Cox just announced that, effective 1/16/16, it was going all digital and eliminating their analog (unencrypted) feed on their fist coax cable. They want everyone to get a mini-box for $3 a month, though they say that it's free for a year.

Can I buy a mini-box from a third party and save this recurring charge that will begin in a year?

Can I legally buy my own cable box so I don't have to pay Cox for a monthly rental?

Switch to FIOS. Better picture, better service.

Hard to believe that anyone who has a choice still carries Cox over Verizon. Otherwise, it's not legal but you can buy Brand-X boxes. Performance will not be so hot and the cost will be more than the $3 a month that Cox apparently wants, but don't let these corporate bullies push you around.

Didn't realize this was still available. Pretty sure your FiOS is all digital anyway. Verizon customer service is the worst. COX cable is great for me, sticking with it.

Cox has been fine for me too. However, some of us don't have a huge choice since FiOS is still not available in all areas.

Aren't cable boxes like a thing of the 80s? Are we regressing here?

And if my TV is digital capable will I have to get one of these boxes? I've noticed not all of the channels are digital however.

I set up a new Black Friday tv for my grandma out in podunk over Thanksgiving. Her basic cable just comes in on a coax with no cable box required. Analog channels showed up on the channel scan along with the locals in both analog and HD digital. I think if you have a relatively new tv, you'll be fine and the add'l cable box won't be necessary.

40 tears ago, you couldn't buy your own telephone. It's amazing that you still can't buy your own cable box. It's a great lesson on why monopolies never innovate; they don't have to! And sadly, it's a reminder of why we need some govt meddling in the economy.

...apparently COX are saying ALL TV's need a box. Currently we have one TV running with just the cable plugged in the back, and that's kind of cool ....get lots of stations.

Only other option now would be antenna...

I was going to start a thread on this but thankfully someone else started it. I just got the notification in the mail yesterday about COX requiring all tv's to have digital boxes.

THIS SUCKS!

All my tv's have the cable directly inserted into the tv.

> $3 a month

liar

COX and the government also forced people to upgrade/buy to "docis 2.x modems", after which ...

they claimed the modems were "incompatible" and users must obtain new modems installed and owned by COX

====================

i'm all ears tell me more of your COX Cable lies

You can buy your own cable box, like a tivo unit. But cox makes you get a cable card. I miss my old 80s style analog dark wood colored cable box, it was 'hacked' and I could get every channel available. Actually discovered playboy channel was actually pretty boring after awhile.

I guess my free analog will run out -- been waiting for this as an excuse to drop Cox ---

Comcast did this about 3 years ago. You need to rent a box for every television. You can have the most hi-tech television but you still must connect it to those cable dummy boxes. It's long past ridiculous that you cannot buy your own converter box and are still being forced to rent a box from the cable company.

9dCtP Wrote:
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> > $3 a month
>
> liar
>
> COX and the government also forced people to
> upgrade/buy to "docis 2.x modems", after which
> ...
>
> they claimed the modems were "incompatible" and
> users must obtain new modems installed and owned
> by COX
>
> ====================
>
> i'm all ears tell me more of your COX Cable lies

Bullshit. I've owned my modem for years, never rented one from Cox.

Ma Belle Wrote:
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> 40 tears ago, you couldn't buy your own telephone.
> It's amazing that you still can't buy your own
> cable box. It's a great lesson on why monopolies
> never innovate; they don't have to! And sadly,
> it's a reminder of why we need some govt meddling
> in the economy.

There was never a time when you could not buy your own telephone. Kill yourself.

Prior to the 1982 anti-trust settlement which ended the AT&T Bell System monopoly, AT&T prohibited their customers from connecting phones not made or sold by Bell to the system without paying fees. If a customer desired a type of phone not leased by the local Bell monopoly, he or she had to purchase the phone at cost, give it to the phone company, then pay a 're-wiring' charge and a monthly lease fee in order to use it.

Does this provide any benefit whatsoever for Cox customers, or is it just another way from Cox to fuck them over?

Big Cox up your ass are bad for your health

Check yo self Wrote:
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> Big Cox up your ass are bad for your health

Hasn't hurt obama's health yet.

Cox raises fees every year mostly on features that most people don't even use....i.e. home security and such. I have the bundled package with TV, Internet, and phone all in one. They tell me how great a discount I get each year.
I call them and threaten I am going to leave for Verizon and they transfer me to the loyalty group. We talk, we negotiate, I give them the story of being a long time customer....if I don't talk to the right "knot head", then I call back and eventually I get the right "knot head" and they drop the increase.

"Let me be TECH SUPPORT". HA HA HA....

I had the same question, whether there were 3rd party solutions to the impending totally-scrambled digital signal. It's happening nationally, and in monitoring some national discussions of a 3rd party box, nobody has come up with an idea better than the suggestion to get a tuner with a cable card rented from Cox, which appears to be cheaper than the after-a-year monthly price of the new cable boxes they are renting. In this thread, someone mentioned TiVo, which is an example of a situation where you own the box but plug in the Cox card. I have one (the TiVo Roamio) and it works great 95% of the time but does require an outboard box ("tuning adapter") that is included in the CableCARD price.

From Cox site (https://www.cox.com/residential/pricing.html):
Rounded figures: CableCARD, $2/mo.; MiniBox, $3/mo.

Example of fruitless national discussion on search for alternate one-time purchase solutions:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CoxCommunications/comments/3ubgcq/mini_box_alternative_buy_from_a_third_party/

And then there's the "put up an antenna" solution, of course, if it just the local channels you want. If you DON'T have multiple family members wanting to watch different channels and just want your show in any of several rooms, you can hard-wire a Gemini Rabbit VCR/Cablebox distribution system or something similar where all your rooms can get the signal from one Cox cable box output (FCC shut down Gemeni's local-wireless broadcast device). I had a Rabbit years ago and it worked fine with Fairfax Cox service until a growing family needed channel diversity in each room.

I haven't seen these kinds of discussions branch much into streaming but I do like the flexibility to watch many of my Cox-fed shows on the computer, and with an iPhone you can probably transmit it to a Chromecast. I watch my Cox CNN at the office on a federal computer, and my Cox-supported HBO on a Roku, which like Chromecast is an internet device that plugs into an HDMI port on a TV (and I have had limited success with the Roku to an old TV that has conventional RCA ports with an HDMI converter).

It's a brave new world of options, but a core principle is that Cox has you by the short hairs to get their cut. I blame the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for not writing "free analog basic cable to all sets in a household indefinitely" into their contract with Cox when as Media General it got rights to ROW and exclusivity to wire Fairfax County years ago.

Apologies for the long post.

Danny Boy Wrote:
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> Does this provide any benefit whatsoever for Cox
> customers, or is it just another way from Cox to
> fuck them over?

Presumably frees up some bandwidth, and allows them to spend money on modernizing instead of supporting legacy stuff that (almost) nobody uses anymore.

OK, that's the positive spin. The negative versions are pretty easy to figure out...

did it occur to you that COX cable came along AFTER analog cable boxes and AFTER digital tv and java?

they created or destroyed nothing. they are removing equipment they didn't make for more other equipment they didn't make: because it is cheaper

Any update on this topic?

I have not done anything and we still seems to have signal without box

Late last night I lost 4 channels only a few channels left to delete- today i'll probably have none

they are forcing you "to have better service" -- but i think the box comes at a monthly fee
-- go figure

The Old Guy Wrote:
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> Can I buy a mini-box from a third party and save
> this recurring charge that will begin in a year?

No.

> Can I legally buy my own cable box so I don't have
> to pay Cox for a monthly rental?

No.

Glad I could help!

When I heard of this I went to them and moved my level down to the minimum. They gave me 2 boxes for free for 1 year...when I hooked up boxes I only got 43 channels, without the boxes I was getting the upper channels including ESPN, MSNBC, FNC, CNN, History, Etc. In the beginning of february some of the upper channels went away (History and AMC for one). Still had FNC and MSNBC and ESPN. I subsribe to Sling for AMC.

I am currently paying $18/month. What that was giving me is all the OTA channels at HD (about 43 I think) and all the analog channels that hadn't coverted. This morning they shut off all of the upper channels...only the 43 HD channels that are OTA are coming in without the box. BTW, to add the upper tier in that includes AMC, CNN, etc. it is almost $60 additional a month, a complete rip off.

Basically the $18/month was giving what an antenna would give me plus a few more, now it is only what an antenna would give me. I guess I will hook up the boxes and use them while they are free if they completely turn off the feed.

Cable company finds yet another way to screw over their customers, with an Orwellian explanation of how your benefit by paying more for less. Nothing new here!

You people need to get with the program. Get Verizon internet, hook it up to your XBox and a whole new universe of TV and movie apps will appear before your eyes. Easy to find free ones too.

Oh boy, more cheapskates complaining a company has the 'audacity' to charge customers for the valuable services that they provide. The sacrilege!

Mr Potter Wrote:
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> Cable company finds yet another way to screw over
> their customers, with an Orwellian explanation of
> how your benefit by paying more for less. Nothing
> new here!

The $3.00 per box rental that customers are forced to use was most likely manufactured for $1.50. A nice cash cow for the cable companies. I had Comcast and believe they included the first 2 of them for "free" and the remaining ones had to be rented.

TruthSpeaks Wrote:
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> Oh boy, more cheapskates complaining a company has
> the 'audacity' to charge customers for the
> valuable services that they provide. The
> sacrilege!

Get back to your cube and answer some phone calls, coxsucker!

Verizon is the evolution of the old Bell Atlantic/C&P Telephone lineage, one of the worst companies ever. They fucked up more shit in their time than I could write about here. Never again.

Cox Internet is faster in my neighborhood, cheaper when used as a stand alone service and 2 year contracts are not required like Verizon.

I use Cox for Internet (streaming) and have basic basic basic TV so that I don't need antennas right now...$98/month with taxes. I pay for what I want with streaming including Sling (AMC/CNN/ESPN) and Amazon Prime Streaming for other shows that I watch.

Stabitha Wrote:
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> You people need to get with the program. Get
> Verizon internet, hook it up to your XBox and a
> whole new universe of TV and movie apps will
> appear before your eyes. Easy to find free ones
> too.

Don't miss cox's shitty compressed HD and barely watchable SD channels. On fios, even the SD are completely watchable. HD is much nicer as well.

Only downside...it's verizon.

analog has dangerous stray voltages and isnt green. it's no longer allowed in stores.
.
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analog, still, has made a comback in niche markets such as sales to government and institutions ...

this new NO PARKING sign is an example of analog's come-back!
.
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bump

The good old days.....
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Mike O'Meara Show Fan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ma Belle Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > 40 tears ago, you couldn't buy your own
> telephone.
> > It's amazing that you still can't buy your own
> > cable box. It's a great lesson on why
> monopolies
> > never innovate; they don't have to! And sadly,
> > it's a reminder of why we need some govt
> meddling
> > in the economy.
>
> There was never a time when you could not buy your
> own telephone. Kill yourself.

There was a time when there was no option to own your phone. The phone came with the service and the phone belonged to the telephone company. That was when the telephone company would service their phones - inside and out - at no charge (if I remember correctly). The phones were nice and heavy. Built to last.
Attachments:

> There was a time when there was no option to own your phone.

total communist liar

the 1 main line to the house and telephone were provided so that 911 was not disabled by cheap crap

there was never a time when people could not buy their own phones and use them. they didn't disable the company phone because it was the only f'ing phone that never broke and was always working

your display of what appears to be an "analog phone" is cute. but Bell, AT&T, Verizon went digital long before people knew what digital was: they were digital when those old phones were still in use. companies copied their telco switch technologies and are avoiding patents to this day.

it was in communist facist countries that had such "gov run systems", not usa, where such monopoly telcos operated.

but still there is a misconcept promoted by jewtv that "3rd world countries" lived in shanty towns, but infact in the 70's these countries and miles of road, telephone lines, radio, etc - competing against the usa for installing it faster.

now come to the future and you have bastard companies like Microsoft who help China push PC hardware by driver malware, and Microsoft buying and shutting down certain industry - which is against the interest of investors and consumers - but always it is sold to NOVELL (germany), Novell (the german telephone company) has always attacked USA electronics and software firms in every way possible.

fact is no one uses Novell hardware: they use Cisco (usa, improperly funded but still usa) and chinese cards (cheap stolen technology, but cost effective option)

so how is it novell claims to own Verizon again? their IPX failed for tcp. they stopped making hardware. their laptops all have usa intel chips they "bought".

what were you saying ?

signed, -REN

USA had phones you weren't allowed to own?

what is ring euivalence number ?

your either not from the USA or haven't been alive long enough to know

i've know for a long time germany - in recent years but not in past - (but also so many other foreigners they are not highlighted to much - including south america like brazil etc - hackers)

have continually been involved with injecting malware in linux and BSD to cause information collapse in uSA releases. this is while they are using cisco and intel hardware they aquired from USA ... to cause malaysia et al to be more powerful. your past purchases were appreciated.

for a long time they've openly talked about malware - they use the words "fixing a problem with unix" to mean "prevent unix from performing the same feature - because it already does", but sometimes dont even hide the fact they are disabling top usa mil unix ibm cicso design features. just openly trashing.

RECENTLY i now see chat about how to attack CISCO routers to mis-route data by using IPV6 - usu. coupled with intent of steering services to a different company (i would think foreign telephone competitor)

THATS something that was never allowed in the past could lead to immediate arrest in the USA. today - i see it online more and more. how to attack usa critical hardware - foreigners discussing it openly - using linux bsd NOVELL suse, etc.

yes telephone service has changed in usa

but it would be better if under sea lines were CUT, in my opinion