TV or not TV
Oct. 28th, 2008 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynI've been thinking about changing my TV service to satellite for a lot of reasons, one of which is that it might be cheaper and right now, cheaper is good, while still maintaining my ability to rely on TV to keep me entertained as I adjust to all these changes in life. I've been talking to friends with DirecTV and they seem happy with both their TiFaux and package, and they say they haven't had weather issues to deal with, etc. I think DTV might be better than Dish Network for my location, but I see both in my neighborhood. I walked down my alley today and I counted 9 houses with a satellite, which surprised me a lot.
I've always hated Comcast and everyone before them for their monopoly and bad service. Every once in a while, I get good people, but more often than not, I don't. I will say that since they went to underground cable, I've never had problems with transmissions -- my cable doesn't go out even in windstorms. But what I want is HD -- I have an HD-ready TV, but I really don't want to add yet more money onto my bill, which is already incredibly high for a sporadically employed person, just to get an HD box. I still wouldn't have an HD digital video recorder, and it looks like not only is there a package with a fairly low price for one year that includes a free (after rebate) HD DVR in one but you get a pretty nice level of extra channels for a while, for free, as well.
My main issue is that my TV, while HD-ready, is just old enough that it doesn't have an HDMI port, and we've never been able to get the component video cables to work with it, even though everyone said we had stuff set up correctly and there are plenty o' ports for the damn things. They've just been dangling off the back of the receiver the whole time I've had it. Now, it's not totally outside the realm of possibility I might be able to get a newer plasma tv in the near future, and if push came to shove, well, I'd just make that my priority to pay for one with HDMI or something, or find a way to make those ridiculously expensive component cables work.
But! What I'm wondering is... oh flist...
I've always hated Comcast and everyone before them for their monopoly and bad service. Every once in a while, I get good people, but more often than not, I don't. I will say that since they went to underground cable, I've never had problems with transmissions -- my cable doesn't go out even in windstorms. But what I want is HD -- I have an HD-ready TV, but I really don't want to add yet more money onto my bill, which is already incredibly high for a sporadically employed person, just to get an HD box. I still wouldn't have an HD digital video recorder, and it looks like not only is there a package with a fairly low price for one year that includes a free (after rebate) HD DVR in one but you get a pretty nice level of extra channels for a while, for free, as well.
My main issue is that my TV, while HD-ready, is just old enough that it doesn't have an HDMI port, and we've never been able to get the component video cables to work with it, even though everyone said we had stuff set up correctly and there are plenty o' ports for the damn things. They've just been dangling off the back of the receiver the whole time I've had it. Now, it's not totally outside the realm of possibility I might be able to get a newer plasma tv in the near future, and if push came to shove, well, I'd just make that my priority to pay for one with HDMI or something, or find a way to make those ridiculously expensive component cables work.
But! What I'm wondering is... oh flist...
- Do you have satellite?
- If so, what do you think of it? Who are you with?
- Do you find it better than cable?
- Do you think of it as a better deal (right now, I'm paying for expanded basic cable and my TiVo service separately, so I'm curious about people who have different types of services)?
- Are you happy with your DVR if it's not the TiVo?
- Do you get HD, any of you, either through cable or satellite?
- Do you think the service people are better with satellite than cable (I'm asking this because if they are, maybe I'd be lucky enough to get someone who can help me get my strange setup to work).
- And just overall, what thoughts would you share with someone who's considering the move?
