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Cable or the Dish?

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Merle

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I'm moving into a new house next week and am wondering which way to go, cable or a satalite dish? I could never try out the Dish in my current home due to large trees all around and a slate roof. I've had Comcast for years but I think they charge too much. Which provides better service, better picture and better value? I have a High Def, 48" Mitsubishi, no home theater but the wife and I enjoy watching movies.

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Dish has far superior sound and PQ than cable - NYNick 05:45:30 04/01/05 (0)
in my area, which is served by Cablevision. The difference is not subtle, as I retained "basic" cable so I can A-B.
-Nick
I succumbed to friends' insistence satellite was better than cable. - oscar 04:23:26 03/30/05 (0)
Got the Dish and extra 2-tuner box for kitchen and Bedroom. Better PQ ? not that I could really tell. If anything, the cable HD box DVI 1080i output gave me a better result than the Dish Network HD box 1080i feed (720p over DVI wasn't as good as 1080i with either box). Fortunately, my video processor seemed to do better job converting the satellite box 1080i DVI to 720p DVI than the display itself.
Re: Cable or the Dish? - Tuckers 17:13:16 03/27/05 (0)
The general consencus seems to be that digital cables signal quality is lower than satelite. I was at a friends house this weekend who had a recent Mitsubishi DLP RPTV and digital cable, and the interlacing artifacts on regular channels was awful. I don't know whether it was the cable box or the signal, but it was not nice.
I have a friend who has digital cable with HD and the same Sony set I have (just a different size) and I get over-air HD. My signal is markedly superior to the Comcast HD signal. I haven't had Satelite on my system though, so I can' comment on that.
Depends on your needs, location, tastes. - johnvb 17:10:51 03/27/05 (0)
How many HD/standard TV sets do you have in the house?
Do you want to buy or lease your equipment?
Do your local stations offer HD, and how easily can you pick them all up?
What programming do you want to pay for, what are you not interested in? And how does your local cable company compare $$$ with the sat companies?
Can you maintain your own equipment, or want someone else to handle it?
I could go on, but you get the idea. We use cable because we have multiple SD sets, along with our one HD set in the house, so using distribution equipment doesn't cost extra. No up front equipment cost, just the monthly lease on the HD box, which would take years to break-even if I bought one instead (some dish companies may also do this). I can pick up all my local digital broadcaster via a stationary antenna, but not all have signed with the cable company. So I use a supplementary HD-OTA box and antenna. The sat receivers allow you to incorporate your local OTA into the main menu, cable receivers don't.
We were also a Direct TV customer for many years, with no problems. But every time a hurricane blew through, I had to climb on top of the chimney and take down the dish. The dish system was nice for the RV, "D" allowed me to temporarily switch my account from the home to the RV receiver, at no cost.
Check out the Hi-Def programming forum @AVSforum.com There are lots of options and opinions out there, one will be right for you.
My thoughts... - davehg 11:49:06 03/27/05 (2)
I was, up to last month, a DISH owner for 5 years. Comcast had a deal I can't refuse: $75 a month for Cable internet, HD programming, and a HD PVR thrown in for good measure. Plus, I could hook up 3 rooms for no extra charge. Plus, free HBO for a year.
To get HD and a PVR via dish, I'd have to pay over $400 for the PVR plus programming. And dish don't do the Internet very well.
Service has been great, and the cable modem is much faster than the DSL I was using. Picture quality seems better than HD on the DISH.
- Interesting... - Harmonia 13:42:16 03/27/05 (1)
  You're the first person I've heard say cable had better PQ than sat.
  I would love to ditch Brighthouse cable. I don't have free anything with those guys. With cable modem, my bill is over $125 per month for only 2 sets (1 HD cable box, 1 not)...the HD is pretty good (I only have a 34" HDTV) but on much of the other channels the PQ is subpar, even the digital ones. I get HBO, but no other premium channels. I'm tired of my crappy cable box, and having to reset the thing 2-3x per month.
  I won't give up the cable internet, but I'm tempted by Dish or Direct for TV. For one thing, I can get TVG and live horse racing which I can't on my cable system.
  - I have comcast - davehg 21:28:06 03/28/05 (0)
    and the new Motorola HD PVR with dual tuner. Picture quality is very good via component cables; I am waiting for an HDMI/DVI cable to arrive.
    When I got non-HD via Sat on the old Sony CRT, it was seemingly better than cable systems I saw. However, when I upgraded sets to the Toshiba 52HMX84, the sat channels SUCKED!! Lots of pixelation and grain.
    With cable HD, the HD pictures are stunning (much better than my DVD via component). Non HD channels appear less noiser than via SAT.
    Sat prices were good, but when I combined the cable modem offer with the HD PVR, it was a no-brainer. Also, at $400 for the DISH PVR which had less features and was troublesome, that settled the matter.

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