So if you ever need to upgrade your cable modem to take advantage of Oceanic’s newer faster speeds, you can’t just go to Target, hoping they’ll sell you the $120 Motorola SB6183 cable modem at the $90 Amazon price. Just won’t happen. Even with a 10% electronics coupon, Amazon is still cheaper.

When I signed up for Extreme internet, I got a different cable modem entirely, a Motorola SURFboard SBG6580. Capable of higher bandwidth, this modem included an integrated WiFi router – convenient but unnecessary since I already had a WiFi router. But then I began seeing similar cable modems sold in stores.

In my July 2013 statement from Oceanic, I saw this little blurb:

Beginning with your next statement, Internet Modem Lease will be $5.99/mo. As an Oceanic Time Warner Cable customer, you have the choice of leasing a modem from us or buying your own. For more information about your modem options, please visit twc.com/approvedmodems.

Six bucks a month to rent my commercially available cable modem? Hmmm…Then I read The Wirecutter’s review of the Best Cable Modem, the Motorola SB6141, this Squidoo lens, some Lifehacker articles, and was convinced that buying was the way to go. And yes, the SB6141 is on Time Warner’s compatibility list.

There is some confusion about the various models of the SB6141. There’s a version provided to cable companies and the retail version for purchase. Supposedly, you can buy “second hand” models that originally came from cable companies but while functionally equal to the retail version, the item’s warranty may be suspect. I wasn’t exactly sure, so I went with the retail version (available in black or white) for a couple more dollars.

The SB6141 only has one Ethernet port, mainly for an existing home router or a single computer so I had to pickup a cheap Ethernet switch (TRENDnet Gigabit Switch) to make up for the loss of ports on my leased SBG6580.

So while an additional investment, the modem will pay for itself in little over a year and my home network will be getting a Gigabit Ethernet upgrade. Are you convinced? Are you going to buy as well?

Update: I originally had a typo regarding the monthly lease fee. I corrected the mistake to reflect $5.99 per month, not $5.95. Thanks Damon for the catch.

My pops wanted better sound to match his HDTV broadcasts from Oceanic Cable. But when The Wire Cutter says no to home theaters in a box and endorses Sony’s HT-CT260 sound bar then you heed their researched advice. Unfortunately, the CT260 was out of stock at Amazon.com. Fortunately, Best Buys in Hawaii just received their shipment, and the regular price is the same as Amazon’s. So there we have it, an instant Father’s Day gift.

Now the setup… The Wire Cutter is correct. Setting up the sound bar was easy since the subwoofer is wireless. Configuring the sound bar to work with the television and cable box was another ordeal. The Oceanic provided Scientific Atlanta cable box has a digital optical out that connects to the Sony sound bar, but sound is still sent to the other outputs as well. This causes problems with the television’s audio. With the sound bar in play, I don’t want sound coming through the tinny television speakers. The television’s volume needs to stay at 0 while volume control needs to go to the sound bar and not the television.

The solution is two-fold. Configure the cable remote to control the sound bar and change the channel volume lock. On the remote, I configured the AUD button to control the sound bar. I believe the Sony code for the CT260 is 1759. If you can power on/off the sound bar and control the volume from the cable remote then you got it right.

Next, remap the remote’s audio controls from the television to the sound bar. That’s the function of the channel volume lock. Follow the instructions for “Locking Volume Control to One Mode.” When you change the volume, the remote changes control to the AUD configured device. When changing channels, the remote switches back to TV (or CBL). And that’s what we want – audio exclusively through the sound bar and one remote to control it all (television, cable box, sound bar).