Dish TV or Direct TV ?

[EddieWalker]

I currently have Direct TV and don't really have any complaints about it. It does go out on me during heavy storms, but I don't fault them for that.

We're planning on buying a HD TV for Christmas, or sooner, and are wondering about staying with Direct TV, or switching to Dish.

Does anybody have any experience with both? Any thoughts on which is better and why it's better?

If you have Dish, what do you think about it?

Thank you,
Eddie

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Hey Eddie, hope everything's good your way.

I'm a long time DirecTV user. When you go with HD, you need the HD equipment. Not exactly sure what the costs or equipment offered are now but when I upgraded a year ago, I had to pay almost $200 up front to lease an HD DVR. I couldn't live without DVR now but I don't like the fact that if I quit Directv, I'd have to give them back the HD DVR. It cost an extra $10/month for HD service and I think maybe $5 for DVR service? If you go direct, I'd recommend you get 2 DVR's as you only have to pay the $10 and $5 once per month no matter how many recievers you have up to 3 or 5 depending on receivers. There is a $5 per extra receiver per month charge no matter whether HDDVR or just plain receiver.

My buddy has switched to Dish but only cuz he has to deal with a local retailer for Directv and not thru the national chain. Not sure why but that's in Victoria Tx. He's not totally impressed with Dish and I've heard about "slamming" going on but only read about it in papers.
Good luck.

 

[dex3361]

I currently have Direct TV and don't really have any complaints about it. It does go out on me during heavy storms, but I don't fault them for that.

We're planning on buying a HD TV for Christmas, or sooner, and are wondering about staying with Direct TV, or switching to Dish.

Does anybody have any experience with both? Any thoughts on which is better and why it's better?

If you have Dish, what do you think about it?

Thank you,
Eddie

Another question too add to that is does anybody bundle satilette internet service with TV. I currently use a DTV antennae and I live in a valley which is a bad combination for a good signal. I currently get internet access through a cell phone, booster, and roof mounted auto antennae.

 

[/pine]

FWIW... I've had Direct TV for 10 years...
In my location due to the trees I have very limited access to the satellite(s)...last year I bought a new HD flat panel and wanted to upgrade my dish/receiver to HD...but because of the trees (not on my property) I could not get a reliable signal from the HD satellite...so...
I checked into Dish and was told that the satellites were even lower (further South) and would be even harder to get a signal from...So I'm still with Direct standard def...

 

[dgl24087]

I've been with Directv for 10 years, I have HD, and would not consider changing. I have several neighbors who have switched from DISH to Directv, most cite billing issues, signal issues, and overall low satisfaction levels with DISH.

 

[Redneck_Randy]

I've been with Directv for 13 years. The complaints I have about the HD DVR's from them is the recievers are very slow and buggy when changing channels or viewing the guide. If you connect an external hard drive to it and it takes an update, you will loose ALL content on the drive. Directv just got real cheap with it's recievers when they took the manufacturing in house to combat satellite theft. I know the Dish recievers do not have these problems. If you want to really research both DTV and Dish you should check out http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

 

[Bird]

Down in Navarro County, we had DirecTV (actually Pegasus TV), but that was in the days when you bought your own dish and receiver and installed them yourself.

When we bought this house 4 years ago last month, Centurytel Telephone Company, which I'd never heard of, also provides DSL Internet service and Dish Network all on one bill. I was generally happy with it for several months, but when the satellite TV service quit working and I called and after doing all the testing they had me to, they decided the receiver was bad. The guy said the receiver was still under warranty (less than a year old and it was rented from them), but that I'd have to pay $14.95 shipping and handling for them to send me a new one and that it would come with detailed installation instructions. OK, I did that, paid the S&H, installed the new receiver, carefully following their printed instructions, and it didn't work. At least I got a nice young lady on the phone who figured out a way for me to make it work, but not even close to the written instructions.

So everything was OK for a few months and the same problem happened again. After doing all the checking they had me do before, I figured it was a bad receiver again, so I called and got a genuine half-wit on the phone. He had me do all the checking again, then concluded the problem was the remote and he'd have to send me a new remote, at my expense, of course. Now I can't claim to know much about electronics, but I do know enough to know beyond any shadow of a doubt that the problem was the receiver, not the remote control.

That's when I called DirecTV in April of last year and have had them ever since. With the programming we pay for at nearly a hundred dollars a month, if Dish had just sent someone out here to make their system work at no additional charge, I'd still be with them. I'm paying about the same price for DirecTV but it also includes $5 a month for in-home service if needed. I don't really think either company is much better than the other one.

 

[Mike058]

It's too bad when companies decide they only have to be "as good as" the competition.

I don't really think either company is much better than the other one.

 

[Nat]

Well, I've got a different outlook on Direct TV. I'd rather have a hangnail than to have Direct TV. I've worked construction a lot of my life so I know a bit about liars, and the people at Direct have all the liars I've ever seen or heard of beat hands down. It would take a month for me to explain but They have lied to me so many times their nose now reachs to the moon.
Whatever they tell you the bill will be, then double it and add tax, and then next month it will go up again, and if you call to ask the time of day it will extend you contract for 347 years or cost you 3 million bucks to get out of it.
Really, from day one they have lied to me on the price and on their so-called discount packages.
Last month the main reciever quit working, just a blank screen and the power button would not stop blinking so I called them. The lady that I talked to made me spend an hour chasing wires that had worked fine the day before. I asked her if she suspected that someone broke into my house and rerouted the wires over night. She finally said she would send a service man out but it would cost me 149.00. I explained that it was their equipment that I was renting and it went bad through no fault of mine and I would not pay a service charge to have them fix something thar they owned. She relented and said she would sent me a new reciever, but I would need to return the old one to them. When I got it from fed-ex 3 days later it had a paper in the box that said if the old unit wasn't returned in 7 buisness days from the date I talked to her there would be a 470.00 charge added to my bill. I returned the old one on the same day, but will forever hate Direct TV. hope they go bankrupt myself, later, Nat

 

[BungeeII]

It's too bad when companies decide they only have to be "as good as" the competition.

Brother, you can say that again. It's the American Way circa 2000.

Quick DirectTV story. After having them for several years, I had to cancel service about 1 week after having paid the most recent bill. (I think it was when I moved.) They were happy to help me, but they wouldn't refund my bill. They said that I could have the service 'til the end of the month that I had paid for, but that "their system" doesn't allow cancellations and credits, and that it's "in the contract". I said "If I order a new station, you'll have it turned on before we hang up the phone AND you'll start billing from the minute you turn it on". She acknowledged that was true, but I still wasn't getting my money back. Guess what, they'll never get a penny from me again.

As far as HD goes, I'm too cheap to pay Dish Network for the upgraded service. I do watch plenty of over-the-air programming on my HD sets. The NFL is a completely new experience with a large HDTV.

 

[carpenter383]

Well, I've got a different outlook on Direct TV. I'd rather have a hangnail than to have Direct TV. I've worked construction a lot of my life so I know a bit about liars, and the people at Direct have all the liars I've ever seen or heard of beat hands down. It would take a month for me to explain but They have lied to me so many times their nose now reachs to the moon.
Whatever they tell you the bill will be, then double it and add tax, and then next month it will go up again, and if you call to ask the time of day it will extend you contract for 347 years or cost you 3 million bucks to get out of it.
Really, from day one they have lied to me on the price and on their so-called discount packages.
Last month the main reciever quit working, just a blank screen and the power button would not stop blinking so I called them. The lady that I talked to made me spend an hour chasing wires that had worked fine the day before. I asked her if she suspected that someone broke into my house and rerouted the wires over night. She finally said she would send a service man out but it would cost me 149.00. I explained that it was their equipment that I was renting and it went bad through no fault of mine and I would not pay a service charge to have them fix something thar they owned. She relented and said she would sent me a new reciever, but I would need to return the old one to them. When I got it from fed-ex 3 days later it had a paper in the box that said if the old unit wasn't returned in 7 buisness days from the date I talked to her there would be a 470.00 charge added to my bill. I returned the old one on the same day, but will forever hate Direct TV. hope they go bankrupt myself, later, Nat

I've had both dish and direct tv and this was the type of crap I experienced with dish network. Dish network lures you in by saying 24.99 per month for 10 months, then they don't give you the discount unless you call and raise cain. Then sure enough same thing the next month. I went round and round with them till my contract expired. I made sure my account was cancelled asap after my 18 month contract. I am as against dish network as it sounds you are against direct tv
I didn't have any problems with direct tv, but I'm sure the quality of service depends on location

 

[woodchuckie]

I've had DTV just about since it was invented and have had no real problems. But my receiver is so old and outdated now that the menu doesn't show all the PPV channels. The same thing happened to my daughter so she called DTV and explained the problem and they told her she needed a new receiver and told her how much it cost. She explained to them that she could get four free receivers etc from DISH. They sent her four new receivers and remotes.

That's what I plan to do when I upgrade to HD since Dish offers all the equipment free. DTV charges for the upgrade on the receiver. When I look for prices in trying to make a decision I look past the special and compare what I'll be paying when the deal is over.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I have had DishNetwork for 12+ yrs. When I have looked to change to Direct, it is always way more expensive. Another difference, is Dish allows you to own your own equipment, so you don't have to pay the rental fee every month. Direct absolutely makes you rent the equipment, and that price is in addition to the service price they quote. Dish does offer rentals also. When either offer "free equipment", you have to pay a monthly rental, at least you did the last time I checked into it.
I prefer to own all my own equipment. It did drive Dish nuts when I bought an HD DVR and didn't subscribe to the HD service. I bought it for the amount of record time it offered. Dish and Direct both broadcast in digital, so the picture quality for me doesn't matter between non HD digital and HD digital. It bugs me that they charge for HD service at all. The programming is all available in HD, and eventually they both will discontinue non HD service as soon as the number of non HD receivers in service becomes low enough to force the switch.
As far as satellite location, I thought they both flew around 110 and 119.

 

[bigtiller]

Aren't they both owned by the same European holding company? I thought I read that in the paper several years ago.

 

[Redneck in training]

We just switched from DTV to Dish. There was nothing wrong with DTV but they cancelled bull riding and it made my wife mad. So now we have Dish. It is cheaper by about 20 USD/month for the similar package. The receivers are better than DTV though. Both are dual so we can watch four different channels. One of the receivers has RF remotes so they work trough the walls so the receiver can be in different room than the TV. The digital recorder can record, if I am not mistaken, about 30 days of HDTV. It has 30 sec skip forward feature so if you are bothered by commercials record the show and then watch it with 15 or so minutes delay and when commercial shows up press a button and it will skip 30 sec forward.

 

[schmism]

you do know they are both owned by the same company now right?

 

[ragkar]

The primary consideration in choosing between direct and dish is the programming package contents and prices.
You can go to their websites and d/l comparisons within their company. When I looked, direct was heavy in sports packages. They played dirty too telling their retailers, like radio shack, that they would be dropped if they started selling dish (or echostar as it was called at the time).
If you have limited view of the sky, it behoves you to determine which satellites that you need to see. You may need to use two or three satellites. All of the satellites are positioned over the equator so it's a lot rougher for those north of the Canada border.
Finally you need to determine which hardware that you want. You can rent but there are places (like dishking.com) where you can buy your hardware.
My choice was dish, the basic programming package, a pvr recording controller and two single satellite dishes. If you ignore the pay per view, shopping and religious channels, that still leaves me with 63 channels to watch. Sure there are others that I woldn't mind having, but I don't want to pay a premium for them.

 

[charlz]

We had Dish for about 4 years until they no longer carried one of the local stations. Something about the station/network wanting a 75% fee increase or something. We waited a few months and they never settled on a new contract or whatever so we moved to Direct. For the most part the programming is the same. Personally I think the software for the menus etc. is better/ more mature on Dish. The Direct software just doesn't seem as polished/easy to use... maybe it's just me.

One of the guys that works for me just upgraded to HD with Direct. Instead of calling regular Customer Service he called the 'disconnect' line. This got him to a 'Retention' agent.... where he explained they were going to get a much better deal from Dish and not have to pay $$$$ to replace receivers etc. etc. .... so Direct sent a tech out to upgrade everything for free. The tech apparently had to upgrade the wiring as well, spent 6 hours at his house

 

[dgl24087]

you do know they are both owned by the same company now right?

Dish Network is owned by Dish Network Corporation. Dish was formerly under the umbrella of Echostar, but Echostar was spun off and is now just the satellite and technology division. DirecTv is owned by DirecTv Group (formerly Hughes Electronics), which is controlled by Liberty Media, also a major investor ($530 billion) in Sirius XM.

 

[NY_Yankees_Fan]

Eddie,

IF you are a NY Yankees baseball fan then you have no choice but to go with Direct TV. Dish does not carry YES network. I have had both Dish and Direct TV and both are OK.

If you like to deal, call Direct TV and tell them you will be switching to Dish because of a better deal and get switched to a 'Retention Agent". I got free HBO, Star and several other movie channel plus a $10 a month credit for 1 year.

As far as the new HG TV is concerned, the best time to buy is Black Friday. A lot of retailers will have them for sale with great discounts.

Web sites like these will have all the deals listed as well as what is the best buy.
Coupons, Deals, and Cash Back Shopping - FatWallet.com
Black Friday @ GottaDeal.com - 2009 Black Friday Ads - Official 2009 Black Friday Deals Site

By the way I shop on line on Black Friday no way I am I standing in line at 4 AM. I got both of my HG TV's on line.