OT: Comercial TV providers

RexA wrote on 8/6/2006, 1:06 AM

This might be a long rant. It is totally US-centric, but comments from other parts of the world are welcome. I'm wondering if anyone has opinions about DirecTV, Dish Network, or the current state of OTA HD.

I currently get my TV OTA (over the air) and from DirecTV satellite. I did cable 10-or-more years back and they pissed me off so bad I said never again. I have an OTA HDTV receiver and can get some HD from the satellite. I like the look of HDTV and more of it would be good, but the HD packages from DirecTV seem to be a total scam as far as I can tell, so never tried that. The only DirecTV HD that I get now is from HBO which I have had for several years.

I'm on the fringe of dependable reception of OTA HD and now DirecTV has local channels available from satellite with HD, but I must get the new mpeg4 hardware (new dish, new receiver) if I want to do that.

Reading tonight, I heard that DirecTV is more sports-centric (which ain't my thing) and Dish has more HD programming. I looked into Dish on the web and I see that they have local HD broadcast too, but the ABC station isn't available here with HD and that is the station that has the best HD shows.

I tried to send an email to Dish to ask about the locals, but their email thingy on the page crashed.
Not a good way to make me feel good about Dish.

Anybody here also watch too much TV and have opinions about DirecTV vs Dish?

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New - semi-related subject.

I got my satellite connection in 2002. Since then I have had HBO, IFC and Sundance. Originally they had some of the best programming I liked to watch. Lately I find all of those three almost unwatchable. HBO is all crap movies or boxing. IFC and Sundance used to have some interesting stuff but now is mostly repeats or idiotic junk, and 60% or more gay-oriented.

Is it just me or has all watchable non-reality-based content been sucked completely out of the public channels in the last few years?

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And don't even get me started on the abismal implementation of Digital or HDTV by the local stations. My gut feel is that the hardware providers are selling overblown crap, because the local PBS station was an early adopter and was doing a good job before they upgraded their equipment. Since, various features (like program data) are gone and image quality is down.

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Hope people read down through the three parts.

Comments

fldave wrote on 8/6/2006, 7:26 AM

I am on the fringe of OTA HD, so I have a big antenna in the attic, get very good reception on local HD channels, until the air force planes (with electronic jammers) fly over then it goes blank for a second (grrhh). Quality of reception will depend on your locale, each station is responsible for equipment. Locally, PBS is outstanding, ABC glitchy, NBC wonderful, can't get Fox.

I have a cable modem, so I have the ultra cheap ($12/month) basic cable, no set top box. I have cable so that when a bad storm or hurricane comes in, I have a better chance of getting news (satellite can't go thru severe storm clouds very well). On that cable feed, I get the same local HD channels I can get over the air. No interruption from plane fly-overs, quality not quite as good as OTA due to compression.

I have had DISH for about 8 years. Love it, love the service. Every time I've had to call for service, it has been impecable. Every time my wife has called, she has a terrible time. Hmmm? I have the "Everything Pak", expensive, but chances are there will be something on I want to watch, when I want to watch it. The receiver has a recorder (DVR, like TIVO) and absolutely love that too, totally changes your lifestyle. If nothing good is on live TV, chances are I have a couple of shows recorded that I haven't watched yet.

I am getting ready to upgrade to the Dish HD Premium, which includes all HD channels and is only about $15 more per month than what I'm paying. The $200 receiver will record 30 hrs of HD or 200 hours of SD.

johnmeyer wrote on 8/6/2006, 2:18 PM

I have DirecTV because Dish wasn't fully developed eight years ago. If you don't care about sports, then everything I hear says that Dish is the way to go. My next-door-neighbor just got a combination of Dish and Voom (the HD-only service) which seems like the best way to go if you want HD.

I have wanted to upgrade for years, but I get totally depressed by two things:

1. The continuous degradation of the quality of the SD DirecTV signal. More channels = bigger compression, and the quality has definitely gotten worse over the past eight years. Why would I want to invest more money in a new technology from a company that does nothing but degrade the quality of its main offering? I am not stupid.

2. The lack of quality programming. Two hundred channels, and nothing is on. I am not about to make a big investment, not only in money, but in time to install that equipment (I have a very unusual, one-of-a-kind, complicated installation) just to watch lousy programming in higher definition.

So, if you really want to get more HD, then consider Dish and Voom together. But, I wouldn't bother unless you can find some programming that you really want to watch.

Coursedesign wrote on 8/6/2006, 3:16 PM

I love my Netflix!

And they even offer HD discs for rent (although a bit preemie right now with the current player situation).

55,000 titles: mostly movies of course but also a lot of recent TV shows.

You create a long list of what you want to see, they mail you the first 3 say (for the most common $17.99/month subscription) from their nearest shipping center, one day away from just about anywhere.

After you finish each, you drop it in the mail, the day they receive it, they send the next DVD on your list.

For the $70-$100 you save every month compared to a cable or satellite service you can get a very good bottle of champagne to be served at 4-6C, and even a set of really nice thin-walled crystal tulip glasses to truly enjoy the stuff in.

("Birdbath" shaped champagne glasses are an abomination. They were supposedly shaped after Marie Antoinette's left breast, no wonder those involved got their heads cut off.)

Ideally you should have OTA HD also, to see 24, PBS, and AFV for free :O).

DrLumen wrote on 8/6/2006, 3:53 PM

I've never tried Direct but had Dish for a while and currently cable - too many trees in the apartments (sigh).

But, while I had Dish, it was good. They were just starting to supply HD but I never was able to try it though. However, if you want to try Dish, make sure you read the contract provided by the installer very carefully and DO NOT allow them to withdraw the bills from your bank account. When I cancelled them, the contract said something completely different than what I was told by the installer and Dish kept making withdrawals for service and equipment they said I didn't return. I finally got them to stop making withdrawals and credit me for charges but it took a few months and was nothing but a hassle. Now, I would think long and hard before EVER getting Dish again.

richard-courtney wrote on 8/6/2006, 3:58 PM

We are lucky to get OTA HD. Love PBS, other networks...... whoopie.

We also have a DSL provider that has streaming video using a small
device hooked up to network. (Not a cable connection) They are promising
HD content this coming spring but what we want is in SD so we are happy.

We are just getting some HD DVD content and that is where we spend our
money is watching rented DVDs. (Other than family content we make ourselves!)

JJKizak wrote on 8/7/2006, 5:53 AM

I receive all of the local stations OTA with some difficulties. One of them is not enough power for PBS stations due to antenna management problems. The others have huge sound level problems and the levels vary from commercials being about 15 db louder than the regular program plus level problems between stations. The quality of the SD transmissions is not good with a seemingly applied .006 Gaussian blur and reduced color saturation compared to analog. (side by side comparison with Sony TV sets viewing the same station) CBS and FOX are excellent but NBC has this "slow to focus everytime a scene changes on HD, about 1/8th of a second, really bad on the Hall of Fame game last night". NBC (local) insists on showing all of the 4 x 3 commercials as stretched SD. The engineer likes it that way because it's easy as reported on the AVS forum. The quality of the HD is usually excellent on all of the stations except for the implimitation of Digital 16 x 9 cameras for their mobile operations which stand out like a sore thumb with 20 ghost (face) images, high low light noise, and blurry backgrounds. I have a huge antenna with most of the stations being about 15 to 20 miles away. The analog 4 x 3 quality at times reminds me of the old MGM musicals with color saturation and sharpness.
JJK

RexA wrote on 8/8/2006, 12:42 AM

Yeah, there are a zillion variables with DTV and crossing the cost-reduced stations with their vendors for the new equipment, the results, especially for OTA are not great.

I'm in the San Fran bay area. Almost all the big stations here share a common gigantic antenna tower. Several share the same antennas. If anything goes wrong there, and it does every 4-6 months, all the stations on that antenna are down and all the others are power-reduced while work goes on. I think the stations think that only poor people still watch TV from the air waves so they really don't care much.

The best local station several years ago was our big PBS. They improved their equipment a couple years ago and now they have more sub-channels with crappy pictures and usually the channel data info, content description message, (sorry, I forgot the term) is nonfunctional.

It bothers me that there has been a political decision to switch all our broadcasting to digital, yet the (allegedly technologically leading) US can't seem to make all this new stuff work right or dependably.

I think a lot of the motivation for the decree to switch to digital was to let the US have another chance to lead in the new technology for a few days. Umm, I guess we forgot how to do that already.

I am highly, and repeatedly, disappointed with many aspects of this new TV mode that should be enticing, from the local stations. The satellite-delivered HDTV signals seem to be consistantly ok. Of course, as John mentioned, Directv compresses most of their SD channels to an annoying degree.

RexA wrote on 8/8/2006, 12:50 AM

Thanks for the opinions and feedback.

Dish sounds interesting as compared with my current Directv, but I wish I knew why they don't seem to offer ABC as an HD feed.

Anybody know a way to send an email (or web-based) question about this to Dish? I cruised around their site and never found what looked like a good place to get an answer. Maybe I should break down and try the telephone.

Anybody know if they care about converting you from the opposition (my Directv)?

JJKizak wrote on 8/8/2006, 5:24 AM

Check the AVS forum as there are some heavy hitters there that may have phone numbers and "E" mail addresses.
JJK

donp wrote on 8/8/2006, 6:57 AM

You can access the DBS Fourm via the AVS Forum. There is a recent thread on the DBS High Def section on the SF HD locals offered by Dish Network.. I have Dish (E* for Echostar) as my provider. I don't have any of the metal packs just the old HD pack without Voom. All my HD locals (Louisville Ky.) are OTA and they look as good and sometime better the the HD privided by E*. The audio on the OTA channels is mostly 5.1 ES except PBS. The PBS HD channel here has a lot of issues with it's audio feed. I got a tone last night instead of conversation.