Dish Network VS. DirecTV

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ShortSnoutBrewing

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So DirecTV has decided to drop Versus. It's not a huge loss to us, but we do enjoy some of the programs and SWMBO's alma mater has their football games broadcast on there. We've also been having issues with DirecTV's HD channels. So, with the combination we've decided to shop around a little and look at DishNetwork. Anyone have any complaints or praises for Dish? Anyone else made the switch?
 
When did Direct TV drop Versus? I watched the Hawk's playoff games on Versus (which is a terrible channel). I like Direct TV, but they're the only one's that have the baseball package and NFL package. Though their HD stations aren't very good. One thing you might want to do is call Direct TV and say you're thinking of switching and see what they'll offer you. You may get a few months of free programming and get Versus back.
 
I've had Dish (standard, not HD) for a few years now with no complaints. Good programming and helpful customer service. Recently upgraded to a DVR - I highly recommend it.
 
Versus was dropped at Midnight 8/31 - 9/01. We watch the Tour de France, WEC, and some college ball on there so it's not an unfamiliar channel. NFL package and MLB aren't an issue...we don't do either of those. And we did contact DirecTV. We got free Starz for 3 months...
 
I've had Dish for years and LOVE it. Got HD last Christmas and it's fantastic! Dish has been advertising some Red Zone deal, which I assume is an NFL thing, so might want to look into that. MLB I can pretty much see the local team (Tigers) on Fox Sports Detroit.
 
If you don't care about seeing every NFL game then Dish is probably for you. DTV's niche is sports. Dish's big advantage is the two TV receivers that don't cost anymore than a single TV installation. It also has an over the air antenna input on there that will let you record THREE HD channels at the same time to the DVR. The only issue is that the TV2 output is only SD.

I currently have the HD Bronze package with the VIP622 box and I dig it. Plenty of HD channels.
 
I have never been with Dish but have DirectTV and like Bobby said you typically would need multiple boxes to hook up multiple rooms but I just pipe the HDMI signal into my receiver and send it throughout the house. Mainly in the bedroom and pool room in addition to the main room where it is. With the RF remote I can control it from anywhere in the house. The downfall is that only 1 thing can be watched at a time but this hasn't been an issue with our house.
 
Just for comparison's sake, Dish 622/722 boxes come with an IR remote for the main viewing area and an RF remote for the TV2 location. I have TV2 split to my kids' toy room and my master bedroom. It's awefully nice to be able to easily access the DVR content from multiple rooms without HDMI/IR distribution systems. I will so miss that if I ever switch to an HD in the bedroom.

I don't have an HDMI capable receiver yet, let alone a splitter/amp to be able to distribute. I COULD take the component output of TV1 and send that to my master bedroom but I only have 2 runs of RG6 going up there... Darn.
 
Had Dish then switched to Directv earlier this year. No complaints either way. Directv had my locals in HD so that's the way we went.

It is nice to have two active HD outputs (same channel) on my directv HD DVR though (HDMI goes to the bedroom, component goes to the main TV).
 
Dish HD looks better than DirectTV HD in my opinion. DirectTV still has better sports options, but that gap is steadily closing. Dishes multi-room HD DVR is a TV junkie's wet dream. Best DVR anywhere. Hopefully the loss in the lawsuit with Tivo won't change that...
 
I've had Dish for a while now and my buddy has DTV. I like both. Other than a few odd channels that one service has over the other and some of the sports packages available on DTV it really comes down to what channels you want and what price you want to pay.

We have the 722 DVR and I must say, it's awesome. When we move we're going to switch back to cable (they now have our locals in HD and it will eliminate a $10/month surcharge for internet access) and I'm going to really miss the DVR. Well, I won't miss the rain fade either, but that's a pretty rare occurrence anyway.
 
IMHO they both suck,but I wanted to comment on pic quality.Neither is better than the other.Both are mpeg 4 with standard compression from the broadcasters.The reason I don't like them is because of the lack of channels.If you have channels in 2-4 different time zones it doesn't count as 2-4 different channels.Cable is the way to go(if you live in a good area for it)


EDIT: DTV's NFL ticket is exclusive to the service(although expensive).The NFL just upped it's price by 1 billion per year for all providers,and so far they are the only company to keep it.
 
Careful with Dish if you have a problem.

I am in Idaho, and they have a local office/service dept, but I had a "complete outage" and they wanted me to wait 5 days and charge $70 to come and "see if they could find the problem".

Screw them... DirectTV has been pretty good since.
 
I hate DirecTV. Hate them. I have never had Dish, but my parents do and they love it.
 
Joos said:
IMHO they both suck,but I wanted to comment on pic quality.Neither is better than the other.Both are mpeg 4 with standard compression from the broadcasters.
Click to expand...

I assure you that's 100% untrue. I work in the industry. We continually play with compression on digital streams.
 
I've had Dish since we moved to PA, since our other option was Comcast and it was more expensive. Never had a complaint with their customer service- and the only add-on for sports I have is Setanta Sports to satiate my rugby obsessions.
 
Joos said:
IMHO they both suck,but I wanted to comment on pic quality.Neither is better than the other.Both are mpeg 4 with standard compression from the broadcasters.The reason I don't like them is because of the lack of channels.If you have channels in 2-4 different time zones it doesn't count as 2-4 different channels.Cable is the way to go(if you live in a good area for it)


EDIT: DTV's NFL ticket is exclusive to the service(although expensive).The NFL just upped it's price by 1 billion per year for all providers,and so far they are the only company to keep it.
Click to expand...

Seriously? I have seen several IQ comparisons. All articles claim that different even different PROGRAMS can have different compression and therefore different IQ.

I have a few friends with cable. They get a cost savings by bundling, but the TV quality is not as good IMO. At least the HD I've seen is not as good in general to the Dish we have.
 
jkarp said:
I assure you that's 100% untrue. I work in the industry. We continually play with compression on digital streams.
Click to expand...

which company?last I heard neither was recompressing and both used mpeg 4
 
Joos said:
which company?last I heard neither was recompressing and both used mpeg 4
Click to expand...

I'm sure you'll understand one's desire to separate work and leisure. Just read the MPEG4 spec. The bit rate can be adjusted as needed to squeeze more channels out of the transponders. Same is true of (and done in) digital cable.
 
Didn't mean to pry.sorry.I know I am also in the industry(one that squeezes the **** out of 1 256 qam)I just heard that neither company did.Times change when you need more channels I guess.
 
So, I just called DirectTV to cancel the auto payments they setup last year for the NFL package since I didn't want to pay for it this year. Well they start throwing offers out to see if I want to keep it. Mind you the prepayment rate is $44.99 for 6 months, he starts by offering $10 off for 6 months, I say, ehhh that doesn't do much, it is already way over inflated, then he says how about $20 off for 6 months, I say it is sounding a little more appetizing but still I call to cancel so I am ready to.

Then he is like, I will throw in the superfan package with HD and such ( a $100 value), I am like that is good but still, then he threw in the other sports package for the 600 channels with all the fox sports channel with all the college games for half price for the next six months.

So long story short, I called to cancel the NFL package and left with it still but at least only paying less than half the price it normally is. I feel pretty good.
 
I had Dish for 5 years. I had some roofing done and had to have them come out and realign the dish. They asked me if I wanted to sign up for some maintenance plan and I said "no". And then my reception immediately went bad until I finally agreed to sign up for the maintenance plan. Once I started paying the extra $5 a month, my reception was magically perfect again without them sending anyone back to check my alignment.

That is, until the Super Bowl two years ago when I lost my signal 3 times (on a clear day) during the game. I made the switch to DirecTV as soon as my contract was up.

Dish started throwing all kinds of programming offers at me when I told them I was canceling. I told them they were acting, it was like the worst girlfriend I ever had. They ignored me and disregarded me until I decided to leave and was half-way out the door. Then they started begging me to take them back.
 
humann_brewing said:
So, I just called DirectTV to cancel the auto payments they setup last year for the NFL package since I didn't want to pay for it this year. Well they start throwing offers out to see if I want to keep it. Mind you the prepayment rate is $44.99 for 6 months, he starts by offering $10 off for 6 months, I say, ehhh that doesn't do much, it is already way over inflated, then he says how about $20 off for 6 months, I say it is sounding a little more appetizing but still I call to cancel so I am ready to.

Then he is like, I will throw in the superfan package with HD and such ( a $100 value), I am like that is good but still, then he threw in the other sports package for the 600 channels with all the fox sports channel with all the college games for half price for the next six months.

So long story short, I called to cancel the NFL package and left with it still but at least only paying less than half the price it normally is. I feel pretty good.
Click to expand...

This is a useful strategy regardless of who you use, cable, satellite, or otherwise. As long as you aren't under any remaining service commitment with them you should call your provider at least once a year and tell them that you're switching to XYZ company instead. Any reasonable rep that answers the phone will either try to keep you as a customer or send you to the retention department where they will offer you some sort of promotion or other specials to keep you.

At the very least you should be able to buy 3-6 months worth of extra programming or some sort of discount just for calling and saying you're going to leave them :mug:
 
I've had DirecTV before I got married. Got Dish in the last six months. Six of one, half a dozen of another, IMHO. I like them both.

My wife had Comcast when we got married and we lived with it until we couldn't stand the high cost and crappy programming. Not nearly as many channels and the picture quality sucked. When we bailed, they tried to offer all sorts of counter packages and pricing, but Dish was running a special and it was still cheaper than Comcast by nearly half. They finally threw in the towel and said, "What day can an installer come out to pick up your old converter boxes?"
 

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