For All You Non-believers

[Blindowl1234]

Well, So far I enjoy Hits...it's just the wife and I though. I have the welcome Pak on dish for her for a few other channels she likes. I bought the equipment new and 100% own it..no contract. Two years ago it took 4 phone calls over 2 days to get it at a decent price and no contract. I had an issue with their cust svc yesterday concerning the phone line never being connected and being charged $5 each month...issue resolved but without a hassle. I wasn't being charged $5 then I was. Anyway my issue is I want freedom of choice. I don't like contracts at all. I feel like I'm being screwed everytime I've had one. Our cellphones are not under any contract as well. For me it's letting me as a customer make the choice I'm comfortable with not some corporation making the rules for me....Blind

 

[PopcornNMore]

The 722k is the same unit as the 722 it just added a ota tuner to it for recording cause I still have my 722. Just for the record my bill was always 120 bucks or more a month. When I had a problem with one of my receivers they did send someone the next day as well but wanted to add 50 bucks service call to my bill. You better look at your next bill good cause they sometimes like to make MISTAKES on the following bill. Another thing is they charge 5 bucks to remove a service, crazy. I will say I miss the epg and the ease of dvr use, but I love having my bud setup. I bought a year sub to hits just to let them know that we want this to continue and hopefully they,comcast, will want to invest add channels for us. I don't see them adding more sub channels on anything other than 105 west. I hope they do but on another note anyone have a 922 for sale.lol

I was told that the service call would be of no charge, but I will keep an eye on my next bill. I also agree that both pizza services nickel and dime you for this and that unlike HITS.

 

[PopcornNMore]

Just wanted to add this.
I know where Popcorn is coming from. I can do without Dish Network, but my wife and kids enjoy their cartoons, and nick, and the dvr for my wife... I will also keep a HITS sub going too, since the music video channels HITS has actually play MUSIC! I wish C-band was like before, but I don't see it happening. Dish size requirement, and no subscription HD channels are the reasons why it isn't very popular anymore.
Do I like it, no.
Will I have to accept it, yes.
It is what it is. My 2 C-band dishes still provide plenty of entertainment...but only as a companion to the small dish and OTA where most of my family's entertainment comes from.

Exactly! When you have a family who enjoys channels like Nickelodeon, Disney, TLC, etc and they want to be able to easily record programming for later viewing HITS just isn't there yet.

As of this Friday my HITS subscription for the MTV package begins for two months. This package offers a nice choice of channels some of which are not available on Dish. After my two months are over I might even continue the subscription just to be counted.

 

[wallyhts]

As of this Friday my HITS subscription for the MTV package begins for two months.

 

[macgod79]

Wallyhits know where I can get a 922?

 

[wallyhts]

Wallyhits know where I can get a 922?

I would watch ebay and Craigslist perhaps goodwill and pawnshops.

Just make sure it has not had a Master Reset since i think you will be using as a dish mover.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

Wallyhits know where I can get a 922?

I see quite a few up for bid at ebay.

 

[ikki]

All this talk about "masters" has me wondering. Where does the picture quality on Starchoice (Shaw Direct) fit into this equation? Better or worse then Dish and Direct?

 

[wallyhts]

All this talk about "masters" has me wondering. Where does the picture quality on Starchoice (Shaw Direct) fit into this equation? Better or worse then Dish and Direct?

Better!!!

 

[Mr Tony]

All this talk about "masters" has me wondering. Where does the picture quality on Starchoice (Shaw Direct) fit into this equation? Better or worse then Dish and Direct?

Shaw is KU Band and they dont fit as many channels on a transponder (due to being KU Band) versus Dish and Direct which fit 12 on a DBS.

The SD picture in most cases looks better than Dish or Direct. I've had both set up (Shaw and Directv) and they both have their good and bad channels picture wise.

 

[tvropro]

Shaw looks better. I think DC2 handles compression better than pizza unless you pull an NPS. I get a few FTA channels on my 405 and they definitely look better than my Direct looks. Even though Direct looks better than Dish you can tell there really pushing the envelope with channel to bandwidth ratio. Direct tries to cover artifacts with a blur filter which smears the video (some call it soft) I call it blurry. Dish tries to toss in edge enhancement which is normally a no no in the digital domain especially when you look like crap to start with. It sharpens the picture but really enhances the mosquito noise.

Just for information: You can run 12 channels on DC-2 19510 3/4 (HITS does it, also when they ran on ku) even more using 29270 7/8 look at HBO on G1 they run 16 and look excellent. Dish runs up to 16 channels in a mux. Direct runs 9~12.

 

[truckracer]

i recently had a friend of mine making fun of my - as he puts it "1923 technology dish". he was referring to my 10' sami mesh. He was bragging about his D* HD.

He came over and i had an SD Channel from 91W playing on my 46" tv from the pansat 9200. He said " wow your HD looks good" LOL.... he thought that SD channel was HD.

so i took the dish over to 125 W and put TBN HD on the screen and he couldnt believe it. His only defense being a pizza advocate is that i didnt have on demand service....we all have internet and if one knows how to use a search engine we all can find " on demand" content...

 

[tvropro]

i recently had a friend of mine making fun of my - as he puts it "1923 technology dish". he was referring to my 10' sami mesh. He was bragging about his D* HD.

He came over and i had an SD Channel from 91W playing on my 46" tv from the pansat 9200. He said " wow your HD looks good" LOL.... he thought that SD channel was HD.

so i took the dish over to 125 W and put TBN HD on the screen and he couldnt believe it. His only defense being a pizza advocate is that i didnt have on demand service....we all have internet and if one knows how to use a search engine we all can find " on demand" content...

People see my SD masters on the Bud and think it's HD all the time. The masses have been brainwashed by poor digital quality.

I don't have 1923 technology, mines 1989 Newer is not better in my book, I think I'll go pull out some LP's and spin some wax

 

[Blindowl1234]

I did some comparison today. Ok lets talk quantity vs. $$$$$ spent. I looked at my super pak & FTA together, vs. the pizza guys 120 channel line up for $45.
A&E, Cspan 1&2, Colours, 23 radio channels,Documentary, HLN, CNN,Insp Network, KBS World,Travel, Food,E!....Nothing exciting so far for 45 bucks....Ok lets see possible worthwhile channels I don't get now Spike, TBS, TLC, TNT, USA, Weather Channel sometimes FTA though... Fox News, Lifetime (I get LMN though) ESPN/U...Cartoon, ABC Family, Discovery. I don't see anything there I'm dying to have for $45 that I don't already get or can't live without. BTW the picture quality is good and I own my equipment.
Plus I get hundreds of FTA channels for free that the pizza guys don't offer and the quality is great on those too. Isn't this hobby great!
Blind

 

[mike74820]

you could be here in my part of the woods were basic cable is 54 channels and the first 22 channels are the locals channels is now 53 bucks a month. i got dish network too but since i actually watch
foodnetwork for cooking shows, im liking the cooking channel better. plus the kids are fine with Disney xd for the Disney channel.

 

[notlegally]

ITS all about money guys we do not have it. dish does. i have had all the channels since 1989, very low cost, small dish, high cost, its a done deal. i still have and use a 10 foot dish and fta and a small dish for the wife.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I'm with the others. This belongs in the D!ck Network section, not here.

Few things in life piss me off more than the deal with Echostar/D!ck Networks efforts to kill Cband. You can correct me if I'm wrong here but my take on it is this.

Echostar basically started the Cband deal and programming provides started popping up that were reselling programming provided by Echostar. Later Echostar realized that the only way to get more ppl interested in satellite TV was to reduce the cost of the equipment required to get it. During those early years Echostar built their satellite business on the backs of us Cbanders with satellite TV systems that cost us well over $2000 (mine was $2250 in 1988). Back then there was ala carte programming and you could choose what you wanted without a bunch of crap that you didn't want.

The along came D!ck Network and Direct TV with their “equipment included” pizza deals and they were off to the races with $30 a month subs with packages of mostly useless s**t.

So in an effort to gain even more customers Echostar just started removing popular channels from the Cband ala carte menu and putting them in “package only” deals forcing us to either buy their packaged junk like they were selling pizza subscribers or just give up and sub to pizza. I did neither!

The bottom line for me is that Echostar/D!ck Network along with some of the providers are responsible for the demise of Cband as we knew it. Therefore I'll NEVER, EVER have a sub from D!ck Network simply because of the cut throat way they did those of us that helped them build the business in the beginning. If fact, I wouldn't have the crap if they gave it to me for free!

 

[tvropro]

Charlie put the screws to us time and time again. He must be a real piss poor businessman if he can't get or keep subscribers on his own, without destroying c band and force the sub people to be his pizza slave. I for one would never have a Charlie product, never owned any of his old c band crap either. Guess I was smart even back in the day