Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

**hambino21** · July 5, 2007, 12:14:52 PM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

I'd say one of the most important things to take in to consideration when making your decision is the location's average weather conditions. If it tends to rain a lot you may want to consider the cable, because signal loss tends to be a problem. If not then I would say direct tv. I know in florida it kinda sux having the dish, but when I was living out in west texas the dish would have been perfect.

**beanzncheez** · July 5, 2007, 12:40:45 PM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

^ ^ Very good points he brought up there. Being that I'm in ideal weather for a dish, I went with that route after Comcast finally sold off their customers to TimeWarner, and I wasn't going to be penalized for dropping the tv and keeping the internet. (Comcast charges you an additional $18/mo. when you don't have cable tv with the internet.) I was switched over to TimeWarner, which is better service and better pricing but finally made the jump to DirecTV with HD service since we upgraded our tv. Overall, the only problem I had was with the installer. The dude was low quality and I could have done a cleaner install and cable management so they will be sending someone out to finish this properly. Back on topic, the tv service has been great and I've got a decent package. I have 195+ channels, the HD content with several movie channels to two rooms for $59 a month. Installation was free but I know that's an industry standard.

**speciale** · July 5, 2007, 02:22:21 PM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

Originally posted by beanzncheez

^ ^ Very good points he brought up there. Being that I'm in ideal weather for a dish, I went with that route after Comcast finally sold off their customers to TimeWarner, and I wasn't going to be penalized for dropping the tv and keeping the internet. (Comcast charges you an additional $18/mo. when you don't have cable tv with the internet.) I was switched over to TimeWarner, which is better service and better pricing but finally made the jump to DirecTV with HD service since we upgraded our tv. Overall, the only problem I had was with the installer. The dude was low quality and I could have done a cleaner install and cable management so they will be sending someone out to finish this properly. Back on topic, the tv service has been great and I've got a decent package. I have 195+ channels, the HD content with several movie channels to two rooms for $59 a month. Installation was free but I know that's an industry standard.

$18 bucks more if you use their internet but not their cable?

**Garrick** · July 5, 2007, 04:28:18 PM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

have you looked into charter cable? much better, imo. better prices and its as reliable as comcast. i pay $99 for high speed internet, expanded cable and home phone with free long distance.... i'm not sure if charter has service out in cumming but i would call and ask. i'm sure they do.

**speciale** · July 6, 2007, 09:17:31 AM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

Originally posted by Garrick

have you looked into charter cable? much better, imo. better prices and its as reliable as comcast. i pay $99 for high speed internet, expanded cable and home phone with free long distance.... i'm not sure if charter has service out in cumming but i would call and ask. i'm sure they do.

they don't. just comcast

**Garrick** · July 6, 2007, 10:07:00 AM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

that blows. that's what happens when ya move to tha sticks!!

just playin.... that really isn't THAT far from the city. i'm rather shocked charter doesn't provide service out there.

**toasty** · July 6, 2007, 10:20:38 AM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

as a guy that lives in charter's headquarters, I can't really recommend going with them. I had nothing but problems when I used them for TV. I have heard the service is better elsewhere (ironically), though, so ask around where you are. Cable is only as good as the cables the service runs on, so cable is more susceptible to degradation of signal, noise, etc. Satellite, on the other hand, should be the same regardless of where you are, because it's just a matter of the box decoding the same signal that everyone else gets.

I personally have DirecTV, have had it for years, and have been very, very happy with it. The weather issues are overstated a bit, I think, but they were experiencing some growing pains with their HD local channels in some markets glitching a bit even when the weather was perfect back in early May. It's a known problem, though, and I'm not really noticing it any more -- plus they gave me free HD and Showtime for 6 months for dealing with it.

I'd go with DirecTV. My $.02.

**nbpgt** · July 6, 2007, 11:17:13 AM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

i looked into sat tv, but wanted a constant signal at every outlet in my house w/o having an accompanying box. at the time i upgraded, TWC was running a special for 40 for digicable + local HD & a few others (less expensive that expanded basic) + 12 dollars for the tivo type box. so total of maybe 55 bucks in taxes & fees. & the service around here is rarely knocked out as all the lines near here are run underground.

**rainman** · July 6, 2007, 11:45:57 AM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

I have had dish for years and absolutely love it. The only downfall of dish, as stated before is weak signal when it rains. I'm sure that not all charter offices are the same, but the one in the area that I live is horrible; impossible to get a straight answer from anyone. To add to this I actually had an installer come to my house at 10pm a few weeks ago asking for the receiver from where we had service a long time ago, and insisted that if we did not hand over the receiver that we would be charged $250 for it!! WTF!?

go with a dish, I have had direct and dish and both are pretty keen.

**Garrick** · July 7, 2007, 04:39:07 AM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

toasty - that's ashame charter gave you such bad service. i've had stellar service although occassionally my internet and phone go down for the day sometimes... pretty rare. if it is based out of StLou, i am surprised they don't give you guys a little better service.

**Erik Mitchell** · July 7, 2007, 01:29:48 PM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

Go with a dish for sure. Only reason I don't have one is because my building doesn't face the right direction. Lame.

**beanzncheez** · July 8, 2007, 01:06:41 PM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

Originally posted by speciale

$18 bucks more if you use their internet but not their cable?

Yep. Comcast will charge you an additional $18 a month for internet if you don't have their cable tv service. What a joke.
And in reference to Garrick's comment of Comcast reliability. That's bullshit. I'd had them come out here. Shitty connection, poor quality on the tv and crap speeds on the internet. I think I was getting like 10Mbps/1Mbps so to hell with them. My internet screams now at a lower cost with TimeWarner. I've seen my speeds around 14Mbps/3Mbps now.

**emuler** · July 10, 2007, 12:29:37 PM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

comcast blows

**toasty** · July 10, 2007, 10:36:35 PM

Re: Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

important sidenote I forgot to mention -- DirecTV is adding 70 additional HD channels this fall. They launched a couple new satellites last year (IIRC), and I just got an email from them about it today reminding me to get a special converter, so it looks like they're on pace.

Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

Cable vs. Direct TV / dish or cable?

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Comment

Today's Birthdays

[ms] Statistics