Dish Net--Jack

Huntsman, you should be able to get local programming with the Dish 500 system or use 2 dishes like I do.

 

With Dish you can buy the local channels for an extra $5 month and they come in as channel 3,8,41... whatever they really are.

I've heard it might not be available everywhere- but it is here and it's rather a newer thing.

 

It's not available where I am and the local network stations in town want give you a waiver so that you can get the network feeds from larger cities.

 

Have you looked into that lately? The sat. networks went to court to get the right to carry local programming and won. That was about 2 yrs ago.--Jack

 

Being we are very rural cable was not an option. I really enjoy our DirectTV. I'm sure Dish is as good or better. But satelite is the way to go.

 

When we lived in town, our cable service was FAR SUPERIOR in quality and stability to satellite. Now that we live out of town, there is no choice but to use satellite for service. Rain & snow fade (signal loss) is an issue, but when weather is like that, we need to watch the local stations anyway. Never know when a twister is coming.

Both DBS services are raising rates in the near future. Be sure to research which service and channel package is best for your location. If going with DirecTV, you may live in an NRTC area. If so, expect to pay slightly higher prices for the same channel packages.

 

I beleive the sat companies do have the right to carry local programing and are adding cities often but in more rural areas they have not opted, as of yet to pick-up the smaller local stations. And those smaller local stations are the ones keeping me from watching NBC-ATL.

 

Nothing personal- but you sound like you work for the cable company.

 

Nope. I just give an honest opinion. Not every cable system is as good as the one we had in town; but some are. The old addage of "you get what you pay for" does hold true in some cases. For those who are lucky enough to have a quality cable provider, I do recommend they stick with it instead of switching to the grossly over-compressed signals sent by satellite.

 

And what would be the symptoms of over-compressed signals be... Mr Cable company insider. I'll bet you most veiwers would not even notice the effects you talk about.

Whats the NRTC area you mentioned above.

You seem to definitely have inside knowledge and a bias.

At least when satallite goes out, it comes back in a few minutes unlike cable that requires days sometimes before they get around to you.

 

If you have dish network you can tune into what they call "Charlie Chat" it is a talk show with the CEO of Dish Network. In that show they will tell you of any local stations that might be coming up.

As I said before, If you have a good quality signal rain fade is not a big problem.

Direct Tv is about 2-3 bucks higher for programming than dish net around here.

 

I wish we could a dish, but there is a building in the way of our signal and no other option for a dish
I pay over $100 a month for cable, mind you we have all the movie channels but still it is pricey

 

"Kundalini wants his hand back"--Mad Max

 

Kundalini wants HER hand back!!!!!!!!

 

LOL- well, I guess I've been called worse.

The symptoms of over-compression may not be noticeable to most, because, more often than not, people confuse clarity with quality. Just because a picture is "clear" (no sparkles, lines, etc.) doesnt' mean it is a quality picture. Some may notice the occasional "pixelation" (blocks) appear on the screen. Other symptoms include loss of detail and color variances. Want to really see the effects of over-compression, watch the same show/person on regular TV using a good antenna and compare that to satellite. You'll see that facial features like wrinkles, scars, etc. are almost non-existent via DBS. Generally, the larger screen TVs expose this more than "normal" sized sets.

The National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) is an organization of (mostly) telephone companies that helped fund the launch of DirecTV. In exchange for their financial support, the NRTC members got the exclusive rights to sell DirecTV service in certain areas of the country. Most of the NRTC areas are now "served" by a company named Pegasus. If you live in one of these areas, as I do, then it costs more than DirecTV's package price to have the privilage of the Pegasus billing system. Not to mention that most of the DirecTV deals are not valid for people in NRTC served areas.

I do not have any "insider" knowledge- the Internet is full of free information. I will admit that I am frustrated by the quality of satellite TV compared to what it was when I first got DirecTV back in 1996. Now that I no longer live in town, I have Dish Network because I refuse to pay extra $ to Pegasus (NRTC). In all honesty, I prefer DirecTV packaging and hardware over that of Dish.

As for satellite outages.... well, when you live in "tornado alley", the absolute WORST time for any information source to go out is during a thunderstorm. And, unfortunately, that's pretty frequent around here. I do not rely on satellite for my local stations.

Regardless, my earlier comparison was to the local cable company. And, if you look back, I said that not all cable cos are as good as the one in the town where I used to live. If your local cable company stinks, then leave them. If it's of high quality, then you would probably be better off to stay with them. One should not assume that all are the same- good or bad.