Dish/Direct TV question

[Linkmeister]

We're looking at alternatives to Oceanic Cable.

Circuit City and Best Buy both offer $29.99/mo deals through Jan. 28 of this year for the first 3 months of 24-month contracts. That includes basic stuff; if you want local channels it goes up $3/month, and HD goes up $10-$12/month. Then you pay $5/month for each additional TV, too.

Who's got dish or direct? How much does the initial satellite receiver cost? It's not indicated in the ads or on the websites that I can find.

[Konaguy]

Re: Dish/Direct TV question

http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=1579
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar.../bz/bz04a.html

[Linkmeister]

Re: Dish/Direct TV question

Oops. I did a search for dish tv and for direct tv, but it didn't like "tv" so I got a mess of unrelated stuff with the words "dish" or "direct." Didn't think to try "cable" or "satellite."

Further discussion under the "Cable v. Satellite" thread here:
http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=1579

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Dish/Direct TV question

We pay $60 per month for 50 channels and that includes the four-room package thru Dish Network. My feelings are that if cable is comparable I'd go with cable. With Satellite when it rains your signal drops. And with cable you have the option of getting broad band. That's a no-brainer to me.

And if you want more than four tv's hooked up then you have to buy into another account as satellite service uses a multi-switch that distributes the LNB signal coming from the horn of the dish. The multi-switch is limited to a maximum of four tv signals. If you got a dual LNB dish then you could go with a maximum of 8 tv sets.

But unlike a video splitter, the output of the multi-switch is for digital reception only with a digital box/smart card set up. With cable, even if you go digital with one set top digital box, you can still split the cable signal and send them to as many analog tv sets as you want so long as you amplify before each splitter.

Plus with satellite boxes, you cannot have two tv sets in the same room and expect the boxes to react independantly with their respective remotes. Those satellite box remotes are so strong that the IR signal bounces all over the room catching both boxes at one time.

With cable you simply run a splitter to two cable-ready tv sets made by different manufacturers so one person can watch their WWF while the other can watch HGTV.

Trust me on this one, Satellite service will limit you to a maximum of four tv sets per account. You cannot split a signal off of a multi-switch and expect two tv sets to receive off of that splitter independently.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Dish/Direct TV question

Thanks, Craig, that's food for thought. We only have three television sets, so that doesn't seem to come into play here. The weather outages are much more of a concern.

The reason we're thinking of it is that Oceanic is dumping C-SPAN2 to give that channel to Olelo. See here:
http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=7524

[Konaguy]

Re: Dish/Direct TV question

T
The reason we're thinking of it is that Oceanic is dumping C-SPAN2 to give that channel to Olelo. See here:
http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=7524

It is the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs -CATV division is
mandating the additional Olelo channel. Oceanic evidently decided to drop
CSPAN-2 to comply with the DCCA-CATV request. My question is
CSPAN-2 available on Satellite ? If its not why the switch ?

[Linkmeister]

Re: Dish/Direct TV question

It is the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs -CATV division is
mandating the additional Olelo channel. Oceanic evidently decided to drop
CSPAN-2 to comply with the DCCA-CATV request. My question is
CSPAN-2 available on Satellite ? If its not why the switch ?

According to the DirectTV website, CSPAN2 is available.

How do you know it's DCCA? Have you seen something from them somewhere? If so, where?

I'd like to register my complaint to them. We've written Oceanic and called somebody at the State, but I don't recall that it was DCCA.

Ah, never mind, I just looked up DCCA and found their order.
http://www.hawaii.gov/dcca/areas/cat.../files/326.pdf

[Konaguy]

Re: Dish/Direct TV question

Thank you for finding that DCCA order. There was a letter in Advertiser
today that stated the DCCA is behind this channel dropping. Thats how
I know about it.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Dish/Direct TV question

Thank you for finding that DCCA order. There was a letter in Advertiser
today that stated the DCCA is behind this channel dropping. Thats how
I know about it.

Yeah, if you read it, this has been going on for 9 months or so. I really wonder about the "public" comments mentioned, though. I suppose it might have been listed in the "Legal Notices" section of the papers, although certainly dumping a channel to make room for another Olelo one might have drawn more than the 25 comments mentioned in that document had it been more publicized. Of course, Oceanic may not have known which channel they'd drop at the time this was going on.

[Konaguy]

Re: Dish/Direct TV question

I didn't know about channel dropping until I read the letters to the edtor
of the Advertiser today. So naturally I was caught off guard, as my mom
likes CSPAN-2 for reasons you mentioned. I figure Oceanic got caught
in a bind with this decision by DCCA.