Are Europeans brighter than Americans?

Are Europeans brighter than Americans?

This guy that commented my new blog seems convinced that Europe has brighter people than the U.S. does. He also mentioned that the majority of intellectuals we do have come from other countries. Well...I guess he means this generation because technically most of us living here are from different countries.

Anyway, I'd like to hear what you guys think. Are U.S. citizens really less intellectual than Europeans? What about other countries? If you believe one country is more intelligent than another, what did you do to come up with your information?

Thanks and have a great weekend!

Europeans own a debt of gratitude towards the Americans. Period.
But as in a river water keeps passing by.

Originally posted by Belfrager:

But as in a river water keeps passing by.

it's sure the Portuguese would know.

There are intelligent people everywhere, and it could even be that the most intelligent people may come from the USA, but that is far from certain. But I think as a whole, people in Europe are better educated, not to mention they are far less likely to have a large part of their mind brainwashed with religious BS, so they can learn to think for themselves, and have more mental capacity available for learning something useful, as opposed to memorizing fairy tales written and manipulated by people who have used the various sects of Christianity to control and manipulate the masses. The schools tend to be more effective, since they routinely do better on certain proficiency tests. I have only gone to school in the USA, but from what I have heard from my foreign-born friends, students in the USA tend to be far less serious about school, spending most of the time goofing off, blowing off homework/assignments, and even illiterate kids sometimes slip through the gigantic cracks and graduate HS. Also, higher education is more attainable, because European countries don't consider 'socialism' to be an evil word the represents the bogey man and Satan. In the USA, the best schools get the most wealthy students, and the poor kids go to community colleges, or just give up and drop out, regardless of intelligence, because even scholarships will very rarely cover the costs of a good university. And people in Europe tend to be more open-minded, which is a trait that I have always found goes hand in hand with intelligence. Thats not to say that there are not millions of well rounded, open-minded, and intelligent Americans, but if you look at it per capita, I think EU is clearly ahead of us, and will remain there as long as they can avert this current economic mess. As long as Americans keep obsessing over hatred and bigotry instilled in them by the church, they will never truly advance as a society.

I'm just going to agree with that. Very intelligent response!

There are dumb people everywhere. The grass is always greener on the otherside.

It was perhaps a bit naughty to start this thread as levels of intelligence are so wide everywhere and inside countries too. At the same time what I would say is that for being the world's most prosperous nation the mainstream of it's population is rather dumb about the world outside it's large borders. Where countries are their backgrounds even places they have invaded is a strange world.

Originally posted by kr-ash:

and have more mental capacity available for learning something useful,

So, the Human mind has limited capacity?

Originally posted by rjhowie:

It was perhaps a bit naughty to start this thread as levels of intelligence are so wide everywhere and inside countries too. At the same time what I would say is that for being the world's most prosperous nation the mainstream of it's population is rather dumb about the world outside it's large borders. Where countries are their backgrounds even places they have invaded is a strange world.

You bring this up a lot. In fairness, there ain't too many places on this planet you can live without having to deal with the concerns of other countries or cultures. One of the great things about the US... this is one of those places you can, if Great Britain fell off the map tomorrow, the average US citizen wouldn't even have to care... Many would, but that's another great thing about this country. People really do have the right to be ignorant, everyone may not agree and it may not seem like the best thing for them, but it is their choice. A lot of people make it just fine not caring what happens elsewhere on the globe. why do you care so much? If they care so little about you, why worry so much with them?

Originally posted by rjhowie:

the mainstream of it's population is rather dumb about the world outside it's large borders.

Irony knows no end...

Originally posted by jessheartsben:

Are Europeans brighter than Americans?

Yes we are, we run at 220V, not 110...

Well if GB fell off the map it wouldn't bother the average American because he would have a job with a map anyway. As for that sheer American arrogance that is somehow your right to stick your nose in everywhere on the globe?! Maybe that explains the 800 odd military feet in door places? Because it is a big country you tend to think you are bigger and better than anyone else. Yeah tell that to the Marines as they say (well when they have a break from invasions). You lot would be far better off doing a it of naval gazing and you and thedawgfan could do with that one. Your own history contradicts all thees overblown mince about democracy and rights. You never did match up to your words did you? Must say thedawgfan always hides behind irony but it is more at home in the land of the free and home of the brave (yawn). Striding across the world maintaining a vast financial empire, invading countries, corrupting others (thank you CIA). One would have thought that the mess you made of your own land seen visibly today everywhere there would have caused you to rein it a bit. The bubble has burst bit it will take you a long time to adjust and simper about being unappreciated.

It must be annoying that more and more of the world wants less of your damn hypocrisy and patronising smugness.

Oh, and a have a nice day folks!

Originally posted by Belfrager:

Yes we are, we run at 220V, not 110...

Watt?

Okay Rj, I thought we were talking about the average american...

Originally posted by rjhowie:

It must be annoying that more and more of the world wants less of your damn hypocrisy and patronising smugness.

lol to that.

Okay -dokey.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

Well if GB fell off the map it wouldn't bother the average American because he would have a job with a map anyway.

It would bother some.
In regards to your always amusing over-generalisations, I pose this question to you: Where is Mauritania located on the map?
(No cheating!)

When I stayed with an American couple on my second visit to the ex-Colonies for a couple of days I was rather shocked at their lack of knowledge. A comfortable middle class couple who had both good jobs - one a newspaper journalist and the other a magazine editor they asked some really dumb questions about GB. The ignorance was a howl on everyday things. More recently just a week or so ago I watched a US political commentator telling in a studio discussion that most Americans had little clue about other countries never mind where they were! As for generalising that is a quaint way of by-passing internal history! You might know thedawgfan but covering for the majority is a wander off (!).

Originally posted by rjhowie:

they asked some really dumb questions about GB.

I believe there are no dumb questions... Just ignorance that is requesting education.
The people you speak of put their trust in you, and you got a howl.

Well I didn't physically laugh I must admit so as not to embarrass them too much but it occasionally makes me smile. An American once asked me if we had colour tv up here or just black and white. I did laugh.

Colour TV? What's that?

Originally posted by jbrothernew:

Colour TV? What's that?

This. As opposed to that
Seriously, when I first saw american TV I thought holy crap how can you bear watching that?! And that wasn't about the content.

Originally posted by Macallan:

Seriously, when I first saw american TV I thought holy crap how can you bear watching that?! And that wasn't about the content.

Just keep adjusting the picture till it looks right... Gives us something to do during commercials.

You just wait until the Mcdonald"s commercial comes on and match the colors of the fry box on tv to the one in your hand.

Originally posted by ensbb3:

Originally posted by Macallan:

Seriously, when I first saw american TV I thought holy crap how can you bear watching that?! And that wasn't about the content.

Just keep adjusting the picture till it looks right... Gives us something to do during commercials.

You just wait until the Mcdonald"s commercial comes on and match the colors of the fry box on tv to the one in your hand.

Nah, too much trouble. But it nicely explains why LCD TVs and digital cable sell like crack

Originally posted by Macallan:

This. As opposed to that

When my children were young we watched To kill a mocking bird,
I almost had my kids convinced the whole world was Black and White when I was young. We didn't develop colour vision until 1964.

Originally posted by Macallan:

Seriously, when I first saw american TV I thought holy crap how can you bear watching that?! And that wasn't about the content.

The only American TV I've seen was digital, and a fair bit of it HD. Of course I haven't been in the US prior to 2008. I can't comprehend the number of advertisements they've got. And the worst part of it is that they're shorter than here so you can't properly use them as bathroom breaks. I think "holy crap how can you bear watching that?!" when I see analog PAL. In my teenage years I always watched digital satellite (i.e. PAL DVD quality). After that I switched to experimental HD streaming in VLC (ah, the joys of 100Mbit) combined with decent quality rips. The worst quality video I watch is YouTube and uitzendinggemist.

Originally posted by MAXXTHRUST:

Originally posted by Macallan:

This. As opposed to that

When my children were young we watched To kill a mocking bird,
I almost had my kids convinced the whole world was Black and White when I was young. We didn't develop colour vision until 1964.

What do you mean it wasn't black & white back then?

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Originally posted by Macallan:

Seriously, when I first saw american TV I thought holy crap how can you bear watching that?! And that wasn't about the content.

The only American TV I've seen was digital, and a fair bit of it HD. Of course I haven't been in the US prior to 2008.

I went there a couple years before that, when NTSC was still in full swing. Picture quality was horrible, even on analog cable
Most cable was already digital at least to some degree though and by the look of it only got converted to analog in some box close to the actual recipients - sometimes you could see the MPEG artifacts

Originally posted by Frenzie:

I can't comprehend the number of advertisements they've got.

Indeed, the average american must run to the bathroom every ten minutes or so

Originally posted by Frenzie:

And the worst part of it is that they're shorter than here so you can't properly use them as bathroom breaks.

I guess that's the idea, which is (probably) why many american apartments have more than one bathroom

Originally posted by Frenzie:

I think "holy crap how can you bear watching that?!" when I see analog PAL.

These days I probably will too. It's not like I watched a lot of TV in either country. Heck, I didn't even have a look at the digital broadcasts they started a while before I left ( Berlin was the first area in Germany to turn off analog TV broadcasts and go all digital, IIRC in late 2003 or so )
Also, working for a living in image processing and related stuff will ruin your perception of TV forever. You will notice wrong colours, MPEG artifacts, noise etc. and once you see it you can't unsee it. Maybe I'm biased and unconsciously compared memories from before that time with NTSC afterwards. It probably isn't quite as horrible as I made it sound

Originally posted by Frenzie:

In my teenage years I always watched digital satellite (i.e. PAL DVD quality).

Quality over antenna was pretty good where I lived, I guess it helps if you live rather close to a bunch of bigger transmitter stations.

Originally posted by Macallan:

These days I probably will too. It's not like I watched a lot of TV in either country. Heck, I didn't even have a look at the digital broadcasts they started a while before I left ( Berlin was the first area in Germany to turn off analog TV broadcasts and go all digital, IIRC in late 2003 or so )
Also, working for a living in image processing and related stuff will ruin your perception of TV forever. You will notice wrong colours, MPEG artifacts, noise etc. and once you see it you can't unsee it. Maybe I'm biased and unconsciously compared memories from before that time with NTSC afterwards. It probably isn't quite as horrible as I made it sound

I do notice those (though probably less than you). It's horrible walking around in an electronics store, for example. Rather than actually getting an idea of the respective quality of the screens you see all this over-saturated junk. And I rather doubt that has anything to do with compression. But anyway, I'd say that everybody who's watched something like a YouTube video should be able to start seeing artifacts in better quality video as well. Kind of the same thing with something like JPEG artifacts. After you've seen them them in a more pronounced manner you also start noticing them when they're smaller and less visible.

Originally posted by Macallan:

Quality over antenna was pretty good where I lived, I guess it helps if you live rather close to a bunch of bigger transmitter stations.

It wasn't bad at all, but satellite was clearly better. It's primarily analog cable quality that's astoundingly bad in my experience (either that or many people I know use shitty cabling inside their house, thus messing up the cable company's best effort to deliver a good picture - but I doubt that).

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Originally posted by Macallan:

These days I probably will too. It's not like I watched a lot of TV in either country. Heck, I didn't even have a look at the digital broadcasts they started a while before I left ( Berlin was the first area in Germany to turn off analog TV broadcasts and go all digital, IIRC in late 2003 or so )
Also, working for a living in image processing and related stuff will ruin your perception of TV forever. You will notice wrong colours, MPEG artifacts, noise etc. and once you see it you can't unsee it. Maybe I'm biased and unconsciously compared memories from before that time with NTSC afterwards. It probably isn't quite as horrible as I made it sound

I do notice those (though probably less than you). It's horrible walking around in an electronics store, for example. Rather than actually getting an idea of the respective quality of the screens you see all this over-saturated junk.

And noisy signals with interference all over the place. I don't understand it - if I wanted to sell TVs I'd make sure to show off what they can do and at least feed them a decent signal. But hell no.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

And I rather doubt that has anything to do with compression.

At least not with compression of the video material

Originally posted by Frenzie:

But anyway, I'd say that everybody who's watched something like a YouTube video should be able to start seeing artifacts in better quality video as well. Kind of the same thing with something like JPEG artifacts. After you've seen them them in a more pronounced manner you also start noticing them when they're smaller and less visible.

Probably, those little boxy things are certainly the most obvious ones. Try to watch anything move in a video that's too aggressively compressed, especially moving faces. You'll see they don't always move at the right speed or synchronous with the background. Once you start noticing that things get really annoying. I didn't see that on digital cable though, only on dish network ( apparently they wanted to free up bandwidth for HD content or something )

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Originally posted by Macallan:

Quality over antenna was pretty good where I lived, I guess it helps if you live rather close to a bunch of bigger transmitter stations.

It wasn't bad at all, but satellite was clearly better.

I never watched satellite tv anywhere in europe, only dish network in the US which is full of very noticeable mpeg artifacts and craps out as soon as there's a cloud in the right position. No idea if directv is any better.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

It's primarily analog cable quality that's astoundingly bad in my experience (either that or many people I know use shitty cabling inside their house, thus messing up the cable company's best effort to deliver a good picture - but I doubt that).

I'm pretty sure the cable tv we had in FL was all analog. No compression artifacts, but they'd be hard to see through the noise anyway

Originally posted by Macallan:

No idea if directv is any better.

maybe slightly, but not really... all the same crap. I don't remember as many glitches on clear days with directv.

Originally posted by Macallan:

Try to watch anything move in a video that's too aggressively compressed, especially moving faces.

Oh, I know. But I've certainly never seen that on digital satellite; primarily on MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX, XviD) encoded video.

Originally posted by Macallan:

I never watched satellite tv anywhere in europe, only dish network in the US which is full of very noticeable mpeg artifacts and craps out as soon as there's a cloud in the right position. No idea if directv is any better.

DirectTV seemed decent enough, but I haven't seen much of it. Most American TV I've seen was digital Comcast. I've never seen this Dish network.

The only thing that really seems to cause issues with satellite reception here is heavy snow or hail, and even that usually manifests only as minor artifacts. Besides both of those happen like once a year.

Do note that the encrypted channels seem to be affected slightly more than FTA. With something like heavy rain the encrypted channels might display some artifacts while the FTA channels will be completely perfect.

Originally posted by Macallan:

I'm pretty sure the cable tv we had in FL was all analog. No compression artifacts, but they'd be hard to see through the noise anyway

lol, I was talking about noise

Originally posted by ensbb3:

Originally posted by Macallan:

No idea if directv is any better.

maybe slightly, but not really... all the same crap. I don't remember as many glitches on clear days with directv.

The dish network satellites are pretty close to the horizon, right above the mountains - whenever there's a thunderstorm or even snow creeping over the ridge you can kiss tv reception goodbye.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Originally posted by Macallan:

Try to watch anything move in a video that's too aggressively compressed, especially moving faces.

Oh, I know. But I've certainly never seen that on digital satellite; primarily on MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX, XviD) encoded video.

I first noticed it on dish, no idea which exact compression format they use but it's probably something MPEG4-ish. It's a hell of a lot better on digital cable.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

The only thing that really seems to cause issues with satellite reception here is heavy snow or hail, and even that usually manifests only as minor artifacts. Besides both of those happen like once a year.

Not as close to the horizon and no mountains around I guess

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Do note that the encrypted channels seem to be affected slightly more than FTA. With something like heavy rain the encrypted channels might display some artifacts while the FTA channels will be completely perfect.

Strange, you'd think they'd put some extra effort into channels you pay extra for.

Europeans are much better educated.

Originally posted by Macallan:

Originally posted by Frenzie:

The only thing that really seems to cause issues with satellite reception here is heavy snow or hail, and even that usually manifests only as minor artifacts. Besides both of those happen like once a year.

Not as close to the horizon and no mountains around I guess

Not saying it doesn't snow, but all I know is that only the type of snow through which you can barely see yourself really causes issues (i.e. the picture might fail completely), and that hardly surprises me, if only because it'd build up on the dish like crazy.

Originally posted by Macallan:

Originally posted by Frenzie:

Do note that the encrypted channels seem to be affected slightly more than FTA. With something like heavy rain the encrypted channels might display some artifacts while the FTA channels will be completely perfect.

Strange, you'd think they'd put some extra effort into channels you pay extra for.

Perhaps newer (that is, faster) decoders will deal with minor parts of the datastream lacking better. Plus they've also upgraded the encryption a couple of years ago: my parents had to get a new receiver then. I have no idea how all of that affects things, but I hear that combined with their new dish (capable of picking up three satellites all in one dish, regular Astra 19.2°E, Astra 28.2°E, and Hotbird) it's all quite neat. Despite the hundreds of channels on Comcast, the sheer variety of the (many hundreds more) channels one can pick up this way is just so much better. Some people see satellite dishes as a sign of neighborhoods filled with foreigners, but I posit that it displays intelligent people living there. To pick up the encrypted Dutch channels you pay about as much on a yearly basis as you'd do for cable per month and you also get the hundreds and hundreds of FTA channels from all over Europe, North Africa, and to a lesser extent the world. Considering that compared to a cable subscription you'll break even in 1-2 years (depending a bit on how nice a receiver you buy and such), utilizing cable is quite retarded.

To link that back to the actual topic: Turkish people are apparently brighter than many Europeans around here.

Yo provocative man Philopro!

Originally posted by Philopro:

Europeans are much better educated.

Clearly, you are the authority on this topic.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

To link that back to the actual topic: Turkish people are apparently brighter than many Europeans around here.

I don't know, if it was just me I wouldn't pay for either satellite or cable tv. Just watching Mythbusters every now and then isn't worth it.

Originally posted by Macallan:

I don't know, if it was just me I wouldn't pay for either satellite or cable tv. Just watching Mythbusters every now and then isn't worth it.

All I'm saying is that it's the only means of classic (i.e. not strictly at your convenience) TV reception that I'd even consider. Feed-based downloading obviously beats any alternative in usability. We don't have TV, but even excluding said feeds there's plenty of TV content available online. Hulu.com is not the worst example of that (albeit only in the US), although I don't like Flash. http://www.livestation.com is a small sample of some live streams of TV content, though unless I just happen to be around when a program is on that's as unattractive as real TV.

I guess it depends on what state you are in???

To be fair I knew a really brilliant and intelligent American.

Lets not forget that most brilliant Americans weren't Americans at all! Albert Einstein was a German immigrant to the US. But i think that we are about the same in the intellectual field. However the Europeans have us beat in humor, badly

I are Europian people that made the best webbrowser ;-).

Originally posted by BeJamin023:

However the Europeans have us beat in humor, badly

Don't forget geography. What is it about Americans and a map anyway?

Originally posted by BeJamin023:

However the Europeans have us beat in humor, badly

I have to, respectfully, disagree here. I'm sure I'm a little bias tho, lol.

Originally posted by Muttsfan:

Don't forget geography. What is it about Americans and a map anyway?

So true here. I don't know how many times (before the days of GPS) I handed my co-pilot (passenger) a map and ask them to find me a route, only to get it handed back to me with them looking confused, leaving me to drive and navigate. How can you expect someone to know geography when they can't even read a map. LMAO!

Originally posted by BeJamin023:

Lets not forget that most brilliant Americans weren't Americans at all!

True, but americans hsve been smart enough to bring in the smart people in the absence of any real talent... says something right?

Originally posted by ensbb3:

True, but americans hsve been smart enough to bring in the smart people in the absence of any real talent... says something right?

I don't disagree with you there

Originally posted by ensbb3:

I have to, respectfully, disagree here. I'm sure I'm a little bias tho, lol.

It might just be me, but it seems like all my British amigos laugh more at stuff then my American friends, but it could just be its a stiffer humor too.

Originally posted by BeJamin023:

all my British amigos laugh more at stuff

Hehe, British humor is so dry it's no wonder they laugh more, easily amused. They get their jollies off cartoon style humor. Yeah used to be funny when Tom and Jerry or on Scooby-Doo when they beat each other with silly sound effects, pulled things from places they don't belong or senselessly chased each other... not so funny anymore or in real life situations.

Hehe, British humor is so dry it's no wonder they laugh more, easily amused. They get their jollies off cartoon style humor.

Dude, some of the greatest comedians in history are British. I would also suggest you watch some European movies, French and Italian comedians were well known throughout the world (not including America)

They get their jollies off cartoon style humor. Yeah used to be funny when Tom and Jerry or on Scooby-Doo when they beat each other with silly sound effects, pulled things from places they don't belong or senselessly chased each other... not so funny anymore or in real life situations.

Those two are American cartoons (great ones mind you) but there's a good reason for that. Most American humor is culture referenced, usually topical. Jokes work like this too, I can tell you an American joke about a baseball player in the U.S and you may laugh, but a farmer in Turkey doesn't know what the hell you're talking about. He's not in on the gag. However, I can tell him a poop joke, and he would laugh (see, he poops too!). Hence, the old slapstick style of humor is funny to anyone. I well timed ladder swing will make the whole world laugh. A joke about difficulty to find a parking spot in New York won't. Slapstick is the ultimate icebreaker, it doesn't have a language or creed.
Besides, the U.S has had plenty of slapstick humor, need I mention vaudeville?

Originally posted by Muttsfan:

Dude, some of the greatest comedians in history are British.

And I'm not so much a fan, sorry, I know I'm bias of course. And no, before you ask I'm not a Monte Python fan.

Originally posted by Muttsfan:

I would also suggest you watch some European movies

I do try, foreign movies have lame, been tried dialog to me. In fairness, I don't like a lot of domestic films that other people say is good either. Movies in general get predictable to me tho.

Slapstick is okay for chuckles but not very funny (to me) over all... and prolonged.

SNL or Madtv can be funny as hell... but even they get old... Comedy "Lame" Central mostly stinks too. Live comedy is where it's at, I love to go to the local comedy club. Something about the ambiance (and maybe a few drinks) makes it much funnier. I've seen some of the same material on tv, and... But live, omg rofl!

I know I'm weired

Originally posted by ensbb3:

I know I'm bias of course.

Well, comedy is predominantly about personal preference. You like what you like.

Originally posted by ensbb3:

Live comedy is where it's at, I love to go to the local comedy club.

Where the comedian usually talks about local issues,making subtle pop-culture references and observations about (mostly) U.S culture and society. Don''t get me wrong, that can be very funny too. But you see the thing is, you have to be in on the gag. It works both ways, I don't expect you to laugh very much at a local comedy club in London, much less Berlin (they have those there too you know)
Now try taking a goat herder from Azerbaijan with you one night, see if he find it funny. Then, after the confusing night he has, put some Tom and Jerry on the TV, see if finds it more funny then topical humor.
See, it's all different brands of humor (btw, I can see you like very "intelligent humor")

edit:
Speaking of slapstick comedy: R.I.P Leslie Nielsen

Originally posted by Muttsfan:

(they have those there too you know)

Uhm, yeah. I was just saying that was the best... to me.

Originally posted by Muttsfan:

(btw, I can see you like very "intelligent humor")

Tad bit sarcastic on that one. That was among one of the dumbest threads I have seen to date, even for the lounge.
...Odd it got more posts really, that's a similar kinda funny to me if that helps.

You know, I'm just stating my opinion... Am I doing it wrong?

Originally posted by ensbb3:

Tad bit sarcastic on that one. That was among one of the dumbest threads I have seen to date, even for the lounge.
...Odd it got more posts really, that's a similar kinda funny to me if that helps.

You know, I'm just stating my opinion... Am I doing it wrong?

lol, no. Sorry if you thought I was insulting your opinion or something. didn't mean it that way.
I was just trying to explain how humor works around the world.

Originally posted by Muttsfan:

lol, no. Sorry if you thought I was insulting your opinion or something. didn't mean it that way.
I was just trying to explain how humor works around the world.

I do get what you're saying and I'm sure poop jokes are universal... but best you'd get out of me is a chuckle. I just think it's cheesy. More cerebral quips are actually funnier to me, and most people think they are cheesy.

But yeah, as you said I'm in on the gag so it's funny. why would I really care if some "outsider" don't get it tho, if it's funny to me... mission accomplished.

Originally posted by ensbb3:

But yeah, as you said I'm in on the gag so it's funny. why would I really care if some "outsider" don't get it tho, if it's funny to me... mission accomplished.

well yes, which is why you shouldn't be so judgmental about other cultures. After all, they may consider you to be

Originally posted by ensbb3:

easily amused

as well

point taken.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

You might know thedawgfan but covering for the majority is a wander off (!).

Perhaps so, but never underestimate us.

You still haven't answered my query yet:

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

I pose this question to you: Where is Mauritania located on the map?

Originally posted by Frenzie:

I've never seen this Dish network.

I have Dish. It's not terribly bad, and compared to a friend who has Direct, it's a bit better.

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

Originally posted by Frenzie:

I've never seen this Dish network.

I have Dish. It's not terribly bad, and compared to a friend who has Direct, it's a bit better.

Better in what way? Channels per buck? Image quality?
I suspect they intentionally crank up the compression rate for their non-HD stuff for two reasons - to free up bandwidth for HD channels, and to make even poor quality HD channels look better by comparison, in order to make you fork over the additional bucks for their HD package.

Originally posted by Macallan:

Better in what way? Channels per buck? Image quality?

Better in customer service.
(Otherwise they are pretty much the same.)

Originally I had planned to go with Direct, but for some strange reason, the people on the phone said that the DirectTv lot from Memphis would have to come and install the dish and everything. After a week and a half, and lots of complaints later, I had a look at Dish Network, called them on a Wednesday and on Friday they had the receiver installed. It's been smooth sailing ever since.

(And no, as a poor college student, I cannot afford HD. )

Originally posted by thedawgfan:

(And no, as a poor college student, I cannot afford HD.

Tis a shame, even us fat and lazy Americans can afford HD!