Dumped the DISH

bakerjw · Post by **bakerjw** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 11:45 am

Yep. We've had Dish for a few years and have been pretty satisfied with their service. Other than paying over $100.00 a month to watch 5 or 6 channels. What sealed the deal was them carrying Al Jazeera. It's not that they carry it, but they plaster ads for it on top of ads on Fox news. Their account retention guy even offered to cut my bill in half for a year.

I may pick up cable for a few channels, but I am content streaming.

doubloon · Post by **doubloon** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 12:00 pm

Have cable now with a long in the tooth tivo. Had directv for a few years before that but I don't think either one is worth the money. The only reason we have this and don't stream everything is my wife has been hooked on ...

... the communist news network ever since desert storm.

bakerjw · Post by **bakerjw** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 2:05 pm

Baffled · Post by **Baffled** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 1:19 pm

Always been happy with DirecTV.

F--k Al Jazeera, just don't watch it. Viewership numbers are recorded, advertising suffers, and they fail.

bakerjw · Post by **bakerjw** » Wed Oct 09, 2013 7:13 pm

They were promoting AJA. That's why I dropped them.

sniper1 · Post by **sniper1** » Thu Oct 10, 2013 11:51 pm

Get an HD antenna!!!

Free tv man, and the HD quality is better than cable or dish. In this age, you can stream what isnt broadcasted...

ariwhiteboy · Post by **ariwhiteboy** » Fri Oct 11, 2013 7:37 am

+1

The wife and I spent ~$80 on a quality amplified antenna for the attic and we pull in all the major networks, CW, all the Public broadcast stations and a few others.

We got a great deal on a "Smart TV" and now use that to stream Netflix and Hulu Plus. I pay like $16 a month for the subscriptions and there's always something good to watch. Wish I could get a couple networks that I do without, but for the price I'm happy. I mean I'd love to be able to watch things like Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, American Horror Story as they come out, but it's all about priorities...if you're willing wait, you can still get what you want. But we in the NFA game know that, right?

MJF1911 · Post by **MJF1911** » Sun Oct 27, 2013 7:48 pm

Its been over 7 years since I gave up cable and TV altogether. I don't miss it one bit. I stream a few shows, but that is about it.

finn · Post by **finn** » Mon Oct 28, 2013 11:44 am

Al Jazeera is damn useful. Just avoid them for Israel-related news. They really tore up the other news networks during the Russia / Georgia spat in 08.

este · Post by **este** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 11:41 am

finn wrote:Al Jazeera is damn useful. Just avoid them for Israel-related news. They really tore up the other news networks during the Russia / Georgia spat in 08.

Pretty much this. Funny that someone would get pissy for Al Jazeera but would willfully buy into everything Fox News or MSNBC for example. It's news, it ALL has a prerogative. It costs so much money to run a tv channel that it would be impossible to get truly unbiased. So look at the story, find the true parts, and beleive what you think makes sense.

Throwing a little fit because DISH offers a channel you are told (BY OUR GOV AND NEWS) supports "terrorism" (another questionable term, we've killed more innocent middle easterners then they ever could of us) is just being fucking retarded.

I mean, you'd have to be retarded to pay $40+ for any cable package imo.

Fulmen · Post by **Fulmen** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 4:10 pm

este wrote:It's news, it ALL has a prerogative

Wise words. Everybody are biased in one way or another, even you.

bakerjw · Post by **bakerjw** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 7:06 pm

SO, if I understand this right, I'm being fucking retarded. Just to be clear, I didn't drop Dish because they carry Al Jazeera, I dropped them for running ads for Al Jazeera on top of Fox News. And for the record, I don't rely on Fox news for all of my news, in fact I get very little news from them. You will find me commenting on many conservative minded websites daily.

this is not like you Este.

este wrote:
finn wrote:Al Jazeera is damn useful. Just avoid them for Israel-related news. They really tore up the other news networks during the Russia / Georgia spat in 08.
Pretty much this. Funny that someone would get pissy for Al Jazeera but would willfully buy into everything Fox News or MSNBC for example. It's news, it ALL has a prerogative. It costs so much money to run a tv channel that it would be impossible to get truly unbiased. So look at the story, find the true parts, and beleive what you think makes sense.

Throwing a little fit because DISH offers a channel you are told (BY OUR GOV AND NEWS) supports "terrorism" (another questionable term, we've killed more innocent middle easterners then they ever could of us) is just being fucking retarded.

I mean, you'd have to be retarded to pay $40+ for any cable package imo.

Libertarian_Geek · Post by **Libertarian_Geek** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 7:12 am

Actually, throwing a semi-hissey fit at Dish, U-Verse, Sirius, etc... (just enough for them to make retention offers) is a good thing.

doubloon · Post by **doubloon** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 7:37 am

I had Sirius free for a few months on the last new car, the lowest price I could get them down to for retention was ~$5/mo as an introductory rate that went back up to ~$17/mo after a few months. They never did get close to the $1.49/mo I told them I was willing to pay. I won't miss them because the DJs on some of the channels with music I liked were constantly pitching Obamacare/welfare/corngas "solutions" to the woes of the world ... maybe commercial free but not bullshit free.

If I could get a few more channels over an HD antenna I'd be able to drop cable without having to put up with hardly any fuss around the house USA, TNT, TBS, ...

But the channels I'd probably miss the most would be SyFy, Discovery, History and of course Al Jazeera and Lifetime.

Libertarian_Geek · Post by **Libertarian_Geek** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:17 am

doubloon wrote:I had Sirius free for a few months on the last new car, the lowest price I could get them down to for retention was ~$5/mo as an introductory rate that went back up to ~$17/mo after a few months. They never did get close to the $1.49/mo I told them I was willing to pay. I won't miss them because the DJs on some of the channels with music I liked were constantly pitching Obamacare/welfare/corngas "solutions" to the woes of the world ... maybe commercial free but not bullshit free.

If I could get a few more channels over an HD antenna I'd be able to drop cable without having to put up with hardly any fuss around the house USA, TNT, TBS, ...

But the channels I'd probably miss the most would be SyFy, Discovery, History and of course Al Jazeera and Lifetime.

I dumped Sirius completely after they merged with XM and the music station play list went goofy. The blues station started playing less real-blues and more R&B.
The retention offers were pretty funny. They called me at one point and offered me a price that was more per month than they did the previous week.

doubloon · Post by **doubloon** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 8:24 am

Libertarian_Geek wrote:... The blues station started playing less real-blues and more R&B.
... offered me a price that was more per month than they did the previous week.

Fortunately I like R&B as much as I like blues. And yes, I actually got offered three different prices on one phone call where the second offer was the highest price and the third price was between the first and the second. Whoever is in charge of their subscription packages is a ditz and needs a good firing.

Baffled · Post by **Baffled** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:02 am

We just made the switch between DirecTV and Charter cable (internet only) to AT&T U-Verse.

The old price was $150/month; U-Verse is $100.

We've had it for a month now. I am pleased to be saving money, and the system seems to work very well. I have two gripes, though. First, I lost a little internet speed, from 40 Mbits down to 25. Next, the U-Verse human interface is not as good as DirecTV. The latter really got their interface and menus right.

Oh yes, U-Verse has an iPad and Smart Phone app that lets you program the thing from anywhere, because U-Verse is all internet-based.... it's awesome.

bakerjw · Post by **bakerjw** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 9:09 am

We are watching less and less TV these days. I see us eventually dropping everything and just streaming what we want to see. The NHL offer streaming so hockey is set. If they offered Nascar, I'd probably pull the plug completely. But then again Nascar has gotten so terribly boring over the last 4 or 5 years. I even let my Bristol season tickets go.

Baffled · Post by **Baffled** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 10:22 am

We try to watch only "premium" stuff, and minimize it. Epic series like Breaking Bad, Walking Dead, etc. Sports too. And we do stream quite a bit... that is the future.

One big thing is that we cannot, will not, watch live TV any more. Everything goes to DVR. I just can't deal with commercials.

Even sports - if I have a football game at 12:00 noon, I'll record it, and start watching at 1300, zipping through commercials. By the time the game is nearly over, we are just about back to live viewing.

este · Post by **este** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 5:24 pm

Sirius old school rap channel got a worse deal than any other channel. Used to be Young MC, Heavy D, Tupac, Gangstar... Now it's full of Moni Love and Ed Lover.

I'm just saying anyone that thinks Al Jezera is the devil... Isn't spending the right amount of time on both sides. Al Jezeera is no less a business than Fox News. BUSINESS. The quick test, is that if you think your side is right, and the other side is wrong, you're likely the actual problem.

No offense to anyone specifically, it's just how it is. It gets worse as you get older no doubt.

Baffled · Post by **Baffled** » Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:50 pm

But Este, I've heard Al-Jizzzzeeera present some outrageous claims about the U.S. military and our activities. All it takes is one entirely false broadcast "factoid" about the USA to make me doubt every single thing they say.

I'm not talking editorial stuff. If they want to blow wind up Muhammed's skirt, that's fine, but fiction presented as fact won't hack it.

este · Post by **este** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 11:51 am

But Baffled, I've heard <Insert ANY news site/channel/blog> present some outrageous claims about the <Insert Any Government, Military, People, Organization, Religion>. All it takes is one entirely false broadcast "factoid" about the <Insert anything that applies to you> to make me doubt every single thing they say.

Fox news IS Al Jeezera IS BBC IS MSNBC IS etc

It's all biased. You need to look at everything can and read between the lines. If you sit down an watch any news story and think you're getting the whole picture, sorry, but that's fucking stupid.

So dumping dish because they give you THE OPTION of another source to determine what's actually happening... no, that's not commendable imo. Dumping Dish because paying for 500 channels when you watch 5, that's better. Watching a lot of TV at all is dumb so I won't really get into that. But you really have to understand you are being lied to HOURLY by the media and that is much more important than buying into the idea of a boogieman.

Baffled · Post by **Baffled** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 6:45 pm

Hey Este, REALLY appreciate your patronizing post.

I am not a child. And I can certainly tell the difference between an Al-J lie and a CNN lie. Basically, they are magnitudes apart in accuracy with their claims.

Apparently, you would equate NBC news in 1955 with Pravda of the same era. "Hey, they're NEWS MEDIA. They all suck. They all lie."

Fulmen · Post by **Fulmen** » Fri Jan 31, 2014 3:01 pm

There are still good reasons for getting a wide news coverage. If somebody is lying or otherwise misleading on a subject I care about, I'd like to know about it. Knowing the truth (if there is such a thing in politics or news) is only half the story, you should also know what other people are told or choose to believe. Know the enemy...

Not saying it's pertinent to your decision to dump the dish, but este brought up an interesting point in it's own right.

ericlw · Post by **ericlw** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 2:48 pm

sniper1 wrote:Get an HD antenna!!!

Free tv man, and the HD quality is better than cable or dish. In this age, you can stream what isnt broadcasted...

yea houston area 60 free channels, 3 are worth watching 1% of the time.

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