While cord cutting is a great way to save money, it’s not for everyone. If you are in a household that simply doesn’t want to ditch a premium cable subscription due to must-have channels or simplicity of use, there are ways to save money on your monthly bill without cutting the cord.

Similar to purchasing to your own cable modem for Internet connectivity rather than renting one from your cable company, shifting to a platform like TiVo will allow you to return your cable boxes and bring an end to rental fees. In addition, you will be able to shift your monthly DVR fee from your cable company to a lower cost service fee from TiVo.

Check Your Bill

The cable provider in my area of the country is Cox. For my installation, I originally requested DVR service, a central hub box (1TB) with 6 tuners, and three additional tuners that can connect to the main DVR box over the cable lines.

As you can see from the bill above, my service was running me about $54 a month; roughly $20 for the DVR service and $8.50 for each box. If you have a larger home to outfit with more boxes, that number could be even higher. It all depends on what your cable company is charging for DVR service and for each box.

Here’s a breakdown of what a few of the major cable companies charge for a similar setup (Whole Home DVR service + 4 boxes)

[table caption=”Monthly Rental Fees” width=”620″ colwidth=”20|20|20|20|20″ colalign=”center|center|center|center|center”]
Company,DVR Service,Per Box, DVR + 4 boxes,Yearly Total

Charter,$20,$7,$48,$576
Comcast,$19.95,$9.95,$60,$720
Cox,$19.99,$8.50,$54,$648
Time Warner,$19.99,$11.75,$67,$804
Verizon Fios,$22,$8.99,$58,$696

[/table]

Compare to TiVo

In short, you will be replacing your DVR / rental fees from your cable company with an upfront purchase of hardware from TiVo as well as a monthly, yearly or lifetime fee for DVR service and TiVo’s recommendation platform.

• Monthly rate: $14.99.
• Yearly rate: $149.99 ($12.50-a-month).
• Lifetime service rate: $549.99 ($11.50-a-month spread over 4 years).

Regarding hardware costs, one sample setup would be to purchase a TiVo Bolt ($200 to $500 depending on hard drive storage size, number of tuners) and multiple TiVo Mini boxes ($150). To match a similar setup as detailed in the cable example above, a 1TB TiVo Bolt + 3 Tivo Minis will run $750. Add $150 for the yearly rate and the initial cost for the first year is $900.  In addition, you will need a cable card from your service provider, usually $1 to $3 a month.

A Time Warner customer would nearly break even on the first year, save more than $500 on year two and save roughly $650 every year after that (assuming they are on the yearly plan). That’s a savings of $2,400 over five years. A Time Warner customer on the lifetime service plan would come out slightly better over five years, saving roughly $2,700.

TiVo Installation Tips

1. The number televisions utilizing a live television feed in your home (via a TiVo Mini) is directly related to the number of tuners in your main TiVo box. If you have a couple kids watching television in different rooms, you may want to spring for the 6-tuner model in order to record multiple shows on the other tuners while live feeds are being used on the Mini boxes.
2. Be sure to check that the serial number on your main TiVo Bolt matches the serial number on your TiVo account. I ordered through TiVo.com (which should have registered my serial automatically), but ended up having to call their support line to switch to the correct number.
3. If you are running over MoCa (streaming video from your Bolt to your Mini via your home’s cable network), you will need to hardwire your Bolt to directly to an Ethernet connection. You also have the option of connecting your Mini’s via Ethernet, but a home is much more likely to have cable jacks than hardwired Ethernet jacks.
4. Connecting Tivo Mini boxes using a Powerline adapter isn’t recommended by TiVo, but some users have had luck with the newer Gigabit-capable Powerline adapters (example). It may be worth testing before running Ethernet cables all over your home.
5. If you are running Ethernet cable to all Minis in a home, pick up a switch that offers a minimum of 1GB of bandwidth per TiVo device. Most gigabit Ethernet switches should do the trick.
6. Be aware that TiVo includes a diagnostics screen for testing signal strength to the various boxes around your home. It’s definitely worth testing signal strength to make sure you don’t run into any choppy video problems or dropped connections. If you are running through MoCa, consider adding a point-of-entry MoCA filter if you are losing Internet connectivity.

How to save $500 a year by switching to TiVo

Attempting to take on HBO Now as well as Showtime’s streaming service, Starz has launched a standalone option for accessing original programming as well as movies licensed to the network. Pricing the service at $8.99 per month, that’s $2 cheaper than Showtime’s $10.99 per month cost and $6 cheaper than HBO’s $14.99 monthly fee. Of course, if you subscribe to Hulu, you can get Showtime at a reduced cost of $8.99 a month.

Anyone that already subscribes to Starz through a premium cable provider will receive free access to the app in order to stream video. Interestingly, the $8.99 per month price isn’t any different than the price provided to Amazon Prime customers. Just last year, Starz added programming to Amazon in order to allow Prime users to watch for a premium fee. Showtime did the same, but reduced the cost to match Starz at $8.99.

At this time, the Starz app is only being distributed for Android and iOS devices. It doesn’t appear as if Starz has created standalone apps for streaming set-top boxes (like the Roku platform) or gaming consoles (like the PS4, Xbox One) as of yet, an advantage to HBO and Showtime at the moment.

Interestingly, Starz is offering a download option that competitors are shying away from. You will have the ability to download video to watch when offline, ideal for anyone on a commute with spotty cell service or on a plane that has terrible Wi-Fi. Starz is also attempting to attract new subscribers with providing access to hit movies like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Of course, those movies will only be available for a limited time during the licensing period.

Starz rolls out cheapest streaming service; less than HBO, Showtime

There’s never been a better time to rid yourself of crappy, overpriced, aging cable modem hardware that you are currently renting from your cable company. With disliked companies like Comcast jacking up rental fees by 25 percent starting January 1, 2015, the financial benefits of upgrading to a new cable modem is even more obvious.

Comcast’s new fee for many markets in the United States will be $10 per month to rent a cable modem. Over a five year period, you would end up spending $600 on a cable modem that you don’t even own. Alternatively, you can purchase your own cable modem for approximately 10 percent of that cost and end up saving $500 over the next few years. Or at least until Google Fiber comes to town!

Our top pick for a new cable modem is Motorola’s SB6121 SURFboard cable modem (Amazon Link). It’s typically on sale around the $70 price point on Amazon and will fit the speed needs of 90 percent of Internet subscribers. It’s also extremely easy to setup and rated 4.5 out 5 stars on Amazon.

Search Ben’s for Surfboard Cable Modem Deals

If you need something slightly more powerful, step up to the SurfBoard SB6141 (around $90, Amazon Link). This modem is ideal for anyone that pays for the fastest Internet plan from their cable provider, typically anything that pushes 150 Mbps speeds or higher. It’s also ranked as the top pick of all cables modems on the market by The Wirecutter.

On the flip side, if you pay for the cheapest Internet plan with your cable provider, you can also go with an inexpensive, budget modem to avoid spending too much up front. You will want to search for “DOCSIS 2.0” modems, an older speed standard. This also means the cable modems will be in $20 to $30 range. Check Amazon here to see these models.

2015 Resolution: Ditch your cable modem rental to save big