dishvscable

[f35raptor]

yes I know cable might be better for not losing connection. but what do you guys think between the two? going to be moving out of my parents place here soon(couple months) and was thinking about hooking up dish. but want to know pros/cons against the two. better tv channels on dish vs cable kinda thing?

thanks boomhaur

[Meatwad]

Are you talking about internet or television?

If its TV, be prepared to lose signal every time a downpour approaches. If the dish isnt secure and the wind blows hard, it will pixelate when its blown off the sat beam for a moment.

Do a google search, you will find a lot more

[Dragon]

We had Dish for a few years and only had signal issues 2 or 3 times.  Prior to that we had cable and the internet connection was fast but unreliable and caused many, many disco's.  The DSL connection bundled with Dish was 200% better even with the lowest connection speed.

We have U-Verse now and the DSL and TV signal are rock solid. 


It's a tough call since the channel line-up are basically the same and everything offers DVR's anymore.  Depending on where you are moving to, one or the other option may not be available.  If you know where you are moving to, check with some of the neighbors, get their opinions on whatever is available.

[Randy1]

DirectTv has a really good DVR set up which I like much better than the local Comcast DVR.  Comcast in our part of the county is a dirty word due to poor service.

[smoe]

DSL generally works great, it is reliable and you don't have to deal with angry women when calling their service line. However, with DSL your connection depends on the distance from your local phone building.

[puller]

I have dish and have no issues except during ice and snow...so I just put my shop broom underneath my dishes and knock them off when signal starts screwing up   ...if you have a chance to get cable get it...I really miss my cable internet

[homersipes]

hahaha its ALL just way over priced rubbish I like comcast internet, but the cable SUCKS its the same junk on 24/7, they have 80s movies on "premium" channels and it just repeats.  we watch about 10 channels total, but each channel is in a different package.  I think dish is the same way though.  We had dish about 8 years ago, and as stated snow, ice and even rain when we had ours, really played hell with the reception.  We did have a ton of issues getting the router set up though, took almost 3 days to get it all sorted out

[Maverick]

Not a dish fan as I use Directv and have for about 9 years now all across the country. That is how we get tv in our RV and the dish gets set up every time we park. I have both an autoseek dish and a manual tripod to use depending on tree placement in the park. finding the signal isn't hard once you've been trained and done it a few times.

The key question about this is pretty simple. Where in the US are you going to use it? If it is someplace like ND / SD or other place with frequent snow / ice storms then go with cable. Anything that blocks the dish to satellite beam WILL futz up the signal, it ain't rocket science. Wind isn't that hard to deal with depending on how you intend to mount the dish. The more stable platform the less wind will be a factor. Make it a flimsy or loose mount and wind will play hell with the signal.

[f35raptor]

I live in idaho plan on staying in the same area. And i was talking about tv and internet.

[Slate]

I have dish and have no issues except during ice and snow...so I just put my shop broom underneath my dishes and knock them off when signal starts screwing up   ...if you have a chance to get cable get it...I really miss my cable internet

    Spray some pam on the dishes and the snow will slide off and not stick. My dish was high and couldn't reach it so I threw some snowballs at it missing mostly but got the neighbor's house. 

[Skuzzy]

I have been with DiSH since the days of Echostar, over 20 years ago.  Recently switched from the DVR to a Hopper and with the latest software update, it seems like they have most of the kinks out of the system. Works well and uses a lot less power than the previous two DVR's we had (bedroom and living room).

Very seldom lose the signal, and then it is only very brief.

I like the speed of the menu system and the picture quality is really very good.

[xbrit]

I live in idaho plan on staying in the same area. And i was talking about tv and internet.

I prefer cable for internet but would go with either Dish or Direct for TV. An improvement in either of the sat companies now means they ensure a better connection  than was possible years ago, so, though they still can lose signal in bad weather it isn't as often now. For the HD performance I would select Direct, Dish HD is mainly 720p with some 1080i thrown in whereas DTV is mainly 1080p with some 720p and 1080i.

[Meatwad]

Pizza dish hd is so over compressed it looks awful. Its night and day compared to other providers. Way too grainy for me

[Maverick]

I live in idaho plan on staying in the same area. And i was talking about tv and internet.

One big item here. As one who used satellite internet service (and was an installer of same) for about 10 years I can say that you can forget about online gaming in real time. Turn based games should be OK but real time games will have a very significant lag time. My average was 2 plus seconds lag in the signal and never less than 1.5 seconds. If you have any intention about playing AH forget about satellite internet. The ads for so called high speed internet by Hughesnet are only partially correct. Yes it "can be" fast but the basic service won't be all that fast and you will have a pretty basic limit on bandwidth (down / up load). During some peak times it will be downright slow. I saw some times where a 14.4 modem would have been blazing fast compared to what hughesnet was cranking out on the basic system. It WILL have lag and lots of it. Satellite internet will simply never be competitive with a land line for reliability, speed and lag time.

For TV I would compare what the local cable company is offering for chanels and then look at what both Dish and Directv selections are. Keep in mind that you will likely pay extra for local chanels on the satellite system if you can't get them on regular over the air broadcast.