Post #143,574
2/27/04 12:59:04 AM
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Considering Satellite TV
Anyone got any insight?
Currently, we have Comcast standard cable, which costs about $40/month.
Dish Network has a package offer of free dish, install, and hookup to 4 rooms, 2 of which can have their DVR device which records up to 80 hours. The monthly fee is $30.
On the face of it, I'm chomping at the bit but have concerns about signal quality and reliablity.
Thoughts, input?
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Steve
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Post #143,584
2/27/04 6:13:22 AM
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Re: Considering Satellite TV
My Dad's works as well (or not) as cable. You have to have a south view, which should not be a problem in Denver. When visiting Dad the main issue I find is channel switch latency and a clumsy remote requiring the entry of seemingly 100s of digits to change the channel. These sound silly but it gets annoying fast.
-drl
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Post #143,590
2/27/04 7:21:15 AM
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We have Dish Network
We got it largely because my wife has a jones for the Sopranos.
Signal quality is usually as good as cable. Heavy rain or snow will interfere with the signal. Light rain or cloud cover has no noticible effect.
They pretty much give you the equipment and installation as a loss leader to sell the programming. Once your year contract is up the prices jump noticably.
Also, with cable, the cable company owns the box; if something breaks, they fix it. With the dish, you own the equipment; if it breaks, you are responsible for fixing it and the bills for the programming keep on coming. I haven't had any problems with my equipment. I just checked on that when we were signing up for the service.
I like it because the cable company in my neighborhood is Adelphia and I absolutely will not deal with them. I watch a cable movie occasionally, which is 95% of my TV viewing, but there is still hundreds of channels and nothing on most of the time, just like cable.
my .02
Hugh
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Post #143,591
2/27/04 7:28:03 AM
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I considered it recently but declined.
We were paying about $50 for Cox analog cable. I was thinking that we'd get DirecTV instead as I've never liked our cable service. But I wanted to get broadband at the same time. It turns out that we can't get DSL because there's some optical fiber between our substation and our home - or at least that's the explanation I've been given.
So my only practical option for broadband was cable. :-( We ended up adding digital cable with the broadband so that we can get the baseball package in a couple of months.
A friend had DirecTV for a few months when they had a promotion. He said the service was pretty good: it only faded out when it rained *really* hard. I don't recall him mentioning any major problems with it, but they decided they didn't want to pay the $40/month to keep it.
It looks like about 40% of my neighbors have DirecTV, so it seems to be a popular service.
Note that if you want to watch different channels in different rooms at the same time you need a more elaborate system than the standard one (each TV with a separate channel needs its own receiver horn thingy on the antenna). Make sure you understand what hardware you're getting.
Good luck with your decision!
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #143,594
2/27/04 8:05:01 AM
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Don't bother, say I.
Y'all watch too much TV as it is.
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home Page - Now with added Zing!]
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Post #143,622
2/27/04 10:58:34 AM
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Hockey, Racing and Baseball
are my prime motivators, very little of which is available on broadcast TV.
Kiddo likes Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, and Disney.
Wife likes Friends and er. Those and the occasional local newscast are about the only broadcast shows we watch.
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Steve
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Post #143,629
2/27/04 11:06:33 AM
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Animals, movies, Congress, documentaries,
..politics, Lou Dobbs, Star Trek, Outer Limits, John Stewart, NASA TV, Antiques Road Show, A&E Biography, Cops (guilty pleasure), hockey, racing, baseball...
Not bad for a few bucks a month.
-drl
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Post #143,597
2/27/04 8:38:23 AM
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My dad has satellite.
The digital artifacts are noticeable at times (as they are on digital cable). I prefer analog.
Certainly seems as if it's a good deal though, what with the TiVos and all.
Note: I'm currently building my own DVR... more expensive than a TiVo, but I have complete control over the machine, and no monthly fees. Works best with analog as I can use the tuner on the card to change channels.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #143,602
2/27/04 9:38:37 AM
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From a kit, plans, or the mind of admin? :)
-drl
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Post #143,605
2/27/04 9:44:51 AM
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Here:
[link|http://www.mythtv.org|http://www.mythtv.org]
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #143,607
2/27/04 9:51:38 AM
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very cool! can't wait 'till I can get some cash
-drl
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Post #143,619
2/27/04 10:54:36 AM
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That's one piece I didn't mention
Wife wants Tivo (she's tired of me accidentally recording over her tapes of 'Friends' and 'er')..add another $13/month to the cable bill, which makes the dish with 2 DVRs at $30/month even more attractive.
That mythTV project looks fascinating, but it's not something I want to throw a lot of time into right now.
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Steve
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Post #144,021
3/1/04 3:16:27 PM
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I've heard bad things about PVR as implemented by Dish
I have two Russain channels for my Mom delivered by Dish Network. Works OK.
--
The number of the beast - vi vi vi
--[link|http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?QuotesOnComputers|Delexa Jones]
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Post #144,029
3/1/04 4:44:36 PM
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Consider Satellite TV
Just get a plastic ziplock baggie to put over the dish receiver part and use RainX to coat the dish with so it repells water. Otherwise when it rains you will lose the signal. You might still lose the signal in a snowstorm or heavy rain that blocks the sky.
Signal quality varies depending on how you point your dish. Get at least 80% signal strength before you lock in your dish position. Over 80% looks better than digital cable to me.
You need a satellite receiver for each TV in your home, and a remote control as well. They should provide those, but make sure you get the same model for every TV in the house, we got two different models and using one is different from another. One is a Huges and the other a RCA. Different remotes, different menus, but same programming.
Dish was going to buy out DirecTV, not sure if that is going to happen. We got DirecTV and pay $35/Month for 150 channels and two receivers. They charge $30 for the programming and $5 for each extra receiver. Our local cable TV serivce costs almost twice as much with only 80 channels on their digital network. It used to be $85 a month for digital cable, but they got more competitive and lowered the cost to $65 because satellite companies were undercutting them in our area. The local cable company also wants to bundle a cable modem and Internet access as part of the package, but they still are not as cheap as my DSL and Satellite services.
"Lady I only speak two languages, English and Bad English!" - Corbin Dallas "The Fifth Element"
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