# Someone convince not to go to cable!



## Guest (Apr 24, 2002)

I can't make up my mind what to do. The packages on DirecTV or DishNet are kinda silly. 50, 100, or 150 channels? Who needs 30 audio channels, or 20 sports or 15 news channels? Or a bunch of college education channels from colleges across the country? Most everything I would want are in the basic package, except for American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies.
And those are about the only two things on the 100 package that I would ever watch. They ought to let you pick and choose what channels you want!
I hate to pay for 100 channels when all I would ever watch are 15 to 20. Of course, this is a problem with cable too. But with cable, I don't have to pay even more to watch our local channels.
And with cable, I can watch one show and record a different one. With prices similar for a dish or cable, why should I go with a dish? I appreciate your insight.


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## Chardo (Apr 11, 2002)

How many TV's will you be hooking up? Let me know so I can give my opinion.


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## Kenster (Apr 24, 2002)

Wow, Chardo, that's the fastest reply I have ever had on a message board! For right now, I would just be doing two TVs. One upstairs and one down.


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## Scott Greczkowski (Mar 21, 2002)

If you dont want all the channels, then honestly your better off with cable. I guess it all depends on which channels you want to watch and if your cable company carries them or not.

Welcome Kenster! :hi:


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## Neil Derryberry (Mar 23, 2002)

what fueled my DBS decision years ago was the poor quality of cable service in my area... plus, I have a home theater setup, so I was after the best quality possible. You just have to do what makes sense.


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## Lightnin1 (Apr 23, 2002)

I have converted alot of people from cable because our local cable co. does not have access to speed vision. Another reason for going with DishNet is to get the 501 PVR receiver. It has fiber Optic(dolby digital) sound output and it sounds great. Plus no reciever that the cable co. here provides has PVR ability.


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## EricG (Mar 28, 2002)

The music channels are nice. 24 hours of commercial free digital audio. It's worth it not to hear anymore Body Solutions ads !!!


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## dishrich (Apr 23, 2002)

Ken - I am a DBS dealer, but I have told many a potential customers to stick with cable. As much as Charlie wants to see a dish on EVERY roof, DBS is NOT for everyone. And, quite honestly, (at least in my area) 3 of the cable co. in & around me have REALLY beefed up their systems - a couple actually blow DBS out of the water, as they have MORE channels than either DBS system now! Also, it doesn't help help in my area that not only can we NOT gets locals on DBS, we NOW cannot even get our local CBS affil off-air any more, so I can't even put up an antenna & get all our major nets anymore.    

For example, I had a customer who's had E* for several years. (sold him TWO 5000 receivers) Mediacom came in to his town (which only has a population around 900) & rewired EVERYTHING w/fiber, etc & introduced digital cable & cable modes. Their analog line-up has over 75+ channels alone w/the main feeds of HBO & Showtime "trapped" (not scrambled) so you can see ALL of these channels on ALL your sets if they are cable-ready. They offered him basic, FULL digital cable (on 2 sets) w/ALL premiums AND cable modem f/$90/month! They even gave him the cable modem FREE (w/no monthly rental fee) if he would sign a year contract. He bought the line-up to me & asked what I thought about the offer? I said "I wish I could get THAT!!! (oh yea, they ALSO gave him $150 for his dish & 1 receiver)    

Like Scott said, you just need to do your homework & check out everything from all 3 providers & see which is best for YOU.


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## HarryD (Mar 24, 2002)

You need to go to a CC or BB and see what DBS has to offer. Superior picture and sound.. and, oh yeah, you can watch one channel and tape another. DirecTV has two recv choices DirecTivo and UltimateTV will both do this.


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## lee635 (Apr 17, 2002)

I know what you mean. We have AT50 and would like AMC, Turner Classic, and my wife would like Gameshow Network. And we rarely watch the ESPNs, instead catching sports on the networks. But it's just not worth the extra dollars for 3 channels. 

Well I really like is the onscreen progam guide and that's not available with regular cable. Also, our regular cable costs $29.99 per month and doesn't have AMC, TCM of Gameshow either, so AT50 plus locals isn't a bad deal. We added showtime and DBS gives you several premium channels whereas you usually need the digital cable to get 5 premiums. Finally, some of the analog cable channels just come in like crap, whereas DBS is uniformly ok in quality.

Cable wins with no extra box fees for basic cable, there's just no way around this. Also, for areas that have cablemodems, it's a DBS killer. Also with cable you don't stuck with an install bill if the installer has to do anything that takes more than like 20 minutes to complete. And you don't have to pay the cable people $75 for an install when you move.


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2002)

The reason I dropped cable was because of the Nascar races..... My cable company wouldn't add F/X and I said the heck with them.... They have since added F/X but I know they lost at least 5 customers.... All my buds dumped cable for Dish Network..... I never knew how bad my cable reception was until I got a Dish Network..... I also get the Speed Channel (used to be called speedvision) now and I never had it on cable.... I think it is on the cable now but on the digital package.... Some of the people I work with say the digital cable is hard to watch because of the channels breaking up.... Especially the Speed channel.... The only wish I have for the Dish Network is to add my locals.... When they do that I will be one happy camper....


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## RichW (Mar 29, 2002)

Ken,

If cable meets your needs, then by all means, don't feel guilty about becoming/staying a cable customer. The basic "analog" customer, especially one in a DMA without DBS locals, is probably the best fit for cable service.


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## Chardo (Apr 11, 2002)

Ken,

You're welcome for the fast reply before. Since you only want 2 TV's hooked up, I would go with a 2-unit Ultimate TV and dish package. I'm about to order one, most likely from orbitsat.com.

The deal (some other vendors hve similar deals) is for the dish plus 2 Sony Ultimate TV receivers, required multiswitch, and install kit, all for free after rebate. Obviously, you need to be capable of installing yourself to make this worthwile, because pro installation would get costly.

Having UTV tuners in both rooms allows you to receive 2 signals on each TV. This is required if you want to be able to watch and record different channels at the same time. You can even record two channels while watching a previous recording. You can check other threads for all the many advantages of Ultimate TV (and Tivo, which is similar).

The total monthly cost would be $31.99, plus $6 for local channels, plus $5 for the second receiver, plus any additional movie packages (HBO, etc.). Also, a $9.99 charge for Ultimate TV. Add it all up and compare to your cable bill. Even if you don't want all the extra channels, if you're really into recording shows, the UTV makes it better than cable.

As I said, with satellite the only way to record and watch different channels is to have 2 tuners, which requires a Tivo or Ultimate TV receiver. The regular satellite receivers can't do this. A 2-tuner receiver requires 2 separate wires direct from the dish. If 2 rooms have this setup, that's 4 wire runs. Due to the cost of the extra runs, the professional installation gets pricy and is not included with the "installed" packages available from many vendors. 

What I'm saying, is that if your capable of installing yourself, get the 2-room UTV satellite package. If not, stick with cable and VCR's.


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## andyf (Apr 23, 2002)

Picture Quality. I've been without cable for 2 years now. I just had RoadRunner installed which means my cable line became active. Just for grins I plugged the cable into my TV to see if anything had improved over the last 2 years. The analog channels still suck big time.

Plugged the sat signal back in and I was back into my awe mode over the picture improvement. You'll never get me back to analog cable. Now maybe, if all the channels went digitial ..........


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## Kenster (Apr 24, 2002)

Thanks to all you for your advise.
KEn


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## Guest (Apr 24, 2002)

Back in the "old" days of Dish, about 2 years ago, Dish used to offer "Dishpix" where you could pay a la carte for any 10 channels from the list they gave you for $15/month. It was a nice lineup of programming and included AMC, SciFi, Discovery etc. I was bummed to see it go.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Ken - for some situations, cable IS the best alternative. Most of us got DBS to get something we couldn't get from cable (at least at the time of our switch).


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Go with what suits you. Remember, part of the reason why I went with dish was because I got PO-ed with the local cable company. (I pay the cable bill as well as the mortgage for my mom and myself). Judging from the number of DBS dishes that I've seen on roofs, the local cableco must have PO-ed a lot of people.


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## pmichael (Mar 25, 2002)

Being a recent DBS convert, I would concur with the opinion here that you should go with whatever is best for your current situation. I switched to DBS(DISH) because my local cable company has not updated their systems like many across the country. Also, the local cable company's billing system was making constant mistakes which would erroneously disconnect customers. Because of the ineptness of the local cable company, one of the local governmant officials suggested that anyone unsatisfied with the offerings of the local cable company(RCN) should get a dish(and I did).


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## BrettR (Apr 24, 2002)

The RCNs of Central N.J. arent that great. I dont know why some RCNs are better than others. Allentown has it good, 90% of the city has access to both RCN and Service Electric and they both compete directly with each other. Lineup looks better than any Comcast system in Philly or South Jersey. Bigger doesnt always necessarily mean better.

A big problem for Yankees fans is RCN in Princeton and Hunterdon, Somerset Co.is carrying YES without blackouts, but DirecTV is blacking out YES in Central NJ. The computers are saying its Phillies territory, even though in some of the areas (New Brunswick for example) the cable company isnt even carrying Comcast SportsNet. 

I would be really angry if I lived in that area and signed up for a year of DirecTV to get Yankees games, and DirecTV says yes YES is carried, and you qualify for it in Total Choice, but it turns out games are blacked out.


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## DarrellP (Apr 24, 2002)

Scooper, you're right, I first got DBS because I couldn't get cable at all. After getting DBS, I've stayed with it because the PQ is so much better. That gap is narrowing on some cable systems & unless DBS gets off their compression bandwagon they are going to see more exodus to cable as they come online with all digital and HDTV in the next few years.


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## psecic (Apr 5, 2002)

> _Originally posted by Ken _
> *I can't make up my mind what to do. The packages on DirecTV or DishNet are kinda silly. 50, 100, or 150 channels? Who needs 30 audio channels, or 20 sports or 15 news channels? Or a bunch of college education channels from colleges across the country? Most everything I would want are in the basic package, except for American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies.
> And those are about the only two things on the 100 package that I would ever watch. They ought to let you pick and choose what channels you want!
> I hate to pay for 100 channels when all I would ever watch are 15 to 20. Of course, this is a problem with cable too. But with cable, I don't have to pay even more to watch our local channels.
> And with cable, I can watch one show and record a different one. With prices similar for a dish or cable, why should I go with a dish? I appreciate your insight. *


For one thing you don't have to pay any taxes as the way you are forced to pay with cable. Personally the more channels you can get is better.


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