What's YOUR tipping point?

[trumpit]

Tipping point will be removal of EST/CST Big 4 Network HD Locals from CONUS 129. I.e., no more "moving".

Alternative will be Canadian Star Choice, with Buffalo & Seattle HD locals. Would be there now, but their DVR is no 722.

 

[zim2dive]

Move to Durham, it is coming SOON! :haha

Ted

think we can get it to my house in Cary with a few hundred feet of speaker wire??

... might as well be living 2000 miles from you instead of 20 for the odds that it will cross the Verizon/Bellsouth boundary

 

[HobbyTalk]

They want to charge me to install a 2nd dish to get the soon to come HD LiL channels. Might as well apply those costs to switching. Yeah, It'll cost me $120 to break the contract but the D* discounts will offset that.

 

[chrisb83]

Never mind the speculation on what Dish will or won't do in regards to more HD content. I am curious what it will take for individuals on this forum to defect from Charlie's ranks.

Yes, I'm a Sci-Fi fan and would like to see BSG in HD. Also Stargate Altantis. But I also see more and more of my hard-earned cash paying for TV and am starting to wonder if it's worth it. With Dish I also have two premium packages (Starz and Cinemax) and only ONE channel in each group is HD. Scanning through the SD channels the other day, I had almost forgotten about how many channels these packages have beyond the main east coast feed.

And it's not that I am willing to consider Direct. Rather, I'm entertaining the notion of giving up pay TV and just going with OTA for a while. The warmer months are coming and perhaps it's time to re-acquaint myself with the great outdoors. Not to mention I am sick of saturation advertising on all but the pay channels and a few others.

So what's YOUR tipping point to leave Dish? I've been with them a long time, nearly ten years now. It would be hard to leave, but I'd probably get over it...

sigmtr

No MLB EI. No Comcast Sports HD Bay Area. I'm sick and tired of E* saying there the HD leaders. Way behind on HD channels. My local cable offers more than E*. Sick of hearing of all the lawsuits. Seems like ever month somebody's suing E*. Tired if Charlie telling me what he thinks is better. Tired if E* saying that "where better than tivo". Sorry about the rant but I have been a customer for over 10 years. Things have been up and down but as of today E* is behind the eight ball. Ohh.. Tired of E* and the word Soon.

 

[Thwockage]

I'm furious about the Sci-Fi situation, but I am hoping that if all else fails, Season 4 of BSG will air delayed on Universal HD like season 3 did last year (yes, I waited, spoiler free, until I could watch BSG in HD). So, I can live with that situation, grudgingly.

I have three 622s w/external drives hooked to each and a lot of recorded content - not in any hurry to lose all of that - plus I really like the 622 capabilities. Have had Dish for over 10 years and am generally happy with their service, plus I get my locals OTA.

My tipping point, however, will be if Dish fails to deliver Cartoon Network HD in time for the premiere of The Clone Wars in the fall. It would be bad enough to hold out for BSG on Universal HD, but I am not waiting for TCW replays to start airing on TNT HD unless that happens very quickly.

 

[Islandguy43]

Tipping point will be removal of EST/CST Big 4 Network HD Locals from CONUS 129. I.e., no more "moving".

Alternative will be Canadian Star Choice, with Buffalo & Seattle HD locals. Would be there now, but their DVR is no 722.

You know, don't you love Dish I might have to sub to Star Choice inorder to get my Buffalo HDs!!! Naa, I will just move over to D*

 

[dmendenjr]

...My tipping point, however, will be if Dish fails to deliver Cartoon Network HD in time for the premiere of The Clone Wars in the fall. It would be bad enough to hold out for BSG on Universal HD, but I am not waiting for TCW replays to start airing on TNT HD unless that happens very quickly.

I think you might be one of the few people who mention cartoon network. One of the few shows I watch loyally on Adult Swim, The Venture Brothers, will be in HD for season 3 (which starts in June) (source). I haven't signed up for Dish YET and am awaiting the "Soon" and "Most" channels to start hitting to make a better educated decision. But Cartoon could be enough to sway me this way... if mid-may comes and none of the "soon" and "most" are here, might just have to go for a more expensive d* pack rather than the DishHD only pack.

 

[aboz]

my tipping point

My tipping point was right before the price increase went into effect. I got more channels for half the price with TWC. They locked in the price for 2 years. I may or may not be back with E* but I have all options available to me. TWC Rochester added 15 HD chanels in 2 months as well so they are feeling the heat, and have deployed SDV so far the quality looks very good.

 

[8bitbytes]

No tipping point here. I'm looking forward to the Eastern Arc and using one Dish.

I have always setup all my own dishes and bought all my equipment until I got my 622 last year. I have three Dish 500's setup so I can cover any sat combination. No holes in my roof either as I have always pole mounted my dishes.

Sure SciFiHD would be nice but UniHD will show BSG and SGA soon enough and I don't feel the need to watch it live. This month is not over so who knows what could happen. When Eureka comes back, it would be fun to see it in HD. HD always looks so much better on my 92" screen.

Since Psych and Monk are moving to NBC proper, USAHD is less important to me now. Besides, they cancelled The 4400.

It's amazing how much complaining about communication goes on. The vast majority of customers are not looking at forums and waiting on Uplink Reports. They turn on their tube tvs and watch their 3 or 4 favorite shows and leave the tube on for noise or babysitting and if something new shows up, they stumble across it and get a big surprise. The majority of HDTV owners are still watching stretched SD on them, some oblivious to the fact that its not HD programming although many more are finally seeing the light. Many will watch the final season of BSG on the SD channel and still enjoy the season while seething underneath that studios are too stupid to keep producing what people really want to watch.

If I did shut off my E* account, I would do it because I'm tired of the same old hollywood drivel being shoveled for new programming and I would just live with OTA and Netflix/DVD Season sets. I don't live in front of my tv so that would be more than enough for me.

 

[birdo]

I have heard rumblings that if you are ATT Dish and you have option of u-verse and it may be what you want, ATT will send you Visa Cards in the amount of your ETF. Not sure if this is confirmed or not OR even if someone would want uverse. Besides it has very limited release but I thought I would throw it out there

 

[BrianMis]

As has been reported on this site the FCC or whatever federal agency has ruled that satellite companies do not have to offer all available HD channels come February 2009 and if they do they can offer them in SD until 2012-2013 to catch up with cable companies which just have to throw the switch on HD channels to their HD customers. Here is the link: http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-network-forum/130003-fcc-issues-carry-one-carry-all-hd-rules.html

Still doesn't answer my question. Most HD viewers (not all) don't care about HD locals and would rather see national channels like SCIFI or USA or ESPN in HD. It's going to be a long time before cable even comes close to DirecTV or dish.

 

[teachsac]

I think I've pretty much reached my tipping point. I've been with E* for 10 years now. I'm getting tired of all the promises with nothing being delivered. Still waiting for CSNWS (FSNBA) which has been uplinked for a year and a half and my local Fox which was uplinked again last week and still not available. The key for me right now is trying to find someone who will do an install with the SWM8.

S~

 

[FlyingJ]

Still doesn't answer my question. Most HD viewers (not all) don't care about HD locals and would rather see national channels like SCIFI or USA or ESPN in HD. It's going to be a long time before cable even comes close to DirecTV or dish.

I can't even agree on the "most" part.

 

[TalonDancer]

...If I did shut off my E* account, I would do it because I'm tired of the same old hollywood drivel being shoveled for new programming and I would just live with OTA and Netflix/DVD Season sets. I don't live in front of my tv so that would be more than enough for me.

Oh no! There you go being rational

Talon Dancer

 

[Cold Irons]

I can't even agree on the "most" part.

Ditto - I have no access to any national survey of opinion, but what I see is most folks still want the major networks in HD prior to anything national. In particular, non-tech/older folks (my Mom; sister; etc).

Personally, I probably watch Sci-Fi once a month, and have probably not tuned in USA for years, so these certainly won't "tip" me.

 

[fish2222]

Opinions are like @ssholes, everyone has one. There are more people than you think that cannot receive their locals OTA and would much rather have them then nationals. Sure, I would like to have a few of the national HD's, but since I live in a HOLE, as you put it, I would much rather have my locals in HD first.

I guess I am on the other side of the bridge... I can get local cable, sure, but no HD or DVR. I can get all of my locals OTA, even though only CBS and PBS are in HD. (Had to put up a 40 Foot antenna for those two.) I would much rather pay for nationals then locals, plus they won't have my locals in HD soon since its a small market. We won't even have FOX, NBC or ABC in HD until next year at the switch, since the FCC won't allow them to change until the cut over date for some reason (or so that's what they say)... It just seems like they would keep more customers from jumping ship if they worried about nationals first, and then locals. Almost everyone already has SD locals, so if you have those, at least you have something. (I know, you can say that about nationals too.)

 

[BrianMis]

I can't even agree on the "most" part.

We will have to agree to disagree, reading the forums over the last couple of days is how I formulated that opinion. I must be one of the lucky ones my cable company transmits my HD locals over the cable system in clear QAM.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

After wavering for the past 4-5 months and 11 years being with E*, I think I'm ready to make the call to D*. The two prime factors being: A) Better HD PQ and B) More HD Premium Movie channels.

Locals aren't a factor as I get all of mine OTA. D* does offer 4 local HD channels in my area, vs 0 from E*, but I have no plans to watch locals from D*.

I'll hate to see my 622 go, but got to have that HD PQ.

By my count, I've paid E* approximately $12,000 for service and equipment over the 11 years.

 

[xzi]

We will have to agree to disagree, reading the forums over the last couple of days is how I formulated that opinion. I must be one of the lucky ones my cable company transmits my HD locals over the cable system in clear QAM.

Actually it's law... otherwise I guarentee they'd find a way to charge your for em (and probably have someway else).

 

[Cincyray]

Well i have had both. I now have direct the main reason i left Dish was because i had to much fade out. I got a great deal with direct and they do have better programming for my needs than dish had. As far as i hear this talk about directs inferior equipment i dont get that. \

To me im paying for selection not which dvr is better my hr21 does everything i need it to do. I oly need 1 dvr so it cost me only $99.00.
Yes i dont like the 2 year contract thing but when i was with Dish i had a 12 or 18 month contract.

More Hd for now more sports for now plus only 1 dish on roof.

I would rather have Dish or Direct over comcast. But for me i like Direct better.