It starts with a box.

Charter Communications recently acquired TimeWarner Cable (TWC).

It provides my Internet, cable TV and home phone.

Apart from what's now called TWC New York 1 (cable news), nothing really distinguishes the service from its competitor which in one configuration or another provides the service for the phone number longest associated with me.

What really bugs this commentator involves the “remote” and the cable box. The latter's latest iteration only offers an on-off power button; the former just seems to fail; I find myself always replacing the darn thing. What to do?

This weekend, I explored the use of my AppleTV.

TWC allows its customers to access its service via the 'net. So I open a separate Safari window, open the TWC site, and use my mouse to scroll the channels. No failing remote. And interestingly the Internet version of the picture occupies move of the TV screen.

So I ponder this morning turning in one of the two cable boxes instead of replacing the Remote that always breaks down.

I know it saves some pennies.

I do like redundancies.

It ends with a box.

What would you do?