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Figured I'd step on Cliff's toes and ask my own question.
I live in an area with poor cable service and have pretty much
accepted that if I want the Sci Fi channel and all the other
cool channels, I'm going to need
to get a Dish. Net access would be nice, but its not going to
be a deciding factor. Ideally I wouldn't need cable- I don't
care about local channels but I need the networks too (FOX for
the X-Files and Futurama especially). So here it comes: Which Dish? I
see many networks with many features, but which one is
best? I want lots of channels, but I'm not rich. But I'd
like my surround system to sound really good (course first
I probably better get a center channel and some good rear
speakers *grin*).
Using RCAs DSS and DirecTV we get two ABCs, CBSs and NBCs (one from the west coast and one from the east)
About a year and a half ago I went through the same search, but this time so I could get Comedy Central and SouthPark. In all of my comparison shopping, the Dish Network gave me the most bang for the buck.
The catch is that Dish makes all of their own equipment. DSS lets others make all of the equipment, so you can get a nice name brand. In my experience the Dish Network equipment and service was excellent.
And then I moved. My new building made it very difficult to set up the dish, so I sold it my old roommate who was staying at the old place. The new place had free cable, but no Comedy Central. Life goes on.
The catch was that my local channel reception is horrible over cable, nasty and ghosted. So I ended up putting an antenna for local channels anyways, like I would have with the dish. The dish made it easy to switch between satellite and local. Not so with Cable. I had to setup one VCR on cable and the other on local.
Not really worth it in the end. All I watch, when I bother to watch, is FOX, The History Channel, and occasionally TLC and Discovery.
chris
chris@pugrud.net
-- Can't log in because "mail me my password" feature seems to be broken...
I've got DSS, and it very excellent in all ways!!! You can get the Simpson/X-Files/etc...
I went with DirectTV over the other options. There was no renting, the prices were reasonable, and the carried Speedvision. Because of some strange laws, local channels require rabbit ears.
A couple of things to know about the setup:
(1) You'll need a seperate box for each TV,
(2) Each box requires a seperate antena (they do make antenas with two receivers, so I would go with that if you ever think you'll hook up more than 1 TV),
(3) I have an RCA system, and the ergonomics (remote, on screen menus, etc.) suck--if I had to do it over again I would get a Sony,
(4) The more bits (32 vs. 16), the more responsive the system.
I saw somewhere there is a laternative to the regular bunny ears... It was a antenna that cliped
onto the edge of the dish and i think even used the same cable as the dish but not sure...
DirecTV bought USSB several months ago and will start offering the pay movie channels (HBO, Showtime, CineMax, etc.) as a part of their packages in July. You'll no longer have to worry about paying 2 bills for 2 companies for your television.
Dish Net's "quasi-legal" practice will also be implemented by DirecTV once it is fully-legal. The bills before Congress apply to *all* satellite carriers, not just Dish.
Yes, I have locals (2nd dish), great reception, super stations, and many channels I never watch. We don't use the HBO stuff anymore, and occassionally use par-per-view. Setup was done via a professional, which I recommend.
The peeves I have (in order) are:
1. No NFL Sunday Ticket (my wife did the research, and I trusted her. shame on me.)
2. Not enough pay-per-view. I believe I have 17 channels (12+5 with 2nd dish), but maddeningly, about 3-5 channels are duplicates of other pay-per-view movies. What's up with that? Err.....
3. When my tress blow around due to a lot of wind, the reception flakes out. Occassionally this happens during rain, but mostly due to wind. Perhaps the dish itself is moving, I dunno.
There you have it. We originally paid $999 for two receivers, dual LBNF, and 1 year of paid top 40 programming. Now, its up to top 100, and we bought the second dish last year. Call it about $850 for hardware, which I'm sure you can get cheaper now.
I'd also like it if my older 3000 receiver could get track titles on the audio channels. My 4000 receiver does now, through automagic software upgrade downloaded via sattelite. I think that's really cool, BTW.
You can only get networks if you normally cant get them. THis is decided by station coverage pattern not real world signal level. Some people have gotten networks but there days are numbered.
With little dish you cant get networks, with big dishes you can get some network feeds but not all.
Dishnetwork is nice, good choice and price is nice.
I live in an area where local reception is prety good and I use a little gadget that plugs into a 110 volt outlet and uses the house electrical wiring as the antenna. It works better for me than rabbit ears and it was only 10 or 15 bucks from Radio Shack. Combine that with DISH Network and you probably have all the channels you want.
I have RCA dishes which is the DirecTV line of satellite broadcasting, and about a week ago they discontinued broadcast of the local channels (nbc, abc, cbs, and fox). If you were looking at a DirecTV carrier, be forewarned that you will need an antenna to get these stations. Also, you need to buy a satellite receiver box for every tv that you have. Other than the hefty prices of these boxes, this also adds a few dollars to your monthly bill. On the plus side, the HBO package comes with about 7 HBO stations, including HBO1, HBO2, HBO3, HBOW, HBOW2, and HBOF. This means I can still catch movies that I missed a few hours back. The movie ordering is also very nice. It typically takes a few weeks to get a movie on DirecTV after it comes out in video stores, but its very cheap and I get to record it. The signal gets disrupted in heavy cloud cover and storms, which typically happens once a month for about 5-10 minutes. Other than this, the picture is extremely clear. The satellite guide makes it very easy to interactively view info for upcoming programs on all the stations. This is just my take on being a RCA/DirecTV satellite owner.
No one ever says. I don't want options. I want everything including all pay-per-view channels "But we don't know in advance the PPV costs...", well make a best guess. It might be too high or too low, oh well. Just get it done, I'll write a check and get out of my way. Why can't sales-morons do anything. Idiots.
i live in a remote area where the only signal i can get is fuzzy static.
i have 4 satellite dishes (8 thru 16 foot), but ordered primestar, when they offered, and have been a customer for about 5 years.
i selected primestar for SciFi, Cartoon Network, Sundance, IFC (for their animation series), and for east & west coast networks (abc/cbs/nbc/fox).
i have a complete surround system, 800 line res. large tv, and am very happy with this setup; but then again, i watch things like ReBoot, Farscape,
EFC, and the animation film festivals.
I've been with them for over two years. Always helpful, great programming lineup, best bang for the $$, IMO.
After watching the Dish technical forum last night (live broadcast to all subscribers with call-in questions), I'm impressed with all the new stuff that Dish is adding.
The big news from Dish is that they're going to introduce Dish 500 when they launch their two new satellites this fall. They will have two birds parked at 110W, and two more at 119W. A single (somewhat wider) dish with two horns will pick up all four satellites, giving them 500 channel capability. No more two dishes in two different angles. That's plenty of room for locals and tons of data services.
I'm a Dish subscriber and I'm happy with it. As long as you can live without the NFL package (and I can!), I'd recommend Dish.
I am in the market for a new TV and am looking
to buy something good. I wish I could afford the Sony Wega
but I dont think I can so any other recommendations?
How is the flat screen Sony trinitron ?
Actually, the opposite is true. Dish Network has standardized on DVB. This is the standard in Europe. DVB I believe is MPEG-2.
DirecTV uses a more proprietary technology based on MPEG-1.
Just because hardware companies are allowed to make receivers doesn't mean the technology isn't proprietary.
Up here is Canada where the Govt is hell bent to control what we watch on TV, the best way to go is DirecTV and to get a descrambler card.
DIsh Network etc don't have descrambler cards.
I get EVERY DirecTV channel for free. All 350 or whatever of them.
It's not illegal up in Canada since it's illegal to sell DirecTV programming up here.
Anyway descrambler cards are easily purchased for $200 USD.
www.dbsdish.com, the /. of Mini-Dish technology. Check the discussion forums. (Personally went with DISH and would recommend the same)
You say that you can't get NBC, FOX, ABC or CBS with Directv? I am thinking about doing Directv, but if I can't watch the X-Files on Sunday, forget it. I don't care if I can't get the local FOX network, but I at least want someone's FOX.
I hear that some satellite users in Canada get KBDI out of Denver and thus get Doctor Who over satellite. Has anyone heard about this? Anyone know the provider? I know BBC America has a limited bit of Doctor Who and they air commercials
so I'd rather get it a different way if possible.
Hey,
I went through www.digitalsat.com to get my system. Their prices are unbelievable. Don't buy it at the store.
When they ask you about local networks, lie to them and say you can't get a good signal. this will legally allow them to give you local channels.
what happens if youre an atheist ?
Which service or dish you get is not the most important issue, there isn't that much variation between them. What IS important is which DECODER you get. I've used almost all of them, and only the SONY decoders have the features necessary to satisfy a discerning hardware geek.
The Sony decoders are the best, and RCA decoders are the worst. I have a Sony SAT-A2, their top-of-the-line unit a couple years ago (I think its been upgraded since then). It has a RF remote so you can put one decoder in any room, and pump the video signal to any number of TV sets across your house, you just carry the remote with you from room to room. The remote works from anywhere in the house, by radio. You could also get 2 decoders (that's what I have) so people could watch 2 different channels on 2 different sets. The RF remotes can be set to different frequencies, so they don't interfere with each other.
Additionally, this decoder has a digital fiberoptic out port (if you want to record the DSS audio channels to DAT or MiniDisc) and also a massive multipin data port (presumably for DirectPC or some other service). I've never used either feature, so I can't tell you how well they work.
But mostly, it just comes down to the software. Sony's is more logically designed, and its easier to scroll through menus and channels, or sort programming into categories you like. I haven't seen any similar features on other decoder systems. But best of all, the Sony decoders seem to have the fastest CPU (yay!) so the menu software just works blazingly fast compared to all the other decoders I've used.
If you have any specific questions, drop me a note here in this thread, I'll check back and answer later.
Word of advice: make sure your selected carrier gets Comedy Central; I know of more than a few people who just assumed it was included, and were disappointed later...
Mmm,
:)
:)
take a look at this rock cover for your dish ! Plants are prob not included tho
And I saw a homepage someday where a guy painted his dish in excactly the same structure as his wall was. Looked pretty cool (had to look twice before you could see the damn thing
ronnie.
I forgot to log in, ohh well. Anyway, the whole complaint about USSB and DirecTV is now gone, as DirecTV now owns PrimeStar and USSB so you don't need two different companies or two different bills. They are even integrating the programming packages, so that worry is the thing of the past.
Just my two cents worth.
phat@eoni.com
I work for a company that has a contract with DirecTV to provide service in our local area, and I'd just like to make a note on what is menat by not being able to receive thenetworks via antenna. They don't mean your rabbit ears, or even a 2 ft. antenna on top of the home. They are talking about a 30 foot high antenna. No one owns an antenna that high, but you beter be able to prove that if you did own one it'd be useless if you want your networks.
Hope this helps. phat@eoni.com
Legally speaking, no one with any satellite dish can receive Network Programming (CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, WB). The exception is if you cannot receive a adequate signal via antenna from a local carrier, in which case you can apply for a waiver.
If you're interested in knowing more (and the truth vs rumor), look at the folliwing website.
Satellite Television and Network Signals - The FCC's Satellite Home Viewer Act Issue PageYes, there are people getting network over satellite. The reason is the local carrier for each network in each market is responsible for enforcing the ruling. Someone may think they have the system beat but if the local carriers decide to cut you off they can and will.
How do I know? I work for a TV station that agressively enforces that ruling (we turn down about 100 waiver requests a day). Why do we do it? because we pay CBS alot of money to carry their signal locally and exclusively. If the networks ever decide to give their product away then we'll be more than happy to drop it.
P.S. The rumor that 'I have an RV' will work as an excuse is crap, unless you can show it to us.
Werd up. Stewie rocks!
Dish Network uses the DVB international standard, which is essentially MPEG-2 with an access control layer. Therefore, it is not really proprietary.
However, ALL services, be it Dish Network, DirectTV, or whatever, use different encryption standards to protect their programming. So anyone that wants to manufacture a receiver for a particular service needs to use proprietary encryption technology to do so.
A little known secret:
Sign up for the DSS/USSB service for two boxes under the same account and they only charge an additional $5/month for the second box. they have know way of knowing that the boxes are not at the same location.
The quality of selection and picture quality is superior to the crap cable available in my area (media one sucks)
I purchased one of the cheapest boxes on the market ($99)and have been very satisfied
That "rock" is uglier than any freshman homecomming float i've ever seen.
If he can't put a dish in his yard what makes you think he'll put a paper mache' eyesore like that in his yard
I had no problems getting waivers from all the networks except for ABC. I live in a zone which is supposed to have A grade signals, but there is a rather large mountain blocking my view. I sent the stations a picture of the mountain and a letter from a satellite installer stating that I can't receive the signal over the air.
It took about 2 months to get the waivers, but I got them.
They're shitcanning MST3k anyways... Who needs the Sci-Fi channel for much else?
If you're referring to Star Trek, go watch UPN...
If you wanted NEWS.COM's show (perhaps because of some enthatuation with Sophie Formica), get USA network... Sci-Fi sucks for canning MST3k.
I don't know a whole lot about PrimeStar or DSS, but I do have enough info on DISH in particular (from a friend who works in one of their tech support centres) to make up for it. I've tried to filter out most of the proprietary stuff, but just in case I missed something, all names have been withheld (which has nothing to do with my posting as an AC - grr, can't find my password).
As far as services offered, DISH right now does have the best deal - with four satellites active in three full-ConUS locations (61.5W, 119W, 148W) and a fourth location (110W) waiting on equipment (compare this to DSS and PrimeStar with one location each), they have a capacity for over 500 channels and the largest number of local markets (remember, you must qualify under the Satellite Home Viewers' Act, a nasty bit of legislation pushed through by the cable lobby in the early days of C-band, but DISH gives the best chance of this). If you're outside of the designated reception area for a local market and can't pick up networks from anywhere else, you can get national network feeds.
Downside to this one is that unlike DirecTV/DSS, Internet access plans are spotty (there are plans for a DISH-based WebTV box, but the PC-based connection plans were sst back when Gateway abandoned plans to bundle DISH receiver/NIC cards in their boxen - the R&D department has had to start from scratch), but what you'll probably find is that in this respect a good cable modem or DSL (if you can get these) will probably provide better performance anyway for a comparable price (if you're like me, upstream matters just as much, and every sat-based pipe suffers from the same problem there - upstream is still tied to your modem).
This would be basically a broadcast network
on the server side. That implies some interesting
enconomies with respect to streaming media. It
more efficient to send it once and let everyone
get it.
Unfortunately, broadcast has its dark side and
you need to think about how you are going to
encrypt any personalized network traffic.
I'm a former employee of Pegasus Satellite Television. They are the main rural provider of DirecTV broadcasts. We didn't have a specific category for "RV" users. When we finally had to start taking away the networks, the trick I would use for RVs is to sign them up on an address that was *known* to be in an "unserved" area by local carriers, hence the customer could receive the networks from their dish. Since the system had two address, "home" and "billing", I would change the "home" address to somewhere that is extremely rural and make sure their billing address was their real address.
I see no reason why this trick wouldn't work for nonRV customers. All you need to do is find somewhere sufficiently remote that you qualify. There is one other caveat. I don't know how DISHnetwork works, but w/ DirecTV, your physical (home) address determined what company sold you your service. If you picked a new home address outside of your current provider's (e.g. Pegasus) boundry, you would be transfered to a new company (e.g. DirecTV or Golden Sky). This transfer isn't too big a deal.. you can keep all the same programs and such, they tend to charge the same rates (Pegasus has cheaper call-in ordering surcharge rates for PPV though...).
http://www.tvaccessnow.com/ provides a fairly comprehensive overview of the situation from the satellite companies' perspective.
I had digital cable. I got rid of it. It cost about $60.00 a month, the lower 60 channels were in crappy analog, and the audio on the upper channels sounded over compressed.
I'm going with Dish Network.
For all practical purposes, they really are going out of business. DirecTV bought their subscribers, but Primestar itself is going under.
Primestar subscribers can also switch to Dish Network equipment for free. All they have to do is go to a local dealer, and they can switch to Dish.
why not use BeOS for this project?
You would be done for sooner.
Save as MPEG2, Cinepak, Indeo, DV, etc all built in parts of R4.5
Okay, flame me all you want for bringing this up, but DirecTV is majorly crackable, thus worth the cost of the $150 receiver/dish setup. With very little effort you tech-heads can get all the free cable (networks & PPV included) that you could ever want. http://faq.at/tcup for details. Yes, there are risks, but they're well worth it, and a smart/sensible geek should be able to work around them.
Wow! hehe This is not the reason why I chose the dish network, but it certainly makes me feel even happier than I already did! I've had excellent quality and service from Dish Network, and what I like best is only having to deal with 1 company for the programming. Not to mention saving 50% off my previous cable bill with more channels to boot... ;) Also cool is the UHF remote that came with my system (a 4000 series IIRC) so I can change the channel from other rooms of the house. Kinda makes running the system off of one receiver somewhat easier... ;) I also thought it was pretty cool that the receiver uses MPEG technology (I'd guess they all pretty much do) but I have to admit I'm a little nervous about allowing a device with the infamous V-chip installed... ;)
;)
Whatever you decide to purchase, I'm sure you will enjoy it thoroughly! BTW, although FOX isn't included, if you get the "Superstation" package add on for Dish, it does include UPN stations so some broadcast TV is available via the dish...
Looking forward to watching Crusade tomorrow night in digital quality with surround sound stereo!
JINI
I tried that once. The reception was worse with the device than without.
The salesperson before he even sold it to me said that the reception would be lousy.
Returned it and got my money back.
http://www.satcodx.com/ has a comprehensive list of all channels available on all satellites.
Planet Connect in Tennessee has been broadcasting a gig a day of usenet and such for years now. It's a monster job to toss all those news groups, well suited for ISPs but not the home user.
I did it for 3 years at home.
As a deep rural type, the real issue is outbound. No real infrastructure can develop without local high bandwidth outbound...and that seems to be up to the electric utilities, and if I hold my pipe right, the telcos...it's a long way off from here.
I have the rock. It helps protect the dish, since the dish could only be in a place where animals and kids wander around. Some people who don't like it don't say anything, but when someone asks what the hell it is doing there, they are suprised (and impressed).
I did some research some time ago. I live in the country, and we can only use satellite or antenna for TV.
Well, there is a company that sells driver software for Linux which will make a DirecPC work. The DirecPC is an ISA card, and the satellite downloads internet data at 50KBps (400kbps). In actual use, I've averaged around 16-20KBps, but once in awile a long download hit the magical 50KBps max bandwidth, and that was exciting! Faster than the shared T1 at school.
Now, you are saying, what has an internet satellite dish got to do with getting channels, dude? Well, I'll tell you. Some time ago they came out with a DirecTV/DirecPC combo deal. I called the company and inquired, since this would fit my needs perfectly. Apparently, the TV and Internet portions of this satellite run off two totally different cables, so..... Their combo box comes with a TV signal receiver, all you need to do is find that company with the Linux drivers, and whammo, you now have 200+ TV channels and a 50KBps download internet service, all in one smallish satellite!
Can't beat that, if it fits your needs.
Torsten
torsten@inetw.net
Don't get a dish. TV is evil. Let me tell
you a true story about my friends who live out
on top of a big hill in west virginia.
They got a primestar dish, and everyone loved
it. Everyone in the family, Mom, Dad, and
two kids spent all their time watching a
million channels and not talking to each other,
or reading, or going outside to look at the world.
Finally, God (I guess) looks down and says
this is no good. He sends a bolt of lightning
to destroy the dish and the tv. No tv, so
now the family has to talk and read and stuff.
Everyone is much happier now. Hi Greg.
-- cary
Congress already has a bill before them that has passed through the House allowing the satellite carriers to offer the local networks. Dish already offers the networks in the major markets and DirecTV will follow suit once (if) the measure passes.
I've had a DSS dish for a couple of years now with an RCA receiver. The menu and channel-changing is very slow and unresponsive. Very much like an underpowered computer. Perhaps the other brands are better.
The picture quality is good for static images. When there is fast motion, dissolves, rave parties with strobe lights, etc, the picture gets MPEGged really badly. Everything breaks into little squares. This is typical and is not related to any one brand of receiver. It took me a while to notice it, but now I see it all the time. It may not bother you if you have a small television.
Videotaping from DSS is not high quality, the combination of MPEG compression plus analog tape makes it look third generation.
There used to be a hack for using a PC as a smartcard emulator, but that stopped working a long time ago, and if anyone is doing it now they are keeping quiet about it.
The two providers for DSS content, DirecTV and USSB, have merged into one company. So far they are still acting as two companies, but that is bound to change.
The music channels are unencrypted and in MPEG 1 layer 2 format if are talented enough to solder. That's a rumor, I don't know anyone who has done it. Could be a cool idea, though.
The other two small dishes:
Primestar has been bought by DirecTV. Look for that service to stop eventually. The dishes are a bit bigger, too.
Dish Network is a slightly better deal and people I know who have it like it better than DSS.
This works regardless of where you live, because RVs by their very nature travel to remote areas where no local TV reception exists. There's also no way for the salesman or the government to know that you're REALLY going to put that DSS receiver in your house. And since RV have 120VAC anyway, it's not like you have to buy a special powered DSS receiver anyway. It's win Win WIN for the usually shafted consumer!
- Sitckin' it to The Man, Flippin' the bird to stupid laws
I live pretty far out in the country and the cable goes out when the wind blows. So I got Primestar. I was pretty happy with them until they started screwing up my billing. That's when I started looking around. I saw the Dish Network at SEARS. It really caught my attention. Dish Network seems to be keeping up with technology and seemed to have their eyes on the future. Just last night on the Dish info channel I saw that they now have an HDTV modulator that plugs into the bus on the back of the box. Pretty nice. Now all I have to do is get an HDTV set. The video for the Dish is MPEG-2. I thought it was my imagination that the color was sharper until friends and family noticed it too. It was pretty easy to setup. The hardest part of that sequence was figuring out how to program the remote control. The documenation that came with the system wasn't that hot but I got all the info that I needed from their website. (Maybe it wasn't the doc's fault. Maybe I'm just too used to reading online. ;-)) I've had it since March and it's been great.
I subscribe to Dish Network (owned by EchoStar) and love it. I get all the network channels, plus over 160 others. I have two dishes, and the house has four receivers. We'll be adding a third dish for more programming very soon (EchoStar just launched EchoIV which will provide a ton _more_ local programming along with lots of other goodies). The quality is excellent and we've never had any problems with their service.
One of my favorite features is that all upgrades to the equipment are done automatically when the unit is not in use. Periodically they send out software upgrades which take effect as soon as you turn the unit off. The remote is a universal remote which works with virtually all VCRs, TVs, Laserdisc/DVD players, etc. so you'd most likely be dropping all but one remote instead of adding to a pile of them.
They also provide several different models of the receiver, some with VCRs (even a dual-deck VCR) built in. The mid-range to upper-range receivers use UHF remotes, so you can have a single receiver serving multiple TVs throughout the house and you'll be able to use the remote from anywhere within 100ft. (through walls, etc.) of the receiver.
The "info" screen alone is enough to kill everything from Primestar (which uses old equipment, a larger dish and is not software-upgradeable).
And the killer channel is 213 (NASA-TV): 23.5 hours every day of views of earth and the other planets from the various satellites and probes.
All this and no antenna needed.
Are there signal transmitters available to send a box's output to a TV elsewhere in the house? Got any particular sites for em? This apartment I'm currently in has only one cable outlet, so I had to run a huge cable all along the wall to the bedroom. Sure I could move, but I'm lazy. :)
I have DirecTV + USSB over here with no complaints. Good sound feed, great video quality, and so far no interruptions due to weather (eastern pennsylvania location). The only problem is the networks, I still have to get ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox through an antenna due to the fact that I live in a service area. If you can get a waiver from your local stations or live X miles away from an antenna (not sure of the value of X), you can get those channels though. By default they show up in the guide and just don't work though. As for cost, It's reasonable if you don't go too nuts with the premium channels. My bill averages a little over $100 a month, but that's because I get quite literally EVERYTHING but the adult stations from both providers and that also includes the "rentals" from PPV at three bucks a whack.
Primestar's not going out of business. DirecTV did, however, buy them out and will be replacing Primestar subscribers' equipment with DirecTV equipment.
Not true. You can use splitters to distribute the signal to several receivers, and a switch if you want to receive more than one satellite.
The most important decision is to choose the right LNB (Low Noise Blockconverter - the "real" antenna, mounted to the dish with a pole).
A special case of both the single and dual LNB are the so-called "digital LNBs". By (not) modulating the 14/18V voltage with 22kHz they switch between the Ku-Low and Ku-High band.
I am using a 8-way Spaun Multiswitch with two Quad-LNBs to receive analog and digital programming from both Astra and Eutelsat Hotbird. The receiver and the switch communicate via DiSEqC - that's basically a cable-modem standard for this special application. Works fine. And you need it if you want to receive both Ku bands from two satellites; 14/18V and 22kHz gives you only four combinations whereas you need eight.
Well, I don't have any experiance with other systems, but I can tell you about the RCA DSS system.
First, the picture quality is very good, and stays that way even in stormy weather...to a point. Once the weather gets bad enough, the signal is broken and the decoder just stops, freezing the current picture on the screen until the weather clears up. This happens very infrequently where we live though.
Secondly, the basic offering has quite a few channels, although most of them are crap. Sci-fi is included in the basic package.
There is quite a selection of pay-per-view movies as well, at a reasonable cost ($2.50, or about what you pay to rent from a video store).
The guide is a nice feature, just poorly implemented. The interface is slow and rather clumsy, although this may be fixed in newer boxes. The one we have is also quite ugly (it looks like the preview channel with its squarish blocks of programming. All said though, the guide is about 100x better than those preview channels, since you don't have to wait for your channel to scroll up.
You won't be able to view local channels on the DSS (you will have to use the rabbit ears), unless you live in an area that has no local TV service, and then it takes an act of Congress to get broadcast channels (not to mention a monthly fee). Supposedly this will be changing in the near future, but don't bet the farm on it.
All in all though, we are very happy with the system, especially compared to the rip-you-off-at-every-corner cable service I have up here.
I read the internet for the articles.
Echostar and Hughes are still fighting that battle --- a bill that will throw out the current local-signal restrictions is currently in reconciliation between the differing House and Senate versions.
-- brandon s. allbery, sysadmin @ cmu electrical & computer engineering "Think, youth, THINK!"
Another thing I forgot to mention is that our Linux box will have the capability to save the MPEG 2 (HDTV!) datastream off to disk (or perhaps stream it across the home network to other PC's/devices). You'll also be able to "pause" an off-the-air show and the video will be spooled off to disk.
We'll need to write device drivers for the various components. The most interesting will be the driver for the MPEG 2 HDTV device. I'm trying to understand how this device should fit into the existing Video For Linux standard. Anyone have any thoughts ?
One of the things I'm trying to understand (I've only been here for a week) is who the target audience for this box will be. I would love to have an open-architecture box where others could add their components. Maybe just leave a PCMCIA slot open ? (Plug in a new card, download the driver from the satellite, insmod...) But if we are targeting the Web TV crowd that's a different story. I know the techincal path I'd prefer...
>if you have a very fat pipe, what about sending a
>set of internet pages to all the home users and
>have some kind of mechanism on the box that says
>which pages/sites to cache.
I think that is kind of the idea. Lots of pages are coming down from the satellite, your box caches some part of them based on your preferences
If this linux box were on a home-lan then perhaps all home-lan users would have access to the cache.
Email would be pretty much the same way. Your box would grab your email coming down off the satellite and then report back to a central server that it got it.
I think the device will have networking built in, but for recording there will be legal/copyright issues. This will likely prevent you from recording a movie and taking it off of the box. You will probably only be able to play it back on the box that recorded it.
Internally the box will be PCI based, but I don't think there will be any open slots...
I'm a bit biased (I now work for Echostar) but I signed up for Dish TV long before I started work here. The programming options seemed to be better. With Direct TV you had to select from two different companies for channels and they only came in "packages". So if you wanted channel "A" and channel "B" you might have to order one channel package from USSB and another channel package from the other company (I forget the name).
But the best reason to support Echostar and Dish TV is why I signed on. We are starting a project to put Linux on our set-top boxes. We already have a Web TV/Windows CE box, but we obviously don't want to rely only on Microsoft.
So I throw a question back at the Slashdot readers, What would you want to see in a Linux based set-top satellite receiver ? We are considering a Web TV type of operation with a local cache fed via our very fat satellite pipe. Home-networking is another option. We will have a browser on the box of course (Mozilla?). Anyone have any thoughts on how to utilize a very fat pipe comming in, but a thin pipe going out ? We haven't yet decided on a CPU. Anyone have any thoughts on that ? This is going to be a very cool project and I'm looking forward to getting it on-line !
Primestar is not "going out of buisness" as you say. They were bought. You imply that DirectTV just bought part of the company and left the rest to flounder... DirecTV (or Hughes, their parent company) bought the entire PrimeStar company.
Secondly, your obviously not a PrimeStar customer. If you were, you would have been bombarded by the constant commercials telling customers whats going to happen, articles in the programming guide, and messages on your monthly bill statements.
I have spoken to PrimeStar tech support directly. (I hope DirecTV keeps the tech support department around, they were one of the best assets PrimeStar had) What is going to happen is the customers are being asked to wait until DirecTV itself (not any of its dealers, etc) contacts them. Then DirecTV will send some techs to install the new equipment (hense, switch you over). They are planning to offer a similar rental plan that PrimeStar used for most of their customers. The PrimeStar service will continue until everyone is switched over. Thus the customer doesn't have to do anything until they switch them over.
As for free DISH network equipment, that is just plain FUD being spread by DISH network dealers trying to capitalize on confused PrimeStar customers. When all they got to do is wait and DirecTV will come and install everything for them and get a much better system then the shitty programming packages DISH network provides (yes, I've seen the pricing... UGH)
-- A satisfied PrimeStar customer looking forward to DirecTV
--- polarbear
If I didn't get MediaOne and their RoadRunner or whatever they call it now, I would have gotten the DISH network. The nice thing is that they offer local channels in some areas (the rules for that are very strange). The bad thing is that you'd need a second dish to look at the satellite carrying the local channels. Initial prices were kinda high to do that. For me, it would have taken about 2-3 years to recoup the initial costs of DISH vs. the savings I'd get over staying with cable.
Posted by =Kane=:
Hey, ive had a DSS dish since before it was cool. You can now get em for practically nothing if not completely free. We paid like 499 for ours, and last time I saw they're giving em away if you subscribe to just the standard DirecTV package... Easy to use, easy to install, cheap (monthly fees are low even if u rent movies), and you can get good ppv on there....
Posted by Dr Evil:
Unfortunately, there is legislation that states that if you have a local channel, you cannot purchase rights to watch the 'networks' on a Dish - the local channels have preference.
So basically, if an antenna works, get a GOOD antenna. I believe you can hook both that and the dish up to the reciever by the TV
As many others have said here, the local channels thing is a pain in the arse, however, I don't tend to watch the big networks anyway... And I can check the web, or newspaper for local news.
I personally would go with DirecTV and a DSS system.. that way you can pick the brand of reciever you want to have.
Picture Quality on DSS is only slightly lower than DVD Quality, you notice artifacts sometimes (I think they lower the bit rate for some programming). I haven't ever noticed artifacts while watching pay per view movies though.
DSS uses the same technology as DVD, MPEG-2.
Sound Quality is superb on DSS, with most if not all channels in Stereo, and sometimes with Dolby Prologic.
If you buy a Sony AD-4 or an RCA DRD515 reciever you can recieve true 6-channel Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound...
You will need a reciever with a Dolby Digital Decoder built in it (watch out for "Dolby Digital Ready" receivers, this is NOT the same)
Basically, your DSS with have a ToSLink Optical out, which you will hook up to your DD reciever's Optical In. (My Sony 825 has an actual DSS input)
This optical cable will carry the AC-3 compressed digital signal. AC-3 is like six channel MP3, but with a slightly less lossy compression than MP3.
The decoder will decompress the AC-3 signal, and route the sound seperately to center, front right, front left, right rear, left rear, and subwoofer speakers.
The end result is incredible. Quite a few of the pay per view movies are broadcast in Dolby Digital now, and I heard rumors that HBO and the like would eventually start broadcasting in DD.
I don't know if it is an option for you, but we recently got Digital Cable(from TCI) and I am very pleased with it. We've got about ~140 channels or so, and the navigation is similar to that of a dish. And of course, it has Sci-fi and all the movie channels you could ever want.
The only thing about getting a dish is that you may not get your local stations. So if it is an option I would seriously consider digital cable.
Here's a question: if I wanted to get a dish set-up that I could hook up to 3 different TVs and they could each watch there own thing:
is it possible?
what would be the best/cheapest service?
what would be the cost/setup(meaning would I need two dishes or what)?
Thanks.
I always loved doing this...I remember one time I came across a field anchor just sitting there in front of the camera,talking to the camera guy for like 30 minutes, waiting for broadcast time...
You could always pick up bizarre stuff with C-band dishes...Japanese lessons, porn channels having free previews...all sorts of fun stuff. But, then DSS came out,stramgled the market, and nobody buys C-band dishes any more. (My Dad installed them for a living.) Now you can buy a friggin satelitte dish at the grocery store...makes me miss the good ol' days of digging post holes through three foot of caliche and carrying 8-foot dishes up two flights of ladders....
I've had good luck with DirecTV (DSS). The quality is way above cable in all respects. The only problem is networks. Because of stupid court tricks, DirecTV was ordered to stop providing network feeds to most of it's customers. Now, you can get a network feed iff you are in an area where at less than half the people can get some signal fragment (any signal at all) half the time (even if the rest get nothing).
DirecTV is trying to rectify the situation by buying 2 more satelites (done) and arranging to provide local feeds. Unfortunatly that will require a new dish and reciever. I am considering that option when it becomes available.
Drawback: Signal is lost in heavy rain. Of course, where I live, that seems to be true of cable as well. Dish placement: The dish must have a completely unobstructed line of sight to the satelite. I had to mount mine on a pole in the front yard because of trees. That wasn't such a big deal though.
I have looked into DirecPC for internet. I won't be getting that because they only support winders (and tech details are sparse). Also, the uplink is still through a standard modem.
You might also want to check when your local broadcasters will be switching to digital broadcasts. A new line of DSS recievers with built in tuners for DTV are in the works now.
Given the new things that are about to happen, I would wait a few months to avoid rapid obsolescence.
I had the opportunity to play with a newer box the other day, and the guide interface is much cleaner and faster.
Disclaimer: I work for OpenTV, so this is a bit of a plug, but in this message I'm not speaking for my employer.
The Dish Network should be offering interactive content using OpenTV by the end of the year. AFAIK, OpenTV will be automatically downloaded into the flash memory of all 4700 and better Boxes. The services will be free (unlike WebTV). I don't have any details on which services will be available, but stay tuned for more info.
I got DirecTV over two years ago and am mostly happy with it. I'll probably switch to Dish when OpenTV is available for it. It's about time I upgrade to a box with Dolby Digital sound. I'm hoping for HDTV reception (via off-air and satellite) on a Dish box by the time I'm looking to upgrade. The Dish Network seems to be in the lead where technology, amount of content and local content is concerned.
Ahem... (clears throat)
:^})...and we live in Illinois...and it's through the dish.
I have a friend that has a DSS dish, and he watches NBC from Philly (I think it's Philly
Stating on Slashdot that I like cheese since 1997.
Do yourself a favour and go to Radio Shack, Rob. In the case that the thing takes a crap, you can just take it to the store for warranty service. Besides, they provide enough printed information that would help you decide what service you want. Only problem there would be dealing with the salesdroids, of course...
In Soviet Russia, Jesus asks: "What Would You Do?"
I just got a dual-LNB RCA setup last week, and I love it. Great picture, tons of channels I never knew existed. (For instance, BBC America plays great stuff. I woke up Sunday morning and found I could watch Dr. Who!)
Pay attention when you set it up so you measure the angle correctly. Once I had that it just took a little nudging to the side to find the satellite. To get network I bought a Terk TV50 antenna. It's good enough to get ABC/CBS/NBC as well as my old cable company ever did.
BTW, DirecTV and USSB are merging, so I expect some better package options will be coming. I had to buy all the Fox sports channels to get SpeedVision (can't miss F! season!). If you're into baseball etc. you'll absolutely love it.
The revolution will NOT be televised.
Totally untrue. Yes, Dish makes their own recievers, but JVC makes Dish Network Recievers as well.
Depends on which customer service rep you get...some suck..some don't. And Dish watches alt.dbs.echostar...when people really bitch about a problem they have with customer service...it usually gets resolved and the customer posts again and is happy.
:)
We had billing problems too..but..it all got straightened out....it just happens sometimes.
Just gotta play customer rep roulette!
One of my closest friends is a Dish Dealer, so of course I'm going to be biased towards them. But I have also used the product. I also worked for Radio Shack for awhile and am familiar with their product. Buy Dish Network. It really is the best choice. I didn't see any recommendations for primestar on my glimpsing through but I didn't look to closely. If you are thinking about it, don't do it. They are closing their doors, and once they do you will be stuck. You'll have to buy a diff dish system.
/really/ cool system that you should be able to get by now which allows for some really cool geek features. ;-) For example, it has an internal hard drive, and while watching a live show/event, if you need to take a phone call or get something to eat/etc you can just pause it. It will begin recording internally at that point and when you get back you unpause it and it will begin playing from when you left, while still recording the incoming signal for you! /That/ is cool.
Dish has a
RE:Local channels. You don't need any signed paper from your local channels or known bad reception. All the decision did was say that a dish/cable company can't force you to pay for local channels if you can get them for free just fine. If you want to get local programming, then when they ask you if you get good reception of local channels just say no.
In regards to the weirdness of dishes local channel support. They are still putting up all the sattelites they need to support local channels in every area. They will be doing areas with major NFL/etc sports teams first (as they will bring in the most revenue for financing hte rest of the areas) and then the others will begin filling in. And AFAIK you don't need a second dish to get local programming. Though there could be some exceptions.
If you want you can email the guy I know who is a dealer and ask him for more details at chad@cablerunnersNOSPAM.net
"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
--James Madison
Klipsch! Klipsch all the way man! Or perhaps B&W if you have the cash.
"No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
--James Madison
Direct TV is the way to go IMHO. (http://www.directtv.com) They provide all your pay-per-view and regular (cable) station access so that's like 80 channels plus the digital music channels (~30). They also offer stars/Encore networks. If you want HBO/SHOWTIME/CINIMAX you have go additionally get USSB http://www.ussb.com (all they offer is the movie networks) but it's like $10 for 5 HBO's. As for local channels, that's the only problem. If you can prove that there is no way you can receive local programming via conventional antenna , either you live out in the boondocks or next to a sub station, you can't get networks via satellite. But if you can browbeat your local networks into giving you a waiver then you can get networks on Satellite. Otherwise you are stuck with an antenna. Direct TV sells a dual dish that does satellite and direct PC net access (claiming up to 400K). The dish is the cheapest part it's the receiver that's going to run you anywhere from $120 to $250 depending on the model. I like the sony AD-4, runs about 180 on the net sometimes cheaper. Does Dual LNB (2 sat feeds off the same dish) RF remote and Dolby Digital (Lucas eat your heart out) Direct TV service runs anywhere from $20 /month to 60/month then if you buy the mega sports packages (like the entire MLB season) be prepared to pay like $140 just for that. I've been a Direct TV customer for about a year now and I'm extremely happy. I don't even miss my networks, much. One thing to look into is see if you local cable company offers a very basic package for like $10/month. Most do but they don't advertise it as a basic package. Here (Alabama) it's called lifetime package it's like 5 channels (networks, pbs, weather channel) and it runs for about $12 a month. Feel free to send me questions.
Stick
What do you despise? By this are you truly known.
I live in what is called a "conservation area" which forms part of a rural area of the UK called the Cotswolds. Think Agatha Christie murder mysteries or Jeeves and Wooster and you've about pictured my neighbourhood ( We Are Here). This means:
Now what I want to know is why people in towns need high bandwidth. If you want to go shopping, chat with friends, or watch movies, you just go to the mall, the pub or the cinema, right? I can't do this without having to drive a heck of a long way first.
So I would be prepared to pay MORE for high bandwidth. It would save me money (travel).
Rural areas have the greatest need for bandwidth- and are prepared to pay more- yet where is the bandwidth the worst? Rural areas, of course. And then we get hit for petrol (gas) tax because we use our cars more! WTF???
Now what I really want is a 512kbps satellite downfeed which I could then redistribute along our row of cottages using a LAN (I already have a home LAN).
Thankfully I don't live in the USA so at least I have excellent digital mobile 'phone reception with free email to my handset. Nice.
--
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
Somebody else has probably posted this, but with my recent experiences, I feel like saying it again.
Unless there is no local network affiliate or the local station is willing to grant a wavier, you cannot recieve the networks on the satalite. This is due to a federal ruling that says (roughly) if you live in an area where 50% of the people can recieve the station 50% of the time with a 20 foot (I presume high) antenna, you are screwed because you can't have what you really want.
I finally gave it up and had basic cable installed. The difference in price and service was not enough to be worthy of the fight it would take.
As far as the hardware, I own an Optimus system. not by any means top of the line, even at time of purchase. Certainly there are much better systems out there, but this one works very nicely. No signal loss except during very bad weather and it has good quality picture and ound.
That should immediately send up a red flag for most Slashdotters. To use Dish Network, you need Dish Network equipment, and vice versa. If you decide later on that you want to switch to DirecTV or some other standards-based DSS provider, you must replace your equipment.
Sound familiar?
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Here's my personal take on the dish services. I'm currently a Dish Network (Echostar) subscriber.
:) The system is fairly straightforward to install, especially for anyone used to hacking Linux boxen for a living :)
In selecting Dish, I looked at the various offerings from both of the major K-band providers... At the time I got mine (about a year ago), DSS/USSB was considerably more expensive for the channel lineup I wanted. Eventually, prices ended up being similar on both sides of the fence, and I've concluded that DSS is the best bet if you're after pay-per-view and sports, and Dish has a far better regular channel lineup.
On the technology front, I think Dish has the upper hand here. They design all their equipment in-house (Tho JVC has been making receivers for them lately). Their most recent offerings have been an AC-3 capable receiver (they have 1 or 2 pay-per-view channels that broadcast in Dolby Digital), a receiver that has a built-in 8.5GB hard drive (digital recording software will be available in the next few months, it's currently offered as a "gaming" system), and I hear they will also be offering WebTV directly over the dish at some point. JVC also has a Digital VHS recorder that records the bitstream directly off the feed (you're stuck to 2 hours per tape, tho). All receivers have a built-in (but currently unused) "high-speed data port" (I think it's an expansion slot).
Also, they recently demonstrated HBO broadcasting over HDTV on the network, so it appears they're HDTV-ready (combined with a $400 HDTV card for the PC -- these are currently available, I'm told -- this gives you a very nice upgrade path)
Equipment-wise, I'd get at LEAST their 4000 series (it has the ability to control your VCR), but if you've got money to splurge on gear, go for the best one they have
Add to that that they're launching 2 more satellites this year, and I think Echostar really has their act together on the technology side, and they offer a killer channel lineup (Including Sci-fi on channel 122). The downside is the lack of local channels, but that's more of a legislation issue rather than a technical one, and you can get them on a second dish. Alternately, you can get the major network flagship stations off the east or west coasts, if your off-air signals are inadequate (they have to send a tech out now to measure field strength, used to be you could just tell them local reception sucked and they'd give 'em to ya, but not anymore), I think that's the result of a court case last winter sometime -- I was no longer able to get the networks when I made a service change.
And to top all that off, their customer service is quite good, and they do have someone to answer the phone during geek hours (3 am), and you can even order a system over the phone (though your loval A/V dealer will probably have better prices)
I've been quite happy with it.
That's for starters..
The neat thing about this, you could get footage of like Dan Rather picking his nose or Tom Brokaw cursing someone out.. Didn't someone put out a video of pre-feed outtakes?
A lot of cable providers now offer digital cable. This allows for lots of channels at a fairly low cost and the high quality people have come to expect from recent satellite feeds.
The one problem you are going to run into is network programing. Because of new (old?) regulations, you are not allowed to recieve network affiliate programming unless a) you live in an area that is known to recieve an inadequate signal from stations in you area or b) you get written authorization from the stations in your area allowing you to recieve your free-network programming from your dish.
Aside from that you can just buy a honking antenna and jack it into your dish and get programming via that route.
http://windows.scares.us
When I bought my DSS dish (2 years ago), the 2nd generation Sony units beat the crap out of RCA when it came to User Interface; quicker, prettier and better featured.
This is definitely a situation where you should try before you buy. Each vendor of DSS equipment has their own interface and some are much better than others.
Yep, Gene Scott is still up there, still making noise. The cigars and hats still make me laugh.
Network feeds are harder to come by, but NBC is almost never scrambled (W1-KU). Fox scrambles during the baseball and football seasons. Depending on the time of day, CBS and ABC are in the clear.
NULL
C-Band is cheaper than either cable or what are commonly called the "pizza" dishes. I have all the programming I can stand (the usual CNN, TBS, TNT, SciFi, Comedy, etc.) plus Showtime, Sundance, Flix, and The Movie Channel all for $11.50/mo. Of course, C-Band can be more expensive to get into, but if you look around you can usually find some great deals on used equipment.
NULL
C-Band is your best bet. Since most program providers offer A La Carte programming (you pick the channels you want) you can avoid the high package costs associated with pizza dishes (check out http://www.bigdish.com for examples). Also, you get wildfeeds and commercial-free programming from the network feeds, yes Dan Rather really does pick his nose during commercial breaks. Take a look at http://www.lyngsat.com/america.shtml to see what transponders are available on the "birds" for N & S America.
:), PBS, CSPAN, CSPAN2, and TVLAND (I'm sure I've forgotten a couple, e.g., MTV has been ITC lately).
Equipment can be a problem. However, if you're a doit-yourself-er (most of us are I think), you can often get a dish for free. Go for a cruise in the country and look for dishes, if they appear to be in a state of dis-repair, most folks will let you haul it away just to get it out of the yard. Check out the TVRO Scroungers Guide at http://www.nmia.com/~roberts/scrounge for ideas and advise on getting everything you need.
The obvious analogy here is the same choice you are faced with when choosing Linux or Microsoft or perhaps building your own PC from scratch or buying a bundled mess. C-Band is to TV what Linux is to computing. You can bolt a pizza dish to the side of a house and have all your programming choices made, or you can decide you want to learn a few things about satellite communications and get your hands dirty digging that hole in the yard.
More than anything though, C-Band gives you some freedom. If you buy DSS or Dish, you'll get roped into a package and you'll end up donating cash to another large communications company. I started out with DSS, but after a year I switched to real satellite TV. DSS's so-called digital picture and sound was complete crockage! They are all trying to cram too many signals on to too little bandwidth resulting in artifacts and generally poor quality signals (I've heard that Dish is better than most though). In addition, small (KU Band) dishes suffer from what is known as "rain fade"...if its raining, you're screwed.
Also note that all the "digital" dishes get their programming from C-Band first. The analog signal is picked on their dish farms, sampled to digital, and uplinked to their proprietary birds.
I have a Uniden SQ560 receiver and an Orbitron 2.5 meter dish with C and KU LNBs and I've never looked back. IMO, pizza dishes just plain suck.
I am currently subscribed to the following at $11.50 per month (try and beat that with a pizza-dish):
CNN, CNN-Fi/Intl, CNN-HLN, CNN-SI, SciFi, Comedy Cent., History, Discovery, Travel, AnPlanet, TLC, USA, TBS, TNT, A&E, Weather Chnl, Showtime, Showtime2, Flix, Sundance, The Movie Channel. All this along with those things that are "in the clear" like ZDTV (not so great), NASA TV (very cool), TNN, FoxNews, SpeedVision, MC, Gene Scott
Sorry 'bout the rant, but DSS really pissed me off, $300+ down the proverbial drain.
NULL
I got a great deal through NPS this year (http://www.cssnps.com/index.html), when I called to get quotes from everyone, they told me I could get a year of all the Showtime stuff (SHOW, SHOW2, FLIX, Sundance, and TMC) for only $50. I'm still amazed, but disappointed. Got all these channels and there is still nothing on :)
NULL
heheh, double wrongeyola
I looked into C-band satellite a few years ago, and my big question was can you pull down "cable" channels too. This is particularly important to us Babylon 5 fans out there (Well, I guess it's a moot point now, but you get the idea). Is it just an issue of finding the satellite? I was under the impression that most of those signals were encrypted these days (except for, like, CNN)
---------
The same dish with just one LNB is sold as the internet-only "DirecPC" service. You'd be happier with DirecDuo since it gives you your precious tee vee.
On broadcast networks: Congress and the House recently passed a law allowing the DBS providers to transmit the network channels regardless of the signal quality in your area. Previously, you have to have no signal and/or you must obtain permission from each local affiliate. However, nothing seems to have happened as a result of the legislation, yet. I don't have the details (see directv.com or primetime24.com). I think the law has yet to go into effect.
If you really think the networks are that good (I don't) then put an antenna in your attic.
Kriston J. Rehberg
http://kriston.net/
Kriston
As far as I'm concerned DirecTV is a great service, but you must also have: 1) a lifeline cable service (i.e. NBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, and Fox), 2) you must be in a good over-the-air reception area, or 3) you must not care about the Major Networks.
DirecTV's major benefit, IMHO, is the huge number of sports options. In the first year we had it, we took NFL Sunday Ticket, NHL Center Ice, and whatever the deluxe package of regional sports networks is called. This allowed us to watch almost any professional football, professional hockey, or Division I college hockey game that was televised. We have maintained our subscriptions to these services for at least three years.
Sure, there are multi-channel versions of MTV, HBO, Showtime, Stars, PPV movies, etc. But, I suspect that few who lurk on this site have enough free time to get there money's worth from these.
If a dish is the only way for you to get a specific channel you want, I would suggest that you get the most full featured service you can, in case you ever want to turn the additional features on. It can be worth the cost difference between DirecTV, and Primestar or the Dish Network just to have the ability to temporarily pay for a lot more services.
Finally, it is really important that you investigate the dish site requirements for each service you are contemplating. In order to get DirecTV, for example, you need a clear line of site to the Southwestern sky. That means no trees or buildings in the way. Also, the further north you are in the United States, the lower to the Southwestern horizon you will need to aim the dish.
Good luck.
-- Dave Aiello
I don't know if they are still selling them, but I have heard that they are going out of business. They apparently will be exchanging out their systems for DirecTV DSS systems.
I've looked into dishes lately becasue a) Comcast sucks royally in signal, selection, and value, and b) for the purpose of finding another source of bandwidth with decent download times and which was PORTABLE.
I'd really like to take my TV and Internet access on the road with me and DirecPC/DirecTV seems to be the only way to do it, not to mention one of the better ways. I live in the boonies anyway, and it would be cheaper than ISDN as it stands now, plus portable---to put on the old Airstream that I'm dying to buy and drive around the country.
Though I don't like the M$ strategy of DirecTV/PC/Duo, it seems to be the best option for me. ( Yes I know uplink is by hardline, but so what? I can't get ISDN to an Airstream )
korc
I really don't understand the pervasiveness of television throughout society. How is it that so many people can waste time watching low quality entertainment? And why is it that passive entertainment is so popular?
The big ones seem to be DirecTV/USSB and Dish Network. You'll have to look at the lineup and cost for each and make your own decision.
Your options for local programming are either get an antenna, or get basic cable. Many cable companies have an unmentioned, unadvertised, ultra-basic package of JUST the broadcast channels. Check with your cable company.
I was talking about DISH NETWORK, I just found it
I just so happened to be at a friends house when the satellite people were there installing the dish. I brought up the question about local access. They said that while they are not allowed to do it under current law, they do it anyway. They say that someone will call within a couple of days and that you should say that you 1) Havent had regular cable for 6 months. 2) Cannot have an antenna because of tree and reception problem and 3) I cant remember the last one. E-mail me if you want to know. The point is to ask the installer when he does it, he will tell you exactly what to say and you can have the local TV stations from your satellite. Oh by the way this was in Bellmore, NY which is on Long Island Regards, Sean
If you have a 'original' satellite dish and not a DSS dish, you can pick up the pre-feeds to all your favorite network programs without having to deal with local info since if you want local info that bad, you can just pick up a newspaper. Plus you can watch all sorts of crazy international shows.
A quick correction - it's no longer an ISA card, they now only support the PCI version. This would be all fine and dandy with me, were it not for another couple policy changes they made recently.
First, they removed the unlimited usage plan availability. I was grandfather claused in, but... Previously, everyone with an ISA card also received a static IP address. I used this all the time with great results to transfer files from work, etc. (And they're not kidding about the speed - it was great!) Now, however, you are stuck with a dynamically assigned IP. The kicker, though, is that your system IP configuration is stuck with an internal use IP (Mine is 10.20.30.something). This causes all kinds of problems establishing connections from the outside world to your home computer. (Note, this is probably an over-simplification, but you get the idea.) And, from my communications with them, they have no plan to re-establish static IPs for anyone.
So, if you just want to surf the net fast, DirecPC is great. But, don't plan on being able to do anything remotely serverish.
Life is but a mist upon the horizon.
Anyone have an URL I can check?
Assuming that they're not US only, anyway; if so, I'll disappear now...
See DISH network for satelite programming and certain network channels (West/east COast majors)
Echostar has more bandwidth/satellites/transponders than anyone. THey are also as cheap or cheaper than anyone else.
I work there and the coolest thing is that they are using Linux as the development platform for some of their new embedded systems.
Ed
Hang Loos and be cool
can't get networks unless you have an antenna
Unless you can get your 'local' stations to sign a waver or you are over a certain distance from their transmitters.
Or... If you know a little secret. If you tell them you will be using your dish on an RV (recreational vehicle) where you will not be able to receive local channels, then you can get it.
Sorry, Mr. Taco, but you can't get networks unless you have an antenna. Sometime this winter the courts ruled against the major dish provider (I can't remember who that is; I have cable). They were providing the New York/Chicago/LA feeds of the major networks so people wouldn't have to use antennas. But someone sued and now they can't do that anymore. (I read about this in the Economist sometime in winter). So now they're stuck with subsidizing bunny ears. The article did mention that the great hope for dish providers is that most cable providers won't be ready for digital telivision, so they'll be able to create a box that has dish and HDTV reception in one, which should solve some of the problems.
That's only because the ruling doesn't take effect immediately. I should have mentioned that. It said that people in rural areas would be able to keep the feed for a while but that people in cities would have to go off pretty soon.
Oh, I stand corrected!
Ok you asked for it -
I'm familiar with Primestar and have lurked for years in the sat news groups. IMHO Primestar had the best idea, lease, don't own, plus 1+ meter dishes. This means that when the hardware is FU'd, they will make it OK - no charge. Also the 1+meter
dishes mean great signal! Next time it's raining, call up a friend with one of those 18" weenies... Ok, so Primestar is deepsix'd, I would vote for DISH - because, well, they are based on a standard, also from what I've heard, they don't suffer as much from the pixelation caused by overcompression on DSS. I have seen this on Primestar, but only very, very rarley. The worst case was having to trudge out in the snow at 1AM and knock the ice off the bloody thing (they do sell dish warmers...). Unless you're into an enormous amount of testosterone crazed sports and PPV addiction - in that case go with DSS.
What ever system you get, get a larger dish, 24" at least. You won't be sorry.
Best of luck,
Q
And quite frankly, this is bullshit. I'm on the outskirts of town, in a small valley, surrounded by trees. If I use an antenna I can LISTEN to X-Files on Fox, and can't get CBS or NBC for anything. After 4 individual letters of protest per station, I am still unable to receive them via my DSS system. :)
The [possibly] good news is, there is a bill that has passed in the House and is pending in the Senate that would allow Network access from major satellite providers again.
Ah well, at least this whole thing gave me an excuse to get wired up to cable and now I have a nice, speedy cable modem
Java? Ugh... Let's put the beat to rest...
Cetainly not 95% of the population of SlashDot users. Oh, and maybe you should...you know...next time there's a civil war in your backyard, the American's might be dropping bombs on your head...
Blar.
I've had no problems with them, the service is good, the channel line-up is (for me) better than DSS/USSB's. Bought the (JVC branded) receiver at Sears. :-)
My father-in-law has DSS, and he's had problems with customer service, but then he always seems to have problems.
(Another reason I went with DiSH rather than Direct is that the latter is owned by Hughes, and I didn't particularly want to reward a company that gave away/sold launch technology to the Chinese.)
Go with a dual LNB setup (I went with the 4xxx
series), as that gives the option of adding a second receiver (for another TV) to the same dish.
(Installing the dish yourself is not hard if you're at all handy, just don't do what I did: spend several hours on the roof on a sunny June day in shorts with no sunscreen. Ouch.)
I went with the basic ("Top 40") package, about $20/month (plus any pay-per-view movies, usually $2.99 each), because we don't watch much TV. Mostly Sci-Fi, Discovery, Learning Channel, etc. If you're more of a TV watcher you might go with the more inclusive next higher package, and one or more of the movie channel (HBO, Showcase, etc) packages if that's your thing.
If/when we do get a second receiver I'll probably get another package that includes a dish, to aim the second dish at one of EchoStar's other satellites (mostly international programming).
-- Alastair
Yes, if you live in a place with a big yard and a decently wide view of the sky, a big dish is a nice-to-have. There may well be better integrated packages these days, but when I looked at it, it meant a lot of separate agreements and bills with different providers on various satellites. But you can get stuff that the small digital dishes don't give you.
The nice thing about the pizza-size dishes is that they'll mount just about anywhere, and they're the only thing you can use from an apartment or take on the road with you. (My in-laws spend half their time in Ohio and half in Florida, they just take the dish with them. A temporary mount works well enough.)
The big dishes require a permanent mount and are subject to much higher wind etc. loads, so need a much stronger mount. If you can accomodate that, great. (In my yard it'd be marginal, since there are a lot of high trees around. That's why I went for a roof mount of the small dish. In theory you can roof-mount a big dish, but that requires major structural considerations to keep it from ripping out of the roof in a high wind.)
-- Alastair
The Sony decoder supports DSS/USSB (DirecTV), not Echostar (DISH). The high end of the line on Echostars' receivers (also by JVC) support the same range of features that the Sony does, such as the UHF remote control. They're also remotely software-upgradeable from the satellite, a nice feature. (For example, a few months back Echostar upgraded the "display information about this channel" feature from an opaque to a transparent background, so you can see the TV signal behind it. Magically appeared one day as the receiver software was remotely updated.) :-)
The top-of-the line JVC receiver (IIRC) includes a built-in VCR, which is nice, although I find the IR-blaster in my not-quite top end machine works just fine. (This feature means you don't have to program your VCR to record a later program. There's a high-power infrared port on the front of the receiver which, when the time comes for the show you've selected, blasts out the appropriate IR signal to start your VCR recording, and similarly stops it when done. The signal just bounces off the opposite wall of the room into your VCR.) Nice feature. I should use it more, say to tape those early early morning reruns of the old "Lost In Space" TV series...
-- Alastair
I have DirecTV and love it. My parents cable company recently went under and I looked at them all for them. They were looking for the most bang for the buck. DirecTV was it. They have it now too and love it.
;) If I had the space, I'd go that route.
If you have the space, however, look at a big dish. Programming is cheeper, more choices, more choices in places to buy your programming (competition is a good thing), and it looks damn impressive
Mark
I just talked with an authorized agent of the Dish Network who told me that they are putting out a combo Dish Network/WebTV unit for about $299 or so
it has a 8.5 GB drive (supposedly to download games or other software) adaptors for digital/video cameras... with a PiP facility, it could make my lazy butt very happy to check out imdb.com during those times when I *need* to know what other movies Peter Weller and John Lithgow were in other than Buckaroo Banzai,and not have to travel the 6 feet to my workstation. Definately not for the Serious user, but could be a nifty toy, especially if your going to buy a DSS/Dish system anyway. Plus I also heard that they are going to be reshaping Dish Networks "dish" for Dual LNB's on a slightly exaggerated oval shaped dish. This is to include future channel availability.
All in all I'm still very happy with my Sony DSS system.
-- Life: Hate the Game... Love the cereal
You can get a 400k downlink w/ Direct PC, which is nice. There some problems with Direct PC thou.
There is a 1 second delay between the transmittions.
Also the price are outrageous. I calculated just for just the downlink would cost you $650/month (maybe more) for just a 24/7 connection.
But if you have the money, don't mind the delay, and your Telco/cable do not provide high band width access, this would be the way to go.
I ate my tag line.
I ate my tag line.
-=Ellis (D)25=-
DiSH is actually less proprietary than DTV. DTV uses a TOTALLY secret proprietary data stream. DiSH uses DVB/MPEG-II (as someone else pointed out) which is an open standard (encorporating encryption, of course, to prevent stealing the service.)
As to one equipment manufacturer, ALL DTV receivers are re-branded receivers manufactured by Hughes (the parent company of DTV), with the exception of the Sony's. Sony manufactures their own units, but uses proprietary Hughes chips (which are secret and exclusive to Hughes) to decode the signal.
OTOH, the Echostar receivers, which are sold under the brand names Echostar, JVC, and Philips/Magnavox, are generic DVB satelite receivers which can be programed to decode any any DVB complient service (E. G. Canada's Express Vu, several Latin American and European services) via reprogramming of their Flash memory and application of the correct provider's smart card. The flash is appropriately programmed for the target provider. They can even be programed, via flash, to output in NTSC, PAL or SECAM, as required by the service they are being used to receive.
I recently installed a DISHNetwork DSS system. Frankly, I like it. No garbage channels (i.e. I don't want personals, real estate ads, endless replays of local government meetings, etc).
.
Contrary to what is stated elsewhere, you CAN get major networks on DISH, it's local affiliates that require special qualification, and often a second dish antenna. I'm getting the "Top 40" package plus "Network Feed East" and the SuperStations bundle, about $28. a month all total. Setup is relatively quick and painless: in many cases, you buy the system (~$150.00) and they'll install it for you with a 1 year committment. Upgrades in programming are free, downgrades cost you $5.00 per change you make in programming. I'd say go for it: it's what **I** use for Dilbert, Futurama, and SciFi. .
I'm very pleased with my Dish Network subscription. I don't care about sports, so paying extra with DirecTV for that premium isn't something I'm too into. Overall, I kinda have the feel that DTV is a bit classier than Dish Network, but I'm cool with it all the same.
$11.50 a month??? Where are you getting programming dude, I'm paying quite a bit more for that with some alacarte channels, HBO and Disney being the most expensive :)
But yes I do recommend C-Band over small dish technology, the feeds are great and you get some channels that don't make it to the small dish. PPV is available to you as well and with the digital receiver you far surpass the pizza dishes for channel selection.
I moved into a house with a DirecTV dish, which I kept paying for for a year. Then the tuner (a VERY old one) went bad, and I switched to Dish network.
I switched to Dish for 2 main reasons:
1. Quality looked much better on screen. I could always see a pixelation with DirecTV, not so with Dish. 2. Dish had BBC, which I really wanted.
But theres a lot going on in this field.
When I called to cancel DirecTV after I bought the Dish solution, they asked me why. they said that they had just bought Primestar, and would be bringing more international choices from that. This, in combination with their purchase of USSB, gives DirecTv MANY more choices of channels. Dish does have a wide variety of international channels, but they are ala cart, and often expensive, and require a second dish.
the dish unit I bought (an older one, even though its just a few months old it was an "old" type) has some awesome features compared to the Diretv unit. All Dish units update their software automatically from the sattelite, which should be good, but reading the newsgroups you can see a flurry of "hell, what did they do?" messages after upgrades sometimes.
The dish unit I have uses a UHF remote but also supports IR TV, VCR, and another one (I forgot.) When looking through the guide for shows, if you pick one that isnt on yet it gives you a choice of programming both the satelite receiver and the vcr to record it, automatically doing the start stop times. This is great (at least the 90% of the times that the guide is correct.) Just make sure the remote is pointing at the vcr and it has a blank tape and is ON. To me a major benefit over DirecTV.
DirecTV has MUCH Music, the canadian MTV type thing which is much much better. Do miss that.
A recent satllite deal gave DirecTV more satelite transponders I think, but Id check that first. Could affect future expansion.
Overall, I like the hell out of my Dish unit, and only miss one or two channels from DirecTV. Cost is virtually identical. I live 2 miles from most of the broadcast antennas in Houston so get local reception at least as good as I care for. My new 19" Hansol monitor keeps knocking channels off (interferes somehow with the receiver) but is not that big a deal. (havent really troubleshot this yet.)If DirecTV gets a butload of international stuff at a reasonable price I would want that, as I care more for that than movies or sports. Havent heard the best about the internet access, heard it was very expensive and still uses 56K modem to upload.
WHATEVER YOU DO go to the newsgroups and read a butload. There are web pages (tagged at home of course) that compare the nearly identical channel offerings (except the movies on USSB of course.) But the newsgroups have a tremendous wealth of info, and some very real experts. You will learn far more there than you really want to know (although the satelite launch and tracking page is sweet. I love the track for the recent one that splashed after launch, it's listed as "below horizon".)
I concure with DISH. I've been a subscriber coming up on three years and the service and quality is excellent. They just annouced a new system (Model 7100) which contains an 8.4 Gb hard drive and can work with Web TV (Boo Hiss) but the system itself (minus the Web TV) looks great. You can pause an incoming channel for up to 30 minutes and resume where you left off. They are also promising digital VCR software by the end if the year downloaded right off the bird. The package content and costs are IHMO very reasonable, but the again I also don't care much about football, etc.
As you mentioned in a followup, MPEG recording would be great - I was really tempted to get one of the boxes that let you automatically record certain categories of programs, for instance anytime a rerun of Captian Kangaroo was broadcast I might want to record it, or every Christmas show that was on...
So, I would ask that along with every program you send a constant stream of as much meta data about the program (and if possible that segment of the program, like what actors were on screen) as possible so one could cross index everything that was being broadcast to find interesting content easily, and be able to do things like just record portions of a program with cameos.
I'd also love to be able to control the thing from a home PC using a web browser, and also I would REALY REALLY love to have an API to program the thing, so I could send it Java code and have that decided when to switch channels or what to record or be able to alert me when something I was interested it would happen on another chanel. Another poster mentioned having a login, but I would be OK without one as long as I had a good API and a way to load programs on the thing (again, I personally would hope for Java programs).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Deconstructive criticism is not helpful. If you think there is a better way to program the box, then offer us options! It's all too easy to spit on a parade, try driving one of the floats sometime.
Here are the list of possible options I came up with, and the reasons why I discarded a few:
Language: Scripts (obvious) - the problem with this choice is in the selection of scripting languages, a whole other little war all in itself. Do you use Python? Perl? Bash? Are there custom extensions for the language you choose? How do you get information to base decisions on? How do you programmatically control the feed? These are questions that scripts (in my opinion) are ill-suited to answer.
Language: C/C++ - OK, what platform are they running on? Are many people really going to be able to set up cross compilers if they do not choose an Intel chip? Or, perhaps you are an Intel plant and that is your evil plot.
Language: CORBA ORB - Accessible from any location, and usable from none. Do you really want to have to use CORBA to program your set top box? If you say yes I demand a digital photo of you saying that with a straight face.
Language: Scheme - simple enough, and you could write some pretty useful stuff. But it's also sort of obscure for the masses.
Language: Java - this is the sort of thing Java was meant for in the first place - you define a few interfaces, let someone transmit over classes that work against those interfaces (or use RMI to talk to the box from elsewhere). There is no need for a GUI, though perhaps you could create one to talk to your running TV controller agent and see what's going on.
To me, Java seems to be the simplest thing for them to support and as I've been a Java programmer for a number of years I'd also feel most at home programming the thing in Java. Other people might be more comfy with other languages, but if so they should give some practical reasons why those other languages would be better instead of trying to tear down other choices.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That would be even best as a means of getting stuff to and from the box, but still implies a Java based API for the box. I'll help spec it out if they like!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
how ironic
mr t
i don't think i would ever consider getting internet access thru a dish. The latency is at least 2 seconds.
Ick think of Quake or any realtime network game for that matter.
Also you do have at least a second delay with normal television viewing. For example I was watching the sixers-pacers game last month (DIE REGGIE DIE) on my local station, and when ever i flipped to tnt from the antenna station i would see the play that just saw a second before.
needless to say that shouldnt affect deciding whether or not to buy a dish to watch tv, but networking over satellite isnt a good idea.
Best advantage that DISH has over DSS is the independants (ktla, kpix, wgn, a couple others) which means I get xena 13 different times each weekend and buffy in multiple timezones. :)
Had no problems calling up and ordering east and west coast feeds for the big 4 networks. (and if they ever do come out to check my reception, I just need to take the case of the computer in the living room for plenty of snow
Watching the news in LA or New York is a lot more interesting than the seattle news anyway. Getting east coast feeds is also nice for avoiding tape delays, and missing something usually doesn't matter cuz it's on again in 3 hours.
Downsides: In heavy rain the picture can get kinda pixelated at times. DSS has more pay-per-view channels and sports coverage. Sometimes it's really tough to decide what to watch.
Isn't that the way most of us would prefer to do it... have to do our own research to find the gems, instead of being spoon-fed the standard fare?
Did all these subscription companies pretty much make the old style of satellite TV viewing unavailable?
Regards,
Terrorists can attack freedom, but only Congress can destroy it.
We live in Virginia about 45 or 50 miles south of DC and same distance north of Richmond. We get DISH and love it. The picture is digital quality and we have never had picture problems except once which I will explain a little further down.
There is an antenna you can attach to mini's that supposedly picks up local channels. I have never met anyone using one. We get NYC news on the dish which is sometimes pretty cool. We can get local channels in our area with the addition of one more dish pointed in a different direction. We opted to make due with the New York stuff.
The Pay per view is better than the cable here. We have about 12 channels give or take a few. Many movies are beamed down in dolby digital. One cool thing (especially for when Episode 1 comes out in PPV) is when a movie is set to play all day, you buy it once and can watch it all day as many times as your little Star Wars freak self can handle.
Pricing blows cable away. We pay for the year in advance and have 5 channels of HBO along with the regular hundred and some-odd channels we get normally. Pile on top of that more PPV, and a bunch (never bothered to count, but there are plenty) of all music channels playing everything from big band to eurodancecrap. All this plus dolby digital on some ppv movies and digital feed elsewhere for pretty close; read: give or take a few dollars/month; as we pay for basic cable with no SciFi, Comedy Central, HGTV, History Channel, ESPN2, etc, etc, etc...
The only bad thing we have noticed is pretty trivial. Every now and then, the Fox broadcast out of New York really pumps up the red color settings. Have not seen it on any other channel and the color controls on the big screen are all centered up. It was especially bad during the last Super Bowl. It may just be noticeable on a big screen, but I know it wasn't the TV. Like I said, pretty trivial.
The only complaint I have about DISH that I am not sure is specific to this company, is you only get the ability to hook up two boxes to the dish, or at least with the dish we got. The box we use is a JVC, I am not sure what brand the dish is.
christian
/Sig/
I have DSS and, for the time being, receive east and west coast feeds of NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX. Until recently, you could call up DirecTV and tell them that your reception of the networks was not adequate (mine isn't because I live in an apartment and can't install a rooftop antenna). DirecTV would hook you up and inform your local affiliates that you were receiving the national feeds. The local affiliates could challenge you, and come out and measure the signal strength. If it was adequate, DirecTV would shut you off.
Just last week, I received a letter from DirecTV stating that due to recent legislation, all network feeds were being discontinued on June 30 unless the local affiliates supplied you with a waiver, regardless of signal strength.
Of course, the local affiliates have no motivation to provide waivers, so I doubt that I'll get one. The new legislation doesn't benefit anyone except for the local affiliates. The satellite provider loses, since I'm not buying those channels anymore; the network loses, since I'm not watching them anymore; and the consumer loses, since I can't watch Futurama anymore. I suspect this will legislation will not last long, but in the meantime, it's pretty darn tough to get broadcast networks via satellite.
Ask me how the Heisenberg Principle may or may not have saved my life.
Aren't these things like $3000 for the dish and receiver?
The other problem is the time it takes the dish to slew between birds. makes channel surfing difficult.
What you want is a 4Dtv satellite system. Check it out here.
The 4Dtv IRD (integrated receiver-decoder) can receive analog and digital C- and Ku-band signals, and is compatible with HDTV. It has an interactive program guide, a modem for Pay-per view purchasing, and a videocipher II module is available. It also has satellite internet capability.
This is the system we are using at home, and it works great. You can get a decent channel packages for about $15/month, and there are also hundreds of free channels, and tons of satellite radio stations.
Do yourself a favor. Don't go with a mini dish like DSS or DirectTV. Go with a big dish and get a 4Dtv receiver. You won't be sorry.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
.. if you want satellite Internet access, you've always got the option of using DirecPC (you can use that and DirecTV on the same dish.) However, there are some caveats. First and foremost, it's not particularly cheap, especially when you consider that you still have to keep your account with a local ISP (you obviously can't use your dish to send data upstream!) Also, there is no current Linux support, although according to a tech service person I corresponded with via e-mail, it is being "looked into."
We shall see.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
I'm a DirecTV subscriber, and I would recommend looking into it. However, I have not had any experience with any of the other providers, and so my recommendation may be a bit skewed. As you would expect from a digital satellite system, the picture and sound are excellent, particularly when movies are shown in Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. (Don't skimp on your audio equipment; the up-front investment is worth it.) The pricing is reasonable, depending on what channels you want; you can go anywhere from $12.99/month (I think) for a "minimal" package to $47.99/month for the Total Choice Balls-To-The-Wall package.
.. but don't think you'll be able to tune to Fox Sports Arizona and watch a Diamondbacks game live .. if you want to do that, you'll have to buy the MLB Extra Innings package. The same thing goes for NFL, NBA, etc. Still, I enjoy watching all the local sports-talk programs, even if I can't watch most of the games as they happen.
Also keep in mind that DirecTV is merging with USSB, which provides all of the "major" premium channels such as HBO, Showtime, Skinemax, etc. DirecTV currently provides four channels of Starz and eight channels of Encore, along with the Independent Film Channel and a couple of other "premium" networks. If you combine DirecTV with USSB (as I have) you'll have more premium movie channels than you can possibly deal with.
DirecTV is pretty much the acknowledged leader when it comes to sports. You can get, at your option, several regional sports networks
As far as the Big Four networks are concerned, you can pretty much forget receiving them via your dish, unless you can demonstrate that it is impossible for you to receive them with an antenna. (After all, they can't have you watching CBS or NBC and not seeing the local advertisements, can they?) If you want to discontinue your cable service, your best bet is to just pick up an antenna. If the networks in your area broadcast at any reasonable strength, a small pair of "rabbit ears" should be all you really need. This is all that I use, and the quality of the reception rivals the quality of the cable picture! Reception of network TV via antenna is not nearly as antiquated a notion as it seems.
Finally, another thing I like about DirecTV is the pay-per-view movie channels. Channels 100-199 are all recent movies that have hit the video stores; by pressing a couple of buttons on your remote, you can watch one at your leisure for $2.99, which is what you would pay for a new release at Blockbuster. Once you "buy" a movie, you can watch it for up to twelve hours, so if you get interrupted you can always go back and see parts of it again later. You also get a coupon every month good for $2.50 off a pay-per-view purchase, so if you only watch one movie a month, you get it for $0.49. Not too bad of a deal.
Anyway, these are just some observations. I'm sure that subscribers of other dish providers can offer some similar ones.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
AFAIK you can still subscribe to premium channels via satellite just like with cable. I seem to recall that satellite is more expensive though :P
--
I just went through all the literature from all the companies and I was torn between 2 dishes. The Sony AC4 that runs on DirecTV and the Echostar 4720 that runs on DISH. Both of the forementioned receiver have Dolby Digital outs but what seperated the DISH was that I got a free 4720 with a one year committment to dish at $57.00 a month. The Sony would have costed me $400 to go with that one. Dish has pay per view that beams in Dolby Digital, all I can say is once you go Digital you don't wanna go back to analog. Just my 2 cents....
Here's what you need:
DirecTV for standard cable fare, plus PPV and about 30 commercial free, digital music channels (GREAT for ripping MP3's). Hit a lot of sites and check out clearance and returned items. I saw a new SONY system for $15 + s&h recently (www.satellite4home.com).
TVRO (big dish) for feeds (Voyager), some network stuff, NASA channel and porn (you can get these free if you look around, lots of people quit using them when the small dishes came out).
An outside antenna for local channels, plus your scanner antennas, shortwave antennas, etc.
Remember, there is no such thing as too many channels!
I think you're talking about LOCAL network stations, I'm in the middle of San Antonio, I can get them fine, yet I still ordered FOX and NBC out of New York so I can switch between Conan O'Brien and "When Microsoft Attacks" without having to mess with rabbit ears. My FOX and NBC come out of New York, so I get their local stuff. I think you are talking about getting the ones from around your locale broadcast onto sattelite, and I think you can only get that with certain circumstances. And don't tell me that I can't get FOX on my dish, cause I watched the frikkin playoff game on it last night. So there, nya nya nyanya nya.
-- My neighbors dog has a four inch clit.
Yes, you can get networks, I get FOX and NBC out of New York on my DishNetwork service. You do pay a little extra (like a buck a month), but it's worth it, especially 'cause FOX has those nifty "Worlds gorriest crocodile attacks" type shows. When I got those two networks, the lady I spoke to said those and CBS were the only ones available for the time being due to some court rulings, but she said she heard a rumor all the other networks will be available soon. Oh yeah, you get WGN out of Chicago (which is a WB network), in case you want to watch yet another Wayans brother with his own show....
-- My neighbors dog has a four inch clit.
Hey, I know...
Since you're not allowed to have a dish, get one but hide it. Like, set up a bunch of stones in a circle so that it looks like a well and put the dish in there. That way, no one will see it unless they look down in it. Keep in mind that you can paint the dishes too, without any loss of reception. I know it seems stupid, but if you want high bandwidth, a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do....
-- My neighbors dog has a four inch clit.
Let's face it, there's more than a slight parallel to the Windoze/Mac dichotomy here.
/. types) have had trouble with customer support becoming a ping-pong between the h/w vendor and the service vendors' support departments. I don't have that problem, since they're basically the same people for us DiSH heads.
Echostar apparently feels very strongly about maintaining control over enough aspects of the infrastructure to ensure a consistent, and hopefully satisfactory user experience. As a slightly later entrant, they had the ability to use a real standard (Is there such a thing?), whereas Hughes had to homebrew part of the protocol.
In any event, Echostar is more like Apple in this game, in that by providing both user hardware, programming services, and infrastructure, they can respond more quickly to their users, and probably make better margins as well.
I'm an E* customer, and I am generally pretty darn happy with the service. I have heard that some DTV/USSB users (probably not
That does not mean there aren't problems with support occasionally for E*, but between reading alt.dbs.echostar, the monthly customer chats, and their phone support, I've generally been able to fix what needed fixing, on the rare occasions something did.
I would highly suggest going with Direct TV. They have a better selection of channels and basic is around $30.00 a month. They own USSB. We liv in the midwest and unless there is a heavy snowstorm we have no problems with recption. We figured we would pay off the cost of the dish in one year. There is an online store called dish direct, sorry I cannot remember the URL, that gives a discount on dishes for first time dish buyers. We bought a Sony dual LNB SA4 for around $250-$300
I've been searchin for the chord I can't hear Ive been searchin for years Its somewhere inside But its well disguised
A lot of this is covered in other postings, but I'll summarize what I've found out looking into this over the past few weeks:
1) You probably won't pay any less for programming on satellite than would for cable if you have only one TV and one decoder box. You will probably get more channels.
2) Dish Network is better for Movies, etc. DirectTV is better for sports. Most of the below applies to Dish Network, but Direct TV has similar deals.
3) You can get "local" stations (meaning networks and regional broadcast channels) if you live on either coast and don't get good broadcast reception. (I live in a rural area of NJ, in a valley.) You're supposed to have no cable for 90 days to qualify, but in practice they don't follow that very closely. The add-on package costs extra, and (for now) requires a second dish. If you let them install the whole works for $99, they throw in the second dish free.
4) If you only get 1 receiver, and sign up for the full boat programming package, you get the first receiver and dish "free" (via rebate).
5) If you have multiple TV's (or VCR) each needs it's own receiver to pick up different channels concurrently. You can get a "dual LNB" dish and hang up to 3 receivers on it. To add more receivers, you need a "matrix switch". Each receiver adds $4.99 to the programming bill, but you get all programming on all receivers. A basic model receiver costs $99. Fancier ones are more.
I started this because my wife wanted to watch HBO in the bedroom. The cable company told us we'd have to get a second box and pay for HBO a SECOND TIME, a policy I found "objectionable". During my research process, I got a good deal on a big (54") TV that made DSS look even more appealing, but lately I've been having second thoughts because I have kids, multiple TV's, and other complications. I might just stick with the cable and get a DVD player. It depends on how the cable reception looks on the new TV. They're delivering it tomorrow, so I'll find out pretty quick.
How can you say that? Stop watching TV? And miss Red Dwarf??? You must be NUTS! Not to menchion
Dr. Who, Futureama, Family Guy(the baby is histarical) and Star Trek(Voyager SUCKS). Anyone have any additions to this list(other than X-Philes)
When we bought our house it wasn't wired for cable. My wife happens to work for Tandy and they were having an incredible special on DirecTV packages which let us get the dish and receiver for around $35. We pay around $30 a month for a few hundred free channels and probably over a hundred pay-per-view channels which carry movies that are a month or two out of the theatres. The only thing we really don't get in our package is the HBO/Skinemax/Showtime type networks but you can if you want to pay more. We've never missed them. I don't think that renting your equipment really saves you any money but some people don't like spending $100-200 up front. I could be wrong but I think that only DirecTV offers the Sunday Ticket type sports arrangements that offers all televised games.
Bottom line is that we really like our DirecTV setup but the other guys is right, spend money on the upgraded receiver, you'll like the speed and improved interface.
--remove the spam to reply
We the Sheeple...
I have experience with all three major "small dish" satellite providers. I chose DSS/DirecTV, but I believe Dish would also be a good choice.
The primestar system is OK, but the dish is a bit larger and requires two feed cables to operate. Both DSS and Dish Network use the same type of equipment, although there are a number of manufacturers of DSS equipment and only one for Dish Network.
Contrary to what I saw posted, there are a number of solutions to splitting between multiple receivers. The key is to buy a DUAL FEED dish up front. There are aftermarket splitters that will split a dual feed dish to any number of receivers. I've used 16 and 32 output splitters before and they work great. If you don't have a dual feed dish, the dual feed LNB's are available for $60-80US from a number of sources.
The commentary about the local stations is true, as there are archaic regulations that prevent the satellite companies from sending network feeds to most urban subscribers. I get a better picture from an antenna than I ever did on cable anyway, so it's not really an issue for me.
Good luck!
Leghorn
----- Leghorn "Not responsible for program content"
You're probably referring to DISH Network, in which case your info is out of date. They *almost* had to give up the NY/LA broadcast channels in the beginning of June, but there was an overruling (or act of Congress or something). In either case, I still get New York and LA local channels.
I don't know about other cities, but you can definitely receive NY/LA stations with the single dish. A second dish (pointed in the opposite direction) gives you some extra PPV channels, Bloomberg (hail Bloomberg) TV, the NASA Channel and a couple crappy religious channels.
I live near Trenton, NJ which is just about the midpoint between Philadelphia and New York. The Philadelphia signals come in OK over my omnidirectional antenna, but then I don't give a fsck about Philadelphia since all of my business is in New York and Connecticut. I asked the DISH Network rep about getting New York channels (and LA, too for a couple more bucks). She asked me about my ability to receive local signals. I explained that the Philadelphia stations are a little fuzzy and New York is very snowy. BAM! NY/LA channels came through after 5 minutes.
The thing about local channels is that aside from the news, all of the programs are basically the same around the country. That's why a lot of the local stations have their panties in a bunch, it's because for the first time they're getting competition from other stations that carry the exact same programming. Instead of ABC v NBC v CBS, it's now ABC in city A v ABC in city B.
Overall I'm very happy with DISH Network. There are three basic packages starting at 19.95/mo. The first gives you the top 40 channels that people watch. For $27.95 you get the top 60 channels + 30 channels of music. For $28.95 you get a package that will soon have about 100 basic channels. Of course, everyone has the ability to order PPV (14 channels of it w/one dish) and premium channels. DISH also features foreign channels (for a fee) in case you're homesick for the motherland.
The system is fairly easy to navigate since there is an on-screen menu. Interactive data channels are coming soon.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
95% of the population... Oh, you must be the morons of our society. Yes, I remember you. You post lame and pointless messages like the above.
Hands down Dish Network rocks. Most programming for the buck and always on top of the latest technology.
32bit processor, MPEG2 audio/video, last month they started broadcasting Dolby AC3 (very limited, just on one PPV channel so far) and with their current rebate program you get a base system totally free.
They frequently bring on new channels and the receivers get frequent software updates. Internet access is coming with the launch of their new satellites and with their Dishmovers program they give you a free dish when you move so that you don't have to take your old one down.
Any way you slice it, Dish Network rocks!
I've had dish network about 1 1/2 - 2 years. I got it because it had the most bang for the buck. Overall, it's OK, but I have had several problems on and off with the service and also billing problems. Their customer service seems to feel that you're some smuck trying to get out of paying the bill.
I personally don't watch that much TV, but I do happen to have two satellite dishes at home. One is an alphastar (defunct service) and the other is a C/Ku Band dish. It came with the house, but if I were to move and had the money, I would definitely buy another C/KU band dish. It gets several hundred channels, it's 12 years old and the technology is still good. I can also get feeds of FOX TV shows without commercials or anything thanks to the Internet Birdwatches who tell me what to watch.
The only thing is since you are looking for a new device I'd get a digital reciever with your package. The digital recievers have excellent sound and can get hundreds of new digitally encoded channels as well as the old ones. Plus they have cool features.
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http://davedash.com/
Amen. TV is a waste of time. I mean, you stare at a screen enough in one day. Why burn your eyes completely out?
censorship is a form of noise, which actively seeks to drown out content with silence - Crash Culligan
My personal setup is DSS using the Sony receiver, and I bought a second Panasonic receiver for the kids. The Sony is a great, fast box, the Panasonic is a dog, but it's cheap and robust.
We looked at DISH network, but like the selection of DSS/USB better. However if you're not into lots of PPV movies and sports events, as well as top grade harcore pr0n, maybe DISH would suit.
We end up paying about $50/mo for service, with the HBO package and our monthly spate of PPV movie selections.
GB
I don't plan on getting a satellite dish for a while, but Futurama is funny, so is Family Guy. I don't need to say that The Simpsons is the best, thats a given.
Here are my own notes on problems with enabling my account, problems with (and benefits of) playlist sharing, and extracting cover art.
Troy Brown was the top offensive player on the Patriots, who won the Super Bowl in 2002. He should have been on the cover instead of Marshall Faulk. He set records for receiving, and had some plays on punt return that propelled them into the Super Bowl. He allowed Brady to open up his passing game.
And then, in 2002-2003 season, he got injured, and missed a bunch of games, all without being on the cover of Madden! The curse extends even to players who SHOULD have been on the cover! IT IS THAT POWERFUL.