Satellite or Cable?

[geckoboi78]

I have had cable for years and just recently switched over to DirecTv. I love it and just curious how many Prius owners have satellite vs. Cable?

[raybon]

Too many trees where I'm at to get satellite... I've got cable.

Glenn

[rflagg]

We've got Dish Network. Have had problems with them over the years, but recently they've been good, since we got our HDTV receiver. Ready for more HD content (only 5 channels currently), but otherwise enjoying everything else. (Our former problems with them mainly dealt with a faulty receiver that they didn't want to cover expenses for).

-m.

[Greyskye]

I've got both Dish Network and cable. When Comcast took over AT&T Broadband Internet, they jacked the prices of your internet connection unless you also used their cable TV service. So I got a basic cable hookup to the bedroom (this was in the days before free multi-room Dish hookups) and pretty much broke even on the cost. As a bonus, the cable installer didn't have the right channel blocking gadgets with him, so we ended up with a full cable package (minus premium pay channels).

My wife and I do laugh at the Comcast cable commercials which complain about all the problems that having a dish bring. We get more pixallation and service outages from cable than we ever do from the Dish. And we live in a depression surrounded by trees - it took the Dish people 2 weeks to find a good install point on the roof that had satellite visiblity through the trees!

[jayman]

At my condo I have Shaw cable and their high speed Internet as the Condo Association refuses to allow satellite dishes. At the hobby farm I have Starchoice DBS.

Overall I would rate the Starchoice DBS as having better picture quality than the digital Shaw cable system. The incidence of pixelization and dropouts is about the same.

The biggest difference is package price for programming. The same programming content is a good $45 a month cheaper with Starchoice DBS. Most DBS have programming packages a lot more reasonable than what cable offers, as the cable usually has 1-2 packages and other channels are pricey add-ons.

[Devil's Advocate]

SO CAL - LA / Hollywood
Direct TV
way better and way cheaper
Cable blows!!!!!
if you need net access use DSL
Can't wait for satellite net prices to drop!

[Danny]

I'm a cable kind of guy. With Time Warner Cable, I've got a cable modem, 2 digital boxes, one of which is a HD-DVR, all of the premiums except for Starz, plus the Video On Demand services such as HBO On Demand (which I wish would come out in HD), plus 11 HD channels (not including the special event channels which air all of the Braves games in HD) - all for a price that none of the satellite companies could touch. Although, they mainly can't touch it because they just don't offer it (or you have to pay $1,000 for a HD-DVR).

I have my sporadic problems with cable, and really wanted something like VOOM until they went under, but I'm addicted to my HD-DVR and no one else can offer it for $4.95/month.

If I was a "standard" customer with basic packages, there's no way I'd be with cable - DirecTV all the way.

[bookrats]

I'm probably on the low end of the spectrum: I have extremely basic cable, combined with a TiVo.

There are a number of shows I'd watch if I had extended cable (Deadwood, The Daily Show, and probably Cartoon Network non-stop). However, my schedule is busy enough now that I barely have time to watch what I am recording.

There's that stack of books to read; some home development projects to work on; oh, and those things you humans call "chores"...

[Sufferin' Prius Envy]

The poll needs a third and fourth option. . . “Other” and “none” . . . I’m an Other.

I had and hated Comcast until I switched to and loved DirecTV . . . until something better came along.

Fiber Optic!
with
Triple Play!

TV:
No rain/snow fade. No cable outages, no East Coast centric time frames.
TV channels and music clarity like DirectTV .
Local government, local weather, local PBS and community channels.
Pay-per-view. (Yawn)
Video-On-Demand!!! (Start, stop, rewind, fast forward, and pause movies . . . and no Blockbuster visits!)

Internet:
10Mbps!!! (Yes, 10,000,000 bits per second) symmetrical (up and down) always on and no possibility of a slowdown because of neighbors using up the bandwidth like cable. The fiber cable comes all the way to the house. (FTTH)

Phone:
POTS . . . sort of, except it is crystal clear, unlike POTS.

Not counting the first week of bug shake-out, The system has been up and running for me for almost a year and not even the slightest glitch.

Two TVs
Two Phone lines.
Internet.
$120 month with tax & fees. About what I was paying separately for a lesser quality of all three.

[use 95819 for zip code]
http://personal.surewest.com/

[hockeybrat]

I prefer DirecTV over cable. We now have the TiVo receiver, and we love it!