# Aren't you glad you have satellite?



## Lyle_JP (Apr 22, 2002)

"Cable TV Bills Going Up in Bay Area"

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=350&e=1&u=/kpix/20031016/lo_kpix/8104

Granted, we sat customers have our periodic rate increases too, but this is the second time in 6 months Comcast has decided to boost the bill.


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## Guest (Oct 17, 2003)

No. I would rather have crystal clear superior digital cable!!!


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## Pete K. (Apr 23, 2002)

Darn satellite goes out every time in rains. At least that's what the cable
commercials claim. Funny...when I had cable, it went out every time it
rained! My satellite service has failed me only a couple of times in four years!


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## Lee L (Aug 15, 2002)

I love satellite. In Raleigh, TWC doesn't have Bravo.


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## paulh (Mar 17, 2003)

Yes, with D* I don't have an ugly above ground wire going into the front of my house.


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## jrjcd (Apr 23, 2002)

i can't say i "love" satellite...after all these years i'm more used to it than anything-i purchase a great deal more programming than i use and may drop E* altogether if , when i get bell expressvue set up and find that that service suffices....


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

Let's see, my cable comes to my house underground, with no ugly dish on my house. I never goes out because of rain, although when my wife stuck a shovel through the cable it did go out a couple of weeks ago. It took Cox Cable about a half hour to get us back up and running after I called. That one little underground cable brings me Digital TV, Phone and Internet. And in 2 years my price, outside of changing packages, has not changed, while they keep adding channels. My conclusion is, YMMV.


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## waydwolf (Feb 2, 2003)

It's sort of like Linux vs. Windows. Cable requires very little knowledge of the deeper intracacies, DBS requires some idea of what you're using. Cable when done right is very onubtrusive, DBS when done right is still very visible. Cable when done right is extremely reliable, DBS when done right is still subject to mother nature's influence on a much lesser scale than affects cable. Rain only affects cable when the fittings are bad, the lines corroded and cracked, etc. Rain affects DBS whenever the moisture content in the atmosphere along the Line of Sight is too great.

When cable needs more signal, they use a larger cable like RG-11 or even RG-7 and in some places run 1/2in. or better semi-hard line to a tap at the residence and it costs you no extra because it's simply part of the investment in infrastructure. A simple downstream amp at the MPoE(Minimum Point of Entry) and possibly an upstream amp at the CPE are all that are needed beyond that. When DBS needs more signal, you need a larger dish thus increasing wind loads and costs, and you need an amp perhaps on top of that. But amping a DBS signal without improving the signal source as in getting a larger dish is like putting a cable amp AFTER all the ingress and noise sources.

Cable honestly passes the costs along the same as any child running a lemonade stand does when the costs of Dixie cups and lemonade at the store go up. DBS is still running way off from true profitability unlike the cable operators and this is due to trying desperately to undercut cable, even as cable improves to total superiority over DBS without its inherent limitations. Modern cable broadband beats DBS again and again. So DBS keeps competing based on yesteryear's cable.

Well, if you're stuck in a backwards area where the local operators are dorks and won't upgrade and give you modern services, DBS can look like a blessing. But Cox has HD rolling, cable modem, telephony, and enough bandwidth to keep adding as many channels and as much data capacity as I care to pay for. The only DBS offerings I am considering are Dish for the adult content and VOOM for the HD line-up.

Going with DBS over cable would for me be like going with CLEC DSL for my business over a traditional telco. They've got too many problems now and in the future to be reliable enough to throw everything behind for me. As Bogy said, YMMV.


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## paulh (Mar 17, 2003)

I know that there are cable installations that are less visible than DSS, it's just happens to be the opposite for me.


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

paulh said:


> I know that there are cable installations that are less visible than DSS, it's just happens to be the opposite for me.


In the same way that cable prices going up in the Bay area means nothing to me.


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## Lyle_JP (Apr 22, 2002)

Well, Bogy, I envy you and everyone who has access to either Cox or Time/Warner Cable. You all have _three_ viable options for multi-channel entertainment. Those of us in At&t/Comcast land really only have two, E* and D*. Unfortunately, Comcast has something like 55% of the cable market now. It's no wonder that the satellite market continues to grow with no saturation point in sight yet.

But, I will say that in three years I have experienced rain fade only _once_, which lasted for a whopping 8 seconds. OTOH, in the 5 years that I had TCI (which later became At&t which is now Comcast), I have about 5 weather-related cable outages that lasted for an average of three to five hours. So this rain fade complaint is just nonsense.


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## pez2002 (Dec 13, 2002)

Yeah I remember when I was with my Ex i had turned her on to directv and i remember her saying i want directv And her sister goes it turns the signal off when it rains They had comcast paying something Like $119 a month i said What do you Have her sister told me 2 digital boxes and HBO damm not worth that price 


OK then 2 nights ago we got slammed with rain It went out For 5 Miniutes no big Deal


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

Had Dish, have DirecTV, have no desire to deal with Comcast, love both of my PVRs. DBS only went out once due to weather-related issues, and Dish went out twice due to Network operations issues. Picture is better than what I get with Cable. 

Any questions?


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

YMMV - some places cable is very, very good. Others - DBS rules. Those of us fortunate enough to llive where there is a good cable company has 3 choices, those who don't have 2. Facts of life...


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## durl (Mar 27, 2003)

I am VERY glad to have satellite. I don't care that I have a dish on the side of my house. Having that nice triple-LNB dish out there makes me feel GOOD. Even if it was staring people in the face (it's not out in the open) I really wouldn't mind.

Mainly, I'm glad to be away from the cable company. Lousy picture and even worse customer service is what drove me away. I was not a customer to them, I was a captive. Prices kept going up for the same old picture and the same lousy service. Sometimes you don't pick satellite over cable just for the picture quality, you do it to exercise your choice for the better service.

I have NEVER been disappointed with my satellite service.


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## JohnL (Apr 1, 2002)

Dude,


That was an absolute Knee slapper, your Cable company hasn't raised it's prices in two years, that is funny.

Your Digital cable is not likely all digital. More than 90 percent of Cable companies nationwide only provide some digital service, the vast majority of channels are analog service with some digital channels. Which is fine be me, actually a good analog picture can be vastly better PQ than Digital with its compression artifacts and muted picture.

The cable company where I live usually raise prices at least once a year sometimes more, or they move channels from a basic tier into a higher tier service forcing subscribers to increase their programing charges to get the same service, while this is strictly not a programing increase it causes many subscribers to pay more for the service they were getting.

If your cable company is ok and you are happy great, but please don't try to tell the rest of us satellite suscribers the grass is greener on the cable side of the fence because one cable company (yours) provides great service. It's highly suspect when you compare cable service to satellite and only use one cable company to represent the entire cable industry. The thing with satellite is that Dish and DirecTV (minus Pegasis territory) programing service is the same Continental service nationwide the same CAN'T be said about cable service because of the sheer number of cable providers.

John


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

JohnL said:


> If your cable company is ok and you are happy great, but please don't try to tell the rest of us satellite suscribers the grass is greener on the cable side of the fence because one cable company (yours) provides great service. *It's highly suspect when you compare cable service to satellite and only use one cable company to represent the entire cable industry.*


*Then please don't relate the poor service of your local cable company and use it to represent the entire cable industry.* As I said before, YMMV.

I've had DBS when that was my best option, and now I have cable because that is my best option. If DBS once again became my best option I would switch back in a heartbeat, but right now my service is great and I would end up paying more for anywhere close to the same service because my TV, local and long distance phone, and internet are bundled. In fact, in two weeks when I move into my new house I am switching to a new package Cox just start offering and will save at least $20 to $30 a month. I can't afford to go back.


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## Richssat (Jul 2, 2002)

1 Tivo per TV (4) with D* (TC+ Locals, HBO) : $70 a month

DSL thru the local Telco: $29.99 mo

Not even having a feed from the cable company to my house: Priceless


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## pez2002 (Dec 13, 2002)

I like that


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

I have seen the analog cable services, digital cable services in different areas (PA, Ohio, Indiana, WV) and have seen some differences in the cable services. The analog service was not as good as the digital service (of course) while the digital service seemed comparable and sometimes better than the satellite service in many ways and I have seen where cable as caught right up with satellite if not gone beyond what satellite has become. Where I live its just analog cable that is not much count at all, with not much of a channel selection (only 23 channels available - 5 or so being network channels) you can see there is just not much here and this was after they added channels. I remember not long ago when we only had like 10-13 channels available here.

It does depend on where you are at and not having locals on satellite has been a huge factor. People like simplicity and they think they get that with cable, not having to buy hardware, sign long-term contracts, needing a dish, they get their locals, get high speed internet, etc.


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## JBtampa (Sep 6, 2003)

let's see...I'm on my fifth E* sw64 switch, or is it sixth or seventh, it's kind of a blur, and I'm on my third dual lnb, I pay more than a hundred dollars a month, wife freaks every time I have to call the sat man, which is pretty much every few months at about $250 each, and ..... . Once Bright House Cable catches up with high-def, which they are doing, it's good bye Dish !!!


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## JBtampa (Sep 6, 2003)

oh yeah, I forgot "Acquiring Sattelite, please wait" that we get all the time while waiting, and waiting, for the program guide., only to have it say the info is "not available" It's pretty sad. When I go into a local store to look at the new tv's, it occurs to me that they could never sell em it they used "Acquiring sattelite" as their demo.


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## AndyMon (Jun 12, 2003)

Ha! You cable proponents have never had to deal with Cablevision. If you had, you'd be singing a different tune. I'd rather send donations to my local electric utility than pay CV for what they call a service.
Just another data point.........


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

WHEN I started with DBS, our local cable outlet had been bought by Time Warner, but they were still the same old 36 (previously 33) channel analog service. I put the Dish500 up and cut the cable back to lifeline (OTA channels only) and used my Sony MRDD1 to combine the 2.

When E* started offering Raleigh locals, I dropped cable like a hot potatoe - LIL + Superstations + National PBS, and I was all set. I was also learning how to get a good OTA signal (as backup).

DSL got here 6 months before TWC got around to upgrading the cable service to digital / cable modem service. OTOH, they had inadvertedly hooked my house back up - the analog service was a whole lot better - picture quality wise, number of channels, everything. If they would have had this level of service when I left - I probably wouldn't have left. But it is not compelling enough to make me want to switch back, either. AT100 + locals + HBO is a bit cheaper than the comparable package from TWC. I have got OTA reception down pat so that most channels (the ones I'm interested in anyways) look as good as or better than the cable - and certainly better than DBS. Nevertheless - I'mm keeping the Dish locals as well - It's nice having them in the EPG, and the one box / tuner solution is nice .


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## cyberized (Mar 7, 2003)

I have been a DISH Customer for 6+ Years and have been VERY satisfied with the Service and Product - although for me being on limited income, even though it has been cheaper than cable - still actually a STRETCH Luxury for ME. 

BUT now with HDTV becoming available over SAT and Cable - - - I definitely CANNOT afford HDTV over SAT (purchase another Receiver + pay more per month for HD Programming). IF I do go to HDTV down the road - I will probably have to sell/trade in ALL my DISH equipment and switch to Cable after all this time. It appears HD on Cable = at this time anyway, is cheaper than DISH. Only $5 more per month for your HDTV Receiver and programming VS. $200-999 for DISH HDTV Receiver and $9.95 extra for like 3-4 channels HDTV. 
They are definitely pricing me out the market. BUT I presently LOVE my PVR 508 and find picture quality of DISH EXCELLENT the way it is.

BEST 2 U ----- Michael


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## Mike Richardson (Jun 12, 2003)

JBtampa said:


> let's see...I'm on my fifth E* sw64 switch, or is it sixth or seventh, it's kind of a blur, and I'm on my third dual lnb, I pay more than a hundred dollars a month, wife freaks every time I have to call the sat man, which is pretty much every few months at about $250 each, and ..... . Once Bright House Cable catches up with high-def, which they are doing, it's good bye Dish !!!


You're paying $250 for someone to come out and fix an LNB? You are getting ripped off.


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## FTA Michael (Jul 21, 2002)

Even folks who are happy with their cable service (not that there's anything wrong with that) should be very thankful for the existence of satellite TV. What would most cable systems' lineups look like if there weren't millions of subs defecting to DBS? What would their prices be if they had no competition at all?


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## Unthinkable (Sep 13, 2002)

JBtampa said:


> When I go into a local store to look at the new tv's, it occurs to me that they could never sell em it they used "Acquiring sattelite" as their demo.


 Sears seems to have no problems at all selling HDTV's and Dish Network equipment where I live.


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

carload said:


> Even folks who are happy with their cable service (not that there's anything wrong with that) should be very thankful for the existence of satellite TV. What would most cable systems' lineups look like if there weren't millions of subs defecting to DBS? What would their prices be if they had no competition at all?


Exactly. I am very happy for the advances made by DBS. If it weren't for those, and the competition provided by DBS I would not have the service I do today. Particularly because DBS provides competition for all cable companies, wherever they may be located. And those with DBS should be glad for improvements in cable, as well as the competition provided by the other DBS service. DBS companies have not been running at a loss, adding services and channels just as a public service and because they just love all you subs so much. Its a business, and if they weren't continually trying to increase their market share you would be paying much higher prices with less service. The more competition the better.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Cable was OK, but $40 per month for a few analog channels ... "Digital cable" at a much higher rate?
Nahh ... $35 for 100 is much better - and (personal experience that may not be relative to people in Nebraska) when my cable (internet only) went out for four days my dish worked fine. All I had to do was start my generator (storm related power failure). I like DBS.

JL
I don't work for DISH. DISH works for me.


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