lol
i was about to agree with you until i realized that's how much i paid out to get satellite internet.
dial up sucked, and wasn't going to get better anytime soon. no cable out here in the middle of nowhere. so i have dishnetwork for the t.v., and direcway for the internet. they're wonderful.

as for losing signal, only in the worst weather, when it'd probably be best to turn off computers, etc anyway. interesting tho that dish goes before the internet. so, yeah, two dishes, but plenty of yard so it's no big deal.

Rupert,

I have had Dish for 2 years with no problems. I love it. I have been in horse player heaven since I had installed. Between HRTV and TVG you will see every big race in the country and some not in the country. I received free installation but I am in a one family house. I have two DVD recorders which can record up to 100 hours of programming each. If you wind up paying $1000.00 for the installation maybe you could sublet your signal to your neighbors. You know become your own private cable company. :rolleyes: Good Luck!

Same here -- Dish is the bomb. Hell, my TW cable went out in bad weather more than my Dish. And if the Dish goes out it's back on again in a few minutes. When cable went out it was for most of the day. From what I understand cable TV often sends signals by satellite. Then they transmit over the cable to your house.

I saved about $400 per year by going with Dish. That's like a free flight to Vegas!

I had Dish installed a week ago tomorrow and so far I love it. But before I had DishTV, the only way I got to see the races was by having several of the gals from my herem re-enact the races for me. They would spend hours scouring the charts and practice religiously to make sure I got a legitamate interpretation of the races. For the big races, they donned the silks (normally they wore nothing at all) of the farms from which the horses presided. The smaller ladies would ride the more muscular mares for all they were worth and every now and then, I even got into the act and took a mount. I have to say my women really respond to the whip. I would have to say Dish provides more horse racing for your buck, but until you see a gaggle of women riding each other and responding to a solid spur to their side, you don't know true racing...

How is the programming in general? Would you say the dish is a big improvement to cable in terms of the programming? Do you get a lot more channels with the dish?

Question about HRTV and/or TVG. Do they telecast all the races on a card at a track or do they just pick & choose ?

sometimes theyll only show the partial card of a track, this information youll find on their respecive websites. 1 thing that irritates the hell outta me is tvg wont show you a live race from calder or arlington and will show em on tape delay sometimes just so you can see a frickin live post parade from NY

Well, I live in the hills between HWD PARK and the 10 freeway.So,we get a lot of wind,but I haven't had a problem at all with the satellite with wind(if they bolt it in good,then it is o.k.)Since we don't live in Playa's icebox,we don't have the snow problem.Sometimes I have problems when it rains a lot at one time.The cables from the dish back to the room I am in get a little water in them,but it isn't a problem unless it rains hard,and I think other people may not have the same minor problem.I am a long way from my Dish(big house)so it's a lot of cable.Most people are closer to their dish.

i haven't had cable in forever. dish has a ton of channels. i'd imagine if you get the top package you would get more.
go to dishnetwork dot com. they have all their packages listed, as well as movie channel packages. and you can get local network channels. then you can compare to what you've got now.

and i believe you can still add channels ala carte. so you can get a lesser package if the bigger only has one more channel you're looking for, and then add that one extra channel.

only problem i've had is when my kid backed into the dish pole with the atv. and i only lose signal in a pouring rain. and i mean, pouring!

You need to get HRTV out there and simulcast that -- sounds like a race that would cause me to skip the Derby. I take it that all your women have lip tattoos so you can tell them apart :D .

I get more channels for the $ and frankly the picture is better also. I had digital cable and it wasn't as clear as the picture with the Dish.

You can't beat it. After some of the neighbors saw the picture they started going with the Dish too. I'd say at least 75% of the homes in the area now have the Dish. TW cable has really taken a beating here and deservedly so. TW jacked everyone's rates yearly and were difficult to deal with at times.

That's the truth. They prioritize the NY and CA races -- possibly because it's more betting handle. To me, HRTV is much better. They talk more about the racing and also show more races on time. TVG talks way too much about their Pick 4 tickets and such -- some of the staff there clearly have ego issues. They'll spend 20 minutes talking about their Pick 4 and Pick 6 tickets (few of which ever hit) while you're left wondering if they are going to show any racing on time. I could frankly care less what people like Todd Schmuck or Matty Carrothers play in their tickets.

Time Warner Cable is now telling me that they will continue to air TVG in my area in 2007. I guess I won't need a dish after all.

From what you all have told me, it sounds like having a dish is much better than cable. If I lived in a house, I would get a dish. But since I live in a building that already has cable and it sounds like it would be a pretty big hassle to get a dish here, I will just stick with cable for now.