Changing from Sattellite back to Cable.....

[SWL]

Gotta bite the bullet and dump the Dish Network. HD cable bundled with my high speed intenet will cut my television viewing costs darn near in half.

The thing I'm going to miss the most is the Sirius/XM music channels. Although not the best sound quality, the variety was very good. Great for backround music and the smooth jazz and light rock stations actually sounded pretty good.

Sitting here waiting for the guy to show up. The new audio channels that Charter offers is called "Music Choice". Supposedly 100 channels of digital quality audio. I hope they sound good and don't suck.

Wish me luck!! []

[seti]

I dumped DISH for Comcast cable because I wanted to watch TV when it rained. The channel selection was a little better but I like quality better.

[SWL]

I dumped DISH for Comcast cable because I wanted to watch TV when it rained

I had that in mind, also. I used to make sure I had plenty of recordings on the DVR for when we got heavy rain/snow.

Now with the cable, I'll have about half of what I had with the sattellite......but that's fine. I've become much less of a tv/movie watcher and more a a music freak. I'll still be getting the HD channels that I watch on a daily basis including the DVR at half the monthly cost.

The suspense is killing me about the level of quality with the audio/video.

[Daddy Dee]

I'd dump the satellite if it weren't for my family watching it. Cable TV is not available in my county.... politics. ugh.

Congrats though on economizing. Hope the music quality is good.

[theplummer]

I thought about dumping dish for the same reason, I thought I'd get Charter bundle, but, when I tried to discuss what I was going to get for my money, the salesman was extremely "Vague" about my channel's and how much it'd cost.

He wanted me to tell him what I wanted, and he'd "put a package together for me". I asked him If he was going to let me select "al a carte" and he said no. When it was all said and done, because my kids like cartoons, I like racing and western's, and my wife likes "girlie channels". They wanted about $50.00 a month more than I was already getting with buying High speed only from them and keeping the Dish.

I then called Dish and told them that I was going to have to do something different in these economic times. The salesmen told me I was a great long time customer and offered to drop my bill (without losing ANY services) $20.00 a month for two years.

Guess what I did. Gotta go, there's a good song on XM[]

[BigStewMan]

i'm thinking of doing the opposite--dumping cable for direct tv. time warner here in southern california charges me $93/month for basic cable HD package and high speed internet. direct tv has an hd package that gives me considerable more channels for $60/month--time warner will charge me $39/month to keep the high speed internet. So, for me there is no price savings; but, just got that itch to have something different for awhile.

[winchester21]

I hate Direct TV and Time Warner cable .I had a time warner cable/phone/internet bundle- 12 month special for like 150.00 mo- all available channels except PPV. My 12 month trial period ran out. I was informed that my monthy bill would"increase slightly" at the end of the contract. After spending over 1 hour on hold i was politely informed that they could not tell me what my new billing rate would be. I was to review the paper copy of my next bill when I received it and i would have 10 DAYS!!!!!!! to cancel. My bill went from 150 to 320.00 per month. After another I hour + wait on the phone I raised &^&& with them- they dropped it to 250.00. I said - no way- and turned in the equipment. I was without service for a week waiting for Direct tv and Att to come out and install their "bundle" of garbage into my house. After 13 - count em - 13 trips to my house they finally got it right. My bills were a nightmare. Never correct- never the same. Hour long waits on the phone to fight with the @$$&*!#$ t try to get it fixed. I ended up paying 150.00 per month for direct TV and 50.00 per month for phone and bellsouth internet which sucks- don't ever -ever- buy it. The direct TV works pretty good and I do get all the channels except PPV. I have started getting offers from Time Warner cable wanting me to come back for 99.00 a month for everything- They did hundreds of dollars worth of damage to my house- idiots- the last time they were here so I am hesitant to go back to TW. I literally had to chase the installer off my property and finish it myself.The guy literally drilled a large hole for a wire in the MIDDLE OF THE ROOM under a couch. My contract for ATT/Direct TV is up in September and I am shaking in my boots at the prospect of having to go through this again.

One of the guys at work changed from TW to Direct TV. One evening his TV went off- He walked out side to find that a Time Warner employee had cut his DIrect TV wire going into his house thinking that he was stealing cable. That one was real fun to watch not being involved.

Good luck- I hope your change over works better than mine did.

[SWL]

Well, so far....so good.

Picture quality on HD channels I would have to say is the same as sattellite. Regular channels are clearer with the satellite but not night and day difference.

The music channels, to my surprise sound very good!! They sound better than Sirius/XM that I had previously and I'd have to say that they sound clearer and more of a "digital" sound to them. The down side is they don't offer nowhere near as many good channels as Sirius/XM for my taste in music.......but I pretty much knew that going in.

Oh well, mission accomplished. Another expense cut in half. Still thankful to have a roof over my families head.

[JL Sargent]

I'm a charter Dish Network customer. I pay one bill every Jan. For me its running $320 a year for the Top 150. Im on top of a little mountain here at the house and I get 36 digital over-the-air channels. These are mostly HD channels and they are free. Compared to you guys I'm watching on the cheap!

[peshewah]

Cable isn't offered here in the sticks. I had Direct TV. A man and wife team came and installed our system and fought and argued all the time they were here. After the contract was up I dropped them and went to Dish and have been happy with them. I don't have a flat screen TV and won't get one until my old TV gives out. So I go with the best price and service.

[SWL]

Content with HD cable........bring on the rain. [li] []

[JJkizak]

Geez, I don't pay anything. I get all of my HD via OTA.

JJK

[USNRET]

NEVER in a million years would I go to cable again. I have DirecTV and have been a Cutting Edge (sorta Beta) tester for a few years. If you constantly experience rain fade you need to have you dish adjusted (provided you have a clear line of sight to start with). I do have thunderstorm fade but I guranteeeee the total down time over a year is much, much less than comcrap cable at my location and the HD is less compressed. I had Comcrap, Directv and Dish all at the same time to compare. Oh, I do have OTA HD but with the new birds up the difference is much less dramatic.

[Frzninvt]

I have been with DirecTV for 11 yrs and rarely have rain fade issues. My signal is like 99-100 and it would have to get really bad before I get rain fade.

Standard definition cable channels suck. My friends have Comcast cable and most of the standard def programming is horrid.

I live in the sticks in VT. Cable is not available to me it runs out about a 1/2 mile down the road from me. I also have to use a satellite to get high speed internet access (Wildblue) they have been good though and the signal is consistent.

I probably would get the HD, Phone and Internet bundle to save money but it's just not available to me

[Coytee]

Another DirectTV for about 11 years. I also do the NFL ticket and that alone makes it worth my time. My experience is also good in that I only get the storm fade. If I get a searching for satellite signal, I know I'd better have my car and house windows shut because something ugly is coming my way. I'll also try to get the dogs outside for a quick trip for their "business"

It's kind of an early warning radar for me.

[winchester21]

I liked it a few years ago when you got your card reprogramed every couple of weeks or hit the button on your computer emmulator to reprogram the card zap. Everything from PPV fights to the Batman and Lassie channel for free. Tha pesky old 520 bit encription gen 4/5 cards put a stop to that..I never actually had any of this stuff in my house. I just watched it at a buddys house.

I

[CECAA850]

Geez, I don't pay anything. I get all of my HD via OTA.

JJK

I toggle back and forth between cable and OTA via a couple of switches. The picture you get with OTA is spectacular compared to cable or satellite due to the fact that there's no compression of the signal. We watch all major sporting events on our OTA antenna.

[SWL]

Geez, I don't pay anything. I get all of my HD via OTA.

JJK

I toggle back and forth between cable and OTA via a couple of switches. The picture you get with OTA is spectacular compared to cable or satellite due to the fact that there's no compression of the signal. We watch all major sporting events on our OTA antenna.

I may still go this route someday. What are you guys using for antennas and amplifiers? A couple years ago the dish guy told me that with a decent antenna and an amplifier I could get OTA from Chicago (60 miles) Milwaukee (50 miles) Rockford (50 miles) and some other more local channels for an intallation/materials fee of approx. $500.00.

Was this guy yanking my chain or on the level?

[JJkizak]

I'm using a 9000 VHF/UHF from MCM Electronics. It is 177" long with 91 elements without a rotor. I get all the local channels and ocassionally with "ducting" get Toledo and one in Nebraska. RG-6 lead in with 2 splitters and am trying to find somebody that makes a splitter without 3 db loss at 1 gig. I pick up some of the locals from the side of the antenna and in the UHF world every db counts. The antenna was $96.00 from MCM about 2 years ago as my old one got creamed from a falling tree branch. A lot of the locals are only SD however the 7 main ones are full HD. The latest LCD TV's tuners are very good compared to the old days. (old days being 2003) The local TV News live broadcasts (not the news events) appear as good as the Bluray/HD movies but just not quite. Do not go cheapo on the antenna as it is everything.

JJK

[SWL]

What about an amplifier?

If I remember right.....I could be wrong it was 2-3 years ago......the guy said that in my neck of the woods to play it safe and get a signal amplifier that is rated for approx 100-150 miles? As I stated before, the major cities are all about 50-60 miles from me.