Dish Network Update....

[JSR]

Well I used to have Directv and I liked it better. Dish Network is a little cheaper but no NFL or other pro tickets.

[nitrofan]

yeah I didn't notice any change in the crappy picture when Time Warner went digital.

but I 'm worried that I'll lose the satellite signal in bad weather. we get plenty of thunderstorms here in the summer.

[indyracefan]

...no offense, but I am a DirecTV subscriber and have been for 2 years. I am totally pleased with my 'deal' here in Indy, yes I'm forced to only having the local network feed but again being in Indy, there's almost never a conflict with a race.I believe my local stations cost $5 dollars extra a month.

I have the 'Premium' package which means I have every HBO,Showtime,Starz,Encore etc. in addition to 5 ESPN channels, some 50+ FOX Sports channels, CNN/SI,SpeedVision for $80.00 a month.......which I will gladly give DirecTV as opposed to ever giving my money to Comcrap Cable again.

Maybe that's pricey but I know that no matter what the time of day there's always something on that I can watch.

[NDGator]

My apartment complex brought in DirecTV several years ago. I loved it. Sports Package, Playboy Channel for $8/month, 199 HBO/Starz/Encore channels, 50 music channels....

Time-Warner comes in and sues the complex for exclusivity. Complex allows T-W access and no one switched. Well then TW buys the company supplying the DTV feed and shuts it down. Now TW had exclusivity, the Aholes then jacked us all good by 50%. BTW Digital cable is a joke.

Silver Lining: DTV gave me a certificate (coupon) to purchase all equipment needed to get their feed when I do move out.

[Railbird]

Whew

That all sounds like a pain in the fanny Mackie. Don't get me wrong, I'd pay the bill in a heartbeat if that's what it took, but I'm sure glad comcast here in Indy gives us all the good racing in the basic package.

[Mackie]

the bottom part, you mean all this time it wasn't. Why did it take so long for the "Dish," to include it, if they had it from the start I wouldn't be stuck with DirecTV, writing the big check every month.

The following is a breakdown of my feelings on the pros and cons of DirecTV, for those of you who are considering it, there is no need to read on if your aren't interested.

For those of you who wish to consider DirecTV, here is one subscribers opinion. First, don't buy in to the idea that there is any "free" equipment or "free" installation, they are all tied into subscribing to high end contracts. Once they have you hooked it is hard to go back. First is the positive. I am either fortunate, or maybe unfortunate enough to be in a remote location where I can justify getting the national feeds from the networks. For that reason I am insured against my IRL races being preempted by the local ABC outlet. Even if the Eastern feed does that, I still can pick up the feed from the West. Where you live you may be forced, or want your local feed, either way it costs extra. My cost is $12 per month. That is well worth it though, because I pick up a few extra football games and as I said, IRL, CART and NASCAR insurance. It looked like a real bargain last year when Fox switched their NASCAR coverage to an obscure channel for programming reason, or when CNN/SI had qualifying. Another plus is that, again for an additional fee, you can get an additional 30 plus sports channels. Beware of grouped packages though, they hide the true costs. It may be better in some cases, like mine, to buy ala cart.

So much for the good part, here, IMO are the drawbacks. In large areas, and I have checked with my kids on this, premium channels cost less on cable. In the early days of DTV those channels were the property of USSB, and were reasonable. As soon as DTV bought out USSB the rates went up 50%. Now for the real drawback. In your home, as long as your system is "cable ready," you can have as many TV's as you want to run, each with a VCR hooked to it, running as many different programs as you want at the same time, and tape them all for play later. That is a must for a race fan, since there are times when NASCAR, CART, IRL and maybe the ALMS are running at the same time. With DTV, the most you can get is two, and you have to pay more for the equipment to get both, plus, you pay $5 per month for the privilege.
What about the tivo option you ask, that solves some of the problems for sure, but you pay more again to have it, every month. I have three TV's hooked up, the one in my bedroom is split off from the unit that is in the living room, but to change channels I have to go into the living room, the remote doesn't go around corners. Again, for extra money you can get a booster for the remote signal. As I said, I am in a remote area, when I first hooked up with DirecTV the local cable company had 32 channels, they still don't have SpeedChannel. That is why I did what I did. My cost would be $65 a month without any "premium" channels, if I didn't choose one other channel, that recently went to $15 per month. So I pay $80 every month. One other thing, VCR equipment cost more too, you need units with "cable eyes" to change the channel on your DTV receiver for multiple channel recording, they only come on top of the line stuff. These days you can buy a good VCR for less then $100, but with "cable eye," I recently paid closer to $200 for a replacement I merely am pointing out the cost to help you decide, I don't begrudge them, DTV gives me what is important to me, I have no other option but miss that which I love, my total cost the past 5 years for DTV alone is about $4,800, comparable cable would be 40% less, but you would miss a lot of the sports and racing, and there would be one channel you might not be able to get.

[IndyIRLman]

I just saw a commercial that says January 22nd is the date that speedchannel becomes a part of the Top 100.