cable is expensive

[vynsane]

i don't want to pay cablevision anymore. they suck and they're expensive as all hell. worse service than time-warner cable when i was in the city and they're more expensive.

i know kh works for a satellite company (can't remember which, dude... sorry...) and i just saw that rogue II mentioned DirecTV (that's who you work for, right KH. i'm probably wrong, but whatever...)

so for those who have seen/use satellite TV on a regular basis - what's the lowdown. is it worth it? FioS isn't available in my area, otherwise i'd be all over that like a sauce. should i stick it out until then (probably not even be living in the current house by the time that comes around anyway...) or is it worth it to switch? somehow we're paying like, $100 alone for cable TV (not including the $45 on top of that for internet!) and we don't even have premium channels! it's fuckin' ridiculous. i thought we had laws against monopolies using their monopolization to shill the consumer because they don't have an alternative. bullshit.

so, yeah. 'splain to me 'bout satellite.

[RoIIo Tomassi]

All I know is that the JLA used to live on one.

[anarky]

I can't 'splain to you about satellite. But I will complain about FiOS.

Why? When we moved in, Verizon jerked us around for three fucking months. They'd schedule an appointment, then not show up. Then we'd call and they'd give some story about the wires not being down. This despite everyone else in the neighborhood getting their service. Finally, we got ahold of someone who could do something, and made an appointment, but it had to be after everyone who'd moved in after us. Never mind we'd been waiting forever, and missed work several times. A couple of days before the installation, a rep called me to confirm that I knew that the installer would have to install two battery backups in the garage. First I'd heard of it. He couldn't tell me how much power either used, or an exact size, but said one of them was about the size of a textbook. Since no one at Verizon could tell me squat about it, we cancelled the appointment and went with Time-Warner. The worst was they'd issued a phone number for us upfront, which we'd been giving out, but that couldn't be "ported" over since it was never hooked up.

Now they send me (no shit) anywhere between 4-6 flyers each week. I've asked to be taken off any lists. They still send it. According to their website, they pride themselves on being a green company. I say bullshit. They've used two fucking Brazils worth of rainforest lumber to try to get me to buy into their service.

Time-Warner was pretty good, but they recently "updated" the cable box software, which now offers fewer options, a more confusing interface, less programming information, and a propensity to reboot (for about five minutes) at the drop of a hat and with no warning. Not sure how it's an upgrade. I've decided to give them 30 days to get through any growing pains, and, if they don't fix it, fuck 'em.

[vynsane]

interesting account of the FioS woes. sounds like our problems getting TWC installed in brooklyn. getting into "backyards" (read: cement walkways) in park slope was like invading russia in the winter.

Not sure how it's an upgrade. I've decided to give them 30 days to get through any growing pains, and, if they don't fix it, fuck 'em.

but, fuck 'em for what? that's the problem.... are you thinking satellite as well?

[anarky]

Possibly. If you have decent service, and you know they can provide decent service, and suddenly it becomes shitty service but is supposedly an "upgrade" and costs more, it makes you feel a bit less loyal, y'know?

[vynsane]

Possibly. If you have decent service, and you know they can provide decent service, and suddenly it becomes shitty service but is supposedly an "upgrade" and costs more, it makes you feel a bit less loyal, y'know?

yeah, i have a feeling cablevision is throttling down their internet bandwidth for "standard" customers so they will "upgrade" to the "higher speed" option. fuckin' crooks.

[anarky]

I've read that several companies are doing that. Time-Warner is one of them, but not on a national level yet. That'd definitely be the last straw.

[Sleazer]

KH works for Dish Network, which I wish I still have cuz Time Warner blows.

[vynsane]

KH works for Dish Network

i figured i was getting it wrong-o.

[Diabolical]

I've got Dish Network and love it (compared to cable).
We pay roughly $80 per month (IIRC) which includes 250 "channels" (I use the quotation marks because of the digital music channels) and 2 premium channels (which includes numerous HBO and Showtime channels).

When I had cable I was paying about the same price for far less channels, shitty service, and unreliable internet (We use AT&T for internet now). When I canceled it they were about to raise the price and cut my internet speed in half. I told 'em to fuck off.

[kidhuman]

Yeah, I work for Dish. If you like sports alot and want the season pass things, go with Direct, if not than Dish is cheaper and better for the amount of stuff you get. DVR's kick ass.

[vynsane]

Yeah, I work for Dish. If you like sports alot and want the season pass things, go with Direct, if not than Dish is cheaper and better for the amount of stuff you get.

good to know. i could care dick about season pass/sports, so i'll look into dish.

DVR's kick ass.

got a tivo for xmas, tho it's not hooked up yet as i need a usb adapter to get the listings. we've had the DVR from cablevision for a while and it sucks. the interface is worse than it was with TWC and it forgets to record stuff! i liked the TWC better because the fast-forward/rewind had a bit of a "reaction time jump-back" that this one doesn't have. if you stop it, it stops there, and you generally have to rewind a bit to get to the end of the commercials you just fast-forwarded through in order to catch the first line of the show after the break. fuckin' frustrating. it's fucktrating. over to the "new words" thread i go....

[anarky]

Does Dish come with a DVR, or is it extra? If it's included, that's a plus. It'd be nice to have, but I'm not willing to pay $10 extra a month for it.

[vynsane]

Does Dish come with a DVR, or is it extra? If it's included, that's a plus. It'd be nice to have, but I'm not willing to pay $10 extra a month for it.

from what i can tell it's included, which is kinda annoying. i'd rather be able to pay a bit less and not get the dvr, since, like i said, i have the tivo. looks like directv has quite the deal going on right now, too... $5 less and seems like more channels. i'd have to really investigate further to make sure.

also, i like directv's website better. more navigable and cleaner looking graphics. not that that's a big deal, but it is to me. also, more content per page. take this page for example:

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/offe ... ndex.shtml

how does this say "why dish?"?

four excruciatingly tiny bullet points and a bunch of large smiley faces aren't going to sell me.

[kidhuman]

You get one Dual Tuner DVR with hook up. It works two TV's in separate rooms. You can get to work 2 Standard TV's or 1 HDTV and 1 SD TV. The HD one comes with up to 350 hours of recording space the Standard one is 150 hours. If you go with dish, it is a two year commitment and tey will waive your DVR service fee if you go with whats called DDA(Digital DVR Advantage) promotion, it requires a two year commitment, since you are doing one, do the other as well as they run concurrently, so you dont pay that extra fee. DDA also will knock a few bucks of off movie packages(BO, etc) if you get two or more and make them ten bucks a piece.