About UntangledStreaming

Two cable veterans. 78 combined years inside the industry. Now navigating the streaming wave.

UntangledStreaming is a family-owned operation. Two people — a father and son, both lifelong cable veterans, now working together to help households make sense of what cable, satellite, and streaming have turned into.

Bear — 50 years inside the cable industry

My Dad, Bear, started inside cable TV before most American households even had it. In the 1980s, he was VP of Operations at one of the country's large cable companies — back when "cable TV" meant analog signals, basic tiers, and the wired-coax install model the entire industry still depends on.

When he left that role, he built his own cable installation and service company. He grew it to 100 technicians running calls across one of the largest US service territories. Over a 50-year career, his operation was personally responsible for millions of cable box installs and service calls — through every generation of the platform. Analog, digital, HD, DVR, two-way, IPTV, the streaming-style cable boxes the providers ship today. Same product category, six different waves of technology.

He's seen every cable box generation come and go. He knows what fails, when it fails, and why. He knows what the providers tell customers, and he knows what's actually happening behind the wall plate.

Me (Rick) — 28 years putting TV systems in homes

I built — and still run — a residential AV integration company in one of the largest TV markets in the country. Twenty-two years, still in business, still pulling cable into walls and mounting boxes behind TVs every week.

I came up under Bear, then went my own direction. My install career has spanned the transition from cable-only homes to the hybrid mess we have today — where every household runs cable plus three or four streaming services plus a smart TV that fights you on input switching. I've installed every version of cable box and satellite receiver this century: Fios TV One, Xfinity X1, Spectrum's Worldbox, Cox Contour, DirecTV Genie, Dish Hopper, Astound, Mediacom TiVo. All in real client homes, dealing with real coax runs and real Wi-Fi problems.

I've also integrated every streaming device worth integrating — Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, Google TV, Nvidia Shield — into modern smart TVs. I've stripped out installs that didn't work. I've replaced cable boxes with streaming sticks. I've gone the other direction when streaming wasn't right for the household.

Cable has been called "cable TV" since the 1970s. Streaming as a mass-market category is barely 12 years old. Both Bear and I have been here through every transition. Two of the most seasoned cable veterans you'll find — now living through streaming overtaking the industry we grew up in.

Why we're doing this

The cable, satellite, and streaming industries are colliding in ways that punish customers. Every provider has three boxes now: a legacy cable box, a new streaming version, and an app you can use on your own device. Every streaming service raised prices in 2024 and 2025. Most households are paying for four or five subscriptions they aren't fully using, plus a cable bill that creeps up every twelve months.

The end users — the people Bear and I have been installing TVs for our whole careers — are getting squeezed for cash they don't want to spend, because there's no clear understanding of how to make the best choice for their specific house.

That's the gap this site fills. Sixty-six years of combined real-world cable and TV experience, turned into honest, free advice. The same advice Bear would give a customer when his trucks rolled up in the 90s. The same advice I give a client when I walk into their living room today. Until now, that knowledge stayed inside our two companies. This site brings it everywhere else.

What honest looks like here

• No affiliate inflation. When a buy link is on a page, it's because the product is worth recommending. Most affiliate sites work the opposite way — the product is on the page because the affiliate program paid the most.
• No manufactured urgency. No "act now, this deal won't last" copy. The right device for your house is the right device whether you buy today or next month.
• No hype. Every review names the platform's weakness in the first three paragraphs. If the box has a real flaw — a flaky remote, ads in the UI, a slow guide — it's the first thing we tell you, not the last.
• No hidden ownership disclosures. A small disclosure is at the bottom of /privacy for FTC compliance. That's it.

What the site is built on

• Real install experience — across two generations, two companies, and sixty-six years of trucks at front doors.
• Real cost math — every cable review breaks down the per-box rental fees most households don't see until they read their own bill.
• Real alternatives — every page ends with "the three real options compared." Keep the platform, switch to its streaming version, or cut TV entirely. The math is laid out. No judgment.

Who's behind this

• Rick — owner, lead reviewer. 28 years residential AV integration. The voice on every page. Meet Rick →
• Bear — Dad. Industry advisor. 50 years inside the cable industry. The reason the cost math is correct and the install caveats land where they do.

Editorial standards

• Every standalone-device review follows the same 11-section structure (gold standard: Apple TV 4K review)
• Every cable platform review follows the same 12-section structure (gold standard: Verizon Fios TV One review)
• Pricing is verified against the provider's site at write time; anything older than 30 days carries a "verify on your bill" caveat
• Photos come from manufacturer CDNs only — no stock photos, no AI-generated product images, no imgur links

Got a question about your specific house?

The fastest path is the quiz on the homepage — your ZIP, your current bill, your channels. 60 seconds. No signup, no email required.

For everything else: Contact.