Folks are dropping D*

[Barney]

I know 4 long term friends dropping D* for "cough-cough" cable. Knowing the new satellite is Ka-band & is useless to us D* customers until we get new LNB's, DISH's.....and will be MPEG 4 ........need new STB's....
I've already dropped HBO & Cinemax ($23 a month) & my city is #52 or #54 (need to recheck the list)....I'm considering dropping more....I'm just about tired of waiting........I can get all locals by OTA except FOX (which they plan on going full power in July)......I want more HD..but the new satellite will only give my local HD programing..and when will that happen, 2007?...and charge me for it?????? Sorry.
I'm starting to wonder.....2007 & will get my locals HD (which I get now by OTA).........thinking about filling in some holes in my roof.....maybe by 2007..fiber optics by SBC......anyone else starting to wonder...?

Barney

 

[charper1]

Nope, I can't be a fair weather subscriber. Once I add up all the times cable screwed me and add up the rental fees for what they call "needed" equipment, they still fall behind in my book.

Plus, isn't that DirecTV-8 satellite thats going up in 32 days, a Ku bird? That should have a lot of national additions to add even more on top of any cable offerings.

 

[dfergie]

I have had an aversion to cable since I Had my BUD distants active... had a rural cable company that was swallowed up by the local... pq sucks on the "digital"cable locally... if you think your locals on D* or E* have bad pq... I actually upgraded my D* to hd a couple of weeks ago...D* sub since 96 or 97 and E* sub since 98 or so...

 

[Barney]

Nope, I can't be a fair weather subscriber. Once I add up all the times cable screwed me and add up the rental fees for what they call "needed" equipment, they still fall behind in my book.

Plus, isn't that DirecTV-8 satellite thats going up in 32 days, a Ku bird? That should have a lot of national additions to add even more on top of any cable offerings.

Thank you charter1...I'm in no way going back to Time Warner....but is the D*8 Ku-band?
Now that Monday Night Football is going to be broadcast by..cough-cough ESPN.......remember the Olympics?.............going to have to have a provider....I'm not sure how I feel right now...no way will I go back to cable...but a year & half before anything happens?

Side note.......I can't wait for a HD-DVR.........when its time for my area to upgrade.....guys, some news would be great....I'm an old fart....retire in 3 to 5 years.....
Just hungry for something......

When does College football season start?.........too long

 

[rad]

I'm going to give our local Comcast another shot, have a 6412 coming next Wednesday with install. I got tired of seeing other regional sports HD programming popping up on the 90's that I can't get (even when one of our teams is playing) and no word about D* carrying the local CSN HD channel when they start LIL-HD in Chicago area. There's also the Magic 8 Ball over on AVS saying that Comcast is VERY close to adding TNT-HD and a bit later UHD. That, plus getting Cinemax-HD and Starz-HD it's worth a shot. If I like I'll be downgrading my D* programming and give them a few months to do something.

However I'm worried that they won't since even their press release says that Spaceway 1 and 2 are for LIL HD and DirecTV 10 and 11 will be where the national HD channels come in and that's just too far out.

 

[charper1]

but is the D*8 Ku-band?

Spaceway 1 (4.26.05) & Spaceway 2 (Spring 05) are both Ka and DirecTV 8 (5.21.05) is 16 Ku transponders, DirecTV 9s (Summer 05) is 54 Ku transponders, DirecTV 10 & DirecTV 11 TBA (Spring 07).

I think they should have both cable and Dishnetwork beat down by this summer.

 

[slacker9876]

I feel your pain Barney. I was caught up about 6-8 months ago. I called Comcast and had then out. I could only deal with cable for about 2 hours ... I pulled the plug.

No TiVo
Limited Digital Channels
No High Definition
etc

unless you live somewhere where cable is the bomb ... you'll be sorry. All the time I have spent on here it seems to be that brighthouse is the only cable co people are happy with,

 

[Curtis0620]

Directv is a Ku/Ka Hybrid satellite.

 

[charper1]

Which one are you referring to?

 

[Neutron]

My wife and I are currently staying at her parents, who have "digital" cable. We will have our Directv system back in August when we get our own place again. I have Cox's DVR/HD box. I don't like the DVR because when you tell it to record first run and repeats, unlike the DTivo box it will record something it already recorded, yet if I set it to first run only, it won't record any of my shows that are in syndication.

This small town we live in (not Tyler, I work there) doesn't have HD available on cable yet. I really miss both my HD box and DTivo. I can't wait to have them back.

 

[Curtis0620]

Which one are you referring to?

sorry, Directv8

 

[charper1]

Where did you see that? Both www.satlex.de/en/2005.html AND www.lyngsat.com/launches/ list DirecTV 8 as having only 16 Ku transponders.

 

[jekyll]

Due to Voom I am looking for a HD provider. Time Warner is offering a great deal. $48 for 2 HD boxes HBO and Showtime for one year. What do you guys think about this deal?
I want to stay with Satellite service but it looks like too many changes are coming up. I might have to spend too much money to get satellite right now.

 

[charper1]

Get the HD promo now and get in line for the swap out. Why mess with cable now then switch back to satellite again later when there MIGHT be no promos during the conversion.

 

[Curtis0620]

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=40998

 

[Neutron]

Get the HD promo now and get in line for the swap out. Why mess with cable now then switch back to satellite again later when there MIGHT be no promos during the conversion.

For me all I will do is drop down to the smallest TC package and the HD pak to keep our account active since we're under a contract.

 

[charper1]

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=40998

These other guys need to get on the ball and update thier info then.

 

[Curtis0620]

They had Spaceway 1 going to 101 for the longest time. It's actually going to 102.8 (103).

 

[EEJay]

I dropped the HD package a few weeks ago and don't miss it a bit. I only realize now that I should have done it months ago. Talk about VOOM programming being repetitive, DirectumV's HD package is just as bad. Not to mention the picture quality was barely more exciting than a DVD.

Then I dropped my local channels last week. I get all the DC & Baltimore digital channels I care for (and a much better picture, even on the analog DC UPN), via OTA.

I'll never go back to cable, but if there was some type of fiber network for video like SBC, I'd sign up today. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in the Verizon market. I'll add the HD package back when they start upgrading everyone. And if the MPEG4 picture isn't any better, I'll drop it then too.

 

[betsy c]

Get the HD promo now and get in line for the swap out. Why mess with cable now then switch back to satellite again later when there MIGHT be no promos during the conversion.

Hi,
We are switching to cable in the next month, I'm just now researching HD satellite options. We're building a home theater w/ a HD capable projector, we want a HD receiver & a SD receiver & OTA capabilities.

What promo are you referring to? As I hunt around some more I'll probably find it, but if you would kindly point it to me I'd appreciate it!

Thanks,
Betsy