[hyperb0le]

So, I've had Dish Network satellite TV for about 5 years. Reception and service were okay until about two years ago. We bought an HD-capable DVR receiver from Dish for our home theater setup. The first two units we bought were DOA. When we finally got a working one, it fried our switch, which had to be replaced (it took us seven weeks to get a Dish technician out here). Four months ago, we had some storms, and something got fried, and we lost all reception. We got a technician out after about three weeks, and they fixed it. Then, about four or five weeks ago, we had some more storms, which, again, fried something, and we lost all of our reception. Because of how we've been treated when calling Dish (sometimes, we were only treated like idiots, while other times, we have been treated extremely rudely), we decided to try Comcast Digital Cable.

A Comcast tech. came here yesterday (we have had no TV for the last four weeks). He was supposed to bring two HD DVRs and four other normal digital boxes. The technician was unable to understand how our wiring is set up, despite me labeling each wire and standing right next to him, answering his questions. (hint: Our wiring is not complex. A wiring closet in the basement feeds coaxial cable to the rest of the house. All cables were labeled clearly). After a lot of futzing around, he finally got the DVRs working. Then, when it was time to install the normal digital boxes, it was determined that ALL THREE (yes, three, not four. He was at a job before us installing one box, and the box he had for them was dead, so he decided to just use ours ) were dead.

We called Comcast, and they told us that it will be September 1st before we can get a technician out here to bring more boxes. I decided to just drive to the Comcast office, which is about fifteen minutes away, to pick up the boxes myself. When I got there, the line went out the door and curved around half of the shopping center. Yes, that's right: they only had one person working. An hour and a half later, I got to the front of the line, and the woman gave me four boxes, none of which were in any sort of packaging (ie: they were not new. There were some scratches on the top of one of them, but the woman said those were the last four boxes they had). I went home and installed them myself, and, what do you know? They don't work. I called Comcast Tech Support at 11:45 PM (after I finished my own troubleshooting) and sat on hold for 1.5 hours. I never did get anyone to pick up or any computer voice telling me that office hours were over. I finally hung up.

This morning, I called again. I sat on hold for 45 minutes and gave up. I then called the "Upgrade your service" number, and got right through. The woman on the other end went through the usual troubleshooting measures (is it on? Unplug it and plug it back in. Send a hit to it, etc), and finally decided to try and internal reset from her end. She said she would call back in 10 minutes. Two hours later, still no call. I called back, and got another tech support person. She went through the same troubleshooting process, and eventually determined the the receivers are not compatible with our signal. The boxes are registered for Stone Mountain, GA, and our signal comes from Vinnings. (Not quite sure why, since Vinnings is much farther away).

I'm completely fed up with dealing with Comcast, so I got someone else to drive BACK to the Comcast office to pick up new boxes. Anyway, the point of this story is: Why the %@#$ do all TV providers suck?

-----------

^^ Wow, I need a blog...

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

My dish provider www.expressvu.com has been great for the 3 years I've had them.

[mitchell_pgh]

Because they want it ALL by doing it ALL. Just like the Cell phone companies...

I'm about to dump Comcast all together.

[Chuckit]

[I can't read...]

[Kevin]

I've never had problems with Charter cable service in the 5 years I have used em.

[thunderous_funker]

Surprised you've had so much trouble with Comcast. They have really changed my mind about cable. Seriously. I spent my entire life hating cable companies because of their horrible service. There is a reason the former CEO of Adelphia is in jail, let me tell you. I hope he's dancing with Bubba right now, the bastard...

Moved to Portland and found out Comcast was the game. They answer the phone in a couple of rings with a person, they use caller ID so they already know who I am, and they are really nice.

Tech who came out did us all kinds of wiring favors (like going through walls and adding jacks without charging us) and the service is terrific. I have had 1 TV outage and 2 network outages in the 2 years I've had them. Both of which were handled very quickly. In fact, Comcast is the first provider I've ever had that actually knew there was a problem before I called.

Sorry you had a rough time. I guess Atlanta is a helluva lot busier than 'ol Portland. Hang in there and don't let the bastards get you down.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

i did have problems with cable back in the day but I haven't used them since 1999. Cable stinks, old technology.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

Cable stinks, old technology.

You think dish/sat is better?

Can someone say latency? Weather?

And no, Cable doesn't stink. And old technology doesn't always = bad.

Take vacuum tubes for example.

Browser support: To experience bell.ca to its fullest, you must have Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and you will need to accept cookies.

[ghporter]

In most cases, local providers like Comcast are LOCAL, not at all managed on a daily basis by the "home office." So they hire "Bob the cable puller" to install cable. And set up boxes. And configure cable modems. ETC. In other words, the local offices go with low bidders for services you want done by highly qualified people. Thus, they suck.

I've had DirecTV for years (mainly because I hate the local cabale company-and hated them before they became Time-Warner), and I haven't had a spot of trouble, even through a big move. The secret? I didn't let anyone else mess with my wires, and the box is configured through the satellite link. On the other hand, a friend just moved into a new place and got all cable; even his phone service is through the cable system. It took THREE visits to get things right, and the third one was by a field supervisor-the only one who actually knew what was going on and how to make things work. Moral: You have to hire people who know what they're doing, and you're not going to do that for peanuts.

[macintologist]

I personally like the idea of watching tv on the computer via internet, a 700kbps stream would like just fine.

[tikki]

I have Insight and it's alright. Honestly though, ever since I got my XM radio, I have watched far less TV.

[Zenbone]

The problem with the crap boxes is that the cable company makes a contract with a manufacturer, the manufacturer says "WOW! We have a contract to make 100,000 boxes and we're gonna be rich! Let's get 'em out the door, fast!" They're cheaply made.

I have Charter, and I've had a guy show up and go through 4 boxes before finding one that works. Haven't had problems lately, fortunately.

Gotta say they have good internet though.

P.S. After more of this Database nonsense, I wonder if it's the same manufacturer who made MacNN's servers. Sheesh.

[]

Originally Posted by Kevin

You think dish/sat is better?

Can someone say latency? Weather?

I've never had my signal cut out because of weather. Not once.

And I fail to see how latency comes in when watching tv....

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally Posted by 

I've never had my signal cut out because of weather. Not once.

And I fail to see how latency comes in when watching tv....

He doesn't have it but is the expert. Trust me.

I also almost EVER have the TV cut out on my because of weather. Even during the storm when that plane was crashing last night the TV picked up both Sats no prob.

The latency is about 2 second behind cable (I can hear it over the phone when watching the same channel). Big deal.

I had cable cut out on my during large storms because a tree would fall on a line. Not to mention squirrels would chew the lines and make a shitty analog channel look worse than before. I had cable internet for 2 weeks and it went down 4 times.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by 

I've never had my signal cut out because of weather. Not once.

Then you are a lucky one.

And I fail to see how latency comes in when watching tv....

Ah most people that have Sat, also use Sat to get their internet.

If you don't belong to that group, then it wouldn't matter.

Originally Posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker

He doesn't have it but is the expert.

Wha?

Oh, you mean "He doesn't have sat, but he still thinks he is an expert"

As if having it, suddenly makes you an expert. Or not having it suddenly negates you knowing what you are talking about.

As yes, I did have it at one time. Horrible. Wouldn't go back if I was payed to.

But then again, I don't watch much TV.

And that probably says more about the company I was using than the service itself.

I also almost EVER have the TV cut out on my because of weather.

That made no sense.

The latency is about 2 second behind cable (I can hear it over the phone when watching the same channel). Big deal.

It's a big deal to a lot of people. You calling one tech inferior because it's old, then you say this isn't a big deal.

I had cable internet for 2 weeks and it went down 4 times.

I think that says more about your cable company...

[Salty]

Wow... Winnipeg must be like ahead of the times. We've never had problems with cable, aside from just these last few weeks our cable interweb has been dying intermittently and requires restarting the modem. We're about to switch from Shaw to MTS (Manitoba Telco) who offer Phone, Cellular, DSL and now digital TV over the phone lines.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by Salty

Wow... Winnipeg must be like ahead of the times. We've never had problems with cable, aside from just these last few weeks our cable interweb has been dying intermittently and requires restarting the modem. We're about to switch from Shaw to MTS (Manitoba Telco) who offer Phone, Cellular, DSL and now digital TV over the phone lines.

Salty you might as well ditch cable. It stinks. Old technology.

[Dale Sorel]

No complaints with DirecTV here

[Y3a]

I got DirectTV and the 300 buck HD reciever. Works great unless a THUNDERSTORM or Heavy Snow is in the way of the satellite. Then I switch to DVD's or DUH... Turn it off.

[Link]

ExpressVu is run by echostar, so you have (mostly) the same satellites and hardware as I do SWG, just pay different people

Comcast can bite me. Their "enhanced" basic cable costs $11 more than we pay for 60 channels + locals on dishnet, the whole setup is actually more reliable than the cable network here was (it went out almost weekly, not to mention the annoying "alert system" tests every day), and ours was set up right before some nasty weather came -- middle of a nasty little storm we still got a good signal, and we're just using dual 500s (20" dishes) aimed at 110/119 and 148.

Then again, it depends on where you are. I am a bit irritated that if you change your options they bill you 5 bucks for the 'privillege' -- but otherwise we've been fine, and the boxes are pretty decent as far as reliability goes -- 'cept when I use them *cackle* -- we also have a faulty LNBF so 119 drops sometimes, but I haven't had the time to get that fixed.

I don't really have anything against cable companies though -- they just vary a lot from locality to locality and some are better than others, FWIW comcast's commercials were slowly burning my brain though: How many times can you see the one with the ugly people "Every time the dog sneezed, WEE LOST THE PICTURE!" before getting fed up?! But they're too expensive for me -- we just watch TV like -- for mama's family, all in the family, the jeffersons (reruns, reruns, reruns), and a few cartoons, so having a million and one channels doesn't seem all that appealing.

Same went for our DSL though: comcast started offering their service after a LOT of variation in replies! If you've ever hung out on satelliteguys' forum, you'd know that dish customers have a term called "CSR roulette" to describe dish network's CSRs (the answers from one to another for a question can vary BIGTIME) BUT this is an even bigger problem with comcast when asking about anything digital... even their website follows this!

Last year I had this HUGE problem with SBC billing - long story short, I wanted to end the DSL with them because they were messing up everything (they STILL manage to do this even with our regular stuff)!

We'd pay a month of service, then get a bill 2 weeks later charging us $400 more -- and a $50 fee for being late! Stuff like that, then they'd claim they didn't get the checks sometimes, if we sent another (or paid over the phone), suddenly they had the check...

In the end it came down to a $2500 phone bill. We paid it requesting to cancel everything but the DSL and keep only the phone line required to have it....

3 hours later, the DSL modem drops out, I check all my wiring to make sure nothing's out, and find out they dropped the line out and were canceling the DSL.. wtf? We didn't tell them to cancel the line!

Reconnect the line? Sure just wait 2 weeks! No ****ing thanks.

I call comcast -- HELLO COMCAST! Nooo we don't do internet service in your area! Well, they might have offered you it.. but I can't.. the computer won't let me!

I call again, CSR roulette? Nope...

THE F***ING SALESPEOPLE WERE JUST HERE THE OTHER DAY BRAGGING ABOUT THEIR DAMN SERVICE! HOW THE *@(#&@#% CAN IT NOT BE AVAILABLE?

I call speakeasy -- they can't do service to people on SBC RTs at that time.. Same went for every other company UNLESS I was interested in re-setting the line up with SBC...

Eventually I went back to them, tail between legs -- 3 weeks to reconnect even though the signal was up 2 days later - - they made me wait a week and a half to 'activate' the account again.

Their CEO can take their RTs and shove them up their you know where, along with all their crappy phone lines.

[zerostar]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Ah most people that have Sat, also use Sat to get their internet.

I will chime in on Satellite here also, NO most people who have Sat DO NOT HAVE IT for internet, look at the numbers for Sat. Internet subscribers, around the amount of customers a small ISP would have.

For most Sat. Internet is a LAST RESORT, it is slow and has horrible latency, that said it is still better than dial up.

DirecTV has 12,200,000 Subscribers. out of those 2% (or 250,000) subscribe to Satellite Internet.

2% is not most.

Link #1: http://www.techweb.com/wire/26803694
Link #2: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2005/May/1149444.htm

p.s. this is the most recent info I could find, but it is all 2005.

We have DirecTV for television and have AT MOST 1 outage every few months and that lasts for around 1-2 minutes max. (We are in Sunny *rainy* South Florida)

We have Adelphia (soon to be Comcast here) for internet 6MB/768K for $59 and it is pretty stable.

I will say that my dish survived the 3 hurricanes last year and only went out with the power, my Adelphia (and cable TV) didn't come back for 2 weeks, I suspect if I had Satellite internet at least I would have had service.

Lastly, as far as the latency, who cares? We use TiVo here and almost never watch TV in "real time", by the time I get home I am catching my shows from 1-2 hours ago, even days ago. Also I have NEVER heard ANYONE with Satellite TV complain about latency, what is the big deal?

[Link]

I sure as heck don't have satellite internet, not worth the trouble

The latency was a little annoying at first, but the on screen display helps a lot. Something people don't know about satellite boxes is they're a bit laggier than digital cable boxes because on top of "catching" the new stream, they have to figure out what satellite and what transponder the channel is on before it can be shown

[nerd]

I have DirecTV with their Tivo and love it. I also have HD on the living room set. Yes in bad rain storms I'll get signal fade but I'm in New Mexico so those only last about 15 minutes. I can live with that.

The value is a lot better then Comcast. The main reason for me switching was the crap Comcast PVR. They compressed the picture so much it stank. I won't even get into the interface. I do still have Comcast for internet.

[SVass]

As one who has an HDTV, Comcast service, and lives in an "urban area" and therefore can not get local channels via satellite due to Congressional mandate, I have both some opinions and have noticed something. Those without HD have no significant complaints. The Comcast HD service does not work well. The set top boxes, the line amplifiers on poles, and the stations have significant problems. Digital high definition tv has not yet arrived. sam

[hyperb0le]

Quick update: The tech support people were full of it. We got new boxes, and the situation is the exact same. Our DVRs work fine, but all of the normal boxes only receive normal cable, and we can't access any menus or the guide on them. I guess I'm going to have to wait for the technician in a week...

[ReggieX]

Never had too many problems with good ol' analogue cable here. The internet side has had a few downtimes, the last caused by technicians moving the wrong wires at the box on the side of the house, but other than that it's rock solid.

[Link]

Originally Posted by SVass

As one who has an HDTV, Comcast service, and lives in an "urban area" and therefore can not get local channels via satellite due to Congressional mandate, I have both some opinions and have noticed something. Those without HD have no significant complaints. The Comcast HD service does not work well. The set top boxes, the line amplifiers on poles, and the stations have significant problems. Digital high definition tv has not yet arrived. sam

Huh? Can't get locals because you're in an *URBAN* area? WTF? Most of the mirrored locals ARE urban areas! (I get SF/bay area locals for example)..

If the locals are on a 'seperate dish' (aka 61.5 for east coast dish customers and 148 for west coast dish customers) .. you can take care of that easy

[Mr. Blur]

i am on shaw cable for both my cable tv and internet...they've been *very* reliable, with absolutely minimal downtime. they are great about advising their customers about scheduled maintenance and even in those periods they have over-estimated the downtime.....i can't see any other company doing any bette that they have.

[macaddict0001]

Originally Posted by Kevin

Salty you might as well ditch cable. It stinks. Old technology.

Telephone lines are older, that being said I like telephone more than cable.

[macaddict0001]

Originally Posted by hyperb0le

Quick update: The tech support people were full of it. We got new boxes, and the situation is the exact same. Our DVRs work fine, but all of the normal boxes only receive normal cable, and we can't access any menus or the guide on them. I guess I'm going to have to wait for the technician in a week...

Uhmm since when has a guide ever been available on a normal cable box, and how do you expect to get all the channels on a normal box when some are digital channels? Heck why do you even have a box, every vcr and tv made in the last 20 years has had a built in cable tuner.

[King Bob On The Cob]

Originally Posted by macaddict0001

Uhmm since when has a guide ever been available on a normal cable box, and how do you expect to get all the channels on a normal box when some are digital channels? Heck why do you even have a box, every vcr and tv made in the last 20 years has had a built in cable tuner.

But if you get HBO or other encrypted channels that are in the digital band, you have to get a box that has the chip in it to decode the channels. These are not simple cable tuners and frequently will have things like movies on demand and pay-per-view built in.

[Athens]

I've never had a problem with Shaw Cable and I like Digital Cable more then Sat.

[Railroader]

Count me as a vote for DirectTV. I've had Comcast, Charter, TVC (local cable co.), Dishnetwork w/non-TiVo PVR, and now DirecTV w/TiVo.

Comcast was ethe most expensive and their digital cable box was the slowest.

Charter was OK, but the closest channel to my home came in the worst. And the analog signal was better than the their digital. I have no idea how that worked and neither did two different tech who came out to check it out.

TVC had spotty service with outages at least once a month.

Dishnetwork was my worst experience with a provider evar! Their PVR SUCKS!!! Their recievers are super slow. The picture quality was similar to cable.

DirectTV is awesome! The picture is so good I wonder why I would need HD. (Yes, I have watched a lot of HD content, probably over a hundred hours, and it is nice, but DirecTV with s-video connected is THAT good.) The only reasons I would really want HD is for the widescreen content and 5.1 signal. TiVo is AWESOME!!! 'nuph said.

[hyperb0le]

Originally Posted by macaddict0001

Uhmm since when has a guide ever been available on a normal cable box, and how do you expect to get all the channels on a normal box when some are digital channels? Heck why do you even have a box, every vcr and tv made in the last 20 years has had a built in cable tuner.

When I say "normal box", I mean non-PVR. All the boxes we have are digital, but only two of them are PVRs.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by macaddict0001

Telephone lines are older, that being said I like telephone more than cable.

Macaddict, I don't actually believe that. I was making fun of those that do, and have no idea what they are talking about.

[wdlove]

It's their monopolistic control, not real need to change. I have Comcast and just pay the Basic $9.16 a month.

[macaddict0001]

Originally Posted by hyperb0le

When I say "normal box", I mean non-PVR. All the boxes we have are digital, but only two of them are PVRs.

oh, I thought you meant they were analog boxes.

Originally Posted by Kevin

Macaddict, I don't actually believe that. I was making fun of those that do, and have no idea what they are talking about.

oh.

[Gankdawg]

Originally Posted by wdlove

It's their monopolistic control, not real need to change. I have Comcast and just pay the Basic $9.16 a month.

wd hit the nail on the head. They just don't care enough to change.

I wish I could get basic cable for $9.16/month. I had Charter for about a year and the picture quality was horrible. I called and called, they tested the line, gave a line of BS that they were installing new hardware soon that would improve everything, blah, blah, blah.

I left and went to Dish Network and now have much better picture quality. But of course about 3 months into a one-year contract, the raised the price. If I wanted to leave, I would have to pay a fine. If they want to change a contract, fine.

[ghporter]

I have DirecTV-and have had it for years-and it has been very good to us. While there is some latency, when do you notice that? If I could get local stations directly, I would, but for a couple extra bucks a month I get them in digital quality. Sure, they're a tiny bit delayed, but so what? I really don't see what the problem with latency is.

I have had a few storms that interrupted service because of heavy rain, but I'm in South Texas, and that means HEAVY rain on occasion. And really scary storms that make you wish that there was an easy way to build a basement in solid limestone (which is what my foundation is built on). Sure, the signal drops out during that kind of storm, but the lightning is so close then that it's safer for the equipmetn to be off anyway. And for me to be huddled up against an interior wall!

There is one issue with DirecTV that I haven't figured out yet. I don't know what sort of changes the FCC mandated all-digital broadcast deadline will have on my service. And that's just a minor question anyway, as I am not yet rich enough to own a fancy enough TV to take advantage of any of the new HD technologies.

[Link]

ghporter, I wouldn't worry about it: The FCC digital broadcast deadline is to require digital OTA -- not to mandate cable/sat providers to only show content in HD (that won't happen anytime soon)..

Chances are good the only difference you'll see is your receivers will eventually be replaced with MPEG4 ones.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Link

ghporter, I wouldn't worry about it: The FCC digital broadcast deadline is to require digital OTA -- not to mandate cable/sat providers to only show content in HD (that won't happen anytime soon)..

Chances are good the only difference you'll see is your receivers will eventually be replaced with MPEG4 ones.

That's what I thought. Of course going "High Definition" will be expensive for just about everyone, so I can't complain too much about it when I eventually do have to buy new equipment. Hopefully I'll win the lottery before then and be able to get lots of cool stuff!