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For proper operation of your Equipment, DISH Network requires that you connect each DISH Network receiver on your account to a telephone line. For accounts containing multiple receivers, each receiver must be connected to the same telephone line.

Uhm... guess what, not having a phone line connected to your Dish Network equipment exposes you to the exact same risk.

That is, if Comcast is required to sell ESPN without a dozen other Disney-owned channels

Comcast isn't required to sell Disney-owned channels at all. Under the current oligopoly situation, the cable incumbent and the satellite overbuilders have every right to go all Losing Nemo on their customers, as Dish Network threatened to do with Viacom's channels. Only pressure from the cable and satellite providers, brought on by the FCC's a la carte mandates, will force the networks to unbundle their channels.

It's available free in the U.S. on Dish Network (channel 9400), many cable networks or direct from Ku-band satellite on Galaxy 10R (11.805GHz, Horizontal, 4580ksym/sec).

Straight from the lab to your living room.

According the the FCC, as a tenant, you have a right to have satellite as a choice and your landlord/landlady has to comply or risk a fine.

Check out this page, and this one for some help on what your rights are.

Link to EchoStar's response: http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/upd ates/index.shtml

Allowing customers to substitute channels or add a favorite channel to their package would force us to raise prices. To prevent this, we do not allow channel substitutions. We strive to make satellite programming as affordable as possible. Our packages have been setup in balance with cost effectiveness and consumer demand. One way to help keep our customer?s programming costs low is to provide stations in packages, rather than ala carte.

Today I got the standard letter to all Dish subscribers who sent email (and it's on their website) saying they've reached an agreement and all subscribers will still get their $1 off plus a free Video On-Demand movie as a thank you for being patient.

I bet the people still waiting for their new (more expensive) cable/DirectTV subscription are hitting themselves for being so reactionary. I mean for crissake, it was only 36 hours!

Make sure you learn to read their agreement when you sign up. Don't cry about about it after the fact.

Per section 9B, I needed to be notified about these changes. I did not see any notice of this on my bill, and I certainly did not receive a phone call. No note was hand delivered to me. I guess that means that they must have "deposited in the U.S. Mail" a letter to me. Which I may (or may not) receive well after the changes in my programming took place. I am curious to see if any such letter ever arrives.

(section 9B of service agreement taken from http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/aboutus/RCA/ind ex.shtml)

"B. Notice. If we send you notice, it will be considered given when deposited in the U.S. Mail, addressed to you at your billing address or hand-delivered to you. Our notice to you will also be effective if provided on your billing statement or by telephone. If you give notice to us, it will be deemed given when received by us at the address listed on the first page of this Agreement."

I'm not crying (yet), but it would have been nice to have some more advanced notice. If I wanted to jump ship, I would like to have been able to do it with as minimal an interruption as possible.

Dish Network (which has it's problems like all big companies) is offering a COMPLETE HDTV package including:

*Your choice of HD Monitor, a 34" CRT or a 40" rear projection system
*Dish's HDTV receiver model 811
*Complete installation including dish mounting, all cables, setup of the receiver and monitor and integration to an existing home theater system

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/products/system /index.shtml

The only catch is that you have to agree to one year of HD programming and pay the first month in advance ($49.99).

I recently switched away from Dish Network to go to the local digital cable company. Since I already have cable modem access through them, I save $10 off my cable modem and the digital cable gets me all the same channels but is about $40 per month cheaper (for combined cable TV + cable modem vs. cable modem and Dish TV), and my local cable company now offers digital cable PVR receivers for only $5 more per receiver per month.

Ok, clarification....

DirecTV's TiVos are all dual turner as suggested here. However, (and this is the part that confuses me), they also appears to have about 35 hours of record time, which really isn't that much.

Dish Network's DVR units come in both varieties. The 510, 508, and 501 are all single tuner, but have 100, 80, and 40 hours of record time respectively.

The 522 Receiver is dual tuner with a 100 hours of record time. It can serve two rooms with DVR capability or you can tell it to record on the TV2 location while you watch something else on the TV1 location.

The DirecTiVo units generaly cost about $99 a pop. Dish's 522 doesn't cost any extra in a Digital Home Advantage Install (at least not according to the website, I'm a tech person).

The 522 doesn't have TiVo name based recording, it only does time slot recording. For some people, that's a deal breaker.

DirecTv doesn't offer a new customer promotion with more than one DVR unit. Dish kind of does, since the 522 will do two rooms as a DVR. (though we're splitting hairs there)

The first post I wrote on this was a tossed off comment. This is more solidly researched. If you have any further questions feel free to contact me.

Ok, clarification....

DirecTV's TiVos are all dual turner as suggested here. However, (and this is the part that confuses me), they also appears to have about 35 hours of record time, which really isn't that much.

Dish Network's DVR units come in both varieties. The 510, 508, and 501 are all single tuner, but have 100, 80, and 40 hours of record time respectively.

The 522 Receiver is dual tuner with a 100 hours of record time. It can serve two rooms with DVR capability or you can tell it to record on the TV2 location while you watch something else on the TV1 location.

The DirecTiVo units generaly cost about $99 a pop. Dish's 522 doesn't cost any extra in a Digital Home Advantage Install (at least not according to the website, I'm a tech person).

The 522 doesn't have TiVo name based recording, it only does time slot recording. For some people, that's a deal breaker.

DirecTv doesn't offer a new customer promotion with more than one DVR unit. Dish kind of does, since the 522 will do two rooms as a DVR. (though we're splitting hairs there)

The first post I wrote on this was a tossed off comment. This is more solidly researched. If you have any further questions feel free to contact me.

Ok, clarification....

DirecTV's TiVos are all dual turner as suggested here. However, (and this is the part that confuses me), they also appears to have about 35 hours of record time, which really isn't that much.

Dish Network's DVR units come in both varieties. The 510, 508, and 501 are all single tuner, but have 100, 80, and 40 hours of record time respectively.

The 522 Receiver is dual tuner with a 100 hours of record time. It can serve two rooms with DVR capability or you can tell it to record on the TV2 location while you watch something else on the TV1 location.

The DirecTiVo units generaly cost about $99 a pop. Dish's 522 doesn't cost any extra in a Digital Home Advantage Install (at least not according to the website, I'm a tech person).

The 522 doesn't have TiVo name based recording, it only does time slot recording. For some people, that's a deal breaker.

DirecTv doesn't offer a new customer promotion with more than one DVR unit. Dish kind of does, since the 522 will do two rooms as a DVR. (though we're splitting hairs there)

The first post I wrote on this was a tossed off comment. This is more solidly researched. If you have any further questions feel free to contact me.

I have 3 receivers. If they are all DirecTV DVRs, I pay $20 month($5*3)+$5, which is a better deal than Dish Network lists on its website. The standard hard disk is 40GB, but given the hundreds of dollars you save over the dual-tuner Dish DVR's, you could easily upgrade to the full capacity and still have money left over.

Echostar will provide a $1 monthly credit to customers who lose programming while the channels are unavailable. Sorry but $1 a month is not exactly a fair trade off.

Guess what? Echostar doesn't own you anything. You should be glad they are giving you that discount, and you'd know it if you actually read the agreement they provide service under. Here's the related section of the agreement:

"G. Changes in Services offered. DISH Network reserves the right to change the Services that we offer, and our prices or fees related to such Services at any time. If the change affects you, we will provide you notice of the change and its effective date. The notice may be provided on your billing statement or by other communication permitted under Section 9B. In the event of a change in the contents of any programming, programming packages or other Services, you understand and agree that we have no obligation to replace or supplement the programming, programming packages or other Services previously offered that have been deleted, rearranged or otherwise changed. You further understand and agree you will not be entitled to any refund because of a change in the contents of any programming, programming packages, or other Services previously offered."

From http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/aboutus/RCA/ind ex.shtml

DirecTV sounds like a great choice.

Make sure you learn to read their agreement when you sign up. Don't cry about about it after the fact.

It's actually $5.99/month for just the local channels. The cheapest plan you can get (60 channels) is $24.99/month. And there's a mistake in the article as well: Dish is reimbursing everyone $1 for the "loss" of MTV. But they're also reimbursing the people who lost CBS another dollar. (Source: FAQ on the Dish website) A dollar for all the Viacom networks on the list is a bit small, but a dollar for losing CBS out of the local programming is entirely reasonable, I think.

Dish charges $6 for local channels. I'd say $1 back for dropping a channel is fair.

local dish network prices

I personally will be sending an email expressing my feelings that even though I am dissappointed to lose Comedy Central for an undetermined amount of time, I stand by Dish Network in their stance against Viacom.

I'm glad someone is standing up to what amounts to extortion. Viacom wants Echostar/Dish to carry additional programming, and if they don't do it, they pull the rights to broadcast CBS, all the while raising the rates for Viacom networks....

I noticed that DirecTV rolled over and raised their rates all the while taking out a full page ad in USA Today trumpeting that they now carry NickToons. You can also sorta compare the packages they both offer:

Dish Network Total 120: $34.99 or $385 ($32.08/m) a year

Direct TV Total Choice (130 channels): $39.99 a month

(I picked the lowest packages that carried TechTV. And you would need to add onto Dish Network if you want the locals.)

I've been a Dish Network subscriber for 4 years now, and the only thing that really irks me is that all their offers for new boxes or PVRs are for new customers only.

It should be noted that Viacom are the ones putting the scoll bar on those channels - they are appearing to EVERYONE watching from any provider. The irony is that they are plumbing them through Dishnetwork's own system. Some cool stuff is here.

Pick up the phone and call Don Corsini and let him know how you feel.

The summary: Dishnetwork has the lowest cost programming in the US. They'd like to keep it that way so they are dropping these channels from their basic package. They will allow people to add them if the cost is deemed worth while on a per-user basis. This is good for the consumer and good for the free market because Viacom will learn that they can't just raise their prices arbitrarily and still keep their seat in the basic package.

Fuck Viacom

Good advice, but be aware that you may not be allowed to get the networks you want over the dish. I live equidistant to Omaha, NE and Sioux City, IA. Although I'm in Nebraska, the FCC considers my city to be in the Sioux City viewing area. Because of this, I can only get local stations over my dish if they're from Sioux City, even though no SC channels are available over the dish and all Omaha channels are. Worse, since I can technically receive NBC and CBS via antenna (no matter that the picture quality is abyssmal), the FCC won't allow me to "buy" those networks from other cities (although I can (and do) buy FOX and ABC out of Dallas).

Dish Network has an online list of cities where local coverage is available. If you live in one of these cities, then you can get all of your channels via satellite. If you're not, then you may be able to buy some or all of the channels from other cities.

Don't get me wrong - I hate Comcast just as much as anyone who has ever dealt with them but... they've got satellite beat when it comes to HDTV. In contrast with their "digital cable" which is mostly just digitally compressed analog (the worst of both worlds), they do pass the local and premium HDTV content, unmodified.

With satellite, you'll need an antenna to get local HDTV content because there isn't enough bandwidth for a satellite to provide every locale with HDTV. Now, they will provide "national feeds" of some local channels. Dish Network does this with CBS because of all the HDTV content on that channel (CSI is the most watched HDTV program). But it isn't truely a local channel - just an unmodified national feed. So no local news/weather, etc. And you have to pay extra for it because of the gov't regulations that the cable company has, *cough*, purchased.

However, the new Dish 921 HDTV PVR is cool if you can put up with 25 hours of HDTV PVR and can afford to put an antenna on your house. Most new developments in my area do not allow exterior antennas. Some people can get away with installation in an attic.

This box will combine terrestrial HDTV for local channels with satellite feeds of everything else. It isn't a bad compromise for those (like me) who don't want anything to do with CableCo monopoly.

I've only had experience with the DVR Time/Warner cable was offering and it wouldn't let you time-shift anything but PPV content, but I don't know if that applies to Comcast as well. If it does, you could stick a TiVO or your own DVR into the equation, but then what you're doing is decoding the MPEG from your cable provider, then reencoding it back into MPEG when it gets saved to the hard disk, which sucks. This is assuming you're getting digital cable of course.

The satellite DVR packages on the other hand will save the MPEG stream directly to the hard disk, so you can view it later without loss of image quality.

This is all the more important if you're thinking about going with HDTV. DirecTV is about to come out with a HD-DVR made in conjunction with TiVO. DishNetwork's HD-DVR is already out, but it will set you back a cool thousand.

If there was actually something worth watching on TV beside porn, I'd get the latter, if for no other reason than that DirecTV won't carry porn, but seeing as how Murdoch has bought DirecTV from Hughes that's probably about to change.

The consensus on rec.video.satellite.dbs seems to be that weather really doesn't affect image quality (though this may not be true for HD content) but that airplanes, helicopters, birds and people falling off of your roof can and do. That said, it supposedly causes only minor artifacting (which you're going to get anyways given the aggressive compression the providers use... watch Star Trek: TNG on Spike TV sometime and watch the signal lose sync everytime somebody fires a phaser.)

I've only had experience with the DVR Time/Warner cable was offering and it wouldn't let you time-shift anything but PPV content, but I don't know if that applies to Comcast as well. If it does, you could stick a TiVO or your own DVR into the equation, but then what you're doing is decoding the MPEG from your cable provider, then reencoding it back into MPEG when it gets saved to the hard disk, which sucks. This is assuming you're getting digital cable of course.

The satellite DVR packages on the other hand will save the MPEG stream directly to the hard disk, so you can view it later without loss of image quality.

This is all the more important if you're thinking about going with HDTV. DirecTV is about to come out with a HD-DVR made in conjunction with TiVO. DishNetwork's HD-DVR is already out, but it will set you back a cool thousand.

If there was actually something worth watching on TV beside porn, I'd get the latter, if for no other reason than that DirecTV won't carry porn, but seeing as how Murdoch has bought DirecTV from Hughes that's probably about to change.

The consensus on rec.video.satellite.dbs seems to be that weather really doesn't affect image quality (though this may not be true for HD content) but that airplanes, helicopters, birds and people falling off of your roof can and do. That said, it supposedly causes only minor artifacting (which you're going to get anyways given the aggressive compression the providers use... watch Star Trek: TNG on Spike TV sometime and watch the signal lose sync everytime somebody fires a phaser.)

Actually, you can change the UHF frequency used by each receiver. I don't remember the exact number, but there are at least 12 channels available so that conflicts as you describe can be avoided. Check it out in the manual that came with your 510 (or other) receiver (page 21 in the 510 manual, "Changing Remote Address," to be specific) or, if you've misplaced your manual, go here and scan through the PDFs to find the information.

We had the same problem here when we got the 721 (a device we love) and it only took about five minutes to fix. Good luck!

Sorry, look here.

I got Dish Network two years ago and have been enjoying The Research Channel, UCTV, and UWTV. They've got university lectures nearly around the clock. Some of the lectures are toned down for a lay scientist (lots of annual faculty lectures), and others are broadcasts of actual university classes. CSN would be a welcome addition to these networks for me.

EXISTING SUBSCRIBERS PROMOTIONS:

You asked for it you got it! We have listened to your feedback regarding our existing DVR Upgrade Promotion. Effective October 27, 2003 we are lowering the upfront cost to the subscriber and allowing both existing DHP and Non-DHP customers to participate. We've set the industry standard in DVR technology and it continues to be the wave of the future; we want all customers to take advantage of the DISH Player-DVR 510 receiver.

DISH Player-DVR 510 non-DHP Upgrade: Existing non-DHP customers can upgrade to a DISH Player-DVR 510 receiver for just $99 plus Equipment and Handling charge. Effective October 27, 2003, customers can purchase a DISH Player-DVR-510 receiver for $99 with a 1-year agreement. America's Top 50 or DISH Latino and higher programming is required. Customers must enroll in Credit Card AutoPay or pay a $24.95 Equipment and Handling charge payable directly to DISH Network at the time of activation. Customers who activated on or before November 1, 2002, also have the option of getting the DISH Player-DVR 510 receiver for FREE with a 2-year agreement. America's Top 50 and DISH Latino and higher programming is required. Once again, the customer must enroll in Credit Card AutoPay or pay a $24.95 Equipment and Handling charge payable directly to DISH Network at the time of activation. There is a limit of 1 DISH Player-DVR 510 upgrade per account. A $240 cancellation fee applies.

DISH Player-DVR 510 DHP Upgrade: Effective October 27, 2003, existing DHP customers can upgrade to a DISH Player-DVR 510 by simply paying $49.99 upfront, enrolling in Credit Card AutoPay and agreeing to a 1-year programming purchase. America's Top 50 or DISH Latino and higher programming is required. If the customer does not want to enroll in Credit Card AutoPay, they can pay a $24.95 Equipment and Handling charge payable directly to DISH Network. Customers must have been activated on or before March 1, 2003, and there is a limit of 1 DISH Player-DVR 510 upgrade per account. A maximum of 4 leased receivers are allowed on the customer's account. So, if the customer already has a 4-receiver DHP Plan then the customer must participate in the receiver exchange option. A cancellation fee of $240 applies.

Disclaimer: I presently work for Echostar/Dish Network.

Heh.... joke's on them. Dish just launched a major promotion that's pushing the Dish DVR 510 receiver to the overwhelming majority of the customer base. The promo basicly allows current customers to get one of these installed for free (programing agreement... but TANSTAFL).

For those of you to lazy to follow the link, the 510 is a DVR receiver with a plethora of happy output jacks. Add on a warrenty (and keep that warrenty) and you've basicly got a DRM free DVR as long as you want to keep it (with 100% digital today... not in 2005).

Ok, so some might interpret it as a blatent product plug, but I think it's pretty cool.

NB: I just checked the Dish website... the promo's not listed there for some reason. Sucks, I was gonna give a link. If you're insterested call in.

The Dish Network is going to soon come out with the DishPVR 921, a PVR that handles HDTV and *should* save the MPEG stream straight from the dish to the disk.

Yes, DirecTV is coming out with one too, and theirs is a joint venture with TiVo.

But you'll want Dish for the pr0n.

The one from DirecTV is some kind of joint venture with TiVo and according to the press release will be out later this year.

The one from Dish is called the DishPVR 921 and may be out in August, if the lady who answers the phone at Dish was on the level.

DirecTV has a SD unit w/TiVo and the nice thing about it is that it stores the MPEG straight from the dish to the hard drive, there is no re-encoding. Hopefully, both of the upcoming HD PVR's will follow suit.

Of the two, I'd probably prefer the DirecTV/TiVo, just because I've heard so many great things about TiVo.

But only Dish offers pr0n channels that aren't PPV, so there isn't really any comparison. :)

I found out from Tv Radio World .com that there really isn't any part of UHF in my area that's underused. Every other channel is a fox, tbn, 3abn, abc, cbs, nbc, upn, wb channel. Granted some don't come in crystal clear, but there are quite a few channels (at least 9) that come in better than some crap cable setups.

Along with the antenna I have a Dish Network Dish/Receiver setup with the America's Top 50 (few more channels than Basic cable and all the popular ones that aren't pay) for $15/month (check link for more details if you want in).

So I've got roughly 50 cable channels on the dish, 20 public interest channels (the ones that broadcast for free and don't whine when you rebroadcast them), and about 9 antenna channels for $15/month. I'm pretty content actually with what I have and the usage of the system at current. I think cable and stretching old technology will be the demise of television before underused spectrum is.

Dishnetwork.com doesn't seem to work in Mozilla, but works with IE. If you are a dishnet customer, you can't really decide to just not view the webpages (unless someone out there can tell me another way to get TVGlobo in the U.S.).

Also, AT&T wireless website never seemed to work quite right - I always went back to IE to add minutes to my prepaid plan (I've since moved on). In that case, everything seems to work until you start punching in your number and trying to get minutes, at which point you simply get the same pages over and over.

So it seems there are a lot of sites that seemingly work until you actually try to order something or do something more interactive than just browse.

Goatse-free

You pay just $200, no lifetime or monthly subscription fee (other than subscribing to Dish programming which you already do anyway.) Keep in mind that the 501/508 doesn't have fancy network abilities or anything like that, but for a cheap PVR solution you can't beat the price. And no this isn't the same as Dishplayer which is being phased out.

I don't know about AOLTW's solution. But I recently got the Dish Network, with this receiver and I absolutely love it. I had purchased a replayTV first, and aside from the lack of an ethernet port, this is infinitely superior. The integration between the guide and the programming is excellent. The biggest beef I had with the Replay was the delay between the time I told it to change the channel and the time that the change actually happened. In addition, replayTV's guide kind of sucks, and I couldn't watch tv while surfing the guide like I can with this new unit. Best part? I got it for 50 bucks with my new dish service! and no extra monthly charge for the service either!

I pay less for my 150 channels of DishTV than the local cable costs.

You can get free installation if you sign up for 1 year of service at $22.50 or above.

For an extra $50 you can get a PVR (Tivo type thingie).

Of course you still can't get NFL sunday ticket, but heck who wants to bother with football anyway? The game is boring and unwatchable unless you have a PVR and can record the game in advance and scan forward over the commercials.

I did follow it last time when I posted it. Is it possible that Dish is doing this currently illegal? That is very hard for me to beleive. I went to Dish Network's page concerning the distant stations for more information. And I even filled out their online questioner to see if I am qualified. And it said I am not.... wierd. Is it possible that since I had that service since about 1996 I will continue to have because of a "grandfather" law?

I tried to get more inofrmation when that law was passed. Do you ahve any idea? In the article it states that it is trying to get this appealed and it might get appealed by 1998. So I am assuming it was written sometime in 1997. Is it possible that this law has changed?

• All the guide information comes down through the sat signal.
• The hard drive stores the raw MPEG bitstream, not a recompressed version.
• The quality is therefore identical to the live sat broadcast.
• I have a 10-second skip back.
• I have a 30-second skip forward.
• Live pause is perfectly integrated.
• The guide search works great now.
• Built-in on-screen caller ID.

You can see images of the 721 receiver, keyboard, and remote here: http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/aboutus/presski t/print/index.shtml

I didn't know that DirecTV leased hardware. I was under the impression that subscribers bought their hardware, and then subscribed to the service to make their hardware useful. I know our Sony receiver came from Best Buy (not that I'll go back there... Ick), and was bought. My in-laws' receiver was bought.

I'm pretty sure Dish Network works the same way, since their hardware is available at Sears and Radio Shack.

Guys, do you really think that the Sat. companies are going to broadcast 100s of NBC stations instead of 2 (New York and LA, to get the east coast and west coast network stuff) and provice 198 more pay per view channels?

Uhh.. actually, they already do. Granted, it's not 100's (only 36 of each right now), but they are already limited by the number they can carry because of regulations regarding programming markets. I'm not sure how long Dish Network has been doing this, but DirecTV has been doing the same thing for atleast two years. Right now, you have to qualify for the right to receive them via satellite based on your location and how far from the over-air broadcast transmitter you reside.

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/l oc als/index.shtml

Maybe I'm just getting old and aware of the passage of time, but I've wound up whittling down the number of TV shows I watch to a select few and getting nearly all my news from online, my local newspaper, and a magazine. This despite the fact that I have a very nice satellite dish and HDTV PCI card. There's just too many other things I want to do. The TV stays off for many days of the week, and I don't miss it. (Darn the WB and UPN for making decent shows! Even Enterprise has gotten good lately.) What's disturbing is the contrast with the rest of my family, who despite lacking the technotoys I have spend far more time in front of the tube. It's unbelievable how much crap my brother watches.

This from a guy who's not very sociable.

Now, take my Internet feed away and I'm going to hurt somebody...

yeah, but i can get a cable provider other than time-warner, i can use an isp other than aol, and i can watch news on a channel that isn't cnn.

if i buy a (x86) computer, there is a 98% chance that it will come with windows, and there is a lot of pressure to use windows on that computer in the first place; pressure from friends & co-workers who use it, pressure from employers who use it, pressure from the salespeople selling me the computer. pressure from people on the 'net, who use windows media to give away audio & video clips, or word to present documentation. i don't think that kind of pressure to use aol/tw/cnn exists, at least not yet.

while i agree that aol/tw/cnn/netscape/sun/whatever has the potential to become a much larger, more powerful, and more evil empire than msft, the fact of the matter is that msft has an illegal monopoly, which they extend every day. if aol/tw/cnn/sun/netscape/whatever want to combat that, fine. frankly, the u.s. government seems incapable of bringing msft down, so if it has to come to corporate warfare- so be it. i want to go to a store and buy a pc that runs linux, or freebsd, or openbsd. or whatever other os i want.

• For TV, why not get a satellite dish? Dish Network's "I like 9" plan works out to $25.58/month if you figure in the cost of the receiver/dish, which is cheaper, has more channels, and better picture than TW's standard $36/month service (at least that's what they were charging me, YMMV). Or spend a little more and get their 501 receiver with no extra PVR monthly charge.
• For internet connectivity, I still use RR because it's the best option (which is how competition should work) but there's still DSL, satellite and good-old dialup. For argument's sake, let's say I switched over to a $59/month DSL service just to get rid of anything TW related.
• For phone, if you live alone you're probably better off cutting the land line and getting a beefed-up wireless plan - most of the /. crowd probably has a cell phone already. Imagine how many minutes you'd have if you added your monthly land line bill to your wireless plan (hint: Sprint's most expensive non-web-enabled wireless plan is $75, probably less than the two bills combined, and probably more minutes than you need).

• For TV, why not get a satellite dish? Dish Network's "I like 9" plan works out to $25.58/month if you figure in the cost of the receiver/dish, which is cheaper, has more channels, and better picture than TW's standard $36/month service (at least that's what they were charging me, YMMV). Or spend a little more and get their 501 receiver with no extra PVR monthly charge.
• For internet connectivity, I still use RR because it's the best option (which is how competition should work) but there's still DSL, satellite and good-old dialup. For argument's sake, let's say I switched over to a $59/month DSL service just to get rid of anything TW related.
• For phone, if you live alone you're probably better off cutting the land line and getting a beefed-up wireless plan - most of the /. crowd probably has a cell phone already. Imagine how many minutes you'd have if you added your monthly land line bill to your wireless plan (hint: Sprint's most expensive non-web-enabled wireless plan is $75, probably less than the two bills combined, and probably more minutes than you need).

Hit Dish Network's web site, find your local dealer, haul ass over there, buy whatever receiver model amuses you (I'd pick between the HDTV and PVR versions), and get it hooked up and activated before 8pm. It's doable. (Sears sells them under the JVC name too, but an independent dealer is probably better.) Dish Network carries TWO UPN stations in their Superstations package (and THREE WBs!), so even if one of them is playing some lame sports game instead of Trek you're covered. I've been a Dish subscriber for almost 5 years. Highly recommended. You can probably get the Detroit network stations too, or better yet, the NY/LA East/West combo if you're not in a local broadcast area. You will need line-of-sight to the southwest (in Michigan), 30 degree angle IIRC.

I've experienced insane downtime, and to even get a refund for the downtime (which has lasted *days*, on 2 occasions, or just 12 hours+ on uncounted others), you have to call in for customer service. Which is uphelpful And rude. And not ever what you were hoping for after the 20-50 minutes hold times.

Now, I will say here, these are pretty much the same old gripes you hear about any ISP, downtime and customer service (is there really anything *else* to complain about?...), but this is stuff that I consider signifcantly unacceptable, we'll say enough to make me check for DSL availibility every 7 days. Most certainly not worth the $55 a month I was laying down for it. I feel it is necessary to say at least one good thing, I guess, so here it is - they never once changed my IP address. That was very nice.

But, the damnedable port 80 nonsense was the last straw. ADSL is availible in only 4 days, and even if it wasn't, I'd have bitten the bullet and eaten the cost of a line string for the SDSL connectivity. I was at the end of my rope with them anyway. I'm not only ditching their internet service, I'm getting rid of them as a TV cable providor as well. I'm going to go install Linux on one of those Dish Network boxes, they've got a great deal going.

Last I checked it was about $70 a month for the service, $449 for the hardware, and $199 for the setup.

See StarBand info for more details. This is a service of Dish Network.

This guy clearly didn't even bother to do the slightest bit of homework. If he would have bothered to spend $4 and pick up a copy of The Perfict Vision or Home Theater he would have avoided much of his problems. It doesn't take a lot of research to find out that the RCA DirecTV receiver has DB-15 output for VGA. It takes even less time to find out that DirecTV only has 1 "actual" HD channel. (BTW, if you want HD, buy a DISH Network system. They require multiple dishes in many instances, but you get several more HD channels, with much more room to grow.) There is definitely a problem with HD broadcasts right now. However, this article just sounds like a rich guy saw a Best Buy ad and decided he had to have HDTV NOW! Had he done a bit of homework, he would have realized that it isn't that easy.

Get Dish Network's TIVO system free with their service. Problem solved.