For 8 years living in Georgetown Co. we had Dish, 100 mph winds, blizzards, rain, etc we never had any problems or lost TV, never called for service, moved to Fl. tried Dish and Direct, nothing but problems, Direct was by far the worst, finely got Spectrum/Bright house, had a few minor issues solved by a phone call, when we got hit by hurricane Irma we never lost power or TV/Internet.
JAY
THE DEFINITION OF GUN CONTROL IS HITTING THE TARGET WITH YOUR FIRST SHOT
I wouldn't pay $136 a year for TV - but that's me.
Yup. Cable or dish, a person who wants TV with any kind of decent channel lineup will pay at least $100/month in most places. I don't have the top channel package, but it's up there. Plus I have whole home DVR on 3 TVs. Living room, bedroom and man cave. When installed, they claim "free" installation in up to 4 rooms. Then charge you a monthly fee for each receiver outside of the main receiver. Like anything else these days, you pay to play. Just a matter of personal preference what you're willing to pay for.
I do plan to cancel my Direct account in the next few months and go back to local TV and Netflix for a while. Time to seriously put money toward bills, get debt paid off and free up money for a new house on my place. That's a bit more important that watching TV....
Yep - I'm not interested in playing, haven't been for a few years. Took me at least 10 years to get my wife to cut the cord - I think she's paying about $50/mo to stream the stuff she wants to stream, but she's going to dump part of that soon. At least she isn't stuck with stupid packages.
But even back when we had Dish - and Cable before that - and a big C-band dish before that - we only ever had one TV, so didn't get stuck paying twice or more for equipment. Wouldn't be caught dead with a DVR, at least of the TiVo "pay to use" type - besides, with on demand streaming, you don't need one anyway.
-Zorba, "The Veiled Male"
"If you get it and didn't work for it, someone else worked for it and didn't get it..."
If you don't have super fast internet, LIKE OUT HERE IN FLYOVER COUNTRY, then you're pretty much stuck with one of the satellite providers for TV, and a slow internet connection via cell tower. AT&T doesn't even have DSL offered here, and the cable TV company doesn't offer internet service, and their TV lineup and their service suck out loud. So much for that 'everybody gonna be livin' the digital life' crap.
Only bright spot on the horizon, and it's like a lightning bug a half mile off bright, is that the Volunteer Energy Cooperative has plans in the works to put in fiber optic cable on their existing power pole lines. I don't expect that to get here for a few years, though. Just like the other cable internet providers, they're hooking up the towns and 'burbs' outside the city first to make a quick buck. I'm a good distance away. Funny thing is, I KNOW for a fact that there is a big fiber optic cable that was put in last year on the state highway 2 miles from where I live. But it isn't for us country hicks; it's for a town across the river.
“I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer” ― Douglas Adams
If you don't have super fast internet, LIKE OUT HERE IN FLYOVER COUNTRY, then you're pretty much stuck with one of the satellite providers for TV, and a slow internet connection via cell tower. AT&T doesn't even have DSL offered here, and the cable TV company doesn't offer internet service, and their TV lineup and their service suck out loud. So much for that 'everybody gonna be livin' the digital life' crap.
Only bright spot on the horizon, and it's like a lightning bug a half mile off bright, is that the Volunteer Energy Cooperative has plans in the works to put in fiber optic cable on their existing power pole lines. I don't expect that to get here for a few years, though. Just like the other cable internet providers, they're hooking up the towns and 'burbs' outside the city first to make a quick buck. I'm a good distance away. Funny thing is, I KNOW for a fact that there is a big fiber optic cable that was put in last year on the state highway 2 miles from where I live. But it isn't for us country hicks; it's for a town across the river.
Same here except the local power company ran fiber optics by my house last week. They hope to have everyone hooked up in a few months. If it works at the speeds they are saying it will be the first high speed internet we have ever had here.
If you can get an honest 1 to 2 MB, you can 'get by', and 5 is plenty if you're only streaming one device like we are. 20 or 40 or whatever is an expensive waste.
Not that we have the choice anymore.
-Zorba, "The Veiled Male"
"If you get it and didn't work for it, someone else worked for it and didn't get it..."
If you don’t have internet through your dish, try Hulu live through a Roku or Firestick. We switched months ago and never looked back. So much cheaper than cable or dish.
My first internet was DSL. Now we have 300mb cable........... I swear the DSL was faster than this.
Makes you wonder how much is running in the background
It very well might be faster. My understanding of Cable internet is it's like a daisy chain system....the more users online, the slower the entire system runs. DSL is run on individual phone lines and not affected by user traffic.
I dislike both companies immensely, for a host of reasons. I favor Dish, slightly, because they lie slightly less, about the things I notice.
Until I decide to go off the grid and become a hermit, or drop dead, I will probably continue to bend over and grab my ankles for them, because being out of touch with the rest of the world still worries me, for now.
The preferences seem to vary quite a bit accross the forum and it doesn't really appear to be geographical. I live in the Florida Panhandle and we have Direct TV at both houses. Our other two options are Cox and Dish and they're all priced comparably but for us, DTV has better programing and is more user friendly. We've tried Dish and Cox over the years and always ended up back with DTV and most everyone we know also uses DTV. My next door neighbor fell for a sales pitch and tried Cox last year and switched back to DTV within a week.
If you can get an honest 1 to 2 MB, you can 'get by', and 5 is plenty if you're only streaming one device like we are. 20 or 40 or whatever is an expensive waste.
Not that we have the choice anymore.
Our power company is offering a package for 79.00 a month. They say it has 1GB speeds. I don't know who they think they fooling but this ole boy don't think that is even possible. Basic package starts at 39.00.
The preferences seem to vary quite a bit accross the forum and it doesn't really appear to be geographical. I live in the Florida Panhandle and we have Direct TV at both houses. Our other two options are Cox and Dish and they're all priced comparably but for us, DTV has better programing and is more user friendly. We've tried Dish and Cox over the years and always ended up back with DTV and most everyone we know also uses DTV. My next door neighbor fell for a sales pitch and tried Cox last year and switched back to DTV within a week.
I had DTV for most of the past 20some years. Never had a problem until ATT took over. The service was the same, it was the billing and customer service thru ATT that suxed...
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson
I do agree that DTV has gone down hill since AT&T took over. Their website is pure crap, too, IMO.
I also don't have a high speed internet option where I live. Best I can get is DSL. I can stream Netflix, but not anywhere near HD resolution. Which defeats the purpose of having a 4K TV. And, if I'm watching something on Netflix, I can't do anything with my iPad or cell phone. Not enough bandwidth to do both. And my cell connection at the house sucks as well. If I want to watch TV other than local channels, a dish is still my best option.
If you can get an honest 1 to 2 MB, you can 'get by', and 5 is plenty if you're only streaming one device like we are. 20 or 40 or whatever is an expensive waste.
Not that we have the choice anymore.
Our power company is offering a package for 79.00 a month. They say it has 1GB speeds. I don't know who they think they fooling but this ole boy don't think that is even possible. Basic package starts at 39.00.
Its certainly possible - my last employer had a "direct" Internet connection, not sure how fast that was, but we throttled it down to 10 GB for inter-campus connections, and 1GB to everybody's desktop.
I had 1 MB at the house, and it was fine for web surfing and email - and I usually could convince streaming video to work.
-Zorba, "The Veiled Male"
"If you get it and didn't work for it, someone else worked for it and didn't get it..."
If you can get an honest 1 to 2 MB, you can 'get by', and 5 is plenty if you're only streaming one device like we are. 20 or 40 or whatever is an expensive waste.
Not that we have the choice anymore.
Our power company is offering a package for 79.00 a month. They say it has 1GB speeds. I don't know who they think they fooling but this ole boy don't think that is even possible. Basic package starts at 39.00.
Its certainly possible - my last employer had a "direct" Internet connection, not sure how fast that was, but we throttled it down to 10 GB for inter-campus connections, and 1GB to everybody's desktop.
I had 1 MB at the house, and it was fine for web surfing and email - and I usually could convince streaming video to work.
Then I hope they are right. Play Black-Ops without lagging. I sure miss playing that game.
Back in the late 60s early 70s our cable TV was UHF (two extra channels) and Dad going on the roof to adjust the antenna array so Mom could watch her soaps: Dad (on the roof) - "How's that?!" Mom: "No! you just had it! Move it the other way!" Dad: "Right there?!" Mom: "No! the other way!" Dad: "There?!" Mom: STOP! STOP! That's perfect! Stop!!!" Lol!
We were supper hi tech with our antenna. We could get channels 3 and 5....... if we rotated the antenna we could also get 8!!
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson
3,5, and 8 were Cleveland stations......I had a 13'' Emerson in my room, once I had the proper amount of tinfoil on the UHF antenna I could get Ch 43 out of Wheeling WV
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." Thomas Jefferson
I classify dish, cable, all other pay tv, internet and phone service providers in the same festering hole.
Yep. They're all selling the same tripe in different colored packaging. Our cable contract is up in June and we're done with them. The internet is a must for my job, but they can keep their 500 channels of junk programming.
Accuracy: because white space between bullet holes drives me insane.
Back in the late 60s early 70s our cable TV was UHF (two extra channels) and Dad going on the roof to adjust the antenna array so Mom could watch her soaps: Dad (on the roof) - "How's that?!" Mom: "No! you just had it! Move it the other way!" Dad: "Right there?!" Mom: "No! the other way!" Dad: "There?!" Mom: STOP! STOP! That's perfect! Stop!!!" Lol!
I remember those days. Best thing that happened, dad finally mounted a long pole on it so spin it from the ground. No more climbing on roof.
Replies
JAY
I do plan to cancel my Direct account in the next few months and go back to local TV and Netflix for a while. Time to seriously put money toward bills, get debt paid off and free up money for a new house on my place. That's a bit more important that watching TV....
― Douglas Adams
Makes you wonder how much is running in the background
I also don't have a high speed internet option where I live. Best I can get is DSL. I can stream Netflix, but not anywhere near HD resolution. Which defeats the purpose of having a 4K TV. And, if I'm watching something on Netflix, I can't do anything with my iPad or cell phone. Not enough bandwidth to do both. And my cell connection at the house sucks as well. If I want to watch TV other than local channels, a dish is still my best option.