Dish Network

I don't recall having written about this before so I'll do a quickie. We got Dish Network just before the football season started. We had been holding out on cable/satellite programming since we've lived together. Partly, we figured it was way too expensive but also too potentially engrossing. Well, both were legitimate concerns but I'm still glad we got Dish.

The worst thing I heard about Dish Network is that the weather could affect the signal. The only time we've lost the signal so far is when the power went out during a particularly nasty storm last Fall. Dish has a number of packages available which sets them apart from all the other options. We get "America's Top 60" which includes most of the normal stations + locals. It's less expensive than any package from Comcast or DirecTV.

The clincher is their DVR. It's essentially the same as Tivo and I've read that Tivo was trying to sue Dish because of the similarity. Apparently, the folks at Tivo brought a beta load to show Dish back in the day and they refused to partner only to reverse-engineer their own interface. So, the similarity is not surprising. Regardless of who started it, I love it. It must be good for the smaller cable channels because now there's no reason to miss one of their shows. I have favorites on many different channels.

It's absolutely brilliant for the rare occasions when we have nothing better to do but watch TV. We don't have to settle for what's on at the moment and the ability to pause live TV is far more handy than I would have expected. And the best feature of all: the 30-second skip button. It jumps you ahead (in recorded shows) in 30-second increments, so a few button pushes and you're through a commercial break. Brilliant.

Sorry if this is redundant but we got the Dish so I could see the Bears games clearly (finally) this year and it's been totally worth it.