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Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: Houston, Tejas
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Originally Posted by jyl View Post
I'm thinking of switching from Comcast to either DirectTV or Dish, for TV. Can anyone compare and contrast, maybe talk about the pros and cons of satellite vs cable?

In my case, I think I'd keep Comcast for Internet. Drop their voice, use Vonage. Drop their TV, use a satellite service.

The reason for switching is Comcast triple play has gotten very expensive, and they dropped Universal Sports which means most bike racing is unavailable. But I'm happy with Comcast's Internet service.

Not sure what matters about our setup, so sorry if the following is irrelevant: We have four TVs - family room, bedroom, study, basement. We also have cable jacks in the living room where we set up a little TV sometimes. I'm planning to set up a projector in the family room and would want HD broadcasts then. Most of our watching is via TiVo and Netflix.
I'm using:

Comcast for Internet (30Mb/s down, 8-10Mb/s up)
Vonage for phone (yearly billing)
Dish for TV

I keep looking at going with Comcast for everything, but it never ends up cheaper. Also, a lot of the TV channels we have in HD on Dish are not HD on Comcast. Maybe they wouldn't be important channels for you...

Vonage has been rock solid reliable. I've bought a few of the NetTalk units and they seem to die within the year.

I have 2 DVRs on Dish with the internet Slingbox module. You can buy the slingboxes on Ebay for 1/2 the price. I did that with my second one. It allows watching TV and recorded DVR shows on the internet. Regular Computer with a browser, iPhone and Android with an App.

We lose the DISH signal is there is a really bad thunderstorm blocking the signal. I wish Dish would allow low def streaming as a backup!

One of my buddies has Comcast/Xfinity for everything. It is a fully functional internet control for heating/lighting and alarm, along with cable, phone and internet.
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Old 08-08-2012, 09:11 AM
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