Cable or Satellite

[Cerveza]

Television service only. Total bill per month cost.

Feel free to discuss the best packages, services and equipment here as well.

[Masscre]

DishNetwork or as us hackers know them as Charlie.  They have some really good packages for less than 50 bucks to be had if you look around and shop.  Also if you are a new customer you will get a lot of package extras for free. For new customers HD is free. If you sign up for bank draft or paperless billing you can get showtime and cinemax for 12 months for .01.  Also new customers recieve HBO for free the first 3 months. If you look at the bronze or spanish packages they can be had for 35 bucks or less.  I have a spanish package for 29.99 and it includes all the good channels in english also you just change the audio format on the reciever.  Spanish packages are the best for the price and you still get everything in english it just cheaper priced package. Most do not know about this. Any question of ideas leave here or drop me a line.

[12TimesOver]

It's a little difficult to have this conversation outside of the scope of Internet and Phone service though. These additional services drastically impact my decision to go with cable over satellite. You simply cannot compare price-wise otherwise IMO.

Im my area I'm stuck with Comcast and I truly hate them. Unfortunately the package I get through them beats everyone else in the region hands-down. I can't get the same kind of bandwidth from anybody else (there is no FIOS here) and they offer package discounts if you stack services. Satellite can offer cheaper packages but they don't give you the same programming for the $. Furthermore, speaking for Comcast at least, the cable companies tend to have MANY more HD channel offerings; this is also extremely important.

Last, I don't want a satellite dish hanging off the side of my house. It just looks like crap.

X

[Cerveza]

Oh I agree. What do satty people use for internet anyways?

[12TimesOver]

Oh I agree. What do satty people use for internet anyways?

DSL?

[SunTigress]

I agree with 12. Granted, I really don't know much about our internet speed or anything else, but on our package, we pay ~$100 for TV and Internet, and they said we can have phone or not, either way we (and the people who don't get it) are paying for the phone. So, we have the phone too, which is nice because we don't have great cell phone reception in our house, and we can call unlimited long-distance, plus tons of features, like forwarding the calls to one of our cells. We have pretty good internet, and I don't have any idea what packages we have on the TV. I think we have the sports package 

[jtw1984]

If you are a big sports fan I think satellite is a must have! You got all these sports packages. Every year I get NHL Center Ice and NCAA Football Gameday. Satellite is kind of annoying if its storming since it cuts out. However, the customer support for DirecTV or Dish Network is outstanding compared to cable.

I no longer have a home phone. Also, I use DSL for internet.

[Masscre]

Last, I don't want a satellite dish hanging off the side of my house. It just looks like crap.

You dont have to have the Dish on your house this is upto the customer and because most customers do not say anything about it they get it placed on there house.  Now my Sat System is on a 10 foot parabolic dish with motor.  So I dont get any rain fade

[jtw1984]

Yeah DirecTV told me I would not get any rain fade....

They lied! haha

But I'm still happy with service.

[Rheeanna]

my local DSL here rocks, except I changed over to the cable package.  

I found it harder to set up the home network.   Hubby and I were looking into dish network, EXCEPT.... Hubby has a tv in every room of the house.   Don't you have to have a box connected to each tv?  That just wouldn't work here.    I'm surprised he doesn't have TV installed in the closet so he doesn't miss something while changing channels at the speed of light  

For now, we stick with cable.   BTW, after the package was up, I called my cable company and said, you know, its cheaper for me to go to the other guys.  The man on the other line put me back on promotional.  I pay $96.00 for internet and cable.  (HD, no dvr, I have a computer hooked to it as well).

[NObama]

Satellite.

1) Comcast suxxors.  I would go a long way to avoid dealing with them.
2) I have a LAN in my house provided by the HOA.  Huge internetz speeds, no cost to me. 
3) More HD channels
4) DirectTV offers screaming deals for new customers. 29/mo, with a couple premier chans for free for 3-6 months.  After 6 months, you pay full rate.

Bad things:
1) Bad weather = bad reception.  This is usually just heavy rain or snow, unless high winds knock your dish out of alignment
2) Satellite internet is bad juju when you're pvping.  Ping times are high.  Your signal is traveling a minimum of 46,000 miles (23K to geosynchronous orbit and then back to earth).

[Cerveza]

HOA's are the Devil!

[NObama]

Not when you're renting and the landlord pays the dues.

 

[TrailMyx]

HOA's are the Devil!

Yes indeedy.  My house here in SD is free, but my land in New Mexico is nearly $900/yr.  My girly pays nearly $300/month for her condo!!!!

Back to topic; tricked out cable for me.

Comcast does suck.  It's like 10x slower internet-wise than my Cox connection.

[onlyindreams]

For TV, just stick with basic TV. Watch everything on Hulu or download torrents of TV Shows the next day... The only thing I miss is ESPN and NFL Network, so that makes me say go Direct TV.