cable or dish

[Emveach]

I got Road Runner hooked up today, and they updated the system around here so I can't just use a line splitter to watch cable tv anymore. So, now that I have to pay for the service, Im trying to decide what to get. Ive seen all the ads where cable says that you lose picture with a dish in bad weather, and Im wondering if anyine has experienced that first hand or not?

Just wondering what the best buy would be for my cash.

 

[Rastus]

I've had the Dish Network and AT&T cable. Prefer Dish, more channels, better quality, better guide.

I'm in Wyoming where it doesn't rain or snow much, so I don't know how it performs in foul weather.

 

[MrChicken]

DSS, IMHO, has much better quality than cable. I switched from digital cable and the dish is much better.

Cable here does have something that DSS does not, on demand movies and shows. It's like Tivo from the cable office, you can start/stop, rewind, ff, and pause anytime on their PPV movies and some tv programs.

Equivilant programming worked ouyt to be about the same price. Directv is a little higher, but you pay less in taxes here for DSS than for cable.

If you love football, Directv is the ticket, NFL Sunday ticket that is. Every game every weekend.

 

[bunker]

Funny you should mention this right now. Nasty storm moving through Atlanta right now and my Dish is out. Thank god for the internet (or should I be thanking Gore )

 

[Emveach]

Direct tv is getting my attention because of that, and I love some of the other channels I see on their lineup. Im just worried about losing service in bad weather. I live in SE Ohio, and we have crappy weather a lot.

 

[tm37]

I have had my dish for two years in MN and Have lost signal TWICE once for 15 minutes and once for a hour.

I get Limited basic cable for my local channels so (it's like 9 bucks) and I have the DirecTV 34.95 package.

 

[jemcam]

I just dumped my DirecTV because whenever it snowed, I'd lose signal. Also, the other thing that sucked about it is that you couldn't get any of the regular stations like Fox, NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS. They didn't have that access available in my area, so I had to put up an additional antenna to receive those stations and they were all snowy. DirecTV had me on a one year contract, so I had to wait for it to expire to get cable back.

On top of that, I've got 4 TV's in my house and I only had two DirecTV boxes, so I could only have two channels on at a time. That sucks when the wife wants something on in the kitchen, my son wants to watch cartoons, and I wanted to watch something else in my workshop in the basement.

It ended up costing me more money, not less, and I got less service. Go for cable man.

 

[aircooled]

If you can get local channels with the package, DTV rocks..... I like it much better than digital cable and I've had both.

 

[MrChicken]

We havent had an outage yet, it's been isntalled two months now and we've had some snow and lots of rain and T-storms.

It might be because we get a good signal strength reading, 92. I've heard that that anything over 70 something is good enough.

 

[spacelord]

Dish is way better than cable. better picture, guide,etc.

I used to have Dish Network a couple years ago, and I'll bet I only lost signal 2 or 3 times over 3 years. mostly during heavy rain... and I think my line of sight went through the tops of tree.

now with DSS and clear sight, its never gone out. even with the snow storm and wind tonight.. no probs here in Michigan.

 

[BAMAVOO]

Dish better picture but not by much. Dish does go out in the rain or heavy snow. Digital cable has about the same guide and is easily spit from room to room. You still have to have a box for premo channels on digi cable. I have to say I really like using Digi cable better because I have 6 tv's that sometimes has something different on every one. Can't do that on the Dish. JMHO

 

[MrChicken]

You can have the dish signal on 6 tv's, you need a multiswitch and a box at each tv.

I dont know what Dish charges, but for Directv it is 4.99 for each extra box per month. there are rumors they are going to drop the charge for the extra boxes, I'm holding my breath for that to happen. I run 4 boxes in my house. With cable I had two digital boxes that cost 8 bucks a month each. Now I have 4 Directv boxes for 15 bucks a month, plus I get all the channels I pay for on each tv, instead of just 2 with digital cable.

 

[Tripleshot]

I have dish and cable. On my dish, with living room and master bedroom hooked up, I hav east coast, west coast, and local available as well as all the top 500. If you buy a dish and say you need service to go mobile, you can get that package, because you may be east,west,or at home. Cable is my ISP, so rather than waste money on setops and splitters, I have other bedrooms and guest house on cable with 78 channels and broadband.

My dish, BTW, is pointing south through a tree and I have xclnt reception. Weather has little bearing here,even in a downpour. I have only seen people with wireless line of sight microwave get bad effects from weather interference here. And of course it is temporary.

 

[Renob]

I can't just use a line splitter to watch cable tv anymore.

Why cant you???

I have RR and use a splitter to watch cable TV on my PC while Im online.

 

[Tsaico]

I got cable (Charter) in Riverside, so cal. and it isn't bad... channel wise, I get only 250 or so channels and there are a grip of music channels( i think antoher 200) or so, but i never use them. Cost wise, I found them to be the same, For additional boxes here, they are 3.99 and total service for cable plus broadband and five boxes is $130 or so. And for another fee (i think it is like an another 10 bucks, I can have on demand for all my channels. It is supposed to work a bit like tivo, but I don't really see the need for something like that for me.

 

[Emveach]

Originally posted by: Renob
I can't just use a line splitter to watch cable tv anymore.

Why cant you???

I have RR and use a splitter to watch cable TV on my PC while Im online.

Because I wasn't paying for it...I know, its bad. I just didn't have the money at the time for both. Now they have filters on that block out the cable freq. so only the RR signal gets through.

 

[Renob]

Oh I did not now they have filters, I pay for both so I guess it wont block mine out.

 

[Dari]

Originally posted by: Emveach

Originally posted by: Renob
I can't just use a line splitter to watch cable tv anymore.

Why cant you???

I have RR and use a splitter to watch cable TV on my PC while Im online.

Because I wasn't paying for it...I know, its bad. I just didn't have the money at the time for both. Now they have filters on that block out the cable freq. so only the RR signal gets through.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I work for Time Warner and I've never heard of such a thing. By law, no cable company is allowed to block out the basic channels (such as broadcast channels because their using public frequencies) and Time Warner doesn't. If you want a direct connection, you can have it with no charge (if you do it yourself). If Time Warner Cable does it for you, the price (I believe) is $7 a month.

In fact, I know people that are getting basic digital cable (with the box, of course) because they only have RR. I think it was for certain customers, though.

 

[Praetor]

Originally posted by: Dari

Originally posted by: Emveach

Originally posted by: Renob
I can't just use a line splitter to watch cable tv anymore.

Why cant you???

I have RR and use a splitter to watch cable TV on my PC while Im online.

Because I wasn't paying for it...I know, its bad. I just didn't have the money at the time for both. Now they have filters on that block out the cable freq. so only the RR signal gets through.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I work for Time Warner and I've never heard of such a thing. By law, no cable company is allowed to block out the basic channels (such as broadcast channels because their using public frequencies) and Time Warner doesn't. If you want a direct connection, you can have it with no charge (if you do it yourself). If Time Warner Cable does it for you, the price (I believe) is $7 a month.

In fact, I know people that are getting basic digital cable (with the box, of course) because they only have RR. I think it was for certain customers, though.

Eh? What kind of ass backwards thought is this? Or is this just in the state of NY? I work for Cox and over here, there is no such law. You're not using "public frequencies," you are re-broadcasting (re-distributing would perhaps be a better word) other networks at a fee and distributing them over your own closed-network. Hence the term "cable."

How the hell do you expect cable companies to keep in business if they're just giving away video access for free?

 

[Dari]

Originally posted by: Praetor

Originally posted by: Dari

Originally posted by: Emveach

Originally posted by: Renob
I can't just use a line splitter to watch cable tv anymore.

Why cant you???

I have RR and use a splitter to watch cable TV on my PC while Im online.

Because I wasn't paying for it...I know, its bad. I just didn't have the money at the time for both. Now they have filters on that block out the cable freq. so only the RR signal gets through.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I work for Time Warner and I've never heard of such a thing. By law, no cable company is allowed to block out the basic channels (such as broadcast channels because their using public frequencies) and Time Warner doesn't. If you want a direct connection, you can have it with no charge (if you do it yourself). If Time Warner Cable does it for you, the price (I believe) is $7 a month.

In fact, I know people that are getting basic digital cable (with the box, of course) because they only have RR. I think it was for certain customers, though.

Eh? What kind of ass backwards thought is this? Or is this just in the state of NY? I work for Cox and over here, there is no such law. You're not using "public frequencies," you are re-broadcasting (re-distributing would perhaps be a better word) other networks at a fee and distributing them over your own closed-network. Hence the term "cable."

How the hell do you expect cable companies to keep in business if they're just giving away video access for free?

as I've stated before, the broadcast channels are NOT allowed to be scrambled (they must be available for everyone). It doesn't matter the medium. He can get those channels via cable without being charged. If he wants scrambled channels, that's another matter. But since the broadcast channels get those frequencies from the government for free, they cannot charge for it.

EDIT: It's another reason why the gov't wants everyone to go HDTV. That way, it will free all the frequencies and they can license those frequencies (and make huge sums of money).

EDIT2: It may not be law, but I think it's at least an FCC ruling.

 

[Emveach]

Thing is, I never ordered cable service. At all. I just had RR hooked up and was using a line splitter to get the basic service of abou 67 odd channels here and was only paying for RR. I believe in that case, they would be allowed to use a filter to stop this. I never heard of the law saying that you had to have free access to channels that are broadcast over the air as well as over cable.

 

[Praetor]

Originally posted by: Dari

Originally posted by: Praetor

Originally posted by: Dari

Originally posted by: Emveach

Originally posted by: Renob
I can't just use a line splitter to watch cable tv anymore.

Why cant you???

I have RR and use a splitter to watch cable TV on my PC while Im online.

Because I wasn't paying for it...I know, its bad. I just didn't have the money at the time for both. Now they have filters on that block out the cable freq. so only the RR signal gets through.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I work for Time Warner and I've never heard of such a thing. By law, no cable company is allowed to block out the basic channels (such as broadcast channels because their using public frequencies) and Time Warner doesn't. If you want a direct connection, you can have it with no charge (if you do it yourself). If Time Warner Cable does it for you, the price (I believe) is $7 a month.

In fact, I know people that are getting basic digital cable (with the box, of course) because they only have RR. I think it was for certain customers, though.

Eh? What kind of ass backwards thought is this? Or is this just in the state of NY? I work for Cox and over here, there is no such law. You're not using "public frequencies," you are re-broadcasting (re-distributing would perhaps be a better word) other networks at a fee and distributing them over your own closed-network. Hence the term "cable."

How the hell do you expect cable companies to keep in business if they're just giving away video access for free?

as I've stated before, the broadcast channels are NOT allowed to be scrambled (they must be available for everyone). It doesn't matter the medium. He can get those channels via cable without being charged. If he wants scrambled channels, that's another matter. But since the broadcast channels get those frequencies from the government for free, they cannot charge for it.

Show me the law. Seriously.

They (the CC's) still must pay the broadcast stations for the rights to re-destribute their content. CC's must build and maintain the closed system networks used to distribute signal, obviously. Unless it is a state law in New York, as I left room for you to clarify earlier, there is no such federally mandated law.

 

[Praetor]

Originally posted by: Dari
EDIT: It's another reason why the gov't wants everyone to go HDTV. That way, it will free all the frequencies and they can license those frequencies (and make huge sums of money).

EDIT2: It may not be law, but I think it's at least an FCC ruling.

So basically, you were talking out of your ass because you don't know.

 

[Dari]

Originally posted by: Emveach
Thing is, I never ordered cable service. At all. I just had RR hooked up and was using a line splitter to get the basic service of abou 67 odd channels here and was only paying for RR. I believe in that case, they would be allowed to use a filter to stop this. I never heard of the law saying that you had to have free access to channels that are broadcast over the air as well as over cable.

You are allowed BASIC cable. That means unscrambled channels. Unscrambled channels are channels that the gov't doesn't charges frequencies for (license-wise). Everything you must pay for. Putting a splitter or mini-tap (so the modem can have 0 dB) will give your tv all unscrambled channels. in any event, your tv tuner can probably unscramble more channels, but that's another story. Again, I've never heard of any situation where they block everything but foward and return signals (that is everything but those frequencies at 5 MHz and 42 MHz, where modems operate).

 

[Praetor]

Just a little bit of info....

The 1992 Cable Act established a process whereby cable equipment and "basic" tier cable rates would be subject to regulation by state and municipal governments in those areas where effective competitive was absent. For regulatory purposes, basic tier service includes broadcast signals, local public, educational, and government access channels and other services the system operator chooses to include in the same package with these channels. Basic tier service is typically the lowest price tier of service that all subscribers receive. The cable programming service tier, includes all video programming distributed over a system that is not on the basic service tier. It is this cable programming service tier that will no longer be subject to regulation after March 31, 1999. The Commission will continue to process complaints regarding service offered prior to March 31, 1999.