Dish Network or Comcast

[Greg]

I'm currently a Dish Network customer located in Wilmington, DE with 4 year old Legacy equipment. Starting to have equipment problems including a bad LNB. Local Dish retailer advises this is old equipment and should be upgraded but Dish is offering a very limited upgrade promotion. Checked with Comcast who is offering a very good non-binding promotion that includes Digital Plus with HBO in high definition for $39.95/month for 12 months. Also like the fact that Comcast offers locals in HD without hassle of OTA antenna.

How does Comcast picture quality, particularly in high definition, compare to Dish?

 

[NightRyder]

Welcome to Satellite Guys Greg.

Cable reception will vary by system and how far away you are from the head-end. Best bet is to check with a few of your neighbors who have cable and see for yourself.


NightRyder

 

[Hefe]

I just made the switch from Dish to Comcast and for the most part I'm very satisfied. the PQ in HD is just as good - the analog channels suck on the HD set - but I try and only watch HD on the HD set. And I can get analog cable everywhere else in the house w/out boxes.

The 2 tuner HD DVR box that Comcast rents made the decision for me. Since I'd have to shell out 550 for the 921 that doesn't seem to work right. Plus they have the season pass already working. The only drawback is that I'm in Baltimore, so Comcast has no FOX HD, and with the OTA I got both Baltimore and DC locals.

There are pros and cons - but Comcast has the dish buyback program where the knock like $50/mo off your bill for the 1st year.

 

[Mike Greer]

Where are you? Someone from your Comcast market will have to answer for your situation.

In Salt Lake the HD picture quality is as good as it gets - Comcast in Salt Lake passes the MPEG video unmolested. Dish Network and DirecTV have been lowering the PQ to make room for more light-weight HDLite HDTV. Not all the HD on DirecTV and Dish Network is watered down but a lot of it is.

The SD picture quality is probably a little lower on Comcast Salt Lake than DirecTV and Dish Network but SD already so bad (over-compressed) that it likely won't make much difference.

 

[AcuraCL]

I switched from Comcast to Dish in '96, primarily due to customer service and pic. quality issues. I'd jam a tire iron through my head before I'd deal with Comcast again.

 

[rad]

The best thing to do it go just go ahead and give Comcast a shot, but DON'T cancel E* until you've had a chance to evaluate it. Everyones cable systems quality is different and even different parts of town or neighborhoods on the same system can be different.

I gave our Comcast system a shot last month for a few days, I was looking to see if their internet was stable enough to drop my POTS/DSL service for my Vonage connection. I also gave their 6412 dual tuner PVR a try, it's not a HR10-250 but for $10/month it's not bad.

Bottom line was for the five days I had service the internet was down for two of them. Their analog channels were fairly good, except for low band VHF (2-6). The SD digital channels looked like DBS, over compressed but HD looked great. The VOD features that they've added, when they worked were a nice add on feature. But when I tried to get the HBO VOD to work I was told some days it works, some days it doesn't, that was their answer.

 

[earth station]

I'd do a DISH n' it up direct lease to upgrade your receivers and any switches/LNB swaps as needed are included.

Besides you get $$$ for turning in your old boxes.