Comcast High Def Cable Service on the Cheap

[mdcrab]

Recently purchased a HD TV with HD tuner and Cable Card slot. Previously Comcast had always lead me to believe I had to first upgrade to Digital Service at $12 per month and the pay another $5 for High Def. Called over this past weekend and found out now I can upgrade to Hi Def at $5 per month for Cable Card and $17 installation fee. No longer do you have to upgrade to Digital Service. I went ahead and scheduled the installation.

Customer service rep checked with her supervisor to make sure Comcast can do this. Also said that I was her first customer to do this.

mdcrab

 

[Baked]

It's the same everywhere AFAIK.

Comcast makes high-definition TV simple. If you have a new high-definition TV set, all you need is a Comcast HDTV cable box to make it come alive. If it's not in your neighborhood yet, it may be coming soon.

HDTV Monthly Price

High Definition Television $5.00

 

[odog]

got a mitsu?

upgrade your firmware.

 

[aphex]

Actually, if you have Brighthouse Networks, the HD service is the same price as the standard digital service... You just have to swing by a location and swap out the box...

 

[MrScott81]

it's free for Cox also (at least here in San Diego)

 

[Amplifier]

Harford County Represent!

 

[sMiLeYz]

baltimore county rep'in here, im sure we can get on this too since we're pretty much in the same area.

 

[Thorin78]

I just spoke with Comcast, actually on the phone right now . This is what they said to me:
Digital Plus includes Comcast sportsnet, ESPN, discovery and INHD and INHD2 channels. So without it, it's $14.95 here in PA, you lose those channels and no on-demand.
All you're left with is, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS and soon to come UPN. Those channels don't have 24 hour HD content.
I opted out.

However, I did get on the special promo for my comcast cable of $24.99 for 3 months for current comcast cable subscribers. It's on their website, www.comcast.com. I told them about it and she checked it out and put me on that plan. Yay.

 

[bigfil]

werd
ill call comcast today to get it goin
thanks op

 

[batmanuel]

An even better deal is their DVR service, if it has been rolled out in your area - I'm in Redmond, WA so I'm in early adopter country. They aren't really advertising it heavily since I think it is still in the final stages of testing before a big nationwide roll out. It costs me $9.95 extra a month on top of my digital cable bill and I get a video recorder set top box with 60 hours of recording time (for analog channels, that is, you get substantially less if recording HD programs, and your get lot more recording time if you are recording one of the digital channels that is already encoded and compressed to begin with). The interface is actually pretty decent and once the TiVo/Comcast merger goes through it will likey get upgraded to a version of TiVo. It is already pretty powerful to begin with and has a "season pass" like capability to grab only new episodes of your favorite shows and skip the repeats.

I don't have an HDTV to confirm, but one website reviewing their DVR service mentioned that the HD service price is included in the monthly DVR charge, so if you have HD service you'll only wind up paying $5 more a month for your DVR, which is super hot.

Of course, you still have the big bill for the digital cable service, which for me comes out to about $120 a month since I have the Digital Plus, the DVR service and their broadband internet service. It's a lot for one bill, but it is manageable since I kicked my landline telephone company to the curb years ago and have been using my cell for all my calls (which is quite doable for a reasonable cost with the kinds of rate plans they have nowadays).

 

[MrScott81]

I pay about $140/month from Cox and here is what I get (varies slightly due to telephone usage):
1) Cable internet (4mbit down, 512kbit up)
2) Digital Cable + HDTV service + HDTV DVR + HBO in my living Room, and the standard 70 channel analog services for all the other hookups in the house.
3) Digital Telephone (includes caller ID, 3 way calling, unlimited *69, etc, etc)

 

[dundevil]

-------------------------------------------------

However, I did get on the special promo for my comcast cable of $24.99 for 3 months for current comcast cable subscribers. It's on their website, www.comcast.com. I told them about it and she checked it out and put me on that plan. Yay.

----------------------------------------------------------

Wher is this on the Comcast site? I couldn't find it
TIA

Dundevil

 

[Thorin78]

well I'm in PA

http://www.comcast.com/Buyflow/default.ashx?LocResult&Zip=19342

I'm not sure if it's local, so YMMV

Special Offer for Current Comcast Cable Customers $24.99

 

[GTFan]

Originally posted by: MrScott81
I pay about $140/month from Cox and here is what I get (varies slightly due to telephone usage):
1) Cable internet (4mbit down, 512kbit up)
2) Digital Cable + HDTV service + HDTV DVR + HBO in my living Room, and the standard 70 channel analog services for all the other hookups in the house.
3) Digital Telephone (includes caller ID, 3 way calling, unlimited *69, etc, etc)

LOL, for $140 they should roll a tech to come over and wash your car every day too.

 

[timswim78]

Originally posted by: sMiLeYz
baltimore county rep'in here, im sure we can get on this too since we're pretty much in the same area.

Baltimore County, too.

No cable or satellite for me though. I'll get USDTV if that ever comes to MD.

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: GTFan

Originally posted by: MrScott81
I pay about $140/month from Cox and here is what I get (varies slightly due to telephone usage):
1) Cable internet (4mbit down, 512kbit up)
2) Digital Cable + HDTV service + HDTV DVR + HBO in my living Room, and the standard 70 channel analog services for all the other hookups in the house.
3) Digital Telephone (includes caller ID, 3 way calling, unlimited *69, etc, etc)

LOL, for $140 they should roll a tech to come over and wash your car every day too.

:werd:
Cable is not worth that freaking much man.

 

[Thorin78]

I pay $31 for basic cable through my association a month
$5 for HDTV
$14.95 for Digital Plus
$24.95 for cable internet, in 3 months it goes to $42.95 unless I can find another promo.
So that like $76 for cable tv.
It's the premium channels that adds up the costs. I can't believe how much they charge for cinemax or HBO and such.
the DVR? I got my Replay tv, that's enough for me. hehe.


If you don't get Digital Plus, the rental fee is $7 for the HDTV converter box.

 

[vetteguy]

Comcast has had digital cable in my area for years and years...and we still can't get HDTV through them. Always says "check back later". I've emailed them several times asking when it's coming, and I always get a canned response "we're working hard to bring the services you want...". Yeah, whatever. I called them once and asked why I could get HDTV from 2 different satellite providers where I live, and people 20 miles away can get a ton of HD programming from their cable provider, and their response was "well, I guess you should move then, shouldn't you?" Thanks Comcast.

 

[KoolAidKid]

Originally posted by: vetteguy
Comcast has had digital cable in my area for years and years...and we still can't get HDTV through them. Always says "check back later". I've emailed them several times asking when it's coming, and I always get a canned response "we're working hard to bring the services you want...". Yeah, whatever. I called them once and asked why I could get HDTV from 2 different satellite providers where I live, and people 20 miles away can get a ton of HD programming from their cable provider, and their response was "well, I guess you should move then, shouldn't you?" Thanks Comcast.

That's pretty typical for comcast. I do all that I can to avoid giving them any money. IMO, their rates are ridiculous. Plus I found the picture quality for digital cable to be noticeably inferior to Directv. Internet download speeds are good, but I would rather have slightly slower download speeds and give $30 to verizon.

 

[MrScott81]

Originally posted by: Chadder007

Originally posted by: GTFan

Originally posted by: MrScott81
I pay about $140/month from Cox and here is what I get (varies slightly due to telephone usage):
1) Cable internet (4mbit down, 512kbit up)
2) Digital Cable + HDTV service + HDTV DVR + HBO in my living Room, and the standard 70 channel analog services for all the other hookups in the house.
3) Digital Telephone (includes caller ID, 3 way calling, unlimited *69, etc, etc)

LOL, for $140 they should roll a tech to come over and wash your car every day too.

:werd:
Cable is not worth that freaking much man.

It's not just cable...it's cable, plus a DVR service (which records in HDTV), plus really fast internet and phone.....seems reasonable to me.

have you seen how much Tivo sells their HDTV-DVR for? About $1k last time I looked.

 

[onelove]

once you go HD with the DVR, they've got you.

There's no going back.

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: onelove
once you go HD with the DVR, they've got you.

There's no going back.

The DVR is like crack, man. Especially now that I have built up a pretty nice archive of cool movies from IFC and Sundance that I never got a chance to see before because they were scheduled for weird times. I just save them up and watch them when I have a spare moment. It saves me a lot on movie rentals and it gives me a chance to check out a lot of neat little movies like "Coffee and Cigarrettes: and "The Five Obstructions" that I otherwise would not have bothered to watch.

 

[BobMcG]

I'm sure Baltimore City will follow (in a couple of years).

 

[JACKHAMMER]

FYI, Comcast (at least in Chicago) send the broadcast HDTV channels in the clear. My HD tuner can pick them up, and it is FREE!

 

[pmoa]

Baltimore City here....same thing