Satellite or cable?

[a_priori]

Just curious. Thank you.

 

[puzzleannie]

what difference does it make, you still have 1000 channels and nothing good to watch

 

[crystal_waters]

i have neither but i have seen both in action and both work pretty good…id have to go with whatever one could get me channels like ewtn etc lol

 

[beafedor]

None. I’m grateful for the choice of not buying cable, not buying satellite and not buying the HDTV box. Not getting any TV channels at all is a blessing.

 

[Monte_RCMS]

fiber optic is the best.

But given the right technology the others can get the capacity and speed up there.

 

[PrayHarder]

Cable is just much easier to setup. You basically get the same channels on each so why go with something that you have to line up just right in order to get stations? The one plus of satellite is that you can watch primetime shows a littler earlier on the West Coast by watching the East Coast feeds. But since many people are now just recording and watching shows later, getting a show a few hours earlier doesn’t make much of a difference anyway.

 

[Monte_RCMS]

Sometimes, satellite can be very tricky to connect up … because of buildings or trees in the way and blocking line of sight.

Also, satellite technology changes so quickly that some technicians may not be up to date on the latest innovations … like how far from the television set can you remote a satellite antenna. Do you need to install repeaters in the wire from the satellite dish to the television set? What size [diameter] wire do you need to install from the dish to your set? And if it’s a larger diameter [for less resistance] then will THEY pay for the extra size or will YOU have to pay for it?

And if YOU have to pay for it, will YOU have to actually string the wire? Long runs of large diameter wire are VERY HEAVY! And expensive.

[it’s not really “wire”; it’s coaxial cable]

OR, even, exactly WHERE is the newest satellite? They launch the things all the time and some of the installers might not know that there is a NEW satellite right over your house and not low on the horizon. For example. [And, exactly, how would I know that???]

Sometimes, satellite has really serious big time limits on capacity … if you have any kind of mailbox that might receive large size downloads during peak hour, you could find yourself in a “penalty box” for 24 hours. Can be a real nuisance.

Do you speak Russian? A lot of the technicians are nice guys and happy to be here, but their english is not really up to date.

Go with cable.

Of course, the cable seller on the telephone is looking at a computer screen … yes, yes, yes, we have cable in your zip code … but when you talk to the actual installer, they don’t actually have cable on your actual street.

And switch to FIOS when able.

 

[Monte_RCMS]

AND sometimes, DSL is better.

The phone company doesn’t even know what kind of copper wire they have on your street. They may think they have a single pair twisted copper, but it turns out that somebody sometime installed a 900 pair cable … and they don’t know, so you need to ask them to do an actual field visit.

And somebody in Indonesia told me they could actually do DSL and how to do it.

And then a Russian guy in Mexico gave me some more ideas.

And then somebody else snail mailed [in an envelope with a stamp] me a “secret” paper form to fill out to request DSL. The form looks like it is left over from the old AT&T system.

If they have enough copper wire on your street, you can get DSL.

[Even with just a single twisted pair, you can do all kinds of neat electronics stuff … you can run live television, for example. Done it. Said it couldn’t be done. Done it.]

I am shocked at what they say can’t be done. But if you talk to enough people, you would be shocked at what they actually CAN do.

Just keep talking to people.

 

[Catholic90]

I had cable for years…years. It would go out 3-4 times a year. It was expensive.

I got satellite several months ago. I love it! Twice the number of channels, digital recording, HD…the Qwest Internet is just as fast as the cable internet was. Based on the number of satellite dishes I see on houses in my neighborhood, many, many people have switched from Comcast to Qwest recently.

 

[Corki]

Where we live cable is only very basic and quite expensive so we got satellite. Generally we like it but it does go out whenever it rains or even when there is heavy cloud cover.

 

[DaveBj]

We’ve had DirectTV for years, no plans to change. However, we’re also getting these expensive brochures for AT&T’s Uverse, and I already know that the wiring for that has not been installed out here in the boonies, nor do they have plans to any time soon.

DaveBj

 

[Monte_RCMS]

How does Hughes Satellite internet compare with other satellite internet?

 

[manualman]

Bad poll.

I choose antenna and Netflix. Much cheaper and MUCH better entertainment selection.

I get Castle, my wife gets Dancing with Stars and we both get access to hundreds of old TV episodes with no commercials.

 

[DaveBj]

Bad poll.

I choose antenna and Netflix. Much cheaper and MUCH better entertainment selection.

I get Castle, my wife gets Dancing with Stars and we both get access to hundreds of old TV episodes with no commercials.

Netflix is nice, but our broadband isn’t reliable enough for that. Our younger son has it.

DaveBj

 

[Joe_5859]

I like cable because we can get a $15/month package with just the network channels, PBS, and the Weather channel. That’s really all I’m interested in and all I’m willing to pay.

My parents have dish and they like it, but it does get snowy when there’s a big storm and they can only record the channel they are currently watching, so there’s no option to watch one thing while recording another. That would drive me nuts. But that might just be a sympton of their ancient electronic devices.

 

[Catholic90]

I like cable because we can get a $15/month package with just the network channels, PBS, and the Weather channel. That’s really all I’m interested in and all I’m willing to pay.

My parents have dish and they like it, but it does get snowy when there’s a big storm and they can only record the channel they are currently watching, so there’s no option to watch one thing while recording another. That would drive me nuts. But that might just be a sympton of their ancient electronic devices.

I am in very snowy MN and have had no outage or fuzzy days with my DirecTV dish. There was one morning when I could not get my local TV news with a picture (only sound was coming through), but all other channels were coming in, so I think that had to do with the broadcast, not my reception. It has not happened since. With the recording device we have, we can record 2 shows at the same time, and if doing that, the second one has to be on. But if we are only recording one, we can watch whatever we want.

 

[Joe_5859]

I am in very snowy MN and have had no outage or fuzzy days with my DirecTV dish. There was one morning when I could not get my local TV news with a picture (only sound was coming through), but all other channels were coming in, so I think that had to do with the broadcast, not my reception. It has not happened since. With the recording device we have, we can record 2 shows at the same time, and if doing that, the second one has to be on. But if we are only recording one, we can watch whatever we want.

My parents live in a more remote area, so that may factor in to the problems they have had (which aren’t the frequent).

They also only have a VCR to record things, so I think that may be why their recording options are limited.

 

[Corki]

My parents live in a more remote area, so that may factor in to the problems they have had (which aren’t the frequent).

They also only have a VCR to record things, so I think that may be why their recording options are limited.

I don’t live in an extremely remote area but even a passing rain shower disrupts the signal. I think it is possible that latitude makes a difference. If you dish points to the satelite at a different angle, it may be more subject to disruption.

We used to have Wild Blue for our internet service before DSL came to us. WB uses a dish similar to Direct TV. We had the same problem during storms with WB as we have with DirecTV now.