I'm looking for a cable tv or satelitte / internet combo deal. Anyone know who has the best deal right now?

8/16/2012 11:16:02 AM

DirecTV has the best deal for TV right now imo, especially if you are into NFL. Sunday Ticket for free, Free HD DVR, Free HD Receiver for 2nd room.

As for internet, it just depends on what you are looking for. It will be more expensive going with Time Warner just for internet versus bundling with TV, but doing the bundle gets you less TV.

I have DirecTV for my television and Time Warner for my internet. Combined I pay around $90 a month.

8/16/2012 11:28:22 AM

Watch out for promotions! They usually expire 6-12 months after you sign up and they jack up your bill by 50% without even telling you. You can normally call them back and complain and they'll give you a discount but often you will never get the same price that you did when you first signed up.

8/16/2012 11:42:40 AM

^ truth. At least DirecTV is upfront with the fact that several of your promotions will end after 12 months. Time Warner usually just tries to sneak it in on you. TWC is also a master of the "fluctuating bill". I don't think my TWC Internet bill has ever been the same 2 months in a row.

8/16/2012 11:45:56 AM

^Really? I only have internet with TWC, and it stays the same every month, except for when whatever promotion Im on ends and I call to get a new one (Im pretty much always on a promotion).

Yes, the promos end after year 1; just figure out what your total or average bill will be for 2 years for each and compare that. Theres no reason to ignore the promos in determining who to go with.

8/16/2012 12:34:44 PM

TWC Internet Roadrunner w/ basic 70 channel cable $30

8/16/2012 12:37:16 PM

Yeah, I guess it would help to know exactly what you are looking for.

How fast does the internet need to be?
How many TVs, how many channels, any premiums?

If you just need bare bones for everything, then I'd say bundle with TWC. If you are looking for a lot of bells and whistles, it might make more sense to not bundle.

I will say this, DirecTV has WAAAAAAAAAAAAY better customer service than TWC.

8/16/2012 12:45:08 PM

Well, right now I'm going to be splitting the cable bill with one other person. We are both pretty tight with our monthly expenditures. I wouldn't mind bare bones internet as long as I could get 2 DVR receivers (one for living room / one for bedroom). We contacted TWC and their prices were around $120/mo for what we were looking for. So I guess the best deal would be going with a combination of DirecTV for television & TWC for internet? My only concern with satelitte is the fact that we live on a ridiculously inclined / heavily wooded lot that I'm 100% sure if it would be conducive to this setting. We'd optimately like to lock in a 12 month rate that we could cancel next August if we decide to move. Max we want to spend is about $70-$90/mo which I don't know if that is possible to get what we want in that range.

8/17/2012 1:52:00 AM

Quote :

"Satelitte"

8/17/2012 8:01:10 AM

I just got a thing in the mail from DirecTV about their TV specials, you can get good channels plus NFL Sunday ticket for $30/month for the first year. Past that i'm not sure, haven't looked at the fine print closely. Our internet with Time Warner is $45 a month.

[Edited on August 17, 2012 at 9:48 AM. Reason : fgb]

8/17/2012 9:47:47 AM

I think all directv promo deals require a 2 year contract. If you want to be able to move after a year you should probably go twc.

8/17/2012 10:51:08 AM

AT&T U-verse has the best I could find for TV/internet combo. Much better option than TWC, but I suppose it depends where you live. TV quality and selection is at least as good as TWC (better IMO), free DVR, and I get what I pay for with the internet (which I never did with TWC). I have the 12mbps internet tier and I routinely get that. Actually, I'll do a speed test right now on this PC



and that's with torrents running and a few other devices on my wifi. And a comparable TV/internet plan with TWC was about $50 more a month.

The best part? I don't have to deal with TWC. DirecTV would be nice if they had internet but I suggest looking into U-Verse

[Edited on August 17, 2012 at 11:02 AM. Reason : 12mbps internet, 300+ channels w/HD, 3 boxes with whole-house DVR]

8/17/2012 11:00:58 AM

^ how much do you pay?

8/17/2012 11:19:47 AM

How fast does the internet have to be so that you can stream tv show? I'm trying to decide whether to get the 6 mbs or the 12 mbs

8/17/2012 2:03:38 PM

I've seen online that you can get away with 6

8/17/2012 6:53:51 PM

I have dtv and love it. They offer a good deal for both parties for their "refer a friend" program so contact me if you want to join (end plug).

8/17/2012 7:38:59 PM

Quote :

"^ how much do you pay?"

right now, nothing for 3 months but that's because of a botched service transfer when we moved and i raised hell (rightly so, though...LONG story). at least they made it right

IIRC our plan with the 300+ and HD, 12mbps internet w/wifi (don't need your own router unless you want to), and 3 boxes w/whole house DVR will be about $120-130/mo. our last place was 6mbps and only one box so it's not comparable

8/17/2012 11:02:54 PM

i'm looking to get some basic cable tv service this week...no matter what i do, i simply cannot get local stations without some sort of problem

i dumped TWC television after my monthly bill ended up ~$85 for intarwebs and basic HD television...now i pay right around $35 after taxes and fees for just intarwebs (standard, not lite or turbo), so that $50 was just stupid

looking to keep it all around $70 or less, but want HD service...don't care about DVR, but it's nice

8/18/2012 8:49:13 PM

^Did you rescan your TV channels? Most times if you're still getting roadrunner you have access to between 20-70 basic channels even if you dont order it.

8/18/2012 11:47:45 PM

I think lately the technicians have been dicks about making sure to cut the cable signal so that internet only customers don't get a free ride.

8/19/2012 10:07:54 AM

Thanks for the advice, we ended up going with a combo of TWC for internet & DirecTV. OTD we are looking at a total of around $70/mo for the first year. Got the 10 mb plan from TWC but we are downloading at much higher speeds than that (12-18 mbps). Not sure how that happened. W/DirecTV we have the entertainmet package for $30.99 for the first 10 months. It comes with HD DVR & one more HD receiver. So not too bad of a deal IMO.

8/22/2012 9:58:06 PM

^^ yep when i ordered roadrunner only the guy came out and put a filter with a tamper tag on the line outside

lame

8/22/2012 10:33:08 PM

^^That's almost exactly what we were looking at. What happens when the deal runs out in 10 months, and what about the NFL ticket?

8/22/2012 10:36:13 PM

I didn't go with the Sunday ticket. The rep said I could add it for an additional $5 a month. I've thought about it because it would also include FSN in that $5. DirecTV is incredibly sletchy w/ pricing for some reason. I talked with 3-4 reps and none could give me a total of the exact amount of my total bill after taxes. I was able to say a friend referred me to get an additional $10 off for 10 months. After 10 months it'll jump to $40.99/mo before taxes. After another 2 months at $40.99 it'll increase to $60.99 for 12 months before the 2 yr contract expires. Either way its a better deal than anything TWC was offering. TWC's customer service is absolutely horrible. Wish U Verse would of been offered where I live.

8/22/2012 10:48:28 PM

We have TWC for internet and DirecTV for satellite.

We've had DirecTV since 2009 and we love it. Our 2 year contract is up and last week I was thinking of calling them up to see what they would offer us to get us to resign our contract. They ended up calling me and offering me a free HD-DVR receiver (we have 2 HD-DVR and one regular DVR) but we declined as we only have two HDTVs in the house. So we didn't resign our contract that day but the customer service rep asked if there was anything he could help with. I said "well of course, the bill could be lower". I said it jokingly but the guy says "oh well, let me look at your account and see what we can do." They ended up giving us $20 off for a year. This is on top of the $10 off for a year b/c of the Viacom situation and the $10 off for a year for the "Refer a Friend" program.

Now the TWC internet situation is completly different. When we first dropped TWC cable for DirecTV, TWC worked hard to keep our internet business. We were able to get $29.99 for a year and its going up every couple of months since the year ended. I think now its ~$60.00 for just TWC Roadrunner. We are thinking of switching but can't find a comparable internet service in our area.

[Edited on August 23, 2012 at 7:59 AM. Reason : f]

8/23/2012 7:56:21 AM

^I switched from RR to Earthlink (same thing, I know), but it's stayed at $41.95/mo for 2 or 3 years since we signed up.

8/23/2012 8:03:50 AM

Thanks, I'll look into Earthlink.

8/23/2012 8:21:24 AM

Quote :

"IIRC our plan with the 300+ and HD, 12mbps internet w/wifi (don't need your own router unless you want to), and 3 boxes w/whole house DVR will be about $120-130/mo. our last place was 6mbps and only one box so it's not comparable"

there is no way. even with promotions I pay $115-120/mo. for U200 and the lowest tier internet.

8/23/2012 8:30:38 AM

So I just looked up our TWC internet bill. We are paying $57.95 a month for their "standard internet" which is download speeds "up to 10 Mbps" and upload speeds "up to 1 Mpbs".

Earthlink's "standard internet" has speeds "up to 7 Mbps" for $29.95 for the first 6 months and then $41.95 after. I use the internet at home for TWWing, Facebooking and couponing. So I really don't care about having ultra lightning fast internet because I'm not trying to stream movies or upload 10,000 pics.

8/23/2012 10:20:12 AM

I have Directv and AT&T for internet. My internet bill is $24/month and is great. Never have to reset/plug/unplug my modem like I had to with Comcast about once every week or two. The bill jumps to $60 a month, then I call and they lower it to $24 for another six months. It's the best internet deal I've been able to find in town.

8/23/2012 10:27:24 AM

Quote :

"Did you rescan your TV channels? Most times if you're still getting roadrunner you have access to between 20-70 basic channels even if you dont order it."

yeah...if i use cable, the audio gets off or skews or sounds "electronic" periodically...like for 1 minute out of every 5?

i finally broke down and called TWC...we're doing standard (10mbps/1mbps) roadrunner and standard HD cable (no special channels, but all the usual like comedy central, AMC, HGTV, discovery, history, etc) for just less than $81 after taxes and fees

it's still $10 more than i was paying a year ago, but i can't seem to find any better...an equivalent package with u-verse was $100

8/23/2012 10:28:28 AM

I can't get AT&T internet where I live.

8/23/2012 10:31:37 AM

I pay only for 30mbps down / 5 mbps up with TWC for $49.95/month. I think you can up that to 50/5 for like $75/month now.

8/23/2012 10:47:16 AM

I had the price jacked up on me, called in, got a disconnect scheduled. They (TWC) called me back the next morning offering about 50% what I was being charged plus a DVR. Bill went from $134 --> $68.00 for 2 years all with no contract. I was pleased.

8/23/2012 11:14:28 AM

That is the exact same thing I did and will be doing it again when my two years is up.

8/23/2012 4:23:40 PM

i always have a hard time with "threatening to cancel". I feel like I say "i found a better offer and want to cancel" and i'll get the one CS Rep that's like "ok sir, we have you completely canceled. will that be all today?" and i'll be SOL.

8/27/2012 9:06:48 AM

^haha, that's happened to me with other services before

Almost happened to me with TWC, but I hung up when she asked me to confirm cancellation (gave the whole "too expensive" speech and "have another, cheaper provider" and the girl was like, OK! So you want me to cancel service at 'xxx' address ::click:: ).

8/27/2012 9:36:04 AM

we decoupled our internet and TV about a year and a half ago and got some decent pricing. $34 for 16Mbps at the time which they have since bumped to 20Mbps (Charter). TV is through Dish. It was crazy cheap the first 12 months ($35) but it is still a decent deal at $50 now for these 2nd 12 months: Two-room HD-DVR setup with all the channels we care to get (except AMC ).

When our contract runs out with Dish next April, I'm not really sure what I will do though. Dish has been cheap and the service has been excellent, but we really don't watch much TV that we NEED cable/satellite for; other than Game of Thrones we could easily do Hulu Plus and Netflix and cover what we care about other than sports we can't get OTA. However, we both love ASOAIF/GOT and have people over to watch with us and stuff and there is no legal way to watch GOT at the time it airs.

My plan right now is probably to continue on with Dish through the GOT 3rd season (probably only 2-3 months beyond my normal contract anyway) and then cancel altogether and give us a year with no TV bills before deciding how I plan to legally watch GOT for a couple months again the next year

[Edited on August 27, 2012 at 10:24 AM. Reason : ]

8/27/2012 10:16:55 AM

Russell Wilson and a promising NC State football season is forcing me to get DirecTV. Probably will call today and see if we can get it installed Friday morning.

Damn it.

8/27/2012 10:43:08 AM

Decided to throw the birds up to DirecTV since their 3rd party installer was a complete douche this past Saturday. Cancelled everything before the could try and reschedule an installation. Installer didn't want to get his fat ass up on the roof so he said he was going to have to come back. Cutting the cords over here except for internet, I'll just stream TV for free from laptop and get an antenna for basic channels. I'll apply that extra $30-$60/mo for the next 2 years to a better gym membership.

8/27/2012 11:27:59 PM