Combining Services to save Money

[turri3215]

Just curious if anyone else is doing this to save money.I have been paying way too much for TV lately and being unemployeed I need to cut back and save wherever I can.OF course TV viewing was first on list to be cut back.The otherday I got a call from Comcast saying my Internet was going up ,I now pay 52.00 a month just for internet,as Verizon is so bad in my area I had to do comcast,and dishnet isnt fast enough and wont work with Vonage.Anyway The Comcast person offerred me Blast internet and Xfinity TV and free HBO for just 1 dollar more a month for (at first 6 months)I said I wouldnt even consider deal unless it was a least a year,so they did it.
I am going to keep Dishnetwork and go down to welcome pack(this way I still get my locals in HD).and hook up Comcast Digital box for other channels.I do realize these wont be in HD,but my TV does a decent job in Digital SD.So this will bring my dish bill down about 60 dollars a month and still give me Channels I can watch on the Cable.Has anyone tried this.To me 60 dollars a month is a good savings as this Job market sucks really bad ,been looking for work over 6 months and cant find anything.I have been a Baker for over 30 years.

 

[Mochuf]

Just curious if anyone else is doing this to save money.I have been paying way too much for TV lately and being unemployeed I need to cut back and save wherever I can.OF course TV viewing was first on list to be cut back.The otherday I got a call from Comcast saying my Internet was going up ,I now pay 52.00 a month just for internet,as Verizon is so bad in my area I had to do comcast,and dishnet isnt fast enough and wont work with Vonage.Anyway The Comcast person offerred me Blast internet and Xfinity TV and free HBO for just 1 dollar more a month for (at first 6 months)I said I wouldnt even consider deal unless it was a least a year,so they did it.
I am going to keep Dishnetwork and go down to welcome pack(this way I still get my locals in HD).and hook up Comcast Digital box for other channels.I do realize these wont be in HD,but my TV does a decent job in Digital SD.So this will bring my dish bill down about 60 dollars a month and still give me Channels I can watch on the Cable.Has anyone tried this.To me 60 dollars a month is a good savings as this Job market sucks really bad ,been looking for work over 6 months and cant find anything.I have been a Baker for over 30 years.

I did drop Dish and bundled tv with my internet/phone provider just last week. I was laid off last March and put Dish on pause in June after my severance pay was over. I just got a new job this week, but it pays less (but enough to pay for tv again). I really hated to do it, but I'm saving $30 per month and getting more channels (including my local RSN's) compared to the package I had with Dish (AT120 and Heartland w/722K). My wife is now fulltime so we're about $5000 short in yearly pay compared to last year. We hope to come back to Dish because we like the equipment (although our Tivo's are pretty good) and the packages plus the free previews. We'll see how it goes this spring, but $30 per month is nothing to sneeze at for tv.

 

[wertyders]

I dropped xfinity for Dish. I still had xfinity internet and phone. Then I found Vonage phone for 12.99 vs 44.99. Now I'm down the just internet with xfinity.

 

[mdavej]

I can think of no good reason to have two pay TV services when you have no income. I don't care how cheap they are. That's the opposite of combining services, that's doubling services. When I was between jobs, I cut back to OTA only. At least today, you can buy an OTA DVR for $40 and get just about everything else online.

Phone is another huge drain. If you still have home phone service, replace it with something free, or at least cheap, like Ooma. For cell phone, forget smart phones and go pre-paid with a dumb phone. That works out to about $10/month for voice and text, versus over a hundred for Verizon. When I found another job, a got a huge discount when signing up with satellite TV as a new customer, much better deal than if I'd kept service the whole time.

My 2 cents. Probably not what you wanted to hear. Good luck in your job search.

 

[dishrich]

At least today, you can buy an OTA DVR for $40

Link please???

 

[Mochuf]

Link please???

It's a piece of crap and you'll need to spend more money on an external hdd. With used Tivo's w/lifetime starting to go cheap, I don't know why anyone would buy one of these.

http://www.amazon.com/iView-3500STB-DTV-Converter-Box/dp/B00BFIJQ10/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382651891&sr=8-1&keywords=iview+3500stb+dtv+converter+box

 

[osu1991]

Link please???

They're probably talking about the iView or Homeworx on Amazon. You have to add your own hard drives to them

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFIJQ10/?tag=satell01-20

 

[TheKrell]

I've been monitoring the AVS forum on the HomeworX, and owners love 'em. Why do you call it a piece of crap?

 

[turri3215]

Your right I should problably drop TV services all together,I do have a small income from UNemployement.I live in an area that cannot get OTA signal no matter how good of an antenae you may finThe amount I would pay for a antenae that would work would be too expensive and landlords wouldnt allow it.I am perfectly fine with welcome pack on Dish,but I have to have internet to look for and find work,(send resumes,print out applications,Etc,but in my area Verizon wont sell you just internet,you have to get a phone also.I have Vonage with Comcast internet,I pay only 11.00 a month for vonage ,long distance inlcuded.Comcast offerred me this deal for only 1.00 more than I was paying for just internet.ON Demand is included.I like TV and wont give it up until its the last thing I can before Rent of course.At some point I may have to cancel Dish,but I am really hoping to find a job soon.

 

[dwarren2]

I dropped xfinity for Dish. I still had xfinity internet and phone. Then I found Vonage phone for 12.99 vs 44.99. Now I'm down the just internet with xfinity.

I've got the same Vonage package. I've got TWC for internet. Had their super basic package for cable(around $12/mo) Called to cancel that but they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. For only about $8/mo more they gave me basic digital cable with a dvr and a 2nd cable box for 2 years. Basically I only use that for MSG so I can watch the Sabres.
Compared to the HWS, their dvr is from the stone age.

 

[R0ss]

The bottom line is you need to be willing to cut back to barebones TV. I think having two pay services is not saving you money. If OTA isn't an option then go with the least expensive pay service. Here if I subscribed to Comcast Internet we would also receive a limited amount of locals for "free". I think it is called lifeline or something like that. It's not HD but its free and when you are unemployed free is good. If you have Internet you can stream a hell of a lot of programming as well. No it's not the same as watching a pay service but again it's "free".

Ross


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[osu1991]

The bottom line is you need to be willing to cut back to barebones TV. I think having two pay services is not saving you money. If OTA isn't an option then go with the least expensive pay service. Here if I subscribed to Comcast Internet we would also receive a limited amount of locals for "free". I think it is called lifeline or something like that. It's not HD but its free and when you are unemployed free is good. If you have Internet you can stream a hell of a lot of programming as well. No it's not the same as watching a pay service but again it's "free".

Ross


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That is going away as Comcast is starting a nationwide rollout to encrypt and require their own boxes or adapters for lifeline, even if you have internet with them there will be no more clear QAM locals with Comcast.

 

[Mochuf]

I've been monitoring the AVS forum on the HomeworX, and owners love 'em. Why do you call it a piece of crap?

I never followed the HomeworX forum, but I did read that it doesn't record clear QAM. I only followed the iView but haven't been there for several weeks now. The iView always seems to have firmware updates that, may fix something, but breaks something else. And it had problems with scheduling because of some bug that involves midnight. With only one tuner and relying on iffy PSIP data (unless you want to record like a vcr) it's the classic "You get what you pay for". The $80 - $100 you would need to spend on an iView and external hdd would be better spent on a SiliconDust dual tuner HDHR3 for your pc.

 

[empiretc]

It's a piece of crap and you'll need to spend more money on an external hdd. With used Tivo's w/lifetime starting to go cheap, I don't know why anyone would buy one of these.

http://www.amazon.com/iView-3500STB-DTV-Converter-Box/dp/B00BFIJQ10/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382651891&sr=8-1&keywords=iview+3500stb+dtv+converter+box

Because you are not going to get a Tivo that has an ATSC tuner, and lifetime subscription, for cheap....

 

[Mr Tony]

I never followed the HomeworX forum, but I did read that it doesn't record clear QAM.

yes it does. I have one but there are some flaws.....from a thread in the OTA area
http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads...-working-on-new-OTA-DVR?p=3252240#post3252240

There was also some beta software to do clear QAM but there were many issues with it including
-no remapping of channels like locals (my TV's remap them)
-scanning in TONS of scrambled channels so the easier thing was to manual scan channels
-no guide so you need to manually set timers

and as I wrote further in the thread
honestly this unit (the Homeworx) works great if you are a casual recording person. (or have shows that arent on at the same time). If you dont mind the minor flaws of it the unit works real well. We have sold a bunch of them at work through our catalog (Heartland America) and most folks use them for the occasional option to record. But for some of us who have used dual tuner units for years now it might be a change

 

[mitchflorida]

cancel dish altogether and pay $10 extra a month for hd on all of your comcast channels, not just locals.

Or cancel everything and get netflix instead.

 

[Mochuf]

Because you are not going to get a Tivo that has an ATSC tuner, and lifetime subscription, for cheap....

I just picked up another Premiere (320gb model) w/lifetime for $150. I don't know how much cheaper you want to go to get a real dvr. Sure I was lucky, but prices are going down the longer the Roamio is out. You can easily find a Series 3 for $200 or less. I bet this time next year the base Premieres will be in that price range.

honestly this unit (the Homeworx) works great if you are a casual recording person. (or have shows that arent on at the same time).

?i.e not many people on this forum.

 

[dare2be]

I just picked up another Premiere (320gb model) w/lifetime for $150.

Where?

 

[R0ss]

That is going away as Comcast is starting a nationwide rollout to encrypt and require their own boxes or adapters for lifeline, even if you have internet with them there will be no more clear QAM locals with Comcast.

As long as they don't charge for the box it's still a good deal.

Ross


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[R0ss]

I just picked up another Premiere (320gb model) w/lifetime for $150. I don't know how much cheaper you want to go to get a real dvr. Sure I was lucky, but prices are going down the longer the Roamio is out. You can easily find a Series 3 for $200 or less. I bet this time next year the base Premieres will be in that price range.


?i.e not many people on this forum.

Just out of curiosity where did you pick up a TiVo premier with lifetime service for $150?. The least expensive buy it now on eBay is $440.00, auction is not much better. I think most folks that are selling a TIVO premier with lifetime are looking to get the investment in lifetime service back...if that is the case I don't see the price comming down all that much....just my opinion.


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