I picked up a ROKU, I am wanting to cut the Cable TV cord.

Yes, I still need internet.

At present the phone, internet, and cable TV, is from one provider.
The cable TV runs about $90 a month + tax.
High speed internet $51 + tax
Phone$30 + tax
And then there are other fees that add up to another $20 or so a month.
The cable company just raised their price again. It’s now $212.59 a mo.
The only premium channel we have is Starz (garbage) which is part of the package. The bills says Starz is $2.41 a mo.

I can get Sling TV with the same programing as I have now (minus Starz) for $35 a month + tax.

I will have some up front costs and a little of my labor. To receive the 14 or so local over the air TV stations in my area I will have to install HD TV antenna in the attic. ( I’ll pay for that in 3 months. The Cable CATV provider charges $11.40 per month, for only about 5 or 6 of the 14 channels, to receive the local stations). I will also need to buy a ROKU unit for each TV I want to stream from, or what ever type of streamer unit I choose. I hear Amazon Prime also has a streaming service App that will give the user the channels he/she wants, not just what the CATV provider offers.
I just started looking into a Fire Stick. Nice thing about what I have looked at so far, no contracts.

Jim

schubert3,910 posts02-08-2018 3:47pmI get Wi-Fi through phone line with Century Link . Works fine .

@schubert

Century Link in my area sucks. Nothing but customer complaints!

@nonoise

Mediacom.

Dealing with them is like dealing with a used car shyster.

Jim

swampwalker
5,096 posts                                                               02-08-2018 2:49pm

Hey Jim- Wish I could get your deal ;-) Comcast bills me about $250/month AND the phone service has multiple drop-outs after about 5 minutes. Eventually, you can’t even have a conversation! Dealing with them is like dealing with a used car shyster for whom English is a second language! I was able to save $10 month by buying my own modem/router but it is an 18 month payback.

@swampwalker

I had phone problems for about a year after first getting the phone over Cable. Sounds like same problems you are having. To make a long story short the problem was the incoming digital signal was too strong and would lock up the modem sometimes. The only way I could get the thing unlocked was to unplug it from the power outlet, wait about 3 to 5 minutes, and plug it back in and let it reboot. To make a long story short I was told to call Mediacom and tell them their digital signal was too strong and was over driving the modem, causing it to lock up. Yeah Mediacom wanted to argue the point. Who was I tell them anything! I can’t count all the times they had come out before, only to tell me everything looked ok. I said send someone out and make sure they bring a bigger DB drop splitter, than was being used at the time.

Now the only time I lose the phone is when there is an outage in the area. 7 years and counting.

Dealing with them is like dealing with a used car shyster for whom English is a second language!

Yeah we found out don’t call the Mediacom help desk after about 11:00AM. If you do you are speaking to someone in the Philippines.

For what it’s worth I was telling my nephew I wanted to find an alternative to Mediacom cable TV. He is the one I got the ROKU box and remote from to try out.

For phone he uses Vonage. $25 a month + tax. It works over the internet. He has been using Vontage for about 10 without any problems. I checked into it. Right now they have a special offer for $9.99 + tax for one year and you get about $119 worth of equipment free. A one year contract is required for the special offer.

Jim

@mattg3,

 Thanks for the response. Like I said in my OP Amazon Prime plays movies flawlessly If I feed the HDMI from the ROKU directly to an HDMI input on the TV.

I'll try doing a search on the AVS forum about incompatibility problems between the ROKU and Marantz HT receiver. It is strange though the HDMI would cause a bandwidth problem loading an Amazon Prime movie.

The Samsung LED TV only offers a Toslink digital output. I'm not a fan of Toslink but I guess I will try it from the Samsung to the Marantz and see how it sounds.  I need to pick up a 1.5M cable.

Which ROKU do you recommend for best picture and overall quality?
The one I am using now is the 3. I assume that's what the big 3 on the top of the box means.

By change are you using Sling TV? If so how is the sound and picture quality? Is the picture quality comparable to Cable TV?

Jim

@whart ,

Bill,
 Thanks for the Link. I followed the post on the AVS forum where the guy said everything had to be powered off before connecting the HDMI cable from the ROKU to the HT receiver. I did have the Marantz and Samsung turned off but not the ROKU.

I just tried hooking the ROKU HDMI cable back up to the Marantz again having everything turned off including having the ROKU unplugged from the AC mains power outlet.

I then plugged in the ROKU PS into the AC power outlet. I waited for the blinking light on the front of the ROKU to stop blinking and go to solid.

I them powered up the Samsung TV and Marantz HT receiver. Set the Marantz to the correct HDMI input. And as before, the ROKU home page came up.

I then went to Amazon Prime. The page came up as before. I selected the same movie as I did before, when the low bandwidth banner came up on the screen..... NO Banner this time!! The movie started playing. No glitches or buffering, so far. Picture quality looks the sames as it did with the ROKU connected directly to the Samsung. Sounds good as well. A heck of a lot better than it did coming out of the 2 little down firing speakers on the TV.

Jim