Re: cable users - do you pay extra for boxes? - Page 5

151949 · ‎03-09-2010

On 9/20/2014 chickenbutt said:
We do. It's $6.99 for each box and $2 for each cablecard. We have 3 boxes and 2 cablecards.

But it's not too bad. For now I have it down to $118 a month for all that, including all the channels including all of the premium channels.

One nice thing is that it went all HD this year, so you don't have to pay extra for an HD cable box. If you have the right equipment and HDMI cables you just use that. If you don't (like you have old CRT TVs, etc) you just use the a/v cables. I like that. The cablecards were all HD when I first got them over two years ago.

What is a cablecard?

chickenbutt · ‎03-09-2010

HH - With the Tivos of the last few years, instead of them hooking through a cable box and then to the TV like the older ones did, your cable co (ours is Charter) supplies a 'CableCARD' that inserts directly into the back of the Tivo. It does what a box would, otherwise, do.

Then they just match it up or program it, whatever they do, and you're in business. When I first replaced my Tivos with these newer ones a couple of years ago, the guy was testing the channels and I said 'wow, the reception is a little better now too'. He said, well, those are your HD channels. I said 'wo, I don't pay for HD service'. He said that when you have the cableCARD that's just the way it is so I was stoked.

Then, this Feb when Charter went all digital here everything went to HD without additional charge. As long as you have an HDTV and an HDMI cable you just plug into the newer cable boxes for the same price.

It's kind of nice to not have another box and I'm also glad that they are only $2 each. Usually you get one unit for free so, of course, they gave us one of those for 'free' because the boxes cost more.