Questions about satellite TV

[Beware the Beast Man]

I'm thinking about switching from cable to a dish. I currntly have Adelphia digital cable. Adelphia pretty much sucks; it's overpriced, their customer service is terrible, and many of the digital channels black out for no reason.
So my questions are:
1. Is it worth switiching to a dish?
2. Which satellite provider do you prefer?

[DenverDem]

1. 1. Yes 2. Dish Net

Love the Dish.

[NMDemDist2]

4. yup and they aren't owned by clearchannel

and FSTV is the best!

Dishnetwork channel 9415

[rawtribe]

2. They all work the same

if you like sports www.directv.com is you best bet. On the other hand www.dishnetwork.com has www.freespeech.org if you have HDTV check out www.voom.com

[No2W2004]

3. Yes, it's worth it.

I've only had Directv and have no complaints. The only drawback is during bad weather, you can lose the satelite for a brief time.

[StClone]

5. Yes!

The quality and interactivity are much better as is viewing selections and price.

I say avoid Rupert Murdock and DirecTV (DTV which is good and I would not have switched otherwise if not for the Murdock's stock purchase) and go with equally good Dish Network.

With Dish you rent the dish and receiver -- with DTV you can purchase the set up. Dish is slightly cheaper and there is talk that quality suffers due to compression of the signal, but I haven't notice.

There are other start-up companies now offering satellite TV that may be worth investigating.

[Beware the Beast Man]

7. In knew one of them was owned by Murdoch

And I couldn't remember which one. Thanks. I still rue the decision that I subscribed to XM radio after I heard that Clear Channel owns a huge chunk of stock in the company.

[dr.strangelove]

6. 1. Yes 2. DirecTV

I have been a DirecTV subscriber for several years now. I made the switch b/c I constantly had outages on my cable.

The only caution about Satellite TV is the signal strentgh. Depending on your location and which provider, you need an unobstructed view towards the satellite path, and you need to have minimal electrical interference. I have only lost my signal once in the last ~3 years during an electrical stron, and only for 10 minutes. Othersie I have had signal during four blizzards (over 8 inches of snow), a huricane and hundreds of other electrical storms. If your path to the satellite is obstructed with electrical wires, or if you live near a source of electromagnetic waves (natural or man made) you may have a problem getting the signal.

DirecTV or the Dish Network with send an installer to your house for free. If they cannot get a strong signal, don't do it and bite the cable bullet.

[Beware the Beast Man]

9. That's a major sticking point

I live in an apartment complex in the middle of the suburbs. For all I know, I may not even be allowed to put up a dish. So I may be in trouble as far as interference is concerned.

[dr.strangelove]

11. You may be SOL

If you can't get a clear view, you may be screwed. I had DirecTV in an apartment complex in Portland Oregon for 3 years without any trouble though.

Call your landlord about the Dish. They are impossible to hide, and the installer won't put it on the wall w/o permission from the owner.
Goodluck

[Jerseygirltoo]

8. Dish Network

The carry 2 channels with alternative political coverage, WorldLink TV Channel 9410 and Free Speech TV Channel 9415. Well worth it, you can see what you could be getting by looking at their websites, www.freespeechtv.org and www.worldlinktv.org

[arwalden]

10. Yes... Switch. -- Screw Dish... Get DirecTV

Politics aside... DirecTV gets MORE channels with one dish aimed at ONE satellite. In order to get all my local channels, Dish net would have required me to add a 2nd dish aimed at a 2nd satellite.

ALSO... and this is a big one... the Dish Network converter boxes have a silly screen saver that kicks in if you don't change the channels. Also the screen saver can ONLY be dismissed by pressing the "select" (or "exit"?) button on the remote. It won't automatically go away if you try to key in numbers to go to a different channel.

Why does this matter? Because, if you have a stand-alone ReplayTV, or a stand-alone TiVo (as opposed to a bundled DVR provided by the satellite) and if the screen saver has engaged, then your ReplayTV or TiVo won't be able to change channels... and your stand-alone DVR will record the DishNetwork screensaver.

Also... the data for DirecTV's on-screen guide just "trickles" in throughout the day. This is a very simple and unobtrusive way to update the guide information. On the OTHER HAND, the idiot programmers at DishNetwork felt that their converter box should CEASE all activity to "connect" to their network and retrieve all the data in one session. --- The end result is the same (both converter boxes have on-screen programming info)... but with the DishNetwork, if you're recording (or watching) something whenever it's time to update, you're screwed.

PICTURE QUALITY: They are both the same... MUCH MUCH MUCH better quality than cable.

-- Allen