Satellite vs. Cable

[tiff211]

I just got a promotion for Sat. tv that is considerably cheaper than cable (we pay almost $80 for cable and Sat. tv would be half there for more). DH is worried about how the picture will be during storms and such as we have seen the commericals that cable puts out.

Please tell me what you have and what you like about it. I have a couple of days before the promo ends!

Thanks

 

[Race the Reaper]

We had satelite for almost a year until we switched to cable. We got tired of no tv during raining or snowing.

 

[foolishmortal]

It Rains and snows pretty good here in Denver and I have had No, I repeat NO problems with directv in storms!

In fact when we have been snowed in the directv is what gave us something to do as phones were out so couldn't get online

I would never go to comcast (cable provider out here)

 

[Cantw8]

with everything I have read and heard, I'm sticking to cable. Yeah, I know in our area they are a monopoly which really pisses me off but they seem to be waaaaay better than satelite

 

[hlbtimes2]

We have had direct tv for about 10 years. My husband works for a major tv manufacturer. TV his is life. We wouldnt have it if the picture or quality was bad. Every now and then we will get some interference when the weather is really bad- but its rare. We live in Seattle, so we get our share of rain. If you live in a heavily wooded area, you may experience more problems.

If you go with direct tv, and would like to give some one a referal credit please feel free to pm me! :lol:

 

[Charade]

I've had Sat for about 5 years. There are times, not many, where the signal is lost due to weather. It doesn't last long. Usually well under 20 minutes. I think my DISH needs to be adjusted because it was put up when the house was built and I supspect the house settling has caused the DISH not to be optimally aligned.

I also have basic cable TV because it's the same price as just internet. The picture quality is much poorer and it does go out from time to time but not as often. We can switch to it when the Sat goes out.

If you get Sat, make sure you get their DVR (TIVO like device). Once you use one of these things, you'll love it! Need to pee while watching Jeporady? Just pause it and come back and hit play. Need to hear what was just said in a movie? Hit the "back" button and repeat the last 10 seconds or so or rewind back 10 minutes (or more).

 

[TinkNH]

We have had DirecTV for 4 years now and I LOVE IT! I will admit that in SEVERE weather (like blizzard or driving rain) we have lost the signal for brief periods of time..but I can literally count that on my hand..not often at all..and no worse than the cable we had which would go out all the time, cost more, and had way fewer channels! We also have the TiVo and I cannot imagine life without it now...with a child in the house it allows me to see my programs when I can, and have her stuff when i need a distraction for her..like 6 pm when i am cooking dinner.
I cannot speak for other sat tv companies but I love DirecTv..and we get 5 disney channels too

 

[Nancy]

Had cable, went to Direct TV, went back to cable. Got tired real fast of no signals and pixilated pictures every time there was a little rain or snow on the dish. Our dish had to be installed on the roof to get any kind of picture and when the snow got in there we had no picture. NO way DH was climbing up 3 stories to get snow off the dish. Rain storms forget it, no TV. Biggest waste of ma=oney we ever did.

 

[golfgal]

I wouldn't say that satellite is crap but I voted for cable mainly because they have some options available that you can't get with satellite like on-demand movies. I don't know if local programming is an issue or not but aren't there some issues with not getting local stations with satellite?

We can bundle our internet and digital cable and it is is less expensive then satellite in our area.

 

[foolishmortal]

I wouldn't say that satellite is crap but I voted for cable mainly because they have some options available that you can't get with satellite like on-demand movies. I don't know if local programming is an issue or not but aren't there some issues with not getting local stations with satellite?

We can bundle our internet and digital cable and it is is less expensive then satellite in our area.

I get all my local channels through directv so I don't know about ither providers though.

Again it surprises people say they lose picture or pixels with bad weather. LIke a previous poster said I can count on 1 hand how many times that has happened. And when it does it is has been cabels lose on my side or the dish needed realignment which they came out next day and did for free.

 

[Master Mason]

I have had Directv for 5 years, would never go back.

lost signal due to weather 2 times ever.... cable used to go out once a week for a few hours, and the picture was crappy.

Was one of the happiest days of my life when I got to cancel the cable, it was that bad.

 

[teacherforhi]

I stayed in a hotel once that had DirecTV and made a big deal of it. Since it was summer in the South, there was a thunderstorm every evening. Every evening there was no television until the storm passed. I just can't see paying money to only watch TV when it's nice out.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We have satellite because cable has not been run to our street yet. We HATE it because we can't get high definition from it. When we had cable at our old house, we could get high definition. Nothing we can do about it, you just can't get it with satellite. (you can only get the HDTV speciality channels if you pay - you cannot get your local channels in HD if they broadcast in it. There is nothing better than LOST on high def and we can't get it anymore.) Can you tell I'm bitter?

They should run cable to our street the first of 2007 and we are switching so fast it'll make Dish Network's head spin.

As far as your other concern, we have had connection go down on occasion and other screw ups but nothing overly major. My sister had HUGE issues with hers, though, it went down anytime it sprinkled outside.

 

[LoraJ]

I don't think Satelite is crap, but it doesn't have many of the features that our cable has.

I had DirecTV with hardly any problems. My boxes would need the card re-inserted from time to time. This always seemed to happen when I was on vacation and I would come home to nothing recorded on my TiVo.

When my SO moved in, he really wanted cable for On Demand. ANd I am so glad I switched. I love On Demand. Between my TiVo and On Demand, I rarely watch live TV.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

We've had Direct TV for about 6 years now with very few problems. I really can't remember losing service during a thunderstorm - but we have for 10 to 15 minutes a couple of times during snowstorms.

We don't have a High Def tv yet so that isn't a problem for us. We won't consider switching until Cable comes up with a package similar to Direct TV's Sunday Ticket. We MUST get the Bronco games. #1 Priority.

 

[highland3]

I voted to go fot it...

just because I'm still with cable and I'm thinking seriously about the big switch too!

 

[kbkids]

We've got Dish Network - and I LOVE IT!!! I second the poster who said to get the DVR - almost didn't do it because I thought it was silly. Oh my! I love it!! Although my kids have learned to abuse the rewind button.

Living in hurricane country, no way would I ever switch back to cable. We had the TV up and running as soon as the generator was cranked up. People with cable were out for weeks - even way after the power was restored!!

 

[RadioNate]

I don't know what satellite providers you all have but we've had directTV for more than 10 years. We get our local channels, HD and while not technically 'on demand' we do get PPV TV that starts on the 1/2 hour.

We have not had too many issues with outages. We live in TX and get some nasty thunderstorms and have had few problems. Certainly not enough problems to consider going back to cable.

 

[CourtasanSatine]

Another vote for satelite and DVR. I love the feature that lets you pause for bathroom breaks and for picking up lines(like tonight during Fairly Oddparents I wanted the kibble line for my siggy and got it)

 

[onelugnut]

I have had Directv for 5 years, would never go back.

lost signal due to weather 2 times ever.... cable used to go out once a week for a few hours, and the picture was crappy.

Was one of the happiest days of my life when I got to cancel the cable, it was that bad.

satelite is the best thing i ever did (for my t.v. life that is)
get the dvr too, second best thing i ever did.
picture is 100x better on my direct t.v. sat.
I had no idea i had a poor signal beforeon my cable.
my dish looks like it points right into the trees, and i never lose signal.
maybe 2 times (once while we were in disney actually) only reason
i know is cuz i missed a few of my season pass shows on my tivo.
which is really the best thing ever.

but i also cant wait for the verizon fios product.
video over fiber optic phone lines,
that is suppose to be amazing and priced to be competitive.
so if you have that coming in your area, you might want to wait for that.

besides all that. i hate cable t.v. companies.
nasty sloppy work, with rates that keep going up