Direct TV questions...

[neuroking]

Soooo... I am waiting while my bathroom is being obliterated and remade to decide on whether to get a plasma. Just moved into a new place and they said "Cable included in the assessment". I thought that would be swell. Good enough for now. BUT, it is the crappiest cable ever. I think 30 channels, mostly in foreign languages and only MSNBC for news (gawd I hate that channel!)

So here are the questions. I know very little about DirectTV or Dish Network, etc, but did my research.

- I am leaning toward Direct TV mostly, but I've heard Comcast will be adding HD signals to digital cable. Anyone know anything more about this?
- It seems DTV HD receivers are big bucks, but there are only sporting events and 3 channels in HD. I'm not a sports fan, so is it worth it? (in your opinion - note that I may not get a plasma so a costy receiver would the be a waste.)
- Some companies offer free tuners with the plasmas. Would I be able to get a regular DTV receiver if I had one? (I assume not)
- Tivo does not record in HD, right?
- We've all seem the cable adds about how weather causes interference. For those of you that have DTV, how bad/nonexistent is it REALLY? I have no obstructions to the SE of my unit.
-What would you say about your overall experience with DTV? I've had digital cable and didn't care much for it. The hardware was slow, broke often, and the increase in channel selection (that any living human that didn't care about sports would care about) was minimal.

Thanx all. I look forward to your feedback!
Brandon

[Ioman]

I just bought a new house about 6 months ago and I pondered the same questions. If you like movies go with Dish Network. If you like sports go with DirecTV.

I got 3 satellite recievers installed for free and payed a one time $50 upgrade and got the Dish Network 60GB PVR reciever. The PVR reciever has digital optical out, and has Dolby Digital 5.1 built in.

I pay $39/mo for the 3 recieves and the Americas 50 package. I absolutely love my Dish Network setup and would recommend it to anyone. Oh by the way, all of the recievers have S-Video out....something digital cable rarely has.

If you want to know what I think about digital cable, read my talk back article here: http://news.designtechnica.com/talkback3.html

[neuroking]

Originally posted by Ioman
I just bought a new house about 6 months ago and I pondered the same questions. If you like movies go with Dish Network. If you like sports go with DirecTV.

If you want to know what I think about digital cable, read my talk back article here: http://news.designtechnica.com/talkback3.html

You opinion of digital cable is just like mine. Is it better than analog? Well, maybe. It's slower and more annoying, and more expensive, but there's the tv guide feature, which is nice.

I actually was not even thinking about Dish Network, but now I might. I'll have to research more. Neither have G4 tv, which I LOVED when I had digicable. But for the local HD signals there's something about needing TWO dishes for DN. Weird. The guy at Tweeter recommended DTV (and he was actually decent, not like the Circuit City salesboys).

What about interference? And ahve you heard the rumors that Digicable will be carrying HD in the next iteration? (Prob couple years off so irrelevent)

Thanx!
Brandon

[Ioman]

Great questions Brandon. At CES this year, there were many product announcements from Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic and more about televisions entering the market with ATSC HDTV Cable tuners built into them. Comcast announced support for HDTV through digital cable as well as some other cable companies, so that should answer your questions there. I personally do not believe that we will see these enter the market until at least Q1 2004, so by going with Dishnetwork you should be fine.

Dishnetwork actually has nore HDTV channels than DirecTV last time I checked. The only downside is that you cannot lease the HDTV reciever, dish and any other equipment you may need and buying it outright is pretty expensive. My neighbor has DirecTV and he gets terrible reception while my Dish Network reception is PERFECT. And he is 10 feet from our house!

[ECA]

A suggestion.

1, find out what services are avialbale in the area.(cable)
2. find out WHY the landlord decided on this company(cheap, or channels HE LIKES)
3. is this a hotel, apt, what? you may have NO other recourse, he may not want the dish installed.
4. see what it would cost for one of the other cable companies to setup at your location.
5. There ARE wirelss cable companies, that dont install Cable, just an antenna on the roof, and wire then on.

[neuroking]

Originally posted by Ioman
Great questions Brandon. At CES this year, there were many product announcements from Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic and more about televisions entering the market with ATSC HDTV Cable tuners built into them. Comcast announced support for HDTV through digital cable as well as some other cable companies, so that should answer your questions there. I personally do not believe that we will see these enter the market until at least Q1 2004, so by going with Dishnetwork you should be fine.

Dishnetwork actually has nore HDTV channels than DirecTV last time I checked. The only downside is that you cannot lease the HDTV reciever, dish and any other equipment you may need and buying it outright is pretty expensive. My neighbor has DirecTV and he gets terrible reception while my Dish Network reception is PERFECT. And he is 10 feet from our house!

Hrm, makes me wonder if this isn't a job for ebay. Should be a good amount of equipment out there, but then again, i try to avoid ebay for high ticket items...

I had heard somewhere that HD over cable was going to be limited, because of a lack of bandwidth, so I wonder how many channels wil be available.

Out of curiosity, why would you choose DTV for sports fans and Dishnet for movie fans? I didn't see a huge difference in channel lineup.

Thanx for the good feedback!
Brandon

[neuroking]

Originally posted by ECA
A suggestion.

1, find out what services are avialbale in the area.(cable)
2. find out WHY the landlord decided on this company(cheap, or channels HE LIKES)
3. is this a hotel, apt, what? you may have NO other recourse, he may not want the dish installed.
4. see what it would cost for one of the other cable companies to setup at your location.
5. There ARE wirelss cable companies, that dont install Cable, just an antenna on the roof, and wire then on.

It's a condo in downtown Chicago that I bought. I am on the top floor and have 'roof rights' so I could build a ferris wheel up there if I wanted to, so no probs with a dish. Pretty much tallest building in the area (only 5 floors), so no obstructions.

I really didn't think too highly of my experience with digital cable. I got it when it was released in Atlanta, about 4 years ago, for only 3 months before switching back to analog, and then got it again this last year, and NOTHING had changed. Same slow hardware, same interface/options. Mostly same channels. With more 3rd party hardware, seems like a dish would offer better options, even if only in hardware choice. Why would you go with cable?

Thanx. I should have clarified that stuff earlier.

Brandon

[ECA]

Originally posted by neuroking


It's a condo in downtown Chicago that I bought. I am on the top floor and have 'roof rights' so I could build a ferris wheel up there if I wanted to, so no probs with a dish. Pretty much tallest building in the area (only 5 floors), so no obstructions.

I really didn't think too highly of my experience with digital cable. I got it when it was released in Atlanta, about 4 years ago, for only 3 months before switching back to analog, and then got it again this last year, and NOTHING had changed. Same slow hardware, same interface/options. Mostly same channels. With more 3rd party hardware, seems like a dish would offer better options, even if only in hardware choice. Why would you go with cable?

Thanx. I should have clarified that stuff earlier.

Brandon

someone in this area, is selling the small sat, for about $25 amonth.
Why cable over DigSat?
Heavy storms, and you loose signal, dish can be destroyed.
Line of sight may not be good enough.
Cable, hardwireed, no-one will steal it. and if you have availability to 2-3 cable companies, you can have a bidding war for your location. Cable internet, can be awesome. And good packages from cable.
If you building is already Wired, all they gotta do is change the signal. Wireless cable, is neet, just an antenna.
If the contract for cable is listed on the Lease. Does it say Which cable, if it dont you can contest it and get ANY cable company in to the condo.

[Ioman]

Originally posted by neuroking


Hrm, makes me wonder if this isn't a job for ebay. Should be a good amount of equipment out there, but then again, i try to avoid ebay for high ticket items...

I had heard somewhere that HD over cable was going to be limited, because of a lack of bandwidth, so I wonder how many channels wil be available.

Out of curiosity, why would you choose DTV for sports fans and Dishnet for movie fans? I didn't see a huge difference in channel lineup.

Thanx for the good feedback!
Brandon

Last time I heard, DirecTV offered more sports packages than Dishnetwork, but Dish offered more movie channels. They might have changed this.

[neuroking]

Originally posted by ECA


someone in this area, is selling the small sat, for about $25 amonth.
Why cable over DigSat?
Heavy storms, and you loose signal, dish can be destroyed.
Line of sight may not be good enough.
Cable, hardwireed, no-one will steal it. and if you have availability to 2-3 cable companies, you can have a bidding war for your location. Cable internet, can be awesome. And good packages from cable.
If you building is already Wired, all they gotta do is change the signal. Wireless cable, is neet, just an antenna.
If the contract for cable is listed on the Lease. Does it say Which cable, if it dont you can contest it and get ANY cable company in to the condo.

I've already written the condo assoc a letter with the first payment asking questions to this effect. Hopefully I will hear back next week. Seems so arbitrary how they did it, but there could always be zoning questions, since downstairs is a business.

I don't really have to worry about theft. Someone would have to either climb the wall outside or have 2 access methods to get to the roof. Besides, there's about 10 other dishes I can see when I look out the front window and down. Would be alot easier to get to em instead!

I'm thinking that by the fact that I see ALOT of sats in the area, there won't be a big problem. I wish I actually knew some ppl around here so I could ask them what they think! Rahr! i hate being the NKOTB! :) Haven't seen them rolling through the streets like techi tumbleweed after a big storm. hehehe

Oh, and I have a friend that works at Earthlink (DSL cust serve supervisor), so I get fre DSL. LOVE Earthlink. Never had a problem, and every multiplayer game I play it seems I regularly have the lowest ping on the server. My parents, about 30 minutes away, have a cable modem, and because the area is expanding so quickly, and tech rollout in Chicago is always a little slow, get crap for a connection. I think they do make the 256kbps lower limit, but still...

Thanx! I have to check into the cable offerings here, just to be sure. Is there a website that has that stuff (like dslreports.com has for broadband)?

Brandon

[ECA]

As in who has it.
I havent found one yet.
And it sucks, as I know there are 2 wireless ISPs in my area, and cable just finished installation in the cities in this area(took 3 years), and DSL is laughable. DSL covers 1/4 mile area 30 miles away, in another town. Getting upgrades to the phone system WONT happen in this area.

Wireless has a $500 installation as for the antenna, but is $50 amonth for 1megabit. Cable is $50-500kbit $60-1megbit in this area.

[neuroking]

Originally posted by ECA
As in who has it.
I havent found one yet.
And it sucks, as I know there are 2 wireless ISPs in my area, and cable just finished installation in the cities in this area(took 3 years), and DSL is laughable. DSL covers 1/4 mile area 30 miles away, in another town. Getting upgrades to the phone system WONT happen in this area.

Wireless has a $500 installation as for the antenna, but is $50 amonth for 1megabit. Cable is $50-500kbit $60-1megbit in this area.

Shiiiiiit. That sux. I get 1.5 MB/128 KB for '$49'/mo. No probs too. Longest I was without it is 3 days in the last 3 years. I had a coworker in a similar situation last year. You must be pretty far out there to be paying those prices. Are you in ' the boonies'?

Anyhoo, know of any cable/sat service sites like dsl reports, but for tv?

Thanx,
Brandon

[ECA]

Originally posted by neuroking


Shiiiiiit. That sux. I get 1.5 MB/128 KB for '$49'/mo. No probs too. Longest I was without it is 3 days in the last 3 years. I had a coworker in a similar situation last year. You must be pretty far out there to be paying those prices. Are you in ' the boonies'?

Anyhoo, know of any cable/sat service sites like dsl reports, but for tv?

Thanx,
Brandon

as in evaluations? Or where to buy...
Evaluations I liked(they went pay) consumerreports.com, totally unbiased.
For where to buy, I go to yhe maker and see where they send buyers, then check a few other places.. Theres a list posted of good places, on DT, we started 1-2 locations for that..One is in lounge, cant remeber the other..

Boonies, as in?? largest city within 50 miles is less then 15,000(30 miles), 100 miles is Boise Idaho.

http://www.provantage.com/scripts/go.dll/-s//fp_79139

Samsung LCD TV has an internal TV tuner and external jacks to allow you to view virtually any source - HDTV, DVD, VCR, Digital Video, satellite and more. Because it's fully digital you can even use it as a high-resolution PC monitor. Available in 15" and 17", standard or wide-screen formats.

Not always the best price, but a good company.