I am jumping Ship!!

[trooper7648]

To answer NSAFREAk's question, I have 2 811 receivers and 1 721. One 811 is on a 55" Mitsubishi WS, and the other is on a 42" WS plasma. The 721 is on a SD 27" TV.

I had the same TVs with Time Warner and SD channels looked good, using SVideo. I will say the HD channels on Dish look slightly better than TW's.

SD on the 27" TV looks good but that’s because it is on a much smaller screen, but you can still see the compression during any action sequences. (Also, some channels are more compressed than others.)

On the 42" and 55" TV's it just magnifies the over compression making it much more noticeable. It looks like little 1/2" squares. I will say I have heard that the 811 SD picture quality is much worse than other receivers. I will try moving the 721 to the 55" to see if it's the same.

Personally, I would much rather pay for quality than quantity. Who needs 25 shopping channels, a Bingo channel and so on. If you don't have the bandwidth don’t keep adding channels at the expense of PQ. I’m really surprised Dish is getting away with it with more people buying large HD televisions. Also, NSAFREAK read a few more threads, there are a ton of people complaining about SD picture quality.

 

[trooper7648]

Sprintcarcrazy, one thing about cable is unless you are in the same location, you can’t talk apples to apples. Comcast / Time Warner / Cox all provide different service and Time Warner cable in Austin TX isn't the same as Time Warner in another city or state. Where I went to college, cable sucked, and I would much rather have had Dish. With Austin TX being such a technical city, TW rolls out newer technology here (generally) before it rolls out to anywhere else in the state. Only thing is TW is extremely proud $$$ of their service. Even with keeping my cable modem, $49 a mo, I’m saving $60 a month using Dish or $720 a year with more channels. Only sacrifice is the PQ.

 

[GaryPen]

Most Dish bashers are just pissed cause they screwed the pooch and left early. With the 942 out now and rocking anything anyone else has not to mention the actual leader in HD they just feel smaller now I suppose.

Wrong. Most Dish bashers are pissed because of crappy hardware, horrible customer service, stange sports blackout rules that only apply to Dish because of their cheapass RSN contracts, lack of corporate strategy, broken promises, hypocracy, etc.

As for the 942, other than the 2nd output (SD ONLY, btw), there are many receivers currently out there that "rock" as well as or better than the 942. Plus, in the case of cable, there is no $250 upfront fee to lease them. The upcoming SBC Media Portal will put all the others to shame. (It will be especially embarassing to Dish, as it will show that third parties can design and build better Dish receivers than Dish!)

Yes. Dish is the HD leader...today. But, their relationship with Rainbow is NOT exclusive. Rainbow is currently actively seeking other carraige partners for the Voom channels. I am sure we will see these channels on Cablevision systems in the very near future, as Cablevision owns Rainbow. Comcast, TW, and others will no doubt soon follow. With D*'s upcoming HD capacity, it will no doubt land there later this year.

I'll bet a dollar that we'll see another provider with all 21 Voom channels long before Dish has them.

 

[BobMurdoch]

Not likely. E* will own the bird they are on. Unless he wants to spend an arm and a leg setting up shop on another bird, they aren't going anywhere.

V* is dead.... Long Live V*...... on E*.

Most of us like E* IN SPITE OF the hardware. The programming is what hooked us. He just reinforced that this week. In one day he doubled his HD offering. Bravo. More to come by January 1st according to the press release. If the wings become home to the HD channels I will be a happy boy. If not, I'll be getting an upgrade to the Dish1000 dish in a year or two......

 

[BobMurdoch]

Also, with Charlie ticked at Jr., I don't see those channels going to Cablevision. Also, he needs a national platform. Either Comcrap or Time Warner will own Cablevision's cable properties within the next two years, so I'm sure he will think twice about putting his eggs in THAT basket.

 

[Wile.E]

Personally i want to hear all the good and bad experiances people are having or had. Being a VOOMER till the end i'm waiting for all the dust to clear before commiting to a new provider. I wont be happy with second rate PQ or programing. 24 OTA till the day i decide.
Rob

 

[GaryPen]

Not likely. E* will own the bird they are on. Unless he wants to spend an arm and a leg setting up shop on another bird, they aren't going anywhere.

Interesting point. But wrong.

Almost all of Rainbow's programming is currently available on almost ALL cable systems, D*, and E*. Why do you think Voom21 will be any different?

Rainbow is in the business to make money. They will probably be able to make more of it from other providers who historically pay more than Sir Charles. The FSN channels are a perfect example. (For instance, Charlie doesn't wanna pay full price for them, so millions of E* subs in upstate NY do not receive the RSN's that they are entitled to.)

I fully expect the Voom21 package, with ALL 21 channels, to be available from providers who currently have the bandwidth, before E* has the necessary bandwidth.

Kudos to E* for what they have done with Voom. But, as has generally been the case, their leadership will be short-lived.

 

[DucTape]

Actually Dish is the exclusive distributor for the Voom programing so I'm sure Dish customers will be treated better than most and first in many cases.

Charlie may have some areas that need improvement but with the deals he has made he has just jumped so far ahead of D* and cable and Verizon lol, that I think they will have a very tough time seeing anything but Charlie's ass in their faces. :shocked

 

[kbohip]

Most Dish bashers are just pissed cause they screwed the pooch and left early. With the 942 out now and rocking anything anyone else has not to mention the actual leader in HD they just feel smaller now I suppose.

Ehhh, no. Wait until Directv gets those new sats up and lays the smack down on Echostar . A lot more HD channels AND equipment that actually works! I do hope the 942 is a stable, decent receiver though. God knows Dish doesn't need another 921 fiasco. I recently also moved to Directv and couldn't be happier with my superior Directivo's. I HATED the 522. Directv needs the competition from Dish and vice versa.

That being said things can change and I'll be more than willing to switch back to Dish if:

1. They stop putting out buggy, featureless DVR's with Fisher Price GUI's.
The NBR is a great first step but it needs to be a lot more reliable like my
Directivo.

2. They start treating their current subscribers better than a baby treats a
diaper. Example, when I as a 7 year sub to Dish asked to get a 522 they
told me I had to be a new sub to get one. I had to go to Ebay to get one
and activate it through an e-mail address few know of outside of this
forum.

3. They cut out all of their ridiculous fees. Specifically the stupid $5 a
month fee for not having "certain" DVR's plugged into a phone jack such
as the 522 or 942. They also need to learn from Directv and not charge
an extra $5 a month fee for additional DVR's in the house. I can have up
to 10 Directivo's for the price of 1 with Directv. That would be an extra
$45 a month with Dish, assuming they would let you have those extra
DVR's, which of course they won't.

I originally signed up with Dish back in 1998 because they were a lot better value than Directv. Both in programming and equipment. Now they are identical in prices for programming (not counting above mentioned extra fees) and they are quickly catching Directv in equipment prices. The 942 is actually more expensive to current Dish subs that what a current Directv sub can get a HD-Tivo for.

My next decsion will be in a year when my contract ends with Directv. Then as now I'll be voting with my wallet.

 

[jtravel]

Comcast Digital had terrible PQ and was much more expensive for me In Tucson. I made the switch to E* in Jan and wouldn't think of going back to Comcast unless there was a huge improvement.
E* PQ has been alot better than what I was getting with Comcast so im happy.