What Kind of Satelite Dish is best - and reasonable?

I dont' watch much TV but my old little one went out and my husband brought a new one home with a bigger screen and DVD in it. Nice - but not the most expensive.

So I'm thinking that maybe a dish would be nice. We have pondered it for years but never knew the ins and outs.

I don't care to get movies - just basic channels and good reception. We live in the country and cant' get cable out here.

Anyone know a good brand or place to buy it that is reliable?

Can we set it ourselves or need someone else to do it?

If our house sells - can we take it with?

How many TV's will hook up to one? And do they all have to watch the same channel?

I'm starting at square one, here, and need some advice from the pros.

[BrandonL]

Does it rain a lot or get bad weather often where you are?

Generally-the only differences between DirecTV dishes will be between the receivers themselves-and that is really just a matter of poking around the remote & menu and seeing which you like.

Does it rain a lot or get bad weather often where you are?


Middle of Kansas. Spring thunderstorms, tornados....wind blows like a demon all year long.

[BrandonL]

Middle of Kansas. Spring thunderstorms, tornados....wind blows like a demon all year long.



I edited my post, btw to add more, but...

You will probably lose total reception in the thunderstorms. Just a warning. Won't be able to see a thing.

The satellites orbit the equator, so-the further south you are, the better the signal..but the harder the rain-the easier it craps out.

Spring will be bad, here, then.

I have seen quite a few on the roofs, though, so they must work somewhat.

I will have to look into that menu and remote thing you mentioned.

I wouldn't know. I hardly ever watch TV.

I've had both, DirecTV and Dish Net. They're about the same as far as I can tell. Dish Net has better promotional offers and it seems cheaper. Of course, when I had DirecTV, there wasn't a channel we didn't get. Now I don't even have HBO. I certainly miss watching the same three movies 800 times per month that they had on there. ::)

I have it for the SciFi channel. That's about all I ever watch...except for when that cock biter John Edwards comes on, then it goes off. I have four receivers in the house, which is kind of curious since I only have three televisions. Wait...ONLY?

[nickg]

QUOTE:
"You will probably lose total reception in the thunderstorms. Just a warning. Won't be able to see a thing."
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true, but "rain fade" only lasts a few minutes. the longest my sat has been out was about 10-15 minutes. and that's only when a massive cloud cover is overhead...compared to cable that goes out for HOURS, at least here it does.

both directv and dish network are good. i have directv myself. if you like sports then that is the one to go with as you have access to a lot of different sports programming options.

even is you have "digital" cable, most of the channels are STILL analog and not all channels broadcast in stereo. with directv ALL channels are digital video and audio quality, and stereo if they broadcast in such.

if you have a "home theater" setup then sat is the way to go for superior audio and video capabilities. ;D ;D

cost depends on how many programming options you want (movie channels, sports channels, etc.) so the cost will vary. i spend about $70 a month for what i get and well worth the cost. obviously you can get it for less with just a basic package and work your way on up.

i've had sat for about 5 years now and will NEVER go back to cable.

[BrandonL]

true, but "rain fade" only lasts a few minutes. the longest my sat has been out was about 10-15 minutes. and that's only when a massive cloud cover is overhead...compared to cable that goes out for HOURS, at least here it does.
One difference-I can (and have) called my cable company for a credit due to outages (since I have a cable modem-I can track exactly when they occur) and do receive them.

Try calling up to DirectTV and telling them you missed the season finale of (insert show name here) due to rain.

For all the money they are gouging their customers with (see those sports packages-which, the NFL tix will be going higher $$ because they overpaid the NFL for it), you'd think they could do ground based repeaters like XM Satellite Radio.

Neither one is a perfect solution, and my decision was made when I got all the same channels as you get on your directv (with the exception of NFL Sunday Tix) that I'd watch and a cable modem for $89/month.

[nickg]

QUOTE:
"Try calling up to DirectTV and telling them you missed the season finale of (insert show name here) due to rain."
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as compared to my cable going out and i miss a whole evening's worth of shows. no thanx. i can live with a 10 minute outage compared to hours with adelphia cable here. and i don't think calling DTV and asking for 10 minutes worth of credit is going to make a damn bit of difference.

as far as cost. my mother in law pays about $40 for cable and gets less than half of the channels i get. so in order to up programming to what i get, yeah it would probably be about over $80 for cable. plus they offer cable modem service and my son and cousin always talk about how my cousin's cable modem service isn't really any faster than my dialup, suprisingly.

i agree that some of the sports programming packages isn't cheap, but at least it is available and it's your choice if you want to subscribe. try finding the nfl or mlb packages on cable.

plus as i mentioned before, the audio and video on my sat TOTALLY blows away cable's. not even close!! every time i go over someone's house and watch cable it just bugs the hell out of me with the lousy picture quality. so that is another reason for me and my home theater set-up.

for people who don't care about A/V quality, or special programming packages, and who's viewing habits are mainly based around the local news then cable is fine.

it's just not for me.

[BrandonL]

as far as cost. my mother in law pays about $40 for cable and gets less than half of the channels i get. so in order to up programming to what i get, yeah it would probably be about over $80 for cable. plus they offer cable modem service and my son and cousin always talk about how my cousin's cable modem service isn't really any faster than my dialup, suprisingly.

I get the same lineup of channels as all the DirectTV's lineup. So, basically-I pay the same amount I'd pay if I had DirecTV-plus I get the internet thrown in.

And my cable modem is a LOT faster than dialup. Try downloading that 16 mb file in a minute on dialup.

More than likely they live in an older region with a horrible infrastructure.

i agree that some of the sports programming packages isn't cheap, but at least it is available and it's your choice if you want to subscribe. try finding the nfl or mlb packages on cable.
If you live in Canada or Mexico they are on cable, and you can subscribe to them. I'm really surprised someone doesn't look into the whole "exclusive" rights DirecTV has on this one. The NFL is quite dumb considering DirecTV makes up only about 10% of the market.

But, it's DirecTV's money to pay for it-so, I'm sure it'll be in the almost $300 range quite soon (already just under $200).

But, that's talk for another thread :)

so that is another reason for me and my home theater set-up.
If you are really into home theater-go with DVD OR, better yet-LaserDisc as your primary medium. Digital broadcast is quite annoying when it gets all pixelated at moments where the bit rate is too high for the receiver. UGH!

At any rate-check out your options Cherry, including such items as: what cable company do you have? is your house surrounded by trees that may be in the LOS? Do you want to have a receiver in each room to watch the extra channels (like cable, you do have to pay for the extra set top boxes), or do you just want antenna? And, foremost-how much tv do you wanna watch? If you just wanna watch movies here and there-check out netflix instead.

[wendy]

I've got Dish network and it's a thousand times better than the shitty cable I had before. Our cable company would NOT offer FoxNews. We signed petitions..we mailed letters, we hounded them for MONTHS. Finally, I dumped the cable and got satellite. The reception is better and as was earlier mentioned, my outages in severe thunderstorms are only in the minutes vs HOURS with cable. I'm happy to say that I'm paying less for the dish than I was for the cable now that local channels are free in my area.

[BrandonL]

Sheesh, what cable company did you have? If it was Comcast or Adelphia, who'd they buy your area from?

One thing about Dish-if you want NFL Sunday Ticket-you have to get DirecTV (which will soon be merging with Dish)

[BrandonL]

http://www.directv.com/images/map.gif

There's DirecTV's map of local channel coverage. Darker states have coverage.

Also-nickg, any idea when DTV will be adding UPN?

[nickg]

QUOTE:
"If you are really into home theater-go with DVD OR, better yet-LaserDisc as your primary medium. Digital broadcast is quite annoying when it gets all pixelated at moments where the bit rate is too high for the receiver. UGH!"

AGREED. i have noticed it especially on NFL games.

as far as home theater, i'm just talking basically about the whole setup and not just dvd/laserdisc specifically. actually i watch very few movies. but i do like the options of dolby digital, pro-logic II, etc. depending on what i'm watching. just makes watching tv more enjoyable, especially with the lack of a whole lot of good shows anyway. ;D ;D ;D
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unfortunately most of us on this forum don't live in canada or mexico (thank goodness ;D) so most don't have the cable option for the extra programming.

and i agree that that price of nfl season ticket will probably go up.
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as far as the directv/dish merger...that was shut down and will NOT be going thru. i'm glad. don't need another monopoly so i wasn't too happy about it to begin with.
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regarding UPN or WB...unless directv offers it as part of a "local" package it is not available. no national feed either, at least not at this point.

with dish network you can get the "superstation" package that has UPN and WB. that is one advantage that dish network has.
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here's a great website i frequent for sat news and discussion.
http://www.dbsforums.com

[BrandonL]

unfortunately most of us on this forum don't live in canada or mexico (thank goodness ;D) so most don't have the cable option for the extra programming.
I was just pointing it out as a dumb move by the NFL. They could stand to make bazillions more if they offered it on cable as well-instead of the DirecTV monopoly. Heck-the NBA league pass is on all three and they make a killing off it.

here's a great website i frequent for sat news and discussion.
http://www.dbsforums.com



thx. ;)

[wendy]

Sheesh, what cable company did you have? If it was Comcast or Adelphia, who'd they buy your area from?

One thing about Dish-if you want NFL Sunday Ticket-you have to get DirecTV (which will soon be merging with Dish)


It was mediaone. They were bought out by AT&T. We even petitioned the city to switch carriers but they weren't interested. I'd love to know what kind of kickback they were getting. Our Cable service was the most expensive in the area with the worst service.

[Jethro Tull]

I've had DirectTV for about 8 years now. Cut out the movie channels because I never watched them, I do get all the networks except Fox (I was grandfathered in when the local-channel thing passed, all the local stations okayed me to keep my out-of-town network stations except the asshole from Fox; I do get FoxNews though). About $36 a month for about 100 channels + 24 digital music channels and the option for dozens of pay per view events too.

The thunderstorm problem is usually very temporary, as the worst part of the storm passes over. The longest I was ever out was about an hour, most of the time if it goes out, it's less than 10 minutes, and most of the time I don't lose service in storms at all.

[tileman]

I've had both, DirecTV and Dish Net. They're about the same as far as I can tell. Dish Net has better promotional offers and it seems cheaper. Of course, when I had DirecTV, there wasn't a channel we didn't get. Now I don't even have HBO. I certainly miss watching the same three movies 800 times per month that they had on there. ::)

I have it for the SciFi channel. That's about all I ever watch...except for when that cock biter John Edwards comes on, then it goes off. I have four receivers in the house, which is kind of curious since I only have three televisions. Wait...ONLY?


Same here..........I never miss the Tuesday 7-11 xfiles......Wish they'd bring back Wends

That edwards dude is some piece of work ain't he? What an asshole!!

I realize it's some kind of flaw in my character....but the only thing about satallite that intriques me is the potential for pirating it.........Kazaa has turned me into a criminal wannabe..... ;D