Much better than cable but a few things you should know...
Written: Dec 28 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Picture Quality: |
|
|
| Durability: |
|
|
| Customer Service: |
|
|
|
Pros: Great audio/video, excellent service, good choices for programming
Cons: Can be tough to get a signal if you don't have a clear line of sight, program packages can be difficult to mix and match to get all the channels you want
|
|
|
| labellem's Full Review: EchoStar 4700 |
I've been using a 4922 receiver with DISH Network for about 5 months now and am very happy to have left cable. For the same price as my local, non fiber, cable company, I get about 80 more channels with great quality and service.
Installation
I installed the DISH 500 w/ 4922 receiver myself and had some difficulty hitting the satellites. You must hit 2 at once, though they are very close together. I live in CT and the satellites orbit near the southwest so I need to point my dish at a fairly low angle (27 deg.) to hit them which causes problems with nearby tree lines. I failed to get a good signal in 3 locations before the 4th proved to be great. It is difficult to determine by sight whether or not you will get a good signal. In one location, the dish had a perfectly clear line of sight coming straight off the dish but there were branches a few feet overhead, but the signal was very weak. I took 2 steps forward out of the tree line and it was great, but not a viable location for me. I finally ended up in a spot where it looks like the dish is pointing right into some sparse trees, but I get a great signal. You need to hook the dish up to a TV to read the signal. Most people have a family member watch the TV in the living room while they point the dish and shout back and forth; this can be a real pain. What I did was I got a basket on wheels, put a 13" TV and the dish receiver in the basket, hooked it up to a 100' long extension cord and wheeled it around the backyard with me as I was placing the dish in various locations - my neighbors must have thought I was crazy! I believe the signal meter goes from 0 to 125. My signal is around 110. About 70 or 80 is considered acceptable though I have a friend with a 45 signal and has no problems.
After hooking it up and verifying the signal, I called DISH Network to subscribe. They walked me through some codes on the remote to make the TV spit out the #'s necessary for them to hook me up. I told them which packages I wanted and they did not try and sell me anything else. Before the end of the 5 minute phone call, all the channels were on. I helped a friend hook up and it took about 1/2 hour after the call for the channels to come in; I don't know why. I have the TOP 100, HBO package, and my local channels, which will run about $50/month including taxes. This is the same cost for my basic cable (small local provider) for less than 1/2 as many channels with an A/B switch.
Video Quality:
The video quality varies from fantastic to plain acceptable, using the composite video (RCA). I soon came to realize why: there is only a fixed amount of bandwidth which they have to transmit on and they are trying to offer as many channels as possible. More channels = less quality. What they do is they change the bandwidth allocated to a channel based on the program that is on. Premium channels and big prime time shows will get more bandwidth and better picture quality than others. Monday Night Football looks awesome as do many other sporting events. There has been a rare occasion that a program which I wanted to see had mediocre quality. There was a program on the BBC which wasn't too friendly on the eyes, I'm not sure if it was the DISH transmission or the filming itself. Since getting the DISH I've been comparing to friends' cable and my DISH always looks much better. I will soon be upgrading to a new TV which supports S-Video and I expect to see a significant improvement. A friend also advised that having a digital comb filter helps a lot but I suspect the S-video will boast more value.
Audio Quality:
The analog audio on DISH Network is very good. I use the optical digital output to my receiver and the difference is striking. Many people can't tell the difference between the digital audio on the DISH and a CD. Check your receiver and see if it has an optical input, if it does all you need is a $25 cable and you're set. DISH Network advertises Dolby Digital audio but as far as I can see, it is only for some select pay-per-view programs.
Programming:
DISH Network offers more channels than I could ever watch. I don't like the fact that everything comes bundled and you can't just choose what you want. This is the fault of the networks because they force the broadcasters to include various packages. Disney/ABC forces a lot of programming on broadcasters and makes them take the junky channels to get the good ones and this inconvenience is passed on to the consumer.
I was receiving the multisports packages which gives you the Foxsports channels from various regions around the country. I thought, "Great!", I'd be able to see almost all the major league baseball teams play on their home networks. Not the case, these games are ALL blacked out except your local team. It did say on their website that sports can be subject to blackout, what is should say is that "They are all blacked out. Don't waste your money!" This is confusing because I thought blackouts occurred within a certain radius of the stadium when the game was not sold out to force fans to come to the stadium to see their team play. Why then, if I live in CT, I can't watch the Dodgers play? I just don't get it. Satellite would be so much more worthwhile if this was the case.
The pay-per-view movies have several formats: regular, Letterbox/Dolby Digital, fullscreen Dolby Digital. Not all movies are always shown in all formats so if you're into the home theatre thing, you may want to wait for a movie to be in the LBX/DD format to get it. Ordering is done through the remote and movies are about $3-$4. They also have some awesome PPV sports though pricey, such as soccer and cricket matches.
I've heard general griping with all dish companies regarding local channels. I am able to get the New York City affiliates of ABC,NBC,CBS, and FOX but not the ones from CT. I get my local news from the newspaper so it doesn't affect me. It costs $5/month for the locals but you may have to live in certain areas to qualify. See their website (dishnetwork.com).
Both the TOP 100 and TOP 150 have a varied assortment of news, sports, education, home/garden, children's programming, etc.
Service:
I called to make 1 programming change. The call is $5 for the session, you can make as many changes as you want. I'd rather be able to do it directly through the remote, and for free of course, but the call was quick and painless, no attempts to sell me more stuff, and the change became effective immediately. Excellent customer service so far.
Reliability:
I lost my DISH Network signal once that I know of. It was raining so hard I could not see across the street. It was out for about 2 hours. Since it's digital, when it goes out, it's really out! You'll likely get an error message on the screen, it's not like losing antenna reception to a snowy screen. My friend lost his DISH signal once because he didn't tighten one of the bolts enough on the dish itself and it tilted so it was pointing down at the ground.
Value:
I think DISH network is a great value for me. Kills my local cable company! I paid $99 for the equipment, installed it myself, and then got a $200 rebate from DISH for agreeing to $40/month worth of channels for 1 year. They have deals out there with free installation but I basically took the extra cash to install it myself. You don't have to be a genius to do it, just be able to use basic tools and follow instructions. I did a lot of price shopping and DISH is slightly cheaper than Direct TV in every area. Direct TV does offer better full season sports packages especially for football, so if that's your thing, check out Direct TV and compare.
Improvements:
I'd love to see DISH Network absolve the system of blackouts and add true a-la-carte program ordering. It would also be great to get premium movie channels to broadcast in Dolby Digital. Of course, I'd like to see 500 more channels - their has to be a ping pong channel, no???
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 99 for equipment, $50/month for service
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
labellem
|
|
Member: Mike LaBelle
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 2 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.