I just cancelled my satellite service.

[freebird73717]

Edit July 25, 2009
Okay todays the day. I just called and cancelled my account with direct tv. I now just have over the air DTV and a small htpc hooked up to my tv. Between the digital tv broadcasts and services like netflix watch now and hulu, the only thing I will miss is the extra bill that I was paying. It feels good!

Original post.
With the quality of the new free over the air DTV I have decided to cancel my satellite service. I currently have directv (contracted until July 25th) and pay about $45(including dvr fees and taxes) a month for about 50 some odd channels. After looking through my list of recorded shows I've noticed that 90% of what I have recorded is available on free tv.

Why pay $45 a month for something that I can get for free in very good quality. My tv has a built in atsc tuner so that is no problem.

Okay I'm not getting off completely free. I am going to purchase a tivo hd and pay the $15 a month for tivo dvr service. I do have a hauppage tuner card in my computer but the convenience of a dvr and features of tivo make it a worthwhile service for me.

There may be a few shows that I'll miss out on from pay tv (and I know my kids will miss the cartoon channels) but there is always hulu and others for shows that I'll miss out on.

So come july 25th when my contract with directv expires I'm moving to DTV.

What about you? Do you pay for cable/satellite, get free DTV, or not even worry about tv at all?

[edDV]

I'm locked in to cable or sat here due to poor OTA reception. Cable quality trumps sat here so I'll stay with Comcast but I have cut premium channels.

[Krispy Kritter]

I'm still using cable myself. About the only thing I even on TV any more is NASCAR and football in the fall. So I need cable to get ESPN/ESPN 2 and TNT.

[Seeker47]

Time Warner Cable really blows, at least in this service area. I keel over with laughing convulsions every time one of their anti-satellite-service commercials comes on. At the same time, have not been all that impressed with DirecTV, where I have seen it. I watch a lot of premium channel programming. To me, the issue is not so much the cost (although TWC is most surely not worth anything approaching what they charge) as it is value for $$, quality of signal, and reliability of service. I really want to switch to Verizon FIOS, which may be about the best thing out there right now (or so I've heard), but that won't be an option until I move to another area.

[Number Six]

I have Dish Network satellite - I watch a lot of older shows and movies that are not on free TV, and I think that I only watch 1 show the is available OTA. I would love to lower my bill, I pay $75 per month - and I do not even have any premium channels. I also can't live without the DVR - pausing and rewinding is fantastic.

[redwudz]

The subdivision fees here include the cable TV. About $20US a month of that goes to the cable company. They had several HBO channels and some other pay channels. I thought that was a bit odd for the price. Then last month the FBI raided their offices and confiscated all their computers and equipment and hauled them to jail. Seems they weren't paying DirectTV for the use of their service. I can't believe they didn't see that one coming.

So apparently now they've put a antenna up on their tower and are rebroadcasting the local HDTV stations over the subdivision cable. They only had SD before, so it's a bit of a improvement in quality. We're hoping they default on their contract so we can get Cox in here. But that will be more than $20 a month.

I already get the same channels with a HDTV OTA antenna, and a better picture than what they supply. There are about 25 channels. But I don't watch TV much. Cox may be able to get us high speed internet also. I have to use a microwave dish for that and it's only 1.5Mb/s down and 500Kb/s up at $50 a month. The available DSL is even slower, and the same price.

[Number Six]

redwudz - OTA HD is much better because the signal is not compressed in any way - cable and satellite transmissions are usually compressed

[freebird73717]

I have to use a microwave dish for that and it's only 1.5Mb/s down and 500Kb/s up at $50 a month.

Who is your provider. Where I live there is no competition. Locally owned phone company won't let anybody use their lines so I have to use their service if I want dsl. I pay $60 month for 1Mb/s down. I've looked into satellite internet (hughes and wildblue) but the price was either the same or more than what I'm paying now.

[edDV]

I have to use a microwave dish for that and it's only 1.5Mb/s down and 500Kb/s up at $50 a month.

dsl. I pay $60 month for 1Mb/s down.

Yikes!. AT&T here charges $35/mo for 6Mb/s down.

[usually_quiet]

If push comes to shove and I need to find ways to cut expenses, my OTA reception is good enough that I could get by without cable.

I do half my TV viewing OTA (using a converter box and rabbit ears) and the other half with analog cable. Some of what I watch is on cable-only channels and some is on DTV broadcast or LP analog broadcast channels that are not included in my analog cable package.

I am somewhat disappointed with DTV because of I have nearly lost access to the one out-of-market OTA channel that I watch frequently. I used to get great reception for it in both digital and analog, but unfortunately, after they switched off analog on February 17, and settled into their permanent channel assignment, they reduced their digital transmitter power substantially. I can only tune that channel in one room now, whereas I used to be able to receive it in every room. A roof or attic antenna is not an option for me, since my landlord does not want one installed.

[freebird73717]

I have to use a microwave dish for that and it's only 1.5Mb/s down and 500Kb/s up at $50 a month.

dsl. I pay $60 month for 1Mb/s down.

Yikes!. AT&T here charges $35/mo for 6Mb/s down.

Thats one of the disadvantages of living in a small rural town in oklahoma. The next largest town over (about 20 miles away) offers at&t $19.95 1.5Mb/s down. That really pisses me off and I have complained about it to my phone company.

But one good thing living here is the cost of housing. My mortgage payment for a 3 bedroom house is $425 month!

[edDV]

Your local phone company knows how to play Monopoly but their cost per connected customer is probably higher.

Complain to the state regulator.

[redwudz]

I own my place, but my subdivision rules would likely frown on a 50 foot crank up tower for HDTV. (I use a attic antenna) There are some stations about 50 miles away I could probably pick up with a better antenna.

My microwave 5Ghz internet link is to a small tower about three miles away. It's a local business oriented company, so at least the speed doesn't vary. The cable company has a Wi-fi internet system, but the speed goes from 150Kb up to maybe 1.4Mb, but is very inconsistent. I had enough after a couple of months. The DSL here is Quest, and really poor, probably because of our phone cable conditions.

Quite a few of my neighbors have a satellite dish for HDTV. I'm not really interested in that. Dish seems to be the main one used. But there are a few DirectTV ones. For OTA, most all of the HDTV transmitters are on the same mountain, so OTA antenna pointing is easy enough.

What really irritates me is the main fiber optic feed is just a few hundred feet from my TV companies location. It has more than enough bandwidth for high speed internet, and HDTV, but we are locked into a ten year contract. That's why I'm hoping they default on the contract.

EDIT: Where I used to live, we had high speed internet at 8Mb/s and cable TV with 100 channels (No PPV or premium) for about $85 a month. Throw in HBO and a few premium channels and it went to about $180.

EDIT/EDIT: usually_quiet, most HDTV is in the high UHF band. Almost completely line of sight. The older analog stations lower frequency signals could 'bend' around obstacles a bit more. But with most HDTV stations you won't get any signal if it's weak.

[usually_quiet]

EDIT/EDIT: usually_quiet, most HDTV is in the high UHF band. Almost completely line of sight. The older analog stations lower frequency signals could 'bend' around obstacles a bit more. But with most HDTV stations you won't get any signal if it's weak. :(

Even though it's listed as 1Edge for my location, I received a nice clear digital signal (UHF band) when the station I'm complaining about used a 1000 KW transmtter. Their analog transmitter was also 1000 KW, and the picture was great for it too. Now that they have moved into the upper VHF band (their old analog frequency) and cut their transmitter down to 9.3 KW, reception is not so good.

[lordsmurf]

Turning my cable off entirely in a few weeks. Will resort to DVDs, either bought, rented or current collection. Did the math, and it will be far cheaper that way, and I'll get more of what I want, when I want it.

Maybe turn it back on in September, when new seasons of shows hit again. Maybe.

[mrswla]

I have to use a microwave dish for that and it's only 1.5Mb/s down and 500Kb/s up at $50 a month.

dsl. I pay $60 month for 1Mb/s down.

Yikes!. AT&T here charges $35/mo for 6Mb/s down.

I pay $50/mo and get anywhere from 20 to 30 Mb/s.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/463156354.png

http://www.speedtest.net/summary.php

[edDV]

I have to use a microwave dish for that and it's only 1.5Mb/s down and 500Kb/s up at $50 a month.

dsl. I pay $60 month for 1Mb/s down.

Yikes!. AT&T here charges $35/mo for 6Mb/s down.

I pay $50/mo and get anywhere from 20 to 30 Mb/s.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/463156354.png

http://www.speedtest.net/summary.php

What good is 30Mb/s? Comcast tells me I can get that but with just a few GB per month cap if you read the fine print.

I don't need faster download. I guess I should watch some Netflix movies.

I'd be pissed if AT$T or Comcast chopped the movie in the second billing week if I hit their GB limit.

[edDV]

Cox fineprint

13 Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitations. Cox offers multiple packages of Service with varying speeds and features and bandwidth usage limitations (not all packages are available in all areas). You must comply with the current bandwidth, data storage, electronic mail and other Limitations of Service that correspond with the package of Service you selected. In addition to complying with the limitations for specific features, you must ensure that your activities do not improperly restrict, inhibit, or degrade any other user's use of the Service, nor represent (in Cox’s sole judgment) an unusually great burden on the network itself. In addition, you must ensure that your use does not improperly restrict, inhibit, disrupt, degrade or impede Cox's ability to deliver the Service and monitor the Service, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services. If you use excessive bandwidth as determined by Cox), Cox may terminate, suspend, or require you to upgrade the Service and/or pay additional fees.

Other cable ISP consider a few GB excessive.
http://www.cox.com/policy/default.asp#aup_13

"You must comply ..." "If you use excessive bandwidth as determined by Cox), Cox may terminate, suspend, or require you to upgrade the Service and/or pay additional fees."

[jagabo]

redwudz - OTA HD is much better because the signal is not compressed in any way - cable and satellite transmissions are usually compressed :(

ATSC broadcasts are all MPEG2 compressed, anywhere from 5 to 19 Mb/s.

I hardly ever watch anything available OTA, except PBS and an occasional late night talk show when I can't sleep. Most of what I watch is SciFi, History, Discovery, Animal Planet, etc. I've started using Netflix streaming (HTPC) for old BBS and other TV shows, some movies. If it wasn't for the high def channels I would probably drop the cable subscription.

[disturbed1]

Thats one of the disadvantages of living in a small rural town in oklahoma. The next largest town over (about 20 miles away) offers at&t $19.95 1.5Mb/s down. That really pisses me off and I have complained about it to my phone company.

But one good thing living here is the cost of housing. My mortgage payment for a 3 bedroom house is $425 month!

Want a new neighbor Where I live, the only thing at that price includes a free bullet proof vest, and plenty of pet roaches

Personally, I can watch everything I wanted to with DTV.

Strong Signal WTTE FOX 28 -1
Strong Signal WSYX ABC 6 -1
Strong Signal WCMH NBC 4 -1
Strong Signal WBNS CBS 10 -1
Strong Signal WOSU PBS 34 -1
Strong Signal WWHO CW 53 -1
Strong Signal WSFJ N/A 51 -1

It's the damn girlfriend that HAS to have Lifetime Movie Network. Lifetime Movie Network is a digital channel. Means we not only have to subscribe to cable, not the digital basic, but the full digital package At least I get my 15/1 internet

The total package, full digital, Starz/Encore movie network, VOIP with free long distance (plus 30 features I won't use), 2 DVRs, and 15/1 internet is $150 a month after tax. $50 per service is a good deal for the amount of service we get

We could drop the price down to ~$120/month if we would lower the internet speed to 4/512. Basic cable, VOIP and lowspeed internet chimes in around $90/month.

What's nice is we have quite a few competitors in our area. TimeWanker Cable, Insight, WOW, ATT Uverse, plus the Sats, at least 3 local DSL ISPs, and 4 WISPs.

[edDV]

redwudz - OTA HD is much better because the signal is not compressed in any way - cable and satellite transmissions are usually compressed

ATSC broadcasts are all MPEG2 compressed, anywhere from 5 to 19 Mb/s.

HD OTA varies ~10-19 Mb/s, SD ~4-6 Mb/s. Cable and sat* vary as well.

Each TV station decides how much to compress and how many signals to multiplex into a 6MHz ATSC MPeg2 TS stream. Cable can compress more using QAM with similar performance due to a better S/N environment vs. OTA.

If they spend the $ they can use statistical multiplexing to improve multi channel bit rate efficiency even more (shared bandwidth). In other words, bit rate does not necessarily predict picture quality in a multichannel transmission environment.


* HD Sat may use MPeg4 instead of MPeg2 for more bit rate efficiency. This is used to squeeze in more subchannels rather than increase per channel quality.

[Webster]

(and I know my kids will miss the cartoon channels)

Tell your kids to watch the cartoon online from the Cartoon Network. That what mine does ever since I got pissed off at my local cable company and canceled the subscription.

But one good thing living here is the cost of housing. My mortgage payment for a 3 bedroom house is $425 month!

I've also have a 3 bedrooms home in a lower middle class neighborhood and that amount wouldn't even cover the insurance and tax for the month...

[xxiangg]

I use only OTA signals these days.

For people who also use OTA, there is one relatively new
DTV standalone recorder available.

http://www.dtvpal.com/

Since it directly records the digit signal, the quality
should be better than other DVD recorders. Although it
seems that the device is still a little buggy.

[craigarta]

But one good thing living here is the cost of housing. My mortgage payment for a 3 bedroom house is $425 month!

Geesh $425 a month may get you a studio apartment and I live in the boonies of Washington.


But I only get one (yes one) channel over the air with rabbit ears and I'm not watching TBN for my TV entertainment

[lacywest]

Directv is what I have ... and Im pissed off at them right now.

They raised the fees last month. Increased the basic monthly charge and increased the fee for each additional HD receiver I have. We do have HBO and Showtime ... and lately neither of those channels have been watched. When Dexter and True Blood returns we will be programming in those shows to watch.

I use the HR 10 250 in 3 rooms and the HR 20 in my wife's daughter's bedroom.

We dont even use the HR 10 250 in the computer room because I've migrated to the garage for my computer/Internet/video processing ... and other stuff ... addictions. So I should just turn if off or reconnect it to my system in the gargage.

Im using the ATI HDTV Wonder card and it works just fine for my needs ... with MS Media Center Edition running I can record everything I like.

The OTA stations in my area ... I get every channel in this area ... thanks to an antenna mounted on my chimney.

My wife and I like the TV show ... Fringe ... well a few episodes back ... American Idol ... ran a extra 5 - 6 minutes longer and Fringe started late ... we didn't get to see how the show ended. I went to Pirate Bay to download the show ... a whole bunch of people were there doing the same thing for the same exact reason.

It is truly going through my head ... to cancel HBO and Showtime all together and just download the shows ... Dexter and True Blood.

I just recently in last 2 weeks found that I can record OTA TV shows with MS Media Center in HD and reprocess the shows with ... ConvertXtoDVD 3 and burn DVDs or use Divx Author 1.5 .... both programs do an excellent job.

I always wondered what programs were these people using that provided those ... 350 MB ... one hour shows minus the commercials ... Xvid or Divx ... video files. Well I still dont know actually ... but I do know what I can use and get damn good quality.

The next thing I want to do is put some PCs in my living room and my bedroom like the one I have here in my garage with HDTV tuner cards and just record my favorite TV shows on them ... I can use a external USB 2.0 Harddrive to watch a show in a different room in case I didn't record the show on that PC in that room. Or shrink it down to Divx and use a thumb drive to carry it around ... from room to room.

[freebird73717]

The OTA stations in my area ... I get every channel in this area ... thanks to an antenna mounted on my chimney.

I also have an outdoor antenna so I get every channel that's broadcasting in digital right now. Only one isn't is my local ABC but I can pickup an ABC station from Ft. Smith so that rounds it out. I get them all.

I guess if I didn't own my home and couldn't put up an outdoor antenna due to restrictions then I might have kept my satellite.

It's the damn girlfriend that HAS to have Lifetime Movie Network

Well I guess I'm lucky. At first my wife was the same way but after talking to her about it she agreed that there was no point in paying what we were paying just to watch the two or three "cable" channels that we couldn't get locally.

I used to love scifi, Tnt, spike, and a couple of others but for quite a while now there hasn't been much on I want to watch. Just not worth it for me.

[Kayembee]

Ah, television! I guess I have a love/hate relationship with it.

Basic facts: we live in Albuquerque. OTA transmitters are all bunched up
here on the Sandia Crest, maybe 10 miles east and 5000 feet above us. On
a clear day you can see the towers out our kitchen window, naked eye,
and OTA reception is excellent with our roof antenna.

We also get DirecTV. Got hooked years ago on the easy TiVo timeshift
functions, and can't give that up.

Internet comes via DSL. 1.5 mbps is as fast as we get. Local cable can
be faster, but I can't deal with their officious BS ("bandwidth
hogging", mygoshyouwanttorunaserver, blecch). DSL is business-oriented,
and understands things. One day Qwest may actually do fiberoptic HERE,
but I ain't holding my breath. Meanwhile, I can download video from the
Internet, and even watch it on the big TV (it's my PC's secondary
monitor), but I rarely do. The few Internet videos I watch are mostly
talking heads, and look fine on my office monitor.

But DSL is good enough, and TV is better than that. Our main satbox, an
HR-21, is hooked to the big TV in the media room. We get a zillion TV
channels, including much HD in both MPEG2 and MPEG4. DirecTV is even
starting to play with and promote some 1080p stuff. The HR-21 also
seems to talk to our home PC network, though so far just for music and
photos - I haven't gotten video to work that way. And there's VOD, where
the HR-21 can download shows from the Internet.

So, not bad; too bad I'm not a bigger TV fan . I prefer DVDs to
broadcasts, but even DVDs cut into my computer time . My wife would
like to cut back our DirecTV service, but I love having the options
available. I even have an old DirecTiVo box hooked to my main PC so I
can watch in my office.

Don't have BR disc yet - the library of older films in HD is still too
small to interest me; one day, prolly. Meanwhile, there's a lot of HD
via sat. Mostly I feel like I have more toys than I have time to play
with, so I can't complain.

Kayembee

[Seeker47]

Cox fineprint
. . . If you use excessive bandwidth as determined by Cox), Cox may terminate, suspend, or require you to upgrade the Service and/or pay additional fees.

I really liked the recent editorial by Doom9 on this subject. Worth reading, if you haven't seen it. The gist is that he regards it as total horse puckey, with the proper response being the one-finger salute and taking your business elsewhere. (There must be plenty of competition to Cox up in NOCAL, or am I wrong ?) That is, unless you are stuck in a cable-service-only mode for some reason.

The total package, full digital, Starz/Encore movie network, VOIP with free long distance (plus 30 features I won't use), 2 DVRs, and 15/1 internet is $150 a month after tax. $50 per service is a good deal for the amount of service we get

Gee, and I thought I was paying a lot. Well, actually I am. It's about a Jackson less per month, after their latest increase, and includes all the major premium channels (even The Movie Channel, which despite its name has a title of interest to me on it maybe twice a year, tops), but no DVR, no phone, and no internet. The latter two are on a separate bill from the phone company. TWC calls me up at least every couple months, trying to get me to switch my broadband internet over to them. I think I'm going to stop being polite when they do this. What I should honestly tell them is: "You're cable service SUCKS ! Why the fug would I ever want to get my internet from you turkeys ?!" Maybe then they will stop calling.

[gadgetguy]

Free OTA DTV. I dropped Comcast when they exceeded $100 a month for basic+ analog cable plus internet. I put up an outdoor antenna, switched to DSL from the phone company and saved myself ~$75 a month. Suffered a little while after some high winds blew my antenna over just after Christmas. Didn't get it fixed for over a month because of the weather, but I was still able to get most of the channels/shows I wanted to see. The drawback at this point is that the converter boxes cost too much and one of them has already died.

[Soopafresh]

Hulu makes me happy, especially with the very short commercial interruptions.