DishNetwork vs. Cable
 

Right now I am paying about $50 per month for my cable tv (basic plus standard). I am pondering this Dishnetwork service.

Can anyone give me the pros and cons of each?

As far as TV watching habits, I like the history channel, tbs, a&e, and the networks. I'm not big on sports.

The dishnetwork will charge me about $32 monthly. Is there a catch?

I don't know about cable, but with our dish came a sort of Tivo; pause and record shows, pretty cool!

The cable bill you're paying seems high for what's considered basic cable (non-digital) in most areas. Who is your provider and in what area?

As for Sat, obviously, just on price alone you'd be saving with Dish's Top 60 or Great Wall program package. Unlike the past, there's no equipment purchase and no long term commitments. About the only negative I've heard is that reception can fade during rainstorms.

Make sure you can get local channels over the dish. Bad weather can mess up reception.

We are paying $50/mo for cable with Internet. Ask about promotions.

Reception was fine during the rains here in LA.

I've got Comcast cable and DirecTV.
The only reason I keep cable is because my wife likes the Weather Channel on cable better. They have local forecasts on cable and only regional forecasts on DirecTV.

The picture quality on the dish is MUCH better than cable. The Dolby Digital surround sound kicks butt, too.

Rainfade is sometimes a problem but it's pretty rare. It has to be a major storm. Make sure your dish will have a clear view of the southern sky. Absolutely nothing can be in the way or you'll have problems.

Say no to dish network, the equipment is very buggy, Directv has better programing and has a ton on the drawing board.

See if fiberoptics are going to be in your area soon.
They are working in my part of the state on laying the fiber. Once done, they can provide phone, internet, and video (television) over the fiber. Are the cable companies going to see their subscriber base drop? You betcha!

I've had DirecTV in the past (Comcast didn't want to run another 150' of cable to my apartment back then), and was happy with it.

The only reason I have basic cable now (24 channels), is because it is cheaper to have basic and internet service, than just internet service. (go figure)

Damn..I wish I was paying $50 for Cable....I pay $89 and all I have for premiium channels is HBO.....as soon as the leaves are on the trees I want to go with a dish....whole lotta old trees where I live and line of sight is not easy

I think we have a really good deal with Mediacom. $50 covers 66 channels plus 14 or so STARZ channels and a bunch of music channels. PPV is there too but I have never even checked it out.

Occasionally they give us free channels for few days to try to sell them to us.

The internet connection is rated for only 300K but it runs much faster than that on downloads.

This was a promotion when I got it and I am not sure it is available anymore.

The worst thing about it is this big clunky motorola digital interactive communications box to get some of the features.

Verizon finished laying their FIOS internet last summer in our area and plan to offer video soon. As of this writing, installer just finished putting in my internet service this evening! It ROCKS!!! 15 MIPS vs. 56 K??? Can't believe I've been in the stone ages for so long!!! :D

Well if you can get cable internet there is NO question.

Pricey, yea, download 50 meg on even good DSL, then try it on cable.

I know at times I get close to the 10 mbps limit, although they only gaurantee 3 or 4.

I go to my brothers office and cringe when I have to do a big download on their DSL.

But how much do you need kick butt TV, I can rent a few movies if I want top quality, and Comcast does offer DVR. But it supposedly is not nearly as good as TIVO.

I don't watch much special TV, it's the Internet side the floats my boat.

Jen,
Its good to see you're back, I thought you had left us.
I've had satellite TV for about 10 years, now. Now its called Direct TV, but that wasn't the original system.
We rent the equipment, and our bill has never changed. The only service outages we've experiences have been during heavy rain and snow.
In the 10 years before getting the satellite system, our cable bill had doubled. Our neighbors report that cable rates have continued to rise.
I do miss the cable TV local weather, but thats a small price. And I can get local weather on any number of websites.

Whenever you have a local commercial on cable TV, that will be one of those obnoxious direct marketing commercials on satellite. Those drive me nuts, I just can't stand them. You'll have to TiVO or DVR to dodge 'em. They're still there on cable, but not as bad.

I mainly just watch the weather and NetFlix DVDs anymore, can't stand commercials.

Great timing for this question.

I just switched from Dish network to DirecTV. Reason??? I, like you, prefer the educational/informational programming over the mind numbing sports religion. Ever since Discovery Channel diversified into several channels, both TLC and Discovery have been but a shadow of what they used to be. I eventually got fed up, and compared Dish Network to DirecTV in the channel lineups. In order to get the complete Discovery networks (sans HD,) you have to buy the top 180 programming package.

You can get the complete network breakdown (sans HD), at DirecTV's entry level @ ($45.99/mo) vs. ($52.99) for dish's top tier. There's still alot of crap channels I don't want, but at least I'm not being forced into the most expensive package for even more crap channels that I don't want.

I still love the excuse I got from the Dish Network rep when I called and cancelled. I was asked why I had switched. When I told him that I wanted the rest of the educational stuff without the junk, he flat out told me that if they offered that, they'd lose money. :pukeface: