[jscozz]

So every two years when my promo is up and a few months go by before I detect that they are charging me more without notice, I do the cancel service dance... This time they offer me the lower rate again, but say "Sorry, our system will not let us give you that promo and enter a cable card, so you have to switch to X1"... this sounds like either BS, or illegal, or both... I just want the same thing I have today at the price I had it at before... but telling me I can't get that and keep Tivo is BS. Anyone else had this happen? How did you get past it? Call back and get different rep?

 

[gigaquad]

How did you get past it?

I cut the cord and told them to stuff it. Bought a 29.00 amazon fire tv stick and installed Kodi. I never miss an episode of anything now.

They're all moving to iptv (or whatever) now so they're trying to kill off cablecard support.

Have you considered cutting the cord and telling them exactly what they can do with their cable?

 

[jscozz]

I would love to cut the cord! Unfortunately, the roadblocks for me are:
1) Wife (and me too) love the Tivo interface, and would like to not lose that
2) Only option for INet here is Comcast... so it will cost me about $95 for 1GB Internet... leaving only $50 for TV before it is more expensive than today.
3) Looked at Tivo stream but it does not seem to do live TV well. If Tivo stream did YouTube TV or HuluTV, I think I would jump.
4) Need solution for 5 TVs as simple and cost effective as my 6 tuner Roamio and 4 minis.
Am I missing something? Please tell me if I am... I really want to leave Comcast TV behind.

 

[gigaquad]

I would love to cut the cord! Unfortunately, the roadblocks for me are:
1) Wife (and me too) love the Tivo interface, and would like to not lose that
2) Only option for INet here is Comcast... so it will cost me about $95 for 1GB Internet... leaving only $50 for TV before it is more expensive than today.
3) Looked at Tivo stream but it does not seem to do live TV well. If Tivo stream did YouTube TV or HuluTV, I think I would jump.
4) Need solution for 5 TVs as simple and cost effective as my 6 tuner Roamio and 4 minis.
Am I missing something? Please tell me if I am... I really want to leave Comcast TV behind.

I can't guarantee you'll overcome your roadblocks, but here's my 2 cents:

1. Tivo Roamio and Bolt both offer an OTA version. The Roamio ota is cheap on ebay. it works great. i too will never give up Tivo as long as it still streams from my PC library as well as OTA/Apps.
2. 95.00/month for internet is about average. i pay 79.00 here for the medium tier because i call them up every year and tell them about ATT offering me a great deal. If you want don't do any webserving or 4+ family members streaming, you might consider an ATT hotspot box. It works over cellular and gives you good speeds (5mb/s).
3. Some Live TV isn't good unless it's OTA - there are delays. For us that would mean tornadoes are eating us up before we even hear about it from Youtube TV or any other streaming service. Even live OTA is delayed about 1-2 minutes.
4. I'd swap out the roamio for an OTA model and call it a day!

That's just me. i think you'd save a ton of money in the long run. Add a fire tv stick (one time, 29.99) and you can see any tv show ever made. There is about a 2 week adjustment period as you train the wife and kids the buttons to push, but for the most part you wouldn't see much difference since you've got a roamio now already.

 

[Davelnlr_]

Were you at the Xfinity store or talking to a droid on the phone?
I have had no issues with going to the store.
Worst case, let them give you an X1 box (it will cost $15 more for DVR service and and extra outlet for your Tivo). Once you get both working, take the X1 box back.

 

[cwoody222]

That’s common practice for many companies. Package deals are contingent on your using/renting certain equipment.

If you want to substitute equipment, you may not qualify for the package offer.

 

[brobin]

I haven't had them pull that on me yet. I always push them to get me a lower promo than what I had. They always push the X1 packages and I always tell them that if I have to stop using my Tivo I'll just go ahead and cancel. They always hem and haw and put me on hold and always find something better. Last time, about a year ago, they finally offered me a 2 year 'Latino' package promo which gives me all the Spanish channels for free (don't speak Spanish - don't care), the 220 channel tier with HD and Blast internet (getting 236Mbps with my 7 year old Motorola DOCSIS 3.0 modem) for $115 including all fees and taxes. I said "bueno" to that one! 200+ Mbps is way more than what we need but that's what the package includes. For most people gigabit service is equivalent to the usefulness of a 707 HP Hellcat engine for a run to Costco.

 

[fcfc2]

So every two years when my promo is up and a few months go by before I detect that they are charging me more without notice, I do the cancel service dance... This time they offer me the lower rate again, but say "Sorry, our system will not let us give you that promo and enter a cable card, so you have to switch to X1"... this sounds like either BS, or illegal, or both... I just want the same thing I have today at the price I had it at before... but telling me I can't get that and keep Tivo is BS. Anyone else had this happen? How did you get past it? Call back and get different rep?

Not sure why this link wasn't made a sticky years and years ago but most of these kinds of cable card availability or activation usually will get the issue resolved in a few days.
Submit a request - FCC Complaints

 

[jscozz]

4. I'd swap out the roamio for an OTA model and call it a day!

I am about 60 miles from the transmitters for the locals we would need. Is there a good way to test reception first before investing in a new Tivo OTA? With an Edge OTA, what options are there for the large # of channels I lose on Comcast that you can't get streaming? Food network, Discovery, ESPN, etc...

 

[brobin]

I can't answer the streaming issue but as far as reception of OTA goes, you can buy a good long range antenna and try it out connected directly to a TV. This is the one I use to pull in stations 50 miles away. It says it's good to 80 miles so may work well for you too. There are cheaper knockoffs but Channel Master has been around since the beginning of TV so I trust their engineering. Mine is in a attic with an insulated roof and a concrete tile exterior.
Channel Master EXTREMEtenna Multi-Directional Outdoor Antenna-4228HD - The Home Depot

 

[dobbie1]

Why do you need to invest in a new TiVo? Won't your current Roamio receive OTA channels.(I only have a 4 tuner Roamio, so I don't know about the 6 tuner) I switched to internet only with Comcast a few years ago and installed an attic antenna for OTA. I just returned the cable card to Comcast and then ran setup all over again with my TiVo unit. Each of the streaming services offer different channels and most offer some type of free trial period. Check them all out before you make a decision. I currently use Hulu Live with the DVR plus (an additional cost for 200 hours in order to fast forward through commercials). I think YouTube TV and Hulu Live have the best DVR solutions.

 

[HerronScott]

Won't your current Roamio receive OTA channels.(I only have a 4 tuner Roamio, so I don't know about the 6 tuner)

6 tuner models are cable only.

Scott