LOT of our watching is online via Netflix or Amazon. We get basic cable for crappy Root Sports (non-HD) and the few channels we do watch.

Comcast's policy of the "promotional" rates and whatnot are kind of ridiculous and we've definitely grew tired of that over the years. We have had decent customer service other than returning their devices (you're required to drive to one of their "convenient" drop off points (Brickyard or Layton....never go either place but we made it work)). Some of our neighbors have DSL and I'm not satisfied with their DSL performance when I'm troubleshooting their computers so we've stuck with Comcast despite the ridiculous cost.

 

[skeptic]

I'm going to go a bit off topic here, I know you are asking about high speed internet prices, but in the spirit of ditching TV....

You can keep basic cable TV for ~$20 a month - I know it doesn't help with commercials exactly, but let me describe my setup. I have a small low powered book-sized server that I installed MythTV on (Mythbuntu, a linux distribution designed for MythTV, it's easier than it sounds). Additionally I have a HDHomeRun unit, this is a network based TV "card" that is picked up by MythTV and just works. These two make my centralized "home brew" DVR. I also added a couple external USB drives for 3TB total space. All my DVDs get ripped and copied here.

At each of my TVs I have another small/cheap booksize computer mounted behind the TV plus a cheap MS MCE remote control. I recently switched to XBMC as the front-end software. You can install XBMC in windows, in linux, or use something like OpenElec which while Linux based really turns your mini booksize computer into a set-top-box appliance. This is where the real slick part starts - there are plugins for all kinds of things. The obvious one is for MythTV - giving me full PVR capabilities, watch live TV, watch recorded TV (FF through commercials or you can tell MythTV to just remove commercials after recording stuff), access to all my movies, Hulu plugin (which somehow provides the option to skip Hulu commercials), music, weather, news, youtube access, etc. etc. etc. While I don't advocate them, there are also plugins of questionable legality - the ability to download or watch pretty much anything. If you really need to, you can even launch an external program (ie Netflix/Amazon prime) from the menu. Between basic cable, Hulu, and buying several hundred movie/tv series DVDs (Blockbuster previously viewed DVDs FTW) I have no use for the questionable options, but reading between the lines you wanting to dump cable tv and needing high speed internet...

If you don't want Linux in any way, you can just install XBMC in windows and use one of the Windows based PVR backends. Or not have cable and a PVR backend at all. In any case, do yourself a favor and look into XBMC, it has far more functionality than any cable/sat provider's set top box and still gives you the ability to sit down in front of your TV with a simple remote in your hand and watch whatever you want. Although if you go with no cable at all, it may be easier to just buy something like a Roku 3. A cheap set-top-box with hundreds of "channels" available including Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc..

Back to the original question - just look on the Comcast site for individual pricing. In my experience, dropping cable is not going to make your monthly bill go up, but you will lose out on the "bundle" pricing so your monthly bill probably will not drop as much as you expect.

 

[skiboarder]

We ditched cable tv also. The only thing we have is netflix. my kids and I were watching way to much tv. Free tv isn't the greatest but, I sure get alot more done around the house.

 

[Herzog]

We ditched cable too, well mostly. Downgraded to basic and don't watch it. Better price with their stupid packaging setup. Best thing I've done in a while. I had the same issue with paying to be advertised to constantly. And it was the kids shows and the commercials they played in those that drove me up the wall.

I pay for a higher speed but was able to cut the cost down from $180 to $75. They said for just the internet alone it would be $100ish. But with basic it would be $75. So dumb. I wish we had fiber in this area.

 

[Kevin B.]

We ditched cable too, well mostly. Downgraded to basic and don't watch it. Better price with their stupid packaging setup. Best thing I've done in a while. I had the same issue with paying to be advertised to constantly. And it was the kids shows and the commercials they played in those that drove me up the wall.

I pay for a higher speed but was able to cut the cost down from $180 to $75. They said for just the internet alone it would be $100ish. But with basic it would be $75. So dumb. I wish we had fiber in this area.

It's coming, but our neighborhood isn't very high on the list.

Centurylink would love to shove fiber to the wall in every house in their footprint, but it's a matter of return on investment. I've seen the numbers, and our turf has one of the smallest projected uptakes in the valley. So we'll have to wait. The Mountain View corridor will probably help.

 

[Gravy]

NO TV HERE.

Not even rabbit ears.

Just internet through the rooted cell phone and Amazon Prime (which we use maybe 1.5 hours a week).

 

[jeep-N-montero]

We get about 18 channels(about 23 if you include the Spanish channels) on our HD antenna and is plenty of TV for us.

 

[Caleb]

We have DirecTV, have no issues with it. We have about every channel they offer including all the movie channels. For the suggestion above about Xfinity...you do realize Xfinity = Comcast, right? I use Comcast Business for my internet.

The best thing I ever did was get a good reliable Usenet setup Go google Sickbeard, SABNzbd, and Couchpotato. You'll never have to pay another dime for TV, you'll hsve the content just a quick (sometimes even sooner) than it airs locally and best of all, it's commercial free. The MythTV DVR setup is for those that don't know how to figure out usenet

 

[Cherokeester]

We dumped all cable/sat tv. We have a digital antenna here and get 10 channels or so. We then use an apple tv box via internet with netflix, hulu and several others. I got so fed up paying big bucks to Direct Tv and or comcast, it was a joy calling them and telling em to turn it all off!!!

 

[muleskinner]

Comcast pulls all gun ads from cable network

I'd ditch them for this reason if you can't justify any other.

 

[skeptic]

The MythTV DVR setup is for those that don't know how to figure out usenet

I know your comment was tongue in cheek but.. I started using usenet in the late 80's, back when it really was for news groups not essentially just alt.binary.*... I also pointed out "gray areas" for xbmc plugins, which includes usenet clients. MythTV is if you want a centralized PVR, XBMC is just a nice front end to pretty much anything you'd want in a HTPC with a 10 foot interface.

 

[bamacpl]

My gosh!!! I've never even heard of such technological stuff!!!!

 

[jeep-N-montero]

My gosh!!! I've never even heard of such technological stuff!!!!

I know, makes it seem like RME is full of a bunch of geeks or something!

 

[Chevycrew]

Sad for me... I have comcast internet with basic cable (cable because it also lowers my internet rate) and I have directv. The basic comcast receiver is sitting in the box still unused.

 

[Herzog]

Sad for me... I have comcast internet with basic cable (cable because it also lowers my internet rate) and I have directv. The basic comcast receiver is sitting in the box still unused.

Send it back and tell them you don't want the receiver. They charge you monthly for that thing to just sit there. I returned mine they sent another just the other week and my bill went up $10 for equipment rental. Taking it back again and making sure they have it on my account not to send another. Customer service there is hard at hearing.

 

[kellerexpress]

I ditched my dish a few months back and couldn't be happier, such a waste of cash. We use netflix, huluplus, amazon prime now. I also stream stuff of the net on my ipad and airstream it to our tv using an Apple TV. Works great.

 

[gijohn40]

anyone that has directv needs to switch to dish... they offer alot lower rates and better programming!

I have digis's 15 mbps service and its great! unless I need to upload things... 13 mb down 2 up equals 15 mb and my bill is only 51 a month for that.... My son does all the netflick huluplus and others services off it...