Considering Jumping

[navychop]

What streaming service had their own box?

Don’t recall name. DSL days.

 

[John2021]

Short answer - yes. IF Dish is headed for the iceberg, and in my opinion that's a big if, what's your hurry? Ignore all the nay sayers on the forum, they've been wrong about Charlie all along the way. He just fleeced DTV and used that ploy as leverage to get the financing he needed to keep going so rather than admit they were wrong they immediately changed their story to "Well what's he going to do next time?" etc, etc. If it's going to hit the iceberg wait until it happens it's not like options won't be available at the time. Just my $.02.

Charlie's full of surprises lol

 

[Bruce]

Don’t recall name. DSL days.

The only one close to that timeframe was Vudu ( the Vudu Box), but they are very much still in business ( now known as Fandango at Home).

 

[n0qcu]

Back in the day there were XXX services that had their own streaming box.

 

[Bruce]

Back in the day there were XXX services that had their own streaming box.

Probably why Navy conveniently did not remember the service.

 

[navychop]

Well, I’m glad you’ve had your fun. Do you remember much about your Internet access from 30ish years ago?

I remember I had to install a device on the copper lines in house to separate out the DSL and voice functions to improve the signal. I don’t remember the name of the Internet provider I used back then. But I remember they, and the company I went to after them, going under. Famous name, too. They dropped like flies.

And yes, there was some provided equipment to utilize the service.

I don’t think the term “streaming service” was even in use back then. So my use of the term may be inaccurate.

 

[Peter Parker]

Well, I’m glad you’ve had your fun. Do you remember much about your Internet access from 30ish years ago?

I remember I had to install a device on the copper lines in house to separate out the DSL and voice functions to improve the signal. I don’t remember the name of the Internet provider I used back then. But I remember they, and the company I went to after them, going under. Famous name, too. They dropped like flies.

And yes, there was some provided equipment to utilize the service.

I don’t think the term “streaming service” was even in use back then. So my use of the term may be inaccurate.

I recall that some encrypted OTA services like SuperTV and Wometco Home Theater used proprietary boxes. I do not recall that with internet delivered content but I was not looking.

 

[Peter Parker]

Short answer - yes. IF Dish is headed for the iceberg, and in my opinion that's a big if, what's your hurry? Ignore all the nay sayers on the forum, they've been wrong about Charlie all along the way. He just fleeced DTV and used that ploy as leverage to get the financing he needed to keep going so rather than admit they were wrong they immediately changed their story to "Well what's he going to do next time?" etc, etc. If it's going to hit the iceberg wait until it happens it's not like options won't be available at the time. Just my $.02.First of all I am in no hurry but i wan to have some idea of where i might go

if you are happy with the service and price you are paying, stay with the service. I would not base my decision to leave on their business environment. It's not as if the instability of Dish would leave you exposed financially or facing irreparable harm - it's a tv service, not something more critical like say a bank or your alarm system. If they go belly up tomorrow, you can switch to any service in minutes without missing a beat.

Now if it's price/options/something else, then the conversation is different entirely. Personally, I would not leave one traditional provider for another, but that's just me.

It is all abourt being prepared when and if the end comes or service degrades to the point I am no longer interested.

 

[John2021]

It is all abourt being prepared when and if the end comes or service degrades to the point I am no longer interested.

Alot of companies will becoming to an end cable is dated since more and more fibers are being deployed and 5g. I consider pricing to make me loose interest in a service. Most providers charge rates i don't consider acceptable for single families!!!!

 

[brice52]

And I do not have any of those issues when streaming.

me either

 

[tjboston5676]

back in the day i could see owning it. but not in todays world. they won't drop the fee's makes no sense to own it. also leasing covers things like natural disasters and power surges. one would have to buy new hardware out of pocket in one of those events.

The fees are access fees, not lease fees. Leasing is basically them letting you borrow equipment at zero charge as long as a sign an initial two year agreement guaranteeing income.

Also purchased receivers get replaced for free as well. The benefit to purchased equipment is you can turn them on and off as you please, can mix purchased vip with hopper, and can sell it if no longer needed.

 

[AntiMoz]

I left Dish 2 years ago after both Spectrum and Armstrong strung fiber in my rural area. Before that Dish was my only option as we are too far out in the boonies for OTA as well. We stream YouTube TV (YTTV) mainly for locals. We also use ESPN+ with a VPN that works great for watching our local sports teams.

We find the cloud DVR to be fine using YTTV and probably wouldn’t even subscribe to it if we had better OTA coverage. Frankly, between the commercial supported streaming services (TUBI, Samsung TV, Pluto TV, etc.) and YouTube there is plenty to choose from that come without monthly subscripton fees.

 

[jsmit86]

I have dish, and also YouTube TV.
Dish has by far the best user interface, and DVR.
YouTube TV currently has NFL Sunday ticket, and also has outstanding picture quality, which was surprising to me. Dish is good PQ, but fast motion on sports is not as good on the regular HD channels, due to compression, and perhaps down resing.

On the other hand, there is absolutley no visible difference in the dish picture when viewing the 540.x 4K channels. If dish was no longer avalable, I would probably go with YouTube TV. I also really love the PIP, and Multiview on dish.

 

[savarese04]

It is all abourt being prepared when and if the end comes or service degrades to the point I am no longer interested.

I get what you're saying, but my point is, this isn't a critical service that requires a backup. For instance, if you hear your alarm company might be going kaput, you're gonna want to get in front of that and switch now because that sort of variability isn't good or safe.

This is TV. If Dish goes under today and you suddenly find yourself without TV for a couple days while you find something new, big deal? I just think this is a lot of effort and worry being spent on a thing that's of fairly low importance and impact overall. Plus, in the name of being prepared, the market is shifting so much that whatever prep work you are doing now will likely be obsolete in as soon as 6 months.

If you're happy, ride the train to the end and then jump off when it crashes. To each their own, though

 

[NYDutch]

My wife and I dropped Dish a year ago Christmas Day, and have not regretted it for a moment. We subscribe to YTTV for the locals and our most watched "cable" channels, plus Frndly to fill in a few missing channels. We also have Paramount+ free with our Walmart+ account, and we subscribe to Netflix and ESPN+. I don't count our Internet service, Netflix, or ESPN+ in our comparison costs with Dish, since we had them at the same time as Dish. YTTV and Frndly combined cost us about half what we were paying for Dish. We have Firesticks installed on five TV's. We haven't seen any buffering except during a two hour storm related cable outage when I switched the two in use Firesticks to the hotspot service on my phone.

 

[John2021]

The fees are access fees, not lease fees. Leasing is basically them letting you borrow equipment at zero charge as long as a sign an initial two year agreement guaranteeing income.

Also purchased receivers get replaced for free as well. The benefit to purchased equipment is you can turn them on and off as you please, can mix purchased vip with hopper, and can sell it if no longer needed.

True and i agree. I don't know if Dish leases hardware with no contract. Direct leased us a 4k mini no contract the lady said it was 199.99 to lease it thank God they waived the charge because of the situation. I felt like we should have owned it lol.

 

[John2021]

And I do not have any of those issues when streaming.

I have a gf that don't like scrolling and loves her channel buttons

 

[ewindowman]

I have probably all streaming platforms for my daughter. I don’t use any of them. I tried Hulu live but nothing compares to turning on the tv and watching a show not hitting input select scroll down find your app then find your login screen then click on the channel list then hit the wrong freeking button and start all over again. I agree with others Dish isn’t going anywhere At least not in the near future so I really wouldn’t worry about it. If it does go dark then you can decide what you would like to do. There are many options which is a good thing.