Cable v. Satellite

[tyrion]

I case anyone is wondering how each faired during Frances, the winner is satellite EDIT: in my local area. We only received wind and rain, not hurricane force and my neighbors cable (Comcast) went out at least a day ago. I did not lose my satellite (Dish Network) for more than a minute in the last 24 hours. So much for the cable commercials that criticize salellite for weather issues.

 

[JeffL]

Uh, we still have cable, and we have 65MPH winds ATM.

 

[tyrion]

Only commenting on what is going on locally. My neighbor and I got a kick out of it because we thought of all those commercials on the weather issues with satellite and his cable went out. Probably should have asked the question whether anyone else had similar experience. Hope all is well up there.

 

[enzoferrari650]

I want to get dish network. But my parents insist on comcast digital cable.

 

[tyrion]

One cool feature of Dish Network is that it carries Sirius Satellite music stations. It's the opposite in my house, my son wants Comcast because they carry Fuel, which is an aggressive sports station. He's a skateboarder.

 

[enzoferrari650]

I see, I want tivo, I really need that, so do my parents. I used to skateboard, but then I quit. Never heard of fuel channel.

 

[tyrion]

Here is another argument for you to use. You may know this already, dish network has there own tivo type service. It was the main reason I switched from direct tv (didn't have direct tivo at the time) to dish network.

 

[enzoferrari650]

yeah, i saw a promotion at circuit city. 3 room satilite dish set including one 40gig tivo box. I think it was like 200 dollars for everything and like 30 dollars a month for 120+ channels.

 

[Kirosia]

In my area, Dish is horrible. Not the channels, but reception. If it rains, everything screws up. And considering this place (north-east coast of US) is precipitation/wind/storm/hurricane heavy at times, not a good thing. I use cable BTW.

 

[Stephonovich]

Well, we're using DirecTV here (NC), but that's because it's what my grandpa had. That being said, cable isn't even an option up here (you think they're going to run a line 15 miles up a mountain?), and if you opt to go with rabbit ears or a similar antenna, you can only get in a couple channels. So if you want TV, satellite is the only way to go. I'm still amazed, however, that even with all the channels (around 800 at last count), 99% of it is crap. We do have Showtime (and it's 4 other movie channels it includes), so occasionally there's something good on. The Hunted was on last night; not bad. Last time I came here to visit, they had all the premium channels. Showtime, HBO, Starz... that was quite nice. You could sit down anytime of the day or night and pretty much be guaranteed of a decent movie being on.

One thing I am somewhat pissed about is the quality, however. You know how they keep touting that they're "100% digital", whereas cable isn't? Big whoopee. Digital is such a buzzword, it's not even funny. All that means is their signal has been converted from a waveform into a series of 0s and 1s. And not very well, I might add. The compression is awful, even with premium channels. There was horrible banding on The Hunted last night, especially on large expanses of a single color, like the sky, or a wall. I wonder if they cut out half the channels, if they'd have enough bandwidth to decrease the amount of compression applied. All I really want, actually, would be History, Discovery, National Geographic, Cartoon Network (heh), Spike, G4TechTV, the networks/news stations, Science, SciFi, TNN, TBS, and the premium channels. That's total, what, maybe 30 channels with all the premium channels. Bet they could get DVD quality in a stream like that. Unfortunately, the rest of America doesn't feel that way, so I do be screwed, at least until we get an HDTVL

(-:Stephonovich

 

[Born2bwire]

I have digital cable right now but my folks use Dish Network. I've always preferred the satellite to digital cable. The reception issues have always been minor and the picture quality is much better than what I get. I do feel that the compression for the satellite could be better but it's the same thing with digital cable. The only time that the picture shows its limitations is with static backgrounds that are slightly foggy. The compression treats the background as large solid blocks of color instead of fine gradations in shades and this causes blockiness to occur but when you have a detailed picture the quality is excellent.

 

[kwkarth]

Although I've never had satelite of any kind here (too many trees all around,) we've had Comcast Cable since we bought the place. I was a bit skeptical with all the bad press that Comcast received nationally, but I must say, aside from a few bumps here and there, they've been pretty good. The HDTV channel picture quality is awesome. I'm running a 100" HD front projection system and you can see remarkable detail. Rarely do I see any artifacts. The audio is quite good as well. We've been so pleased with Comcast here, we get our Broadband and telephone service from them as well.

 

[utep10]

My brother and I agree that my DirectTV has better picture quality then his Comcast Digital Cable. Make no mistake though that this was a very un-scientific comparison and really is just a general comment. He's in the process of getting Direct TV.

I've had Direct TV for 6 years and had maybe 1 issue with reception. I've always had blackout issues with cable, at least 3-4 per year. I think the cable gods don't like me.

 

[gastro54]

Neither: TV sucks.

 

[gastro54]

But, go with whatever is cheaper ;p I personally have cable.