I'm thinking about switching over to Satellite from cable, lately we have had some interference on channels 2 through 6, and they can't seem to fix it, it is very annoying,service people seem to come over at the worst times, and IMO they-(Time-Warner)now calling themselves Brighthouse, my standard-(with no extra pay channels) plus my Roadrunner internet access is now $110.00 per month, I think I can cut this in half by getting satellite, and a phone line type internet service, what do YOU think?? Thanks!!

 

Get a dish. We've got a dish for both the tv (DirecTV) and internet (DirecWay). Both work really well.
Plus with a dish you get so many more tv channels compared to Cable.

 

i agree, " if you got cable......you aint got DISH!"

we went with DishNetwork last year and couldnt be happier. we had Adelphia Digital cable and 'net access which cost us around 100 bucks a month. we bought our dish(you dont have to) and receivers(2) for 150 bucks and get 150 channels for about 40 bucks a month. we went back to dial-up56k net service but you can get net access from your dish.


the ONLY downfall of having a dish........you cant split it, you MUST have a receiver to descramble the signal.

 

cable doesn't go blurry in thunderstorms
you don't have to buy anything for cable
besides why have a hundred channels and still nothing on?
LOL

 

The true beauty of Satellite is it's portable. Take it back and forth from the cabin, even when you go on trips. The compnay where I am allows you to hook up to 5 receivers to a single dish, each additional one is only a dollar.

GREY AREA - not all the recievers licensed to one dish need to be in the same house.

I also like being able to select what I want channel by channel.

Waxy

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by saintthomas
cable doesn't go blurry in thunderstorms

neither does a dish. in fact, during the many HEAVY snow storms here in Cleveland this winter.........not one second was lost.

you don't have to buy anything for cable

you dont have to buy anything for a dish and its STILL cheaper than cable.


besides why have a hundred channels and still nothing on?



it depends on your taste, what may be nothing to you is very entertaining to someone else and with a dish, you have 50 or more channels for less money to decide what is entertaining and what isnt.

one more thing......if you could look at a TV with cable and a TV with a dish........its night and day! the picture with a dish is as crystal clear as you can get without HDTV.
when i go to places that have cable...its like watching a TV with rabbit ears!

 

Big dish. The cable company wanted $2000 to run THEIR cable down our street (3 homes). AND then they wanted $35 per month to use the cable I paid for.... I bought my own C-band dish for less, and owned it. C-band basic pkgs run about $11/month when you pay all at once. $135 for the whole year. The little dishes can get rained out down here in GA, and the big dish will get a little snowy, but very rarely. I used to watch Tom Brokaw fiddle with his makeup during commercials on NBC news, and Katy Couric and crew sitting on the couch telling jokes but no more. They'd sit there and do promos for each station "now on KWBB ... " "now on Wbac" over and over. THATS why they get the big bucks...

Any way, the little dish guys wanted 4X what I was paying with a bunch more channels, but nothing I wanted to watch. Everything was in pkg A or B or C. All were more than I pay, and my dish still works after almost 10 years. Divide my hardware costs by 10, and add the subscription cost, its about a wash, but I get to choose what I pay for. I am sure it will go the way of the dodo bird in the future, but right now it is reasonable to continue to use it. If I move to the middle of a swamp, I'll take it with me...
tom

 

We recently moved and had to get satelilite. I was glad to get it too. we have Charter here in town and it goes out at least once every day. When you call them to complain , you get a recording.
I had Dish Network before and if I had a problem, all I did was call them. Usually they would give me a credit for the days that I didnt have service. We have 4 receivers installed on the system now. The total cost was $49.99. They also give a credit of $49 on the first bill, so basically I got the system installed for free. Granted, it is a leased system and i have to return it when I cancel the service, but with 4 kids at home I dont see this happening anytime soon. I highly recommend satellite for those who are looking for a choice. BTW, there is also no tax on your bill....a definite plus

 

I just got my dish hooked up. The main reason for dish over cable in my case was cable wanted to much to hook up and Dish only wanted $50. No problems yet, and I pay $40/month

 

We have the DishNetwork. We used the have Dishnetworks WebTV and the Chat before they got rid of it was pretty cool. Faster than heck. Almost as fast as a T1 line. We're going to get the Internet on the DishNetwork as soon as our 6 mo. free internet access ends.

 

A lot depends on how much you want and what video quality you can get in your location.

We had cable and later dish. I actually prefered the cable since at least in my area, the signal was cleaner and the local channels including weather were there. With dish I didn't get local TV nor the weather channel(except US wide).

Dish had lots more channels but it was still "there is nothing on TV tonite".

My own personal gripe was that I was always getting pixelation with dish. This is especially noticable with large screen and with a background that is very busy or strangely very plain. The picture would break up into tiny squares that looked like shimmering fish scales. It was strange for example to see a off white wall on a house that seemed to shimmer and move.

Of course all my experience is 3 years old or more. Maybe things are better now or maybe I had a poor signla coming in. My meter usually read 85 to 90%, so I assume that was decent according to the manual. One other thing about dish is that if it is windy outside the picture will often go haywire. Dish is also a beach to aim if for some reason you get knocked off the target.

If the services were the same cost I would probably lean to cable if the signal was clean.

We don't use either service now since 1) My kids burn up too much tv time as it is; 2) I can't take anymore of Poweder Puff girls; 3) We got tired of paying almost $100 for dish with a bazillion channels and still saying "There's nothing on tv tonite". We can rent tons of DVD for less than the cost of dish and we can play anytime we feel like it.

Just my opinion,

Jim Henderson

 

DirectTv has local channels that are included with the standard monthly payment.

 

You could always have what I've got. No cable or satellite. Makes the bills a whole lot cheaper and with only 3 channels it doesn't take long to figure out what you want to watch.

 

We have a dish, can't get cable here. We had a big dish but we were having a hard time getting a waiver from the local networks so we could get the big three channels on the dish. We can't get an antenna reception worth watching. Since we got the little dish they haven't bothered us about it. We very seldom loose the signal. Last time I remember was last fall when a little tree finally grew up big enough to block the signal. We have dishnetwork and haven't had any problems with them. If you have a broken screen, try unplugging your receiver for 10 minutes then plug it back in. Our dealer said you have to do that sometimes when they upgrade software and the signal is broken, the receiver then downloads the upgrades or whatever it is. I've done it a few times and it works. The things I like with the little dish is channels of similar interest are grouped together, like all the news channels and music channels. You can also make a favorite's list so you don't have to surf all the channels, just the ones you usually watch.

 

Folks thanks for all your great replies, it looks like Satellite/Dish is the way to go, lots of my niehbors have them, there popping up all over my area, we are going to go with Direct TV, as they have more of the channels that we like to watch!