Pros & Cons of Satellite TV

[Bart]

Don't know if this is the correct forum, but here goes. Getting tired of climbing cable fees for what is offered. Thinking satellite TV may be an alternative. Any ideas?[huh]

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Ditch TV

bk

 

[Bart]

Ditch TV

Good idea, Baron!

 

[photobyalan]

Assuming you are not going to stop watching TV...

I cut the cable five years ago and have been enjoying Dish Network ever since. I don't think there's a huge difference between Dish and DirecTV, although I find the Dish equipment to be more intuitive and easier to use. Someone who subscribes to DirecTV might tell you exactly the opposite.

I pay what I consider to be a lot for satellite service, but I feel like I'm getting a lot more than I would for the same money with cable.

As long as you have a clear view to the satellite, then I would definitely recommend satellite over cable.

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

One advantage to satellite TV is you get to see where I work.

 

[Zach R.]

We get a great deal here considering our cable bill includes Roadrunner and *all* the movie channels. From what I can see, it is cheaper than comparable services with Sat. Companies.

We've had DirecTV before, and I wasn't really impressed.

 

[Hannigan Reilly]

I have had both, and I got more for my $$ with Dish than cable. However, a lot of my local sports programming came on local free channels, which I did not get with dish. when i asked for them, they wanted another $25 and another year contract. So I went to digicable, but I do not get the channels I used to have. It is an even trade-off in my opinion. If you don't care about regional or local sports programming, you are probably better off with a satellite TV system. You can get local channels now, of course, when you sign up. They just pi$$ed me off when I called them to request those channels so i went to cable.

 

[mysterygal]

We get a great deal here considering our cable bill includes Roadrunner and *all* the movie channels. From what I can see, it is cheaper than comparable services with Sat. Companies.

We've had DirecTV before, and I wasn't really impressed.

I've heard some negative things about DirecTV as well. Most of my friends have satellite tv and love it

 

[raiderrescuer]

Choices...

Well, it all depends on Location, Location Location...

Example given in Salem you can get Broadband Internet with your cable in a package deal and it's great.

In my Old Stomping Grounds of Dallas (Think Oregon NOT Texas) the best you get is DSL & Dish...Cable cost is 4 times as much and No Broadband.

And Cable in Dallas uses...Satellite Dishes, so their claim of less outage is Bologna!

 

[Lincsong]

Satellite

It all depends on where you live. Out here in the America's little Argentina; cable is way more than satellite. I never had cable because of the huge taxes placed on it by local governments. Then I found how much cheaper Direct TV was than cable and have been hooked up for six years.:eusa_clap Otherwise, here in San Francisco Bay with 14 over air stations, I had enough of television for the 90 minutes a day I watched it. But, now I can watch History Chanel, T.V. Landlol

 

[Lena_Horne]

We've had all three. I personally have enjoyed Dish Network the most. The most channels available and we were able to service more rooms in the house versus DirecTV. I also don't know if DirecTV has DVR or not, but Dish decidedly does provided you pay a little bit more. The only drawback, in my opinion, is that, no matter the provider, the dish predictably goes out during a terrific rain or snowfall.

L_H

 

[scotrace]

.

We dumped cable two years ago. Bad thing was finding a replacement for the cable internet, which also went away, of course.

So now we have DirecTV and Verizon DSL. The idea was to save money, but it's higher this way. But it all came with Tivo. Life without my little friend Tivo is hard to imagine now.

A storm takes out both.

 

[otterhound]

Try NetFlix instead

We dumped cable and satellite and replaced them with a NetFlix subscription. We now watch movies at night (no commercials!) instead of stupid TV shows.

It was a great decision for us and we haven't regretted it a bit.

 

[Hannigan Reilly]

In most areas, you can get broadband internet from your cable provider without having cable for television. they are separate services.

 

[fortworthgal]

We have Directv and we love it. We've never had any problems with outages or anything, which we constantly battled with when we had cable. The prices are very comparable, Directv is probably a little less expensive. We don't watch sports so that saves us money, but they do offer big sports packages. They do have DVR.

 

[scotrace]

In most areas, you can get broadband internet from your cable provider without having cable for television. they are separate services.

Yes. And the rate, in my area, is double if you do so.

 

[Pilgrim]

I've been with DirecTV for 10 years, mostly for the NFL Sunday Ticket package. I found satellite onsiderably superior to cable; however, I have not investigated the newer digital cable packages.

If you're planning ahead or already use HDTV, Dish offers more HD channels than DirecTV does. Whether this will even out in the near future, I don't know - but I doubt that DirecTV will all themselves to be outstripped in that regard for very long. I have had a few favors from DirecTV - such as replacing all three of our satellite receivers at no charge last year when we were having problems. They do try to take care of long-term subscribers. I must say that DirecTV's phone-in customer support takes forever, and is not the best I've encountered.

For some time, we had satellite TV and used the cable installation in our home only for a cable modem (you don't have to buy both). Later I changed to DSL so we're not using the cable connection at all.

 

[Paisley]

My ideas

Don't know if this is the correct forum, but here goes. Getting tired of climbing cable fees for what is offered. Thinking satellite TV may be an alternative. Any ideas?[huh]

Read a book.
Go for a walk.
Rent a movie.
Go to a dance.
Cook a good meal.
Talk to a friend.
Listen to music.
Write a letter.
Go to a restaurant you've never been to.
Look for something to do in the Friday entertainment section of the newspaper.
Keep interesting articles in a spiral notebook and reread them now and then.

Cable, satellite--I've never considered either one.

 

[Pilgrim]

I simply consider television to be part of the social context of today's society. I have no quarrel with those who aren't interested, but it's part of my life and something I enjoy.

This topic can be almost like the Mac/PC thing that people get into.

 

[Twitch]

I've had Dish a few years and wouldn't go back to the problems I experienced with cable if it was free- low quality picture, outages, non-existent customer service. And speaking of that, it was far more than satellite in cost. Also I dispise the way cable is a one company monopoly in almost every market. :rage: