DISH Network: Cut the Cable.
Written: Aug 04 '00 (Updated Oct 07 '00)
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Pros: Great value. Quality picture and sound.
Cons: No pro-sport packages. Expensive remotes.
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| TCar's Full Review: EchoStar 4700 |
I bought my DISH system soon after DISH Network first came out. At the time, America's Top-40 was their only package. My younger brother got his DSS dish earlier, back when you had to fork out ~$700 for the system. His service is more expensive, as susceptible to rain fade, and prone to pixellation, even during perfect blue sky weather.
I lose reception 2-3 times a year, during heavy rain storms. Once in a while, the service will blank out for a second or two off and on when there is lots of lightning, even if it isn't raining. I haven't had any problem with snow or ice buildup. The dish doesn't look up, so the snow slides right off. Back when I had cable, we had cable outages more often than I lose the satellite.
I installed the dish myself. One problem for those who live in the northern latitudes (I'm in northern Maine), the satellite is very low on the horizon, with only 19 degrees elevation. South is across the street and the ground slopes upwards. The house across the street blocked the satellite shot from my house, so I mounted the dish on a pole at the end of my driveway. This let me peek at the sky between the house directly across from me and his neighbor. I used some special underground cable so I could bury it and wrapped all the exposed connections in sealant.
I bought this particular system for the upgraded features including the program timers and IR blaster to control the VCR. One note, some VCR's are more sensitive to the signals from the satellite box than others. My old VCR always worked perfectly... I never missed a show. After its heads burned out, I got a new GE VCR, but it doesn't catch the satellite box's signals as well. After missing some shows, I decided to program it to record channel 4 during the times I want and program the satellite to Auto-tune to the channel I want. It's a bit of a pain, maybe I'll get another VCR sometime.
I am not into movie channels or sports packages. I stick with the basic America's Top-40 and add the local and superstation packages. It comes to about $26 per month, way less than the cable around here, and less than my brother's basic DSS service. I also prepay the year upfront, which saves me some money, pretty much equivalent to a free month. The pricing for the movie channels looks competitive to the competition as well.
New users going into the DISH 500 have a dizzying array of choices available. DISH has great selection of ethnic programming... latin channels and special foreign networks from Italy, Greece, etc., all at extra charge of course. Great way to keep in touch with the homeland.
Sports fanatics beware! DISH does not have any of the season ticket packages available. If you have a sport jones, go with DSS.
My only gripe is the remotes. Replacements are way too expensive at ~$60. I think everybody is like me and drops the remote from time to time. Enough drops to the wood floor will break the remote. I am killing one per year.
I have to give DISH Network a big thumbs up. They can count on me as a loyal subscriber.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199
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Epinions.com ID:
TCar
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Location: Bangor, Maine
Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 3 members
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