Satellite Television? (USA)

[nyfeh]

Recently I acquired an HDTV-Ready widescreen television. I'd used cable for television service but the provider here doesn't offer HDTV and won't for a long time. I was curious about what you all think about satellite: your experiences, which provider is better, etc. Also, I've heard mixed things about the signal going out in inclimate weather such as thunder storms and snow showers... Is any of that true? Thank you...

[yoda313]

Hello,

I personally don't have either cable/satellite nor HDTV. I do however have some experience. I was at a friend of a friends house and they had satellite (can't remember provider). It did cut out when a thunderstorm approached. When the first lightning came the signal shorted out. Darndest thing.

I would recommend you check out www.voom.com (satellite service) . They have all hdtv service. There infomercials are out all the time. Check them out and you may like them. They got a plug from www.cnet.com so they can't be too bad. Good luck

Kevin

P.S. You may also want to look into getting an hdtv ariel antenna for local broadcasts if your going to wait on finding a new service.

[bigmicka]

all i will say is rain fade has always been a satellite issue.

but the bigger dish you buy, makes the problem less and less.

standard down here is a 2foot model but you get better recption with a 3 foot and near faultless with a 4 foot dish.

mic

[JohnnyCNote]

I used to work for AT&T Broadband, and while I was still employed there I paid for both DSL & eventually DishNetwork, even though I could get free cable services. While it's true that the signal can fade during heavy rain, it's never for very long. We just went through 2 tropical storms here and the satellite stayed on all day, except for brief periods of heavy rain. However, the wind didn't faze it.

We've never had reliable cable service in this part of town, however, a lot depends on where you're located. It's been my observation that cable works fine in some areas, and isn't worth a darn elsewhere. The other big advantage satellite has is that it's available anywhere.

Also, broadband is better via cable in theory, but I have a 3 MBps DSL connection that hasn't gone down in so long I can't remember. I know you're looking for video services, but I point this out as a way to further compare cable service in this area.

So I'd imagine that HD satellite would probably be similar. You may want to check with other subscribers in your area. Frequently cable will allow you trial period. One tip is to tell you you heard of a free trial (you heard it from me, okay?), or at least free installation, etc. It's always worked for me. Then if you're not happy with cable, try satellite. Maybe you can get a trial of satellite, too, but the installation is a bit more involved.....

[Faustus]

Unless your a huge football fan who wants to buy Sunday Ticket then Dishnetwork is better.

[northcat_8]

I think dishnetwork is a better provider. I use to have direct TV but the dish is so small and I lost reception if there was any heavy cloud cover. Plus DirectTV did not find the humor in me subtracting "no reception" time off of my monthly bill. It started out as a couple of bucks but over time it was about $48.87 and they got all pissed.

I ordered and had dishnetwork installed before they shut Direct TV off. Dish is about $30 cheaper per month, I got the largest dish so my reception is much more consistent.

Only downside is I got local programming with both providers and with Direct TV my ABC,NBC,CBS,FOX came out of the east and west coast. I had east CBS and west CBS...which was awesome because during football season I got east coast games and Pac 10 games. Same was true for NFL. But Dishnetwork's local stations are actually your local stations to your area, which is great if you care about things like local news but other than that it sucks.

Plus calling Direct TV and talking to real person is like playing the riddle of the sphinx with voice menus.

I like Dishnetwork, plus I got a 4 room system installed with 4 receivers for free!!!! 2 - DVR receivers and 2 regular receivers. If you haven't had DVR before...you'll love it, and once you've had it you can't go back.

[lordsmurf]

Cable internet is better than DSL or satellite Internet.
Satellite tv is better than digital cable.
Digital cable is better than analog cable.

DirecTV hardware is better than DISH hardware.
The DISH signal has gotten better in the past few years.
The DirecTV signal has gotten worse.
Right now, they're about the same quality-wise.

Satellite tv/net will go down during storms, but the sole factor of "how often" and "how long" depends ENTIRELY on the transponder strength of your reception.

I dumped DirecTV in April when I realized I never watched it (DVDs from Netflix are better) and that my cable company was giving me free cable (no idea why, but I'm not going to ask) with my cable Internet.

[JohnnyCNote]

Cable internet is better than DSL or satellite Internet.
Satellite tv is better than digital cable.
Digital cable is better than analog cable.

What if the cable company doesn't maintain its system properly, offers very poor customer service, and constantly goes out all the time? That's why I say that on paper what you state may be true, but in practice it can be an entirely different matter. AT&T Broadband was fined millions of dollars here in Jacksonville, FL. While they sold it to Comcast, the underlying system, at least in this part of town, has a long way to go. It still suffers from frequent outages.

It's a little more involved than just looking at specs on paper......

[Faustus]

I love when they advertise DSL as "faster" that translates to well if you pay for the super mega ultra package that isn't even listed on our website its faster.

I have a friend paying for a 6mb connection and other then the first week it was up we've only been able to hit 4mb on it. yeah that was worth the cash!

[Capmaster]

We have DirecTV. We've had it for 9 years. Yesterday I picked up a 4-LNA oval multi-satellite dish to replace the old Sony dish. I'll be installing the new one Friday.

Supposedly I need it to get HDTV and local channels. Having 3 extra LNAs is nice in case we add more rooms to the one we already have. The dish was only $59 at "Worst Buy", so that's not too bad

[JohnnyCNote]

I'll say it again:

The #1 Rule of Computing:

Individual results may vary.