ATT says we can save quite a bit of $ each month if we "bundle" our phone, cell phone, internet & TV together. I hate the thought of changing my email...again; but would be willing to do it to $ave what they say we'll $ave.

We wanted to know about dish network. I don't like the thought of a dish on our roof but the good thing is it would be located on the back side and not visible from the street. They say we'd get something like 200 channels (this is about what we have now through cable) and 39 channels in HD.

So what is the downside of Dish Network?? For example, If we want to watch ABC now I just hit channel 7. Would I now have to remember a 3 digit channel for ABC? If it rains or is windy does our dish still work?

Dish has it's ups and downs, If it is really snowy or rainy, the signal pixalates (sp) or goes out all together. The biggest problem we had with Dish is that you have to buy a local tv channel package and you have to get the one that is closest to your home. In our case, that was Youngstown Ohio which meant CLEAVLAND BROWN games, gasp! We were not allowed to choose the Pittsburgh package, I guess it some rule the tv stations have.

One more caveat, you can't put the dish where ever you want, it needs a certain spot directed at the satellite so sometimes the dish will be on a really noticeable part of your house.

Marcie, I bet if you call Time Warner and tell them you are thinking about switching, they will offer you a better deal than the last time you called.

Hi Marcie. Most people who get their TV from satellite dishes are very happy. But there are limitations. Heavy rain can affect the signal.

Another issue is how many TV's do you have? I have six in my house. So, for me, basic cable is best. I just connect each TV to the cable and don't need a special box. And the cable TV internet service is very fast, much better than DSL.

If you have more than two TV's a satellite dish may not be the best way to go. Personally, I don't want to have a special box and a separate remote for each TV.

AT&T is probably not the only company in your area making these special offers. You can shop around and see if someone else could better fit your needs.

Also, determine how much money you really would save. Most of these special deals are just for one year. What will your cost be after that compared to what it is today? Good luck. Tom.

Marcie, I just checked your Time Warner website, they have digital cable with over 200 channels, free on demand TV, digital phone service with no charge for long distance and you get to keep your own phone number, you use your phones you already have and high speed internet for $114.

Time Warner CA

Der Perplexed: (Marcie)
I know exactly what you are saying.
So far we have stuck to cable tv. Our reason is
we,(hate to say it), have TV's and recorders, in different rooms of the house. We like to do lots of recording of programs so we can watch them when we want. With cable you could be watching a different program on every TV and recording a different program on each recorder. (Don't but could).
Now I know it is getting better BUT with dish network or any other brand you can only watch one program and record one program at the same time. To do it the way are cable is working would require a seperate dish for each TV. Now that would look swell on our home since we have restrictions and can't have antennas anyway.
I really feel the 200 channel is a little misleading. Example: HBO You can watch the same movie at different times of day on HBO east, HBO central, HBO West etc, and those are all seperate channels.
Yes you may have to learn lots of 3 digit numbers to pick up your favorite programs.
Oh yes one more thing.
You may not be able to pick up ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX off cable because you are within the mileage radius. If so you have to use rabbit ears or some other kind of anntenna.

Marcie,
We have both. Mostly because some of the sports Larry wants to see are only available on satellite.
God forbid, he should miss a football game or basketball game!!!!!! ;)

Tom, you bring up a good point, I forgot about that. We had 6 TVs when we had Dish and it was $5 extra PER tv(at that time, probably 10 years ago, so it might be more now)

We had both for about ten years and we now have just cable and love it! No more problems when its cloudy or it rains in the middle of a program and the screen goes blank....or after a hurricane and all the dishes are all over the streets and you have to wait 3 weeks for someone to come out and put it up on the roof again. We get just as much programing with our cable and they also have a lot of HD programs. I hope our new codo has the same cable company, so I don't have to learn all new numbers for my channels again <img border="0" alt="[bang]" title="" src="graemlins/banghead.gif" />
Marcie, let us know what you decide to do.

I have had both and now have Dish for TV and Cable for Internet. Love the Dish - Love the picture quality. Regarding unstability of DISH, so far have had none in the past 8 months. Although with Cable, I can remember many times over the years where the cable went out and all I had was snow. Also, I have had other instances with my prior Digital Cable where the Digital Converter Box went out and I had to have it reset or replaced. Oh and recently my Cable for the internet was down 24 hours - bottom line they both apparently have issues and nothing is perfect - Marcie if you can get a better deal and save $ and it happens to be cable - I'd go for it.

Great timing, Marcie. Our Direct TV is on the blink & we are spending the weekend comparing Direct TV to DISH. We don't have cable as a choice. We live in a rural area where this has been a PITA "problem" with Don annually making an issue out of it with the local cable company. We were told we would have to PAY for the cable to be trenched from the nearest pole to our house because the cable franchise agreement stipulates that the cable company is only required to pay for the 1st 200-300 feet. (We're 900 feet away. Isn't this interesting?!) No way we're going to do that so cable has never been an option for us.

My reason for going into all this gobble-ee-gook is that we've had 12 years of experience with satellite TV service and live on a VERY windy hill where 60+ mph winds visit us in the winter. Karen's right - it occasionallY goes out with the wind, rain, etc., but doesn't happen often enough to bother us. (We don't have to worry about rain/snow (editing to add: and hurricanes!) here in SoCal, that's for sure!) We've been nursing our Direct TV equipment for ages but it's on its last leg now. Would love to have cable, especially with its high speed Internet. Good luck with all this.

Try Time Warner Cable, Marcie! :) What the others have said here is true. Especially not getting the local channels. Additionally, most satellite companies want you to sign a contract - never the case with Time Warner. Also, you'll never be charged for a service call if you have cable. Many advantages!

The only disadvantage is Time Warner doesn't offer NFL Sunday Ticket, so we had to (*GASP*) buy a dish when we left Wisconsin so we could still watch the Packers. However, Time Warner DOES offer other sports packages, depending on your area...we were able to pick up the MLB baseball package this year.

Let us know what you decide!

Marcie.....

Go to godaddy.com and buy your own domain name like petlover.com (most likely gone)and use them for your email, like....marcie@petlover.com and you can change internet service providers all you want because you have your own email address. It only costs $9/yr.

jack@smilinjack.com

I agree with all the comments above and have a few additional comments to make. We were going to keep our cable but add Dish for a different reason altogether....programming. They offered Eastenders. So, take a look at the programming Time Warner offers, Direct TV and Dish offer and decide if there are any must have programs that one of the providers offers. That being said, we couldn't get a satellite as we had too many trees. So we are stuck with cable. I had a satellite in Basel and had plenty of issues with weather related outages...especially when it rained. I did like a lot of the programming capabilities. Now with DVR on the cable, it is the same and I am happy with my cable. I just wish I could get BBC with my Cable provider.

The combo phone, internet and Cable is a good deal and works well. However, we still have to keep a land line for when the cable goes down.

Jack, wouldn't it be easier to just use a free Google email address? :)

Ok and here is another gripe I have.
We currently do all of our recordings on VCR's
That way we can pull the tape and go watch it in the room we decide to. Now they are telling us that we will be forced to go to Tivo and other brands to do recordings. Oh but they are not transferable from one tv to another. To do something like that you have to wire your house, flip switches. Not going to happen.
Why do they have to make it more complicated??

We live, by choice, in the sticks. When we moved here in 1991, our only TV option was limited and poor cable service. We switched to DirectTV as soon as it became available and about four years later we switched to Dish. Dish has gotten better and better over the years--perfect picture, vast selection, and now forty HD channels that are spectacular. Our neighbors recently switched from Satellite to cable because cable was cheaper and offered phone and internet service as part of the package. They now wish they hadn't. The phone service stinks and cable service is down more often than satellite was. We do get some weather interruptions, but not very often. And some of our satellite channels are weaker than others (because we live at the far edge of the satellite's coverage capacity) and go out more often. But 99% of the time our coverage is reliable and, IMO, simply spectacular. WE have two HD receivers and sets. The receivers can record two HD channels at a time while playing back a third. So I can watch one recorded football game while recording two others!!! Nervana!!!! And Dish keeps adding HD channels to compete with DirectTV which will be bringing on lots more HD in the next year. So I am a satellite TV fan and it all just gets better and better and better. But not so much that I want to stay home and watch the tube (correction, screen) in lieu of a Regent cruise. Pat

The condo where I stayed in Vail this summer had Direct TV. Loved it - once I figured out the remote. It went down only once - not weather related - but I could still receive the 3 old fashion channels, plus fox, PBS, etc. When my cable goes out here, we lose everything. I wouldn't mind having Direct TV.
We bundle phone with internet/DSL. Basic cable with Comcast. Satellite wouldn't work in our back yard - something about other houses getting in the way of the signal from the direction it would have to face.

As Karen suggested, I called Time Warner and told them we were considering canceling blah blah blah. Next thing I know they're offering this and that and matching the price of AT&T so we're staying put and Happy :app:

You guys are the BEST !! I learn so much good info from all of you. Thanks a bunch!

Karen....true, but for only nine bucks a year why have someone else's name like google. I own at least twelve domain names. I use jack@b727.com on my iphone.

marciescats.com is available (just making up a name)....all you have to do is search for something that you would like that is available.

Jim, the DVR provided by the cable company has the capability of recording to a tape machine so you can watch the show in another room.

Very interesting information!
Thank you everyone. :lct:

Jack, I don't mind using Google email since I am a happy ex stock holder! ;)

I understand.....I sold mine around 150....the story of my life. :rolleyes:

I don't know if I told you....I am from Brockway, Pa. Moved away when I was 13.

Jack, I am not quite sure where Brockway is? I live about an hour north of Pittsburgh and only make it down that way to go to the airport.

It's 12 miles north of DuBois.