Just what are you expecting from DBS?

[Mark Holtz]

Okay, enough is enough. Please tell us why you got DBS in the first place.

I got my Dish system because of the antics of the local cable system, expecially after the ownership changed from Comcast to AT&T Broadband. I electeed to get Dish because it carries both the locals (also available on DirecTV) and UPN/WB Superstations, plus a no-fee PVR. Part of the reason I even had cable in the first place was because of my mother. (Long story).

What I wasn't expecting was a home theater experience. That's why I don't subscribe to any of the movie channels beyond the AT150 package. I have an extensive DVD collection.

[Adam Richey]

My family first got DBS because our C-Band dish got hit by lightning. An installer quoted us as an almost $1000 price to fix and "upgrade" everything. My mom decided to get the $400 Dish Network system with a Dish 300, and she moved out. We now have a Dish 500 and a 61.5 dish.

[Neil Derryberry]

I got dbs when I moved into my new house because the cable system in the area was absolutely awful. Now I have their cable modem... go figure.

[Kevin]

Initially I wanted Dish Network for MTV2, but after careful research I realized that the benefits of DBS extended far beyond that one channel. I saw that the price was reasonable, the picture quality was nice, and the channel selection was far better than what Cablevision had to offer. Everyone in the house was fed up with Cablevision's garbage, so I finally talked my parents into getting Dish. It worked out real nice because we got 3 free months of the movie premiums, a free Dish 500 system and reciever, free basic installation, a free dish cover from the dealer, and my neighbor got a $50 credit on his Dish Network bill for "recommending" us. Now we're a bunch of happy campers. :)

[gopherscot]

i got into satellite for the sports ... I grew up in Minnesota and missed all the Minnesota sports. I was lucky enough, when moving to Iowa, that I was still in the Fox North open area. Without sports I would have stayed with cable.

[Chris Blount]

I had a C-Band dish and changed to Dish Network because I didn't want to deal with the upkeep costs. I also started to hate having to wait practically 2 minutes just to switch from VH1 to KTLA.

I don't regret switching over but now I wish I had kept the C-Band dish just for fun.

[Mark Lamutt]

I switched to DBS because of Babylon 5. Seriously...AT&T broadband in Denver finished their "rebuild" in my area, and the Sci-Fi channel got moved from digital cable in very nice stereo to analog mono. After 3 different cable csr's told me that the problem was with my setup, or that I expected too much and it was only tv, I said to hell with them and went with Dish. Dish because at the time directv didn't have KWGN and KTVD (WB and UPN in Denver). PQ was much better on my former 27" tv, and it didn't go out everytime there was a storm nearby. In fact, I have yet to experience rain fade, or snow fade for that matter.

Now, PQ isn't nearly as good in my eyes as it was last year when I got it - mostly because I went from a 27" tv to a 51" HDTV. I can live with that, though, because of the HD offerings...but of course, I want it to get better. :D I'm a reasonably happy Dish customer, although if Charlie comes out and says he's not going to carry the new Discovery HD, and directv does, I'm outta here as far as Dish is concerned.

[EricG]

I was tired of being under the thumb of the local cable company. 12+ years of that - time for a change!

[spanishannouncetable]

Two words -

CABLE SUCKS :D

[Mike]

I had cable at my parents house until 1988. I got a used c-band dish in 1988 in Phoenix. I wanted it for "west coast teams" and the "west coast satellite" to see my home teams here in So Cal. My dad was in sales and he found a dealer going out of business and I got it hooked up at the house. I was just out of high school and in my 1st year of college and still living at home. Cost $600 total and that included the installing. Receiver was a dial one separate from the motor unit. It was the display model that was circa 1983 from what they told me. I had cable and 2 TV's, but I wanted more. I just didn't know what I was getting myself into though :). I race home for college on October 4th of 1988 to have them install the dish. 10 ft one. Thing was huge. Needed a pole and cement and lots of wires. My mom freaked that night. :) I was in heaven. They put the dish up in the backyard and run the wires to my bedroom from the outside to the front of the house and into the bedroom. I remember them getting Dr. Gene Scott on the Westar 5 satellite. That helped the installers find the arc. I played with that thing all night. Just c-band, not Ku yet. No descrambler, but sports wasn't scrambled then anyway except for HSE on F1/10. I loved that thing. Dropped cable the next day in the bedroom. Parents still had it in the front room. I didn't get TBS and those things as they were videocypher scrambled, but I got backhauls and that was fine with me :). I still have Arsenio Hall doing play-by-play of the Cavs network with Joe Tait from 1989 at the Forum. Arsenio did the whole 2nd half play-by-play and was pretty good.

We moved to California in 1989 and the dish came with us. My brother, dad and I installed it ourselves this time and still for my bedroom.

In 1996, I moved. Parents were already moved out, but I had stayed with the house cuz of the dish. I had 3 descramblers by that time (2 +'s and the old VCII and another kind). Parents moved back into the house and my brother moved out. I moved into an apartment in 1996 in Phoenix. C-band dish stayed at the house. They tore it apart within a month. Motor went one way and that was that. I was ticked off. Came home that Xmas and couldn't fix it. I swore when DirecTV came out that I would never ever never ever get it. Picture quality just stunk compared to c-band. Still does somewhat though. I had no choice. Had to get DirecTV for the EI games which were then in it's 1st year on DirecTV. Got Dish Network on March 4th of 1997 (next year) for KTLA (Dodgres) and Game Show Network (Missed it from c-band and it wasn't on DirecTV yet). I wanted the East and West Coast network feeds as I was spoiled on c-band with the then in-the-clear feeds and the PT24 feeds on F2 and I was able to get them on DirecTV and Dish Network. When PrimeStar came out, I wanted that for KABC (Todd Donoho and Monday Night Live), but DirecTV changed all of the West Coast feeds in July of 1998 and KABC was chosen, so I was happy. I got 1 Ku dish in October of 1996 in Phoenix for the analog ku feeds and I also got a 5 ft c-band dish in 1998 that I just moved by hand. Didn't get much bot the Telstar 5 and G4 birds were okay most of the time.

Now it's 1999, I have DirecTV, Dish at 61.5 for Sky Angel (could get it in Pheonix) Dish at 119 and 148 and my 5 ft c-band dish and 1 Ku dish. All made the trip with me back to California and are here at this apartment. I've added a 2nd Ku dish. Dish is scaled back to just the supers and networks and all is well so far. I get c-band from AMC 2 to AMC 1, but I have to move the dish by hand and it's tough to find the birds when I have to put the dish on something to keep it in place. I mostly mess with it at night as I'm on the bottom floor and I ain't suppose to have dishes this big. :) It's out for baseball season especially on the weekends. Picture quality is good on the newer c-band birds. Ku works great. Next investment will be a MPEG receiver.

I got satellite TV for just one reason really. That's sports. Have enjoyed the network shows ahead of time and days before they hit the air. Left channel beep, right channel beep. In phase, out of phase! I've got the Cheers/Jay Leno show on tape from the last day of Cheers in 1992 and lots of other great things. I've enjoyed c-band, ku-band, DirecTV and Dish Network. I like the little systems because it's cheaper if you have more than one receiver and I have 7 for DirecTV. Each descrambler on c-band has and still does require a separate subscription. I had 2 subscriptions for the NFL when the Sunday Ticket started in 1994 on T3 c-band. I also remember when the NFL tried to scramble in 1990 and BUD and other sponsors got behind to squash that idea. I love satellite tv, will never go back to cable for any reason. Even if I lose sports, I still have WABC and WCBS on DirecTV and Dish, and if I get MPEG then who knows what's on there from Vermont or Arkansas or wherever. :) C-band still gets me ABC as even though they were the 1st network to scramble via leitch (NBC tested it in 1989 on c-band only), there are still lots of times these feeds are unscrambled. ABC CFB is not backhaul scrambled anymore to boot!

[MarkA]

If you had to have AT&T Broadband of Kalispell, it would be obvious why DBS is the only realistic option. Maybe the company who bought the local cable system (Bresnan Communications) which promises great things will deliver. Maybe not. We'll know by fall.

[markh]

No cable out here in the sticks. They have cable in the small towns around us but cable co will never run cable 5 miles for the few of us out here.

Sports, news, entertainment, it's all on the little dish. Many Badger games are now on FOXN, that's a big reason for having DBS.

[ToddHealy]

I got DirecTV last August for 3 reasons.
1. Better picture quality - my picture with cable stunk.
2. More channels - I wanted more of the 'cable' channels that my cable company doesn't carry.
3. DirecTiVo - Dual tuners were just about to be activated! This is the big one for me. If it weren't for DirecTiVos I might have gone with Dish or even just stayed with cable.

[Jacob S]

->Better picture quality
->Cheaper Pricing (more bang for your buck)
->More channels (for cheaper)
->Flexible (take it camping, move without having to wait for calbe company to reconnect your cable service and charging you for it)
->More technological features (pvr units, onscreen controllable program guide, browse feature, timers, etc)
->Better customer service and faster (in some instances, not always)

[Nick]

I lived in my RV and I just got tired of dragging that really, really, really long black wire behind the camper whenever I drove to Myrtle Beach. One time a really big 18-wheeler drove right over it (the wire) and really, really messed it up. So I got this motorized dish thing up on the roof that moves around a lot when I'm driving on Skyline Drive. I stuck a 27" TV in the dash so I can watch some of my cousins on Jerry Springer and Maury. Yesterday, while I was driving to the 7-11, on Maury they had to test five guys before they could find out who the father of some slut's baby was. I missed the answer cuz I was in the store when they said who it was. So I guess you could say I got satellite cuz I had cable before and it really, really sucked ...a lot.

[Edward E Suleski]

Originally posted by Chris Blount
I had a C-Band dish and changed to Dish Network because I didn't want to deal with the upkeep costs. I also started to hate having to wait practically 2 minutes just to switch from VH1 to KTLA.

I don't regret switching over but now I wish I had kept the C-Band dish just for fun.


Which in your opinion is better DBS or C-Band?

[pmichael]

I dumped cable for DISH about a month ago because:

1) much better channel selection
2) better overall value
3) more advanced technological features(EPG/favorites/themes)
4) my local cable company is horrible

[Chris Blount]

Originally posted by Edward E Suleski



Which in your opinion is better DBS or C-Band?

Well, it really depends on your viewing habits. C-Band has excellent PQ and a nice selection of channels to watch for free and by subscription. There is no rain fade and very few technical problems with the receivers.

On the other hand, DBS is much easier and cheaper to install and maintain. Also, since everyone in my family have different viewing habits, being able to have all channels available on 2 or more receivers was a must in my household. With C-Band, you just can't do that.

C-Band is great from a hobbiest point of view but if you want versatility at a reasonable price and don't care about "wild feeds", DBS is the way to go. I have spent less than a $1000 dollars on equipment for DBS and have access to several channels of HDTV, I have Dolby Digital access and have 3 receivers in different rooms with access to all channels at the same time. Such a system with C-Band would cost thousands.

[Maniacal1]

Definitely for the sports. I really had no gripes with the local cable system--they're now AT&T Broadband, but they've been bought and sold many times. We've been a local cable company, then Cox, then MediaOne, and maybe one other company in there somewhere.

The two NFL teams I follow are out of my market, and so is my favorite NBA team. Although the local professional baseball team is my favorite, I make some of my income from baseball and I enjoy the out of town games.

[scooper]

When I started with Dish, the local cable outlet "SUCKED" - 36 channels analog only (and all the "cable channels" were mono only). Time-Warner bought them, but didn't get around to upgrading our area for 1.5 - 2 years later. I bought my first Dish receiver in Oct 99, kept lifeline cable - 6 months later when I could get Raleigh locals on the Dish - I was gone from cable and got my 2nd receiver. Have never looked back. Since the cable upgrade, I did get a chance to see it - it looked pretty good (at least the analog part) - but now I have my investment in the IRD's and distribution system. One plus of DBS over cable - to get the HBO that I get on Dish, I'd have to get at least the Digital cable - and I think overall, I'm saving money.

[EvanS]

I actually had Tele-TV digital microwave-delivered cable. The pic was everything that my DISH now provides, the service was reliable and the price was good.
Problem was that I got a new VCR which "understood" that DBS chnls were 100 and above and that cable was 100 and below.
The actual Tele-TV rcvr was and RCA 4700/4900-type rcvr with a smart card. So it IS a sat rcvr BUT it displayed CABLE chnls of 2 thru 99. Inputting code to have the rcvr make the VCR record...I could get the VCR to work with it set at DBS (since it is a DBS rcvr) but then I could only tune the 100+ chnls (which didn't exist). To get the lower numbered cable chnls meant that the VCR would not understand signals from the SAT rcvr IR blaster.
The Dish Depot had a 501/301 combo for $99 - so I went. Never knew too much about PVR but now I couldn't be happier, except for dual tuners. And now I get the DD 5.1 when available.
If not for the VCR mis-match I would probably just now be looking into sat...but I'm actually glad things went this way

[HarryD]

DBS got my attention the second DirecTV went on the air in 1994. But initial expense kept me away until 1997 when I got a Sony system for $95.00. Did the install myself. Loved the PQ and digital sound. When the LIL's were added in 1999, I had picture freezes (like many others) switched to DISH (and their DishPlayer PVR for $59.00) Stayed w/ them until March of this year, jumped back to DirecTV and Ultimate TV.
P.S. And it's really cool technology too!

[tampa8]

This is a great question. But beyond just answering why we got DBS, it could be used to find out why some are always complaining or are dissapointed with DBS.

Only talking about the service, not the equipment, some of us probably had unrealistic expectations. Partly due to the hype, I'm sure some expected a pristine "theater like" picture. In my case, I have been overall satisfied with the PQ because it is far better than the Charter Cable PQ. At times some channels over the years have certainly been less than desirable, but in general and especially at the current time PQ is pretty good.
But if you thought it would be exceptional based on the hype or some other reason, you would still be dissapointed. I know many have said that the older style satellite picture was much better. Probably so, but this is a different system with very different needs and I can understand that some would have thought the picture would be as good, but that was an expectation or an assumption. So it is natural for those people to be dissapointed.

I also thought I would get a better selection of channels and again compared to our Charter Cable I have many more channels at a cheaper cost. But If you thought you could pick and choose (make your own package) you would again be dissapointed.

I know there are many who are dissatisfied with the CSR'S - and I have no reason not to believe those stories, I can only say that compared to what I had to go thru to talk to someone and then to get action with Cable, it's an piece of cake now.

I left out equipment before because you should expect the equipment to work, and especially with the dishplayer, complaints about equipment are certainly valid. This is a little more black and white then a subjective opinion about whether PQ is good.

None of this means we shouldn't make the DBS providers strive for better overall quality, but perhaps sometimes we have to be realistic also. Business decisions have many aspects.
The decison to add locals was an important step for two reasons. Going by my neighbors and people I know, because we cannot get a good signal for most of our locals, DBS had to carry them for us to switch from cable. But the second reason this is important is because it has led to probaby having less PQ, and not being able to add new networks for now. I am in the camp that says the only way for DBS to improve and thrive is for Dish and Direct to merge. There is no way to know if the merged company will live up to our expectations (again each of us has different expectations) but I think it has to happen.

One last thought concerning expectations. The one local station I can receive with a strong signal is available in analog and digital as well as HD. The picture is somewhat better from analog than digital. My expectatation was that digital had it all over analog but not in this case. Perhaps this is like the analog - digital debate for music. Most people would agree that CD's have many better advantages over tape or records. But sound quality is not always better! A good quality tape can sound richer and warmer than today's CD's generally do. Not including HD, are we expecting too much from a digital signal? :computer:

[Charles Oliva]

Sports is the big reason why I went to DBS. Living in Hawaii since 1986, I had to put up with "satellite delay" local lingo for not airing sports live on TV. In those days, it mean't if I wanted to see live games I had to go to bars. Live sports on local TV has improved over the years, but problems still exist. TNT on cable is delayed 3 hours, MNF is delayed 3 1/2 hours on ABC. MLB/NBA playoffs are delayed 5 hours on weeknights on FOX/NBC and they have the balls to even add extra commericials. The cable company doesn't even offer WGN. Finally in 1999, Dish was available in Hawaii on a limited basis. By Oct 2000, Dish service was near equal to the mainland and the cable got cut.

[Kerry High]

There's no cable where I live...

[Scott Greczkowski]

Hi Kerry, Welcome to DBStalk.COM :hi:

Where do you live? (We will be over for Dinner at 6) :D (Just kidding!)

[Edward E Suleski]

When I first saw Directv our cable service was terrible beyond description so I jumped at the chance to get Directv in my home.I have had Directv for seven years now,with the same ird service is still great.Now AOLTW is in town and I crave Road Runner, I hate dial up and I will still use Directv for it's incredible channel line up even if I subscribe to RR,it comes down to how much value I can extract for the money.

[Steve Mehs]

Main reason-
TW cable 50 channels (10 were locals/public access) $35/month compared to E* who had over 100 channels for $28.99/month. Now my cable system has over 70 channels in analog and about 30 in digital, but i dont know the pricing and I could careless. DBS is where I'll stay. Orginally almost went with P* (wish we would have) back in '96 but circumstances casued us to wait until 12/98 when we got a special on E* equiptment.

[crkeehn]

Simply put, I switched for TVland. At the time, Jones (now Comcast) of Anne Arundel County didn't carry it and didn't seem to care. We got an offer to pick up DirecTV through Bell Atlantic and took the offer. Jones simply didn't care. They didn't make an effort to keep customers, the picture quality was very uneven and the only stations they added were shopping channels. After a couple of years with DirecTV and frustration with Bell Atlantic (the Pegasus of Phone companies) we called Dish to ask what they'd give us to switch. They gave us a free dishplayer and free installation if we would commit ourselves to a year of top 150.

Our experiences with DirecTV were good, it was Bell Atlantic, now Verizon that soured us on that situation. We have been equally pleased with Dish and have had to deal with customer support only once, recently. The problem was resolved after a few minutes on the phone.

What do I expect? A good Picture, a good price and good service. I have been lucky and gotten all from both providers, Cable has not been as successful

[Kman]

I started to get tired of losing my cable signal every time we had a thunderstorm or a driver took out a utility pole or a wind/ice storm knocked out the cable. The problem was if cable went out at 8PM it would not be restored until th next morning. We just had a severe thunderstorm. DBS was out for about 5 minutes (searching for signal) then came back uninterrupted and w/o any interference for the rest of the storm. Also customer service. So far D* service has been great. A couple of times so far I needed to call and they solved the problem right over the phone. Try that with cable service. After 5PM all we would get was a recording. Oh yeah, one more thing. I got notified for a cable increase, so I responded with a cancellation notice. Sure made me feel good. I sure hope D* doesn't lose it's focus on the customer.

[dlsnyder]

I got Dish Network in July 2000 as a birthday gift to myself. We had been without cable for 5 years due to our tight financial situation at the time. I got a free system from The Satellite Guy in Dallas and just had to commit to 8 months of AT40 at $19.95/mo. Cable was about $40.00/mo. Today I am a happy AT100 sub getting more channels than Adelphia has on their extended basic tier for about $45.00/mo now. As for what I expect from DBS - a good selection of programming at a reasonable cost. PQ is important too - Adelphia's 750mHz system rebuild in my area has a really good analog tier, although I haven't seen the digital side. Their channel selection still isn't as good as Dish though. In my area Adelphia doesn't carry Lifetime Movie Network so my wife would have a fit if I switched over! If you factor in rental of the digital boxes, remotes, and all the francise fees and taxes, cable in my area is like $15 to $20 more per month than Dish for comparable programming. Who can argue with that?

[Brian Rector]

I did get DBS (Dish in 1999 and DirecTV in 2000) because the local cable system in my area lacked some channels...including Comedy Central, TV Land, and FOX Sports Midwest. However, in my area....cable has caught up with DBS. The PQ is about the same as DBS and the channel selection is at 170 channels. Also, I get channels that I didnt get with DBS, like CNBC World, CSPAN 3, and Ovation. I will be able to purchase the MLBEI, NBALP, and NHLCI subscriptions next season courtesy of InDemand. Since I went back to cable, I have found out that I havent really missed much of DBS...although I do miss Tanya Memme's Customer News and Charlie's Chats. Afterall....I love to have some cheese in my television viewing diet every month. :)

Oh...about the cost factor: Cable in my area...for 170 channels...the cost per month is at $83.00 (I have HBO The Works and the Encore Theme Channels). My DirecTV bill came to $84.50 (excluding those sports packages that I loved to purchase).

[John Corn]

I moved into another home a couple of years ago, I also changed cable providers as well, my new cable provider PQ wasn't that great. I bought a new TV and brought it home, plugged into my cable connect and thought this picture sux. After spending $1500.00 on a TV and this was my PQ, I thought it's time to change.

[dvdguyjt]

Well, since we're all telling our stories.....I started my DBS life with Primestar back in 1995. Now I know Primestar is really a Ku Band system, but it was a sort of a hybrid dbs. I primarily got it because I was sick of the crappy quality and selection my cable co. offered. We didn't even have TBS Superstation until 1998 for crying out loud. I also wanted the distant network feeds. Back then all you had to do was answer a couple of questions, and poof, you got them. I liked Primestar, but eventually I began to get sick of paying the monthly rental fee for the equipment. Luckily one day in 1996, I walked into a Circuit City, and there were two open box Directv systems for $99.95 (remember that this is when a single LNB system was upwards of $400). I jumped at the chance and bought the system. Once I got it installed, I dumped Primestar as fast as I could. Directv had a better channel selection and you got more for your $$$$. Unfortunately, the picture quality was not as good a Primestar. I almost never noticed Primestar compression, but as soon as I got DIrectv, I began to see it. I got used to it, though. Unfortunately, in 1999, I moved to an apartment where I don't have any access for a clear view of the satellites. I had to go back to cable, ugh!!! Early last year, we were finally upgraded to digital cable, but the PQ pretty much sucks. I missed my satellite.......For the future, however, I'm in luck. I'm moving in July, and we have a clear view of the Southern sky. First thing I'm gonna do is call Dish network and get back to the satellite world. Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JT

[Karl Foster]

I truly got tired of AT&T Broadband. I always had shadows on my tv's. The repair guy would come out, and say that nothing could be done until fiber optic was installed (it still hasn't been installed). The straw that broke the camel's back was losing TLC, E!, and VH1 and facing a rate increase at the same time. I was also tired of cable going out every time the wind blew. I originally had a Dish system from Jan 00 - Jan 01 and then switched to Directv for too many reasons to list - mostly with equipment and Dish CSR's. I originally bought a basic setup and have since added two Ultimatetv receivers and have been very happy with both. I was originally paying $39 per month for analog cable with 36 stations. I am now paying $60 for 130 stations, UTV service, and three receivers. I have experienced a few rain fades and snow fades (four in two years) and that is all. For a former cable subscriber, that is easy to handle. If the DBS systems didn't offer locals, my wife never would have bit off on the change.

To answer the original topic, though, I expect D* to provide me with good value for my dollar spent - i.e. good picture quality and channel choice. They have done that for me, so I am a happy customer.

Originally posted by Z'Loth
Please tell us why you got DBS in the first place.



For the "laser disc picture with CD sound".

Remember those advertisements? (DVD didn't exist then)

They sure fooled me!

[Nick]

Daily Status Report:

PQ - Excellent
Audio - Excellent
Reliability - Excellent
Fun Factor - Excellent

System configuration:

Dish500, Everything package, Locals
2 Dp 7200s, feeding 7 TVs, 10 ways

Latest system upgrade:

13" color TV for Patio, fed via X-10 wireless tx/rx; switchable between DP1 and DP2.

The Nickster :smoking:

[Arclight]

I had C-Band but it became very expensive in the latter years. Have DirectTV its ok. My big complaint is I live on the West Coast and cannot get the East Coast Networks. All this government bureaucratic junk has me zipped off.