Cable or Dish?

George Bright · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 12:39 pm

I am looking at my options for TV. I was wondering what people are paying for standard (Ch 2-78 ) cable in the raleigh area. Time Warner publishes their rate as $46.25/mo. Do they offer a better deal if you haggle with them? I am also looking at a dish since Time Warner has a long standing policy of annual rate increases that outrun inflation.

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

DirecTV rules.

Don't believe the hype that weather kills the signal, it happened only 4 or 5 times over the course of the 2.5 years that I used it. The picture is easily better than cable ever hopes to be too. And you have access to local channels too, so don't believe anybody that tells you otherwise.

Ask the DirecTV people what their best rate is, they'll adjust it to make it more competitive with cable if need be.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:57 pm

I am generally a DirecTV fan. I have been with them since about 1995. They just raised or are about to raise their rates (I don't think they have raised rates for a few years). If you contact them, make sure you find out what your rates will be based upon the new plan (may or may not be in place right now).

Eric Peterson · **Joined:** Mon Sep 01, 2003 10:24 am **Posts:** 494

I love DirecTV. I agree with Wes, over the past 6 years I've probably lost my signal for a total of one (1) hour max. Chris and I pay about $53 per month for the expanded channel lineup, local channels, 2 receivers, and TiVo (which also rocks). We don't have any premium channels. We also have RoadRunner, but the savings Time-Warner offers for both is not nearly enough to convince me to go back to cable at this time.

Eric

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 5:34 pm

I am sort of in the same boat as Eric. I am about to switch to cable modem (Earthlink via TWC) from DSL so I can do VoIP. But I am going to stick with DirecTV and not use TWC for video. So I still love my DirecTV.

David Teague · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 6:09 pm

I love my Cable, I used to be a DirectTV user but when I moved to an APPT that did nit point the right way for my dish I went with cable, plus I added road runner, I have great service from Time Warner and if you are going to get digital cable and road runner pay the extra 6.99 and get a DVR it rocks. My Rates have not went up more than $2.00's in the past 3 years.

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 6:21 pm

David Teague wrote:

get a DVR it rocks

I am pro-TiVo so I think that the DVR that DirecTV offers (TiVo) is much better than the TWC DVR. But but David is right. Whatever you pick, get a DVR.

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 6:39 pm

I have TWC and I hate them. My rates have gone up 5-10$ in the last two years. A lot of the time my HDTV channels break up or I get static in my regular channels. I have wanted to get rid of TWC for a while as I think they are quite pricey.
I currently pay 112.XX for:

Digital Cable (one box)
HBO
and Road Runner

According to what Eric said earlier I could drop cable, keep RR and my total would be:
53 (TV)
45 (RR)
____+
98

and I would end up with another box for my TV upstairs and get Tivo to boot. I've been wanting to switch for a long time. Maybe now is a good time.

Anyone have experience with HDTV and dish?

Scott Johnson · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 9:40 pm

If it matters to you...

I don't think DirecTV offers the major network HD feeds, and, if you want HD, the box isn't going to get included in any of those package deals (though the price is coming down).

I'd switc back to DirecTV except for the cost of the HD receiver and the lack of local HD.

Scott

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 10:04 pm

When I bought my first DirecTv dish, it cost me $800 and I installed it. But I did switch back to cable this past year. The main reason was the HDTV programming that TWC has. The DirecTv HDTV offering does not compare.

I think with the combination of HDTV, RR and basic service in all the other rooms, it is about $6 cheaper a month than comparable DirecTv.

Be careful, those deals you see for the dish are not the HDTV dishes

If they were, I might have stayed with the dish.

Any one see the article in the N&O on Donnie Barnes' home theater?

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 10:37 pm

Right now you can get HD local via TWC. DirecTV has HD channels, but not locals in HD. Locals in HD is in the works and there are plans for about 25 major markets to have HD locals by end of this year. I don't know if Raleigh/Durham is included in that list or not.

If you need Local HD right now, then TWC or via Antenna is the way to go. Right now I get HD local via Antenna and the rest of my channels (including non-HD locals via DirecTV), so it is not an issue for me.

steve remchak · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 11:10 pm

NFL Sunday Ticket. only one place to get it. my father has had satellite tv for easily 20 years up in the frozen tundra, and he is a satisfied customer. cable blows. Twc with eartlink is what i have had for the past two years, and the only complaint i have is during the day my vpn drags. some of which is due to my program but i am convinced the home teleconference'rrs in the neighborhood are overpowering my system.

Hd, don't get me started. major hype IMO. hbo, cinemax in HD is pointless. ESPN maybe. The Discovery Channel definitely. HD Net has some decent programming occasionally. Sports telivised in HD are generally well worth the price, but the last i read Fox HD is only available in markets such as NY and LA and more than likely the local affiliate is years from switching. remember they are owned by WRAL the CBS affiliate which has decided to go HD with cable. i have NBC HD with my DirectV plan. $122.80/month with 1 HD set and 3 regular sets, all the channels offered including locals. cable blows.

George Bright · **Posted:** Fri Feb 11, 2005 11:12 pm

It looks as if I will go with Direct TV. I am not a big TV junkie and I don't have a HD TV now. For the HD TV fans out there you might want to look at

http://voom.com

They have 39 HD channels for $49.99/mo. and $1 installation this month.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2005 12:45 pm

Steve, with all due respect, you really are out of the loop when it comes to HD.

The local Fox station does do HD and has for quite some time. I live way out in the boonies and have DirecTV. I also have HD sets as well as the HD Tivo boxes. I use a relatively inexpensive HD antenna that connects directly to the multiswitch on my sat dish and multiplexes the signal to all the receivers. Did I mention I'm in the boonies? And I still pretty much have no problem picking up HD signal off the air from all local networks. Most all HD sat recievers have built in HD off-air tuners, including the HD tivo box. It will tivo everything and puts all the stations right in your normal "guide" as if they were sat stations. Works *great*, though like Scott said the prices on those boxes are high still ($800 for the HD/Sat/Tivo box). You can get a non-Tivo HD Sat/offair box for a couple hundred bucks, though.

I don't know why you would say that HD movie channels aren't worth it. That's only true if you have a really low end HD TV, I guess. On a good set there's a *huge* picture quality difference between most HBO programming in SD vs HD. They do occasionally broadcast some older stuff that can't take advantage HD, but it's getting rare. I'm not sure what you're saying about WRAL "decided to go HD with cable", either. DirecTV will be getting HD feeds from all local networks within the next two years, though there is rumors of needing new hardware to get that stuff (but they've always been good about doing trade-in deals that are economical in cases where they deprecate hardware that is newish).

And for anyone who saw the stupid newspaper article, don't believe everything you read. First and foremost, while I do like to "talk toy", I don't like to brag about stuff. She was never supposed to use my name in that article. Second, she fudged the number reporting a bit, too...that price tag included a lot more than "just a theater."

--Donnie

steve remchak · **Posted:** Sun Feb 13, 2005 2:25 pm

wouldn't be the first time i have gone off without all the information available. thanks for filling me in.

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