Thinking about making switch from Cable to Dish Network...help

[Heddi]

Okay. Digital Cable is an absolute necessity living out in the sticks of Yakima. But being that Mr Heddi & I are both nursing students & both unemployed, we're kind of not happy about having to pay $55/mo for DigiCable. I can't give up the Cable Internet, so I have to make a choice about our television viewing.

The only dish service out here is Dish Network, and they're not expensive either.

The quesiton(s) I have is (are):

1) How is the dish hooked up to the house? Is it physically drilled into the roof? If the dish were to be removed, would there be permanent damage to the roof (we rent our house, so, you know...).

2) How does the signal get into the house? Is it a coaxal cable? Can they use the existing cable connection that runs from the house to the pole for that, or does another cable need to be run into the house?

3)How do you like Dish? I know some people in town that have it (actually, ALOT of people here have Dish) and they say that it's really great and that there's not a major problem with losing signal...at least not any more frequently than would happen/does happen with digital cable.

4) How many 'hidden' fees are there in your bill? that's another thing that cheeses me about cable---because "Cable" and "Internet' are 2 different things, we're taxed twice, fee'ed twice...everything. I hate it. I think we paid like $10 this month JUST in franchise fees....what bullshit.

Anyways---how close is your bill to the advertised price? Are there tons of catches or little things they don't tell you about that you have to learn about later?

Just for the record--we'd probably be getting the 60 channel deal + lcoals for $29.99/mo, and we'd pay $49.99 up front to rent the equipment but get a $49.99 credit on our first bill..or something..we've only looked online and not gone to an acutal retailer.

Which brings another question:

5) Is there any difference in buying this from, say, Best Buy or SEars, than there is from going to Ray's House Du Dish satellite company? I'm pretty much using them as a middle-man to get to Dish, right? My bills come from Dish, etc, correct?

Thanks! Sorry for the rambling.

Thanks! I really want to get this thing this week

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I've had Dish network for years

and I like it. My husband says the dish can be mounted on a pole or screwed into the roof. The cable is a coaxle cable. What I like about it is that we get only 10 channels that we got to pick and it is only $15.90 with tax. The price hasn't gone up, and we've had it for at least 5 years.

[SoCalDem]

2. Do IT.. Dish is G R E A T !!!

I have the everythiing package and pay a lot more than that, but they are true to their word.. You get the credit for the free hook up.. PM me.. I have a gift card I'll gladly send you.. It will save you (and me :) ) a little every month..

PM me and I'll get it in the mail to you.. You have to give it to the installer.. I got them for my sons and they were too impatient to wait until I got the cards to them :)


I love dish!!!

Be sure and get the PVR.. they have a new one that's awesome..

the website that I used was this one.. They were very helpful when I called to set it up.. I was too dumb to figure out the best package for me :silly:

http://www.vmcsatellite.com/channels/dish_splash.cfm?sid=63&wcw=google

[Heddi]

3. What's a PVR?

and is it extra?

Do you have the deal where you get the Sirius radio with it? Soon my husband will be done with school for a while and is going to get a job, and we're thinking at some point of maybe upgrading to I think it's the 120 channels + radio thing. How is that? How do you hear the radio--through the box thing, or do you have a receiver for that?

[SoCalDem]

6. It's a recordable thingie..I get it free, but I have the full package

even if it's a small cost, you will LOVE it.. You never need a vcr again :) It holds 100 PLUS hours and is a snap to operate and has the "go back" feature when you are watching stuff live..and the skip commercial feature is wonderful./..

Sirius is included but only the music.. no AAR :grr:

[KoKo]

4. I checked out the packages including their Sirrus Sattelite..and can't

find the Dem Channels folks have talked about. Can't find "Air America" on the Music Channels and there's no listing for Democratic Cable. :shrug:

I really wanted to ditch my "Time-Warner" and get "Dish" but every time I check their site I don't see Dem Channels or "AA" that other DU'ers seem to be getting from Sattelite.

Need help here because I'm ready to load my Time Warner Box in the car and take it back along with my "CUT OFF MY SERVICE" notice..

Where's the Dem Stuff? :shrug:

[Heddi]

5. I know that the package we're looking at

has Free Speech TV and I think I've heard about that on DU before, but I've obviously never seen it b/c our cable companies don't offer it

[SoCalDem]

7. Dish only has the music channels from sirius..

but they do offer Link and FSTV :)