Comments on: More Cable TV Tantrums

By: JP

JP — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:20:42 +0000

I watch 99% of my tv on Fuel, Speed, MOR, RFD, Boomerang, Military Channel DSc Science, DSC, National Geo, History International, History Channel, Food, DIY.
I have almost no need of locals, Except the Indy 500 and when Fox runs the F1 races. I would like afew not available on my pay level, but if they’d ala carte all channels, I’d pick up one or two others. One used to be able to ala carte the sports extras, but DirecTv stopped that practice.
I enjoy several of the XM radio channels they offer, but now that I have broadband, I can do without.
Too much to ask, I guess, to pay for only what the hell one wants to watch.
One of these companies could make a killing offering a 25 or 30 channel set of “you pick-premiums not included/extra” for $20 a month. I’d go with the $29.99 family pack if it had more of the channels I prefer. I only ever watch 6 channels on the list. I’d be better off with the two I am looking at right now as I haven’t been able to pay my bill. RFD and MOR are broadcast free so they are never blocked. With the tech they have this is easily possible. They just don’t see the money making opportunities there.

By: Venomous Kate

Venomous Kate — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:22:03 +0000

You know what REALLY chaps my hide about this? We watch a total of 6 channels. Six. Unfortunately, only one of them is local so even going the rabbit ears option wouldn’t suffice.

I absolutely hate paying for the other 249 channels that we don’t need.

By: JP

JP — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:49:06 +0000

DirecTv no longer charges for locals.
Of course they went up in price $12+ since 04 when I got it.

By: GZ Expat

GZ Expat — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 08:10:40 +0000

Go with the dish. Cable sucks…big. Here are the ups and downs of the dish, that I found when I was living in the USA…

Ups:
Picture quality is WAY better.
Purchasing and buying movies, way easier.
Billing was always spot on.
Loads of promotions for movies and other free stuff.
Digital Radio included.
NHL Center Ice…ohhhh how I miss that.

Downs:
Once installed, you are on your own, basically (but, very little can go wrong, except cable connections).
If you get a snow or ice storm and your dish is covered, you will lose reception.
I imagine living in KS, you probably get your share of thick thunderstorms, if a cloud rolls in and blocks your receptions, you are done until it clears.
You have to pay a little extra for local channels

The dish rocks…I miss it SO much here.

By: Xrlq

Xrlq — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 04:00:15 +0000

Due to my totally (OK, partially) shitty job situation, I currently have two residences. My house, which I inhabit on weekends, is located in an area that has neither cable nor DSL nor FiOS, so we’re stuck with DirecWay / HughesNet / WhateverTheHellThey’reCallingThemselvesThisWeek. My apartment, where I currently reside during the week, is served by the Meep-Meep group that has you so deeply upset. Having just gotten around to plugging in my desktop to the new Meep-Meep, I can assure you that the worst cable Internet service is an order of magnitude better than anything they can do by satellite. Can’t speak to DSL or FiOS, neither of which has been available in any of the gazillion places I’ve lived in recent years.

By: mlankton

mlankton — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:09:51 +0000

Whatever beef you have with cable, satellite is worse.

By: JP

JP — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 02:42:10 +0000

I used to install DirecTV.
I also used to be a Cox Cable user.
A few things.
Cable is, in 90+% of the nation, a monopoly. You use the local provider or you gets something else. Before DirecTv then Dish Network(and the departed PrimeStar, run by a cable consortium…no wonder it died fast) that alternative was Broadcast TV only.
A well installed Direct or Dish set up will not often go off the air. Now if it does, and there are warnings on local tv you might want to catch, this can be a problem. Larger dishes or amplified signals would help, but the cost would be high. My Dad was an early adopter of DirecT, but every time it rained, the Time Warner in Memphis would go out anyhow. Direct was actually more reliable, and silly things, like being able to see the weather channel (on TW, it was unwatchable due to poor signal and bleed over from the two channels on either side), and getting twice the channels for the same fee were big draws for him.
Anywhere Time Warner, or Charter are the cable service, DirecTv has a major market. I live in Charter Hell here.
The Cables are now getting some more competition from Verizon. They are using the growing Fiber Optic networks to provide both screaming broadband(50mbps!)and TV service. ATT is also trying that, to lesser success. They also are making DSL more widely available by running fiber optics in more areas and making the line runs the limit service area shorter.
Most of the newer subdivisions here in Burleson TX are using a fiber optic system installed by a third party the city is in cahoots with. They too provide TV and broadband. Also the city has a WiFi service used by the utilities and city services that allows anyone to connect for a fee of $25 a month or so. Allen TX on the other side of DFW from here has the same service.

Back to TV..
Cable, if available to you (not me, although I’m in the city limits!)Is gonna be one service and deal with it.
Satellite is Dish Network, DirecTv, Voom(I don’t know if this is still around, was High Def only when I did DirecT installs)or C-Sats of differing sorts. There are some free services that one gets by using a small dish, not much larger than a DirecTv dish. They even use the same satellites as DircT, Dish, as well as others, but you need pointing skills to use them to the fullest. They are very popular with the ethnic folks, as many of their home nation programs can be found on these. Especially South American and Asian programing, though Europe is rather well represented too.

The big deals with DirecTv and Dish are whether your installer is able, and the location of the install. Older complaints about install costs were likely Pegasus related, from when they had some monopoly on “Rural” tv services. DirecTv was resold at a higher price and the installers they used charged a fee to even show up, did horrid installs (we at Direct did the service calls), and generally left a poor taste in the customers mouths. Dish has lower ratings on service than DirecT. The contracts are a drag as well when you get a bad install or are not happy with the service.

By: SighsofmyLife

SighsofmyLife — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:41:27 +0000

We used to live in Leavenworth, but out in the country, and had to use satellite for service. It sucked! And remember, if you’re not happy with the service, you can’t just cancel it.

For us, it went out with every rain or snow storm. And after paying $300 to get it hooked up, we got orders to move after 5 months. We did NOT want to take it with us and had to pay the early cancellation fee of $600. So even if you don’t like it, you’ll be stuck with it for the 18 months or 2 years or whatever their contract says.

By: jen

jen — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 15:11:58 +0000

Ditto what everyone else has said about Comcast. I used to have Cox and never had a problem. It took 10 days to get the internet working properly with Comcast and their customer service reps all told me different things in those 10 days. I’m not impressed.

By: Venomous Kate

Venomous Kate — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 14:54:10 +0000

Ok, got it: Comcast is out. Since they don’t service our area anyway, that’s an easy call.

We do have Verizon in our area — our phones are with them. I’ll definitely check out FIOS. Thanks!