Author Topic: Cable or Satellite  (Read 3706 times)

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Offline md11hydmec

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Cable or Satellite
« on: January 31, 2012, 10:07:26 AM »
I have Comcast right now, but they had a price increase this year and also let me know they were not billing me correctly for my HD sets.  I have an HD DVR on the main floor, HD reciever in the basement, and standard digital in the bedroom and 2 of those digital boxes for 2 other tv's.  I have the digital preferred(the highest) without the premium channels.  The increase with the change for the HD technology fee(which was discounted by half for 6 mo) amounts to a $13 increase.  I was paying $114/mo, now it'll be $127/mo.  In 6 mo it'll go to $132/mo.  My wife says to get rid of one of the converters, but I was thinking about switching to satellite.  I can get it for around $100/mo for what I want(with a 2 year agreement which then goes up after the first year then increases the 2nd year).  I would like some advice on how everyone likes their satellite or cable.
Thanks...
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2012, 10:15:12 AM »
I have a friend with Direct TV and he says they're making a change to their programming.  At least in this area, they're going to treat the sports channels as optional (neither of us like sports) and he'll get a discount on his bill for doing away with them.  Previously, I think they were lumped into the package he had before and it wasn't an option.  Ditto for movie channels but they've always done that.  Picture quality is excellent, but you have the usual issues with satellite transmissions to deal with.

I think he's paying $60 a month for a single receiver.  He returned the other since his mother passed away last month.
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Offline Rugnuts

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2012, 10:21:17 AM »
i just made the switch to cable from directtv after 8yrs.
i did it just to save money, about $50/mo.  my situation is a different than yours though.
while i preferred the satellite setup, the $50 savings trumps it.

i now believe the way to get TV service is to switch at the end of the contracts. Or at least threaten to.  For 8 yrs i paid my dish bill without second guessing it. When i called, they instantly started throwing offers at me to stay. They never offered these deals to me for 8 yrs, once i said i was leaving it was promo heaven. i stuck to my guns and still dropped them. I am still getting offers in mail with good deals to come back. I told my buddie about this and he might threaten to leave just to get the offers.


Offline md11hydmec

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2012, 10:35:09 AM »
Ha good.  RIght now he changed my bill to give me the DVR reciever free for the next 3 months.  I've had cable here for 11 years.  The people that had dish switched because when a storm went through the signal went out.  I was wondering of that still happens.  THanks for the info!
"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."-----John Galt, Atlas Shrugged

Offline Rugnuts

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2012, 10:42:25 AM »
in the thickest rain, i lost signal. sometimes for and hour.
my new box from cable, sucks ass and freezes a lot. plus if i get a power blip, the box goes out and takes 8mins to reboot.


Offline md11hydmec

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2012, 10:46:23 AM »
I've had a few blips.  When the box resets itself it takes some time to get the programming back. For the most part I'm happy with the cable, just this whole price increase thing is bothering me a little.  I'm just researching the options.
"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."-----John Galt, Atlas Shrugged

Offline DumbAss Tanker

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2012, 10:49:48 AM »
My experience with them is that the signal still goes out on either cable or satellite in strong storms, the difference is that with satellite it goes out when you are in the storm, with cable it goes out when their base station is in the storm, so it's kind of a wash on that.

Pretty satisfied with Dish.  We have most of the tiers (500 channel package I believe), which includes several movie channels (TCM E&W, IFC, FoxMovie, Epix, and several others), all the significant news channels and their spin-offs, about all the cultural/historical stuff and kids programs, but not so much on the sports, plus due to some peculiarity a small extra monthly charge to get the local area broadcast channels.  No DVR or HD, 2 set boxes, it's around $800 a year plus the monthly fee for the local channels.  Where I live, there are only three options anyway:  Dish, Direct, or DVD.
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Offline Rugnuts

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2012, 11:02:38 AM »
Where I live, there are only three options anyway:  Dish, Direct, or DVD.

it would suck to get your news from a DVD :panic:

Offline md11hydmec

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #8 on: January 31, 2012, 11:04:13 AM »
Gotcha. 

@Rugnuts --- Ha Ha
"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."-----John Galt, Atlas Shrugged

Offline DumbAss Tanker

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2012, 11:33:09 AM »
it would suck to get your news from a DVD :panic:


Not so bad, we seem to be really kicking Japan's ass.
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Offline Rugnuts

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #10 on: January 31, 2012, 11:34:47 AM »
Not so bad, we seem to be really kicking Japan's ass.
:lol:

^5

Offline md11hydmec

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Re: Cable or Satellite
« Reply #11 on: January 31, 2012, 11:35:45 AM »
 :-)
"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."-----John Galt, Atlas Shrugged