OT (kinda) Quick Pole Regarding Dish Network vs Direct TV

[notbob]

I can't say, as I've not been subjected to bandwidth caps ....YET!

nb

[RonB]

[Fatter Than Ever Moe]

Have you thought about an over the air antenna and online streaming? I dropped Dish over a year ago and have an extra thousand in the piggy bank now. All I wanted was the news, business news, educational channels and the military channel. The over the air channels are usually actual HD an many of the online streaming channels are also. Dish actually did me a favor when they raised their prices, got me off dead center and got me to do something I should have done a year or two earlier. Most over the air channels have sub channels some of those are pretty decent to watch... an example of what's available now with online streaming...

[aemeijers]

Online streaming is only a viable option if you can get 'real' broadband at a price cheaper than cable or satt. In OP's case, the cable company is shutting down, which leaves DSL, often not available in rural areas. Worth a phone call to check out, but you can't assume everyone can get what is available in built-up areas. They keep crowing about how broadband is available to 70+ (I think) per cent of US population, but they never seem to publish the maps for where it is available, on anything lower than a county-by-county basis. Around here, other than in rich rural suburbs that offer fiber, once you are five miles from city limits, the choices dry up real fast. Unless you wanna pay out the wazoo for 2-way satt, you have dial-up, which is basically useless with modern internet.

I'm lucky that a 3rd-party DSL company services my neighborhood, since Ma Bell won't, even though my company's head end is right next to the Ma Bell offices downtown, so I know it would work. My company charges twice as much as Ma Bell for the same speed, but they are still cheaper than Comcast cable, my only other choice.

[Steve Barker]

How do you watch Discovery channel, to get the Deadliest Catch? The whole package price is worth it as far as i'm concerned for that one channel. You can't take that extra thousand with you.

[Country]

That's just it. I have a verizon 3G hotspot and even when I get the best signal I can't watch a youtube video without it stopping all the time to buffer more of the video. I doubt netflix or some other streaming video service would be any better.

-C-

[notbob]

You can watch that and a buncha other cable tv shows from streaming only Netflix for about $15 mo. I think most of those really lame watch-the-dysfunctional-family reality shows are stupid as Hell, but I did enjoy one season of Swamp People.

nb

[Steve Barker]

That's exactly right. I just traded a 440k dsl for a 1mb+ radio connection and the videos still don't stream everytime. There's no way i'd depend on the internet for tv shows. It's tedious enough watching the leno highlights that way.

[Bob Villa]

I sent Dish an email and asked them why a new customer gets such great deals and loyal customers of 12+ years get nothing. They gave me the same offer and I had to act-on it in 90 days. I don't think DirecTV would have paid any attention.

[Robert Neville]

Mounting either a TV or a laptop on a pole quickly isn't going to be easy.

[RonB]

We are starting with Dish. Two year contract with 120 channel package includes free HD for life, free DVR, free installation for up to 6 rooms (Only need three). First year discount from $44.95 to $29.95. However you have to pay a $6/mo "maintenance" fee for the DVR if you get it. We decided to skip the DVR since our TV has a built in DVR which we seldom use. We are adding a $3 bundle for three outdoor sports channels. We also got a $50 referral discount from a neighbor. Probably more TV than we will need.

A local Dish company set up shop in our grocery store and will have us hooked up mid-week.

And if we want they will mount the #@%^!)& antenna on a POLE! :o)

RonB

[Art Todesco]

I don't know all the particulars, but what if the subscribers buy out the cable company and make it a co-op. There are many small co-op cable companies in the country ... there used to be even a lot more, but Dish and DirecTV have probably killed them. BTW, beware of the 722 Dish DVR. It's a box full of software and hardware errors. I've had 3 of them over 2 years and all three do the same identical dumb things. When skipping, it's a crap shoot where they might skip to. They occasionally get so goofed up, you have to re-boot the unit. Sometimes when it gets really screwed up, it even reboots by itself.

[aemeijers]

Be aware that the 'free' installation is often worth what you pay for it, done by subs that are paid on a per-job basis. SOP around the cities I have spent time in, is to staple wire to outside of house and drill through walls, versus running the cable properly. Unless your existing wiring is old RG59 crap or something, your existing wiring may be fine for them to use, and all they have to do is come from the dish to wherever your main TV is, and tie into the old wiring from output side of receiver. Insist that the tech do an eyeball inspection of existing wiring before he gets out his Big Drill. Often, replacing some substandard splitters and a few connectors is all it needs to work just fine.

[Ed Pawlowski]

"Bob Villa" wrote

From what I've heard from others, yes, they would have. You can always ask about it on alt.dbs.directv

No matter what the product, new customers often get a good deal to sign up. Cell phone, oil delivery, magazines; they all do it.

[Ed Pawlowski]

"Art Todesco" wrote

I don't think it is that easy. The cable company I had for 25 years sold out to a bigger one because they could no longer compete technologically We became a MetroCast subscriber be default. After a few years, I ditched them for DirecTv because even after an upgrade (and higher prices) they could not offer the HD cannels I wanted.

[gfretwell]

The only time I see that weird skipping thing is going backward.

[jw]

Just my personal opinion, but I would not even consider using either of those two companies.

I've never used them, but know people who have. They'll constantly find ways to get more money out of you, have lousy repair service, and good luck trying to get a real person, particularly one who lives in the US. And if you want to cancel their services, good luck getting out of thir contract, they will continue to take money out of your credit card even after you tell them to cancel..... and the list goes on. Not only that, but they are intentionally killing all the smaller local companies.

Go ahead look them up on the BBB site. They're just like whaty Earthlink/Peoplepc are to the internet world. Crooks !!!!!

My only personal connection with them is contacting them to tell them to stop spamming my snail mail box with their damn ads. Every few days or once a week at minimum I get their junk in my mailbox. I called them, did the "return to sender" routine, and even wrote to them asking them to STOP sending me their junk. I clearly told them that I have no interest in their product and never will. After nicely asking them to stop sending me their junk, I told them I was going to start billing them for a handling fee to dispose of their junk. I also accused them of being polluters with all the paper they mail out.

On the phone they told me they would remove me from their mailing list but it would take up to 6 weeks. That was at least 3 years ago.

None of this did anything. I still get their crap every few days and so do all my neighbors.

DO NOT SUPPORT COMPANIES LIKE THEM. Shop locally, and support locally....

[jw]

Almost. It's be completely clear as soon as you tell us which of those two things your uncle was actually doing? We all want to know! And we all SHOULD know, because that sentence might get on facebook, someone's aunt, mother, or wife will read it, and it will go viral on the internet, and soon David Letterman will say it on his show.

Besides that, everything you post on the internet will be archived for all eternity. Someone may read this 20,000 years from now and be confused if it's not clearly known which of those things your uncle was doing.

[Ed Pawlowski]

wrote

At one time you were probably right, but they have changed. I've been with DirecTV for a year now. The few times I've called, I was surprised at how fast I got a real person, in the US, on the phone. They spoke English and wee very helpful.

I did need service once. They had someone out next day. They had a bad component from a supplier and quickly replaced it. Both the original installer and the service tech were courteous.

As for buying local, how many sat TV providers do you have in your town? Or cable TV providers? They tend to be large companies that have franchises for a town pr part of the state and no real choice. That is changing with U-Verse and FIOS though. but they are huge non-local companies also.

There are few choices if you want to watch History, Science Channel, Travel Channel, etc. They are not available OTA and can be a PITA with Hulu and other web based sources. Meantime, I lay out a few bucks and have a DVR so I can skip commercials, it records my favorite shows for me and I watch at a time I choose. While I can always say no, I prefer to say yes and watch my choices in TV when I want to watch them.

While I agree most of the time, I bought a new Weber Summit grill (S-470 if you want to do your own comparison) a couple of weeks ago. The price locally was $500 more than what I paid from an internet supplier. I probably would have paid $50 more, but $500 is just too much to support Mr. Local.

[krw]

I've got Dish and it's pretty much the same. Service is not the reason I don't like Dish.

We just had a remote control die. They shipped a replacement out to use next-day.

The only alternative here is Charter Cable (just ran the wires past our house in the last month or two). The people I know who have them are extremely unhappy with the service so we're not likely to change.

Yup.

Mr. Local is all but nonexistent here. Mr. Internet gets most of the non-essential business.