Digital vs dish......which way do I go???

N

NCC1701

Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2002
I posted earlier about what to look for in a big screen tv and the responses where very informative:) THANKS EVERYONE:D

Now that we have decided which TV to get, what service provider should we get??
right now we have regular expanded cable service, not digital.
If I understand how it works correctly, I can get the same channels I have now broadcast in digital for about $10 more dollars a month. I could also add any combination of there digital packages for what ever it cost on top of the basic expanded service I already have.
I know there a few channels or shows available in High Definition, so I am thinking that it's not realy worth to get the convertor just yet.
I have never had satellite TV, how does it compare in features, cost, and reliability???

Any and all thoughts are welcome and appreciated:D
 
I've had directtv since the first of Dec. I love it! I get my local channels added for $1, the equipment and installation was free (except for $~15 for an upgraded receiver for the living room). Free DVD player on the way from the site I ordered from. The channel list covers all the channels I wanted, but IIRC dish network was missing one or two. I'm paying ~$2.50 more than I was paying for crappy regular cable. Digital would have been a good bit more locally, so the dish made sense. No wind or rain problems. In my previous experience selling them when they first came out, if it's raining that bad that signal cuts off, it's time to cut things off anyway.

www.expertsatellite.com
Ordered on a Sun, arrived on Fri, installed on Sat.
 
Go with dish and you'll loose your cable modem :mad: Assuming you're using one.

Ask the dish watchers what happens when heavy weather sets in?
Assuming they'll answer honestly.
 
I say go with the dish. One thing most people don't notice is that if the digital cable service is $49.95 a month and the sat service is $49.95 a month the sat is actually cheaper. Your cable will have at least $10 in taxes added on. The satellite has none.

If you have a cable modem, reconsider. I know AT&T was going to charge me an extra $12 because I dropped cable TV (up to $65 a month!!!! :eek: )

I went with SBC DSL and its $29.95 a month. A little slower then the cable modem was, but its still over 1200mbps down, and that is more then plenty for me.

When the bad storms set in, it will blank out. In the past two years I think it has gone out 3 times. Once was when it was full of ice leaking off the roof (I put my own dish up, under the eaves, not on the roof). I cleared the ice and good to go.

At least when the sat goes out, you know why.

Cable used to go out a few times a week, no matter what the weather, and for no apparent reason. Then you had no idea what was going on.

DirecTivo - that is the best kept secret!!!!!
 
Very happy with DishNet. I chose Dishnet over Direct TV because the channel selection seemed to focus more on my interests.

Our cable people weren't interested in my business until I switched. Always off for hours at a time....Well, one day they did it during the football game :mad: Never looked back. Now, I have a much better picture for less money. PVR/TiVo is the way to go :)

Weather blocks the signal for 15 minutes once or twice a year. Not ever looking back. ;)
 
I have dish network too and love it.

If wind ruins your reception your dish wasn't installed correctly.

I have had the dish for 4 years and only lost reception 3 times for about 10 minutes at a time and this is in stormy New England.

Cable used to go out much more often in my experience.

The picture quality is better with the dish overall, the local channels are compressed a bit and there are some artifacts during a football game - CBS seems the worst for some reason.

Mark Fitzgerald 87 GN 11.9 @ 115
 
It's been more reliable than our cable too. Like I said, if the weather is so bad that you lose signal, it's time to turn things off anyway. Takes a serious rain, and we do get good rain in MS. So far I've only lost signal once, and that was for 5 minutes. I sold these things in a tv/appliance store when they first came out. Naturally we had that setup for all the tv's in the store. We did lose signal somtimes, 15 minutes before the storm hit. It was rare. I knew I could live with it. Our cable company sucks in general. They leave bright orange cables across your yard for months at a time before coming back to bury it, the picture quality was bad, the channel lineup hadn't been updated in years and they kept changing the channel numbers. No Roadrunner either. Cable sucks because they think they have a captive audience. Not any more now that we get local channels, free equipment and installation.
 
Are you getting a regular tv or a high def tv?

There are lots of programs in HDTV now, and I would consider it a must if you are getting an High def tv. Its definitely worth it. Most cable services and satellite offer HDTV now, so it won't make much of a difference as far as HDTV is concerned. You need a different box to get HDTV on your cable, even after you upgrade to digital cable. And you need a different type of dish and satellite box to get HDTV on satellite. For satellite its more expensive up front to get HDTV and you should review before you get a dish because you'll have to buy another one if you get the wrong one.

With digital cable becoming popular and local channels offered on satellite, there is less difference between satellite and digital cable then there used to be.

Some of the differences between satellite and digital cable are:

-Usually more channels on satellite due to higher bandwidth

-NFL sunday ticket on Directv only if you are a football fan (just signed new contract). MLB and NBA offered on both cable and satellite.

-For regular non-HDTV channels, satellite has higher resolution than digital cable, although the difference may not be noticed. On a high end digital tv, the difference will be more noticeable.

-For tivo users, the satellite tivo box makes a perfect copy of the original signal, there are no settings for high or low quality. For cable tivo users, the signal is always degraded due to extra analog to digital conversions.

-For basic packages, satellite is cheaper than digital tv. With all the options added on, prices are more similar.

I've got satellite and a cable modem, no problems there. I've never lost satellite service due to weather, but my dish has a nice clean view of the sky. If it wasn't for NFL Sunday ticket, I would have considered digital cable. I would never go back to cable now though. Satellite tv was designed from the begining to be digital and the images are better.

-murph
 
I have directv. I like it, but my picture quality is not that great. It pixelates(sp?) and looks a little washed out. My cable had a better picture. Also, if you want HD, you HAVE to buy their box, even if you have an HDtv with a built in tuner. That ticks me off because I paid an extra 300 for my tv to have the built in tuner so that I wouldn't have to but a 5-700 dollar set top box. In my area, the HD cable box is included as part of the bill. But I get NFL Sunday ticket, which is awesome. That's the reason I got it.
 
I switched from cable to the Dish network about 18 months ago. Picture quality is a wash, but as far as dependability, dish is WAY better! Had some guy up the street who would dig up the cable in his parkstrip about twice a week, that got old fast! Got old with the cable company too, but they couldn't keep him from digging it up! (said he was gardening)
:rolleyes:

And I have no clue about when the weather is supposed to affect my dish? Massive lightning storms, wind, torrential rain, and blizzards that completely pack the dish with snow have never done any worse than cause one or two channels to go a bit chunky...

And I DO want my HDTV!

And PS---cable modems are NOT WORTH $70 a MONTH!!!???? Sheesh, I pay less than $28 a month for DSL! :D
 
I went from Directv over to digital cable because I wanted a cable modem, and was tired of the quirkiness of the satellite. Now I have ALL the movie channels, cable modem etc...only$160 a month:eek: That's a lot of parts for the GN.......
 
I hate My cable.. All the dam Spanish & french stations:mad:

I have never ownd the dish but my Brother does & he LOVES IT..
 
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