After 20+ years of Coastside Cable / Comcast service, our household finally cut the cable and signed up for satellite service.

For years struggled through snowy reception on the local channels rendering KTVU, KRON, KPIX, KGO, and KQED at times,  unwatchable. The reason given by the cable company is that they are pulling down the signal from an antenna and then sending the signal through their system.  Pretty poor antenna.

Add to that the lack of Hi Definition service - it is 2007 after all - and you have a recipe for switching.

So our choices were Dish Network and DirecTV.  I’ll leave it to others to discuss the merits of the two services, but we went with Dish because of the HD selection that’s available now.  DirecTV’s expanded HD service is due any day according to their announcements.

The installation was a little more involved than I thought it would be.  Our existing cable was too outdated to be able to carry the HD signal so we had to have a new cable run from the dish to the TV. The Dish installer was very good and thorough and all installation costs were free.

I’m happy to report that we are tickled to have crystal clear reception throughout the 100 channels we’re receiving.  The HD picture is “Com-castic”, and I’m wondering why we waited so long.

Downsides…
It’s a little bit more expensive than the basic-plus Analog service we were receiving from Comcast, but I now have a DVR and HD service.

For local sports, Foxsports Bay Area is another $5/month.

KQED and KRON HD are not available for some reason.

And so, we bid adieu to Comcast and replace it a significantly better viewing experience.

David congrat’s we also dropped our Comcast we were customer’s of Comcast & before that Coastside Cable since 1969 we changed to Dish this year & are we glad for the same reasons you did lousy local reception no HD etc.. Our cable in the house was also outdated but the 2 Dish installers did a great job with the rewiring & dish installation.

I think the most irritating for us is how fuzzy channel 54 gets, not sure why that is.  A friend in Redwood City did just the opposite recently, as his Dish Network reception was poor, and now enjoys Comacst cable reception & services.  Makes me think that not all Comcast service is created equal.  Comcast on the Coast needs to upgrade its service before all you see are satellite dishes on homes…..

I’m now convinced that a big part of the explanation for lousy picture quality on Comcast on the Coastside is simply lack of attention to maintenance of the equipment.  A couple of nights ago, CH 7 was basically unwatchable.  I called and was told that it’s been reported.  I continued to watch the show, and after not too long the picture flickered off a couple of times as if someone was reseating a connector, and then it came back on crystal clear.  CH 3 quality is a sawtooth—it keeps getting worse and worse until they get some complaints, then they fix it and it’s ok again (never good, just ok.  But it immediately although maybe imperceptibly goes downhill again, until the complaints come in.  Repeat from the top.  And since CH 3 moved their transmitter to San Bruno mountain a year or two ago, there’s simply no excuse for the crappy picture here.

I ran a poll regarding DSL vs Comcast in El Granada here:  http://coastsider.com/index.php/townhall/viewthread/26/
On Town Hall, the polls never close, so feel free to vote there if the poll applies.

I’m trying to think up how to word a Comcast vs satellite poll.  Any suggestions?  Here’s what I can come up with at the moment:
- I’m happy with Comcast cable TV
- I’m not happy with Comcast cable TV but don’t want to spend the money to get satellite
- I switched to satellite because Comcast’s picture is crappy
- I switched to satellite because I wanted HD
- I switched to satellite for some other reason
- I have a rooftop antenna and only watch channels that I can pick up
- TV?  What’s that?

Any other questions?  This needs to be fully thought out before creating the poll because questions can’t be added once the poll is created.

I’m in Moss Beach and have been very satisfied with Comcast’s cable internet. 

I’m not all that thrilled with digital cable, but frankly I don’t have any specific problems that warrant much griping, either. 

My biggest complaint is that it’s irritating that we don’t have the option for cable telephone thru Comcast yet.  Has anyone tried one of the cable telephone alternates, especially Vonage?

I don’t like the pricetag that comes along with satellite cable and the lack of available local stations at a reasonable price.  My TV just isn’t that important to me, not enough to pay ~$100/mo to get a crystal clear picture.

Getting HD was the driver for our switch from Comcast to Dish as well back in January. We also chose Dish over DirecTV for the amount of HD programming they offered. The installation could be improved if the installers would have things like HDMI and digital audio cables available for purchase at the time of installation, but that’s really a nit. We’ve been really happy with the service since. I like the fact that with Dish we only needed two receivers for the four TVs in the house.

Be careful cancelling your Comcast TV service though. We very clearly cancelled only the TV, not our HSI service. About a month or so after we cancelled, one of their contractors came out to make the disconnect and did so by cutting both the cable we use for HSI AND the cable from the satellite dish for our non-HD TVs. They did come out the next day to fix it, but only after we heatedly escalated the issue.

We presumed that, when they fixed our cut cables, they also installed the filter to disconnect the TV service. Not so, apparently. A couple of weeks ago, we found a door hanger advising us that they had disconnected the TV service we’d been receiving without paying for it. Looks like they did it the right way this time. I’m not sure I’d ever go back to Comcast after this.

I also switched from Comcast to Dish Satellite.  If you join during a promotion Dish is usually significantly less expensive than cable for the same level of programming.  I also like the Dish DVR and interface better than Comcast DVR.

I also switched from Comcast High-Speed Internet (~$50 per month) to Yahoo DSL (~$13 per month for the first 10 months then $20 per month).  DSL is slower than cable in THEORY but in practice I haven’t seen much of a speed difference…..

-Mark

Leonard, you may want to add “I switched to satellite because Comcast’s customer service bites the big one”. They ranked number three in MSNBC’s recent Customer Service Hall of Shame Poll.  We dealt with Comcast for one year while we were in the San Jose area, and it was a nightmare. Examples upon request. :)

We have Dish Network out here, and although our signal is weak because of trees, they’ve been fine to deal with. They’ve repeatedly offered to allow us out of our contract without penalty due to the weak signal, if we so desire, but honestly the picture is good enough for us. We lose a lot of the “wow” factor on the HD channels, but I’d rather put up with that than put up with Comcast’s trained monkeys. We’ve had none of the issues we had with Comcast. I will say that the Dish installation was a three-ring circus. Be aware that Dish subcontracts their installations. If you aren’t satisfied with the installer, be sure to let Dish know.

Are you being ComCasted?

For those using their high-speed Internet services, you might find this informative, especially if you have had ‘problems’ using BitTorrent - disconnects (received ‘unknown’ reset packets):

Comcast blocks some Internet traffic

AP tests Comcast’s file-sharing filter

Comcast appears to be the only US ISP to terminate legitimate legal file transfers without notice and giving the appearance of the receiver / sender dropping the line.

Ken Johnson