Dish Platinum

[wallypa]

Been thinking of switching back to dish for a looong time now. However, the wifey likes the cable on demand feature so much that it might take an act of congress to switch. Anyways, I received a promo flyer from a dish satellite third party vendor with all kinds of promotions. I called them up and asked about their ultimate package which is called platinum. What I was quoted was this: $89 for 10 months, $99/month thereafter. $50 upgrade fee for each HDTV receiver (I have 2 hdtv) No other charges. I also asked if I will need multiple dishes. The answer was NO, I will only need one superdish for SD, HD and local programming.

Now my questions are: Is it true that I will only need one dish (I live in the SF bay area)? And is this deal a good deal?

How about the voom channels, have they improved or are they still repeating shows over and over and over again, like in the voom days?

Thanks in advance for all inputs or comments.

[gdarwin]

My wife quickly got over the "on demand" feature after she saw how much we were saving over the old cable bill...

[lakebum431]

Actually not a superdish, it is called a Dish 1000.

[gbjbany]

Platinum is normally 104.99 inlcuding locals, 99 without, so you may want to check on locals after 10 months.
I think the superdish is probably the dish 1000 which wil give you what you need. That is 1 dish for all that you asked for. You also will noramlly pay for additional receivers so again check that there isnt an additional receiver fee normally $6 dollars for a HD receiver. You wont pay for dvr fee's with the Platinum, but not sure if this included a 622 DVR.
Voom still does do a lot of repeats but doesnt seem as bad as it was 6 months ago. There are additional HD channels too.
so i would pay pay 110.99 for what you are being quoted. I pay 115 as i have a 3rd dvr. Hope this helps

[wallypa]

Thanks so much for the responses. Currently, I'm paying around $176 for the cable platinum package with broadband. I actually started at $105 more than a year ago (promo). So, if I switch to dish with their platinum package and keep the cable broadband, I really won't be saving that much BUT I won't be as miserable as I am now with cable. IMO, cable really sucks.

Another question: With the dish 1000 (the csr called it superdish), where will it be facing? Will it be facing towards 61.x like the voom dish?.

[K9SAT]

no it will be facing south west with 110,119,and 129... Or south for the far west coast

[dendavis]

Platinum is normally 104.99 inlcuding locals, 99 without, so you may want to check on locals after 10 months.
I think the superdish is probably the dish 1000 which wil give you what you need. That is 1 dish for all that you asked for. You also will noramlly pay for additional receivers so again check that there isnt an additional receiver fee normally $6 dollars for a HD receiver. You wont pay for dvr fee's with the Platinum, but not sure if this included a 622 DVR.
Voom still does do a lot of repeats but doesnt seem as bad as it was 6 months ago. There are additional HD channels too.
so i would pay pay 110.99 for what you are being quoted. I pay 115 as i have a 3rd dvr. Hope this helps

Will second this. Decided to go for the whole enchilada, really glad I did. There are a lot of HD channels that carry some off beat stuff, repeats of former network shows which, in my case, I happen to like (Boomtown, Hack, The Agency), as well as the usual movies, etc. Even though there is a lot of chatter about "HD Lite" on this board, the clarity still is awesome. Given what you were paying for cable, the Platinum Pack will seem like robbing the cookie jar

[cebbigh]

Many on the west coast have problems maintaining a signal for 129 with the single dish 1000 to pull in 110, 119, 129. There are many threads here that validate that. The problem is that 129 signal strength drops every 20-30 minutes. Check out the threads concerning the new 1000.2 dish (not available yet). Hopefully the bigger surface area will work better than the 1000. I am currently using 2 dish 500's (one for 110, 119 and one for 129). This helps somewhat. If two dishes are an option and you can get 61.5 you might want to consider that if your HD locals aren't on 129. I don't want to sound too negative though. I would never go back to cable. Dish does offer a lot.

[wallypa]

When I was with voom, I had some problems with the dish facing at 61.5 due to my location. I live in a hilly section of Pacifica, CA, (about 12 miles south of SF on the coast) and there were some partial tree obstructions also. I recall that the installer had some difficulty getting me a good signal. Actually, he relocated the dish 2x, the second time with a tripod nailed/screwed on my roof, which I admit was kind of stupid of me. I still have that voom dish on my roof. Can't take it off for fear that if I do, I will need major repairs to my roof.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, 61.5 would be approximately SE. If the dish would've been facing directly south, I don't think I'll have a problem. But definitely, I'll look for the threads that cebbigh referred to.

And dendavis, I totally agree with you. $ for $ I think dish is better than cable at this point in time.

Thanks everyone for the input.