I have been using cable so far but it gets more and more expensive. So
I am weighing options switching to satellite TV. I currently have
Comcast, all but premium channels. I have very nice Sony widescreen
HDTV with built-in HDTV tuner. So HDTV programs are very important for
me including HDTV DVR. I checked DirectTV and Dish network web sites
and I am now confused with their choices and pricing.
Do they offer local channels in HD?
Do they force to buy DVR or I can rent? How much does it cost to rent
DVR? Can it record in HD?
Are local channels included in packages or I have to pay extra for
them?
Is equipment free (Dish, receiver, etc.) or I have to pay rental fee as
well?
How do satellite and cable packages compare? I have now around 200
channels including about a dozen in HD from Comcast. Again I do not
have HBO, Showtime, etc. How much would comparable package cost from
satellite?
Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?
I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.

"Sasha" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have been using cable so far but it gets more and more expensive. So
I am weighing options switching to satellite TV. I currently have
Comcast, all but premium channels. I have very nice Sony widescreen
HDTV with built-in HDTV tuner. So HDTV programs are very important for
me including HDTV DVR. I checked DirectTV and Dish network web sites
and I am now confused with their choices and pricing.
Do they offer local channels in HD?
Do they force to buy DVR or I can rent? How much does it cost to rent
DVR? Can it record in HD?
Are local channels included in packages or I have to pay extra for
them?
Is equipment free (Dish, receiver, etc.) or I have to pay rental fee as
well?
How do satellite and cable packages compare? I have now around 200
channels including about a dozen in HD from Comcast. Again I do not
have HBO, Showtime, etc. How much would comparable package cost from
satellite?
Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?
I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.

I switched and sometimes wish I had not. The new service Direct TV has
issues about picture quality sometimes in the early evenings. Some thunder
storms will completely block viewing. Now I own the outdated boxes. Last
time I dumped Dishnetwork I gave the whole set up that was 2 years old to a
friend. When he tried to activate it they told him it was so ancient that he
needed new converters and dish.....
At least with the cable company I could take the boxes back once every
couple of years and get the newer one for nothing, other than the monthly
fee..
DTV charges for each converted connected.... Not TV. $4.95 a month. My
installation was with 4 converters, on activation I immediately disconnected
2 of them.

I got TV, high speed internet and phone wrapped into one bill. About 10
bucks a month less than what I was paying before.

All in all is was a push.........

On 07/12/05 10:47 pm Sasha tossed the following ingredients into the
ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

I have been using cable so far but it gets more and more expensive. So
I am weighing options switching to satellite TV. I currently have
Comcast, all but premium channels. I have very nice Sony widescreen
HDTV with built-in HDTV tuner. So HDTV programs are very important for
me including HDTV DVR. I checked DirectTV and Dish network web sites
and I am now confused with their choices and pricing.
Do they offer local channels in HD?

Don't know about Dish, but with DirecTV it depends where you are. Here
in W. Michigan, I put up an antenna for the locals in HD -- but not all
their programs are in HD anyway: mostly only the prime-time series.

Do they force to buy DVR or I can rent? How much does it cost to rent
DVR? Can it record in HD?

DirecTV doesn't rent DVR machines, but our original 35-hr non-HD DVR
cost only about $100. This is a TiVo, which many people claim beats the
other DVRs, and costs $5/month for the "programming information."

We just got a 250-hr SD/30-hr HD TiVo for $350 with a 50%-off coupon at
BestBuy.

Are local channels included in packages or I have to pay extra for
them?

If we are paying DirecTV anything at all for the non-HD locals, it must
be only a dollar or two a month.

Is equipment free (Dish, receiver, etc.) or I have to pay rental fee as
well?

We had a 3-room installation (dish and 3 receivers) free after rebate.
Now they commonly advertise a 4-room installation free after rebate. It
costs $5/month per receiver.

How do satellite and cable packages compare? I have now around 200
channels including about a dozen in HD from Comcast. Again I do not
have HBO, Showtime, etc. How much would comparable package cost from
satellite?

No doubt depends on the company. HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc. are
available with DirecTV at an extra monthly cost: $12 for the first, $11
for the second, $10 for the third, etc.

Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?

Weather doesn't Effect reception, but it sometimes Affects it. We've
lost our signal 3 or 4 times in 18 months during heavy rain. But we
sometimes lost our cable signal during heavy rain too.

I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.

We had Cablevision in NY, but when we moved to MI we went with DirecTV
because we liked the available channels better than those available by
cable from Charter.

Perce

Sasha wrote:
I have been using cable so far but it gets more and more expensive. So
I am weighing options switching to satellite TV. I currently have
Comcast, all but premium channels. I have very nice Sony widescreen
HDTV with built-in HDTV tuner. So HDTV programs are very important for
me including HDTV DVR. I checked DirectTV and Dish network web sites
and I am now confused with their choices and pricing.
Do they offer local channels in HD?
Do they force to buy DVR or I can rent? How much does it cost to rent
DVR? Can it record in HD?
Are local channels included in packages or I have to pay extra for
them?
Is equipment free (Dish, receiver, etc.) or I have to pay rental fee
as well?
How do satellite and cable packages compare? I have now around 200
channels including about a dozen in HD from Comcast. Again I do not
have HBO, Showtime, etc. How much would comparable package cost from
satellite?
Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?
I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.

I had DirectTV for a little over five years. When we got internet access via
cable, I added TV and cancelled the DirectTV account.

Shortly thereafter (about ten days), I got a letter from DirectTV's lawyer
accusing me of stealing DirectTV's signal via unauthorized signal decoding
devices, demanding that I surrender all such devices in my posession, pay a
penalty of $4,000.00, and forswear ever again stealing from their company.
Further, the letter concluded, if they had to file suit, the minimum for
which they would settle would be $10,000.00.

They ****ed with the wrong dude - I didn't go to law school for drill.

I responded with a letter along the lines of "I suppose a blow job is out of
the question?" Then I got positively mideval - pitchforks and torches time.
I followed the letter with a petition for a TRO and injunctive relief in
state district court. The roaches ultimately went back under the carpet.

I hope they rot in Hell.

The porn is better on satellite, though. Especially Dish Network.

Sasha wrote:
I have been using cable so far but it gets more and more expensive. So
I am weighing options switching to satellite TV. I currently have
Comcast, all but premium channels. I have very nice Sony widescreen
HDTV with built-in HDTV tuner. So HDTV programs are very important for
me including HDTV DVR. I checked DirectTV and Dish network web sites
and I am now confused with their choices and pricing.
Do they offer local channels in HD?
Do they force to buy DVR or I can rent? How much does it cost to rent
DVR? Can it record in HD?
Are local channels included in packages or I have to pay extra for
them?
Is equipment free (Dish, receiver, etc.) or I have to pay rental fee as
well?
How do satellite and cable packages compare? I have now around 200
channels including about a dozen in HD from Comcast. Again I do not
have HBO, Showtime, etc. How much would comparable package cost from
satellite?
Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?
I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.


We tried satellite TV for a couple of months and were dissatisfied with
the fuzzy picture quality whenever it rained. Since we live in the NW,
it was pretty much all the time. We switched back to Comcast and are
quite happy with cable now that we have had the bad experience with
satellite TV to compare it with.

cable and satellite both suffer from digitization during action sports
(NASCAR, NFL, etc) which gives you out of focus fast action, so there's
that, (if the engineers of the companies are reading this, please FIX)

if you decide to go with a satellite dish, and if you are sick of the evil
Bush administration, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" etc., then it might interest
you to know that DirecTV is owned by Fox "News"

that is why I went with Dish Network at my beach house and not evil DirecTV

same reason I boycott Exxon/Mobil

still have not decided which is better between a better digital cable system
and Dish network because they are at different houses so I cannot compare
quality side by side.

there are pros and cons of each

"Sasha" wrote in message
Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?
I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.


From what I can tell, neither is perfect.
I know two people that are very happy with satellite, I know two others that
are switching back to cable. One fellow has to go out every time it snows
to clean his dish. The other loses signal in any bad weather.

I've thought about switching but there does not seem to be enough difference
in price or quality so I'm still sticking with cable.

"Sasha" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have been using cable so far but it gets more and more expensive. So
I am weighing options switching to satellite TV. I currently have
Comcast, all but premium channels. I have very nice Sony widescreen
HDTV with built-in HDTV tuner. So HDTV programs are very important for
me including HDTV DVR. I checked DirectTV and Dish network web sites
and I am now confused with their choices and pricing.
Do they offer local channels in HD?
Do they force to buy DVR or I can rent? How much does it cost to rent
DVR? Can it record in HD?
Are local channels included in packages or I have to pay extra for
them?
Is equipment free (Dish, receiver, etc.) or I have to pay rental fee as
well?
How do satellite and cable packages compare? I have now around 200
channels including about a dozen in HD from Comcast. Again I do not
have HBO, Showtime, etc. How much would comparable package cost from
satellite?
Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?
I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.

Contrary to what they may tell you, Dishnetwork does not have local channels
in HD. They told me they did and after getting a new receiver and a new
dish antenna, I found out they did not have HD local channels. I must have
asked the Dish person selling the service ten times if she was sure that
Dish had local channels in HD. She assured me the did. I had had Dish for
about five years up to that point, but cancelled it after all the lies they
told me.

"if you decide to go with a satellite dish, and if you are sick of the
evil
Bush administration, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" etc., then it might
interest
you to know that DirecTV is owned by Fox "News" "

I figures some kook would turn the decision of whether to go with sat
or cable into a "Bush is evil" thing. And is usual, it' based more on
hatred than facts. Fox News does not own DirectTV. News Corp, the
parent company of Fox News, owns about a third of DirectTV, which is a
US public company. And what does Rush Limbaugh have to do with any of
this? Last time I checked, he's on radio. Most of US who didn't like
a particular channel just don't watch it, as there are hundreds to
choose from. We didn't get all emotional about it.

As for OPs question about receiving locals in HD, with sat you need a
seperate OTA antenna to receive the locals from wherevery they are
being broadcast in your area. For central NJ, that would be either NYC
or Phil. The only exception is, one of the two sat providers was
offering CBS LA/NYC HD feed if you were qualified to receive it.

"arizona" wrote in message
...
cable and satellite both suffer from digitization during action sports
(NASCAR, NFL, etc) which gives you out of focus fast action, so there's
that, (if the engineers of the companies are reading this, please FIX)

if you decide to go with a satellite dish, and if you are sick of the evil
Bush administration, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" etc., then it might
interest
you to know that DirecTV is owned by Fox "News"

Fox News appears to be owned by Newscorp.
http://www.cjr.org/tools/owners/newscorp-timeline.asp

Direct TV is owned by Hughes Electronics.
" It's not known how much signal piracy costs DirecTV. On Wednesday parent
company Hughes Electronics reported strong second quarter results, with $2.4
million in revenue, driven by DirecTV's subscriber growth. It ended the
quarter with 11.6 million subscribers paying an average of $61 a month for
service. "
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/07...ocent_techies/

If the two are intertwined I did not find it in my searching.

I only looked cause I worked on the LA broadcasting center for DTV. I spent
almost a year there before they went on line. Never heard from anyone about
Fox News. When the toping out party happened there were lots of suits from
Hughes there.

I have been a dish cust for a long time. See my recent post in
alt.dbs.echostar re differences between dish and directtv.

On DBS systems local HD is via off the air antenna. You can get a HD DVR
that will record this signal in addition to the sat stream. You can buy or
rent the DVR from Dish. They can give you the pricing. Locals via sat will
run about $5 more per month and, I think but check first, that HD locals are
only available in SD right now. I have always bought my receivers, never
rented. I would never go with a non-DVR receiver again. I think that Dish
pricing will always beat Comcast for programming. Weather can effect
reception sometimes. This will vary depending on how strong your signal is.
if you have a clear shot to the sky, no trees, and your dish is installed
properly you will rarely have issues. if your shot is through a few trees or
your dish is not properly aligned your signal could fade more frequently.
Good news about that is it will go back on as soon as the storm lightens up.
Cable can take days to fix a down wire somewhere.

I used to have Comcast digital cable. The channel layout and organization is
terrible compared to Dish. The Dish user interface for their DVR is far
superior IMO.

If you want DVR and HD you have only a couple of options from Dishnetwork.
Their current receiver that will meet your requirements is the 942. its a
two tuner model (Allows you to record 2 shows at once while watching a 3rd!)
http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/p...hd/index.shtml

is kind of pricy with a list of $699. They may have rental options or
discounts if you commit to programming, check with Dishnetwork. 800-333-DISH

The 811 does not have DVR capabilities.

You may want to try these guys too http://www.dishdepot.com/ I have dealt
with them before for receiver purchases and they were always helpful.

"Sasha" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have been using cable so far but it gets more and more expensive. So
I am weighing options switching to satellite TV. I currently have
Comcast, all but premium channels. I have very nice Sony widescreen
HDTV with built-in HDTV tuner. So HDTV programs are very important for
me including HDTV DVR. I checked DirectTV and Dish network web sites
and I am now confused with their choices and pricing.
Do they offer local channels in HD?
Do they force to buy DVR or I can rent? How much does it cost to rent
DVR? Can it record in HD?
Are local channels included in packages or I have to pay extra for
them?
Is equipment free (Dish, receiver, etc.) or I have to pay rental fee as
well?
How do satellite and cable packages compare? I have now around 200
channels including about a dozen in HD from Comcast. Again I do not
have HBO, Showtime, etc. How much would comparable package cost from
satellite?
Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?
I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.

wrote in message
ups.com...
"if you decide to go with a satellite dish, and if you are sick of the
evil
Bush administration, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" etc., then it might
interest
you to know that DirecTV is owned by Fox "News" "

I figures some kook would turn the decision of whether to go with sat
or cable into a "Bush is evil" thing. And is usual, it' based more on
hatred than facts. Fox News does not own DirectTV. News Corp, the
parent company of Fox News, owns about a third of DirectTV, which is a
US public company. And what does Rush Limbaugh have to do with any of
this? Last time I checked, he's on radio. Most of US who didn't like
a particular channel just don't watch it, as there are hundreds to
choose from. We didn't get all emotional about it.

If he decides that it is not appropriate to give his money to companies that
air highly biased "news" programming, than more power to him.

Bob

On 12 Jul 2005 19:47:01 -0700, "Sasha" wrote:

I have been using cable so far but it gets more and more expensive. So
I am weighing options switching to satellite TV. I currently have
Comcast, all but premium channels. I have very nice Sony widescreen
HDTV with built-in HDTV tuner. So HDTV programs are very important for
me including HDTV DVR. I checked DirectTV and Dish network web sites
and I am now confused with their choices and pricing.
Do they offer local channels in HD?
Do they force to buy DVR or I can rent? How much does it cost to rent
DVR? Can it record in HD?
Are local channels included in packages or I have to pay extra for
them?
Is equipment free (Dish, receiver, etc.) or I have to pay rental fee as
well?
How do satellite and cable packages compare? I have now around 200
channels including about a dozen in HD from Comcast. Again I do not
have HBO, Showtime, etc. How much would comparable package cost from
satellite?
Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?
I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.
=================================================

Been in the same house for almost 40 years....
Have used:

1 a BUD (Big Ugly Dish)
2. Small Dish ...Dish Network
3 Cable

For me...Cable offers "my" best bang for the buck....since they offer
high speed internet and TV offerings and picture quality and
programming was close enough to the Satelite I went that way...

Phone company is about to offer DSL in my area...and to be honest
if DSL is anywhere near as good as Cable Internet I will be hanking
cable and having the small dish re-connected...

Weather rarely caused any problems with the little dish (3 foot of
snow did not affect the big dish at all)...but I loose my Cable TV and
internet connections all the time ...(like this morning for 3
hours...without a local storm...)

Just the opinions of a guy who does not watch a lot of TV

Bob G

Sounds like smart capitalism to me. I congratulate him.


wrote in message
ups.com...
"if you decide to go with a satellite dish, and if you are sick of the
evil
Bush administration, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" etc., then it might
interest
you to know that DirecTV is owned by Fox "News" "

I figures some kook would turn the decision of whether to go with sat
or cable into a "Bush is evil" thing. And is usual, it' based more on
hatred than facts. Fox News does not own DirectTV. News Corp, the
parent company of Fox News, owns about a third of DirectTV, which is a
US public company. And what does Rush Limbaugh have to do with any of
this? Last time I checked, he's on radio. Most of US who didn't like
a particular channel just don't watch it, as there are hundreds to
choose from. We didn't get all emotional about it.

As for OPs question about receiving locals in HD, with sat you need a
seperate OTA antenna to receive the locals from wherevery they are
being broadcast in your area. For central NJ, that would be either NYC
or Phil. The only exception is, one of the two sat providers was
offering CBS LA/NYC HD feed if you were qualified to receive it.

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 07:16:42 -0700, "Bob"
wrote:


wrote in message
oups.com...
"if you decide to go with a satellite dish, and if you are sick of the
evil
Bush administration, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" etc., then it might
interest
you to know that DirecTV is owned by Fox "News" "

I figures some kook would turn the decision of whether to go with sat
or cable into a "Bush is evil" thing. And is usual, it' based more on
hatred than facts. Fox News does not own DirectTV. News Corp, the
parent company of Fox News, owns about a third of DirectTV, which is a
US public company. And what does Rush Limbaugh have to do with any of
this? Last time I checked, he's on radio. Most of US who didn't like
a particular channel just don't watch it, as there are hundreds to
choose from. We didn't get all emotional about it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If he decides that it is not appropriate to give his money to companies that
air highly biased "news" programming, than more power to him.

Bob


Bob, don't all satellite and cable companies carry ABC, NBC, and CBS?
If so, then how can one subscribe without getting a company that airs
"highly-biased" news programming?

wrote in message
ups.com...
"if you decide to go with a satellite dish, and if you are sick of the
evil
Bush administration, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" etc., then it might
interest
you to know that DirecTV is owned by Fox "News" "

Good to know that. I may switch just to **** you off.

We've been with DirecTV for 6 years, with no problems.
It's only lost service during the most severe of storms.

Best thing is, they have a Tivo-driven PNR that has two tuners, so you
can record 2 shows at once, or record a show while watching a
different channel.

We just got one, and it rocks.

tenplay wrote:
Sasha wrote:

I have been using cable so far but it gets more and more expensive. So
I am weighing options switching to satellite TV. I currently have
Comcast, all but premium channels. I have very nice Sony widescreen
HDTV with built-in HDTV tuner. So HDTV programs are very important for
me including HDTV DVR. I checked DirectTV and Dish network web sites
and I am now confused with their choices and pricing.
Do they offer local channels in HD?
Do they force to buy DVR or I can rent? How much does it cost to rent
DVR? Can it record in HD?
Are local channels included in packages or I have to pay extra for
them?
Is equipment free (Dish, receiver, etc.) or I have to pay rental fee as
well?
How do satellite and cable packages compare? I have now around 200
channels including about a dozen in HD from Comcast. Again I do not
have HBO, Showtime, etc. How much would comparable package cost from
satellite?
Finally, how is satellite quality vs. cable? Does weather effect
reception?
I would like to hear from someone's experience who switched from cable
to satellite. I live in central NJ.


We tried satellite TV for a couple of months and were dissatisfied with
the fuzzy picture quality whenever it rained. Since we live in the NW,
it was pretty much all the time. We switched back to Comcast and are
quite happy with cable now that we have had the bad experience with
satellite TV to compare it with.

The 3-digit channel numbers for Dish were driving us batty. The
channels are not in consecutive order, so you either had to memorize the
channel numbers or always look them up in the channel guide. For
instance, TBS might be #438 and TNT #076. The standard Comcast cable
numbers, which we usually watch, are in consecutive order and only two
digits.

Also in our area, the Comcast people are much more accessible and
responsive. They always answer their phones and do service calls within
a day or two. We had to order Dish through a small independent dealer,
whose flakey receptionist gave us wrong information and who was
backlogged with service calls to make.

wrote in message
...
We've been with DirecTV for 6 years, with no problems.
It's only lost service during the most severe of storms.

Best thing is, they have a Tivo-driven PNR that has two tuners, so you
can record 2 shows at once, or record a show while watching a
different channel.

We just got one, and it rocks.

I'll second that and I have DishNetwork. The only time I have a signal
problem is during a REAL bad thundertorm and that might be for 5 to 10
seconds. A buddy of mine used to own a Dish franchise and he said when
people lose a signal all the time (from small storms and such) it's because
a) their dish isn't point in the right dorection or 2) there is a tree or
something bnlocking the "view". I had that problem after the first two years
and realised that the neighbor's tree had grown tall enought that it was
interfering with the signal. I just moved the Diash to a different location.
I figure I'm good for another 10 years or so......

David wrote:

Contrary to what they may tell you, Dishnetwork does not have local channels
in HD. They told me they did and after getting a new receiver and a new
dish antenna, I found out they did not have HD local channels.
It's also a confusing time for DirectTV hi-def. They are planning to
launch new satellites and offer HD local channels in the next year or
two that use a better compression software (mpeg4), but things are
going to slip as they always do. They also plan to offer their own dvr
that understands mpeg4. The current TivoHD unit is only mpeg2 and will
slowly become obsolete as more directtv channels get converted over.
As mentioned, there's going to be tons of delays implementing the new
scheme. In the meantime, DirectTV has filtered down their HD channels
so much that all the home theater guys are grumbling, hd-lite is the
term. It's not much more detail than a good dvd transfer.
www.tivocommunity.com is a good site to keep up with all this.

"texas twang" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 07:16:42 -0700, "Bob"
wrote:


wrote in message
roups.com...
"if you decide to go with a satellite dish, and if you are sick of the
evil
Bush administration, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" etc., then it might
interest
you to know that DirecTV is owned by Fox "News" "

I figures some kook would turn the decision of whether to go with sat
or cable into a "Bush is evil" thing. And is usual, it' based more on
hatred than facts. Fox News does not own DirectTV. News Corp, the
parent company of Fox News, owns about a third of DirectTV, which is a
US public company. And what does Rush Limbaugh have to do with any of
this? Last time I checked, he's on radio. Most of US who didn't like
a particular channel just don't watch it, as there are hundreds to
choose from. We didn't get all emotional about it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If he decides that it is not appropriate to give his money to companies
that
air highly biased "news" programming, than more power to him.

Bob


Bob, don't all satellite and cable companies carry ABC, NBC, and CBS?
If so, then how can one subscribe without getting a company that airs
"highly-biased" news programming?

Actually, the satellite companies do NOT carry ABC, NBC and CBS as part of
their packages in this area. If you want the major networks you have to
sign up for local stations, which then provide you with all of the locals,
including PBS, Fox, Paxon, etc. And contrary to another posting, you don't
need a special antenna for local stations -- Dish network converts them into
a satellite signal and they're downloaded just like the other hundreds of
channels.

Bob wrote:
If he decides that it is not appropriate to give his money to
companies that air highly biased "news" programming, than more power
to him.

Uh, two recent studies, by the Pew Research Group and the Annenberg
Foundation for Public Broadcasting, found Fox News to present the most
balanced news reports (compared with the three major networks).

Fox News does have a couple of opinion shows (O'Reilly, etc.), but so do the
majors (Ophra, Dr Phil, etc.). These shows are clearly labeled as such.

News vs. news, however, Fox is clearly more fair than the others.

Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

From what I can tell, neither is perfect.
I know two people that are very happy with satellite, I know two
others that are switching back to cable. One fellow has to go out
every time it snows to clean his dish. The other loses signal in any
bad weather.

Tell your buddy to spray the dish with PAM.


I've thought about switching but there does not seem to be enough
difference in price or quality so I'm still sticking with cable.

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 20:25:03 -0500, "HeyBub"
wrote:

Bob wrote:
If he decides that it is not appropriate to give his money to
companies that air highly biased "news" programming, than more power
to him.

Uh, two recent studies, by the Pew Research Group and the Annenberg
Foundation for Public Broadcasting, found Fox News to present the most
balanced news reports (compared with the three major networks).

Fox News does have a couple of opinion shows (O'Reilly, etc.), but so do the
majors (Ophra, Dr Phil, etc.). These shows are clearly labeled as such.

News vs. news, however, Fox is clearly more fair than the others.


True, HeyBub.

O'Reilly is neither a Democrat or Republican. He's an independent and
has often criticized policies of President Bush.

"Hannity and Colmes" - Hannity is conservative, while Colmes is
liberal.

FoxNews features several liberal news analysts including Juan
Williams, Mara Liasson, Susan Estrich.

Liberals Geraldo Rivera and Greta Van Susteren have their own FoxNews
shows.

Those who state that FoxNews shows a high bias favoring conservatives
obviously don't watch it. Instead, many let Hollywood stars do their
research/thinking for them.

"And contrary to another posting, you don't
need a special antenna for local stations -- Dish network converts them
into
a satellite signal and they're downloaded just like the other hundreds
of
channels. "

Converts HD signals into a sat signal and downloads them? What are you
talking about? The HD locals are transmitted from the local stations
transmitter, not a satellite. And if you get the HD eqpt package from
either Direct or Dish, while they give you the necessary equipment, the
locals have to be received via a seperate antenna, not the sat dish.

Best thing is, they have a Tivo-driven PNR that has two tuners, so
you can record 2 shows at once, or record a show while watching a
different channel. We just got one, and it rocks.

My Time-Warner cablevision DVR records two at once, too. I love it.

I'll second that and I have DishNetwork. The only time I have a signal
problem is during a REAL bad thundertorm and that might be for 5 to 10
seconds. A buddy of mine used to own a Dish franchise and he said when
people lose a signal all the time (from small storms and such) it's

What's a signal problem? ;-)

My Time-Warner cablevision DVR records two at once, too. I love it.


Does it have "season passes" ?
Just curious.

My dad was asking if he should get the DVR with his cable company, and
I was telling him about Tivo's season pass functionality. He didn't
know if the cable box could do that.

"HeyBub" wrote in message
...
Edwin Pawlowski wrote:

One fellow has to go out
every time it snows to clean his dish. The other loses signal in any
bad weather.

Tell your buddy to spray the dish with PAM.

Good tip. Thanks.

arizona wrote:
cable and satellite both suffer from digitization during action sports
(NASCAR, NFL, etc) which gives you out of focus fast action, so there's
that, (if the engineers of the companies are reading this, please FIX)

if you decide to go with a satellite dish, and if you are sick of the evil
Bush administration, Rush Limbaugh, Fox "News" etc., then it might interest
you to know that DirecTV is owned by Fox "News"

that is why I went with Dish Network at my beach house and not evil DirecTV

same reason I boycott Exxon/Mobil

still have not decided which is better between a better digital cable system
and Dish network because they are at different houses so I cannot compare
quality side by side.

there are pros and cons of each



We have satellite, lose signal when it storms. Neighbor's tree is
almost large enough to block our signal.....I know there is hope for
getting rid of Fox "News" )

On 07/23/05 08:37 am Norminn tossed the following ingredients into the
ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

We have satellite, lose signal when it storms. Neighbor's tree is
almost large enough to block our signal.....I know there is hope for
getting rid of Fox "News" )

We have satellite (DirecTV), but there's nothing (besides air, clouds,
etc.) between our dish and the satellites.

Nearby trees, tall buildings, etc. mean that satellite isn't going to
work for everyone.

Perce