I have OTA, share a Netflix account & have Philo.

We've moved back to our old house and are trying to go with Comcast. At the house we moved from, 8Mbps DSL was the only internet and satellite the only TV. We had DirecTV. DSL at the house we're moving back to is even slower, but Comcast will be 150Mbps so we figured we'd bundle with them.

So far, a guy has come out to hook us up only to tell us the wire from the pole to the house needs to be replaced and they don't run wires inside the house any more. They stopped doing that last year he told us. A burial crew has come out to run a new wire from the pole to the house, but found they couldn't do the job because they had to talk to the county. I've received 8 phone calls in 3 days from Comcast and answered 4. They were asking me how I like the service, how the installation went, etc. I was a bit rude to the 4th person. She said she was calling to fix the problem, I asked her when she would be by to bury a new cable and run wires in my house. She replied she doesn't do that, to which I replied I know that and therefore you can't very well fix the problem can you? They haven't called again.

In the meantime, I have to find someone to wire my house and I can't put the entertainment centers on the walls until they're done.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
In the meantime, I have to find someone to wire my house and I can't put the entertainment centers on the walls until they're done.

You wouldn't want Comcast installers doing the inside wiring, anyway.

It's not hard. Just get the appropriate length of the appropriate coax (I like Belden 7915A) and run it from wherever Comcast will stop and do it yourself. Get a compression coax cable termination kit for RG6. (Though, in my case, Comcast wanted to terminate the inside coax I used, so I let them.) Used to be one called "Data Shark," but they've been acquired by one of the other tool makers and I don't know if it's available any more. But equivalents are.

Leave a "service loop" at each end.

If you do your own, don't drag/pull it around corners. Treat it nicely and it'll treat you nicely.

Forget where I read it, but someone suggested we could solve all drug problems by legalizing everything, but requiring consumers to buy from Comcast customer service.

I had DTV for 12 years. I got tired of their lack of customer service and bad reception during inclement weather.

I never thought I would dislike a company more than my cable TV; I was wrong, I have been back with cable for 5 years. Although less than perfect is a lot better than DTV.

The only time that DTV showed an interest was when I notified them of my leaving. Cash offers, discounts,constant requests with associated discounts to come back. All in all it seemed as if they should have cared more while I was there than care about me after I left. I still get the occasional offer five years later.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
In the meantime, I have to find someone to wire my house and I can't put the entertainment centers on the walls until they're done.

You wouldn't want Comcast installers doing the inside wiring, anyway.

It's not hard. Just get the appropriate length of the appropriate coax (I like Belden 7915A) and run it from wherever Comcast will stop and do it yourself. Get a compression coax cable termination kit for RG6. (Though, in my case, Comcast wanted to terminate the inside coax I used, so I let them.) Used to be one called "Data Shark," but they've been acquired by one of the other tool makers and I don't know if it's available any more. But equivalents are.

Leave a "service loop" at each end.

If you do your own, don't drag/pull it around corners. Treat it nicely and it'll treat you nicely.

I have the tools and the connectors, I'm short on time. Also, my roof has a 4-12 pitch and is about 4 foot high at the peak. That and the new ductwork I had installed doesn't leave a lot of room to move up there. It's a good job for someone 25 years younger than me.

quote:

Originally posted by 0658:
I had DTV for 12 years. I got tired of their lack of customer service and bad reception during inclement weather.

I never thought I would dislike a company more than my cable TV; I was wrong, I have been back with cable for 5 years. Although less than perfect is a lot better than DTV.

The only time that DTV showed an interest was when I notified them of my leaving. Cash offers, discounts,constant requests with associated discounts to come back. All in all it seemed as if they should have cared more while I was there than care about me after I left. I still get the occasional offer five years later.

I am not even giving them to opportunity to do that, I am just telling them I am moving in with someone and dont need service

I dumped DTV a while back and went with streaming services. I get everything I want over the Internet. My main content provider is Youtube TV, which I access over a Roku device. Some TVs now come with the Roku capability already built in. There are a bunch of streaming services: Sling TV, Hulu, etc. They all have a 7-day trial periods, which I used in finally deciding on Youtube TV. I pay $40/month for it. The only other cost I pay is for Internet access through my local cable provider--but I would have this service even if I didn't have streaming TV, so really my cost for "TV" is $40/month.

The Roku also gives me access to a bazillion other options, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime video, Vudu movies, and countless others. As you probably know, Netflix is a subscription service, and Vudu is a movie provider that mimics the on-demand service provided by traditional cable companies.

When I cut the cable, I also installed an OTA antenna system so that I could get my local stations. That was mostly a waste of money because Youtube TV started carrying all my local networks. The only time I use the OTA stations is when the cable goes out.

As someone said earlier in the thread, there is a bit of a mental adjustment required because I don't really consider what's on "Live TV" amymore. We just decide what we want to watch--sometimes it is live, sometimes it isn't. Once you wrap your head around that, your viewing opportunities expand exponentially.

We cut the cable a couple of months ago and went with YouTube TV too, and it has all the channels we used to have on Comcast cable including local networks, great cloud based recording, on-demand viewing, and 6 individual user accounts. Three of the six accounts can watch different programs concurrently on different viewing devices (PC's, Tablet, iPads, Phones, TV's ...)

Cost is $40.00/month + tax = $43.80 per month. Cut $165.00/month off my Comcast bill (kept their internet service)

You can buy ROKU ($30) or Chromecast ($35) devices as one time purchases for each TV, or use built in apps on newer TV's. We went with Chromecast devices on each of three TV's, and one TV had built in apps. Chromecast uses the YouTube TV app on your phone as the remote control, so you just bring up the program and "cast" it to whichever TV you want to watch it on.

Check to make sure your home internet service has a monthly cap on data usage that is high enough, as you will use a lot more data when you start streaming all of your TV watching. Our internet service has 1 Terabyte (1024GB) cap, and we're using about 700GB/month now with tv streaming.

I cancelled DTV about 6 years ago because of that exact reason(them constantly raising rates.) I switched to UVerse (and that was before AT&T bought DTV.) I've been happy with UVerse until about 6 months ago because of service issues. I was within 5 minutes of dropping them but the only alternative was Time Warner cable and the service I would have gotten was less and the price was almost the same. Ultimately I decided to stay with UVerse but at some point will consider Hulu/Netflix/Amazon.

I stream DirectTVNow through ATT Uverse, costs $40 a month.

Cut the cord and don't look back, there is lots programing available and free.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
I have the tools and the connectors, I'm short on time. Also, my roof has a 4-12 pitch and is about 4 foot high at the peak. That and the new ductwork I had installed doesn't leave a lot of room to move up there. It's a good job for someone 25 years younger than me.

I hear ya, brother. Our ranch has a hip roof. A couple years ago, before my knees really started giving me problems, I spent many hours up there clearing out junk that had been left behind, straightening-out existing insulation, and laying 6-1/2" of additional fiberglass batt.

I'm not certain I could do that today.

I chose between Sling and Hulu. Like tatortodd, football was the deciding factor to go with Hulu. If you have internet, it's silly to stay with Comcast or Verizon or Direct or any of the cables or dishes. Much better program choices-- by far!-- and less expensive. And you watch what you want when you want.

Books

The lowest cable bundle with just minimum cable service with minimum 100mbps internet service.

The cable is just a back up for when iptv service is spotty.

Buy an android box like nvidea sheild or dreamlink/formuler around 150.

Purchase an IPTV service like vaderstream or gearsofwar for about 150 per year.

You will have almost all premium channels, sports channels, cable channels and if your into foreign tv, over 40 countries/zones of programming.

Now that I've gotten a speedy new laptop, I could do without a TV, although the wife won't hear of it.

Try PlayStation Vue. My friend just got rid of direct. Same thing, pricing became astronomical. My take is they are fleecing existing customers because so many have left.

I’m with Dish and couldn’t be happier. They let me roll with a very basic programming package so I can load mine up with movie channels which is all I watch as I loathe commercials. Very happy with them and they’ve always worked hard for my business and I’ve always kept the bill low. DirecTV is ATT now like has been said and ATT are thugs. ATT bought out Time Warner who owns HBO/Max and I’ve been without both since 11/3 because Dish refuses to be mafia’d/bullied by them.