It's Official, I Am Dumping Dish

[korsjs]

just want to clarify one thing before i go to bed. the analog channels running through the digital box look just as good as dish networks channels. the feed that goes straight into the tv is the one that looks subpar.

overall, i am still very happy.

i have a couple a recordings that are scheduled for the same time in the middle of the night. i want to see how things go. will let you guys know in the morning if everything recorded.

 

[korsjs]

the three days i have had the 8300 have been great. i have not had to reboot once. all timers went of and didn't miss anything.

i wish dish would outsource their receivers to other companies. scientific atlanitc did a great job on the 8300. the name based recording is excellent. it has two hd outputs that can out put at the same time. (one hdmi and one component). it has firewire ports and usb. only one wire needs to go to the box. i guess the splitters are built inside.

hopefully when i switch to direct tv later this year, they will have a box similar to the 8300.

 

[wmhjr]

Not your cable co, but

I've now had both (Adelphia and Dish in my case) for about a week. Very similar reports. Most of the analogs look pretty much as good as Dish - just a little lower quality. HD PQ and sound are identical on either system. Also don't really like the remote. But, the system has performed exactly as designed - with all my locals in HD except for Fox. That's why Dish is getting the boot from me.

 

[bw820]

I contracted for several cable companies and am now currently doing satellite installs, both DTV and Dish. There is good and bad with both cable and satellite. I guess that it depends on the indvidual and what they want with their TV's. The one thing that I did like about working for cable is that customers were never charged for service calls. I hate it when I have to go out on a service call for Dish or DTV. If the customer is not under a maintence warranty then they are going to be charged for my visit. I do have to say though, that satellite HD is much better than Cable. At least in my area. And if the install is done properly and all new wire is ran, good compression fittings used, good line of site with optimal signal strength, and customer education given that a Satellite customer shouldn't have any problems. Compare this to when cable goes out. A whole entire node may be down that takes days to fix. I definitly ran more service calls working cable than satellite. A satellite problem is simply going to be between the customers equipment and their TVs where as a cable customer's problem may be a dog three blocks away dug up the burried feeder and chewed a hole in it.
I personally have cable. My cable company offers telephone, internet, and digital cable for $110 a month. I also have 6 tv's and there is noway my kids can share a line. Now if I ever get a nice HD tv, I may get a satellite with an 811 or whatever they have out at that time. I just thought that I would share that with you

 

[wmhjr]

Well, you seem to be an anomoly

My feedback is very similar to the others here. First of all, I've had basic cable and internet the entire time I've had Dish. I've had no cable outages in the past three years. I've had Dish outages - but, they have been few and short.

The cable hardware works first time, everytime, no reboots, no muss, no fuss. Some of the features aren't as "convenient" (though some are more convenient). Storage is a bit less than on my dish dvr's - BUT - the SA8300HD has SATA ports so there is expansion capability that doesn't exist with dish.

Support has been far better with cable than with Dish. I had another episode with Dish yesterday that got me fired up again. Every darn time I talk to them I get a different story. Their service is horrible. I also have to admit that this is my own experience, and that other cable companies or regions may have completely different results. But, I can't fathom worse service than I've been getting from Dish.

Analog channels through the SA8300HD look better than their respective channels through Dish when viewed on my HD set. They look "slightly" worse when viewed on my non-HD sets. HD always looks better through the cable SA8300HD. However, there is some pixilation that happens from time to time.

 

[dispatcher_21]

I will be ditching E* in April and I cant wait. Here in Walla Walla, WA, Charter has HDNet,HDNet Movies, ESPNHD, Discovery HD, HBOHD, ShowtimeHD, CinemaxHD,StarzHD and as soon as the locals go live, locals in HD. And while I was in the local office, the pq just flat out amazed me. I was watching Anaconda! on DiscoveryHD and it made me feel like my DiscoveryHD on E* was crap. I kid you not, the picture looked 100% better! Not only that but they have the Moxi DVR that is very impressive. It can record SD and HD and very user friendly. Not only that but because I am switching from Dish, they will credit my account $25.00 a month for year. So I get thier top digital package with all the movie channels, all the HD channels and the DVR for $53.98 a month +taxes. Oh, yeah, I cant wait!!!

 

[jtravel]

I had Comcast Digital Cable befor I switched to Dish and it had really bad PQ.
The service call was free but they didn't do anything to improve the PQ
Told me they were working on improving the area but I had heard that story a year befor.
I called to get the DVR they offered and they wanted a extra $9.95 per month for that. It ws going to run me $65 per month for Digital plus and DVR with no HD and no Premium channels.
Comcast is my only available option for cable and Im glad I dumped them and went with Dish even with the few problems im having with the DVR-522
D*will be my next move if E* does not workout.

 

[korsjs]

so far i am please with brighthouse cable. i love the HD DVR.

 

[keno]

the three days i have had the 8300 have been great. i have not had to reboot once. all timers went of and didn't miss anything.

i wish dish would outsource their receivers to other companies. scientific atlanitc did a great job on the 8300. the name based recording is excellent. it has two hd outputs that can out put at the same time. (one hdmi and one component). it has firewire ports and usb. only one wire needs to go to the box. i guess the splitters are built inside.

hopefully when i switch to direct tv later this year, they will have a box similar to the 8300.

My experience has been very similar to yours. I dropped Dish a few weeks ago. But before that I was running three inputs: Cable, Dish, and Voom. The picture quality (both HD and standard) is no different on Dish versus Cable (I have a 9+ foot screen and I could definitely see a difference if there was one). There are a few more HD channels on Cable versus Dish, plus all the locals are in HD (NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, etc.). Then, the functions of the HD DVR provided by the cable company is fantastic. I like it better than the Tivo in my bedroom.

Next week, I'll probably have only one source: Cable. Since Voom will probably disappear soon, I am still very happy with the decision to drop Dish. Like you, I will look at DirecTV later this year.

 

[jagouar]

you actually want to own? man Im the complete opposite.... id much rather lease than own sat equipment.

1. your forced to be with a provider (i switch providers too much)
2. breaks your screwed if not under warranty (lease no problem switch it out)
3. free upgrades (a new dvr comes out great let me have it)... think how all those HD-tivo owners will feel when the Whole House Solution comes out. Yeah they can fleabay it (provided mpeg4 doesnt screw things up) but your out alot of $ to upgrade... but if you lease no problem.

I hate biying anything tech related when I can lease, theres always something better coming out.

 

[dispatcher_21]

Though I must admit, I probably will keep just the HDpack with my 811 when i switch until Charter gets TNTHD, same thing if E* some how gets UHD by then.