Cable vs Satellite
Okay guys, thought I should weigh in too.
I've never owned Satellite, but living in Florida, with all the storms, many of my friends have spun very scary horror stories about living with Satellite. Besides constantly losing signal during storms, the dishes are prone to get out of adjustment in heavy storms or heavy coastal winds. My other big concern was that it became very expensive if you have numerous tv sets that require signal. Because you have to have a box for each set (if you want to watch different channels at the same time), it gets very expensive. Plus Bright House (Time Warner) provides better local channel viewing, their digital picture was very good, so that made that decision.
Next, I just bought my first HD Set last year, a Panasonic 34" CRT, #CT WX-53, and although I had a problem with the set that required a service call, the picture on cable HDTV stations is superb. Most of my friends can't believe it. Of couurse, I pay too damn much, but let's wait for further competition to drive the pricing down. I'd like to get more HD channels, currently only about 8 or 9, but am hoping that they add ESPN soon, as well as NBC.
Next, I also have Road Runner, but having had DSL previously at my old house, my experience is that DSL was significantly faster, due in part to the fact that Cable Modems employ a daisy-chain topology. Simply put, if your at the end of the chain, you're SOL. My upload and download times are certainly nothing to write home about. My old computer was a P1, and was faster when running on DSL than my new P4 on Cable. Sad, really. Also, I have not found that Road Runner's service department has not been anything to write home about. They always seem as if they want to help, but seem fairly inept, or aren't allowed to provide instructions on a given topic.
On to the next great horizon, which is Fiber to the Premises. Watch out, because THIS will be the future. Verizon is rolling this out nationwide, in selected locations, and it will bundle phone, IP services, cable, and who knows what else, for supposedly, an extremely attractive and competitive price. When that rolls out, cable will have to be dropping pricing drastically, because co-ax simply can't compete with the bandwidth fiber can provide. I can't wait! DSL will be old school, since it's delivered over copper facilities. Don't know what they'll offer, maybe transparent LAN. We'll find out.
Well, there you have it. Enjoy.
Pat