On Jul 23, 5:54*am, aemeijers wrote:
On 7/23/2011 5:46 AM, Fatter Than Ever Moe wrote:









RonB wrote:
We live in a rural area in SE Kansas and our local, independent cable
provider just announced he will close shop at the end of July. I
would be irritated but he guy is 72 years old and has provided
excellent service for years. He can't find a buyer and is worn out.

We are comparing Dish vs Direct. Quite frankly Dish seems to be
looking better, but:

What do you guys think?

RonB

Have you thought about an over the air antenna and online streaming? I
dropped Dish over a year ago and have an extra thousand in the piggy
bank now. All I wanted was the news, business news, educational channels
and the military channel. The over the air channels are usually actual
HD an many of the online streaming channels are also.
Dish actually did me a favor when they raised their prices, got me off
dead center and got me to do something I should have done a year or two
earlier. Most over the air channels have sub channels some of those are
pretty decent to watch...
an example of what's available now with online streaming...
http://www.justin.tv/directory/entertainment

Online streaming is only a viable option if you can get 'real' broadband
at a price cheaper than cable or satt. In OP's case, the cable company
is shutting down, which leaves DSL, often not available in rural areas.
Worth a phone call to check out, but you can't assume everyone can get
what is available in built-up areas. They keep crowing about how
broadband is available to 70+ (I think) per cent of US population, but
they never seem to publish the maps for where it is available, *on
anything lower than a county-by-county basis. *Around here, other than
in rich rural suburbs that offer fiber, once you are five miles from
city limits, the choices dry up real fast. Unless you wanna pay out the
wazoo for 2-way satt, you have dial-up, which is basically useless with
modern internet.

I'm lucky that a 3rd-party DSL company services my neighborhood, since
Ma Bell won't, even though my company's head end is right next to the Ma
Bell offices downtown, so I know it would work. My company charges twice
as much as Ma Bell for the same speed, but they are still cheaper than
Comcast cable, my only other choice.

--
aem sends...


That's just it. I have a verizon 3G hotspot and even when I get the
best signal I can't watch a youtube video without it stopping all the
time to buffer more of the video. I doubt netflix or some other
streaming video service would be any better.

-C-