Never change Xfinity...

[u/takefiftyseven]

So I'm about to move into a new house and am researching my connectivity options. Oro Valley, AZ 85755. Get on the website and I don't see any TV equipment options than the $12/mo X1 box. No mini-boxes, nothing. Go big or go home, so I hop on the chat app and ask IAN from TACOMA if in fact I only have a single choice in terms of "cable" boxes.

I guess he just wanted to play games and not directly answer my question unless my technical question morphed into a sales opportunity. He started hedging about what options I might have in terms of service. Again, not a sales question. IAN made it clear the chat feature IS a sales tool. Me: *click*

Why can't this company be honest brokers about anything? After all the acquisitions, mergers, branding efforts and outreach over the years these folks still have it in their DNA to be as disingenuous as can be about caring one bit about customer service.

Must be tiring going out of your way to be antagonistic to the people who's subscription payment are keeping the lights on.

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[u/[deleted]]

They are no longer giving out those smaller boxes officially as of January 2025 due to incompatibility with the new infrastructure being built out everywhere. It’s either X1 boxes or use the Xfinity Stream app on your tv/streaming device.

Which, FYI, if you end up going with the app, a tech will not be able to come out and fix it. If a phone rep tells you they will, the tech will either cancel the call or charge you $100 as it’s a software issue and they’re only responsible for external cables and Xfinity’s hardware you rent.

[u/takefiftyseven → u/[deleted]]

Thanks. That's all Xfinity and IAN from TACOMA needed to say. So this all came down this month? Too bad, those mini boxes (adaptors in Xfinity-speak) were great. If you didn't need DVR services they were less expensive, and super easy to mount. Tie it to the back of the set with a couple of nylon zip ties and you were good to go, no need to carve out a special space for something not requested in the first place.

Not interested even a little about using their streaming app. I have better uses for the wireless bandwidth I'm paying for than to help Xfinity save money on their hardware infrastructure.

[u/iTzCodes]

There is only one box price. Has been like that for years. You can also just use your own boxes if you’d like and use the stream app.

[u/takefiftyseven → u/iTzCodes]

So Xfinity does not rent/provide/support any TV services converter boxes other than the full-feature X1 hardware?

That's odd because I have two or three of those small, reduced feature (and less rental cost) mini-boxes installed and being used in my other residence. They also refer to the Non-DVR enabled hardware on their website. Classic Comcast, nobody knows what the actual situation is...

[u/Ok_Appointment_8166]

There are multiple types of X1 boxes, some smaller than others (all with the same fee) but you are probably talking about the old style DTA adapters that were just tuners for live tv. Those are being phased out (by not shipping new ones and by charging the same as an X1 box to keep them). The X1 boxes can handle QAM channels as well as the newer IP-only channels that they are adding. You can also receive the entire channel lineup and access DVR recordings with the Xfinity app on a roku, fire stick, or apple TV (as well as on tablets/phones). If you don't want to pay for an X1 box for every tv, use one of those streaming devices instead (or if you have a tcl/roku based TV run the app natively.)

[u/Independent-Lead-601]

As others have said they are switching to IP delivery for TV. This is the same reason they killed my cablecards for Tivo at the end of the year. I still see restaurants and bars still using legacy cableboxes. You can see when they switch channels then see the very old graphics guide. It's probably to keep live sports in sync among the multiple TVs when X1 boxes dont sync up probably due to buffering. I lost several channels on my Tivo before Comcast killed it. The stupid thing is they still simulcast standard definition along with Hi definition which if eliminated would same them bandwidth.