Posted by Industrial Mineral on 08/09/07 16:34

"Fred C. Dobbs" <nus@tenretni.moc> wrote in message
news:oq7mb3t0hfirugu7vkg34ji1v7a9bcf6jk@4ax.com...
> On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 20:22:06 GMT, "Industrial Mineral"
> <industrial.mineral@nospam.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>"George Orwell" <nobody@mixmaster.it> wrote in message
>>news:185a504bab071d11d094e5c5b0c97b09@mixmaster.it...
>>> It used to be you could buy a DIRECTV receiver at K-Mart or Walmart for
>>> about $50 for do it yourself installation and be done with it.
>>>
>>> I went to the DIRECTV website and the receiver is $70 with $20 per month
>>> lease which really adds up. It does come with professional
>>> installation,
>>> however. That is a mighty price to pay for a few hours of a
>>> technician's
>>> time.
>>>
>>> Can subscribers still buy the dish/receiver combo at reasonable prices
>>> for
>>> self-installation?
>>
>>I just switched from digital cable to direct tv, got the receiver with the
>>hard drive that acts like TiVo, and the premium ent package, and did not
>>pay
>>anything for the equipment, no lease, and it was installed. I started at
>>Direct TV web site, too.
>>
>>By the way the picture on direct tv is 40-50% better than digital cable,
>>clearer and does not pixilize. Cable companies always overload their
>>equipment until it gets so bad customers leave. Cable did this by
>>offering
>>phone service over their cable, along with high speed modems and tv.
>>After
>>using direct tv for a month, I wish I had switched years ago. Cable
>>sucks.
>>The DSL modem from the phone company is 4 times faster than the cable
>>modem
>>at abut 30% less money.
>
> Most of what you say is true, but DSL is not alway's faster than
> cable. It may depend on your cable compay's service option. But in my
> area DSL can only do half the speed of my cable modem. That is the
> only reason I have Cable, That and the fact that my HiDef DVR costs me
> $4 a month and that I get more Hi def channels for Less than I pay for
> HDTV service form DirecTv. (I have both Cable and DirecTv)
>
>
>
>>
>>If you go to circuit city, they sell all of direct tv's equipment. Why
>>buy,
>>they will give it to you, I got mine for nothing other than the monthly
>>service charge for programs.
>>
I get 62 Hi Def channels with a aentena. The advantage of living near a big
city (LA). The first thing I noticed about the high def signal, you either
get a very good picture or you get a blank screen. No snow, faded pictures
like with the old analog signals and aentenas. Don't need to pay anyone for
this. There is little released from hollywood worth watching in HD, anyway.
If there is, I have Blue Ray to play the disc. In 2 years it will all be
HD, there will not be anything else.

I had the Charter service that supposedly transferred at 3 mbps, and when it
was first installed it was very fast. After 2 years it slowed down and
finally would not upload faster than 15 KBPS. I routinely upload videos to
my websites so I always know how fast my modem is working.

The Verizon DSL modem uploads at 72 KBPS. Four times as fast as the charter
cable modem sitting right beside it. I am sending it back this week just
like I sent their worthless cable box back, except this time I am not
including a note telling how worthless their products heve become. I have
had cable since it first came out (where I lived anyway) in 1970, but now, I
have no use for it.

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