Has anyone had good or bad experiences with satellite TV compared with cable?

Glenn

Glenn,
I have had satellite TV for nearly 40 years! I still have my 12 foot dish in my back yard and the last receiver we used. In the early years nothing was scrambled, there were no commercials in the broadcasts, and you moved the dish from satellite to satellite to tune in various channels. The receivers cost in the $1000.00 range and worked really well. If you liked a certain program you could watch the entire weeks shows when they were sent down to the TV stations. My wife would watch Days of Our Lives soap opera and see the entire weeks programs in one night. During news casts when it was time for a commercial we would see the news casters talking to each other and making comments about the news or other unrelated things - sometimes what they said could never go out on the air - but it was not censored on the satellite feeds. It was great fun.

As time went on, networks began scrambling the shows and eventually we had to pay to see a lot of stuff. But that was a long time ago and things have changed a lot.

In recent years we used Directv and was very pleased with it. Dish network is also a supplier but I have no experience with them. The dishes now are only about 3 feet across and stay tuned to a single satellite. Quality is really good and show selection is enormous. Satellite TV packages range from as little as $30.00 a month and well over $200.00 monthly pending on if you get a lot of movie channels, a basic package, or something in the middle.

Today we are using Verizon Fios because of the internet speed it offers. The general programming for TV is the same as it was with Directv - but we also get some really good landline phone service with the deal.

Those of us who were among the first to have a dish and were able to watch just about everything free, except for the equipment, think it has all gone backwards. Today you pay a premium price to have access to bundles of channels that the suppliers think will sell.

Deane

Well said, Deane..... I finally took my 12 ft Dish down last year... The early days were special, and we will never see that again. It sure was exciting times.

I really enjoyed watching the "Uncensored News ", not what the networks offered you, but the real news, uncut and raw !!!!!

Here in rural Texas we have a couple of options with Satellite TV... both are miserable excuses for intelligent content. Both require the user to utilize an energy consuming DVR. Both are complex systems and easy to get "out of whack."

Out of frustration, I wanted to see if "free" television is still available digitally... so I bought one of those cheapie, line of sight digital antennas. (No, it won't work with anything but a digital TV) To my surprise, since we live within 60 miles from the Metroplex, I was able to pick up ten (sometimes more) channels. The content is not much better but I can receive local news and PBS. The higher you position your antenna, the better your reception will be.

If cable were available, I would prefer it. Not that the content would be any better... most American Television is slop for mindless hogs... but the signal would not be interupted by a flock of birds or a small rainshower. Heaven forbid a thunderstorm... LOL!

I'm sick and tired of ten minutes worth of commercials. By the time the show is ready to return... I've forgotten what I was viewing in the first place. Then there's the problem with the volume boost these scoundrels employ when they run a string of 5 to 10 commercials. (They know you've gone away to the regrigerator... LOL!)

The promise of TV has been sidetracked by greed and corruption and our mainstream media giants only give us the news they want us to have. Things happening in the rest of the world... or in the academic or scientific communities are left for CCTV (the communists) to reveal. What a sad state of affairs. That's what happens when you let politicians get involved with broadcasting. Just like everything else... it ends up being a pile of rat dung... sorta like universal health care.

Hang on, Riceeroni--you ain't seen nothin' yet! There's a bill before congress that will take FREE broadcast TV and sell it to commercial companies that will scramble standard, broadcast channels and require the general public to pay to watch local news, programming, etc... Therefore, unless you subscribe to one of the pay systems you will not be able to watch TV at all. Click here for details.

Riceroni,
You can get Directv or Dish TV from any locale. Have you checked with them? They have more content then you can possibly watch.

Deane

More on FiOs TV; I haven't had an outage or even a speck of interference on my HD TV in over two years. The picture quality is astounding. Many dish owners I know have issues with reception much more frequently.

Yes, I agree about Fios - runs flawlessly. I had a lot of problems with cable - both TV and Internet and made the change to DirecTv. The when Fios became available I switched to it because of the internet speed. There are however, some drawbacks for me about Fios TV. The new upgrade has bugs and the menu guide is a real pain in the butt to read because of the colors being used. Verizon has told me there are many complaints and some of the "older" boxes had to be replaced to work with the new OS version.

Deane

Thanks for the "heads-up" Gary. These fools in congress just don't seem to understand that we want less government... not more.

Deane... I hope I didn't mislead you with my opening remarks... we get both satellite providers here... it's just that I feel their services are worthless. When you click on the history channel... they want you to watch ghost stories or ufo myths. Click on the Travel channel and they provide you with a ton of stupid food stories from a team of idiots.

If the government wants to control something... it needs to be the folks who provide worthless, downright dumb television content. Ten idiotic "judge" shows... Nancy (barf) Grace and then CNN and their little sister plus Fox are all hell bent on dishing out what they think we need to know... and each seems compelled to provide us with a team of self-serving buffoons who just love to blather. What ever happened to a real news show... with one guy reading the news and allowing the viewer or listener to decide for himself. (Most of us have brains... although the networks seem to think otherwise.)

If they do away with "free" TV... I'm pretty well convinced that I'll just do without. 100 channels of pure drivel. Sure, every now and then a decent show crops up but they are so few and far between and dish seems to enjoy moving the shows around so it's difficult to find what you seek.

Even worse, the free movies they provide are uncensored and seem to revel in dropping the "F" Bomb unceasingly. I liked it better in world war II when radio and TV folks had manners and morals... even though it was imposed upon them. (Thank God for that!)

I'm calling my "Tea Party" Rep right now. November, here we come!

I got so disgusted with the line up on Satellite and cable that I retained bare minimum on Direct TV for the news and got Netflix. The best thing I ever did.

Never had a problem with the founder and the first cable TV Provider in the USA Service Electric Cable TV , a family run business

We are actually one of the few areas in the U.S. where you have a choice of Cable TV, either Service Electric, or RCN. I don't think it helps though as they both charge nearly the same rates.
Collusion?

Anyway, it would be nice if the FCC , Cable TV, Satellite, and Fios would allow freedom of choice. In other words, allow the user to choose those channels you really want, instead of being forced to pay for lots of garbage, that we don't want. "Pay per channel" sounds good

However, I would never want to go back to the days of the rotor antenna, where you had to actually climb on the roof with tin foil...those over 50 know what I'm talking about.

On the subject of Satellite, I have heard good, with lots of channels and great picture, along with the bad as in "breakups" with bad weather

PS: Dean, very enjoyable comment.

It ain't much better up here in Canada...TV was actually better 40 years ago when we only had two channels...at least there wasn't as much advertising.

I had my cable service discontinued about 10 years ago...I don't watch TV anymore...and, after a little weaning off period, I really don't miss any of it.

Every time I'm traveling, the hotel TV has basically the same quality of content I used to waste my time on years ago.

TV is a big time-waster, and I'd rather fill up my time using the PC and playing music.

At least there is feedback from both those activities...there is none from a TV.

If you want news, the computer does a better job.

TV is designed to generate money for the owners...entertaining the viewer is secondary.

Ian

I can vividly recall when it fun to watch TV with LIVE shows. Here's some links to some of those shows that will really bring back some wonderful memories to those of you over 60 years of age.


Tim Conway-Johnny Carson

No bombs in Oklahoma

Carol Burnett Show

Enjoy,

Gary

Bernie,
Tell us how you are using Netflix. I have thought about dropping my Fios TV and using Netflix for watching TV shows. The guys at Best Buy recommend using Apple TV with Netflix which provides full HD.

Deane

Tim Conway and Johnny Carson were in a league of their own !!!!

Thank You Gary, for the memories...

Hammer

I am streaming Netflix from my Roku HD but others like XBox, Apple TV, and Blue Ray probably are as good. It gets signal from my wifi and the picture quality is excellent.

DirecTV is throwing 3 month trials of movie channels at me, but I am not going back to $100 plus a month. I don't know if I will keep the $29.95 basic as I can use the internet for news.

Bernie

But what about live Sports...NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAAA, Soccer, Golf ?

Also HBO would definetly be missed, as it's more than just TV.

That, along with the delay in watching a favorite show, alternative services like Netflix, would not be for me.

I guess I'm one of those millions who love their cable/satellite TV the way is, and because of the above flaws in the alternatives, I would have a hard time swithing.

I pay $130 a month for cable tv (on four tv's), cable internet access (on three computers), a landline phone, and a DVR, all on one invoice. It's convieneint, reliable, and has great support.

I'd go crazy without cable TV...actually I'm crazy with it

The Only thing that keep me on cable the TV is:

- Sports (NFL- Baseball)

But my wife and my daughter is another matter (rerun shows and soap operas)

I wish some day to have only Internet and phones services. ( I have all of them with the same company, including cable TV).

Around here, cable (basic) , internet, phone and a DVR is over $180.00. Prices have increased over 15% a year for the 6 years we've had it.

I watch TV several hours on Sunday evening. Content sucks and prices are outrageous.

R.

Larry
You are one that wouldn't be happy without it. I am 95% music and 5% movies.

Different strokes--

Bernie,
what kind of content does the Netflix give you?
Deane

That's fabulous, Gary!

BTW, I haven't watched t.v. in years, except for some sports. I do watch a lot of youtube, though. And some Netflix.

Deane

More movies than you could ever watch. They are in all categories with detailed descriptions and a search. Also, many documentaries and tv shows. The best way of choosing is to preview the Netflix site and put your choices on your instant queu and they will appear on your home page on the tv. There are many thousand to choose from. If you choose to get DVD's in the mail, you double your choices.

If you are a prime member at Amazon, you can do the same with any streaming device and choose 10,000 movies for nothing.