Cable vs. Satellite

[Tom Adams]

Ok.......I know this topic has come up before but a) it's been a long time and I can't remember what all was said and I'm a lazy b*stard and don't feel like dealing with the search feature. So.......

My HT is soon to be finished and I have the choice of going cable in there or satellite. As much as I've tried to educate myself, I can't seem to conclude which would be better. I realize the pricing is different, but the cost/channel cost is fairly close. And naturally, each industry says their product is superior. Right now I have Comcast cable but not their digital package.

Any info you guys might offer that would guide me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

[Frzninvt]

Satellite, hands down. Cable sucks, even digital cable is terrible! I would only have cable if it provided high speed internet access and that is it! I do not even have that option, get cable if you enjoy 280 lines of resolution compared to close to 500 lines with the dish. It is just no contest, period. Why pay more $$ for less programming and a crappy picture.

I have been a DirecTV customer for seven years and I will never ever go back to cable again. DirecTV just added 67 "XM Radio" channels to my lineup today. Yipee!

I have no trouble with rain fade or heavy snow, still get a good strong signal. I am pinging in a "99" and I have a forest in that direction.

[MrMcGoo]

The only benefits to digital cable are cable modems and custom movies on demand. There are alternatives to both: DSL and Netflix.

The big debate is DirectTV v. Dish.

Bill

[IndyKlipschFan]

Cable modem..Comcast

video on demand and pay per views..

HD for like Tivo functions

Outstanding pics in rain or snow too...in HD..

I like Comcast Cable.. it is $ but great,,,, and the cable modem... I will NEVER go back... Better than my T1 line we used to have.. and a t a HUGE discount too..

Look for discount packages... they will help..

[stan krajewski]

I don't know where you live but in New York & New Jersey Verizon is just about ready with fiber optics.

This will generate some real competition and hopefully bring the prices down.

Fiber optics is way better than anything else. The goal of Verizon is

to have your PC, telephone & cable all in one line and one bill.

[Ray Garrison]

And I thought the tube / solid state debate generated extremely polarized opinions... [6]

I had cable, decided to dump it for satellite. I got so tired of

losing the damn signal every time snow built up on the dish or there

was a bad thunderstorm or it was raining really hard that I got rid of

it and went back to cable.

I now have Comcast digital cable. Have cable modem for internet

access (almost a meg / second downloads on good days, never less than

750KB), Comcast digital phone service. *LOVE* having free on

demand shows to choose from, especially Nick and Cartoon Network for my

son. Picture quality is way better than I *EVER* got from

satellite.

I would *NEVER* *EVER* *EVER* go back to satellite.

I live in New Haven County, Connecticut by the way...

[Malcolm]

I think you will get the best advice here:

AVS Forum

[sunburnwilly]

I had both until last Spring . Comcast HD with cable modem and Voom satellite HD . I could not tell the difference in picture quality , but as far as audio quality the Satellite service was far superior . Having both though cost me about $180.00 a month , thats with the discounts Comcast gives you for having both dig. HD and internet service . Since my satellite provider Voom went out of business last April ; not enough subscribers from what I hear , I have stuck with Comcast . My main reason being the cable modem . I don't know if you have internet service through Comcast ; I suspect you do , you will pay $20.00 a month extra to keep your internet service with them and drop their TV service . Other than the satellite service having much better audio quality , you will find Comcast to be much more reliable overall ...

[sunburnwilly]

PS Voom did leave their equipment with me so I ended up with an over the air HD receiver by Motorola , a DVI cable , and a spiffy 3 foot long boomerang shaped antenna mounted at the top of my roof for FREE . []

[IndyKlipschFan]

I now have Comcast digital cable. Have cable modem for internet access (almost a meg / second downloads on good days, never less than 750KB), Comcast digital phone service. *LOVE* having free on demand shows to choose from, especially Nick and Cartoon Network for my son. Picture quality is way better than I *EVER* got from satellite.

Same here...

[rplace]

I have had the fortune/misfortune to move around a lot. I have had several cable companies so feel like I can speak in pretty general terms. With out a doubt Satellite is superior in both picture quality and sound quality. Given the choice the only reason to pick cable would be because of a cable modem. If cable comes to my current area I will still keep the satellite and pay the extra money to have a cable modem (no DSL in my area either).

Anybody who says cable is more reliable due to snow/rain/trees is either a liar or working for the cable company. I am soooooooooo glad I moved to the middle of nowhere and was forced to get satellite. I was believing all the cable hype/claims until I saw it for myself. I only have experience with DirecWay and it ROCKS!

[michael hurd]

There are many factors in the equation. Our cable service here blows, for the same or less money, you can get more channels, and radio channels ( 65 ) on Starchoice. If you need high speed internet and do not have DSL, you may seek out your local cable provider instead.

There are some cable companies that offer very nice DVR boxes for not a lot of money. Not here. I chose satellite, and never looked back, they will pry it from my cold dead hands. I can take it to another location, even camping. Some programs are time shifted, with east and west feeds, so I can watch them again if I missed part of it.

Another nice function with a DVR / PVR box is that you can bring it somewhere ( like a hospital for instance ) and watch over 100 hours of pre recorded video off of the hard drive, rather than pay an outlandish fee ( hospital here is $ 9.50 a day!? ) Ditto for camping, etc.

Most satellite providers let you have multiple receivers and at least one at a second residence. ( like a summer camp ) Some charge extra for each receiver each month. You have to weigh all the options and decide for yourself.

Obtaining a second dish is pretty easy, either you can find a used one that someone is getting rid of, or some companies will send you a second one free of charge.

As far as rain fade/snow piling up on the dish, in 3 years, I can count on one hand when I could not watch television. There was two times it rained so hard, you could not see across the street, the rain was bouncing about 2 feet back off the asphalt. Another freak storm with really wet snow stuck to the pan and lnb, a quick swipe with a broom, back in business.

[Coytee]

I live out in the sticks & don't have access to cable, dsl and the ISDN I DO have is REALLY slow (I'm outside limits of ISDN too but they had to provide me with it)

So, given the choice of nothing or Directv, I took the DTV!

The NFL package is kinda nice too... for the last 6 years of having it, I've been able to watch my Bengals suck.

Now however, I'll get to watch them whoop up on Indy this week!!! (sorry all you Indy fans [] ). If it helps you Indy fans, I'm in Knoxville & had the pleasure of watching Peyton here at UT and hope he does well AFTER getting schooled by the Bengals!

[Speedball]

whoop on the Colts? I hope not because they never did so well since they sneaked over here from Baltimore many years ago...lol.

I guess it's location, location, location regarding reception with Cable or Dish....we have cable and if Dish is cheaper...here I come.

[michael hurd]

You really have to sit down and run the numbers. DTV used to tack on an extra $ 5 a month per receiver, I do not know if that holds true now. ( someone confirm / correct me on that )

Here in Canada, we have either Starchoice or Bell Expressview. Bell uses DISH hardware, with their own software laid into it, they ride on the coat tails of Charlie Ergan, also having the deep pockets of BCE here in Canada to dip their greedy hands into. I will say this, the Echostar receivers have a nice guide compared to the Starchoice legacy guide.

Starchoice is a division of Shaw Cable here in Canada, they use hardware developed by General Instrument, and now manufactured by Motorola. ( I have one General Instrument labeled box, the others are labeled Motorola. They use DCII ( digicipher II ) security, and have not been comprimised. General Instrument made satellite receivers for big c-band and ku band, and have been quite reliable.

Directv used to have a big problem with piracy, the receivers obtained without a subscription, a little software and ~ voila`, a pirate was watching tv for free. Since they went away from a card based authorization, no more piracy.

Dish network ( and BEV here in Canada ) used Nagravision security. This was also comprimised, and millions of receivers hacked to watch for free. The last figures I read are 11 million actual subscribers in the u.s. for dish net, and 1.4 miliion here in canada for bell. So when they decided to change to limit the piracy, who did they get??? Why Nagravision again, with their Nagra2 encryption. Guess what, that is compromised now too, just months after swapping out 11 million cards in the u.s., and over 1 million here in canada.

Who pays for the piracy??? Not the satelite companies, you can bet your wallet. The legitamate customers get boned with increases to cover the losses that the company endures from signal theft.

[nuclearay]

I have the Dish HD 942 PVR. 15+ channels of HD and Sirius Radio in addition to the other bazillion channels offered. I love it. I rarely have rain fades (less than 10 times a year) and when I do it is very brief (5-10min at most but usually a couple of minutes). The fades give me warning that we are about to get slammed with straight line winds, strong rain, and lightning directly out of the SE. While the sat is out I usually watch the PVR. My father-in-law has Direct and he has quite a bit of woods around his house; when it rains he loses signal for hours on end -- I think it has to do more with the jagoff who did the installation than anything. The last few hurricanes we had come through I never lost signal.

I had cable for decades until a few years ago and hated it. The signal quality was always horrible on most channels and deplorable on others no matter where I lived. I've lost my cable signal for days on end after a strong Tstorm. I thought cable was reliable too, until I got Dish... and changed my mind. The a la carte stuff cable offers never appealed to me.

Just my $0.02

[Cal Blacksmith]

I can only speak for here but my folks have comcast and we have dish, for us, dish wins hands down. No snow to speak of though we do get some high winds (my shop had to be built to withstand 120mph!) and our service has only been out once, due to faulty installation of the dish. The bottom was just wedged up, not even screwed down!!

[michael hurd]

Installation and tuning in of the signal has a lot to do with proper reception. I have seen dummies screw a dish mount to a pole in the ground that moves! Also, dish size is a big factor, the larger the reflector, the more resistant to rain fade. In the last few years, the noise figure ( measured in db ) has gotten better in LNB's. A noise figure of 0.3 db is much better than one with 0.8 db, and will give you a much better signal.

You could take a 10 foot C-band dish, point it at the satelite of choice, and strap a circular polarized lnb to the side of the feed horn, and get great signal. Of course you would only get one satelite this way, you could link other dishes through switches.

For example, if you had Bell Expressview, and wanted both 82 and 91 sats, you could use 2 24" dishes with single LNB's, hook each to a port on an SW44 and run the single line into the receiver in the house. If you have dual output LNB's, you can use 2 SW44 switches to route the signal to 2 receivers.

Same scenario with dish and the legacy LNB's. You can also use the DISH 500 LNB with Bell here, it has the switch built in, just need to install and do a " check switch " in the receiver. I would still say that 2 24" dishes is a LOT better than one 20" dish to pick up both satelites. Can you say "no rain fade, ever"?

Some companies offer larger dishes for remote locations. Here in most of Canada, the normal size Starchoice dish is a 60 cm elliptical ( oval ) dish, but you can get a 75 cm dish as an option. Starchoice has a switch built in, you need one line per receiver. If that is not big enough, you can get a 1m universal dish from channel masters, with a universal KU band LNB that will work for Starchoice here.

[michael hurd]

My parents live in a small rural town, and have cable, the equipment is old, and with the addition of cable internet on the system, it is often down. Not to mention, the price is absolutely horrid for the selection and service. If a tree falls on the line, it could be out for a week straight, before a service guy fixes it.

It all boils down to the location and installation of a satellite system when it comes to signal strength. Remember, the larger the dish, the better! A low noise figure ( 0.3 db is better than 0.8 db ) on the LNB means better signal. A dish has to be absolutely mounted firmly so it cannot move.

This means NO installs on a corner of a deck, no installs on a flimsy pole in the ground, etc. I would NEVER install one on a roof, that is asking for trouble, in the form of unseen water leaks that manifest themselves years later.

Before considering satelite, do a site survey, and make sure you have a clear shot south. Also may satellite providers have a minumum commitment contract, Bell up here is 2 years, when Starchoice is 1 year.

[dtel]

What Michael Hurd said is true but past that we have dish and the picture is better than cable. At the moment we have both cable { charter } and dish ,the tv is a Toshiba 65" hd.

With the Toshiba they are many inputs on the rear of the tv, so i have the cable in one of the inputs and dish in another,this let's me put both on the same channel and switch back and forth with just one button. i have done this a few times to compare the picture and it is never even close, satellite is always better by far no question.

As far as hd goes dish has more channels than direct or cable but your locals don't come in hd. they have 15 hd channels some suck but it is still more than you can get anywhere else. For hd you pay $100. more at install for a second dish for some of the old Voom channels and it is about $10. more a month,But the hd is as good as it gets for now a least.

The one thing you have to do for the hd is after the installer leaves is set the menu to whatever your tv can handle,540i,p or 1080i. When he installed it he left in on the defalt setting. I diden't notice for two days when i was playing with it and i could not change it to 1080i till i figured out you change it in the dish box on the menu then you must unplug the sat box and replug it in and it then downloads the new settings and the it sends the new setting to the tv. It made a big difference and it is not just for hd you must set it for the best picture your tv can handle.

Sorry for the long post but we just went through this a month ago and you can't seem to get all the answers from any one source, hope it helps.