Cable or Satellite?

glhs837

Power with Control
Depends on your needs and location. If both are available, then it comes down to needs. If you need low latency both ways, then you need cable.
 

SAWK

Member
I did both. Satellite (DISH Flex Pkg) and cable for internet. Atlantic BroadBand actually has a good deal for new customers (evidently old customers can suck it). The DISH Flex Pkg lets you build your own.
 

imaref

Active Member
I've had Directv for the past 22 years and was extremely happy until they changed the software/GUI. They made the fonts so small they are unreadable at viewing distance, and they removed the ability to record a series from a single channel (scheduled series now record across ALL channels, meaning the Upcoming Recordings list gets filled with the same shows on multiple channels). For example, if you record a series like The Goldbergs, the Upcoming Recordings list will be filled with episodes from ABC, POP, NIKeast, NIKwest, the CW, and whatever other channels are showing that series. They have been promising to fix these issues since November, yet here we are in almost June. AT&T royally screwed up what was once a great service.
 

BernieP

Resident PIA
Need real TV and internet.

If Satellite, which one?

I say this having had Directv since 1996, it got worse since AT&T bought them up. I believe DTV still has better coverage than Dish, IDK about Dish, but with DTV you will need high speed internet if you want to use any of the On-Demand or movies.

As someone mentioned, your location has a lot to do with both cable and satellite.
Can you get an unobstructed shot (LOS) to the satellites in the provider has in orbit?
Heavy snow / rain will interrupt service since the satellite (LOS) can be disrupted. LOS - Line of Sight; that imaginary line between your antenna and the satellite. Anything on that path, no matter how far away from your home, can / will disrupt the signal. If you have to point low in the sky, you might not want that provider.

For cable, my experience with the St. Mary's franchise was enough to drop them years ago. Somehow I don't think with the subsequent changes in name the service has gotten significantly better. The best thing to happen to them was all the local broadcasters going to digital. The local (DC / Baltimore) channels were the worst on the cable since it was garbage in / garbage out.
Again, location. Who is the provider, can you get a free hookup or is it going to cost your a significant amount to have them run new wire to your house?

If you can get reliable high speed internet, I would consider subscribing to the services you want and stream. I think Hulu offers broadcast channels (NBC, CBS, ABC, etc.)

I find with satellite and cable you get hundreds of channels, most of which you don't watch.
 

BernieP

Resident PIA
I've had Directv for the past 22 years and was extremely happy until they changed the software/GUI. They made the fonts so small they are unreadable at viewing distance, and they removed the ability to record a series from a single channel (scheduled series now record across ALL channels, meaning the Upcoming Recordings list gets filled with the same shows on multiple channels). For example, if you record a series like The Goldbergs, the Upcoming Recordings list will be filled with episodes from ABC, POP, NIKeast, NIKwest, the CW, and whatever other channels are showing that series. They have been promising to fix these issues since November, yet here we are in almost June. AT&T royally screwed up what was once a great service.

There's a fix for that, enable recording off the channel guide, not the search. Make sure the list manager shows the channel as ABC 7 ( or whatever the local ABC channel is for you)
If it says "All Channels" or something other than a specific channel number, delete and use the channel guide. Make sure you set the options (default) to first run only)

Agree on the rest. The other thing that's changed is anything on-demand. It use to play off the satellite feed. Since AT&T took over wants to load it over the network connection.
At that point you might as well have cable TV / internet.

BTW, according to anecdotal data, everyone on Facebook hates the new look, Unlike Microsoft they left no option for choosing the old look.
 

imaref

Active Member
Thanks BernieP but even after recording a series from the channel guide and then checking "Info", it still says "this series will record across ALL CHANNELS". You can read here about folks complaining about this in the directv forums (as well as the thousands of folks that dislike the new guide):

https://forums.att.com/t5/DIRECTV-D...IOUS-DISASTER-Are-you-kidding-me/td-p/5306818

Since I am grandfathered into receiving the distant network feeds (New York and LA stations), I tend to record things on the LA stations (3 hours later) so it doesn't interfere with primtime viewing. The series that I had set to record BEFORE the guide change are still listed as recording from a single channel. But I've tried every way possible to record a series AFTER the new guide was released and I always end up with THIS SERIES WILL RECORD ACROSS ALL CHANNELS.

I do set them to record first run only, but it doesn't seem to matter. I think they may have changed companies that provide the guide data and they may be the ones at fault for the bad data.
 

BernieP

Resident PIA
Thanks BernieP but even after recording a series from the channel guide and then checking "Info", it still says "this series will record across ALL CHANNELS". You can read here about folks complaining about this in the directv forums (as well as the thousands of folks that dislike the new guide):

https://forums.att.com/t5/DIRECTV-D...IOUS-DISASTER-Are-you-kidding-me/td-p/5306818

Since I am grandfathered into receiving the distant network feeds (New York and LA stations), I tend to record things on the LA stations (3 hours later) so it doesn't interfere with primtime viewing. The series that I had set to record BEFORE the guide change are still listed as recording from a single channel. But I've tried every way possible to record a series AFTER the new guide was released and I always end up with THIS SERIES WILL RECORD ACROSS ALL CHANNELS.

I do set them to record first run only, but it doesn't seem to matter. I think they may have changed companies that provide the guide data and they may be the ones at fault for the bad data.

we lost some shows from a series manager list. I missed the final episode of one show I thought was recording.
The hate for the change is big on Facebook, lots of complaining.

AT&T says, buy our phones with unlimited data and for $10 you get directv.

"Unlimited" on Verizon is 10GB (or your plan limit), then the speed gets knocked down.
If I could truly get an unlimited plan, I'd drop all my landlines and satellite and cast from my phone
 

steppinthrax

Active Member
What kind of speeds do Dish and DirectTV get? From my understanding it goes over DSL. Comcast gives me around 40 or 50megs down. Considering all the IOT devices I have in my house and the fact that my wife depends on broadband for work...
 
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