Dish Satellite Television is leaping above the pack in service, quality and options. My first satellite dish was a monster that engulfed about one-third of my backyard. It had to be aimed directly and precisely to the satellite I wanted to view and then it had to be fine tuned to get the best reception. This required a receiver unit, a tuner unit and a satellite positioning unit (plus another black box, if I wanted to watch certain channels). At the time, this was thought to be hi-tech stuff, and a person was actually proud that everyone for miles around could see the behemoth ten-foot satellite dish, it was a symbol of status. The truth is, that we lived on the side of a mountain in a somewhat remote location so if we wanted any kind of decent television to watch, this was our best option at the time. It sure beat continuously turning a rectangular antennae that we previously had mounted atop a thirty foot pole. The truth is, that I am happy to finally be rid of my huge eyesore and all the cables and equipment it took to operate it.
There have been huge leaps in satellite television technology since then. Satellite dishes are now no larger than 20 inches and can be placed in an obscure area on your roof. Large satellite dishes are no longer a symbol of status. Today is the age of Big Screen television. We purchased our big screen (54 inches) about two years ago. It came with High Definition capability, but at the time I did not know what I was missing, so I did not bother to check into HD programming. I never watched a lot of television until the past couple of years. First I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, and my age is starting to really slow me down. After a day at work, I am wiped out, and it has become more likely for me to spend the evening watching the big screen TV. It was nice to have a big screen TV, but nothing special.
Until the day that my big screen television was hooked up to high definition dish programming. Now all I can say is WOW! What a difference HD makes. The clarity of high definition television is about two-thirds better than traditional television. Combine this with a greater selection of decent channels to watch, a simple surround sound system and a DVR (which was free) and WOW! I feel absolutely spoiled rotten, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I even have a remote control that operates every piece of media equipment I own. I even got rid of my stereo unit because everything is now “hooked up” to the television. You used to have to posses five to eight different units for different kinds of media. With modern big screen televisions and a DVR combined with a simple surround sound system, you can do it all from the comfort of your chair and one universal remote control (the remote control is the only technology that has not been reduced in size, and that is simply because it controls everything). Between these three pieces of equipment I can watch, record and playback HD television. I can listen to my favorite music on dish satellite or plug my iPod right into the television. I can also view all the digital pictures I have of my grand-children by inserting an SD-Card into the ready made slot. I can even hook my PC directly to my big screen for awesome gaming or detailed graphic manipulation. I am really not a lazy person, these capabilities just free up more of my time for important things. Once you have it all set up, you control it all from anywhere in the room. There are even remote programming capabilities using the Internet or your cell phone (I haven’t tried those yet).
I mentioned set up, so let’s take a moment to discuss that. The thought of having a new satellite dish installed probably delayed my decision about as much as anything else. When I got my first ten foot monster dish back in the nineties, it took several men several days to assemble, install, wire and tune all of the gigantic pieces of hardware that it took to simply operate the television. I had to pay the “satellite technician” several hundred dollars for his time, as well as supplying volunteer workers for the assembly and installation. When I finally made the decision to get “hooked up” with Dish TV, They sent a very young man to install everything. To my surprise and delight, he was able to install set up and fine tune everything almost as fast as he could explain how to use the remote control. Installation came Free with the dish package I signed up for, and it truly was, a surprise and delight.
I am a simple and humble working drone like every other red-blooded American. I work hard for every dollar I earn and I believe that service is just as valuable as products. Self-serve has become an American way of life. I miss the days of gas station attendants that would pump your gas and check your car, hostesses and waiters that would attend to your desires and even bank tellers that you could have a decent conversation with. Today, we have to build our own furniture, pump our own gas, serve our own food and just try to get a real person on the phone when you need them (all you get is a maze of recorded prompts). The “kid” who installed my dish system would have spent the whole day with me, just explaining how everything worked. That means a lot to a man like me.
If you are half the media hound that I am, you owe it to yourself to check out the features and offers that dish TV has for you. I am certain that you will be as pleased as I was with the service and the value that you will get (over one hundred HD channels. I will not worry about reruns for a long time to come). What are you waiting for? Get “Hooked Up” with Dish TV. By the way, my seventy-one year old father recently added dish TV to his sixty-one inch television. So, in the words of my father, “that’s pretty cool”.
By: Charles Beason About the Author:
Article By: Charles Beason
Charles is a Small Business owner, content writer and Pastor in the High Desert of Southern California. Visit his Dish Biz website at
http://www.R-U-Dished.synthasite.com This article is copyright (c) 2008 by Charles Beason, and may be reprinted in it’s entirety as long as this byline and copyright statement is included.
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