Cable or dish?

[kate42]

Hello, mamas! DH and I have a question about television.

From a price standpoint, what's better: cable or satellite? Neither one of us wants to give up our stations, so we need one or the other.

Right now, we pay $129/month for cable/internet/phone. Is that a good price? I honestly don't know. I always see the dish commercials for a million stations for $49.99, but that sounds too good to be true??

We have talked about ditching the landline and using cells and Magic Jack. DH needs high-speed internet, which isn't all that much with Comcast.

Sooo, would it be worth it for us to drop the cable and get a dish? I like the convenience of the all-in-one bill, but I really don't like the price.

thanks
kate

[JD5351]

One thing to watch with the Dish, is yeah you can get like 150 channels for $30 or so, but about 60 of them are music channels. To get the channels you want, you may have to upgrade and pay like $50-$60 a month. So adding that with the charge for internet and phone, you might not save much of anything.

We do get a better picture with satellite. But I'd rather have my cable back..But Sweetie has to have his NFL Sunday Ticket.

[russsk]

If you already have Comcast, try calling them for a deal. We were thinking of switching to a dish because there are some pretty good deals out there, and they offered to upgrade our internet and cable to a premium package with DVR for $80/month. In my area, at least, internet alone is $60 if you don't bundle it with cable, so although it may seem cheap now make sure you find out what it would cost if you dropped cable.

[kate42]

Originally Posted by JD5351

One thing to watch with the Dish, is yeah you can get like 150 channels for $30 or so, but about 60 of them are music channels. To get the channels you want, you may have to upgrade and pay like $50-$60 a month.

That's good to know, thanks!

russsk, we do already have Comcast, so maybe my best bet is to call them and see if they can offer us anything better.

Thanks!

[Tradd]

From friends with satellites, I hear they can have major issues with bad weather - lots of static and such.

[Monarchgrrl]

We recently switched from Comcast to Dish Network. I'd been with Comcast for years and always called to get lower rates and was still paying $70/mo, but they finally wouldn't go any lower for us. So now we have dish for $30/mo for one year and then it goes up to $40/mo after that. We pay $5 more a month for local channels and we get 120 channels and free HBO and Showtime for the first 3 months (True Blood here I come!!) And it records SO many more hours than the Comcast dvr which is good for us. We don't have major storms where we live so that isn't an issue for us. I'm liking the savings so it works for us. We also don't have a land line and use our local wifi for $10/mo for internet.

[youngwife]

I have wondered the same thing!

Right now, we have cable/phone/internet for about $129. Our cell bill (two lines with unlimited texting) is $110. Are we paying too much??

[~Charlie's~Angel~]

I like Cable better, because there is no contract. You want to cancel or change something, no problem.

[Monarchgrrl]

Yeah I hate the contract thing too. I said I'd never do that. But with dish you can downgrade or change anytime, just not cancel (well you can but it's $17 for every month left on it). But I figure if I can get more channels for less money for two years and I know I'd have cable for at least two years anyway, then I might as well save the dough.

[kate42]

Originally Posted by youngwife

I have wondered the same thing!

Right now, we have cable/phone/internet for about $129. Our cell bill (two lines with unlimited texting) is $110. Are we paying too much??

You sound like you have the exact same plans we do! Comcast for cablephone/internet and Verizon for cell?

[youngwife]

Originally Posted by kate42

You sound like you have the exact same plans we do! Comcast for cablephone/internet and Verizon for cell?

Yes, we have Comcast for cable/phone/internet, but AT&T for cell. So, basically the same.

I didn't think I would like the unlimited texting so much, but it has been soooo worth it!!

[nola79]

Originally Posted by Barbie64g

I like Cable better, because there is no contract. You want to cancel or change something, no problem.

You can refuse the contract. When they come to install it, just don't initial for the contract. We have dish, and like it way better than cable, but we have charter not comcast in our area.

[scrapadoozer]

Originally Posted by Tradd

From friends with satellites, I hear they can have major issues with bad weather - lots of static and such.

Happily, we never had any issues like this with our DirecTV service. We had it for about six years with no problems. We paid around $65/month for 150 stations or so. We got rid of it and all TV for that matter about a year ago though, so I may not have the most current prices.

[K1329]

We have directv (dish) and do have issues several times a year when the major southern thunderstorms hit. No signal. We also just downgraded to the family package for 30$ a month with DVR. Mostly kids channels, local channels, and shopping channels . But, DH and I were watching a show maybe once a week, and it just didn't make sense to keep paying 60.00 a month for a bunch of channels we never used! I love having DVR with the kids... we record shows and let the kids watch them when we're ready. Definitely get DVR service!

[Sol_y_Paz]

Since this is under frugality I would say neither. Use the Internet and netflix instead. But just read where neither wants to give up stations, I say Dish.

[lunarlady]

We actually just cancelled with DirecTV, because the service was awful, they didn't honor the price they quoted us, and their DVR was unreliable. We had to pay $100 for each extra box, but they are "leased", meaning we have to send them back. When we got our first bill, it was $30 a month higher than we had been told it would be. When I called to complain, I was stonewalled and basically told that as a new customer I had no "hearts" with them, and therefore they would do nothing for us. If we backed out, they would charge us a $500 cancellation fee. When our service got spotty after 4 months, they wanted $100 to send a tech out to diagnose the problem. We are actually paying $200 to get out of our contract, but at this point we are so fed up with them that it's worth it. (We've had them just over a year, on a two year contract.) We were paying $88/month for basic HD service with DVR (no paid channels). The HD only works about 50% of the time. Not worth it at all.

That said, we had Dish Network for years and they are great. Service is good, DVR works great, only issues were during serious snow storms or torrential rains. Their prices are fair, and they have great customer service. If you are looking at Dish, I would go with them. I called to get a quote from them, and basic HD+DVR with them works out to $60/month, although you can get a great deal for the first year and pay only around $35/month.

I haven't priced out cable, since we decided to go TV free, but I know the "on demand" features that my parents have is really nice, and the quality of the stations is top notch. Comcast, in general, has some of the best customer service I've ever experienced. We have them for internet and land line phones, and pay about $85/month (we have very nice internet service, basic phone).

We are going to get a digital antenna, and hook our Wii up so that we can stream our Netflix directly to the TV (watch instantly). We will get most of our DD shows that way (Backyardagians, Dora, etc.). DH is going to miss his sports, but we will still get the local ones via the antanna, and I figure that even if he has a beer or two, sending him to a sports bar a few times a month should still be cheeper than the outlandish TV bill we've had.

[odenata]

Originally Posted by Sol_y_Paz

Since this is under frugality I would say neither. Use the Internet and netflix instead.

This is what we do, and I really don't miss cable. Between Hulu and Netflix, I get all my shows (maybe a little later, but I can wait).

It's worth giving a second thought on it, I think. Really, things are only going to get more available.

[Drummer's Wife]

Originally Posted by Sol_y_Paz

Since this is under frugality I would say neither. Use the Internet and netflix instead.

This is what we do. We've never paid for cable/dish/satellite and have been content with broadcast + finding shows online (for example, we watch Dexter and Weeds the day after they air even though we don't have showtime).

[kate42]

Originally Posted by odenata

It's worth giving a second thought on it, I think. Really, things are only going to get more available.

That's what I keep hoping for! DH likes to watch programs on the History Channel and the Military Channel and he can't seem to find a lot of their shows online.

For me, I'm addicted to news. I need my 24-hour news channel.