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Satellite or Cable?

As the move is getting closer, so is our need to make decisions. We can’t be long without internet. I’d go nuts in no time! With that thought in mind I decided to do a Google search and check out my options. Surprise, surprise, when one moves to an island in the middle of the ocean their options become severely limited. Lucky for us we had the last two years to get used to that!

So, our Friday Harbor options are the same as our Honolulu options. Cable or satellite dish. Currently we have cable and we aren’t horribly unhappy, but the satellite dish looks less expensive. The dish network offers more channels for less money — plus Amoeba can get ALL of his beloved sports stations without paying for three different options all at once. Dish Network also has some great package deals and a couple of incredible promotions right now — including HBO-HD and SHOWTIME-HD free for three months.

So, anyone out there have satellite? What are the pros and cons? Right now we have internet, telephone and tv in one bundle. Is that possible with satellite?

14 Comments

  1. Our house has 2 satellite dishes on the side of the deck, but we have our cable bundled (TV, internet, and phone). I hate paying the big fees, but it is a much more reliable phone service and I have heard that storms have a bad effect on satellite viewing.

    I’m interested in hearing if that is true.
    .-= kcinnova´s last blog ..WWC: Bear & Out of Place =-.

  2. I heard the same thing about Satellite with storms affecting viewing with Pixelation of the picture and distortion of the sound. I have my phone and internet with cable, had tv but got it disconnected as I didn’t watch all that much tv for what I was paying.

    I don’t know if you can have internet through satellite, you would have to check that out.

    All the best with what you decide.

  3. I had satellite at our old house (when we didn’t have trees blocking our line of sight). It was GREAT. I really dislike cable companies, so this was perfect back then!!

    We had snow storms and even a tree fall on the house, and the satellite was fine…
    .-= southlakesmom´s last blog ..Ta-Dah! =-.

    1. Kelley — well, Google Earth leads me to believe our new home would be in a favorable Satellite location, except Melli said cloud cover has an impact on signal quality.

  4. The biggest drawback I can think of to the satellite in Friday’s Harbor is location, location, location! In Hawaii satellite would be GRAND! We have satellite for our television, but I have cable for my internet. Dennis loses his television at some point during any heavy rain, or snow storm… and sometimes with just heavy cloud cover! Considering the northwest’s reputation for gray cloudy days and rain rain rain… I would go with cable!
    .-= Melli´s last blog ..Are We THERE Yet? =-.

  5. We have satellite but then we don’t have the option of cable where we live. We don’t have any problems with it except if we get high winds and it loosens the dish and we have to get someone to get up on the roof and put it right. 🙂
    .-= Akelamalu´s last blog ..Onions and Christmas Trees……. =-.

  7. I know DIRECTV offers an internet option but understand it’s not cheap. Don’t know about Dish. Here on Orcas there is another option for internet. A wireless system mounted on one of the local mountains but the upfront cost is high. Something like $400 for the equipment and install.

    We get our internet through DSL from CentryTel. Not super fast but better than dialup and the cheapest option we could find.

    We have DIRECTV for our TV. The mount can be very critical as high winds (which we get a lot of up on Buck Mountain) can wobble the dish if it’s not really sturdy. In FL we used to lose signals during heavy downpours but I haven’t seen any of that up here. You will need an unobstructed view to the south. Maybe a tad east of due south.

    We’ve been with DIRECTV for about 10 years. Their customer service has always been very good. My father-in-law had Dish and couldn’t get their customer service to help him so we switched him to DIRECTV and he hasn’t had any more problems. My wife likes to call them every once in a while and remind them what good customers we are and they usually give us 3 months free of Showtime.

    Pay the extra $5 per month (or whatever Dish charges) and get the DVR (Tivo) option. I assume Dish has that option. We love it. Makes it possible to watch network TV again since you let it record your show then you can fast forward through the commercial. If you forget to record a show you just put it on pause and do something else for 15 minutes – 30 minutes and then you can fast forward through the commercials. Really nice to have a bunch of movies stored up. THat way you can just subscribe to Showtime or HBO for a month at a time then record a lot of movies and unsubscribe until you have seen them all (Unless you get hooked on True Blood or Weeds as we are.).

    Ron

    1. Ron — thank you. Yours was the most relevant answer I received since you live in the part of the world we are moving to! I’ll check out Direct TV and Century Tel. I appreciate your input!

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