Why pick satellite over cable?

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grantsa4

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Feb 9, 2007
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Naperville, IL
So, I am almost at the point of fed up with my current cable company and am starting to look at options to switch to.

My 2 options would be D* and Comc.

Why should I choose D over C?

Thanks for any advice.
 
Without knowing what your beef with your current provider is or specifically what you're looking for in a provider it is impossible to offer a meaningful comparison or a reasoned recommendation.
 
They messed up their billing system and my bill has been wrong two times in a row. They don't spend money so don't add many channels and the last time I tried to call them re the billing issue it took 50 minutes to get through to someone.

Their customer service has always been excellent but I am starting to get very annoyed with the lack of advancement and having to call and wait so long to get issues resolved.
 
Nope. This need for change started today and this was the first place I thought to post. I have so often found really good advice for others in these forums
 
Like has been mentioned for us to best help you we need a little more info about you and what your needs are, How many tvs, hd or standard, dvr and how many rooms do you want the ability for dvr, if dvr how much recording do you want to do, do you live in a house or apartment, what about line of sight for the dish (clear view of the south-southwestern sky) so give us a little more info here and then we can see what we can do for you
 
grantsa4 said:
So, I am almost at the point of fed up with my current cable company and am starting to look at options to switch to.

My 2 options would be D* and Comc.

Why should I choose D over C?

Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...

There is no special reason for picking either one,

Look at programming, price, reliability in your area, eq & goodies offered as bundles.....stuff like that.

The satellite companies evolved from PrimeStar....which cable companies developed to allow serving customers who were too far "off plant" (away from their main system). The idea was that they could install a small dish instead of running miles of cable to serve one or a few customers. Directv bought Primestar..........and simplified an expensive & complicated system to allow a profit.

Local channels may be a reason in some locations.....you gotta need those channels. But the short story is there is little benefit from one to the other; different means of bringing signal to homeowners. Pick the system that works best with your requirements.

joe
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

To answer a previous question. I have 2 TV's - 1 HD in the living room and a oldschool std in the bedroom. Downstairs I currently have a Tivo and I realise that D's DirecTivo is a sad excuse for a DVR, according to some, but if I went the D way, I would consider selling the Tivo.

I definitely want the ability to DVR. Being able to share the recordings would be a nice bonus. I currently have the ability to record 2 shows at once. I don't think I would need more, but if the functionality is there I wouldn't complain.

I live in a townhouse and line of sight shouldn't be an issue. My next door neighbour has DTv.

I don't need any movie channels, or anything fancy like that. I like sports, but if I just have the basic sports channel options that is just fine.
 
Joe Diamond said:
There is no special reason for picking either one,

Look at programming, price, reliability in your area, eq & goodies offered as bundles.....stuff like that.

The satellite companies evolved from PrimeStar....which cable companies developed to allow serving customers who were too far "off plant" (away from their main system). The idea was that they could install a small dish instead of running miles of cable to serve one or a few customers. Directv bought Primestar..........and simplified an expensive & complicated system to allow a profit.

Local channels may be a reason in some locations.....you gotta need those channels. But the short story is there is little benefit from one to the other; different means of bringing signal to homeowners. Pick the system that works best with your requirements.

joe
Click to expand...

To add to Joe's comments a little.

If your looking at HD, some people find one providers HD not as good as others, you'll have to do your homework to determine how your cable co. is compared to others.

I have D* and a very good TV and most of the time my HD is outstanding, that said, it all depends on the sourse of the signal as to how good you can get your TV to look regardless.

For example, CBS football always looks outstanding, many of thier Prime time shows look great as well, while others don't, depends on hoiw they were produced.
Live Events will look best in most cases.

While most of this doesn't help you decide what provider you want, it does explain some of what your seeing.

My take, check the programming of each provider, HD available, Cost and equipment and make your choice from there.
 
I think satellite for the most part has the best HD offerings along with DVR offerings. If something is wrong with the system it is most likely able to fixed on your end instead of having to wait for the cable company to fix a problem on their end. Depending on your area, it can be quicker to fix it on your end. Also, some people like to tailgait with the satellite but you cannot do that with cable.
 
Stargazer said:
I think satellite for the most part has the best HD offerings along with DVR offerings. If something is wrong with the system it is most likely able to fixed on your end instead of having to wait for the cable company to fix a problem on their end. Depending on your area, it can be quicker to fix it on your end. Also, some people like to tailgait with the satellite but you cannot do that with cable.
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Yup,
That is part of the mix. Of course there is the fact that IF your satellite TV goes down for weather related reasons (rain fade) & trees down or ice on dish.............the cable head end is experiencing the same problem. Likewise if (rare) the head end suffers damage the whole plant goes down.

What I am looking at is, first...reestablishing my OTA system. The HD over the local channels to my recent HD TV is ok. This system, while a little limited in variety and a little larded over with commercials....is weather proof & cheap / free. Second I am looking again at Huhu, Netflix, Google TV and other movie sources.

Sports fans will have a different list of priorities.

We are at a point where we can select what content is wanted and then find a pretty reliable telecommunications source. All sources have strengthes and weaknesses so you get to pick. We are a long way from three black & white channels and rabbit ears.

Joe
 
I'm in the southern part of Illinois, so snow isn't often an issue as they tend to be light storms with a rare heavy one every few years.

I get rain fade with a really heavy cloudburst or heavy cloud cover, but not very often and usually for very short periods of time.
 
It's not very often, we had some really heavy rains here in the summer, and the outages were not long at all. I have an OTA for those occasions. I switched from Cable to Sat over 15 years ago due to pricing alone. I don't have any fancy stuff. (just one HD and one SD receiver, no DVR or anything) Started with E then just switched to D this past summer. Both providers have their positives. Do your research on packages and you will probably be very happy that you switched. :)
 
Why I have DirecTV over my local Time Warner franchise. That is pretty easy; 1) Time Warner will not provide me with the channels that DirecTV can. 2) TW's DVR's are terrible, 3) TW's Whole Home DVR isn't very good 4) TW charges out the whazoo for each and every DVR.

John
 
I had cable for a while, and then switched to satellite, and I don't think I will be going back to cable any time soon. Sat has better equipment, better picture quality, and more channels. You may loose your signal a couple of time a year for a few minutes due to a heavy downpour, but for the most part, it can rain all day and you won't have any problems.
One good tip if you do choose satellite, and live in a place that gets snow. Have them put the satellite at a spot on your roof, or side of home, so that you can get at it, to get the snow off. Not every snow storm, but a wet sticky snow, with the wind blowing just the right way, will build up on the dish and you can loose signal that way. They do make heaters that you can install on the back of the dish, but we can reach ours with a long broom, so we just use that. There are other solutions like being able to squirt water on the satellite, and some people on here even use a supersoaker squirt gun with warm water to solve their problem. I don't want to scare you away, because it only happens to me once or twice a season, and I've only had to clear it off a couple of times a day when it does happen. I live in North Eastern PA, and we tend to get quite a bit of snow, and like I said, it only happens once or twice a winter.
 
Some people complain about rain fade but when you might have your signal go out a few times a year during a heavy downpour for maybe 5-10 minutes, I don't think it is that big of a deal. Heck, you can watch a pre-recorded DVR Event while it is storming and I would think that most would be watching pre-recorded shows these days. The only bad thing is when your recordings are interrupted by the storms.
 
rapidturtle said:
I had cable for a while, and then switched to satellite, and I don't think I will be going back to cable any time soon. Sat has better equipment, better picture quality, and more channels. You may loose your signal a couple of time a year for a few minutes due to a heavy downpour, but for the most part, it can rain all day and you won't have any problems.
One good tip if you do choose satellite, and live in a place that gets snow. Have them put the satellite at a spot on your roof, or side of home, so that you can get at it, to get the snow off. Not every snow storm, but a wet sticky snow, with the wind blowing just the right way, will build up on the dish and you can loose signal that way. They do make heaters that you can install on the back of the dish, but we can reach ours with a long broom, so we just use that. There are other solutions like being able to squirt water on the satellite, and some people on here even use a supersoaker squirt gun with warm water to solve their problem. I don't want to scare you away, because it only happens to me once or twice a season, and I've only had to clear it off a couple of times a day when it does happen. I live in North Eastern PA, and we tend to get quite a bit of snow, and like I said, it only happens once or twice a winter.
Click to expand...

AND,

There is the trash bag trick = Streach a plastic trash bag over the whole dish & arm for the winter. Snow won't accumulate. THEN there is squirt it with spray shortening like PAM = ice won't build up. ALSO anything that will melt ice from a windshield= will also work on a sat dish.

DO NOT CHIP OR BEAT ON THE DISH TO CLEAR ICE.

As you say this is rare even in places where there is a lot of snow. There are no cures for the large storms...wait until they move with an OTA system. SINCE the dish is pointed south the first sunny day will melt everything by sundown.

The other cure was shared by a little old lady as the snow began here in east MD...."As soon as my husband finds a trucker to pull our boat and our grounds superintendent comes for the dogs we will fly to visit our children for the winter.....We shouldn't need any of what you say in Key West. I will leave a note for the staff who watch the house for the winter."

Joe
 
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