Cable & satellite

[WildBill]

WildBill,

Not, if you have a Digital Recording Device. And, I do.

With a DVR you can fast forward right on by...plus, anytime you're watching you can pause, grab a sandwich or ...? and then at your leisure resume your watching. Or rewind and look again, whatever suits you. It's great.

I love livin in the iron age!

I have nothing against the content, technical innovations or conveniences of cable or satellite TV. I have an issue with their business tactics, i.e. the cost and their dismal customer service. They have become a monopoly for television programming which has resulted in their disrespect and unfair treatment of their customers. Their treatment of customers is illegal, unethical and disgraceful. That is why I do not give them my money.

[Abraham]

WildBill,

I was unaware of your poor experiences with pay t.v. service. (I haven't read the entire thread so I guess I missed something...?)

So far, Dish has been one the lesser evils in this experience. Time Warner as I knew it, was unbelievably arrogant and I'll stop there...or my blood pressure will escalate to stroke level. So yeah, I hear ya.

However, as you mentioned, dismal customer service is the expected norm with any and all of the pay t.v. services. Me, I just grit my teeth and push on until I get what I desire. Sure, I could do without it, but I fell deeply in love with HD at a friends house and thus willing to swim through a river of unmentionable substance to get it. I am an avid reader, but when it comes to t.v., give me H.D. or give me death!

I've experienced almost no need to contact my t.v. provider as all systems are go and continue to perform flawlessly. However, I have learned one trick if I must contact them. I keep calling until the answerer responds in American English. They have customer service centers in the states as well as Mumbai or the Black Hole of Calcutta. It's my experience in the past, if there are any technical complexities, the sheerest way to go round the bend with frustration is to deal with some guy who says his name is Bob, but whose real name is Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.

[WildBill]

WildBill,

I was unaware of your poor experiences with pay t.v. service. (I haven't read the entire thread so I guess I missed something...?)

That rant was in another thread.

[AWB09]

Those who state "They don't watch television..." ought to take a gander at what they're missing. There's a cornucopia of high quality programming available now.

Most of the time I'd rather do something instead of sit around and watch something.

[Abraham]

AWB09 ,

I couldn't agree more.

Some of my hobbies include: Long distance cycling, weight lifting, kayaking, scuba diving, wade fishing, log splitting, birding, land clearing, reading to the tune of approximately 60 books annually, dozens of magazines and journals and well, you get the picture. There are other activities I engage in, but I'll sound immodest, (if I don't already) if I go on.

Staying active is a must.

The only electronic voyeurism I engage in is quality t.v. At this point that is no longer an oxymoron. Of course, what for me is entertaining is primarily in the realm of science and history and now there's plenty of that available on pay t.v.

I don't care for televised team sports. I find them agonizingly boring.

The only festival of violence I watch is boxing.

[iamomeed]

we use directv, this signal is great. but they nickel and dime you for everything they can. thye have different HD packages which are pretty good. I think the silver package has most of the main channels that people actually watch .

[apostate]

I love livin in the iron age!

I'm playing around and I can't get an acceptable DTV signal. I get a gorgeous crystal clear picture for several seconds followed by a second of random pixels and audio squeal. Then the cycle repeats. Invariably the garbage signal is during major plot points of dramas and punchlines of sitcoms. I'll take a consistent usable signal with a little snow/static any day over this random lack of signal. I suppose it's time to cancel my TiVo subscription because there's no sense in paying to record garbage.

[Oldgringo]

We have no problem with DISH TV. In fact, they let us "park" our home service for $10/mo while we're at our summer digs in the San Juan Mountains of South Central Colorado for the summer.

I've found that if you have a problem, the other provider will fix it for you. IOW, play one provider off the other.

[LaserTex]

DISH works great for us, plus I get to take it with me when we hit the open road in the RV. I cancelled and will no longer even talk to Time Warner.

Best of luck - you got a few extra weeks to listen to the "we're going digital" commercials.

Doug

[stevie_d_64]

I find myself reading more...The only TV show I watch anymore is "24"...And I'll buy that anyway when the box set comes out...

That doesn't mean I do not have TV's...I like to watch DVD's so I can keep giving my Plasma TV a workout...

[timdsmith72]

My experience with DirecTV was just like the cable commercials. Every time the wind blew a little hard or it even thought about raining I lost the signal. They never could get it adjusted right. I gladly gave them the $100 to get out of the contract early.

[bryang]

I had pretty good luck with DirecTV, but nothing I would get very excited about. As it has been said, just when you need it...big ole' black clouds on the horizon... it goes off. However, I found I had better luck with DirecTV than Cable. Cable would get all garbled and crazy just because. Therefore, I don't watch much TV, but I like a good cowboy when I can find one, like John Wayne, and I like to watch 24, Lost and etc. on DVD.

-geo

[Venus Pax]

I ordered the antenna that Wild Bill recommended. Mars is now able to move around in the attic. I looked at the weight, and if he could haul six boxes of teaching materials up there and organize them, then setting up this antenna should be a cake walk. (At seven months pregnant, I'm now a different story.)

We're not big t.v. people, so I don't think we'll miss much while waiting on the turbo antenna to arrive, but we watch it some.

I'll try to keep it in mind to post my experience with this one.

Thanks, Wild Bill. I appreciate it. I like to save money where I can.

[WildBill]

I ordered the antenna that Wild Bill recommended. Mars is now able to move around in the attic. I looked at the weight, and if he could haul six boxes of teaching materials up there and organize them, then setting up this antenna should be a cake walk. (At seven months pregnant, I'm now a different story.)

We're not big t.v. people, so I don't think we'll miss much while waiting on the turbo antenna to arrive, but we watch it some.

I'll try to keep it in mind to post my experience with this one.

Thanks, Wild Bill. I appreciate it. I like to save money where I can.

Once you get it installed let me know how it works for you. The shipping weight might be a little deceiving - I don't think the antenna weighs more than 10 pounds. I am still getting great reception with mine. Every couple of days, new digital channels are popping up as the transition continues.

[mymojo]

I cancelled our cable two weeks ago. Between Hulu.com and Netflix streaming video, I found out I haven't missed T.V.

Of course I'm always open to any other web based streaming video sites you guys know of.