[mythtv-users] Comcast bricked my HDHR above 33 - Los Gatos - 95032

[Mark Knecht]

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 4:55 PM, Kevin Kuphal <kkuphal at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Thanks Bob, and hi to Simi. I grew up in Camarillo.
>>
>> I think I could just drop back to using two DTAs with the serial
>> control and then record through my two old PVR-150s for SD recordings.
>> We don't care much about HD here. It's nice, but we don't ever seem to
>> record that way. I guess we're missing out but it's just TV.
>>
>> But that still leaves me paying $140/month to a company that I've
>> truly come to hate. I'd rather find some high-end Internet TV service
>> and pay them money. 75% of what I watch on cable is OTA, 25% higher
>> channels. I think I can get The Daily Show and Colbert on the Comedy
>> Central site, some of the other shows on Hulu.
>>
>> I end up asking myself why pay this company anything? We all dislike
>> them, or worse, and yet we continue to take it. I think this is the
>> time for me to look for alternatives. I'm sure it will hurt a bit, but
>> sometimes with pain comes gain....
>
> I'm not sure if the shows you watch are available in these formats,
> but $140/mo buys *alot* of television on Amazon.com or iTunes that you
> can watch using a device like a Roku or AppleTV.  If you can get 75%
> via OTA (and probably in HD) and the rest via purchase, you're
> probably still coming out very much ahead in terms of dollars spent
> and you own the content (to a point) rather than just watching it once
> when it is broadcast.  Of course, part of that $140/mo is probably
> your Internet and/or phone service but if it isn't, that's alot of
> cash.
>
> Kevin

You are correct Kevin, and looking at my bill it's actually $127 +
taxes for both TV plus Internet. It's split about $79 for TV which
includes no HD other than OTA channels, and then $48 for Internet.
However if I drop TV service then they raise the cost of Internet by
$10.

For my work at home I found their Internet to be so unreliable that I
had to purchase a Verizon DSL line into my office which I pay about
$40/month for. If I make the family live with DSL then I can actually
save the complete $127 albeit at reduced Internet speeds with no
backup if DSL goes down. However it's only been down once in the 3
years I've had it whereas Comcast Internet goes down once a month.

Anyway, we do have a Roku and I hadn't considered purchasing channels
through it, but that's a possiblity. OTA antennas may or may not work
here as I'm sort of nestled into an area with no line-of-sight to
anywhere, but I could try it out.

I'm really thinking Dish Network might well be the best for us as it
reduces my workload with Myth. I'm still running 0.21 and thankfully
this change comes before I jump to 0.23 if I decide to just turn Myth
off and use the Dish DVRs for a while.

I'd miss this list though! Can I stay subscribed and participate even
if I'm not running Myth? ;-)

Take care,
Mark