Cable vs Dish?

[spotty_dog]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

Oh, by "regular TV" I thought you meant broadcast. That's free (well, you have to buy an antenna, LOL.) I'm so out of the loop!

Well, it won't be free for much longer without a digital converter box...

Yeah, but I guess if you have a TV made after March 2007 it's built-in, and if you have to buy one, it's only like $2-$20 after the government coupon. So maybe not free but still cheaper than $60/month!

It seems like Comcast now makes you get that $59 cable package. One of the notices in our bill said they would no longer offer the super basic for 9.99 a month. Wankers.

Ah, gotcha. I haven't paid for cable since 1999 I don't think. (We've gotten it for free occasionally though!) So, yeah...like I said, out of the loop.

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

Some of it depends on your internet connection. We have comcast hi speed for internet, which is to me very expensive ($57) but very necessary. And we have had DirecTV for a long time-- before moving out here we had DishNetwork. I really see no difference. Our DirecTV box thingy was seriously annoying last year, always needing to be reset, and actually I think it's b/c of a power drain from our funky DVD player, but DH called DirecTV, told them he was cancelling b/c we didn't like the box, and that he could get a cheaper deal thru Comcast. (It was a promotion.) So, they cut our DTV rate to $30 for 1 year, which was how long the Comcast promotion was, and sent us a new box for free. We did have to sign a 2 year agreement, which is almost up, so DH can call and "renegotiate" again. We usually pay $55 for our DTV package- no HBO or other movie channels, but basically everything else you can think of. I like it b/c the kids' cartoons are available all the time- and some days you need cartoons at 8 pm but don't want to put in a movie b/c it is too long.

Here, since we use Comcast for our internet, we can get the basic cable for free. This only has the local channels, which I think is something like 20 total in the DC market. Basically, the cost of the basic cable is $15 and there's a $15 discount for being a cable customer and an internet customer. We haven't done that b/c there's no need.

Our satellite really hasn't gone out. Sometimes in the intense thunderstorms we get some distorted images on the screen, and occassionally it will black out for a minute or so, but that's only the big storms and it's not really a big deal to me.

[moonlight]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

Oh, by "regular TV" I thought you meant broadcast. That's free (well, you have to buy an antenna, LOL.) I'm so out of the loop!

Wankers.[/quote]


hehehe that word makes me laugh. I saw the other day someone spray pained "Wanker" on a Gordon Ramsay billboard. LOL!

[Cumberland]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

So, if you have dish TV, and high speed internet, what is the rough total? Cause with comcast you can get the bundle of both for $60, and it seems like with dish we would have to have the dish, plus a home phone ( not planning to get one if we dont have to) plus the DSL fee which would be considerably more overall, right?

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

We don't use our land line at all. We do use Vonage, so it is all thru our hi speed cable--- so...

$30 for Vonage
$58 for hi speed internet (Comcast)
$55 for DirecTV

We could bundle the phone/internet/cable for $99 for 6 mos, and then it would be around $150 after that I think... But we are tied into various 2 year contracts.

[JaneDoe]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

We have high speed internet, digital cable and phone through a Comcast bundled package. We pay $125.37 per month. Our land line used to be through Qwest, but it's more of a rip-off than Comcast.

Despite Comcast's bad rep, we have actually been pretty happy with them. When we have had computer/internet issues in the past, Comcast provided great technical support over the phone for free.

[SuzySunshine]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

We have Charter for TV, phone and high speed and I HATE them (reliable but very $$$$) but I'm just not ready to make the jump to dish. I wish Comcast would come into our market.

[migirl]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

I wish Comcast would come into our market.

Really? That's funny, because we're always complaining about how we had a choice other than Comcast.

I've no experience with Dish, but we've had Comcast forever and overall we're actually happy with the service. My main complaint with them is the cost (it seems like every month there is a small ($1-$2) rate increase, but it doesn't feel like we actually get anything for the increased rates)! And I also hate that we have no other choice for cable. Other than that, I can probably count on one hand the number of times we've had service interruptions. We have our internet through Comcast, too, and have had pretty good service there too. With cable + internet, our monthly bill is around $100.

Re: Cable vs Dish?

My experience w/ Comcast has been similar to JaneDoe's. They are responsive and have had very few outages.

The $60 might be an introductory rate -- I would double check on that. We pay around $100 a month for the basic expanded cable and cable internet access.

[Cumberland]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

The $60 might be an introductory rate -- I would double check on that. We pay around $100 a month for the basic expanded cable and cable internet access.

Yeah, it is $59.99 for 12 months then goes up to $100. I will plan to 'renegotiate' at that time.

[scarlett09]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

We have Comcast for cable and high-speed internet. When we moved in together 3 years ago, we were willing to pay whatever necessary to have reliable,fast internet. We were recent college grads and completely spoiled by having ethernet access in our dorm rooms and wireless access on campus all the time.

As for cable, we wanted just the basics. We are both easily distracted by the TV and I really wanted him to focus on his studies. So, we got basic cable.

Then comes the whole switch from analog to digital signal, aka another way for the cable companies to make money. We were told that if we did not buy the digital converter box a full year before the switch, we would lose several stations, including a major network. So we broke down and got a digital converter box for an extra $2/month. They were also supposed to send us a second box for our other TV, but that has yet to show up. I am not holding my breath.

Digital TV is great, but it is just a gateway to wanting premium channels and a DVR. Which means watching more TV than we should. :|

[SuzySunshine]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

Really? That's funny, because we're always complaining about how we had a choice other than Comcast.

It doesn't have to be Comcast, ANY cable competitor would help me get somewhere with Charter. I don't necessarily want to leave I just don't want to pay so much. I see their commercials for their "all in one" packages and it just makes me fume b/c that is what we switched to and then of course our introductory period ran out.

Re: Cable vs Dish?

Cheri, FWIW, I dealt with Charter for my in-laws and I didn't like them much either. :huh:

[peggyfromwastate]

Re: Cable vs Dish?

My parents have Charter... and they SUCK. Comcast, such as it is, is way better.

Re: Cable vs Dish?

Call the cable company and ask about their Tier buy-through plan. These are non-advertised plans that typically run between 10-20/month, depending on the area. Essentially "rabbit ears plus". Works well for us.