Cox for cable and internet, what's your monthly bill? (live, deal)

[cjs123]

Mine was $111 for preferred internet and cable TV 'expanded' which they love to say is 100 channels but is really far less than that.

At the end of 2011 I bought a Roku video streaming device and joined Amazon Prime, so I could watch a lot of free stuff. I liked it so much that by mid January 2012, I dropped CATV and haven't missed it. Now my monthly cable bill for internet only is $54 [I was penalized with a $4 increase for dropping the TV portion of my service]. I stick with free channels and programming, and like the fact that I own the Roku device and am not renting it monthly from a 'provider'.

Didn't need to upgrade my internet either; the bandwidth I currently have is more than adequate for both video streaming and internet.

[Britney_Master]

Tell me about it, I was paying $160 and mind you my bill was different each month so I never understood as to why it wasn't a standard price esp since i wasn't buying movies or anything. I was also paying for netflix on top of that. I was on Facebook when I had seen an ad for this streaming box, stroom box i checked it out and ordered one. Its pretty cool, i get to watch all movies that I couldn't watch on Netflix and was never available on cable. I can also go back and watch old seasons of every single tv show. The best thing is that there is no monthly fees no sign up or anything what so ever. if you want to check it out [url=http://www.stroombox.com]THE FUTURE OF STREAM - STROOM[/url]

[PoppySead]

Roku, antenna, and cox for Internet = 55 bucks
I don't miss cable at all.

[jaredC]

Originally Posted by PoppySead

Roku, antenna, and cox for Internet = 55 bucks
I don't miss cable at all.

I was paying $49 a month for 50mbps plan and phone service through cox. Then, my payments literally doubled. When I got my bill, it was $104! I don't use the phone. I originally jumped on a two year contract because I was moving and the only way to get my services moved for free was the contract route. Going to war with cox in a few hours over my plan. Probably E d up just switching to CenturyLink.

[ScottsdaleMark]

I have medium speed internet (I think it's 15 mbps or thereabouts), and pay 52.99. I originally had the very slowest speed internet on a promo price of 29 dollars or so for a year or two, but Netflix and streaming kept lagging and freezing or not streaming fast enough. So, the package you pick absolutely does make a difference unfortunately. Since I switched to my current speed never really had any issue with streaming lagging or not going fast enough to keep up. I also have over the air TV and Netflix.

Getting rid of cable wasn't a price decision (although that was annoying, certainly) but a lifestyle decision. I found I was wasting too much time channel-surfing, fast forwarding through commercials, and watching marathons of cable shows that I didn't really care that much about. With Netflix it's much easier to just try something for five minutes and move on instantly to something else. With cable/DVR you have to identify what you want to try, wait for it to come on, and record, then watch it. With Netflix only I find that I just waste less of own time, although some people know exactly what they want to watch and may not mind going through and scheduling shows, etc. I know there's On Demand but I always found it to be poorly organized and of course it doesn't have anything.

[You Haul]

I'm completely aware that everyone's situation is different. The funny thing is how 80% of the posts in here seem to say, "Oh I dropped cable and I don't even miss it!".

Well, in some of your situations I understand how that's true and I would love to jump on that wagon if it weren't for LIVE SPORTS. There is no other way to get the majority of games (especially NFL) unless you're streaming low quality, high buffering illegal channels. I don't watch 95% of the crap on tv but being an avid sports fan, it's currently not an option to simply dump the overpriced cable.

For those who say I should watch at a bar...no thanks, I'll keep overpaying (for now) and enjoy the comfort of my own home, with the food and drinks that I've already paid for, and not surround myself with the average annoying sports fan.

[pbenjamin]

Originally Posted by You Haul

I'm completely aware that everyone's situation is different. The funny thing is how 80% of the posts in here seem to say, "Oh I dropped cable and I don't even miss it!".

Well, in some of your situations I understand how that's true and I would love to jump on that wagon if it weren't for LIVE SPORTS. There is no other way to get the majority of games (especially NFL) unless you're streaming low quality, high buffering illegal channels. I don't watch 95% of the crap on tv but being an avid sports fan, it's currently not an option to simply dump the overpriced cable.

For those who say I should watch at a bar...no thanks, I'll keep overpaying (for now) and enjoy the comfort of my own home, with the food and drinks that I've already paid for, and not surround myself with the average annoying sports fan.

Sling TV, an HD streaming service which costs $20/month, includes ESPN and ESPN2. Assuming you can get the locals with an antenna, that covers all but the NFL network for NFL games. Of course, if you want more than the usual 6 games a week your only choice is DirecTV.

For an extra $5/month you can get a sports package that includes ESPNU, ESPN News and the SEC network.

Sling does NOT have Fox Sports Arizona or the MLB network, so that kills it for me. Hardly any baseball.

[Moo_juu]

I got an antenna from Best Buy that picks up all the major channels (although not so good at NBC). That was a one time cost. My Roku also a one time cost on which I get Hulu, Sling TV and others. Cost for Sling and Hulu 32 dollars. Hulu would cost less but I pay extra so that I see NO commercials. Hulu shows all the shows on the major networks except for CBS which can be had for a low price. I am a recovering Direct TV addict and got tired of paying 120 dollars per month for commercials and 200 channels I never watched.

[You Haul]

Originally Posted by pbenjamin

Sling TV, an HD streaming service which costs $20/month, includes ESPN and ESPN2. Assuming you can get the locals with an antenna, that covers all but the NFL network for NFL games. Of course, if you want more than the usual 6 games a week your only choice is DirecTV.

For an extra $5/month you can get a sports package that includes ESPNU, ESPN News and the SEC network.

Sling does NOT have Fox Sports Arizona or the MLB network, so that kills it for me. Hardly any baseball.

Yeah, I looked into Sling. Believe me, I'd love to dump Cox, but there are too many games that I actually enjoy watching (not just put on for background noise) that only come from cable. ESPN is great for SportsCenter and a handful of games but they don't generally carry even half of the big games. The rest of those channels - ESPN 2, ESPNU, ESPN News, etc. - are garbage.

Correct me if I'm wrong, don't you lose the ability to record/DVR with a Sling box? Unfortunately, that ends up almost being a deal breaker in itself for me, as I'm often unable to watch live sports.

[FrogCross]

Originally Posted by Fra Diavolo

I'm thinking of going to a similar arrangement to this. But we have always had the DVR service with cable/sat. We'd use this to record some of the network programs. Are there any options for DVR that are cheaper than Tivo?

Google MythTV, an open source digital video recorder (DVR). It's free, but it runs on a PC. You may be able to install it on an existing machine. I have mine on a small dedicated PC.

I use it with an over the air setup. We don't have cable or satellite, so I am not intimately familiar with its cable interface. You can expect to do some research to learn what it does and how you work with it.

There are some other open source DVRs out there if you look.