Cable or Satellite television?

[cboy4]

And it would be interesting to hear why you prefer one over the other.

I'm just seeing more and more satellite dishes in my neighborhood.

[baldguy]

1. Cable Co.s are evil.

[cboy4]

2. Yea, that's why I pretty much went to satellite because I was

irritated about the Comcast cable monopoly where I live.

[evlbstrd]

3. I have cable now.

Along with broadband.
I had Dish, and I liked the channel lineup better. But I got sick of it going out when it rained in the next county.

[Jeanette in FL]

16. My Dish goes out too

Hi you :hi:

We do not have cable out here in the sticks, so I have satellite. Dish does go out so often even if the storms are not near me. Very frustrating.

[evlbstrd]

18. Hi, Jeanette!

It especially sucks during football season.

[LeftyMom]

4. DirecTV is decent.

We have Comcast right now because they made us a good deal on TV and internets. I'm hoping we'll get SureWest here soon, they're cheaper and their internets are faster, and their service must be better than Comcast.

[Breeze54]

5. Neither.

They both suck monkey balls!

[astonamous]

6. I have satellite but never watch except really late at night...

when I can't sleep. I flip channels and as you can guess, can't find anything decent to view. I usually end up watching some mindless movie or, if I'm lucky, something will catch my eye on the science, history or discovery channels.

[Wcross]

7. Satellite because cable does not go out to the sticks.

I also have satellite Internet. It is worth living out here despite the lack of services. Nothing beats total silence in your back yard & no neighbors!

[ghostsofgiants]

8. We have cable, though we're getting rid of it.

We never watch TV save for Heroes and Lost, so paying a cable bill is pointless.

I prefer satellite TV though. My dad has satellite TV and whenever I'm back there for any length of time, it usually has good stuff on. Last time I was there I caught loudQUEITloud on The Documentary Channel.

[UTUSN]

9. Satellite/Dish. Cheaper. But it *does* go out in stormy weather, even not that stormy.

But it doesn't happen that often. It just seems cable is more inflexible and more expensive.

[RebelOne]

22. All I need are a few dark clouds and my satellite goes out.

[Wcross]

25. Have you checked the signal strength?

There is an option in the set-up menu that tells you what kind of signal you are getting. If it is below 95% you need to get a service call and have them line it up right. I ONLY lose my signal when there is a heavy thunderstorm to the south of me.
Most installers are contract workers who get paid by the install. Sometimes they don't do the best job of it.

[rurallib]

10. DISH so I could get Amy Goodman & DN!

[KT2000]

11. Satellite because the cable

company where I live is horrible. So far DISH has been really good on customer service
Their rates have not gone up as fast as the cable company.
I have the basic service but all month long (October) the weekends have free previews for Showtime, HBO and Cinemax.
Another thing is that the premium packages have about 9 channels each.

When I had cable, it would go out often but the DISH has only gone out on me once from technical problems.

[Digit]

12. I have my own dish and had Direct TV at one time

Yet DirectTv wants a year contract to provide a DVR.
I already TRIED to do it but it won't work with my current setup.

If I change to cable, they will hook it up and I am not tied to the year long contract as I would be with DirectTV.

I can no longer tolerate commercials, the programming on tv is horrendous with more and more infomercials being substituted for programming...a dvr is my only substitute.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

13. I gave up my addiction to the tube over three years ago.

I still watch movies- DVDs play just fine on my computer. As for the rest, it's drivel and I have better uses for my time.

[Inchworm]

14. I listen to more music- than watch TV

on satellite

:hi:

[trof]

15. Dish, and here's why:

We got electricity back 3 days after Hurricane Ivan hit.
It was about 3 WEEKS before cable was back on.
I missed ALL the coverage about the devastation of our town.

So I got Dish.
I sat here and watched Katrina come through and didn't even lose Dish once.

[BarenakedLady]

17. I prefer cable

only because out here in the boonies, the satellite was spotty at best (too many trees). Plus in the winter the clouds are too thick and ice became a problem as well. I was glad when cable was finally available (after 9 years here).

[LostinVA]

19. Two words

Fiber. Optic.

[_testify_]

33. I tried Verizon FiOS for about a year

The house I was living in had really awful 25 year old coax cable and the local cable signal was pretty much useless for us. Fiber has a much stronger signal so it did alleviate the problem, but their internet service was craptastic. I switched back to cable as soon as I moved. I can see the benefits though. They had some damn cool stuff built into their tv service (live local traffic and weather with one button on the remote!)

[cboy4]

36. I didn't know they offered that in New Jersey!! I assumed

it was only offered in cheaper to live places like Brooklyn.

[FloridaJudy]

20. Rabbit ears.

Since I can't remember the last time I turned it on. Ever since I discovered I could watch DVDs on my computer, the set's been cold.

[Mad_Dem_X]

21. Definitely cable.

My sister has satellite, and all it takes is a stiff breeze and the signal goes out. Sucks when you're in the middle of watching something. I'm not crazy about the cable rates, but I would choose it any day over satellite.

[catmandu57]

23. We have Dish

The local cable company is so far to the right it's pitiful, I hated giving them money because I knew where some of it was going to end up. Dish for about the same money gives me about 100 more channels, free speech tv, bbc america, science, much better.

[Mugu]

24. Don't have any choice.

There is no cable out where I live.

Regards, Mugu

[Phillycat]

26. I download TV shows for free and watch them at my leisure!

[IndianaJones]

27. I have satellite, I'd take cable in a heartbeat if it was available. nt.

[rug]

28. I oppose rays from space entering my home.

[tjwmason]

29. Satellite

Cable is only in the major cities here in the U.K. - I don't like that the satellite provider is Rupert Murdoch, but it does carry the whole range of channels including several from the B.B.C. plus al Jazeera (which is worth watching just to know who hates it).

I don't know if the U.S. systems work differently to ours, but I haven't had any of the mentioned problems of signal loss, only thing is that the neighbour has a plant which grows up directly in front of the dish and if that isn't pruned then it presents problems.

[TK421]

55. When I had satellite, I never lost my signal...even in stormy weather

the only time I had a problem was when there was a problem with one of the connections on the receiver, and that was easily ( and promptly ) fixed. I liked the fact that every channel listed is the channel you want to be tuned to ( for example, channel 3 is 3 and not 9..etc.. ).

[Greyskye]

30. Both

Dish and cable - although the cable never gets watched. But it was cheaper overall to get the basic minimum cable TV bundled with the Cable Internet then to get the Internet by itself. :(

[DS1]

31. cable, but mostly for Internet purposes

[_testify_]

32. definitely cable...

I live in a Bright House. Great customer service, great tech support (in that you never need it), and an absolutely blazing internet connection.

The only thing I don't like is they won't give me any kind of deal on the monthly fees for the boxes, so I'm getting nickled and dimed to death because I've got 1 HD-DVR box, 2 digital DVR boxes, and 1 standard box, plus remotes and so on...such is the price of being an A/V geek...

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

34. We have Time Warner Cable

We used to have DISH and were very happy with it, but Mr. DTBK wanted to get the cable TV/high speed Internet bundle. So far we're loving it. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having C-SPAN 3.

[cboy4]

35. I'm so jealous that you get C-SPAN 3!!

I have DISH, and I don't get it which fricken sucks.

So every time I want to watch an important hearing (and they all seem to be on 3), I have to stream it from the internets.

It's better than nothing, but I'd rather watch it on my big screen, than my computer screen.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

41. I know - love the hearings, love the history programs

I was watching a JFK series (speeches, reminiscences, etc.) the other night and was in tears.

[Midlodemocrat]

37. Cable, but if I had waited until this year to buy my new van, it would

come with Satellite TV!!!! How cool is that?

:bounce:

[cboy4]

39. The only way it could be cooler is if the van came

with a gun turret mounted on top to shoot out the tires of annoying freepers.

(Actually, annoying freepers is redundant)

[LostinVA]

53. Freeper

Thank God your van didn't come with satellite. Matcom would be posting a story about a Midlothian woman in car crash caused by watching Dr. Phil while drinking Chardonnay in the backseat of her van, while she had it in cruise.

[MilesColtrane]

38. Neither.

Rabbit ears.

Good enough to let me watch NOW, Washington Week in Review, Bill Moyers Journal, and football games.

[redqueen]

40. I HAVE SATELLITE

I PREFER IT BECAUSE IT CARRIES THE FOX SOCCER CHANNEL AND I NEED THAT TO LIVE!

[cboy4]

43. FAUX soccer channel?

FAUX?!?! :puke:

j/k ;)

[redqueen]

44. I know... but it's cheaper than Setanta... or I get more... or something...

And besides... Jon Stewart did a commercial for them! :bounce:

[cboy4]

46. No need to explain. I turn on Faux for NFL and MLB

games. :bounce:

[Jimbo S]

42. For me satellite service was terrible.

Tried a dish for three months in 1999 and that was the end of that. Otherwise, always cable. Rabbit ears don't work for me.

[Neshanic]

45. Sable....it's smooth viewing.

[Deep13]

47. Rabbit ears. Broadcast TV is free. nt

[ironflange]

48. Digital cable

I don't know about you, but around here cable and satellite have pretty well the same channels. We get a special rate for having TV and internet on cable.

[SacredCow]

49. Cable...

Internet and digital cable television. We were thinking of getting the phone added to it as well, but it really wouldn't save us much over Vonage, which has been very reliable. And really, the only reason we have a land line at all is for the alarm system.

[sueh]

50. I have big 10 foot dish...

with digital receiver...picture never goes out when it rains. :7

[trof]

51. AND...you can use it for a hot tub. Or a REALLY big wok.

[cboy4]

52. Haven't you ever heard the expression that's it's not

the size of your dish?

[TK421]

54. I had satellite a few years back and I miss it terribly

I hate my cable, and I'm not sure what more I'm getting by paying about thirty dollars more a month with it.