I'm bailing out of Comcast: now, is it Dish or Direct TV (Scranton area)? (movies, cost)

[Chefkey]

DISH with the Hopper Service is the best and I have tried all. They will throw in an IPAD right now as part of the offer. I'm not sure how long that lasts.

You will love the DVR service on the Hopper and you can even connect external drives. I have a 2 GB hard drive connected to mine and we record movies at night and then transfer them there. It automatically records prime time of the major channels and skips the commercials when you watch back. You will still lose signal during a bad storm but if you have tons of recorded stuff like I do you just watch that during those times. This only happens during really bad storms though so most of the time we just turn on and watch. Plus the HD signal is so crisp, even better the DirectTV and I thought they had good HD until I saw DISH.

It's a good service...for now lol

[thecoalman]

If you call them, plead poverty and threaten to cancel they will lower it. Repeat in a few years.

And I do need internet access, preferably hi-speed like I have now with

That's an issue, the only thin I'm aware of in most areas is going to be DSL and that is considerably slower. However it should be adequate for most people unless you're using online services like Netflix.

[lorac07]

I researched extensively and asked a lot of questions. My solution, as I now see it, is to keep Comcast for the high-speed internet, which they will charge $75 plus $7 for equipment. I'm going to stream Netflix and HuluPlus for the tv/movies I like (which will cost me another $16 per month). And I'll use internet for the radio stations that I now get listen to on comcast (newage, blues, etc). I don't like paying $81 for internet, but it's a workable solution for now and I'll keep looking for more reasonable but as-good internet providers.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by lorac07

I researched extensively and asked a lot of questions. My solution, as I now see it, is to keep Comcast for the high-speed internet, which they will charge $75 plus $7 for equipment.

I don't know what their current rates are but $75 seems pretty steep for the lowest plan, you really don't need anything faster than their lowest plan. You can buy your own modem, you don't need to pay that $7 either.

[Chefkey]

It does sound like a lot. Can you get Pen Tele Data? We have that through Service Electric for $45 and it is very fast. Sometimes lately I get up to 800 kbps down per second 100 kbps up. Maybe out there you can just had PTD hook up to your existing Cable line after you boot Comcast to the curb.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by Chefkey

It does sound like a lot. Can you get Pen Tele Data? We have that through Service Electric for $45 and it is very fast. Sometimes lately I get up to 800 kbps down per second 100 kbps up. Maybe out there you can just had PTD hook up to your existing Cable line after you boot Comcast to the curb.

That's DSL speeds, does it get much better than that?

I have the lowest plan Comcast offers and the speeds are consistently 22mbps down and 4mbps up.

Comcast costs more but one complaint I do not have is with the service itself. It's always what I'm paying for, it's fast and it rarely goes out.

[Chefkey]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

That's DSL speeds, does it get much better than that?

I have the lowest plan Comcast offers and the speeds are consistently 22mbps down and 4mbps up.

Comcast costs more but one complaint I do not have is with the service itself. It's always what I'm paying for, it's fast and it rarely goes out.

The rating is much higher but the numbers I give are based on "actual" amounts you get anywhere lol.

I use a bandwith monitor so I can see what is up or down. I have a 5mbps plan.

I found this answer online and he sums it up pretty good

A 5Mbps internet speed does not give you 5 MegaByte per second download speed. The Mbps stands for Megabit per second (Mbps) and not MegaByte per second(MBps, notice the capital B).

A 5Mbps would give you ~625 KiloBytes per second (625KBps) transfer rate (8 bit to 1 byte). If you are an ordinary user that just serve the web for email and some streaming like watching video from Youtube, It would be more than sufficient. In fact, if it was like that, it would be better to take a slower but cheaper plan. Even if you do a lot of gaming, any broadband plans above 512kbps would already fufill the needs. Even most video streaming would usually be streaming at 1Mbps or less as the websites want to save bandwidth.

However, If you plan to download large files such as Linux DVD images (4GB) over the internet very frequently, then the plan would suffice. A Linux DVD image would take about 2 hours if the server has the bandwidth to let you transfer at 625KB/s

Personally though, I take a 1Mbps intenet plan and find it more than enough even with 2 PCs connected to it at once, both downloading updates and the occational large files. Linux DVD images or files above 4GB is a hassle to wait for though.

[Chefkey]

For the average user this lower plan is still more than fast enough for everything. No sense in paying more if you don't have to.

[jimazee]

If budget is an issue, even 1MBs is decent enough for most email, web surfing, facebook, youtube etc. are very reasonably priced and pretty reliable.

Per Verizon's site DSL today they offer stepped plans from .5 MBs up to 7.1 to 15 Mbps Download 768 Kbps Upload...not world class but enough for most anything in a normal household. (the availability of all plans especially the faster services may vary by area and even neighborhood so must be verified).

Just for the 'record', in some areas (large cities, not NEPA AFAIK...) Verizon offers much faster FIOS. They have been scaling this deployment back and it will not likely be seen in the outlands soon if ever... In fact Verizon is selling off more of the smaller/rural service areas to companies like Frontier who service many NEPA outburbs with similar services to Verizon's.

High Speed Internet Plans | Verizon

PS...some folks get by OK with Over the Air TV service ("OTA") which provides 10-20 basic local channels for free if receivable. One other thing to note is the big boys like Google, Apple, and Amazon to probe into the home "TV"/entertainment market so things are continuing to 'evolve'.

Stay tuned...times are a changin'

[bloominscranton]

When we bought our home in 2009 I ditched Comcast for everything but the internet. Well my direct tv was averaging 130 plus a month, plus 58 for internet and 40 for our phone. Comcast lured me back and as of 7/30 I will have all three for 12 months for 90 plus tax. After that offer expires it will be 120 a month. I need to cut back on fixed expenses while hubby is on furlough and saving money is always a good thing. In a year we will revisit our options. With a 54, 46, 24, and 12 year old in the home having any tv service needs to easy and all inclusive.