My cable costs abt.$37.50-this for abt.60 channels (no HBO or similar which don’t interest me) or so of which I watch abt.10-15.Since they went to digital (I’m guessing) various channels come across as either snowy (abt 3 ) or with ghost-animal network- and another sometimes unwatchable because it’s channel 3 and(again a guess )ch 4 is the channel I use for vcr.
My hookup goes cable to vcr to tv without a box.The reason I do this is because with box you must set that to channel for recording an alternative that proves too unwieldy for me as I may have 2 or 3 channels in VCR for progamming.
Cost aside have you found the dish delivered as much,or more,than cable,and realizing you need a box to decode the satellite signal can a VCR be hooked up in a way that you can record different channels without manipulating the box,and watch another channel at the same time if you’re recording?
I plan on asking all these questions at Radio Shack 1st and possibly the 800 # if can’t get clear answers,but realize these people are interested in selling their product and may fudge a bit on these questions.
I’d like a 3rd party’s opinion on one,or all of the points I’ve listed,and since there’s knowledgable responses to other electronic/mechanical questions here thought I could get one on this.
Also Dish and Echostar are supposed to be merging in the near future.Anybody know if this makes either’s hardware obsolete on the new merged company?
PS=local feeds are of no concern to me as long as I can pickup a CBS<ABC<CBS feed for sports since that’s the only thing I ever watch on the big 3.
Mods-some of these answers should be factual while others,quality,etc.are opinion so I leave it up to you which category this best fits.
I’ve had Dish for over 5 years now and would never go back to cable. BTW, Dish and Echostar are the same thing. You may be referring to the possible Echostar-DirecTV merger.
Got a dish 2 years ago, and I probably won’t ever go back to cable. More channels, less price, better customer service. Although, since my dish rarely has issues, I don’t really worry about the customer service. It’s out, on average, of 2 minutes a month. Basically, it has to be raining in Noah proportions to affect the signal.
I installed the dish myself, rather than paying for it. Took about 2 hours and was pretty easy.
Definitely go for the dish. I’ve had DirecTV for a couple years now, and will never go back. Unfortunately, you can’t really watch one channel while recording another unless you have a separate receiver. On that note, you’ll need a separate receiver for each TV (unless you want them to all be on the same channel all the time).
I pay about the same as I would for cable, and it’s MUCH better, IMHO.
i have dish and plan to stuff it up their ass as soon as cable is available in my area. customer service is the worst, affected by high winds and solor flares (that their story, and they’re stickin’ to it!) and the very worst thing about it is exactly what you previously mention. you have to have the stupid box tuned to the channel, and you cant watch one and record another at the same time, cant use the vcr program to record more than one channel while your gone, yada yada yada.
sure, i have 150 channels to chose from. and my wife and i get to decide on ONE at a time! fuck that! im payin’ for 150, I should be able to access 150 at once if i want!
i had cable all my life and had very few troubles. then, i move to a cave in the middle of nowhere and only have dish as an option and i hate it!
another thing is the way they treat you after you have signed up. they will lick your nutsack if you are a new subcriber, but once you are hooked up (as in “loyal customer”), it’s “fuck you, buddy!” and you get NOTHING from them.
ask me how i really feel about dishnet.
[Please try to remember that this is not the BBQ Pit-Czarcasm]
I have AT&T Cable Monterey & Im going back to Basic channels for about $12 per month. 30 channels for $37 or so
doesn’t have much to watch. Maybe Ill just put in that high powered antennae instead.
I like the idea of satellite tv & satellite modem though. DirecDuo I thinkits called but at Office Depot
they have it for sale but don’t have any literature.
We’ve been using Dish Network for er… 5 years or so now, with no complaints.
You will want to watch out for this though: check the amount and height of the vegitation in the line-of-sight to the general south/southwest area. In one area (redwood forest), we would lose the signal every Spring when the trees budded out, and get it back in the Fall. So, we simply canceled our subsciprtion once the signal left, and renewed it once it came back. (Of which, there were no problems with the Dish people about doing this.) In our current area, while we do get rainfall like nobody’s business every so often: it’s more the after effects of the rain that can be problematic once the tress bud out. The weight of the water lowers the branches, and occasionally blocks the line-of-sight just enough to get wonky reception. (However, this is a far cry better than the cable ‘reception’ here: flaky, ghosted, fuzzy, you name it.)
Others have mentioned the problems if you want to watch one show while taping another, so I won’t go into that.
You can now get local feeds over your satellite depending on what area you’re in: check their website for particulars. Else, you may be stuck with rabbit ears. (But then again, depending on which package you get the sports channels via satellite may be more than enough for you, unless you’re trying to catch smaller and localized sports (like high school games, etc.). I’m not much of a sports person, so can’t give you too much feedback on this aspect.)
Never had any problems with the Dish customer service people: we’ve always gotten helpful, knowledgable people who didn’t start getting antsy if the call took longer than a couple of mintues, and would make sure that we were satisfied.
Oh, and you your your Dish network dish to predict rain, too. Lately, rain in Savannah has been a rare commodity. When my signal starts to break up, I know it will be raining at my house in about 15 minutes. Another thing-that-would-be-cool were it not for the Ulterior Motive is that, when you move, you leave your dish and the network will pay to have a new installed at your new home. Of course, when someone buys or rents your old home and sees a dish already in place…
We’ve had satellite for several years now and we love it. Our cable was always going out, and that never seems to be a problem with the dish. My only complaint is the lack of local channels for news, etc.
From what I hear, lots of folks access dish programming for free (illegally, I’m sure). I’d say it’s a sight better if you don’t have to pay for it.
We’ve had dish for about three months. Which were free. And the regular monthly nut is less than we were paying for cable, and that’s with three boxes. We also got the Dish PVR, which is basically a hard drive which records 32 hours of your TV shows- it’s a thing of beauty. Pause live tv, record all your favorite shows and watch them all at once on the weekend when you have time, FF at 300x speed through the commercials, picture perfect pause, etc. etc. etc. PLus the extra shows the daughter gets are well worth it by themselves- the history channel rocks(not available on cable in my area) and BBC America is awesome. I love it. My mom was totally pissed when she found out she coudn’t get it at her townhouse.
Something that people haven’t mentioned is that, at least with our DirecTV receivers, you can program the receiver to turn to a certain channel at a certain time…then you can program your VCR to tune to the receiver’s channel at that time and record the show.
PVRs are great, but you start running out of receiver channels. Currently, DirecTV gives you a deal on two receivers, while Dish gives you four. If you use a PVR and set it up so you can record one program while watching another, that uses up two receivers.
My Dish receiver can do the same thing. It has three timer functions:
Auto reminder: a message box appears on the tv a few minutes prior to your show to let you know it’s about to come on.
Auto Tune: I use this all the time. You set the timer to automatically change to the show you want to see or record.
VCR: You set the receiver to transmit the record and stop codes of your vcr. You leave the vcr on set to the proper channel and the receiver fires off a signal to start and stop the vcr based on your settings. As long as the receiver transmitter and vcr’s IR receiver window are not blocked, the receiver will be able to work. It has something called an IR blaster which fills the room with the IR signal.
Here’s one of the ?s i asked of Dish 800#.With the free promo,install,receiver hookup you get a 301?model receiver.I wasn’t clear exactly why I’d want a 501?which I’m guessing is the PVR?Tivo type thing since I’ll also be taping on the vcr for movies I’ll watch on another location sometimes (only see need for 1 receiver right now.)
If I would opt for the 501 is there a discount for the old receiver,or am I better off getting it from a 3rd party discounter (Costco comes to mind).
Finally,why is the 501 so much better than the 301?
Disclaimer-I rarely find more than 2-3 hrs.of must see network programming other than movies in a single day.
“Something that people haven’t mentioned is that, at least with our DirecTV receivers, you can program the receiver to turn to a certain channel at a certain time…then you can program your VCR to tune to the receiver’s channel at that time and record the show.”
I can do that with my TV, it has a feature called GUIDE PLUS. It gives an onscreen list of all programs
for 48 hours & you can program it to come on to watch a certain program & a little wire
connects to your vcr so you can tell it to record the program too. Its free too, no monthly charges.
There are a lot of tvs with the feature out & they don’t cost anymore.
