Satellite Vs. Cable

[migoli 0]

So it sounds like my roommates and i are switching to satellite. Im not looking forward to it. So i was wondering if anyone here has or had satellite and how did you like it?

[Paul Stanley 0]

Satellite is ok if you are out in the country without cable access.

 

Cable is the best way to go, it has ondemand.

[Mik 0]

Yeah... I gotta think cable has overtaken satellite.

[Guest Smues]

Where I work we have both Satellite and Cable. (Just had satellite, but one of the bosses wanted the golf channel and we couldn't get it on satellite, so now we have cable.) Cable owns, but if you are on the west coast satellite can be nice because you can get the eastcoast feeds of shows and see them 3 hours early. On the east coast I can't see any advantage to having the dish.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

Only good thing about satellite is getting NFL Sunday Ticket.

[razazteca 0]

I seriously hate my cable company it refuses to air certain networks from the big city because of some obscure law and the service is bad. In the past few weeks several of the Viacom channels were either frozen or blacked out or had the "low frequency" error message. And to further alienate the paying customer Time Warner decided to move 3 channels without any warning confusing everybody in town then we lost the feed to those channels for a few days. Considering that the prices between Time Warner cable and Dish Network are the same I would go Dish where the only worry would be weather related. There are certain nights where the local NBC affialate would just go dead at around midnight!

[NoCalMike 0]

Besides the On-Demand service(or the lack thereof for me as a satellite owner) I prefer Satellite pretty much across the board.

 

 

[spman 0]

Sattelite is cheaper and has a wider selection of channels, but is slightly less reliable and has less features. Digital Cable can get ridiculously expensive (I think I pay around 108 a month now), but has a ton of extra features including all the on demand stuff. They both have their advantages and disadvantages.

[starvenger 0]

Plus with satellite you can generally split the signal (and thus the cost) with someone else, provided they have their own dish and decoder boxes. I'm currently splitting my StarChoice up here in Canada with a buddy down in Cleveland.

 

BTW, you can get Sunday Ticket on all the satellite and cable providers up here.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Satellite is ok if you are out in the country without cable access.

 

Cable is the best way to go, it has ondemand.

Directv will have a video on demand service this fall along with all the HD channels they're adding, the only hitch being it requires a broadband connection to actually download the program..which doesn't make sense since I doubt people who have satellite because they cant get cable (probably a good solid close to majority of subs) probably cant get broadband either.

 

 

[Guest Smues]

Satellite also tends to require a 1 or 2 year contract. Cable I've never seen that required.

[Youth N Asia 0]

I suppose cable is the way to go, I just hope you can get something outside of Comcast's monopoly. I hate that company

[Ravenbomb 0]

I've got Charter, and haven't had problems with them until recently, but apparently my cable box is severely in need of an update. We also get our internet through them.

[Dangerous A 0]

I've had DirecTV for about 3 years now and haven't had any problems with the channels or packages they offer. Their prices are great as well. (heard Dish Network's are even better).

 

The only thing I'd say is not to get Satellite if you live in a really, really windy area. Sometimes a ton of wind and rain can affect the service, but it has to be very bad. I live in the Bay Area and we get a fair share of wind and I can count on one hand the times I've had problems due to rainy/windy weather.

[Nate 0]

well Satellite doesnt have On Demand and it goes out in the slightest rain shower or a wind gust, the only drawback to cable is the price especially if you have 2 TVs with cable because they charge per package for each TV you hook up with Cable

[JJMc 0]

I had DirecTV for a time and snow and ice would collect on the dish (not the "dish" part but the arm-type thing in the front), causing the signal to drop out until you went up and removed it. Of course, this would be unique to the northern states, but still..

[migoli 0]

Yeah see im not really wanting the dish and our dish is from the previous family that lived in this townhouse and the dish is on the roof obviously and its a 3 level place so getting to the roof isnt really going to happen, So i really hope the snow wont mess with the signal

[Timmy8271 0]

Down here in Florida where it rains every day, Satalites go out easily. However, the main cable company, Brighthouse is the worst ever. Very Very expensive and the customer service is shitty. Almost every apartment comes with Directv already installed.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Sattelite is cheaper and has a wider selection of channels, but is slightly less reliable and has less features. Digital Cable can get ridiculously expensive (I think I pay around 108 a month now), but has a ton of extra features including all the on demand stuff. They both have their advantages and disadvantages.

 

What he said. If my landlord allowed it, I would have had DirecTV by now. Since he didn't, I downgraded my HDTV digital cable to standard ol' 70-something channel analog, especially since a. I don't watch TV enough to warrant going balls out on it, but I like having it in case I want to catch something- plus I have a homebrew DVR (thank you, MythTV!) and b. Comcast's HD selection sucks balls.

 

If you live in an area that gets good satellite reception, do it. It's nice.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I pay $71 a month for Directvs best package which:

- no premium channels (I spend $20 a month for Blockbuster online)

- no locals (directv doesn't offer locals and with an antenna I can pick up CBS and ABC in HD and I get FOX and NBC in HD from NY),

- 2 Dual Tuner HD DVRs ($5 for the 2nd)

- HD package (which currently stands at like 8 channels but by this time next month will be 30+)

- DVR service (which isn't tivo anymore on my boxes but only costs $6 a month)

 

I miss my tivo but the HD Directivos don't support MPEG4

 

For the longest period of time I was saddled with one of those huge satellite dishes that takes up the whole front yard, which was how I could watch Smackdown and 24 and other shows a couple days early.

 

If you have a snow problem with your dish, right before winter you should spray your dish with Pam non-stick cooking spray and the ice and snow wont be able to stick to the dish (little tip I learned).

 

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I haven't had my dish go out in about three years and we get the crummiest weather known to man in southern Ontario. Now there are definitely perks to cable (On Demand), but the weather issue is not nearly as bad as advertised unless the dish was improperly installed or their are some other line of sight issues preventing a good signal in the first place.

 

The big advantage is that satellite is available everywhere. Sure you might get good cable service in downtown Toronto, but what happens when you head up to your cottage in Muskoka?

[BruiserKC 0]

I've had DirecTV almost six years...I'll never go back to cable. Every few months they were jacking up our rates, plus for what I pay now I would only get half as many channels with cable. Customer service with DirecTV has been awesome, always got my questions answered or a concern addressed.

 

As for the weather problems...when I know a snow storm is coming, I go out and spray my dish with cooking spray, like PAM. Snow slides right off and doesn't affect my signal.

[Ced 0]

Satellite has been the choice for me since my former cable company kept realigning its channel selection and jacking up the price simultaneously. Not much of a difference except for access to East Coast feeds and a slightly lower cost than cable, so I've been happy with the basic package so far. I'm just hoping the feed will hold when the wind and rain pick up.

[starvenger 0]

Satellite also tends to require a 1 or 2 year contract. Cable I've never seen that required.

Kind of ironic that it's the other way around up here.

 

Thanks for the cooking spray tip guys. I didn't even think about that.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Directv #1 in 2007 JD Power Customer Satisfaction Survey

 

But, they basically got like a 67% customer satisfaction rating which isn't too good, but its good enough to be #1 I guess.

 

 

 

[In Credible 0]

Directv #1 in 2007 JD Power Customer Satisfaction Survey

 

But, they basically got like a 67% customer satisfaction rating which isn't too good, but its good enough to be #1 I guess.

 

Fuckin wet blanket.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I'm content with cable, but if dishes are your thing then yay.

[Vern Gagne 0]

We changed to satellite because the extra innings package didn't have a deal with Comcast.

[NoCalMike 0]

We pay about $100 per month for DISH Network. We have the "Everything Pak" which includes all the premium channels and digital music channels and local channels. Also, whenever a new channel is added we are going to get it. We also have a Dual Tuner DVR Box which is covered in the cost.

 

The only thing we don't have yet is the HD DVR box, but right now I am going with quanity over quality. Meaning I'd rather have all the channels then have to cut the channel amount in half in order to have a select few in HD.

 

In time I will get the HD Box though.

[Darthtiki 0]

Once I'm done with school and have a new living arrangement I am getting DirecTv I think. Comcast in Sacramento was great, even though there was no Sunday Ticket. However, TimeWarner in here in SoCal is by far the worst MSO I have ever had, channel repetition (non-coastal feed difference), no NFL Network, crappy onDemand service