After 8 years, time to say goodbye to Dish

HDRoberts

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
May 13, 2008
4,795
31
Cleveland, OH
I'm finally doing it. I'm saying goodbye to pay TV. I just got a used Tivo Premiere with lifetime on Ebay, and will be getting my programming almost exclusively from OTA, DVDs/Blu-Ray's from the library and my own collection, and Amazon Instant video.

Prices keep going up, and the quality of cable programming mostly keeps going down. It's a vast wasteland of reality shows and "edgy" (read: excessively violent) shows these days. Most of my programming is on the networks. And the networks keep adding decent subchannels, like Antenna TV, MeTV, This TV, Grit TV, GetTV, and so on. There are only a few shows I grew attached to watching: Mostly Doctor Who and Mad Men.

With my Tivo, I'll be able to download these shows on Amazon Instant Video. Note I didn't say stream. As I see no more point in a hefty internet bill than a hefty TV bill, I keep my internet at TWC's "Everyday Low Price" internet for $15/month for 2mbps. Not enough to stream even DVD quality. So, no, I do not plan to use Hulu Plus or Netflix.

There will be times I'll miss you, Dish. Grand slam tennis that has moved mostly to ESPN. Shows I'd decided to live without like The Daily Show and The Soup. But for saving $82/month, it is worth it.

If it were the old days, with Voom, or HD Absolute, I might stay. But even the welcome pack is too much. I hold no hard feelings to dish. Charlie has fought hard to keep rates low, but he is losing the battle. In a few years, I think the programmers will lose the war as more and more like me leave the paid TV ranks.

Until then, thanks for 8 years of entertainment, Dish. Maybe we'll see you around someday.
 
Actually, I expect the "programmers" to address that problem by essentially ending free TV. Cracks are already appearing in OTA.
 
Actually, I expect the "programmers" to address that problem by essentially ending free TV. Cracks are already appearing in OTA.

Possibly. But I think that will be tough for broadcasters to do and get away with. The news will dig up plenty of people, including a lot of seniors, that will show why they rely on broadcast TV for weather warnings and the like, and how they can't afford cable. I at least don't see it happening for a number of years.

I think the bigger war they are losing, though, is bundling. As non-sports fans abandon pay tv and stopping their subsidizing of sports and niche channels, programmers are raising rates to compensate. All that is will be a feedback loop of more people getting fed up with higher rates, cancelling, and they cycle repeating. They will have to change the way they do business.
 
Even at 2Mb, Netflix isn't that bad. If you get desperate, you should give it a shot. Other streaming should be ok as well, like Daily Show. Not HD of course, but watchable.

With a free proxy, you can still get Dr Who straight from BBC, among several great shows.
 
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Prices keep going up, and the quality of cable programming mostly keeps going down. It's a vast wasteland of reality shows and "edgy" (read: excessively violent) shows these days.
agreed. Its the same thing on most of the channels. "marathons" of the same stuff.
When I moved in February I realized that I wasn't going to continue to pay the high prices of satellite. So I went OTA with a Tivo Series 3 (better OTA tuner in it than the Premiere). Have a Roamio now

Do I miss stuff? Sure I miss some sports...especially the local teams. But the radio gets a lot of use :)
 
I wish I could get to that point, but I enjoy sitting down, relaxing, and watching from a huge series of channels. I know it's not like this for most, but a lot of my viewing comes from guide surfing and finding shows I didn't even know I was interested in. I'll record them and watch later, and I'll be doing that, while I am watching what I previously recorded. It's a beautiful cycle.
 
On welcome pack here, not much interest in dish. I do like my streaming & am ready for 100% on demand.
 
Budget to get yourself a Roku because even die-hard TiVo lovers admit the on-line experience via TiVo is LESS than desired. I also say that from personal experience. As someone who subscribes to all the major on-line services, for evaluation purposes for possible cord cutting of some kind, and also have several TiVo's for OTA to take pressure off my Hoppers.

First, Amazon Prime is NOT available on the Premiere, but is soon to arrive to Premieres and Roamios, but ONLY in STREAMING service, no downloads to the HDD. What you have on the Premiere now is Amazon Instant Video and while you can download that content to your TiVo, all the content is either RENTED or PURCHASED for a cost, no free content included with your Prime account. Further, as much as I love the Prime service for its 2 day delivery and access to the LIMITED free content that I can stream or load onto my Kindle Fire HDX for viewing without an internet connection (although Amazon does impose some SILLY limitations) it is really the poorest value for free included with the Prime service. Much of what people want to watch is PAID content beyond the Prime. Amazon does seem to have overall better PQ along with Hulu Plus while Netflix is abominable PQ and audio Q far too often.

As much as I despise their PQ and audio and lack of content I would watch, Netflix is really the best value by far for everything at ONE price. No navigating the paid stuff and free included content of Amazon's dopey model, and you will rack up a lot of if you buy content from Amazon because it is EXPENSIVE. But Netflix has a great library of OLD CRAP we have all seen before.

Hulu Plus, has by far the most never seen in US (original and new to us) content and with often great PQ and audio. No the same content is NOT available across the big 3 streamers. But, then again, Hulu doesn't have as many movies as Amazon (most of which are NOT included with Prime,and the TV shows are sometimes FREE for the first season and PAID for subsequent seasons) nor the breadth of OLD TV shows Netflix does, but Hulu Plus fills a needed desire (FRESH programming) important to me.

I was really excited about these services when I signed up for them, but I have found far more frustrations and limitations and disappointment than I anticipated. Just a few include that the most RECENT episodes of current shows just are NOT available for over a year, often 2 from original air. Also, the streamers LOSE rights to a media company's content like Dish may lose channels, but with streamers, this loss is FOREVER to years. So, that show you had been watching or were counting on being available to watch when ever you want, is no longer available. So much for the cloud on that! Oh, that show that Netflix no longer offers is on Amazon (possibly at a cost beyond Prime) or Hulu Plus, but now you INCREASE your COSTS by having to subscribe to more than one, often ALL 3 of them.

Perhaps better, especially if one want to really save money, is, as I mentioned, getting the Roku not only because it is the BEST and most reliable streamer around with the BEST remote with that "Skip Back" button (and you can NOT skip back on the TiVo's with streaming) but also because Roku has a ton of "junk" channels that are free or advertiser supported such as independent or art films only channels, really old-time TV shows like the old Betty White show from the 50's, and UFO channels, and horror film channels, etc. So, if you can fill your TV watching time with that and live without a lot of fresh content from OTHER than OTA, then it can be a good alternative.

As mentioned, CBS is now offering it O&O stations streaming (just like watching live TV at home) along with ALL its current network TV content and a library of old CBS shows like the original Dallas all for one low monthly fee. In other words, one can now watch the entire CBS network line-up, and local news for one low monthly charge. Of course, this is the beginning of the end of FREE OTA TV, as the kiddies and cord-cutters have been waiting for something like this for a long time. You should enjoy it while it lasts, probably another 5 years tops.

What is happening is the often desired "a la carte" channel option that is truly the nightmare: a fee for CBS, a fee for NBC, a BIG, BIG fee for ESPN, HBO with its coming new on-line service at who knows what priceetc. and etc. and these are all entities with greatly desired content, not junk. Those media companies are moving away from giving Netflix the content for so low a price. Netflix has already announced it is raising prices, Amazon already has, and nowhere to go but up and up and add the internet service and the datacaps and what is happening is that the LOCATION of the content is changing, but the prices are well on their way to being what people today consider outrageous for Pay-TV, or already as high or higher than a cable or sat bill because of all the on-line services, ONE level of service to all from the cable cos which cost a minimum of $50 a month (the Comcast model being adopted by Charter and more in growing areas) but, the ISP's say, you are getting 50Mbps (or in some cases 100Mbps) for all that money, and what you have is the SAME costly monster, but in the costume of being accessed with a technology with which the young-lings are most comfortable and cord cutters never get the see the total cost of the changeover on a single bill, just lots of little charges for each piece of the entertainment pie. Now add to that the coming NuTV from Dish and other coming "low price pay TV via internet streaming" that cord cutters have been begging for from companies like Apple, Amazon, etc. (often the $30 price point has been cited by several as what they would be willing to pay such a service that can bring them ESPN and few other channels they greatly miss) and one can go over what they are paying for pay TV today.

BTW, if you are handy, great. But if you are not, get ready to pay Weaknees tons of $$ to repair your Premiere. I really would have recommeded the Roamio for you because it has 4 tuners, is compatible with the Mini and anyone can change-out the guaranteed to fail HDD with NO special tech knowledge. Just open it, take out the old HDD, and connect and install the new HDD, and then plug in the Roamio and it all takes care of itself and you are good to go in minutes, unlike previous versions of TiVo that require you to mess and load the appropriate software--careful it is the correct versions for your generation of TiVo--as a totally inefficient method of changing out HDD's . And yes, the Series 3 does have a better OTA tuner, and so does the Roamio. The Premeire is NOTORIOUS for its frustratingly lousy OTA receptions except in the most ideal of conditions.

My point is they have us coming and going. We're never going to escape the greed of the big media content owners, but a few years of being ahead of them provides a touch of satisfaction, for now.

Well, to each his own. I do wish that I had viewing taste to do a cord cutting event, but I have been doing it somewhat for almost 2 years now, and it isn't even CLOSE to getting me to cancel pay-TV, not for what we watch.

FWIW, I have been watching Star Wars: Rebels on DisneyXD on-line, but one MUST have a subscription to the channel via a pay TV service (and that is all too common, so I will miss out on MORE content by cutting pay TV) because it is in HD while Dish is LATE in providing XD in HD.

Good luck though and enjoy the extra $$ for as long as it lasts.
 
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Netflix is abominable PQ and audio Q far too often.

I never have this issue with them. It's always an excellent quality.

With my 1st roku it had some streaming issues. Don't recall the model but it was square & about the size of a couple stacked CDs.

I have 2 roku 3 models now. They are rock solid with any service regarding pq & audio. This is also on DSL with 8 Mbps down.
 
Netflix WAS abominable when Comcast and AT&T throttled them down until they payed the piper(s). That s why the whole net neutrality issue is so important, but most of the population seems to be asleep about.
 
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Netflix WAS abominable when Comcast and AT&T throttled them down until they payed the piper(s). That s why the whole net neutrality issue is so important, but most of the population seems to be asleep about.

Seems I remember talk about that. For those that knew they could work around throttling with a vpn. As far as net neutrality I agree but even without it there will always be work arounds.
 
I left after three years with Dish. I really wanted the Full Time RSN's and they still didn't have them when I left. I have D now and although I do like them, I'm considering switching back when my contract is up because there's a lot I liked about the Hopper with Sling.


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Actually, I expect the "programmers" to address that problem by essentially ending free TV. Cracks are already appearing in OTA.
Even at 2Mb, Netflix isn't that bad. If you get desperate, you should give it a shot. Other streaming should be ok as well, like Daily Show. Not HD of course, but watchable.

With a free proxy, you can still get Dr Who straight from BBC, among several great shows.
You can find alot of free stuff on archive.org old movies cartoons etc.
filemon tv is free too. http://www.filmon.com/tv/filmon-usa-live-tv *video on demand as well.