Posted on 07/20/2006 2:28:12 PM PDT by HAL9000
I really want to dump the ever-evil Comcast. The picture quality STINKS on analog - when I buy 320x240 "Battlestar Galactica" episodes on iTunes, it is equal in picture quality to Comcast!
They scramble DiscoveryHD and ESPN-HD, even though I pay through the nose for the analog versions. Even if I were to pay for them, I can't watch them without a set-top box, and hence they won't be viewable on my Elgato EyeTV HDTV system I have on my Mac.
The only think keeping my holding on to Comcast is the very-high speed internet connection. While Comcast offers cable internet without TV service, I've heard reports that the "TV channel blocking" filters they place on the line signifigantly impact internet speed.
Well, there's always more than one way to skin a cat, but this is the first thing that comes to mind: The conductive wires or water plumbing typically associated with heaters would interfere with with the EM signal-collecting poperties of the dish.
It sure does fire up the engineering imagination to how this could be done, though! Good idea.
I just yanked DISH out of my house and went back to cable. They finally added enough HDTV channels to make it worthwhile, but when I scheduled the installation of the necessary upgrade, they screwed up the scheduling. When informed of their screwup, instead of going out of their way to remedy it, they basically just said "oops" and put me back at the end of the line to wait another 11 days before getting the service.
After several wasted hours on the phone (mostly on hold, including getting disconnected a time or two) over the course of about four days, I was eventually told that the installer would be out to hook it up the next day. Not only did that not happen, but when I called again, there were no notes on my computer file indicating that anything had been said to me, let alone the lie I'd been told apparently just to get me off the phone. So that was the end of DISH network for me.
When my dish was mounted way up on the side of the house, I tried all sorts of contraptions to get it de-iced too. It took forever to get it cleared off. Finally, I had enough of that and installed the pole on the ground.
Well, if they succeed, I'm betting Charlie Ergen will be ticked. Dish tried to buy DirecTV a few years back, and the feds nixed it. So I guess it's ok for DirecTV, but not Dish?
That should cease to be a problem when they eventually go full digital. When that is, is beyond me, but with a full digital signal they will be programming your receivers/setop boxes/digital TV's with what you can receive, so actual filters won't be needed.
Bandwisth should go up as well since there won't be any analog signals to eat it up.
Scratching my head. That's exactly how I remember it. They ruled Echostar couldn't buy DirecTV, but now the reverse is OK? Huh?
You nailed it. We have Dish and my in-laws have DirectTV. While our program packages are pretty similar, I absolutely hate the on-screen guide that they have. Dish Network's guide is, in my opinion (check my tagline!), vastly superior.
One thing I always wondered about DirectTV, Why are Fox News,MSNBC and all other news channels in the 360s and CNN\Headline News at 202 and 204?
Couldn't tell you.
The most logical explanation is that they were given numbers as they bought into the DirecTV program.
ESPN is 206, whereas FX and FSN are either in the 300s or the 600s.....
My HD DVR from TWC can record 2 shows at once as well. TiVo is not the only DVR with that feature.
I sure hope Charlie can take it private. I like Dish, and don't want DirecTV or AT&T taking over.
The problem is that they don't have MPEG4, which will be required for the new HD channels.
I've got two SD DirecTiVos, so I'm good on that.
Fox was still starting up when CNN signed onto DirecTV.
I think it was a first come first serve deal, but believe what you like.
Nah. I'm an RF engineer. So long as the heater would be on the back of the dish it'd be invisible to the incoming RF. Somebody else chimed in and said a heater is available. Story of my life, I have lots of ideas I never act on, then I see them a couple of years later on TV.......
I had a similar (though much worse) experience with cable here in Houston. It's probably a regional thing. Remember that when you subscribe to a dish service at the national level (doesn't matter which brand) that they send out the dish company nearest you. That company may totally suck, compared to one in a different region that doesn't. By the same token, I know of people who had nothing but good things to say about Time/Warner Cable.
I don't want to go into detail about how bad Time/Warner Cable sucked, but suffice it to say I was steamed enough to cancel the cable AND the RoadRunner service I had with them. I now have DiSH and DSL.
This is the second time this has been floated; the first time the antitrust people shot it down. I guess the appropriate palms have been greased this go around?
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