Leaving Dish for Adelphia Cable

[MustangLX89]

Well it's been a couple weeks since I dumped Dish-here's an update:

No doubt Dish has a better picture. After watching cable for a week I put in a movie I had recorded from Dish with my Pioneer DVD recorder and I felt like I was looking at a regular DVD. Even the compression I used to hate didn't seem so objectionable to me.

But, I am still happy with my decision. I have had Dish call twice already to try and get me to come back. One reason they are working so hard (I think) is that I have a credit of $50 coming. So I know I can get Dish anytime and they will fix my problem free. BTW, Adelphia is currently working to improve the picture (which has issues on a few selected channels such as AMC). They are supposed to install a "node" and call me back so we'll see.

Bottom line, I am going to keep it through the summer and see how I feel then.

We switched when we moved into our new place. The landlord has cable here for us already so we saw no real sense in paying the high price of Dish for the same picture quality. One thing for certain is we don't miss the pixle crap from overcompression. Bottom line is I have an extra $50 in my pocket, same quality, and more channels than I had on Dish.

That whole "cable doesn't have dvr" hangup doesn't fly either. They exist, they have emm, and no you don't have to hook them up between the cable box and tv. If you don't want the cable company dvr buy your own. TiVo isn't the only game in town and there are some that have dvd burn ability as well. Options are out there other than Dish, you just have to open your eyes. Dish Networks "Bob" commercial is about the most ignorant commercial I've seen yet outside of Smiling Bob. But hey, considering Smiling Bob is in court in Ohio maybe ol Charlie can hire him for some more false advertising.

 

[rkrenicki]

Anyone switching to cable here gets to enjoy all of this low quality, plus fewer HD channels than Dish, and no HD-DVR option, unless you put something in between the cable box and the TV.

I find nothing about this statement true.

I have Dish Network (currently AT60 and Voom) and full blown HD cable with my local cable company. I find that the SD channels on Dish are overcompressed pieces of crap, where my analog channels look significantly better, nevermind the beauity of the digital channels....

Up until Dish added the Voom channels, my cable company had MORE HD channels then them.. Dish just got a lucky break by adding 11 channels at once. (which is the only reason I have Dish, as I was a prior Voom subscriber, even if they took the crappier voom channels.. I am waiting for all of Voom21...) I am sure that some cable companies out there have almost as many as Dish does now, as we definately dont have all the important ones on cable yet.

And there is MOST DEFINATELY a HD-DVR, the Motorola 6208 and 6412, as well as the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 are both HD-DVRs (I personally have the 6208) and low and behold, the firewire port still works on it (unlike Dish, turning off the 921s FW port)

So, if I were in your shoes, I would really double check my facts before saying anything.

As for the OP, good luck, I hope things work out for you.. I am not going to push my opinion on you, as it really isnt necessary.

 

[GaryPen]

The main problem with Cable is its inconsistency, not only from company to company, but in different areas within the same company. Some of us are fortunate in that the cable in our area is state of the art, or close to it.

I love my Moto 6412 and Comcast service. I really liked my 721, hated my 811, and tolerated the basic 311 and 50x, but didn't care for a lot of Dish's business practices concerning engineering, manufacturing, service, programming, and pricing.

I do not miss Dish other than the availability of WPIX and the free TVJapan news broadcasts. (TVJapan is available with Comcast, just no free news.) I also wish I could get the Voom10. But, I am sure that I would view and record my local HD and regional sports HD far more than Voom10 on my FREE dual tuner HD DVR. (Dish 942, of course, has that $250 upfront fee.)

Also, even though my cable's SD locals are currently analog, they still look better than the smeared, mosaic of overcompressed Dish locals. Plus, my system is converting to QAM256, and moving many of the "cable favorites" to the digital band, and simulcasting the local channels as well. This improves PQ and frees up bandwidth for more HD. I expect to see Voom Originals on my Comcast system in the not too distant future.

Finally, Comcast's VOD is nothing short of amazing. Most of the content is FREE. Yes...FREE. There is always something to watch, even when there is nothing to watch. They're doing away with the PPV channels, and using only VOD for PPV. That frees up a TON of bandwidth, as well.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Sorry to inform you ultatryon but everything I said had already been checked.

My cable carries has told me that they absolutely do not support the use of any of the Motorola or Scientific Atlantic HD-DVRs in my area. If I were using their services in a neighboring town, they do. Perhaps one could get them to work, but my cable CSRs tell me that they will not. My area is scheduled to get support for HD-DVR in 2-3 years.

I already have the analog channels from my cable company in my home, as I subscribe to their broadband service and these guys can't filter out the analog channels if you get broadband. So I get them free of charge. Yet the quality is so CRAPPY that I go ahead and pay Dish to get all of the same channels from them. I can see Dish's compression artifacts quite readily, but even with them the pictures are far better than the noisy, washed out analog channels from my cable company. I've checked out the analog channels in neighbor's homes, thinking that perhaps mine were being slightly filtered and degraded, but their analog channels look just like mine.

As to HD channels, my cable offers an HD package which consists of my locals (which I already easily get via OTA) and 3 additional HD channels. This increases to 5 if one subs to HBO and Showtime. That's it.

My town is the termination point of a nearly 60 mile cable run that originates from a town of 5,000 people. It's no wonder the analog signals are crap.

 

[W_Tracy_Parnell]

Update:

Ended up getting an FTA system and very satisfied even though it is not yet fully up to speed.

 

[rkrenicki]

Sorry to inform you ultatryon but everything I said had already been checked.

I mis-read your original post.. I thought you were generalizing about cable, not your specific company..

Who do you get cable from anyways? I did not know that any company with HD does not have the option for HD-DVR