Satellite TV

So, I am getting a new place soon, and do not want to pay the high prices of cable.
A few questions for those of you with satellite tv around pittsburgh

how reliable is it? like how many outages do you get and what kind of weather makes it happen ?
and which do you have dish or direct-tv

I’ve had both Direct & DishNetwork

outages are rare…i maybe have 1-2 per year that are less then 5mins long & usually caused by bad thunderstorms.

if you’re getting HD then go with Dish Network.

if you’re not getting HD then go with the better price or the one that has the better channel lineup for you.
go to their websites & check out the packages.

as far as regular definition channels the 2 are pretty similar but they do have a few that are exclusive to one another.

also look & @ the programming packages…one might offer a package with everythign you want & if you go with the other you might have to upgrade to a better package to get a certain channel you like.

one FYI regarding HD.
if your taking to a direct TV rep. & they tell you they are expanding & have 100 or so HD channels & try to convince you they have more then Dish…THEY DONT!!
when they say they have 100 channel…thats “capability” not the actual ammount you’ll get.
so that 100 includes the regualr stuff like ESPN, TNT, Etc… & all the locals for every city which you won’t get…you’ll only get Pgh.
so in acutallity they have about 10-15 right now…& its slowly supposed to expand to 20 something. to catch up with Dishnetwork.

Dish 25-35 or so depending on if you get the premium (HBO, Showtime, etc…)
i have locals & HD silver package & i get about 28-30 HD channels.

Just be careful cause Direct really tries to push that HD expansion & i was tempted to switch back but after a few days of research found out the REAL Deal.

they try to sell you on the potnetial they have for HD…when i don’t care about thier potential i want the channels now…if in 2yrs Direct has the better lineup i’ll switch back, but for now i’ll stay with who has the channels i can whatch now.

I have had Direct-TV for as long as I could remember. I think it might have went out 5 times in the almost 10 years we owned it. We do not have HD at the house, figures we bought a huge Sony TV right before HD came out, so I really cannot comment on that one. I dont mind Direct-TV… but anymore, I really enjoy OnDemand when I go to my friends houses with Comcast.

fuck on demand…

get DVR service & have you own customized “on-demand”

DVR > on demand

I have Tivo on my Direct TV and I do love it, there are just some shows that I forget to record or just never set up a season pass for, on demand does that for you. I would have to say ondemand w/ dvr would be the ultimate solution for myself.