|
Dish Network Beats Cable
Dish Network Beats Cable
By:
Julia Hall
Cable TV providers are fighting it out with satellite TV providers to see who can deliver the best service, most cutting edge technology, and ultimately win over the majority of customers by doing so. Unfortunately for the cable companies, when you look at a satellite TV company like Dish Network, there's simply no way they can compete.
Dish Network has cable companies beat hands down in terms of value. Programming packages from Dish Network start at about twenty dollars while most cable companies won't give you anything for less than seventy. Dish Network also offers a lot more for the money. Dish Network has hundreds of available channels, while most cable companies offer up to 100, and almost none offer as many as 150. With fewer channels comes fewer options. Dish Network can provide extra programming including foreign language packages, seasonal sports subscriptions like NHL on the Ice, ESPN Gameday, NBA League Pass, and MLB Extra Innings. Cable can't. Dish Network provides free equipment upgrades like digital video recorders, HDTV equipment, allows you to bring satellite TV into extra rooms of your house at no extra charge. Cable television doesn't offer any free equipment and often charges $5 and up per extra room. With 29 available HDTV channels, Dish Network offers more high definition programming than anyone else in the industry. Some cable providers offer some HDTV programming, but in general HDTV is very limited over cable. Dish Network is also more reliable with significantly less outage time than cable companies. Combine all of that with the fact that cable rates have increased an average of 8.2 percent over the past few years, and it's amazing anyone still subscribes to cable television service.
Another major disadvantage of cable television is that it's only available in limited areas. In general, if you want cable you have to live in or near a mid sized town. Dish Network on the other hand is available anywhere you can set up a satellite dish and aim it at the southern sky. This makes Dish Network enormously more flexible than cable. Many people have dishes on their boats or RV's so they can enjoy their favorite show from anywhere. Dish Network also makes it easy to bring your television service with you when you move. Simply reinstall the system with the dish aimed south and you're back in business!
The reason why cable service is more limited and more expensive boils down to one issue: bandwidth. Band width is the amount of data that can be sent over any given medium. Cables by their very nature have limited bandwidth. They can be replaced with new cables with higher capacity, which the cable companies are doing, but they still have serious limits on the amount of data they can carry. Dish Network on the other hand, sends it's programming using electromagnetic waves which don't have nearly the bandwidth limitations of cables. The result is that satellite television providers like Dish Network can keep up with customer demand for more channels and data intensive entertainment formats like digital television and HDTV much more easily than cable can and without having to lay more cable every time the technology changes.
For value for the money, variety of programming, and delivering new technologies, satellite television providers like Dish Network are the clear choice over cable.
Author Bio
W. King writes articles for consumers who want to find the best Dish Network offers currently available. She has written for many major publications about the latest Satellite TV deals and promotions and how buyers can find the best discounts.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content
|
Comparing Cable and Satellite
Comparing Cable and Satellite
By:
Julia Hall
There's a lot of debate over whether satellite television providers or cable television providers offer superior service, value, and program selection. But when you compare cable television with a satellite television provider like Dish Network, there really is no comparison. Dish Network is able to offer more programming in more different areas than cable television, and all of it with the high quality of a completely digital signal.
For example, Dish Network offers programming packages starting at about $20 while cable packages start at around $70. Dish Network can also deliver well over 200 channels, while cable providers top out at around 100. Dish Network can deliver special seasonal sports subscriptions like MLB Extra Innings, ESPN Gameday, NHL on the Ice, and NBA League Pass, while cable just provides your local sports programming. Dish Network also lets you hook up extra televisions for no additional charge while cable bills you at upwards of an extra $5 per television. Dish Network offers free equipment upgrades to help you get a digital video recorder or HDTV. Cable doesn't bother.
So how is Dish Network able to deliver so much more while charging so much less money? The answer is simple: Dish Network doesn't rely on cables to deliver it's programming. Dish Network's digital television signals are sent from a broadcasting station on the Earth's surface up to satellites orbiting 25,000 miles above the equator. The satellites bounce the signals back to the Earth where they can be picked up by anyone who has a satellite dish and receiver capable of decoding them. The electromagnetic waves that carry the signals are essentially free and don't have any inherent limit on the amount of data they can carry. Cables on the other hand cost money to buy and install, and will always be limited in the amount of data they can carry. In other words, while cable companies struggle to improve their infrastructure to meet the constantly growing demand for more data intensive TV technology, Dish Network can simply concentrate on finding better ways to deliver that technology to it's customers.
Another advantage that Dish Network has is that it operates on a greater scale. Most cable companies are local affairs which means that each company operates in a limited area with limited customers. Those limited customers have to bear the brunt of all of the costs associated with running the business. Dish Network on the other hand is a nationwide company that spreads it's administrative costs out over it's 12 million customers. This means that Dish Network costs less to run for each customer than cable and the savings can be passed on to the customers and used to improve programming and technology. Also because of the fact that Dish Network's satellites are broadcasting their signals everywhere, there's no limit on the number of people who can sign up for the service. All you need to get Dish Network service is a place where you can set up a dish and aim it at a patch of sky to the south. But if you want cable TV service and you're too far out of town, you're simply out of luck.
To give credit where credit is due, cable providers are trying to catch up, but considering the disadvantages of their technology and their business model they're simply too far behind. Satellite TV companies like Dish Network will continue to move forward in meeting the high demands of television enthusiasts everywhere.
Author Bio
W. King writes articles for consumers who want to find the best Dish Network Offers currently available. She has written for many major publications about the latest satellite TV deals and promotions and how buyers can find the best discounts.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content
Compact Entertainment from Dish Network
Compact Entertainment from Dish Network
If you love being able to watch television when you want and where you want, Dish Network's new line of PocketDishes may be a great choice for you. Pocket Dishes are ultra compact portable entertainment systems that make it easy to take your favorite movies television programs, music, and pictures with you wherever you go. You can also play action adventure and role playing video games downloadable from Dish Network onto your PocketDish.
There are three different models in the PocketDish line. There's the super-compact entry level model, the AV402E, the mid sized AV500E, and the state of the art, AV700E. Each has a built in color LCD screen and a hard drive for storing music, digital photographs, video games, and video content. The music, video, and photos can be downloaded from any computer while the games and Dish Network program content can be downloaded through a Dish Network receiver.
The entry level AV402E has more limited capabilities than the other two, but in light of the fact that it's only 4.2 inches by 2.4 inches by 0.7 inches, having fewer bells and whistles is understandable. At 20 Gigabytes the AV402E's hard drive is still impressive. It can store up to 20 hours of Dish Network programs, 10,000 songs in WMA, MP3, or WAV formats, and 200,000 photos in JPEG format. The screen is only 2.2 inches and has a standard 4:3 aspect ratio which would make viewing shows in wide screen format extremely difficult. The AV402E also lacks speakers and instead relies on headphones to deliver audio. One thing that the AV402E has that the other models don't is an integrated microphone for taking notes.
The two other PocketDishes, the AV500E and the AV700E have more in common with each other than with the AV402E. They both have 16:9 aspect ratio screens to allow you to watch wide format movies. They also have built in speakers which eliminate the need for headphones. Some neat extras both come with are remote controls, docking stations, and viewing stands. But what really sets them apart form the AV402E is the fact that they're both Digital Video Recorders. That is, both the AV500E and the AV700E can record video off of almost any television, DVD player, cable box, satellite receiver, or VCR. Even better, when the AV500E or AV700E record video from a non-Dish Network source the storage capacity can as much as quadruple. This means that the AV700E, which can hold up to 40 hours of Dish Network programming, can hold as much as 160 hours of video from another source!
The AV500E has a 30 Gig hard drive that can contain as much as 30 hours of Dish Network programming (or 120 hours from some other source), 300,000 digital photos, and 15,000 songs. The actual unit is 4.8 inches by 3 inches by 0.8 inches, giving it room for a 4 inch screen.
As mentioned above, the AV700E has a huge (considering it's size) 40 gigabyte hard drive that can carry as many as 40 hours of Dish Network shows, 20,000 songs, and 400,000 photos. At 8.2 inches by 4.2 inches by 0.8 inches, it's by far the biggest PocketDish and has room for a generous 7 inch screen.
With the new PocketDishes, Dish Network has proven that an entire home entertainment system can be reduced to a pocket sized unit.
Author Bio
This article is for consumers looking for information on Satellite TV. It provides a resource for finding Dish Network Promotions, and any great Dish Network offers that are currently available.
Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content
|