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What Is Dish Network TurboHD?

August 22nd, 2009 at 09:56pm Under General

Satellite TV provider DISH Network recently released fresh programming packages called Turbo HD. These packages are all hi definition, removing of the SD networks. Is this new satellite television the right for your family?

It all depends on what your looking for from your cable TV company. Some folks want every single channel that is available. It doesn’t matter to them that 10 of them are jewelry shopping channels, or that five of the channels are public access. They just want all of the channels.

On the other hand, many have become weary of trying to wade past all of the lower tier channels on the television dial, looking for something worthwhile to watch. For consumers who have recently purchased a new flat-screen TV, TurboHD by DISH Network may be the perfect solution.

DISH Network currently offers three different levels with the Turbo HD package, those being Bronze, Silver, and Gold. All of these packages are made up of HD channels only. Pricing starts at about $24.99 per month for the entry level package. That bundle does not include your local channels, which cost $5 more per month.

DISH also has the Platinum package, which is an add-on service to any of the other TurboHD levels. The Platinum level is ten bucks a month, and adds on seven additional hi definitions channels such as HDNet Movies and Universal HD.

One point of contention with some current DISH Network customers is they have not been allowed to switch over to the Turbo HD packages. At this time, just new subscribers to DISH Network have been allowed to get the TurboHD only bundles. Current customers can get DISH TurboHD, but only as an add-on to the standard def package.

A final consideration you should know about is how DISH Network is numbering the networks included in the bundles. For example, the Dish Network Bronze package which includes 44 channels, of which 24 are network channels, six are pay-per-view, and 14 are video-on-demand channels. Some would consider that plenty but others are accustomed to having quite a bit more content to choose from. A final consideration, none of the TurboHD levels include premium movie channels like Starz or Cinemax, so expect to pay an additional fee monthly for commercial free channels like that. For more detail on these packages, check out the latest Dish Network HD reviews.

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Comparing Time Warner vs Direct TV

August 17th, 2009 at 05:06pm Under General

One of the great things about modern cable and satellite TV is all of the sports programming now available to subscribers across the country. While 25 years ago you would see a couple of college football games on Saturday and a few on Sunday, today you can literally pick from two dozen or more games every weekend. Even the NCAA tournament has expanded coverage with the Mega March Madness on Direct TV.

The motto today is “Content is King” and as the saying goes the sports networks want to deliver as much content as possible to the sports fan so they can sell more advertising. Lots of new all-sports channels have popped up over the last few years. A few of the new networks are Altitude Sports, which carries NBA Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche games, and also the Big Ten Network and the Mountian, the network of the Mountain West conference.

Certainly these networks are great for fans in lots of areas, disagreements between the providers of sports programming and cable networks that deliver the content have brought trouble at times to the customer. Consider what happened last fall, the Big Ten Network started airing in 2007, but they were in a carraige dispute with cable TV provider Time Warner. Customers of Time Warner in Illinois were not able to watch some of the local teams play due to this dispute. Fortunately, the parties came to an agreement before the fall football season, so customers could stay with Time Warner instead of having to switch over to one of the satellite TV providers like DISH Network or DirecTV. An important thing to do when considering providers is to consider all factors, comparing Time Warner vs Direct TV.

Out of market sports packages are another consideration for the customer. Some Time Warner cable customers have switched to DirecTV because the NFL Sunday ticket is exlusively on satellite television. This has upset some consumers, who do not understand why a high demand package like this isn’t available to every provider, especially a big company like Time Warner. Alternative packages though are more friendly to subscribers, like the NHL Center Ice and the NBA League Pass, which are available on almost every cable TV and satellite provider. Direct TV seems to have all of the premium sports packages like the Sunday Ticket.

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