How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
101–110 of 167 posts
Re: How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
#102Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in most European countries. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to the EU market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism.
Re: How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
#103I have not had cable or satellite since 2008 and I do not miss it. Amazon prime has tons of free stuff. Have a Netflix account. Have a proxy that lets me watch things like the BBC (hey BBC, you could make money if you allowed an online subscription for those not in the UK - I did pay for a TV pieces BTW as my address is register to a friend in the UK). There is also iTunes for things. Have Kodi with my local collecti…
Take a look at https://www.justwatch.com, it’s exactly what you’re looking for.
Re: How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
#104Cancelled my Comcast today. Price creep was the main reason, and it was just plain expensive for what it was. It was a liberating phone call though. I've been waiting for years to get out from under their cable/internet combo madness.
AT&T just brought fiber to my neighborhood last month with a $40/mo 100mb/s plan. That's 3x cheaper than the > 100mb Comcast plan I was on that required me to have internet and basic cable.
Both cap at 1TB and AT&T had no gear rental fees and a $10/out of contract monthly fee after a year. So far the only MAJOR downside is I can't use 1.1.1.1 for my DNS which took awhile to reverse engineer after I broke the internet...twice. A fix is coming, but I found 6 months of internet forums saying that.
And I think 5 of my neighbors are about to make the switch too. The Comcast person on the phone started to make their scripted argument for how they could reduce my plan. I said $40 and no TV or save the oxygen for the next customer.
In the end, it's probably just equally as evil but it works out far better for my bills.
Re: How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
#105Slightly off topic, Comcast actually stole my mom's modem that she bought from amazon! What happened is most likely the modem she bought was supposed to be returned to comcast by another customer, but that person instead just put it up for sale on amazon. Every so often a charge for a box rental would show up on her bill, she would go to the store in person to show them the receipt, get a refund and the charges would…
That sounds unpleasant for your mom. But how is this different to buying a stolen bicycle and having it confiscated back by its legal owner? I thought the law was clear that, even if you didn't know it was stolen, your purchase gives you no right to the goods.
fair enough. I guess the difference is that bike rental stores don't have automated systems which apparently have a bug where they charge the unknowing victims of a crime rent for previously rented bikes which were stolen and sold online.
Re: How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
#106I have the same reaction every time I read about any cable company, and that's, "WTF are you all still giving them your money for?!" They have a monopoly on a dying service you literally don't need at all, and most people hate having to deal with them. The pricing and contracts are antagonistic to customers. Is it just momentum at this point?
you literally don't need at all Unless you live in a place without broadcast television, or little broadcast television, and with little to no internet service. So pretty much 20% of the United States. The nation is much larger than the east and west coasts.
I live in a decent sized college town on the East Coast, pop of about 120k.
My options for broadband are cable, or.... nothing.
I mean, I guess technically I can get DSL for $40 more a month than my whole cable bill for 1/10th the bandwidth.
Re: How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
#107I would really like to buy a box that was sophisticated enough to cache which channels I have and what is showing on those channels. They all seem to do a very slow refresh every time I switch between menus. It's now a distant memory being able to switch between channels instantly. I should at least be able to page through the menus quickly.
I always thought about putting multiple tuners in the box, and just decoding multiple channels simultaneously. Then to switch a channel you would just "put another window in the front". You could have a predictive system that would decode the three most likely next channels and start decoding them. In the best case, this would move the latency of the first switch close to zero, and of subsequent switches to 1/2 or 1/…
The 'EE TV' boxes in the UK work in this way. You pick your top channels (up to 4, I think) and it PVRs the lot continuously.
Re: How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
#108I have the same reaction every time I read about any cable company, and that's, "WTF are you all still giving them your money for?!" They have a monopoly on a dying service you literally don't need at all, and most people hate having to deal with them. The pricing and contracts are antagonistic to customers. Is it just momentum at this point?
The allure of channel-surfing and just leaving something on in the background seems to be huge for some people. Getting stuff on demand is great, but it does require a bit of thought.
> just leaving something on in the background seems to be huge for some people.
I have read accounts from people who have said that they need to have some kind of coherent sound around them - radio, tv, other people talking, etc.
Their argument is usually that without that constant chatter, they would have to be left alone with the thoughts in their head, and they don't want that.
I find such a position utterly alien, as a person who enjoys quiet time, pondering and thinking about things. I can understand wanting to "shut it out" occasionally and just "veg-ing" - but the way these individuals talked, it sounded like anxiety and fear for them to be left alone with their thoughts.
A possibility I found both disturbing, and depressing.
Re: How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They have a monopoly on a dying service Neither the access nor the bundled content portions are really dying. The assumption they must be bought from the same vendor is, but outside of very high speed plans, internet access tends to have data caps (sometimes capped unless you buy a TV bundle from the ISP as well as internet service), and OTT services with comparable content are just as expensive as cable plans (and…
Yep, the content providers are 'fixing the glitch' so to speak. With the launch of the new Disney streaming Netflix competitor, etc. we'll be back in a world of silo'd content with bundles and fees and many people who want to do things legit-no-piracy are going to be having to subscribe to multiple services.
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Re: How much does a cable box really cost? The industry would prefer you don't ask
#110Slightly off topic, Comcast actually stole my mom's modem that she bought from amazon! What happened is most likely the modem she bought was supposed to be returned to comcast by another customer, but that person instead just put it up for sale on amazon. Every so often a charge for a box rental would show up on her bill, she would go to the store in person to show them the receipt, get a refund and the charges would…
Seems like she should make a claim with Amazon for selling her stolen goods.