I'm a pretty big fan of anything that has a display on the front or jacks of any sort on the back. But lately I've been redoing some stuff to simplify my setup and save some money in the process. One day I was looking at my home phone bill and wasn't too happy I was paying almost 50 bucks a month for something I hardly use. I only have a home phone for two reasons: I live in some sort of a cell phone black hole in the middle of the city, and my TiVo needs one. And it's really mostly the latter. But the bill is crazy. A home phone line is only $13 a month but you can't actually get one for $13 a month. Once you throw in Caller ID, Call Waiting, and about $20 in taxes, it's gotten rather expensive. I've got DirecTV, and Comcast for internet (which they ding me for more since I don't have cable). Anyway, I'm irritated with this phone thing so I decide to give VOIP a shot via Vonage. The Vonage thing was amazing -- I order this kit for about $50 off of Buy.com, and you get a $50 rebate. The little box shows up, you log into the website and type in the MAC address, your personal info, and your credit card info. You plug the thing into your router and boom, it just works baby. Very cool, good quality, and no more long distance bills. I can log into the website whenever I want and configure things like call waiting, call forwarding, you name it. In fact, all I had to do was go out into the garage, unplug the landline in from the street, and plug my Vonage box into the wall instead of a phone and the whole house works just like it used to. Too easy. Unfortunately the TiVo didn't care for it. The VOIP isn't high fidelity enough for the modem in the TiVo. And DirecTivo's are the old ones and don't support things that let it talk over an ethernet connection. So I was basically stuck paying an extra $25 bucks for the bare bones phone line for TiVo only.
Well, they say timing is everything. Not even a week later, an email goes out at MS that Comcast is rolling out a new HD-DVR, with dual tuners and special package deals for satellite customers. Bingo. So I order one of these things, switch from DirecTV, and cancel the landline. I really like it so far -- not as usable as a TiVo but the price is right -- JohnMont has a good post on this. Being able to DVR HD seamlessly is key and if Comcast can make friends with CBS and get KIRODT I'll be totally set (CBS is the only channel Comcast isn't carrying in HD, something about the company that owns KIRO -- Cox I think -- and Comcast being sworn enemies). Hopefully they get it figured out eventually. I actually got two DVRs since they're only 10 bucks a month. It's also good timing because my HD DirecTV box down stairs died about 3 weeks ago and those run about $300 bones. The only other real downside is that the Comcast boxes get wicked hot -- you can't have them in a tight cabinet space or they'll start rebooting. I guess that or they burn down your house.
Net net: I've now got free long distance, two HD DVRs, and HBO, at a net savings of 45 bucks a month. Plus I have two fewer bills to pay which is always nice. But it's not often I get a bunch of new stuff and save money.