Personally, we've been pretty happy with DirecTV. They do have a cheaper package now, I think it's meant to compete with Dish's cheap package and the basic cable package. The only complaints I have about it is rain does frequently knock it out. Also the people they having working for them are hit-or-miss on whether they know what they're talking about. But, you only have to deal with them when first setting things up, adding/changing your setup, or there's a problem, which doesn't happen very often.<br>
<br>Of course, if you DO go DirecTV, e-mail me off-list for info on how we can each save $100.<br><br>Regarding antennas, stay away from RCA. I've come to the conclusion that RCA stands for Really Crappy Apparatus. I had an RCA antenna and couldn't get locals in West Des Moines. I bought a Terk antenna about a year ago, and like it as a backup. The one problem that I discovered with it is I still had to move it when going to/from channel 13. I don't understand why, it's my understanding that the towers are within 2 degrees of each other. That isn't very much, I thought I'd be able to put the antenna such that it was 1 degree away from the highest and lowest angles. But I was never able to get it set right. For us, it is just a backup. Like I said, with satellite, if it rains too hard, you'll lose signal. But you also get more channels than OTA.<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 1:50 PM, Matthew Nuzum <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:newz@bearfruit.org">newz@bearfruit.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div class="im">On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 12:45 PM, Jim Asbille <<a href="mailto:jim.asbille@gmail.com">jim.asbille@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> I got the same letter from Mediacom. We are losing CNN as well. I am<br>
> thinking of going to antennae but don't want to lose my Internet access for<br>
> $40ish a month. Are there any reasonable broadband access alternatives that<br>
> won't cost much more than this?<br>
><br>
<br>
</div>I switched to Dish for TV and Qwest for DSL. My DSL is $35/mo or so<br>
1.5Mbps down, 768K up. Not good for watching streaming hidef video but<br>
otherwise works great. I spend less now than with mediacom's basic<br>
package + internet and as a bonus have a DVR. Download bandwidth is<br>
down (from 7Mbps) but upload bandwidth is up. Unless I'm downloading<br>
an iso I usually don't notice the download difference but I often<br>
appreciate the upload speed. The DVR is a blessing and a curse. I used<br>
to never watch TV. At least I can skip the commercials.<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Matthew Nuzum<br>
newz2000 on freenode, skype, linkedin, <a href="http://identi.ca" target="_blank">identi.ca</a> and twitter<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Tim<br>Required reading: <a href="http://bccplease.com/">http://bccplease.com/</a><br>