As a dish network subscriber for several years, I can say without reservation, that any dish deal is going to beat cable (analog or digital) hands down in any comparison you want to use. Like Jim says, do the math. I pay about what the local cable company charges for their limited channel lineup and a single feed of some of the movie channels. For that same money, I have a packaged deal of 150 channels PLUS around 30 movie channels, with a super channel package, all for about $70.00 a month. I get a video feed that is only slightly lower than the video feed I get from my component DVD feed. I have access to movie channels that are broadcast in 5.1 surround sound and will receive others has the become available with out a cost increase. I have channels that cable subscribers don't even know exist.
The remote is junk? With this junky remote I can sit in my basement and change channels on a receiver that is upstairs that sends a feed to the TV I am watching in the basement. Can a cable remote do anything like that? Most remotes included with electronic equipment only handle their companion equipment well (at best). That is after all why most of us are on this board and why I purchased a pronto TSU2000.
Receivers junk? When was the last time the cable company designed a system that could be upgraded via a modem while you slept, and if they did, they would want to bill you for it every time they did it. Does the cable box (I can not even bring myself to call it a receiver) have multiple s-vhs outputs or even one for that matter? How about an optical digital and component outputs for the finest audio/video possible? My dish RECEIVER does. The cable box, now there is an example of bleeding edge technology....
When the local cable company upgraded their system to "digital" it forced the local residents to get a cable box installed in their homes if they wanted to continue watching their premium channels. People woke up one day, and it was like, hey honey, where's the HBO? Of course, that did not stop the cable company from sending out the same old bills charging their customers for a service they could no longer receive. It seem there are many more small dishes on the houses around here than there used to be....
I have read the cable industry has decided what the consumer wants is more channels not better quality. In their vain attempt to give John Q. public what it has decided it needs, they have compressed the audio & video feeds to a point that they are sub standard to even a VHS tape deck. I have personally witnessed a cable customers digital feed where every time he switched channels you had to wait for the blocking to go away before you could see what was on the channel. On a 50 inch TV, it painted a row about three inches wide down through the screen until the entire screen was filed with rows of blocks. Only then did the blocking go away to display an incredibly washed out picture. This viewing was made even more distasteful by the fact that we both own the same 50 inch Mitsubishi (VS-50703) TV, so I know what the set is capable of. When I question him about it, his reply was it was always that way and that you got used to it after a while....
As an industry, cable has drug their feet on the whole HDTV issue. Their first move was to ignore it thinking that it might go away. When that failed they fought and are still fighting the must carry rules that would require them to rebroadcast the local HDTV feeds. They bickered with the TV industry about what THEY wanted to connect to the TV sets and capitulated to the movie industry by agreeing to utilize hardware that can prevent John Q. from recording channels that he has paid to have access to. This whole negative attitude has added to the delay and lack of availability of HDTV. Instead of being a market leader that their market share would seem to dictate, they have been a dark cloud on a already dark horizon of a HDTV reality.
The cable companies have an attitude about service i.e.: I have a monopoly so what do I care what John Q. really wants. They feel that John Q. is really blind in one eye and can not see out the other so he does not need a quality feed. They hunger for maximum profits that is meet by delivering sub-standard service to a closed market. Because of all this, any dish service will beat any cable service hands down in any comparison. The little dish is the new player in the game. They will go out of their way to wean the poor people out from under the cloud of despair and into the sunlight of crisp video and sparkling audio. Go with the dish, and never look back....
want to know more? visit:
[Link: dishnetwork.com]jo
