#18 - A Few Changes to Our Streaming Subscriptions

Recent Changes

• Last August we "paused" our YouTubeTV subscription for 6 months. The subscription was set to reactivate automatically in February. We decided instead to cancel the serivce. At $65 per month, it's just too expensive for the benefit it provides. If we change our minds, we can resubscribe without penalty.
• Recently, Amazon made a change so that the wonderful 1950's TV series, "The Adventures of Robin Hood" is no longer free on Prime Video. It's now part of the "Best TV Ever" subscription, along with many other old shows. The price is only $0.99 per month, so we've added that subscription, at least until we finish watching the final season of Robin Hood.
• We've also subscribed to locast.org, which provides live streaming of all Detroit-area TV broadcast channels without a TV antenna. The cost is $5.50 per month. We haven't used it a lot, but we did use it to watch the Superbowl and to watch a UM basketball game on CBS. Locast does not include ESPN and Big Ten Network; I've watched highlights of those games on YouTube.
• At the beginning of the year Comcast increased the fee for our internet service to $75.95 per month.
• We received a free one-year subscription to the Apple TV+ network when I bought an iPad in November 2019. Apple has twice extended our free subscription, and it is now due to expire in July 2021, 20 months after the iPad purchase date.

 #17 - Living without YouTube TV

Our YouTube TV Pause went into effect a couple months ago. It's a definite change for us, but we haven't felt deprived. 

YouTube TV was our service for broadcast TV channels and standard cable TV channels. The biggest change for us is that we no longer have access to live sports, except for Thursday night NFL on Amazon Prime. I haven't yet felt deprived. We never watched much baseball, and the Lions are, well, the Lions.

As for Michigan football, I've been satisfied watching game highlights on YouTube after the game is over. Michigan basketball might be a different story. We might have to resume our YouTube TV service for a while if the season goes well.

We've never been in the habit of watching TV news, so we don't miss that.

Nancy watches some of the late-night show highlights on Instagram.

We can stream PBS shows on PBS Passport.

We watched the presidential debates and the Biden/Harris post-election speeches live on YouTube.

With our various streaming services, we still have more good TV available to watch than we have time to watch it.

Some Recent Comcast Developments

1. Comcast has increased our monthly data cap from 1 TB to 1.2 TB. We haven't gone over 500 GB during the last six months.
2. Some months ago, Comcast upgraded our download speed from 60 Mbps to 100 Mbps without a price increase.
3. Comcast sent us a free Xfinity Flex device with a remote control. It could possibly replace a Fire TV stick or a Chromecast device, but for now it just sits on the shelf.
4. Comcast is also providing us a free Peacock Premium streaming service (it has "limited commercials"). We haven't watched anythng since verifying that it works.

#16 - Still No 5.1 Channel Surround Sound on YouTube TV

 I had a chat session today with YouTube TV customer support. I wanted to find out the latest information on when they might support 5.1 channel surround sound. The representative confirmed that they don't support surround sound today, only stereo, and they have not projected date when thy will support surround sound.

I'm disappointed. Since we first subscribed, YouTube TV has introduced two large price increases, but still no surround sound. I don't understand what makes this difficult. Over the air broadcast TV supports surround sound, and the number of bits required to encode sound is much smaller than the number of bits required to encode video.

Our YouTube TV "pause" goes into effect in a couple days. Implementing surround sound would be an incentive to reactivate the service.

#15 - Pausing YouTube TV

Effective this month, YouTube TV has increased their monthly fee from $50 to $65. They've also added a few channels, but nothing of great interest to us. You can read Google's announcement here: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-tv-update

I expect Google will see a lot of subscribers cancel or pause their memberships, especially as various college conferences are suspending their fall sports programs.

Nancy and I paused our membership today. The way this works is that the pause goes into effect at the end of the current billing period, which will be September 7 for us. During the pause we will not be able to view any live programs or any programs recorded on the YouTube TV DVR. Our existing DVR recordings will be preserved, subject to the nine month DVR storage limit, for viewing when our pause expires.

We chose to pause for six months, the maximum allowed. (Four weeks is the minimum.) If we change our minds, we can reactivate our membership immediately at any time; we don't have to wait the full six months.

I think it's likely we will end up cancelling the service altogether. Or perhaps we will reactivate the service one month at a time if there is some live event that we really, really want to watch. We don't watch much live TV now, and we've been using the DVR less and less. 

Some of the networks we've watched on YouTube TV are also available via other subscriptions, so we will be looking into those alternatives, too. 

#14 - Some Observations 10 Months After Cutting the Cord

We're generally happy with the decisions and choices we've made to cut the cord. Here are some observations after ten months.

Devices: We've tried the Amazon Fire TV Stick, Google Chromecast, and Roku. For our purposes, the Fire TV Stick is the most versatile and the easiest to use. It supports all of our TV streaming services, and it comes with an easy-to-use remote control. In particular, the Fire TV remote works great when skipping over commercials with the YouTubeTV DVR. Each time you click fast-forward it shows a small image of what's 15 seconds ahead, so you can judge whether to continue clicking forward, or to back up 15 seconds if you've overshot the commercial break.

(Note: The Amazon Fire TV Stick might not work well if you don't have an Amazon Prime subscription. We haven't tried that.)

Streaming Services: With our current subscriptions to Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, HBO, PBS Passport, and YouTubeTV, we have more good TV available than we have time to watch. Since we initially signed up, YouTube TV has increased their fee from $40 per month to $50, and they still haven't implemented surround sound. Disappointing, but I think it's still our best option.

Internet Service: Comcast Xfinity is still the only practical service provider in our neighborhood. AT&T offers only a lower speed service. In October, Comcast increased our Performance Internet download speed from 60Mbps to 100Mbps, leaving the upload speed at 5Mbps. Starting January 2020, our monthly fee will increase from $69.95 to $72.95. I don't expect Comcast to add any taxes or fees on top of the $72.95.

Our Comcast internet data service comes with a monthly cap of 1 terabyte. Overruns are very expensive, so we watch our data usage carefully. Typically, we stay under 500 or 600 GB, but one month we almost reached 900 GB. Cloud data backups, not TV streaming, was our biggest consumer of data in that peak month.

#13 - February Comcast Bill - No Taxes, Surcharges & Fees

Hooray! We received our February Comcast bill (now for Internet Services only) and the amount billed equals the price quoted, no added taxes, surcharges & fees.

Those mysterious surcharges and fees have always been one of the most annoying things about dealing with Comcast.

#12 - January Data Usage

You may recall that one of our concerns with cord cutting is whether we can stay under the Comcast cap of 1024 GB per month.

So far so good.

Our January total is 387 GB, and I noted that we hit 187 GB in mid-January. So our usage after cutting the cord was not much greater than our usage before cutting the cord.

#11 - First Comcast Bill Since Dropping TV and Voice Shows a Credit Balance

Yesterday we received our January Comcast bill. It shows that Comcast owes us $5.09 because the December bill of $210.39 included prepayment for about ten days of Comcast TV and Comcast Voice that we subsequently canceled.

I think our February Comcast bill will be for $69.95. I don't know if there will be any added taxes or fees.

Overall things are going OK. No regrets.

Our internet data usage (measured per calendar month) is 229 GB as of January 20, so we seem to be on track to stay within our 1 TB per month allowance.

Another positive note: So far we haven't had any trouble fast-forwarding through commercials on shows that we record with the YouTubeTV DVR.

Also, we haven't noticed any difference in performance since dropping from 150 MBPS internet service to 60 MBPS. The Comcast SpeedTest tool shows an objective difference, we can't feel it in our daily use.

#10 - How to Watch PBS

PBS is one of our favorite networks.

You may recall from post #2 that YouTube TV provides live viewing of most local channels, but it does not include PBS stations. We think this is because PBS does not have the right to enable streaming all of their shows.

For people who live relatively close to an over-the-air broadcast antenna, the best solution probably is to buy an HD TV antenna and use it to watch your local PBS station. But that's not an option for us because we live too far from the Detroit and Toledo antennas. We'd need to have a 60-foot antenna tower, which our subdivision does not allow, and we wouldn't want anyway.

We have, however, for many years been contributors to our local PBS stations, and this allows us to stream some PBS shows via PBS.org and PBS Passport.

Last night we tested this, watching this week's new episode of Nova on PBS Passport. We streamed the show from my phone using our Chromecast. It worked pretty well, but we subsequently discovered that streaming PBS works better using an Amazon FireTV Stick or a Roku box (both of which we already own).

The next big test will be whether we can stream the new Season 3 of Victoria, which begins tomorrow night. It's already possible to stream Season 1 and Season 2 via PBS Passport, so we hope this continues with Season 3.

#9 - We Have Lift-Off

Yesterday we received our new third party wifi router, so today I called Comcast to cancel our TV and Voice services, and to cancel the rental of all the Comcast equipment in our house.

At the same time I asked Comcast to drop our internet subscription from the 150 mbps "Blast" level to the 60 mbps "Performance" level. (Both are rated at 5 mbps upstream.) I figure we might as well try the slower, cheaper downstream service to see if it satisfies our needs. (I think it will.) We can upgrade the internet service later if we need to.

The change in services went into effect immediately, and we were temporarily without any internet service until Comcast activated our new cable modem. This took less than an hour, and Comcast phone support was very helpful. The internet connection was up and running in time for us to watch the Michigan basketball game tonight live on YouTube TV.

Tomorrow I need to return all of the Comcast boxes to the local Comcast storefront.

So far so good.

Two big questions to be resolved:

• Will we be happy with the 60 mbps service?
• Will we be able to stay within our 1 TB monthly data cap?

And lots of little things to tweak as we figure things out.

I think our new monthly bills will add up to about $145 compared to the the $210 bill that Comcast sent us in December. We also invested $437 in new hardware that is I think superior* to the Comcast hardware, so we should break even in 6 or 7 months and see steady savings after that point. And we are not relying on any promotional pricing that will expire in 12 months.

* I went with a 3-node mesh network using Google Wifi.

#8 - Telephone Number Porting is Complete and Newly Purchased Cable Modem has Arrived

Our permanent home phone number (since 1979) has now been ported from Comcast Voice to Ooma. The caller ID for outgoing calls didn't work properly at first, but this was quickly resolved via a chat session with Ooma tech support.

Also, our new third-party cable modem arrived today. A new wifi router is due to arrive tomorrow. My goal is to remove all Comcast hardware from our house so we are not paying any rental fees. I bought the cable modem and router separately so it will be  easy (at least hypothetically) to switch to a different internet service provider should we decide to break completely with Comcast.

#7 - Some Comic Relief from the Philadelphia Enquirer

Comcast decides that the best way to respond to cord cutting is to squeeze more money from their customers who continue to buy their TV services: (Click Here to Read Newspaper Article)

#6 - Signing Up with OOMA

Signing up with OOMA was our first financial commitment in the direction of leaving Comcast TV and Comcast Voice.

The Basics:

1. I ordered an OOMA VOIP Device from bestbuy.com and picked it up at our local store an hour later. $80. Easy.
2. With the device's unique Activation Code in hand, I created a new account on the OOMA website. As part of the process I selected a phone number in my local area code for the new device.
3. I plugged the device in and tested it. Incoming calls worked right away, but I heard an error message every time I tried an outgoing call.
4. Frustrated by the error messages, I initiated a chat with OOMA tech support via their website. They responded withing a few minutes, and quickly diagnosed and fixed the problem. "Are you dialing 7, 10, or 11 digits for your outgoing calls?" When I responded 10 digits, he made an adjustment to my device's settings, and outgoing calls immediately started working. Apparently the device's factory settings expect something other than 10 digits.

Leaving Comcast Voice:

1. With that basic functionality in place, I purchased one year's worth of OOMA Premier service, which includes the cost of porting our permanent landline number from Comcast to OOMA. ($40 if you don't buy the Premier service.)
2. I submitted via the OOMA website my formal request to port the phone number. OOMA's website states that this can take up to a month to complete, but user comments state that it usually takes only a few days.
3. Two days later, I received a message from OOMA letting me know that the number porting is scheduled to be effective tomorrow.

#5 - Signing Up with YouTube TV

We started a five-day free trial with YouTube TV while we were weighing whether to accept Comcast's offer (See Post #1).

Now we are simply allowing the trial subscription to roll over into a paid subscription.

As I noted in post #2, we already owned the necessary hardware to make YouTube TV work, so no new investment was required.

#4 - How About AT&T?

After my disappointing phone call with Comcast (See post #3), I took a serious look at AT&T as an alternative. Comcast and AT&T are the only companies offering broadband service at our house. We decided not to pursue this option because:

• Max internet download speed is 25 Mbps versus our current 150 Mbps from Comcast.
• AT&T's promotional pricing for TV and voice seems to be loaded with the same kind of tricks that are in Comcast's pricing.
• AT&T's non-promotional pricing is even higher than Comcast's pricing.
• Nancy reminded me that, "Everyone hates AT&T."

We concluded that we would cancel Comcast TV and Comcast Voice, but keep Comcast internet.

#3 - Comcast Reneges

After Nancy and I discussed our options, we decided to go with the Comcast's offer to lock us in to their X1 Starter Triple Play package at the same promotional price we had been paying in November. (See Post #1 for details.)

Our rationale was that some of the "Cons" with available streaming services might be fixed in the next year, and we would avoid that unknown risks that come with cutting the cord.

I called Comcast, and I was frankly shocked when that they refused to honor the prices they had offered me less than 24 hours earlier. I spent about 90 minutes on the phone with them (mostly on hold), talking to three different agents, and they all told me that what had been offered yesterday was not possible.

They offered me several other options, all more expensive than what they had offered the day before. At the end of the call, I declined all of these lesser offers and told them they had lost a customer.

#2 - Which Streaming Services?

Based on our online investigation, the following services look like the most attractive replacements for Comcast TV and Comcast Voice. We considered them seriously while weighing the offers that Comcast had made (See Post #1.):

• YouTube TV
• Pros
• Live reception of most local Detroit area channels.
• Almost all of the cable-only channels we watch.
• Includes cloud based DVR service.
• Support for up to six users.
• We already own the necessary hardware, in this case Chromecasts and Google Home minis.
• Cons
• No PBS. (But we can watch some PBS shows via our existing PBS Passport membership.)
• No surround sound for live TV. This is a pretty big deal for me. (But Google has hinted that it may be available sometime this year.)
• Under some circumstances (we're still learning which ones), it's not possible to fast-forward through commercials when watching DVR recordings.

• OOMA Voice over Internet Telephone Service
• Pros
• No charge for basic voice service after buying the Ooma box ($80 at Best Buy). Only pay legally mandated fees of about $4 per month.
• Cons
• $10 extra per month for:
• Porting old landline phone number to Ooma.
• Nomorobo screening of junk calls.
• Unlimited calls to USA, Canada, and Mexico.
• Other miscellaneous added features
• $5 extra per month for automated voice-to-text voicemail transcripts.

#1 - Our Motivation: A 22% Price Increase from Comcast

Our December Comcast bill indicated a 22% increase in our monthly fee for the same services. I called Comcast and talked to an agent about our alternatives. She explained that our one-year "promotional" rate for "X1 Starter Triple Play" at $89.99 had expired, and the new temporary rate for the next year would be $124.99, after which it would again increase to the "standard" price.

Eventually, she offered a couple of reasonable alternatives:

1. Sign up for another year of the same service for the same promotional price, after which it would again expire, or
2. Drop TV and Voice service and sign up for a one-year promotional price for "Extreme 250" internet-only service for $79.95 per month, plus $15 per month for unlimited data.

I told her I would think about these alternatives, discuss them with my wife, and call her back with my decision.

(I should explain that the prices cited above are the base price only. Our total November bill was $171.86, and our total December bill was $210.39, hence the 22% increase. The total prices include DVR service for 3 TV's and HBO, plus various other taxes and fees.)