5 ms·

Not surprised with cord-cutting. I don't watch much TV personally, I rather watch Youtube videos more than the corporate ran tv. For example, the travel channel

by Keverw 7y ago

Not surprised with cord-cutting. I don't watch much TV personally, I rather watch Youtube videos more than the corporate ran tv. For example, the travel channel seems to just have back to back episodes all day of ghost hunting. If I wanted to say travel somewhere, just type it into YouTube and tons of videos and information to help plan. My family watches a lot more TV than me though. Last year we switched from Dish to DirecTV. Before Dish, we just had cable. I noticed going from Cable to Dish their quality of boxes and hardware was so much superior. The guide seemed laggy and slow on cable, while Dish seems awesome. I believe it's because Dish makes their hardware and software themselves, while the local cable company just buys CableLabs compatible equipment running on slow Motorola boxes running Java slapping their logo on the menu but otherwise I don't think the cable company really has much control over the user experience and just relabelling other people's products. I know the boot screen had a huge Java logo, and from my experience running Java based apps on the computer is slow too. We've also switched out boxes and had Scientific Atlanta and Cisco boxes. So haven't been impressed with cable. I'm thinking maybe the cable is more of a commodity now, while satellite has to be more custom. Only 2 satellite companies, multiple cable companies. One's dealing with stuff in space, while the other is dealing with wires buried underground. So I think there's more innovation in the satellite space because it's more complicated. I think everyone can agree it's cool to say there television comes from outer space! Maybe the aliens are watching Honey Boo Boo and judging us all based on that single television show. Probably thinking we're all weirdos and they are the superior species. But to save money we switched to DirecTV, I think they might make their own stuff too but their software quality seems worse than Dish but better than Cable. I know lately half the time it doesn't even record what's scheduled. It's been slightly over a year and my folks are thinking of switching back to cable though. They merged with another cable company, so hoping maybe new subscribers get something newer than before. I think if money wasn't a big deal, I'd rather just pay the extra money and get Dish. So I think i'd rate cable as worse, DirecTV as next best and Dish as the best top of the line, but that's just my personal experience. Maybe cable systems are better in other areas of the country. I know I heard people do that, switch back and forth every year or so for the promotions too. We only have cable for internet and home phone now which works good enough. Back when we lived an hour away with the same company I'd frequently have outages, had the guy come out and adjust the strength he said but the new place seems so much better. He installed an additional jack to separate the TV and modem and said the jack for the modem has a special high-speed data signal, not sure if true or not. My stepdad got cable at his place after not having it for years and was visiting and mentioned about them recommending a separate jack but he told me there's some ordinance against that in that city, unsure if true or not as seems odd to regulate how many cable jacks allowed in a room. I feel like it probably also depends on the community and area too with what installer you get. The old place was a poorer larger city, where the new place is more rural wealthier area popularity with retired people so I doubt they are as busy with calls so maybe can spend more time to set up things the best. I'm interested in full time RVing, so I figured I'd get rooftop Dish dome and get a Verizon hotspot as there are some unlimited plans the RV community recommends. Verizon is the best nationwide network, because law enforcement and emergency personal use them, as they got grants to expand their network I've heard which benefits everyone else too. So not sure how much that would change my internet quality, but something feels better about that. If something messes up, just switch out the hardware as it's wireless. No one has to come out and mess with wiring and other stuff. So I feel a more consistent experience, as I feel like the cable at the old place was screwed up. Probably using the same wiring as when the house was built, while this new area is newer to having cable as many residents had satellite before cable was here. Also probably newer equipment too used on the backend here since newer build-out. After getting cable set up here, never had to see the cable guy again. While at the old house they'd come out monthly sometimes weekly to adjust things. So aggravated. I called one time in the middle of the night staying up on the computer and got hung up on, I don't know if a mistake on their end or maybe the woman thought I was drunk because I was tired. It's like I already knew the routine. Unplug the router, unplug the modem, wait 30 seconds, etc. So sure maybe had a bit of a attitude but felt like no one listened to me or knew what they were doing and didn't have any control. One thing interesting about Satellite though, watching on-demand stuff still uses your internet, connected via the Wi-Fi. I think it'd be cool if storming bad, they could seamlessly switch over getting the same bits over the internet instead of from the satellites. I kinda feel like the cable companies hate the idea of people using their internet for TV instead of actually paying them for TV. just seems so ironic you are helping your competitor deliver video, which is why net neutrality is a great thing. I rather ISPs be dumb pipes or more like highways just to move around the bits. Only internet choices here is cable, DSL from local phone company.. or I guess in theory if had a regular landline instead a VOIP based one(which Cable phone systems are built around, but use their private backbone instead of the public routes) you could still use dial up. Satellite Internet is a option too, but the latency is what kills you. Play a game and your movements has to be sent up to the satellite, down to a ground station hopping around the internet like normal and then beamed back up to the satellite beamed back down to the ground to your house. But i know there's some projects and companies working on improving this space, I'd love if some day great satellite internet comparable to cable so no longer tied to a local provider, and also be useful for RVers too. I know in Florida they actually tax satellite more than cable too, which there's been court battles over. The theory is they don't have as much local infrastructure so they pay less taxes, so they should be taxed more to make up for it than cable. Probably mostly employees at the HQ, installer contractors across the country and a ground station or two somewhere, while cable has employees and equipment all over the place so they pay for all the permits to run the wires, franchised fees, etc.

downrightmike 7y ago
Half of this wall of text is just the poster saying they like Dish for the hardware.
- Keverw 7y ago
  Well I like whatever I find best, I know I probably sound like a shill for them but I don't work there, own any stocks, etc. Also when traveling in a RV, Dish has a dedicated site for RVers. I'm in a few groups on FB and this is a complaint people have about DirecTV because when you move around people complain about local channels. They are spot beamed, so you have to call up the 1800 number and change your address. People would mention they'd give them a address of a random house from the white pages, while telling them to keep the billing address the same as their mail forwarder in the state of their domicile but agents would get confused and schedule a move instead. While with Dish, just go online and change your zip code. It's a niche market though, many people see RVs are a vacation, while some people full time so it's a concept that's hard for people to understand if not familiar with it. But one of my points was also competition. I feel like satellite industry can be more competitive since I don't think the local cities have much control over them, and not much stuff to build out. Like for example Verizon was rolling out FIOS but stopped. Google Fiber seems to have similar problems of rolling out, for example look at the case in Louisville. Some cities even wanted to offer their own fiber networks but the cable companies sued them saying they wasn't allowed. So legal problems of permitting and stuff, then you have to actually just digging trenches and running cables. Even cities that offer Fiber, it's more of a street by street thing if it's available or not instead of city wide. I know SpaceX is working on internet. There's another company offering satellite internet too that's supposed to be comparable to cable but they use spot beaming too for load balancing. So not useful for RVers or even smart cars that need internet access on the go. However having Satellite Radio in the car, going under bridges, parking garages, tunnels, even some area under the powerlines at a intersection it goes out so that's also a flaw... I'm not sure what's Tesla plans are for that area, as I think Elon being involved in both companies is related but haven't been keeping up with the news. But imagine if you had high quality satellite internet, no towers to build and you'd just need to send out contractors to install it on peoples houses, RVs, or whatever. Some people are probably capable enough to just do it themselves after you mail the kit, I know most people just lease satellite TV hardware but you can actually buy it straight out like if using it in a RV. Would expand options with limited areas. Just have to build the satellites and get approval to launch it, build out some ground stations and ready to roll. There's even a federal law limiting how much local city governments can regulate satellites called OTARD. Some cities even still have ordinances that ban satellite tv, even though it's been overruled already. HOA's do the same. Cities lose money when people have satellite, HOA's think they are ugly. There are proposals to expand OTARD to cover 5G too as some cities aren't supporting the 5G rollout. It's shame the cable industry is a protected monopoly. I'm a major tech geek, which probably a lot of people are on HN. So things like satellites, cruise ships that are entire floating cities, rvs fascinate me. I know some people are obsessed with elevators or trains. So just wanted to disclose that, as don't want to sound like an advertisement for Dish. Also feel like when starting a business, doing as much as you can possibly do yourself can let you have higher control of the quality of your product. Think Apple, they make the iPhone and MacBook and you can send SMS from your Mac using the modem in your phone. While say you are a huge hardware maker, you could sell Laptops with Windows on them and phones with Android but you don't have much control to integrate them.

by Keverw 7y ago

downrightmike 7y ago

Half of this wall of text is just the poster saying they like Dish for the hardware.

Keverw 7y ago
Well I like whatever I find best, I know I probably sound like a shill for them but I don't work there, own any stocks, etc. Also when traveling in a RV, Dish has a dedicated site for RVers. I'm in a few groups on FB and this is a complaint people have about DirecTV because when you move around people complain about local channels. They are spot beamed, so you have to call up the 1800 number and change your address. People would mention they'd give them a address of a random house from the white pages, while telling them to keep the billing address the same as their mail forwarder in the state of their domicile but agents would get confused and schedule a move instead. While with Dish, just go online and change your zip code. It's a niche market though, many people see RVs are a vacation, while some people full time so it's a concept that's hard for people to understand if not familiar with it. But one of my points was also competition. I feel like satellite industry can be more competitive since I don't think the local cities have much control over them, and not much stuff to build out. Like for example Verizon was rolling out FIOS but stopped. Google Fiber seems to have similar problems of rolling out, for example look at the case in Louisville. Some cities even wanted to offer their own fiber networks but the cable companies sued them saying they wasn't allowed. So legal problems of permitting and stuff, then you have to actually just digging trenches and running cables. Even cities that offer Fiber, it's more of a street by street thing if it's available or not instead of city wide. I know SpaceX is working on internet. There's another company offering satellite internet too that's supposed to be comparable to cable but they use spot beaming too for load balancing. So not useful for RVers or even smart cars that need internet access on the go. However having Satellite Radio in the car, going under bridges, parking garages, tunnels, even some area under the powerlines at a intersection it goes out so that's also a flaw... I'm not sure what's Tesla plans are for that area, as I think Elon being involved in both companies is related but haven't been keeping up with the news. But imagine if you had high quality satellite internet, no towers to build and you'd just need to send out contractors to install it on peoples houses, RVs, or whatever. Some people are probably capable enough to just do it themselves after you mail the kit, I know most people just lease satellite TV hardware but you can actually buy it straight out like if using it in a RV. Would expand options with limited areas. Just have to build the satellites and get approval to launch it, build out some ground stations and ready to roll. There's even a federal law limiting how much local city governments can regulate satellites called OTARD. Some cities even still have ordinances that ban satellite tv, even though it's been overruled already. HOA's do the same. Cities lose money when people have satellite, HOA's think they are ugly. There are proposals to expand OTARD to cover 5G too as some cities aren't supporting the 5G rollout. It's shame the cable industry is a protected monopoly. I'm a major tech geek, which probably a lot of people are on HN. So things like satellites, cruise ships that are entire floating cities, rvs fascinate me. I know some people are obsessed with elevators or trains. So just wanted to disclose that, as don't want to sound like an advertisement for Dish. Also feel like when starting a business, doing as much as you can possibly do yourself can let you have higher control of the quality of your product. Think Apple, they make the iPhone and MacBook and you can send SMS from your Mac using the modem in your phone. While say you are a huge hardware maker, you could sell Laptops with Windows on them and phones with Android but you don't have much control to integrate them.