wrote in message
...


The cable company will probably be migrating everything to digital
eventually but they know that will make satellite more attractive for
anyone without a QAM tuner equipped TV (not the same as the OTA
"digital" the FCC requires). If you need a box for every TV anyway,
satellite really starts looking good.

We have four Comcast provided HD Cable boxes in the house hooked up to
either plasma or LCD large screen TVs. We rarely watch any programming on
them and I am thinking of getting rid of 2 or 3 of the boxes. The digital
flat screens will display several channels in HD anyway without the box
(connected directly to the cable feed).

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use on
the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and have the
dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is digital
obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that provided by
Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some in analog
(without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get over 500
channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of them. It's
not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very good. When
people see it they think it's HD until I show them the difference.

If it weren't for Internet service, I think I could easily dump Comcast and
go to Direct TV.
I know they offer Internet as well, but I don't think it's as fast as cable.
I don't know for sure.

Eisboch

On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 05:43:53 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use on
the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and have the
dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is digital
obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that provided by
Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some in analog
(without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get over 500
channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of them. It's
not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very good. When
people see it they think it's HD until I show them the difference.

Two questions - how's the HD service between the two in terms of
number of channels and where can I get one of those protable satellite
deals? :)

Oh, third - 500 channels?!?!?

Dude....

"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 05:43:53 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use
on
the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and have
the
dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is digital
obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that provided by
Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some in analog
(without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get over 500
channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of them.
It's
not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very good. When
people see it they think it's HD until I show them the difference.

Two questions - how's the HD service between the two in terms of
number of channels and where can I get one of those protable satellite
deals? :)

Oh, third - 500 channels?!?!?

Dude....

1. I don't know how the HD service compares. I don't have HD Direct TV.
Not sure I'd bother
either because for the amount of time I actually watch TV, it wouldn't
be worth it.
As I mentioned, the digital quality of the Direct TV (non-Hd) is
excellent.

2. I bought the portable dish at an RV place down near Kingman. It was
less than 200 bucks.
You can also find them on-line. I bought (rented, I guess) the
Direct TV receiver at
Best Buy. Not expensive. Then, you have to set up an account with
Direct TV. They want you
to connect the box to a telephone line, but I explained I was using it
on a boat and they gave
me a waiver for the telephone line requirement. There's some
limitation regarding reception
of local (Boston and Providence) channels if I happened to be
travelling long distance on the
boat, but that really doesn't bother me. I usually watch the History
Channel, Discovery, TBS
CNN, MSNBC, etc. anyway. However, the basic Direct TV service has
many, many more
channels included in it. I still haven't seen all of them.

3. I just checked. Direct TV offers a total of 584 channels. With the
basic service, I get 398
of them.

Eisboch

On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 06:53:47 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:


"Tom Francis - SWSports" wrote in
message ...
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 05:43:53 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use
on
the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and have
the
dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is digital
obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that provided by
Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some in analog
(without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get over 500
channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of them.
It's
not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very good. When
people see it they think it's HD until I show them the difference.

Two questions - how's the HD service between the two in terms of
number of channels and where can I get one of those protable satellite
deals? :)

Oh, third - 500 channels?!?!?

Dude....

1. I don't know how the HD service compares. I don't have HD Direct TV.
Not sure I'd bother
either because for the amount of time I actually watch TV, it wouldn't
be worth it.
As I mentioned, the digital quality of the Direct TV (non-Hd) is
excellent.

2. I bought the portable dish at an RV place down near Kingman. It was
less than 200 bucks.
You can also find them on-line. I bought (rented, I guess) the
Direct TV receiver at
Best Buy. Not expensive. Then, you have to set up an account with
Direct TV. They want you
to connect the box to a telephone line, but I explained I was using it
on a boat and they gave
me a waiver for the telephone line requirement. There's some
limitation regarding reception
of local (Boston and Providence) channels if I happened to be
travelling long distance on the
boat, but that really doesn't bother me. I usually watch the History
Channel, Discovery, TBS
CNN, MSNBC, etc. anyway. However, the basic Direct TV service has
many, many more
channels included in it. I still haven't seen all of them.

3. I just checked. Direct TV offers a total of 584 channels. With the
basic service, I get 398
of them.

Cool - thanks.

Must think this over. I don't watch a lot of TV, but I'm like you -
mostly History, Discovery and the occasional movie that I'm interested
in.

There's some
limitation regarding reception
of local (Boston and Providence) channels if I happened to be
travelling long distance on the
boat, but that really doesn't bother me.

Most locals are broadcast in what they call a "spotbeam." That's a focused
signal over a relatively small area, opposed to nationwide coverage which is
called "conus." Once you travel out of the coverage area of a spotbeam,
those channels are gone. They do this to give the sats more capacity to
carry locals.

--Mike

"Eisboch" wrote in message
...

wrote in message
...


The cable company will probably be migrating everything to digital
eventually but they know that will make satellite more attractive for
anyone without a QAM tuner equipped TV (not the same as the OTA
"digital" the FCC requires). If you need a box for every TV anyway,
satellite really starts looking good.

We have four Comcast provided HD Cable boxes in the house hooked up to
either plasma or LCD large screen TVs. We rarely watch any programming
on them and I am thinking of getting rid of 2 or 3 of the boxes. The
digital flat screens will display several channels in HD anyway without
the box (connected directly to the cable feed).

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use
on the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and
have the dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is
digital obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that
provided by Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some
in analog (without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get
over 500 channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of
them. It's not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very
good. When people see it they think it's HD until I show them the
difference.

If it weren't for Internet service, I think I could easily dump Comcast
and go to Direct TV.
I know they offer Internet as well, but I don't think it's as fast as
cable. I don't know for sure.

Eisboch

Direct and/or Dish do not provide the Internet service. In the case of Dish
here in my area they partner with Embarq and they provide DSL service.

I found for me it was better not to bundle the DishNetwork and Embarq
Internet service. When you get the Embarq DSL and landline phone service
they force a bundle of phone "services" that would make my phone bill part
of the service go up about 20 bux per month.

Embarq offers different Internet speeds for different monthly prices. I
have the 3MB service and it is just fine. I have never seen Comcast in
action but I've heard they have higher d/l speeds that 3MB.

wrote in message
...
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 09:19:32 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:

Direct and/or Dish do not provide the Internet service. In the case of
Dish
here in my area they partner with Embarq and they provide DSL service.

I found for me it was better not to bundle the DishNetwork and Embarq
Internet service. When you get the Embarq DSL and landline phone service
they force a bundle of phone "services" that would make my phone bill part
of the service go up about 20 bux per month.

Embarq offers different Internet speeds for different monthly prices. I
have the 3MB service and it is just fine. I have never seen Comcast in
action but I've heard they have higher d/l speeds that 3MB.


Cable is faster than consumer grade DSL If you are watching videos all
day it is probably worth it. Unfortunately when you average the "zero
bits per second" you get when Comcast is down in the equation DSL is
faster, I call their offering the triple threat plan. At least 3 times
a month you will be transported back to the 19th century.
No TV, No phone, No internet.
I guess you just curl up with a good book, remember those?

Still read books. Starting a Ted Bell novel later today. Used to have
cable, but everytime it rained or got foggy the cable went out. Was one of
the first cable systems in the country. They replaced all the cables and
supposedly is good and reliable now. Just to costly for what I use.

On Jan 7, 12:26*pm, "Calif Bill" wrote:
wrote in message

...





On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 09:19:32 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:

Direct and/or Dish do not provide the Internet service. In the case of
Dish
here in my area they partner with Embarq and they provide DSL service.

I found for me it was better not to bundle the DishNetwork and Embarq
Internet service. *When you get the Embarq DSL and landline phone service
they force a bundle of phone "services" that would make my phone bill part
of the service go up about 20 bux per month.

Embarq offers different Internet speeds for different monthly prices. *I
have the 3MB service and it is just fine. *I have never seen Comcast in
action but I've heard they have higher d/l speeds that 3MB.

Cable is faster than consumer grade DSL If you are watching videos all
day it is probably worth it. Unfortunately when you average the "zero
bits per second" you get when Comcast is down in the equation DSL is
faster, I call their offering the triple threat plan. At least 3 times
a month you will be transported back to the 19th century.
No TV, No phone, No internet.
I guess you just curl up with a good book, remember those?

Still read books. *Starting a Ted Bell novel later today. *Used to have
cable, but everytime it rained or got foggy the cable went out. *Was one of
the first cable systems in the country. *They replaced all the cables and
supposedly is good and reliable now. *Just to costly for what I use.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

On Jan 7, 11:29*am, wrote:
On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 09:19:32 -0500, "D.Duck" wrote:
Direct and/or Dish do not provide the Internet service. In the case of Dish
here in my area they partner with Embarq and they provide DSL service.

I found for me it was better not to bundle the DishNetwork and Embarq
Internet service. *When you get the Embarq DSL and landline phone service
they force a bundle of phone "services" that would make my phone bill part
of the service go up about 20 bux per month.

Embarq offers different Internet speeds for different monthly prices. *I
have the 3MB service and it is just fine. *I have never seen Comcast in
action but I've heard they have higher d/l speeds that 3MB.

Cable is faster than consumer grade DSL If you are watching videos all
day it is probably worth it. Unfortunately when you average the "zero
bits per second" you get when Comcast is down in the equation DSL is
faster, I call their offering the triple threat plan. At least 3 times
a month you will be transported back to the 19th century.
No TV, No phone, No internet.
I guess you just curl up with a good book, remember those?

I'll bet my cable at home hasn't been down in at least two years. At
the office, Bellsouth is down at least every week. Sometimes for a few
minutes, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for a day. The business
line from them is horrible, noise all of the time. Comcast is clear as
a bell.

On Wed, 7 Jan 2009 05:43:53 -0500, "Eisboch" wrote:


wrote in message
.. .


The cable company will probably be migrating everything to digital
eventually but they know that will make satellite more attractive for
anyone without a QAM tuner equipped TV (not the same as the OTA
"digital" the FCC requires). If you need a box for every TV anyway,
satellite really starts looking good.

We have four Comcast provided HD Cable boxes in the house hooked up to
either plasma or LCD large screen TVs. We rarely watch any programming on
them and I am thinking of getting rid of 2 or 3 of the boxes. The digital
flat screens will display several channels in HD anyway without the box
(connected directly to the cable feed).

I also purchased a portable sat dish and got a Direct TV account for use on
the boat. It works great and during the winter I bring it home and have the
dish temporarily mounted on a rear porch. All the programming is digital
obviously, and the quality of the picture is superior to that provided by
Comcast which has some of the programming in digital and some in analog
(without use of a box). I just have the basic service but I get over 500
channels, which is kinda stupid because I only watch about 4 of them. It's
not HD, but for some reason the quality of the picture is very good. When
people see it they think it's HD until I show them the difference.

If it weren't for Internet service, I think I could easily dump Comcast and
go to Direct TV.
I know they offer Internet as well, but I don't think it's as fast as cable.
I don't know for sure.

Eisboch

My neighbor got rid of his cable tv connections and just uses an antenna.
He's getting great reception on his HDTV and is very happy with what he's
getting.

If he were married to my wife, he wouldn't get away with it. There are too
many cable shows she won't do without.