Dish vs Comcast (not a Dish Network sucks thread; re: rain fade, etc)

[Steve Mehs]

Through the years I’ve had cable, Dish network, DirecTV and now have been back with cable for 5 years and wouldn’t dream of going back to satellite in a million years. Jimdandy has it right, although I do DVR a lot of stuff 20+ shows a week sometimes, there really is no reason to as nearly every show I record is available On Demand less than 24 hours after it originally airs, and most of it is in HD. For example, Friday nights episodes of Blue Bloods and CSI:NY were already available On Demand by the time I woke up yesterday morning. While my ‘crappy cable company’ DVR may not have a pretty UI like satellite does, the thing just works, never missed a recording, which just wasn’t the case when I had Dish Network. Most of what I seen from Dish Networks and DirecTVs new DVRs is just glitz and glam, while my Explorer 8642HDC just keeps chugging along. Whole House DVR has been great with cable, no complaints.

As for the weather issues, I had satellite TV for over 7 years and on sites like this, the weather problems are extremely down played. Which is expected since most here would give up their first born before speaking negatively about their precious satellite TV. When I had Dish Network all CONUS transponders on 110 and 119 were 115+, all spotbeams focused on my location were 125 on clear days. With DirecTV all CONUS transponders on 101, 110 & 119 were 95%+, spotbeams 100%. Signals were excellent all the way around, nothing but RG6 cabling was used. It’s didn’t take ‘severe’ or ‘extremely heavy’ rain to knock out my signal, a moderate storm would do it. My uncle, God bless his soul, still has Dish Network and I was over there the night of the CMA awards a month or two ago. It was on CBS so we were on a spotbeam bird, we had a lite storm, the rain had no problem knocking out that perfect signal. I can count the cable outages in thin air that have occurred since I’ve been back with them that were their fault, exactly zero. In 9 years of having cable broadband, 5 years of having cable TV and 1 year of having cable phone, had two outages that were due to problems on my end, and two broadband only outages that were due to system maintenance the most recent one being the DOCSIS 3 upgrade. A big reason why I started looking back into cable in 2005 and 2006 was at how impressed I was with the reliability of their brandband.

Cost is one factor I don’t really care about, quality and offerings mean more to me then cost. Since Charlie doesn’t care about NY State, I can’t see my Buffalo Sabres or NY Yankees on Dish, so Dish could be free and basic cable could cost $500/month and I would not switch. My sports teams are priceless and take precedence over cost. HD line up is superb here, we have more national HD channels then just about any other provider. Dish Network can keep second rate HD channels like Pixl HD and Shorts HD, I’d rather have my MSG HD, YES HD, ESPN U HD, ESPNEWS HD and so on. Plus while Dish Network wants to appear like they are focused on premium movie channels, they lack some of the Cinemax’s and Showtimes that I have had in HD for quite some time and in SD for years and years.

If you're looking for change and don't want to be held captive by Charlie and his programming disputes that take channels away from you, go ahead give Comcast a try, worst that can happen i you don't like it and cancel.

 

[Santinelli]

I can tell you this, I thought about going back to Comcast, but realized I would be spending 10 dollars less a month on my bill BUT would only get a tiny fraction of channels I get with dish.

If cost is the true question, lower your dish package...

I have Comcast for my Internet (113 a month) and dish is like 130 for the everything package, 1 dvr and 2 211's.

I really wanted to just go back to Comcast..... They just suck in NH.....

 

[3HaloODST]

I can tell you this, I thought about going back to Comcast, but realized I would be spending 10 dollars less a month on my bill BUT would only get a tiny fraction of channels I get with dish.

Same here with Charter. Plus I can't stand how cable still has analog channels in the <100 range. Not to mention the fact that they might be cheaper in the short run, but then again they nickel-and-dime you to death until your rate is outrageous.

 

[Yragha]

Through the years I’ve had cable, Dish network, DirecTV and now have been back with cable for 5 years and wouldn’t dream of going back to satellite in a million years. Jimdandy has it right, although I do DVR a lot of stuff 20+ shows a week sometimes, there really is no reason to as nearly every show I record is available On Demand less than 24 hours after it originally airs, and most of it is in HD. For example, Friday nights episodes of Blue Bloods and CSI:NY were already available On Demand by the time I woke up yesterday morning. While my ‘crappy cable company’ DVR may not have a pretty UI like satellite does, the thing just works, never missed a recording, which just wasn’t the case when I had Dish Network. Most of what I seen from Dish Networks and DirecTVs new DVRs is just glitz and glam, while my Explorer 8642HDC just keeps chugging along. Whole House DVR has been great with cable, no complaints.

As for the weather issues, I had satellite TV for over 7 years and on sites like this, the weather problems are extremely down played. Which is expected since most here would give up their first born before speaking negatively about their precious satellite TV. When I had Dish Network all CONUS transponders on 110 and 119 were 115+, all spotbeams focused on my location were 125 on clear days. With DirecTV all CONUS transponders on 101, 110 & 119 were 95%+, spotbeams 100%. Signals were excellent all the way around, nothing but RG6 cabling was used. It’s didn’t take ‘severe’ or ‘extremely heavy’ rain to knock out my signal, a moderate storm would do it. My uncle, God bless his soul, still has Dish Network and I was over there the night of the CMA awards a month or two ago. It was on CBS so we were on a spotbeam bird, we had a lite storm, the rain had no problem knocking out that perfect signal. I can count the cable outages in thin air that have occurred since I’ve been back with them that were their fault, exactly zero. In 9 years of having cable broadband, 5 years of having cable TV and 1 year of having cable phone, had two outages that were due to problems on my end, and two broadband only outages that were due to system maintenance the most recent one being the DOCSIS 3 upgrade. A big reason why I started looking back into cable in 2005 and 2006 was at how impressed I was with the reliability of their brandband.

Cost is one factor I don’t really care about, quality and offerings mean more to me then cost. Since Charlie doesn’t care about NY State, I can’t see my Buffalo Sabres or NY Yankees on Dish, so Dish could be free and basic cable could cost $500/month and I would not switch. My sports teams are priceless and take precedence over cost. HD line up is superb here, we have more national HD channels then just about any other provider. Dish Network can keep second rate HD channels like Pixl HD and Shorts HD, I’d rather have my MSG HD, YES HD, ESPN U HD, ESPNEWS HD and so on. Plus while Dish Network wants to appear like they are focused on premium movie channels, they lack some of the Cinemax’s and Showtimes that I have had in HD for quite some time and in SD for years and years.

If you're looking for change and don't want to be held captive by Charlie and his programming disputes that take channels away from you, go ahead give Comcast a try, worst that can happen i you don't like it and cancel.

THIS!

I too would love to stay with Dish, but without ESPNU, ABC Family, ESPNNews in HD I just can't see myself staying put. I'm cancelling within the next month and paying the cancellation fee in fact because even with that fee I'm still saving on the promo I will be getting with Comcast and internet combined and after the first year believe it or not I'm still saving a few bucks as compared with Dish and Directv.

Here in Houston, I'll get ESPNU, ABC Family and ESPN News all in glorious HD and tons more on demand. Another reason I decided to switch to Comcast is the $15 discount they give for customers that have more than one of their services.

I love Dish, but ultimately I'm hoping I love Comcast more.

 

[sofakng]

One thing I will mention very briefly is that Comcast's "World of More" areas (like mine) have pretty much an equal number of HD channels compared to Dish.

For example, Dish Network has GSN HD and BBC America HD which Comcast doesn't have in my area. However, they do HSN HD, QVC HD, WE HD, ABC Family HD, Disney XD HD and Disney HD.

My wife LOVES GSN so not having GSN HD is actually making me think twice but at least my area the number of HD channels on Comcast is actually more than Dish.

Quality is my #1 concern though but it's impossible to compare MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 compression. Dish looks softer than Comcast but doesn't have as much digital noise...

 

[mike123abc]

Asking the internet for an opinion on a local cable company will yield mixed results. National cable companies like comcast are really a collection of local cable companies. They might have similar policies, but the channel selection, video quality, and pricing are all local. You will have to compare Dish to what your local comcast branch is offering. You will need to see if they carry the channels you watch, what package they are in, and how much you will have to pay. You also have to consider local discounts and promotions, how long the discounts last, what you need to bundle, etc.

This is why it is hard to say cable company X is good or bad. They are superb in some locations and rotten in others, with a full spectrum in between. If you have friends with it look at their service quality. But, be aware that the quality could be different in your neighborhood. Checking with a close neighbor is probably best.

 

[whatchel1]

Through the years I’ve had cable, Dish network, DirecTV and now have been back with cable for 5 years and wouldn’t dream of going back to satellite in a million years. Jimdandy has it right, although I do DVR a lot of stuff 20+ shows a week sometimes, there really is no reason to as nearly every show I record is available On Demand less than 24 hours after it originally airs, and most of it is in HD. For example, Friday nights episodes of Blue Bloods and CSI:NY were already available On Demand by the time I woke up yesterday morning. While my ‘crappy cable company’ DVR may not have a pretty UI like satellite does, the thing just works, never missed a recording, which just wasn’t the case when I had Dish Network. Most of what I seen from Dish Networks and DirecTVs new DVRs is just glitz and glam, while my Explorer 8642HDC just keeps chugging along. Whole House DVR has been great with cable, no complaints.

As for the weather issues, I had satellite TV for over 7 years and on sites like this, the weather problems are extremely down played. Which is expected since most here would give up their first born before speaking negatively about their precious satellite TV. When I had Dish Network all CONUS transponders on 110 and 119 were 115+, all spotbeams focused on my location were 125 on clear days. With DirecTV all CONUS transponders on 101, 110 & 119 were 95%+, spotbeams 100%. Signals were excellent all the way around, nothing but RG6 cabling was used. It’s didn’t take ‘severe’ or ‘extremely heavy’ rain to knock out my signal, a moderate storm would do it. My uncle, God bless his soul, still has Dish Network and I was over there the night of the CMA awards a month or two ago. It was on CBS so we were on a spotbeam bird, we had a lite storm, the rain had no problem knocking out that perfect signal. I can count the cable outages in thin air that have occurred since I’ve been back with them that were their fault, exactly zero. In 9 years of having cable broadband, 5 years of having cable TV and 1 year of having cable phone, had two outages that were due to problems on my end, and two broadband only outages that were due to system maintenance the most recent one being the DOCSIS 3 upgrade. A big reason why I started looking back into cable in 2005 and 2006 was at how impressed I was with the reliability of their brandband.

Cost is one factor I don’t really care about, quality and offerings mean more to me then cost. Since Charlie doesn’t care about NY State, I can’t see my Buffalo Sabres or NY Yankees on Dish, so Dish could be free and basic cable could cost $500/month and I would not switch. My sports teams are priceless and take precedence over cost. HD line up is superb here, we have more national HD channels then just about any other provider. Dish Network can keep second rate HD channels like Pixl HD and Shorts HD, I’d rather have my MSG HD, YES HD, ESPN U HD, ESPNEWS HD and so on. Plus while Dish Network wants to appear like they are focused on premium movie channels, they lack some of the Cinemax’s and Showtimes that I have had in HD for quite some time and in SD for years and years.

If you're looking for change and don't want to be held captive by Charlie and his programming disputes that take channels away from you, go ahead give Comcast a try, worst that can happen i you don't like it and cancel.

Bull, few here wouldn't admit to rain causing issues. I rarely have them as I have non-standard setup. I have 3 dishes. 2 are .9m (36") on the main 2 sats for me: 61.5/72.7. The 3rd .84m(29"in center section of the elliptical dish) is on 77 which really has almost nothing for me ( a little bit tied to the Latino pack I have-but don't watch) and locals that aren't my area. Cable here has HD but it makes E* picture shine in comparison. I don't see how those that pay for it can call what they get as HD. So cable is a crap shoot PQ wise depending on the cable company in the area. I don't dislike that you have made the best choice for yourself but you have to realize it isn't the same across the the country. So it isn't the best choice for others. I had suckenlink cable for net for a good while here but dropped them after they start screwing me over on the fact that I use the net ALL the time for things. Yes proud to be a geek. They even claimed I had been turned in for some illegal dnld but then couldn't prove it. So dropped them and went to AT&T DSL (not crazy about them but have had not S from them yet). So far I haven't even gone over the dnld cap. Oh BTW I don't believe that you would be willing to pay $500 for basic cable. If you would you are one of the few that would.

 

[Steve Mehs]

Most people here are too biased to speak reality. Yep people will admit to rain fade, but in near hurricane situations or some other extreme, when it's far more susceptible then that. Having larger dishes is an exception rather than the rule. In my time there was no 77 or 129 location. I had a Dish 500 looking at 110 and 119 and a Dish 300 at 61.5. When there was anything more than a drizzle or there’d be issues. Same went for DirecTV.

As for the last comment. From when training camp starts in mid September until the season is over, I live for one thing, Buffalo Sabres hockey. I have thousands of dollars invested in merchandise and apparel, what makes you think I wouldn’t spend a few hundred bucks a month to watch my team? I paid over $500 for a pair of playoff tickets last year, over $300 for a pair of season openers two years ago. Sabres hockey means the world to me, and I can't put a price tag on it. MSG HD means more to me than any other channel in the lineup and I will pay a considerable amount to have access to that channel and Dish Network does not have it so there is nothing they could do for me. My cable bill is probably the highest anyone has ever seen, not quite $500, but its up there, but that’s due to all the extras I have, so I’m no stranger to higher cable bills.

 

[MikeD-C05]

DISH has always been more reliable than cable in my experience here in southeast Texas. We have had three hurricance since 2005 hit our area and two of them were cat 3s that knocked out cable for a month or more. My sister went 5 weeks before she got cable back in 2005 after Rita. I had satellite as soon as the lights came back and I put my dish back on the pole and hooked it back up. Regular rains don't even cause me rain fade and I do a lot of recording on my ota tuners in my 722k for local news and weather , so I don't ever lose those even in heavy down pours. I had digital cable back in 2002 for about one month to try the new digital service( Kept DISH too) and it pixelated on just about every channel and froze up , more than I have ever suffered with satellite. Cable is STILL higher than DISH.

I had a call from Time Warner this week asking me if I wanted to bundle my Road runner internet with digital cable . I told him NO I had DISH for over 14 years and wouldn't consider switching. He asked if I was under commitment and I said No, I just won't switch. Then he asked about digital phone service and I said NO thanks , I have Vonage. He asked how that service worked . I said unlimited calls anywhere in the U.S. and Mexico or Canada fpr a fixed monthly price. Same bill every month & no unexpected charges and it is CHEAPER than TWC phone service. He said: Okay if you ever want to bundle call us. I said thanks and hung up. I haven't had cable in my house for more than a month, for the last 16 years. I had Prime star back in 95 and went with DISH in 97 . Unless Cable can beat DISH in monthly price ( NO WAY)and number of HD channels ( they can't compete), and have better dvrs ( They don't), I won't be switching from satellite.

 

[Bob Haller]

As most of you know I dumped E over the fees, and have been very happy with comcast, and my lifetime TIVO. My roomate likes the on demand stuff which I rarely use. My TIVO gets lots of use

Today my cost for comcast triple play is about what I was paying E for tv. I hung a fax on the phone line for my business it rings all day with people trying to sell stuff.

the internet part is great, and tv works fine. as far as I know I havent had a outage at all

Sat tv will always rainfade during storms so bad if you were driving you would pull over, and no snow clearance from my dishes either

I want to thank charlie he made cable better so I could return to it and save money too....

I may buy another TIVO in the future, and am kinda glad E raised the fees, since that made me go shopping.

bundling is the way to save big bucks and fewer bills to pay too

 

[3HaloODST]

Quality is my #1 concern though but it's impossible to compare MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 compression. Dish looks softer than Comcast but doesn't have as much digital noise...

Basically the H.264 standard that DISH uses is roughly twice as efficient as MPEG-2. So, take whatever bitrate comcast uses and divide by 2, and you have what would be the H.264 equivalent. Or multiply the H.264 by 2 to have the MPEG-2 equivalent.

Most people here are too biased to speak reality. Yep people will admit to rain fade, but in near hurricane situations or some other extreme, when it's far more susceptible then that. Having larger dishes is an exception rather than the rule. In my time there was no 77 or 129 location. I had a Dish 500 looking at 110 and 119 and a Dish 300 at 61.5. When there was anything more than a drizzle or there’d be issues. Same went for DirecTV.

Listen. Just because you had a crappy setup years ago, doesn't mean that those of us with proper setups are "lying" or "biased."

I don't care what you say but I use DISH everyday and it is in fact more reliable than my local cable company (Charter) was when I had it.

The cable would go out just because it was sprinkling (something would blow up down the street,) and took them hours to fix. Whereas with DISH, it usually takes storms that you should either a.) Unplug your TV during because of lightning or b.) You should be in the basement instead of watching TV. Even then it's 15 minutes tops of interruption. The typical interruption for heavy t'storms is around 5 minutes. I can count on one hand how many interruptions I have had each year.

 

[Steve Mehs]

The I guess 115+ on Dissh Network and 95%+ on DirecTV is crappy then?

 

[3HaloODST]

The I guess 115+ on Dissh Network and 95%+ on DirecTV is crappy then?

Perhaps you are the one who is lying and biased then?

 

[Steve Mehs]

What do I have to gain by that? Despite what you guys chose to post here, you know the truth about rain fade. No reason for me to prove anything. Why should I believe you that your cable would go out when it rains? I put up with satellite TV for 7 years, I think I know it’s limitations in different types of weather.

 

[3HaloODST]

I honestly don't care what you believe. All I know is what I see. People on here aren't biased when they talk about rain fade, as practically everyone I see says the same thing as I observe. You seem to be one of the few exceptions to this rule, and *gasp* you're a cable fanboy. How surprising...


EDIT: Also:

http://www.myservicestar.com/myservicestar/White Papers/tct_whitepapers/spacenet/rainfade.pdf

Section 1:

Don’t expect to lose your satellite signal every time it rains, though. Rain outage
will only occur during the heaviest rains (convective and stratiform are the most predominant types) with
only a small portion of the transmission path experiencing attenuation. In fact, of a typical satellite
transmission path measuring 22,300 miles, less than .02% will be affected by rain fade.

Level 421: C-Band vs KU-Band

The myth:

At the inception of satellite communications in Africa, C-band was the only option. It has been the long held belief that Ku-band could not be deployed in Africa due to the torrential rains associated with the continent. However, with the technology progress in the satellite industry (invention of ACM gain controlled systems), and the fortune that more powerful satellites now exist. This thereby eliminates the impact of heavy showers. Its all a matter of correct design and proper equipment to make Ku band same stable than C Band to rain factor influence.

This allows Level421 to offer up-time guarantees ranging from 99.70% - 99.95% using the Ku-band frequencies. Same we do guaranty for C-Band frequencies.

 

[David Taylor]

why don't u just switch!!

Geeze. Why do some people get instantly obnoxious when you point out the truth? Responses like this don't exactly make this a friendly forum.

Must have a vested interest.

 

[Tampa8]

Saying something over and over doesn't make it true. It is a plain fact, depending on where you are in the US, rain fade is very very rare, or only during heavy rain like Florida can get. Also the WA is even less susceptible than the EA. Obviously you have to have the correct set-up. As others have mentioned, and as I have posted at various times I lose a signal from Dish much less than Cable loses a signal in Eastern Ct.

 

[gwdave]

I will just throw my 2c's in here. I switched from COX Cable to Dish last Aug...... My reasons for switching was because of cost, they kept going up every couple of months, with nothing added for benefit. When I switched I went from the bundle "$179.00" per month to $59 for AT&T for phone, and computer. Then dish with top 200 package, other than going out a couple of times due to rain, and once for an hour for snow during the winter the system has been great..... When I called COX to ask for a lower rate as I am on a fixed income they told me that there was nothing they could do. Once I switched I have gotten a few calls wanting me to come back with the bundle for $99.00, now why couldn't they have done that before I got locked in to DISH..... I told them that I was not interested..... Had a guy stopping at all the houses with a dish on the roof, "now a lot" wanting people to come back. I told them that I might consider if I could get the TV package at a camp site while camping......... He said he couldn't do that, I told him I could, and have with Dish, I told him I could get all with the exception of locals....... He didn't have an answer for me... For my money, the times it goes bad for a few minutes is well made up for with the benefits, and the major me being able to take a box with me to a camp ground that only gets 2 channels OTA, and both being in Spanish which I don't speak even a little bit................ I do agree with a comment that was made, switch if you want to, with no contract you can always switch back if you find you don't like it............

 

[Roxor]

I've been with Dish Network for over five years and I'm thinking of switching to Comcast (due to price and possible quality), but I have some questions.

1) Is there anything that can be done to help rain fade? When it rains in my area it's awful to lose satellite signal and is a big disadvantage over cable.

2) Comcast uses MPEG-2 and Dish uses MPEG-4 so it's impossible to compare bitrates, etc. Comcast HD does have about 2x to 3x the bitrate but it's MPEG-2 and has a lot digital noise. Comcast SD looks a bit worse than Dish SD though. Is there any way to compare these other than "just look at them" ?

3) Comcast has the advantage of CableCARD so I can use a TiVo, Moxi DVR, Windows Media Center, etc. Dish locks you into their DVRs.

4) Can't transfer content off DVR. With Comcast and CableCARD, almost every channel is marked "copy freely" so I can archive it to my NAS, watch it on my PC, etc. Dish has Sling but it's definitely not the same thing and doesn't work very well in my opinion.

Is there anything else I should know about Dish vs Comcast?

I do NOT want a "Dish sucks" or "Comcast sucks" thread but I want honest opinions so I can make a decision that's best for me.

As far as price, Comcast is $39.99 for the first year with equivalent channels to Dish's America Top 250 + HD Platinum ($69.99 + $10.00 = $79.99) so that's half the price. The second year is $59.99 which makes it closer and the third year is $79.99 so it's equal at that point.

However, there is still the equipment rental which can be free (with CableCARD) where-as Dish charges $17.00/month for an HD DVR.

Anyways... any opinions would be greatly appreciated. I'd love to have more information on MPEG quality and transferring programs off the DVR to watch on a PC, etc.

Both Dish and Direct intimate you will have a signal over 99.9% of the time. What they don't tell you is that 0.1% = 8.76 hours a year you might not have a signal due to rain and snow!!! In reality though you probably will miss a couple hours of TV while you are actually watching.

 

[AntiMoz]

Sreve Mehs said:

As for the last comment. From when training camp starts in mid September until the season is over, I live for one thing, Buffalo Sabres hockey. I have thousands of dollars invested in merchandise and apparel, what makes you think I wouldn&rsquo;t spend a few hundred bucks a month to watch my team? I paid over $500 for a pair of playoff tickets last year, over $300 for a pair of season openers two years ago. Sabres hockey means the world to me, and I can't put a price tag on it.

Dear Steve,

At those prices paid for Sabres tickets call me anytime! Ill be more than happy to sell you mine.