Cable no, Satellite TV yes?

[Tony Sade]

I've about had it with the cable company. The latest outrage is a 25% rate increase with no appreciable increase in service. I get a couple of Cinemax channels, which I probably won't watch, added to my HBO package (gotta watch the Sopranos!) but that's it. No mas!

I'm thinking of switching to one of the satellite systems. Dish TV, available through Radio Shack is having a promotion that basically gets the house wired for free, and a similar channel lineup (including local stations) and 2 DVR's ("You can pause live TV!) for roughly the same price-might save a few bucks. Only downside-I'd have to pay $10 more for the premium package to get DIY so I could watch "Woodworks".

I'd be interested in others' experience with satellite TV:
1. reliability
2. rate of price increases
3. necessity of protection plan (usual ripoff or necessary?)
4. quality of picture
5. anything else you can think of.

Help me let the pig out! Thanks,

[Bill Grumbine]

What a coincidence Tony! I JUST got off the phone with the nice people at Dish Network. This is my third phone call in two days.

We had their dish installed about a month and a half ago. At the time of installation, I discovered that I needed TWO dishes to be able to watch all of the local channels. "We're sorry sir, but we can't install that for you until next month, March 29th." Fine I say.

March 29th comes and goes and no one shows up. I call to find out why. Well sir, we had you scheduled for March 19th, but the installation was cancelled due to weather, and you are rescheduled for April 10th. Now, whether or not I was scheduled for the 19th is irrelevant now, because no one called me to tell me they weren't coming on EITHER day, despite the notice in their computer to call the customer.

We're very sorry sir, perhaps we could schedule you for sometime sooner than April 10th. I have an opening for April 1st between 8 AM and noon. Is that okay for you? Fine, I'll see your people on April 1st. April 1 arrives, and about 9:30 AM I call the installation center because it is raining, and I want to know if I am going to be cancelled again.

"No problem sir, we have you scheduled and no one has called to cancel or reschedule, so they will be there." At 1:00 PM, one hour past the end of their window, I called AGAIN. This time I find out that according to their records, NO ONE HAS ANY KNOWLEDGE WHATSOEVER of anyone coming out today.

I got bumped up two levels to someone who represented himself as "in the executive office". I spent a lot of time on hold between managers, and all I really got was another promise that they will be out on April 9th. That remains to be seen. I am ready to have them pick up their stuff and take it home with them, and go back to Direct TV. Their customer service stinks too, but not to the same extent as Dish.

Good luck with your decision. I don't know that there is anything out there worth watching anymore to make it worth the hassle of dealing with all the incompetent morons that seem to infest the customer service departments of these companies.

Bill

[Mike Evertsen]

I've got directv with tivo I had nothing but great service from them. the only time I lose a signal is if the weather is real bad south of me. the tivo isa great recording system,,I work 2nd shift and still get to watch the shows I want....

[Ken Garlock]

Bill, you certainly have a right to be irritated :mad: I have been a user of Dish TV since the first year it was available, and never had a problem with them or their service.

When we moved to our new home, I contacted Dish customer service and they had a local vendor contact me for an appointment. A crew showed up and "told me" where they would install the antenna. That was on the brick on the south side of the house. I explained to them that it would not be happening in my lifetime, and that the only acceptable place was hidden on the roof side of the chimney. They said they could not do that, and told them to leave. That was the end of the "free dish mover" program for me. Yes, they failed, but they would have completed the project on time had I agreed to their solution. My problem, not theirs....

After they left, I called Gardy's up in Maine and bought a new and better dish than I had had at my previous home. I mounted it where I wanted it, and connected it to my in-house distribution panel. I called a local Dish network installer, not the previous group, and had them aim the dish. It has worked flawlessly since then. I have not elected to install the second dish for the secondary local stations since neither of us speak Spanish.

Hope you get it cleared up soon :)

[Tony Sade]

Not exactly the reassurance I was looking for. I guess I'll just hope you hit a bad office having a bad day or two. I'm curious about why you needed two dishes. No mention of that at the radio shack. Thanks,

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Tony
First off - I've had a 10 foot dish for 14 years perched on my roof (for you smart alecks - yes I can talk to Venus)
But it's time to switch
My son in law tells me that in his neighborhood the folks with Dishnetwork are very dissatisfied and he and the folks with DirectTV are very satisfied.
So I am going to look into DirectTV and TIVO
By the way - I see on the TV that DirectTV is having sales for four rooms hooked up for free "by calling this number" - call now!
But I want to hear more about Gardy's up in Maine from Ken Garlock.

My vote DirectTV
Daniel :cool:
ps I'm actually going to listen to my son in law.

[Chris Padilla]

Tony,

I'm looking into this as well. I dumped all my premium channels several months ago and now swear by Netflix for movies/shows.

For some odd reason, I haven't pulled the trigger on the dish...dunno why. My neighbor has Dish Network but I think DirectTV carries more of the stuff my wife and I watch regularly.

[Bill Grumbine]

Not exactly the reassurance I was looking for. I guess I'll just hope you hit a bad office having a bad day or two. I'm curious about why you needed two dishes. No mention of that at the radio shack. Thanks,

The two dishes are because we can't get all our local channels off the same satellite. I got mine through our local Radio Shack, so you might want to check.

As far as the bad office and bad day, I don't know if it is just because I am getting older, or our society is getting lazier, or a combination of both, but it seems like just about any large corporation with which I am doing business seems to be rife with stupid, unmotivated, unaccountable people. If I have reason to call about my Verizon bill (which is frequent), the TV, a credit card, or whatever, if it is a large company, I get some moron. On the rare occasion I get someone who sounds like they know what they are talking about, they usually turn out to be either a liar or fail to follow through on what they promise to do, and I end up starting all over again.

Sometimes I feel like getting off the grid and moving down by you. Half my family comes from Lewis and Harrison counties, and I think what it might be like to move back and move away.

Bill

[Hal Flynt]

I hate the way the cable co's operate. I call when they increase and ask them to cancel and they switch me to someone that lowers my rate if I'll stay and I do until next time. I have 2 maor problems with the dish. 1 SWMBO thinks they are ugly and 2 - trees to the south and west (North and east too).

Since I went HDTV at Christmas, the Comcast HDTV box at $5/mo is a lot cheaper than the $400-600 STB for off the air and soon they will have the HD personal recorder to replace the current box. I'm waiting around for that.

It would be nice to pick the channels that you want and not have to get one package to get HGTV another for DIY. I understand that congress is looking into the packaging situation and may get us some relief. I had Showtime for about 3 years, but after the first month I didn't ever see any new movies to speak of.

If I could get ESPN 1& 2 ,HGTV, DIY, FOX News, HISTORY channel and WIngs off the air, I would get a Set top box for HDTV and punt cable altogether.

My son has had Direct TV for 3 years with no problems other than hurricanes.

[Joe Suelter]

Easy now fellas, I work for a cable co. :rolleyes:. The main reason for the price increase, while I'm not going to say the name, it is a large sports channel. I'm not going to bash sat. companies, although I could, and go on for days on end. I deal with their poor installs day in/day out. We offer digital cable with DVR through a Motorola 6208 box. I love it, and so do the majority of our customers. I'd say that out of the people that leave us for dish, probably 90% of them return after the first years contract is up. By all means, give them a try, you might like them, you might hate them. Everybody is different, and has a different company to deal with. The ones here are horrible, in my opinion!

[Dennis Peacock]

I have been extremely happy with DirectTV no for over 7 years. Never a problem and service has been very prompt. I can't remember the last time I had service interruption except for when that tornado took everything out around here for a couple of days....but that had nothing to do with DirectTV.

Great Service and prices have been good for all the years I've been with them. My largest rate hike was $1.00 per month.

[Jim Becker]

We live in a "spot" that precludes off the air reception, so we have had "basic" cable since we have been here. We recently added a digital box for the High Definition channels and only increased our monthy cost from $14 to $29. That's for about 150 channels all told. (only watch about a dozen of them and sporatically at that) In four years there have only been two outages. I had thought about a dish of some sort but it would cost nearly twice what we pay now for equivalent service and the trees would likely be an issue for reception anyway. So cable it is.

But like anything, sometimes you have a good relationship and sometimes you don't. What agrevation you are willing to put up with versus pay for is what it boils down to!

[Tim Morton]

I was locked into the cable company because up untill a couple weeks ago they were the only broadband in town. But I was paying 150 a month for tv/internet package with the rate hike. But a few weeks ago i got the letter in my mailbox saying that verizon was now offering DSL in my neighborhood. 2 hours later I had switched to verizon and dishnetwork. Both companies provided excellent CS and installs. I have never been happer...picture and audio is much better and DSL is just as good as cable. DishNetwork has the Family 4 pak....gives to 2 dual tuners, with DVR option(tivo)...i am loving life.

[Charles McKinley]

I have had Dish network for 2 years now. The package deal is a bit better for direct TV. I just haven't gotten around to changing. The installers are usually contractors so you are at the mercy of who owns your area unless you install it yourself. (my installer was good and very professional.) A friend of mine recommends going to best buy or some place like that and buying your own system so you get the reciever that you want not what the installer gives you.

The only reception problems are when there is a REALLY bad storm and I swept snow off the dish once or twice this year.

Picture quality is great. I had to go up a package to get Fox News and Noggin (joys of munchkins). We pay $55 a month for 2 recievers.

I get local channels with only one dish.

No connection to any companies mentioned.
I hope it helps.

[Stefan Antwarg]

I have had no problem with Dish Network. I also have a dvr and it is great. I live pretty far from major cities, and there is no cable in my area. So, I didn't want to waste the money and time trying for OTA. Dish was the only co. that offered local channels so I went with them. After I had everything installed, that was when I decided I wanted dvr. That took more time then what I was told on the phone but it wasn't too bad. Now I am pleased. I had to call support once to get some setting restored and that was handled well.

Stefan

[Lee Schierer]

We have Direct TV because no cable company has found it worth their while to string the cable past our house in the 27 years we've lived there. The only outages are when we get severe weather and that only lasts a few seconds.

Bear in mind that the definition of "Local Channels" to satellite companies may vary considerably from the channels that really are local to you. We have 5 local broadcast stations within 5 miles of our house, not one is on satelite. Our "Local Stations" according to direct TV are NYC, which is 500 miles east of us. We still use our conventional antenna to get the local stations.

[Rob Bourgeois]

I have DirecTV. Never had a problem with serivce. I had them come out two separate times. First fo rthe Mina dish install when I bought the system, then the came again when I upgraded to DVR. They were on time and did what was called for inthe free install package(which is very basic attach metn to wood, with 50 feet of cable).

Usually when I lose reception it very bad weather where you might not want to be in front of the TV anyway, power outages are more frequent.

All in all very satisfied

[Dan Bussiere]

I switched from cable to Direct TV and had no problems with the service or system. After the year was up, I asked for a free upgrade to 2 recievers so I could watch TV in my shop. They said, even though they were advertising to new customers a 2 reciever system installed free, that I could not upgrade free although they would sell me an addtional reciever at a significant cost. I said no thanks, called cable and scheduled a turn on date. I called Direct TV back to schedule a disconnect and they then said if I would cancel the cable install they would give me a second reciever free. Of course I didn't accept the offer as it was too late in my opinion. So.....outside of some poor customer service, I enjoyed the Direct TV system much better than the cable. I currently have every channel offered by cable and it doesn't compare to the Direct TV line up. One thing I like better about cable is the On Demand channels. It's a toss up, and a tough choice either way.
Good Luck,
Dan

[Donnie Raines]

I have Directv....going on 2 years now. I have had zero issues with mine(except the dog useing the cable outside the house as a chew toy). I have the "big" package....cost about 80 bucks a month. Way more then I need...but if I cut the channels down I would feel as if I am missing something....


DonnieR

[Chris Padilla]

When I had some premium channels (Starz, Showtime, Encore), I was paying cable $80/month. I cut those puppies out and now I'm down to $60/month and I put the $20 into Netflix/month.

I'm much, much happier but I am still thinking I should pull the trigger on satellite...just not sure which one....

[Bart Leetch]

We are provided with 67 channels of Comcast cable as part of our benefits package for apt. management. I would still like to have DIY, history, wings & travel.

At one time we had only a antenna & got about 5 channels. But we communicated (talked) more read books & took walks. It creates better relationships. Maybe we should consider doing these things again.

[Chris Padilla]

Bart....NAW!!!!! Now the wife and I communicate over HGTV and TLC and complain how nobody on those channels knows how to design anything! :D

[Tony Sade]

Pulled the trigger this afternoon. Three TV's hooked up to one single receiver and one dual receiver that includes the equivalent of 2 DVR's (TiVo's). We can watch and pause 2 live shows on the two TV's hooked up to the dual receiver, while recording two different shows simultaneously. Later, either recorded show can be watched from either TV. No more VHS tapes.

I went for the middle level package with HBO/Cinemax that gets me everything I had with cable except DIY. Boo-hoo, there goes "Woodworks"-just couldn't justify the extra $10 just to get that one show. I can certainly live without Brad and Linda and that goofy plumber guy who also does WW Warehouse-anyone else think working with power tools and having a deadline is a bad idea? The good news is that there's no commitment, so if I don't like it, back everything goes. Bad news-installation ain't until May 1. I'll manage. :)

Appreciate all the responses. Bill G-you're certainly welcome back to Wild, wonderful WV, but you might have to work a bit these days to find a place that gets you totally off the grid. Cheers, Tony

[Tim Morton]

Tony, you shold be able to call in and have them add DIY a la carte. Charge might be a buck or 2 a month, I am going to call tomorrow and see...in the switch over to Dish I lost track of DIY...I like it because it has TOH classics.

[John Shuk]

I recently switched from Dishnetwork to Directv. The reason for the change was to get extra recievers installed. I got Cable run and a Tivo and six months of savings on HBO for the cost of a new reciever and having to run the cable myself and needing the tools to terminate it and all. I love the TIVO. Get all the Norm stuff and am able to watch what I want instead of "what's on now" I however did like Dishnetwork a little better. The pic might have been a little better and I was very used to the remote. I do love the features you can get with Sat service and as a Phone company guy I HATE THE CABLE COMPANIES!

[Fred Voorhees]

Mark me down as a fan of DirecTV. You hear people talk about bad weather knocking out the reception. Basically, DONT BELIEVE IT. If you do experience some bad weather and it does effect your reception, wait about thirty seconds and it will be back on. No problems with DirecTV for me to complain about. Very happy in my, what, maybe sixth or seventh year with them. Got tired of the constant rate hikes with cable. Told them to shove it where the Sun doesn't shine. In the maybe seven years I've had DirecTV, there have been maybe two very minor rate hikes. I'm talking maybe a dollar or two a month.

[Mike Cutler]

Tony. I have Direct TV. The package included the installation of 3 recievers for free, each reciever does cost an additional $5.00 per month though. I didn't opt for the HDTV setup tho'. Both times that Direct TV came to the house, they showed up in the time window they told me they would. The monthly cost for the service is $26.95 per month for the first 6 months and then it will be $36.00 per month. I don't have any premium, or local channels, I only have the NHL Center Ice Package to watch Hockey. this was an additional $149.00 per season. They have similar packages for the NBA, and the NFL. I don't watch anything other than hockey,and I have it playing on the computer at that! so I can't really comment on the rest of their services, but I've been pleased so far. I got what I asked for. Good luck.

[Bill Patterson]

Hi Tony,

I have Directv. Overall, I would rate my experience with Directv as a C. From a programming standpoint, it seems that the DIY\Woodworking and Home Improvement shows have really gone down hill. The programming may not be any different on cable or Directv but I don't get the PBS affiliate that shows the new Norm shows. I do get HGTV, DIY, Discovery and some other PBS affilitate. On the PBS affiliate that I get, I only get the Norm re-runs which are ancient. I have seen every episode at least two times.

Now for some comments on functionality. I live in Florida and during bad thunderstorms, you can forget getting any satellite signal. Also, we have a second receiver and we don't use it too much. When we do, the receiver never gets enough signal to display a picture.

From a pricing standpoint, we pay about $50 per month for basic satellite with local channel affiliates. I have not checked cable yet but it seems that price creep has made satellite TV more expensive.

The one thing I do like about satellite is the Pay Per View functionality. No more Blockbuster out of stock, late fees or the hassle of standing in line to rent a movie. Without pay per view, satellite TV would be a solid D in my book.

I hate cable companies as much as the next guy but they seem to have better programming and price points. Sadly, I will probably end up switching back to the local cable company.......

[Ken Salisbury]

I have had Direct TV forever. It is great, especially if you also have a TiVo receiver. My receiver has a 30 gigabite hard drive which allows me to record and retain 30 hours of programs. I have a dual LNB which gives me the ability to record 2 stations at one time or record one channel while watching a different channel -- really neat during football season :) . I wouldn't even consider going back to cable TV.

[Curt Harms]

We have had DirecTV for about 4 years. Single dish, dual LNB feeding into a "supersplitter". I was able to bring the 2 lines from the dish to where the cable service entered. The cable had 4 lines. I just cut the cable line, installled the "supersplitter" where each LNB feeds 2 lines and used the existing RG58 in the building. Works great!. Have a Replay PVR (like a TIVO). SWMBO detested the cable company :mad: and wouldn't consider going back. Weather can be an issue with thunderstorms to the south but we've had less outages than when we had cable. We live near Philly so the local channels are the same as if we had cable. HTH

Curt

[David Klink]

We've had DirecTV for years now, and scarcely one issue to honestly complain about. We have receivers in 3 rooms, and when we decided to do that, we called our local service to install a dish better capable of handling the configuration. $100 to have it installed and our receivers configured. On top of that, the same dish will handle HDTV, and local channels when they become available in June.

Our dish has survived blizzards, tornado force winds(Thankfully the torndao was around 1.5 miles away.), thunderstorms, and me walking around on the roof. Sometimes we have signal issues during severe thunderstorms, but that's about it. Even so, we've had the cable go out more frequently than the satellite.

No issues with their service, either. Whenever we've called, we've gotten good answers, and when we bought new receivers, we had no hassle activating them.

Wood Works on DIY, the NFL network, more news channels than you can shake a stick at, tons of movie channels and a bunch of sports channels. Plus, I'm a football fan and every year I order the NFL Sunday Ticket, and I've almost seen more Cowboys games in the past 3 or 4 years than I'd seen in the previous 30+ total.

Yep...I like DirecTV.;)

[Jim Tobias]

We have had DirecTV for 7 or 8 years. No problems, it takes one heck of a storm to cause any type of interruption. It might happen for 10 minutes twice a year. As far as choices, the sky(pocketbook) is the limit. The Tivo is great! Record NYW, Woodworks, etc. everytime and watch them while skipping commercials.

Jim