The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

We have had dish network for about 12 years. They were called EchoStar when we signed up in Colorado. I think Dish came along before Direct and they hold some technology patents. Dish uses state of the art high frequency technology where Direct has to accomplish the same feats using low frequency. Does it make a difference beats me. We like the guide format and information provided on shows plus my wife and kid have the twin tuner model where you can record 2 channels and watch the DVR at the same time. The only channels that Joey and I care about are Discovery, TLC, Outdoor, NFL, ESPN and VS. I know they were charging me extra to get the outdoor channels. I think we have the top 150 package. Seems there are a lot of folks happy with Direct. My wife and daughters are all into every reality show and most of the time I can't watch anything in the living room because they are always recording something. We pay way too much for TV but that’s what makes the happy.

Good Luck' Jet

NEITHER. Throw your tv out the window. Of a 5th story.

The people who own my home recently presented me with my utility bill for the fall.

Gas and electric for Sept and Oct = $78

Comcast internet and 80 channels of TV for Sept, Oct, Nov = $240.

Gardener is free.

I'm pissed. The broadband is not so broad. And 8 times out of 10, when I find myself with nothing better to do than gaze at the idiot box, I scroll thru and thru and thru those 80 channels, and can't find anything even worth my couch time.

Me and CC are breaking up. It's Netflix from here on out, or a book by the fire. Internet is free all over town. And that $240 is better spent buying a round for the locals at my lil beer joint up the street, networking, as it were, in the local wine scene.

Thanks for listening.

Good point on the DVR...that is really nice to have. And versus is in HD now as well, so every NHL game I watch is HD. GM - the only BBC you can get is BBC America which is great, but not as good as getting all the BBC networks. I'm not sure what shows you are looking for either, but BBC America shows some good stuff. It's just usually not brand new episodes. I've got a friend over there who burns DVDs of the show I really dig (Doctor Who) and sends them to me every few weeks when the new season is on. Anyway, again, I endorse Direct TV (like a politician, I'm trying to stay on message)

Hey Greg,
I had Direct TV and it sucked. I have Dish now and would recommend it over Direct TV in a heartbeat. I inherited Direct TV when Primestar was bought out by them. Primestar was great but Direct TV pretty much sucked ass. The only positive thing with Direct TV is that rain and/or wind never seemed to effect it. It can happen from time to time with Dish. I've never had it go out for long periods with Dish but I have had it go out for 10-20 second periods during a good storm. I had a problem with a peacock getting up there and messing with things once too.(long story) Everything else with Direct TV was negative. The first problem was that they didn't have very many channels. In fact they had less then regular cable. I don't know if that's changed since I had it or not. They sent me a deal in the mail a few months back trying to get me to sign back up again. I don't remember now how their offer compared to when I had it last but I wasn't impressed and tossed the thing in the trash so I don't think it's changed much. Another thing that sucks with them is that you have to hook your phone to the cable box.(Something you need to order pay for view but they make you do it to make sure you don't take the box to your neighbors house) Hooking the phone up isn't a big deal if you have a phone jack next to your TV but if not you'll have to run a cable along the floor from the jack to the box. Or buy a transmitter deal from them that plugs into your phone jack. $100 each if I remember right. I needed 2. They were trying to force me to hook my phone up for them and they wanted me to pay for the stupid things. I ended up telling them to get ****ed! Another problem was that the channel number on the screen was tiny. I have a 36 inch screen and my couch was maybe 12 ft from the TV and I couldn't ever tell what friggin' station I was on. Another thing that sucked is that the preview guide channel scrolled down the screen by itself. If you missed what was on a station you had to wait for the stupid thing to cycle through again and try to catch it the next time around. Dish is way better. You don't have to hook up your phone if you don't want, the channel numbers are easy to read and you control the preview channel. You can even watch one channel and surf through the other channels at the same time. Dish had a problem with showing certain sporting events in the past but have settled that now. They would sometimes blackout games that were in my local area which sucked. Not anymore though. In fact, I see an extra 10 or so Gaints games a year that other cable companies don’t show because of the deal Dish worked out. They have alternative program channels that they used to use to show programming on when games were blacked out. Now they will sometimes use those channels to show games that aren’t shown in your local area. For instance, Fox Sports Bay Area shows mostly Gaints games with a handful of A’s games thrown in. Some nights the A’s and the Gaints will both have a game with a 7pm start time but the A’s game will be scheduled to air on FSBA with the Gaints game only being on radio. When this happens they will often times show the Gaints on one of the Fox alternative channels. One last thing with Dish is that they offer your local channels too. That way if you want to watch the local news or something you don’t have to turn off the cable box and flip over to TV. That was huge for me because 2 of our local channels were fuzzy because I’m out on the edge of town. Dish baby!

...and thanks to everyone else for their info. Now to buy a TV to replace my 1989 Sony (yeah, no kidding)...geez...Perhaps I should take Chick's advice and buy more books!

-Greg

Another thing that sucks with them is that you have to hook your phone to the cable box.(Something you need to order pay for view but they make you do it to make sure you don't take the box to your neighbors house) Hooking the phone up isn't a big deal if you have a phone jack next to your TV but if not you'll have to run a cable along the floor from the jack to the box. Or buy a transmitter deal from them that plugs into your phone jack. $100 each if I remember right. I needed 2. They were trying to force me to hook my phone up for them and they wanted me to pay for the stupid things.

You must have had an old Hughes reciever or something. They don't work like that anymore. My box uses Wi-fi to report all the pay-per-view movies and (porn) I rent. If you don't do PPV or PPV porn, the only time you need the phone cord is during set-up. I have a 4th Direct TV system at my cabin, Direct TV set it up for me up there for free, all it costs me is $5 a month for an extra reciever. It has never been hooked up to a phone line, ethernet or Wi-fi. I get local channels free in my package, and all 20 Fox Sports channels (I love the baseball coverage too). Watch Fox Sports North West Sunday morning 9:30 am, Hawg Quest, a total goofy guy named Glen from Oregon chases big fish, (steelhead, Salmon, Sturgeon... all over the NW). Totally a guy anyone would want to hang with. And I can scroll line by line and right and left thru the programing schedule as fast or slow as I want. Preview Guide channel was lame, they no longer have that. They replaced it with another HOME SHOPPING channel. They have a one button push to a program grid similar (but better than Dish).

10 years from now all TV will be thru the internet anyway.

If you like baseball like I do, you should get XM radio, they play ALL the games LIVE!!! Nothing better than fishing the delta for bass during the summer, drinking beer and listening to Tampa Bay lose AGAIN!!! GO A's!

must have been awhile ago...I have direct and none of the stuff you talk about is current...

I have Direct and like it. Since I don't order pay per view I don't even have the phone line hooked in. It's been great with NO problems.

G.M. wrote:
...and thanks to everyone else for their info. Now to buy a TV to replace my 1989 Sony (yeah, no kidding)...geez...Perhaps I should take Chick's advice and buy more books!

-Greg

Hey I'll bet you'll even upgrade to color TV then?

Beerfly

...thanks for all of the input...read the responses and made my decision based on that.

Thanks again.

-Greg
ps - now looking at the Panasonic TH-58PH10UKA - 720p vs. 1080p?

Based on the fact you upgrade your TV once every 20-25 years you should fork out the extra bucks and get the 1080p. I think the 1080p is a little ahead of its time since few if any broadcast in 1080p but there seems to be a push in DVD formats that may take advantage of the technology. If I were to get a new TV for my family I would get the 1080p. If I were getting a TV for my parents I would go with the 720p. As much as you fish and are away from home you could be happy with a 720p.

my 2 cents,

Jet