A lot has happened over the past year.  Some of it good, and some of it bad.

On the bad… no good… no, just OK, but evil…  We’ve gone back to COX.  Unfortunately out of necessity.  We are now living in an HOA townhouse that precludes us putting up an external digital antennae.  For some reason, Dish Network is OK, but they don’t like the antennae – go figure.

Because of our other viewing options, we need COX digital cable, so the BASIC COX package raised our monthly bill by only $7.  I think we can afford that.  This gives us channels 2 through 22, which brings us all of the local channels.  Not such a bad thing.  That is piped into a TiVo Series 3 box. With the new shift to the MINI-BOX it now requires a card, which COX provides for free.  You WOULD NOT need this card if you had a digital antennae.  Read on for more about that.

TiVo Series 1 boxes are COMPLETELY incompatible with digital signals, so if you have a Series 1 box you will need a DVD player with an RCA output as a COX digital buffer in order to record anything on your TiVo Series 1 box.  With the new MINI-BOX configuration, I don’t even think this would work anymore.

TiVo Series 2 is a bit more forgiving, but still is incompatible with the COX MINI-BOX.  These will work only with an external antennae – and then again, using a DVD player with an RCA output as a converter.

My recommendation: Keep your eyes open at Goodwill for a TiVo Series 3 box.  It will run you about $30.

If you can afford it, a better option is the TiVo Romio.  This not only allows you to record your COX programming (with the card inserted) but allows you to stream anything it records to your iPad or other bluetooth device.

ALL OF THE ABOVE IS BECAUSE OF OUR LEASE, which ends November 2017.  After that here is the plan, which is based on about 4 years of trying to minimize how much we have to pay COX.

First of all, you have to understand download speeds.  That is what it is all about.  Click on the chart to the right, and notice something very surprising.  The top download speed in the WORLD belongs to South Korea.  Surprisingly the United States is a distant twelfth place.  This is from a few years ago, but is still probably somewhat true today.  Four Mbps (megabytes per second) is fine for most viewing.  As the connection/download speed decreases you get that staggering and reloading that makes viewing videos so obnoxious.  Speeds have done nothing but increase in recent years.

COX offers several packages:

• Internet Starter – 5 Mbps – $35 / month – Marginal performance, may have SOME delay issues
• Internet Essential – 15 Mbps – $56 / month – Good for most people, very little delay issues
• Internet Preferred – 50 Mbps – $72 / month – When I had my Internet business, I had this.  I had to sign a three year agreement, which I have to honor for six more months.  After that, I will be dropping to Essential.
• Internet Premier – 150 Mbps – $83 / month – If you are a big time gamer, or have a million dollar budget on your business, you may need this.  Otherwise, probably WAY overkill.
• Internet Ultimate – 300 Mbps – $99 / month – Again – if you have the money just laying around, this would be a GREAT package, but otherwise save your money.

If you are trying to get away from COX, what are your options?

• Verizon DSL – 1 Mbps – $20 / month – Stay away from this plan
• Verizon DSL – 3, 7, and 15 Mbps – $30 / month – If 3, 7 and 15 Mbps are the same cost, why in the world would you go with the 3 Mbps plan ?!?  I kind of doubt the download speed, except I guess it is possible.  I’ve been away from DSL for a long time.  The downside is this also requires you have your telephone through them.
• Dial-up – 56K – that is .056 Mbps – Not good for much of anything except eMail.  Barely adequate for that.
• AT&T – 6 Mbps – $45 / month – Early termination fees – Stay away from this plan
• Century Link – 40 Mbsp – Up to $60 / month – Five year price lock – Early termination fees – Stay away from this plan
• Earthlink – 7 Mbps – Up to $50 / month – 12 month contract – Early termination fees – Stay away from this plan
• NetZero – 6 Mbps – $30 – ( One of my customers when I worked for Actuate Software Corp ) – Early termination fees – Sorry, but I’ve gotta say stay away from this plan too

The OFF THE GRID option – A digital antennae.  We own two inside antennas, and while they are OK, they are not great.  If you don’t have a choice, and MUST use an internal antennae, CLICK HERE and this one will serve you well.  You have can put up an outside antennae, DO IT and  you will not be sorry.  We had about 65 channels with our external antennae.  AS A PLUS your signal will actually be clearer than the COX signal, because you are getting it directly from the source.  COX is getting it just like you are, and then routing it through all of their offices and cables.  HERE IS MY RECOMMENDATION for an external digital antennae.

THESE ARE THE CHANNELS that I get currently with my indoor antennae… the one in the paragraph above.

The bottom line:

• First choice:  Get an external digital antennae
• Second choice:  Go with COX Internet Essential.  They are fast enough, stable, and fairly inexpensive.
• Third choice:  Verizon 15 Mbps would be my second choice, but is still a good option if you want to dump COX and don’t mind having a Verizon phone.

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, here is what we will ultimately have (come November 2017.)

• External digital antennae fed into my TiVo Series 3.  Will probably replace with Romio when I get the extra money.
• COX Internet Essential, but NO local programming
• Digital telephone – no land line – remember to register your mobile phone with 911 registry
• NetFlix – $8 / month extra, but lots of streaming options.  Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.
• Amazon Prime – Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.  Include with Prime membership – some decent viewing options
• Hulu – Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.  Basic is free, but doesn’t give you very much.  To watch through my TiVo requires a membership which is about $8 per month.  I won’t be getting this.
• Vudu – Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.  I just discovered this, and it seems to be good, but it is too unknown at this point.
• YouTube – Streams with my TiVo, but doesn’t record.
• Laptop (or computer) plugged into the VGA port of my television – Watch anything you can watch on your computer.  Doesn’t record.
• USB port on the back of our TV – Digital files viewed on our TV

We will be getting about 55% of our TV from the antennae, 20% from Netflix, 15% from Amazon, 10% from our USB port.  The other services we watch occasionally, but not very often.

I hope this has been helpful.