Confused by Comcast "fees" & Samsung SX022ANM

Samsung is DVR box rental. Comcast has an ng where you might ask about all.

Sort of legit. The Samsung is a wireless receiver. It is common to charge a rental fee for equipment, especially if it is a premium featured unit.

Not sure about the broadcast fee, it may be for local channels.

The regional sports fee is something the cable companies pay to LB, NFL, etc. While legal to charge, IMO it is like going to the store and getting a package of icecream. At the checkout they charge you $3 for the icecream and they add a 20 cent "refrigeration fee".

If you look at your phone or electric bills you see a long list of little charges. Cable companies do that too so they can advertise a low price and then add in the other items.

I argued with DirecTv about the sports fee and I don't watch sports. They would not remove it but they did give me a discount.

Wireless receiver? Hmmmmm... I'm not sure what it would do.

They have a coax coming into the apartment living room, which goes to a modem and a router which they own.

There is apparently a TV with this Samsung SX022ANM on the TV, where this Samsung "thing" is the only hardware they say that Comcast gave them.

I don't know cable (I'm on WISP) but I think they need some type of "TV box", is that right?

If they need a TV box, and if that's the only thing they need from Comcast, I'm going to "guess" (yes, I'm just guessing so I could easily be wrong) that it's this "tv box" that is required.

But I'm just guessing about that hardware, which is why I asked here.

I found out more about the broadcast fees.

They are a scam but there's nothing we can do about it. If the lawsuit against Comcast wins, it's probably class action so, that means any one individual gets like twenty five cents or nothing.

After reading that article, I must agree with you completely!

I think the "little charges" on the phone or electric bill are "real fees" though, although my propane bill has a "hazmat fee" which is probably a fake fee like the Comcast fake fee.

I told them to argue with Comcast about the fake fees, but, I can't imagine Comcast caring.

At the moment, I'm mostly just left confused what this Samsung SXO22ANM is.

I can't dispute that the Samsung SX022ANM is a "DVR Box Rental" because I can't figure out what it is by talking to the kids over the phone. They said it connects to the TV, so, at the moment, I'm assuming it's a "digital cable box".

The odd thing is I can't find a user manual or even a good description of it, so, I think I'm working with bad data from the kids (they're in their early twenties, but they're still just kids).

Looking in my newsrc file, I see this one? alt.online-service.comcast

Thank you for that input as I'm not familiar with "converter boxes" since wisp doesn't have them (we have rooftop antennas).

Is this "cable converter" box a requirement?

I found out more about the "Broadcast TV Fee" & "Regional Sports Fee", which this article says are bogus and which Comcast is being sued for at this very moment.

I called Comcast myself to figure out more and the sales person told me that the fees were government taxes that Comcast has nothing to do with (which turns out to be a lie but that's besides the point).

I couldn't get a straight answer from the Comcast guy about this reputed Samsung SX022ANM cable converter box. He started talking about a $4/month "digital cable box" and then extra for "HD" and "on demand" stuff, which I know nothing about (WISP doesn't have TV channels). He also talked about $10/month DVR boxes, which I don't think this is either.

I made a typo mistake on the number of TV channels. It's 35 channels (not 135 channels).

So the service is 100Mbps down and 5Mbps up with 35 channels for $85/month plus those bogus fees of about 11 bucks plus taxes of about 15 bucks.

What I know now that I didn't know earlier are that the "fees" are bogus fees which Comcast is being sued for both hiding them from the customer at the time of sale (which seems to be the case here also) and for representing them as "government fees" (which they just did on the phone for me today).

So, the fees are pretty much figured out.

The only thing that is not figured out is what this Samsung SX022ANM is, but, I found out from the kids that it's on one girl's bedroom on top of her TV, so, it's probably this "digital cable box" that seems to be required in order to watch TV.

I'm pretty surprised that anything is required to watch TV, but I don't have TV with WISP so I'm not sure. But it seems to me that the TV should just have a tuner if it's a modern TV, so, why you need a tuner on top of a tuner makes no sense to me.

If you look on the back of the box you would find the modle numbers that match. I am not sure of your cable system, but most cable systems require atleast one digital box now to watch anything coming down the cable. As a way for the companies to stick it to the users they usually charge so much for each box that is hooked to a TV. Many charge a fee for the cable modem that is used for the internet, but you can buy your own and it pays for its self in about 6 months to a year. I think the FCC is trying or maybe they have by now where you can buy your own digital TV box now.

That's what the Samsung sx022anm must be, which is the thing that attaches to the cable and then to the back of the TV. The original roommate must be renting it, even though it doesn't show up on her bill according to what she told the other roommate (who is the one I'm trying to help) who is moving in.

That other roommate is my own kid, where she had Comcast cable but no TV so it was a ton simpler (without any taxes or fees whatsoever!). We simply bought from Costco their best Docsys 3 modem (I think it was a Motorola modem as I recall but it was years ago) and a Netgear AC router (as I recall).

These kids are in college so I don't think they need TV but it's there now in the new apartment, but it's useless to the second kid because she doesn't even own a TV.

Can she watch the TV signal on a computer? (Probably not.) (I'm not talking about a web site - I'm talking about the actual TV.)

I'm kind of out of touch with technology, but do TVs still exist?

All they are is a tuner and a monitor, where the tuner seems to be this Samsung sxo22anm thing, so, does all she need is a monitor?

I don't remember the math, but I can't imagine NOT buying your own cable modem because you save everywhere.

1. The self-installation fee is something like ten bucks whereas if they give you a modem, the setup fee is something like fifty or sixty bucks so you save about forty or fifty bucks on day 1.
2. The monthly charge is about 10 bucks (plus tax) so you save that each month.

If the cable modem at Costco was one hundred bucks plus tax (it was something like that as I recall), then you save half that cost on the first day (see #1 and #2 above) and then you save the other half in ... gee ... you're right ... about five or six months!

Ooops. I should not have doubted your math. You're correct. If you buy your own Docsys 3 cable modem, then it only takes about six months to recoup your costs, and then you save 10 bucks a month (plus tax) from there on in.

If you had what you call a 'digital tv box" and a monitor, would it work? Or do you still need a TV tuner inside the monitor?

Cable box.

Saw one on ebay sold for $79

Don't try to buy one and use it with Comcast, or most any cable system. The only non-rental equipment they will allow are devices that use CableCard. And for Comcast, they still charge the $9.95 outlet fee, but also give a -$2.50 device discount. (The new Roku Xfinity TV app will probably have this fee once it gets out of Beta testing.)

Then you ought to post you questions in a ng that's On Topic.

alt.online-service.comcast

Cable TV uses QAM encoding, and it has to be converted to feed the ATSC signal that is broadcast to homes.