I move in Thursday and need a TV solution. Local cable prices are outrageous. I checked out Direct TV at Best Buy and hit seemed a little more reasonable. I'm not fond of the dish appearance. My plan would be to trench a cable to the corner of the lot and place the dish on a short post. Sound right? Any opinions are appreciated.
It's alright. I have had both. The basic plan is the one I use. Around $30 per month. The picture is better than most cable. It is aggravating to have a box for every tv. Pros and Cons. I like it.
I've never heard anything really good about satellite and it doesn't help that my grandma got screwed over by a satellite company either. I don't hear much about cable but I like it and since we buy tv from them, we get the cable internet cheaper as well.
i also have had them both......with satellite I lose everything when heavy winter storm and heavy rains hit .......usualy happens when in the middle of a good movie....never fails... cable is always there....unless someone cuts the cable.....
We just did the switch. They show up this coming Tue. directtv.com has a promo for a 3 room system and a free DVD player if you order online. each room cost $5 more per month but the first 3 months are free and the first 6 months are only $29.99 It broke down like this months 1 2 3 $30 each months 4 5 6 $40 each After that it will be $50 a month for 3 room Right now we pay $41 for crappy cable, no boxes and over half of the channels are infomercials or shopping channels with a few dups. We even have two channels that do nothing but show you how to use the remote we don't have. Its a total rip. Maybe one day I will go back to cable with its de regulated. I hear in places where it is. You only have to pay for the channels you want. So if over half of them are crap, you don't pay for them. My cable bill would be only $15 if I only paid for the channels I watched.
dish one up will install a free system for you,up to 4 recievers.I had Dish Network for 6 years and switched to Direct TV about 4-5 months ago. The picture with a dish will blow away cable,esp if you have a big screen. I think the # is 1 800 dish1up
I have loss of signal from storms, maybe 3 times per year. You do have to remove the snow from the dish when it gets several inches deep. Cable Co's have screwed me for the last time! Cable prices got crazy here about 10 years back, and now they are getting competition from dish services. Hope it cuts to the bone.
CABLE SUCKS! ALWAYS HAS, ALWAYS WILL!:af: I am a "little" upset with the local Cable Company, as they Scammed me into giving up my DirecTV Dish! I "persuaded" them to give me Cable for FREE for almost 2 years, since THEY LIED TO ME, in the first place! As soon as I get the first bill, to PAY for Cable, I'm having it DISCONNECTED, IMMEDIATELY! Then, I'm going to Best Buy to buy the Multi Room DirecTV system, as an UPGRADE! I had DirecTV for 7 Years, before Cable Scammed me out of it, recently, but when I go back, it will be PERMANENTLY!:TU: DirecTV is the BEST choice for Service and Quality, and PRICE!:Smarty: You can do the Installation yourself, too, and Save $200 for someone else to do it! It's not that difficult, if you follow the instructions!
would it be correct to say that cable is more expensive because of the infastructure that cable companies have to invest in layion cable , etc ? i dropped my cable 3 years ago for the ma bell dish (in canada) . the satellite picture is great , but because of our crtc (cdn radio & television commission) , the comm governing body , we get screwed out of the u.s. channels !
I've had Dish Network for about 2yrs... Just switched to Cabe for the Modem. IF it was not for the Modem, I would've had the dish readded after the first week of cable... MY PICTURE SUCKS. I'm running a HD widscreen tv.. had a NON HD Sat box and the pict. was crystal clear... Switched to a HD Cable box.. and all channels are snowy.. I feel like I have rabbit ears on the tv:af: Called the rep back and all he could say was "eewww" when he saw the picture. After "Fixing" it, my HD channels look almost as good as regular Sat. channels. Forget about my Basic channels.. the're still snowy.. I almost can't stand to watch Comedy Central (and I LOVE that channel) Bottom Line... When My Cable Promo's are up and I start paying Full price for the modem, I'm switching back to Sat. I'm not giving up the modem for anything though.... Never.... You can't take it from me...:blast: :blast: :moonu: Cable
I've had DirecTV for about five years and wouldn't have anything else. I lose the picture a few times a year due to rainstorms, but it isn't that bad, and it has to be a pretty bad storm. However, I am in probably the best location for satellite reception -- Houston area. The satellite is almost exactly due south over the equator, so it's the shortest distance of almost any place in the US. Also with satellite, you can record one show while watching another (dual receiver setup). One other benefit of DirecTV that hasn't been mentioned -- built in Tivo. I don't know if Dish has it or not. Tivo is built into the DirecTV receiver so it doesn't have to go thru the signal conversions that are required when using regular (standalone) Tivo. You can playback a recorded show with exactly the same quality as the original because the satellite signal is digital, and it is recorded in digital and played back in digital without any conversion or loss of quality. The Tivo menu screens are well-integrated into the DirecTV menu screens. With the lastest DiecTivo receiver, you can record up to 120 hours. Great things like Season Pass (records all upcoming episodes of a program), watch a previously recorded show while recording two others, search by actor, title, type of show, etc., and my favorite -- the "what did he say?" button. When pressed, this button "rewinds" for eight seconds of show time, then automatically starts again. If necessary, you can press it more than once to go back 16, 24, etc. Another cool feature of Tivo -- when you are fast forwarding or rewinding, you can tell how many minutes into the show you are by an onscreen display. Also, when doing so, the picture is good enough quality that you can still see the show. But, the best thing is that when fast forwarding, when you stop fast forwarding it "backs up" up a few seconds before starting to play. For example, you fast forward thru a commercial. You are able to see when the commercial is over and when it is, you stop fast forwarding. However, it is so fast that your reaction time puts you fifteen seconds (of "show time") past where you wanted to resume. Tivo automatically "backs up" a little to compensate for this. That's not to say that it knows where the commercial ends and goes to that point. It simply backs up a little from where you pressed play to make up for your slow reaction time. All of the people I know that have DirecTV with Tivo consider it one of the best home theater products in years, and wouldn't do without it. Last year, my receiver got fried by a lightening strike ($15 surge protector for thousands of dollars worth of equipment). I was lucky it was only the satellite receiver that got fried. I was scheduled to go out of town for a week the next day. My wife made me go out and buy a replacement before I left. The receiver does cost more than one without Tivo, but there are always specials running at Best Buy. The amount depends on the model/capacity chosen. It also may incur a monthly fee ($5.00?) if you have one of the cheaper DirecTV packages. Last, for all you geeks out there (like me)...Tivo hardware is simply a small computer running Linux (and yes, there are websites that can supply you with Tivo "hacks"). I pulled my fried one apart, and it looks like a small PC inside. The Tivo software takes the digital signal from the satellite dish and immediately writes it to the hard drive. A split second later, it reads it from the hard drive and puts out the TV signal. In effect, you are always watching the show off of the hard drive. That also means that it always has up to the last thirty minutes of the show being watched recorded in case you want to replay part of it. However, if you change the channel, you lose the 30 minutes unless you had actually set up the program to record. The hard drive is a standard hard drive (120GB in my receiver, I think). Although you will void the warranty, you can replace the hard drive with a larger one, or add a second one. I've heard of some people being able to record like 700 hours. Sorry for the lengthy reply, but Tivo is really good technology.
I would go with Cablevision; but, since they bought Madison Square Garden along with the Rangers and Knicks and ran all ragged I can't bring myself to give them a dime. I suffer through DirectTV which is fine when the southern skies are clear and no stroms are on the horizon. Clouds and storms ruin an evening of viewing pleasure though. The sports packages are nice. I buy them at mid season when the price goes down significantly. Just got the MLB package for $29.95.
I'm curious...those of you who have satellite and say you suffer a lot of blackouts due to storms, what kind of signal strength do you have? It seems most of you guys are up north. My DirecTV signals run consistently at 92+. Can you get that good (or better) a signal up north or on the east or west coast?
I would like to know about the phone line too. Does it need hooked up all the time? They are coming tomorrow and I will only let them do what is under the free install, the rest I will do. But wonder if I should go get a couple of splitters and phone cords???
Thanks guys for the input. Do you all still receive local channels with your Direct TV? I need PBS for all the how-to shows. I have a analog big screen which I enjoy quite a bit. Picture quality is important. Sounds like the dish would be great. I plan on putting my dish on a short post. The salesman didn't think that was an issue as long it isn'y blocked by a structure. Sound right?
Originally, DirecTV needed a phone hookup only if you wanted to order Pay-per-view movies by selecting them off the menu. The phone line was used to "call in" your monthly pay-per-view bill to DirecTV so they could see what you had watched. If it isn't hooked up, or the line is in use (from a regular phone call), it will try to phone home later. I'm sure there is a built in mechanism to limit the number of pay-per-view movies you could watch when the phone call didn't work. I believe you could also call DirecTV and request a pay-per-view movie, but I've never done that. When I added a second receiver a few months ago, I had to have a phone line hooked up to it for it to start working. However, that may have been due to the integrated Tivo unit, and it may have been just for the initial setup. Never tried disconnecting it to see what would happen. Regarding local channels...you can get local channels for most metropolitan areas, but depending on the package, you may pay extra ($6 per month?). Again, this is for DirecTV. Don't know about Dish. I think there is also some provision that if you live in an area that can't get network channels via an antennae, they have to turn on the network feed channels for all the major networks for you. I have a 36" tube TV that will be upgraded soon. Picture quality for the non-HDTV signal is great.
We are suppose to get local channels free with the deal we signed. -- I know the phone line is use to check n make sure you have the boxes hookup and working but wonder if they need it all the time? I know several people who were into stealing dish with hacked boxes n cards. Of course those boxes n card don't work anymore as they changed the system [think they still get music but thats it] and hooking it up to the phone line is what rats them out. I can hook up a stringer to do the first install but Don't want the hassle of pulling up molding and crap to run permanent lines. I can care less about pay per view in two of the rooms. The only down side is I won't have TV in the shop anymore. Well local channels should still work. Course I could split off one box but would have to run in the house to change channels. Another guy said I should have them install it in the yard on a pole as its easier to clean off the snow. But we have tons of 1000ft oak trees and I think on my front porch will be plenty high but low enough?
I doubt that the height of your satellite dish will affect your picture quality. Remember that it is picking up a signal being transmitted from a satellite miles above the equator, so you are thousands of miles away from the signal source. A few hundred feet isn't going to make any difference. It's only important that it has an unobstructed view to the satellite and that the mounting is very solid. It doesn't take much movement of the dish to cause a loss in picture quality. Don't know how far away your shop is from where your receiver is, but this might work for you if it isn't too far away... http://www.smarthome.com/8210.html I use one so I can change the channel on the satellite receiver in my den from my home office. That allows me to watch shows off the satellite dish on my TV in my home office without having an additional receiver in the office. Works really good. Of course, it can be a real source of problems if I change the channel from my home office while my wife is watching TV in the den. The "smart home" stuff that is available now (and the price you can get it) is really amazing.
I have the 3 room DTV system and I only have the phone line connected to one receiver. It has been 3 months and they never called me to question about the other two receivers. It would be a real pain to run a phone line to the other receiver locations in my house. I installed the system myself and worked with the DTV tech to get all 3 receivers working. The phone line was not used at all during the initial install (I was on the phone talking to DTV). As someone here said, the phone line is used to download the pay per view purchase info from your receiver. If the phone line is not hooked up you can still purchase pay per view movies on-line and it will be charged directly to your bill. I think if you call DTV and order a PPV movie there is a service charge, if you order on-line there is not a service charge. As for signal strength, I live in the NE and my signal strength is 92 and I still get "rain fade" when a heavy rain/snow storm passes by. Maybe 4-5 times a year, mostly in the winter.
