Considering the move from Dish Network to Cable...

[belsokar]

I hate to be one of those guys posting this...but I have become increasingly frustrated by dish network...I have been a customer for about 6 years...when I left cable, I swore never to go back, but alas, Adelphia in my area (southern calif.) has made huge strides...

after playing with my mother-in-laws new high def/dual tuner dvr, i was very impressed with its functionality, graphics, speed, and overall quality...there were a few things missing but nothing major...

On top of this, adelphia in my area offers nearly all the networks in HD, plus espnhd,hbohd and showtimehd (movie channels not that big a deal to me, but nice bonus)

and finally, they are now offering a $400 contract buyout option to switch from (specifically) dish network to cable...I was considering waiting until my contract was up in december...but now I may not even have to do that...

While I have been generally happy in the past with satellite,...they seem to have really dropped the ball recently...and I'm just wondering if its worth waiting or just making the switch? Does Dish have anything in the works worth waiting for? At this point, I need an affordable dual tuner high def dvr and all the networks...I know directv has most of the networks now, is it safe to assume that dish will have something soon?

Anyways, any input is much appreciated...

 

[Mr Tony]

couple things to note
-the $400 buyback is over 16 months (at $25 a piece)
-Did they tell you what the rate will be?
-You wont get HBO HD or Showtime HD unless you get the SD channels

just a thought

 

[GaryPen]

Your MIL's cable box wouldn't happen to say "Digeo" or "Moxi" on it? Does the menu look something like this?

 

[Fgsilva]

Your MIL's cable box wouldn't happen to say "Digeo" or "Moxi" on it? Does the menu look something like this?

Wow! Nice screen shot. where is it from??

 

[Fgsilva]

I hate to be one of those guys posting this...but I have become increasingly frustrated by dish network...I have been a customer for about 6 years...when I left cable, I swore never to go back, but alas, Adelphia in my area (southern calif.) has made huge strides...

after playing with my mother-in-laws new high def/dual tuner dvr, i was very impressed with its functionality, graphics, speed, and overall quality...there were a few things missing but nothing major...

On top of this, adelphia in my area offers nearly all the networks in HD, plus espnhd,hbohd and showtimehd (movie channels not that big a deal to me, but nice bonus)

and finally, they are now offering a $400 contract buyout option to switch from (specifically) dish network to cable...I was considering waiting until my contract was up in december...but now I may not even have to do that...

While I have been generally happy in the past with satellite,...they seem to have really dropped the ball recently...and I'm just wondering if its worth waiting or just making the switch? Does Dish have anything in the works worth waiting for? At this point, I need an affordable dual tuner high def dvr and all the networks...I know directv has most of the networks now, is it safe to assume that dish will have something soon?

Anyways, any input is much appreciated...

From the HD point of view and the LOUSY costumer service from Dish (and their second party installers!) I'd do the switch! Now, in terms of picture quality I'd stay with dish. Not sure if that happened to other people but, when I had comcast, for my non HD channels (mostly local channels) the pic was awfull, very green!! I can't do the switch right now cause I'm 1000 feeet from the cable company last post on my street. So, if I want it I'd have to pay $13/foot. Can you say :I DON"T THINK SO????

 

[OdiOdin]

That is how capitalism works. You apparently have a pretty good cable company. Switch, make sure to email ceo@echostar.com too. Tell them about the crappy service and poor HD.

I'm stuck waiting for Dish to get more HD or my cable company to join this century.

 

[GaryPen]

Wow! Nice screen shot. where is it from??

It's from the Digeo Moxi website. They make a very cool HD DVR for various cable companies, sometimes co-branded by Motorola.

Ironically, Echostar was an early investor. In a brilliant move reminiscent of the record exec that turned down the Beatles, Charlie passed on the Moxi, and went with Eldon for the 921. I guess the Moxi wasn't compelling enough!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The MOXI software was actually built off of early 721 code.

In fact if you get a USB Ethernet adaptor and connect it to the 721 if you look at some of the html files on the drive you can see some of the menus and screens they were working on but never made it in. (And you will also see that the 721 team seemed to be fans of the Scilence of the Lambs series)

 

[Sky King49]

I live in Ct. and switched from Adelphia to Dish and I have never looked back. I also use to have cable internet access with Adelphia and it was awful. Lately I have received many offers to switch back but none of the offers were as good as the one mentioned here. One of my main reasons for switching was price too...over 65.00 for cable and 44.95 for 180 channels with Dish. With SBC I get Dish...Cell Phone...all their phone services plus DSL for around 150.00 per month with their "bundled" deal.

 

[belsokar]

I talked to adelphia...the $400 refund is over 15 months, so about $27/month...my overall costs would definitely be cheaper than dish network, and thats getting 2 dvr's...

the dvr's are the moxi,...very nice interface,...only 80gb harddrive however...but they do have usb2.0 for external storage expansion...with a product "hopefully" coming out early 2005...but they can record HD now, and for only $12.95 month,...plus I can get all my locals, dual tuner recording, name based recording...

the negatives, I know the quality of my picture on standard, non hidef, non digital channels will be much worse than satellite, so I do have to learn to live with that...

 

[Neutron]

Have you thought about switching to Directv? They will have an impressive HD lineup soon.

 

[rad]

A big problem when asking questions like this is everyones cable system is different. A COX system in city A may be great while a COX system in city B sucks the big one. The price in city A may be $70 while for the same exact service in city B it might be $95. So unless your on the same cable system as the person asking the question all other responses about cable service are worthless.

 

[belsokar]

I have considered the switch to Directv,...in fact, i'm hoping that between now and next summer, I'll save a bit on television costs, get my high def fix, and hopefully by next summer I can either afford a hd-tivo, or lease one by that point...

for now however, I can save about $60/month to get ALL my local high def channels, 2 dual tuner dvr's in my home, high speed internet (as long as it is no slower than my dsl I'll be happy)...plus I should be able to sell my 501 and 510 pvr's on ebay and make a little money back on those...

Over the next 10 months, thats a $600 savings and really most of my tv viewing is done on the networks anyways, so I shouldn't have to watch too much analog...

I hate cable, and I left cable 6 years ago because their quality was so horrible...but this is what competition is all about...right now, they can offer a decent package, with no monthly contract or charges for installation or cancellation...of course I'll evaluate cable for a couple days before cancelling dish just to make sure i'm happy with it...and maybe next summer when things start getting interesting over at directv I'll make that switch...I have always wanted to get nfl ticket, and by next year, probably every game will be in HD!

 

[GaryPen]

The MOXI software was actually built off of early 721 code.

In fact if you get a USB Ethernet adaptor and connect it to the 721 if you look at some of the html files on the drive you can see some of the menus and screens they were working on but never made it in. (And you will also see that the 721 team seemed to be fans of the Scilence of the Lambs series)

That's very interesting. Maybe I will. I'm curious. Will a USB wireless adapter work there?

OTOH, why is there a bunch of leftover garbage on the hdd?