We’ve Cut Our Cable + Fukuda Digibox Review

Earlier this month, we cut our cable. We have been Destiny Cable subscribers for years (analog), but we experienced a billing problem a few months ago, and long story short, there was a misunderstanding, and that led to a family member swearing off Destiny.

So there we were, cable-less. Which, actually, was really not that bad except that I miss keeping up with local news. Aside from the news, we hardly ever watch anything on TV, now that I thought about it. All the TV shows I watch, I, errr, get from somewhere else and watch on my laptop (connected to a TV).

I also watch a lot of YouTube cooking shows, etc… There was also Netflix, iflix, etc…

We don’t have an external antenna set up in our house since we’ve been on cable ever since we moved in. I have no idea how to put one up, and I wasn’t warm to the idea of poking holes in the roof. What of typhoons? Weren’t they going to damage the outdoor antenna? I just wasn’t on board with installing an outdoor antenna, especially since I had the feeling that I was the one who was going to end up doing it myself.

After a few days of trying to live with really snowy local news, I gave up and decided that we needed to get something so that we could watch local news. I thought getting cable again was the only option for getting clear channels, so I checked out what was available for Skycable, Destiny and Cignal.

All I really wanted were the local channels for local news, CNN (the international one, of course), maybe Fox News (not because I agree with them, but because they are the least boring news station with all the talking heads bobbing about and fighting), and the Lifestyle Network, maybe the Asian Food Channel, and Food Network. That’s it, actually. I could also go for the History Channel and the Discovery Channel, but they were not essential.

COMPARING CABLE OFFERS

Skycable had a P99 prepaid plan! I also saw on their website that I could add channels for P20 to P50 each. I already had this vision in my head of paying for the basic P99 plan and just adding CNN (P50), Lifestyle (P20), AFC (P50), etc… They even offered a News Pack for P100, where I could get CNN, Fox News, BBC, HLN, and Channel News Asia. I thought I could get the channels I wanted for the basic (P99) + News Pack (P100) + Lifestyle (P20) + AFC (P50) + Food Network (P50) = FOR A TOTAL OF P319 / month. The only catch was that since it was prepaid, I had to pay for the digibox out of pocket, P3,600 for the HD digibox.

I called Skycable to subscribe. BAD NEWS – I couldn’t add any channels to the P99 prepaid plan. The channel line-up you get is all you get. There was no chance to upgrade it and get selected channels. There was a P250 Prepaid Plan, and a P450 one, but I didn’t like their channel line-ups, either.

I could only add channels to postpaid plans, the least expensive of which was the P299 Dual Def.

Anyway, I had to decide if I was okay with going Skycable Prepaid AND NEVER HAVING THE OPTION TO EVER GET THE CHANNELS I WANT. Could I live with it?

And here’s an interesting thing that I learned – once I had the Skycable Prepaid Digibox, even if I don’t reload P99, I will still get local channels for my news needs. I asked the rep, for example, if after my first month on Skycable Prepaid, I never reload again, like, ever, will I still get clear local channels? She said yes. I clarified – is no one is going to bug me to load a prepaid card if I haven’t reloaded for like a year? Nobody is going to come to my house to disconnect the cable? And she said no one was going to do that.

So this became one of my options. Yup, I was willing to pay P3,600 for the privilege of getting clear local channels just to watch the news! I could just facepalm myself now, but it was an option because having a cable connection meant we weren’t at the mercy of signal strength or of people who decide to build tall buildings around us and block signals.

In the end, I decided that paying P3,600 but NEVER HAVING ANY OPTION TO UPGRADE TO THE CHANNELS THAT I ACTUALLY WANT was just not worth it.

So the next plan I looked at was the Skycable P299 Postpaid Plan. OK. I can add channels here. So, add the News Pack (P100) + Lifestyle Pack 3 (P100) = P499/ mo. Lifestyle Pack 3 has AFC, Lifetime, RTL-CBS Entertainment, TLC, Travel Channel, Warner TV. No Food Network though. Then, I think, hey, that’s already P500! For a few measly channels! Destiny is only P550 and I get a shitload of channels with most of the channels I want and more!

I took a look at Destiny’s channel line-up. It is by far the best value. But it didn’t have the Food Network, the Travel Channel, and the Lifestyle Channel, which I miss from our old Skycable days. I also took a look at Skycable’s P549 Dual Def plan, and also at Cignal’s offerings.

I was comparing channel line-ups and it was driving me crazy. I went back and forth, back and forth. There was no one plan that had everything I wanted unless I wanted to pay a ton of money. It occupied my mind so much that I finally made a table comparison just so my mind had hard data to work with and finally stop nagging me about it.

Skycable Dual Def 299, Dual Def 549, Destiny 550, Cignal 490 Channel Comparison

Sky 299	Sky 549	Destiny 550 (Digital)	Cignal Plan 490
3 ABN 45	3 ABN 45
ABS-CBN	ABS-CBN	ABS-CBN 2	ABS-CBN
ABS-CBN HD	ABS-CBN HD	ABS-CBN HD
ABS-CBN Sports + Action	ABS-CBN Sports + Action	ABS-CBN Sports+Action	ABS-CBN SPORTS
ABS-CBN Sports+Action HD	ABS-CBN Sports+Action HD	ABS-CBN Sports+Action HD
		ACQ-KBN/Sonshine TV 39
Aksyon TV	Aksyon TV	Aksyon TV	AKSYONTV
		Al Jazeera Int’l	Aljazeera
			Animax
ANC	ANC	ANC
ANC HD	ANC HD	ANC HD
		Animal Planet
		Aquarium Channel*
		Arirang	Arirang
	Asian Food Channel	Asian Food Channel	Asian Food Channel
		Australia Network	Australia Plus
	AXN	AXN	AXN
	AXN HD
		Baby TV
		BBC World
Basketball TV (BTV)	Basketball TV (BTV)		Basketball TV
Beam TV	Beam TV	BEAM TV
			Bloomberg TV Phils
			Bloomberg TV Phils HD
	Cartoon Network	Cartoon Network	Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network HD	Cartoon Network HD		Cartoon Network HD
		CCTV 4
		CCTV News
		Channel M
		Channel News Asia
		Channel V
		Chinese News Channel
			Celestial Movies Pinoy
			Channel M
Cinema One	Cinema One	Cinema One
Cinemo	Cinemo	Cinemo
	CNN	CNN	CNN SD
	CNN HD		CNN HD
CNN Philippines	CNN Philippines	CNN Philippines	CNN Phils.
			Colours HD
			Colours SD
	CT Channel		CT
		CTV
		Da Ai/Tzu Chi
		Discovery Channel	Discovery
	Disney Channel	Disney Channel	Disney Channel
Disney HD	Disney HD		Disney XD HD
		Disney Jr.
		Diva Universal
		Doordashan
DZMM Teleradyo	DZMM Teleradyo
			DZRH
	E!	E!
	E! HD
		Eurosport
ETC	ETC	ETC	ETC
	EWTN	EWTN	EWTN
		EZ Shop
	Fox Channel	Fox Channel
			Fox Filipino
			Fox HD
		Fox Family Movies
		Fox News
	Fox Movies Premium HD		Fox Movies Premium HD
		Fox Sports	Fox Sports
		Fox Sports 2
	Fox Sports 3 HD		Fox Sports 3 HD
		Fox Sports News
		FYI
Gem TV	Gem TV	GEM TV
		Global Pinoy Cinema
GMA 7	GMA 7	GMA 7	GMA
GMA News TV	GMA News TV	GMA News TV	GMA News TV
		GNN
		Good TV
	HBO		HBO
HBO HD	HBO HD		HBO HD
		HBO Asia
			HBO Hits
			HBO Hits HD
	Hero TV	HERO
	History Channel	History Channel
	History Channel HD
Hits	Hits
		Hunan TV
			Hyper
			HYPER HD
IBC 13	IBC 13	IBC 13	IBC 13
INC TV	INC TV		INC TV
	Jack TV	Jack TV
Jeepney TV	Jeepney TV	Jeepney TV
			Juan Sports
	Kix
Knowledge Channel	Knowledge Channel	Knowledge Channel
Lifestyle Network	Lifestyle Network
	Lifetime Channel	Lifetime Channel	Lifetime
	Lifetime Channel HD
Light Network	Light Network
MJCI / Living Asia	MJCI / Living Asia	Living Asia
		MJCI
			MTV
		MTV Pinoy
MYX	MYX	MYX
	National Geographic	National Geographic	Nat Geo
National Geographic HD	National Geographic HD
			NBA Premium HD
Net 25	Net 25	NET 25	NET 25
		NHK World TV English	NHK World
Nickelodeon		Nickelodeon
O Shopping	O Shopping	O Shopping
		Outdoor Channel
			Outdoor Channel HD
		Phoenix Info News
Pinoy Box Office (PBO)	Pinoy Box Office (PBO)	PBO	Pinoy Box Office
		Pinoy Extreme
PTV	PTV	PTV 4	PTV 4
		Red by HBO	Red By HBO
		RTL-CBS Entertainment
	RTL-CBS Entertainment HD
		RTL-CBS Extreme
		Russia Today
			SARI-SARI
Second Avenue	Second Avenue	Second Avenue	Second Avenue
			Shop Japan
	Shop TV		Shop TV
SKYcable Pay-Per-View
SMNI	SMNI
	Solar Sports	Solar Sports
	Star Movies		Star Movies
	Star World		Star World
	Star World HD		Star World HD
Tagalized Movie Channel	Tagalized Movie Channel	Tagalized Movie Channel
		Teleradyo DZMM
The Aquarium Channel HD	The Aquarium Channel HD
	TLC	TLC
Toonami	Toonami	Toonami
			Travel Channel
TV5	TV 5	TV 5	TV 5
	TV Maria	TV Maria
			TV Shop Philippines
		Universal Channel
UnTV	UnTV	UNTv 37	UNTV
			VIVA
	Warner TV	Warner TV	Warner TV
	Warner TV HD
			Xtreme Pinoy
YEY	YEY	Yey
		YTN
		ZOE/Light TV 33	Zoe Light
	Installation Fee: P1,599		Activation Fee: P600
			Installation Fee: P1,000

Okay, so if I were to get Destiny again (digital, this time) and add P20 for the Lifestyle Channel, plus P50 for the Food Network, another P50 for the Travel Channel, which I suddenly decided I had to have, that would be P670 /mo or P8,040 per year. Thinking about it on an annual basis suddenly made it seem like A LOT OF MONEY for something we hardly watched. I mean, it was nice to have it available to watch whenever we wanted, but our current lifestyle does not support cable TV watching anymore. Right now, we’re so used to watching what we want to at our own convenience from our computers (and connected TV) and on our tablets, at our own time, that we really don’t watch cable anymore aside from the news. We don’t follow TV show schedules anymore. Gone are the days when we order our lives around being available to watch a certain show at a certain time. Also, it’s very rare to channel surf and be able to watch a show you like from the beginning of the episode / movie. I also didn’t want to pay that much money for channels 90% of which I don’t watch.

If only Skycable had a plan where I could only get the channels I wanted! I would have been totally okay with paying P100 for the News Pack and P100 for the Lifestyle Pack and P20 for the Lifestyle Network, and have the local channels for free. For P220/month. Yes, even if I had to pay for the P3,600 digibox upfront! But the required P299 channel line up was not worth the money for me, and once the total reaches P500 with the 2 packs, I just think, why not go Destiny instead? But Destiny doesn’t have the the Lifestyle Channel, or the Food Network, or other channels in HD! I have to pay extra for those! Then I lean towards Sky again because I get the channels I want for only P500. Then I realize again that Destiny is more sulit because my dad watches a lot of the channels Sky doesn’t have for P500 for just P50 more. But Destiny at P550 doesn’t have some of the channels I want! While Sky does! And round and round it went. I was in a spiral and it was driving me nuts.

When the bombing of the Brussels airport happened last week, we had no cable, and it made me sad that I was missing coverage from CNN. But I went on YouTube, subscribed to CNN, and watched all the footage I wanted. It didn’t have the anchor commentary though, but at least I had some coverage of what happened.

As for local news, I ended up Live Streaming 24 Oras from YouTube to the TV using an MHL cable. The problem was, every time I wanted to change something, I had to walk over to the TV / tablet like in the old days before remotes. I needed some Miracast magic, but this TV was old and didn’t have Miracast.

WE GOT A DIGIBOX INSTEAD!

A relative of ours suggested the ABS-CBN TV Plus, he had one he could lend us during the Holy Week to see how we liked it. I have seen ads for it before, but it never interested me enough to actually find out what it was, so, in effect, this was like my first time to find out about digiboxes!

We hooked it up to the TV in the sala and yep, it worked! We got clear, digital broadcasts of local channels. It also had a USB port! I plugged in a USB but it wouldn’t read the contents. After some research, I found out that the USB port of the TV Plus is blocked and can only be used to upgrade the TV Plus firmware. THAT WAS A DEALBREAKER!!!

So that’s a BIG NO on the ABS-CBN TV Plus. But it did make me consider getting a digibox instead of getting cable.

After the weeks of indecision about choosing a cable plan, I finally decided to get a Digibox!

Which started another rabbit hole of “which is the best digibox to get?”. There were so many available in the grey market. The question was eating up my brain and wasting my time.

Then yesterday, on an errand at SM Hypermarket, I chanced upon the Fukuda Digibox! I was actually checking out the cheapie TVs to see if a cheap Miracast-enabled TV was already available when I saw one of the TVs connected to a Fukuda Digibox.

The Fukuda Digibox was selling for P1,499.00. I thought it was a sign from the universe to finally end my torment!  It had a 1-year warranty, which was a better deal than the other digiboxes sold at OLX, etc… The Fukuda service center was nearby, just across Toyota Shaw (or so I was told). It looked very, very similar to the ABS-CBN TV Plus down to the magnetic antenna base! But the best part? It is also a media player! You can hook up a USB thumb drive, or even an external hard drive, and it will play videos, music, photos. The box also already includes batteries for the remote!

I figure I can watch the local news with it, and then just put everything else I wanted to watch on a USB.

As for CNN, there’s always YouTube! I also figure that eventually CNN Philippines’ signal will be stronger and that CNN Philippines will maybe broadcast some of the main CNN programming, too.

I bought one Fukuda Digibox to finally end this cable TV funk I was in. I had it tested, of course.

THE FUKUDA DIGIBOX

This is the box:

We tested this before buying, but here’s what’s in the box (2 AAA batteries are already in the remote):

The indoor antenna:

The front of the digibox:

The back, already hooked up using HDMI:

It is very easy to set up.

1. Screw the antenna to the antenna base, connect the antenna wire to the left-most connector behind the digibox. Put the antenna somewhere near a window.
2. Connect the digibox to the TV using the included RCA cables (just follow the colors), or, alternatively, connect the digibox to the TV using an HDMI cable (not included in box) if your TV has an HDMI port.
3. Connect the power cable to the digibox. Plug the power plug into the wall socket.
4. Turn on your TV, turn on the digibox. Check your TV input and make sure your TV is set to the correct input, for example, Input 1, Input 2, etc… It is usually the TV/Video button on the TV remote.
5. On the digibox remote, press Menu. The Menu screen should pop up. Look for the Scan option. Do an automatic scan. This will scan the signals to see which signals are available in your location.

With my antenna indoors, I couldn’t get Jack TV, 2nd Ave, ETC, HSN. Once I placed the antenna outside the window and angled it just right, I was able to get those channels. I probably have to wrap it in cling wrap or something so it won’t get wet when it rains. I still couldn’t get CNN Philippines here in Sta. Mesa 🙁

How to get Jack TV, etc… if their signal is weak? Go to Manual Scan. Click the Right or Left arrows until you find the frequency 521.1. At the bottom, there will be blue bars. One bar is for Quality. The other bar is for Strength. Move your antenna until you find the sweet spot with the most blue for both Strength and Quality. Press OK. If you find a strong enough signal, you should have those channels now.

For CNN Philippines, the frequency is 503.1, but I couldn’t get it to work.

Channels Received:

The channels with the $ are exclusive channels that only the ABS-CBN TV Plus can play. I don’t watch them so it doesn’t matter to me that I can’t watch them on the Fukuda.

FUKUDA DIGIBOX REVIEW

So far, so good. I’m very happy with it. For only P1,499 and I get very clear local channels AND a media player, which I had been thinking of getting for a long time for the sala TV. AND I DON’T HAVE TO PAY A MONTHLY FEE ANYMORE!

You can also do Time Shift on this device (you must have a USB disk connected) – meaning, even if you are watching local TV, you can pause it and then play it again, just like if you were watching a video. You need a USB disk with enough disk space for this to work. What happens is the digibox records the show on the USB when you pause.

You can also schedule it to record TV shows (see manual for instructions).

It is supposed to play avi, mp4, mkv, h.264, etc… I have only tested it with mp4 and avi, and it works well. Very clear. Of course, this depends on your video file. A higher quality video file in 720p or 1080 will give better video. To access your files on the USB, press the USB button on the remote. To go Full Screen, press the Red button. Using the Fukuda remote, I can Pause, Play, Forward (up to 32x), Rewind, Skip to Next, Skip to Back. I recommend using an HDMI cable instead of the included RCA ones to get the best video quality. HDMI cables are only around P200.

And now for a few very minor issues:

• It only works on one TV. You can hook up another TV, but the other TV will just show the exact same thing as the first TV. It’s not a big issue since I never really expected it to work on more than one TV at a time.
• The clock thing is sometimes not accurate. Sometimes the clock is showing the correct time (Manila time), sometimes it is not. It’s weird and I don’t know how to fix it. There is no option in the settings except to choose Philippines and Manila, or GMT +8. There is no option to set the time manually.
• The remote takes getting used to. Maybe we’re just used to having the remote labels written on top of the buttons. Fukuda’s remote has some labels written below the buttons and we pressed the wrong buttons many times since we’re so used to seeing the labels on top – this is for the buttons on the lower part of the remote. For example, I kept hitting Pause || (above the blue button) by mistake when I was trying to press USB (the button below Return).

ALL IN ALL, I think this was a good buy. The pros outweigh the very minor cons and the price is very affordable. 

Do I miss cable? I miss CNN and Fox News playing in the background whenever something major happens in world events. I would still get cable if there was an affordable way to get the channels I want without having to pay for the other 90% of channels I don’t want.

UPDATE: July 2016

We are able to get CNN Philippines consistently now. I still can’t figure out how to fix the time setting. I also noticed that when I cycle through the channels really fast, the digibox “hangs”. I turn it off and turn it on again and that fixes it. But so far, so good, we get clear video of most of the free local channels.

I still miss CNN and the Asian Food Channel, but am on the fence about whether or not paying P550/month just to get them is worth it. I watched AFC last week while I was staying in a hotel and their show lineup has improved! I don’t like The Food Network anymore because I don’t like their “reality” shows. One can only take so much of “the-next-best-something” type of show.

UPDATE: November 2016

Ever since we received the Win TV Digibox for review, I have been using the Win TV Digibox instead of the Fukuda. It’s been 3 months and I have not gone back to using the Fukuda digibox.

I’m not just saying this because they collaborated with me for a giveaway. My main reason for staying with the Win TV Digibox is because the Win TV Digibox does not “hang” (see July 2016 update above). I find the Win TV Digibox more responsive, and I also like the thicker cables and longer antenna cable of the Win TV. I am able to put the antenna higher without danger of  the cables hanging on for dear life. I am now able to get CNN Philippines and all the PTV channels, too.

I also don’t have a problem pressing the wrong buttons on the remote.

You can read my review of the Win TV Digibox here.