Cable or Satellite?

[amol]

which is better?

edit: crap, I hit enter too quickly ... gimme time to edit


my parents have decided to get cable or satellite since we're tired of regular broadcast channels

we have 2 TVs (45" Mitsubishi rear projection + 20 yr old 22" RCA) and 1 PC that has an HDTV tuner (MDP-130)

for us, cable would be Time Warner ...

i'd like to record HDTV and other things on the PC

also, whenever we do get our next TV, it's going to be an HDTV

 

[dug777]

Cable for gaming

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: dug777
Cable for gaming

i'm talking about TV

we have 5Mbps cable already

 

[SynthDude2001]

I'd go with cable just so you could pull the local HDTV channels off there for your PC

 

[dug777]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
I'd go with cable just so you could pull the local HDTV channels off there for your PC

then you can record and encode HD CSI for me

 

[MagicConch]

What cable co. do you have?

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
I'd go with cable just so you could pull the local HDTV channels off there for your PC

can't do that with satellite?

is it because you need a box with every single TV?

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: MagicConch
What cable co. do you have?

Time Warner

we already have Earthlink cable internet through them

 

[dighn]

actually that was unhelpful n/m

 

[amol]

also, one more thing


the room in which the PC is doesn't have a cable jack in it (only 3 rooms in the entire house have one)

is it possible to put a cable jack there from existing wiring in the house?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Amol

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
I'd go with cable just so you could pull the local HDTV channels off there for your PC

can't do that with satellite?

is it because you need a box with every single TV?

As far as I'm aware, no, you can't do that with satellite. With cable, the HDTV channels (the non-premium ones) are sent as unencrypted QAM, which your MDP-130 can tune

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: Amol

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
I'd go with cable just so you could pull the local HDTV channels off there for your PC

can't do that with satellite?

is it because you need a box with every single TV?

As far as I'm aware, no, you can't do that with satellite. With cable, the HDTV channels (the non-premium ones) are sent as unencrypted QAM, which your MDP-130 can tune

that'd be awesome

because OTA quality is crap right now ... something wrong with our rooftop antenna, and my silver sensor is just not cutting it

 

[MagicConch]

Time Warner HDTV quality is generally better than DirecTV HDTV quality IMO, and in most areas they offer a bunch of channels (usually at least whatever DirecTV has) . You probably will get a discount (?) if you already have cable modem. There is also OnDemand stuff. If I had Time Warner it would be a no brainer for me to take that over satellite (assuming offerings were similar to what they offer in different parts of this same city).

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: MagicConch
Time Warner HDTV quality is generally better than DirecTV HDTV quality IMO, and in most areas they offer a bunch of channels (usually at least whatever DirecTV has) . You probably will get a discount (?) if you already have cable modem. There is also OnDemand stuff. If I had Time Warner it would be a no brainer for me to take that over satellite (assuming offerings were similar to what they offer in different parts of this same city).

I think we're going to go with TWC. We'll call them tomorrow and ask if there's a discount for having a cable internet service with them. We've had it for over 2 years ...

 

[MagicConch]

Tell them you are thinking about satellite and they keep telling you it's cheaper. Then ask them if they have a special deal for you that would make choosing cable over satellite easier (because you really want to choose cable...) You probably will score a good deal or at least a pay channel (edit: for free) until the end of the year.

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: MagicConch
Tell them you are thinking about satellite and they keep telling you it's cheaper. Then ask them if they have a special deal for you that would make choosing cable over satellite easier (because you really want to choose cable...) You probably will score a good deal or at least a pay channel until the end of the year.

hehehe, I like your thinking

Come to think of it, satellite for us is cheaper than cable ... $1-2/month

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Amol

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001

Originally posted by: Amol

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
I'd go with cable just so you could pull the local HDTV channels off there for your PC

can't do that with satellite?

is it because you need a box with every single TV?

As far as I'm aware, no, you can't do that with satellite. With cable, the HDTV channels (the non-premium ones) are sent as unencrypted QAM, which your MDP-130 can tune

that'd be awesome

because OTA quality is crap right now ... something wrong with our rooftop antenna, and my silver sensor is just not cutting it

Well there's something wrong there though....OTA should be fine (actually sometimes it may be better than cable, because the cable company might compress it)....I'm going to play a game now, but PM me later and I'll see if I can help you any with that

 

[thelastmccabe]

I dunno about all the pc stuff so this post is not going to be super useful, but make sure you check which hd channels they all get. I think that only direct tv has tnt hd for example, which if you are a sports fan you will most definitely want to have (nba playoffs). Also, abc has the nba finals, fox has world series and super bowl I believe, so youll want those. I think all of them get espn hd (except that only like 2 shows are actually in hd). Discovery hd also has awesome shows sometimes. It also depends on if you can get anything ota, where I live I can't, but if you can then you can go satellite to get tnt and then get local stuff ota.

 

[imported_Stew]

Satellite for sure... around here, satellite is the only thing with decent quality at all. Digital cable sucks.

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: thelastmccabe
I dunno about all the pc stuff so this post is not going to be super useful, but make sure you check which hd channels they all get. I think that only direct tv has tnt hd for example, which if you are a sports fan you will most definitely want to have (nba playoffs). Also, abc has the nba finals, fox has world series and super bowl I believe, so youll want those. I think all of them get espn hd (except that only like 2 shows are actually in hd). Discovery hd also has awesome shows sometimes. It also depends on if you can get anything ota, where I live I can't, but if you can then you can go satellite to get tnt and then get local stuff ota.

nope, our neighbor has HDTV and TWC and channel 1121 is TNT in HD

they get CBS HD, NBC HD, ABC HD, FOX HD, PBS HD, Discovery HD, and TNT in HD

 

[MisterCornell]

Satellite = teh win.

They even have local television for smaller TV markets now.

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: MisterCornell
Satellite = teh win.

They even have local television for smaller TV markets now.

I dont get what you're saying

 

[aircooled]

for TV. I've had both Sat, and digital cable. I always go back to sat. where I live the picture quality has an amazingly noticeable difference in quality.

I still have my internet connection coming in through cable.

 

[amol]

Originally posted by: aircooled
for TV. I've had both Sat, and digital cable. I always go back to sat. where I live the picture quality has an amazingly noticeable difference in quality.

I still have my internet connection coming in through cable.

do you live in a big or small area?

i'm near pasadena, just outside of los angeles, and this is considered a bigger market

 

[Kelemvor]

Main problem with Ssatellite is you have to pay PER TV. WIth cable you can use as many TVs as you want.

If they could both be used on an unlimited number of TVs I would have gone with the DIsh but since they want like $5/mo per TV, that'd be an extra $20/mo just for that. heh.