Twenty six months ago I was so fed up with the high price of cable that I cut the cord and went with OTA. I saw about $150 drop on my Verizon bill, which also includes Fios phone, Fios Internet, and Verizon wireless. I installed a roof top antenna/amp and a Tivo Premiere. Despite all the bad reports on this forum about Tivo and OTA, I can say Tivo and OTA work very well. We get all the Washington and Baltimore channels here in northern Virginia. I was very content with the free TV service at our house on 5 TVs with 1 Tivo.
I was constantly getting sales calls from Verizon trying to sell me Fios TV, and I often listened for price quotes which were all lower than my previous cost but still in the $100+ range. Last week I got a call and was interested, so I got the pricing for adding Fios to a single TV for $15 more than my current package of internet and phone for a total of $116 for all Fios services. That covers 75mb internet, phone with free long distance, extra line for fax, the Fios Prime HD package, and a cable card, and all taxes and surcharges. Plus I get a $250 prepaid Visa card. So I figured that refusing the offer was just being stubborn, and it really is not worth carrying the cord cutter flag for a measly $15/month. I think that lots of incentives were thrown in because my 2 year fios contract recently expired. I am getting a new line installed so it does not interfere with the OTA signal on the other TVs. I really only want a few channels back, and the $15/month is worth it. I still refuse to take a cable box, so I am glad I have the Tivo to use which will serve cable and OTA channels.
Prior to the Fios install, should I run Guided Setup for Cable/OTA without actually having the cable card? Would that save time when the installer is at the house, or do I need to wait until the cable card is in the box? Any other suggestions?
Thanks!
