BHN Tampabay changes a go

[skottey]

The time has come. BHN has just about matched the Dish offerings (aside from Voom which I watch, and Big Ten Network that I don't watch, and a few other sports things) in their HD department. As a BHN subscriber, I have stood by for a few years since the digital cable revolution and watched as they added a few meager channels. With two HD televisions (now three) I had developed a hunger for HD programming. Of course BHN's offerings were lacking. So I went out last winter/spring and subscribed to Dish HD. I was happy with Dish's HD offerings and subscribed to Starz (something I hadn't done with BHN in years, even though I have all the other premiums). I got Starz HD, yeah (still not offered by BHN). All other premiums I left with BHN, because I did (do) get some really good deals such as HBO/Max for a whopping $10/month together! So anyway, I was impressed with all the HD. I found some Voom fantastic (Monsters HD specifically) and my wife and I enjoy(ed) HGTV shows like Small Spaces, Offbeat America, What's With that House, etc, in HD! I am also a hugh space and science documentary fan, and have been loving the Discovery channels (Theater, Discovery regular HD simulcast, Science Channel, TLC) and of course National Geographic HD (which they now queerly call NatGeo). I was like a pig in slop.

But this was getting insane.... my payout for television I mean. As long as I have had Dish I have kept going back and tweaking my package. I ended up getting the top 250, so I could have Boomerang (which I cant get on cable), Science HD, NatGeo HD, and few other things. But jumping from AT100 to AT250, it ididn't cost me much, since I also got ESPN 1/2, Universal, and some other channels I'd been paying for as an HD pack with BHN. I had duplicates (except for Mojo that I never watch) and dropped the HD Pack with BHN. I also dropped the Movie pack (Encore, Fox Movies) with BHN, since again, they were duplicated with Dish. My Dish bill went up and my BHN bill went down. So now, I am paying out around $100/month to each service (Dish and BHN), not including Internet.

But at this point Dish is becoming more and more obsolete to me. What can I get with Dish for my $100/month that I watch but I don't have on BHN? Boomerang, Monsters HD and a few other Vooms, Sirius radio, NHL network HD. Actually, I thought I wanted Boomerang for the nostalgic factor (Laugh Olympics and such shows) but I don't watch it really. So that leaves the rest.

Is that really worth the extra subscription? I am thinking no. The only thing holding me back from dropping Dish (I am not in a contract) is the awesome DVR and a 750GB external drive full of movies that would be useless without my Dish 622. Also, I am holding out for hope that Dish will add some (many) new HD channels to surpass cable (who will probably sit idle for a while now) and take on DirecTV.

I realize BHN has an 18 month plan with a lot of HDTV. This is not confirmed from the top of BHN that I have seen, but I tend to believe the BHN employees on here. I for one have money to take from Dish and give back to BHN if they keep up the good work. BHN seems to have a public plan, while Dish's plan is to focus on adding HD locals, it appears.I don't want HD locals on Dish, I want HD nationals.

Kudos to BHN for the channel adds.

Read this below for a good laugh... shows how stupid people are.


The Feed | tampabay.com - St. Petersburg Times and tbt*

[stevenl]

My biggest gripe with BHN atm is the DVR.. They spent so much on the new dvrs with the "Cable Card" ability, but didnt take the chance to do a massive upgrade on the harddrives. I mean 500gb drives are pretty cheap these days, the DVR needs an harddrive upgrade! or at least an easy setup to use an external drive..

[skottey]

My biggest gripe with BHN atm is the DVR.. They spent so much on the new dvrs with the "Cable Card" ability, but didnt take the chance to do a massive upgrade on the harddrives. I mean 500gb drives are pretty cheap these days, the DVR needs an harddrive upgrade! or at least an easy setup to use an external drive..

DVR's from any company should allow external hard drive storage the way Dish does. I have a 750GB hooked to my Dish 622. My BHN boxes are constantly getting full to where I have to burn things off to DVD, watch it, or lose it.

[stevenl]

Yea it sucks. There is a way to make the BHN boxes use the firewire to use an external drive, but its to complicated =\

[babcea]

Yea it sucks. There is a way to make the BHN boxes use the firewire to use an external drive, but its to complicated =\

I would really like to know how to do this,if anyone knows please let me know.