I'm coming full circle. When we moved to Portland 8 years ago, I got Comcast triple play (voice, TV, internet) for $115, it was such a good deal! Well, over time it went up and up and last year, when it was $230 or so, I dropped voice and replaced it with a $12 extra line with our cellular carrier. That took the Comcast bill from $230/mo to $130/mo This weekend I dropped TV, something my kids have been telling me to do, since we hardly ever watch cable TV. That takes my Comcast bill to $95/mo for just 50 MB/s internet. I will also drop my TiVo service at $15/mo. I can reduce it to $85/mo by downgrading to 25 MB/s internet, or I can drop Comcast entirely and get internet from our local telco. They charge $80/mo for 40 MB/s, but there is a 1 year introductory $30/mo price, and I'm told they extend that for another year if you call and state your intention to drop. We are paying for $16/mo for Netflix and Hulu Plus. I might subscribe to an online sports streaming service for another $10/mo. In the summer, I might pay $30 to watch the Tour de France online. TL:DR version - "I was paying $245/mo for Comcast + TiVo, I am now $123/mo for Comcast + Netflix + Hulu + a cellular home phone, and I can get it to $58/mo for telco internet 1-or-2-year deal + Netflix + Hulu + cellular home phone." I will spend about $200 one-time for a used modem, Roku, cables to connect Mac to TV, maybe an OTA antenna. We are still figuring out the limitations of Netflix and Hulu. For example, my son asked how he could watch the current season of Doctor Who. Turns out that BBC UK streams it but only to the UK, and by going through a free proxy server in the UK, you can watch it in the US.

I am a Customer Support Rep. at Thomson. (RCA & GE Electronics) We still do not have a resolution to the SAP problem. Keep in mind, that this goes for anyone who's audio has switched to SAP, static or NO audio on some channels, as well as NO audio on Television programming, but on commercials. I can ASSURE you this, Thomson is working very hard on correcting this problem. To those of you who cannot resolve your problem by unplug/replug, or, if the TV does respond to this "fix" - but only last a short while - NOTE: THE PROBLEM IS STILL BEING WORKED ON. UNPLUGGING AND REPLUGGING WILL NOT FIX YOUR SET!!! IT IS ONLY A TEMPORARY SOLUTION. WE at Thomson are all aware of the problem but unfortunately have not been given the "actual" source of the issue, as we DO NOT KNOW what casued the issue. We are working diligently to find out what caused the issue and how to resolve it. Until the real source is located, and a resolution has been found, all we can say is be patient. Yes, it seems to be with cable customers with older model TV's, and Spike TV as well as the Speed Channel being mentioned the most; with Guide Plus as a feature to the TV in some cases. As soon as a fix is found, I will post one here. Be patient, as we are trying to be AS WELL!

While the television tuner can become intermittent and/or fail, it really is somewhat rare. I highly recommend connecting your television to your husbands coax feed to see if the problem is still there - just part of the basic troubleshooting process. If it gone you know the television is OK and it is a signal issue. As far as who to call, there is not a simply answer anymore. Cable companies used to wired the cable to multiple rooms for you. Now they have typically taken the telephone company approach of a demarcation point at your house where their line responsibility ends on the outside of your home and your responsibility begins. Since your husband's television is working OK, and I'm suspecting your television will work OK on his coax feed - the problem is then on your side of the demarcation point - or simply the wiring which is your responsibility. That should be something your "local TV guy" should be able to address. One possible reason why the problem may occur more on commercials is that local ads are inserted into the network program stream and slight variations in the signal may occur.

I record most of what we watch, but we also watch shows using our antenna that the cable service neglects to provide for us. Last week-end I discovered that we get a "Surf" channel from our antenna - all surf, all the time, complete with surf music, which I like. I haven't seen any commercials on that channel, but that might change, as I think it is a new channel. We get three times as many PBS channels through our antenna as we do through cable, and I watch a lot of those - except for the Kids channels. I mute all commercials that I cannot FF through. I remember back in the 1950s and early 1960s when commercials used to be entertaining, especially the ones for Jax Beer: