DirecTV vs. Dish Network

Various problems with DTV including getting billed for about 3 weeks without service.

A DTV/Dish dealer came to fix DTV. Told us how we ought to switch to Dish.

I have been looking at Dish site and it looks like America's Top 250 is what we want.

Who has both or has had one and switched?

Is it a good idea?

FWIW I am with Dish, very happy with them over Time Warner.

Thujone said:

FWIW I am with Dish, very happy with them over Time Warner.

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FWIW I am with Dish, very happy with them over Comcast.

Never looked back. Better service for less money. Much less outage time.

We've had Dish for about two years now. I've only got two small complaints with them; they don't carry Fox Business Network, and due to the location of our house (on the side of a hill), we can't aim our dish to get the HD channels. We'd probably have the HD issue with Direct, though. Overall, no real complaints.

Have had Dish Network for about 10 years. That ought to convey my opinion.

They are supposed to come next week and put in 4 DVRs and 250+ CHANNELS for less than we are paying DTV!!!

Sounds groovy to me!

We've had Dish Network for a couple years now, and we like it.

I'm trying to think of more stuff to say about DN, but that pretty much covers it.

Have had Dish for a bunch of years and no complaints.

PBJS - I just did an little reshuffle w/Dish receivers, etc. A couple of the available receivers will drive a second TV with different programs and separate RF remote (that works thru walls, etc). So unless you need a DVR on every TV, you might save a few bucks. Also check the charges - it might be less expensive to buy a basic HD receiver online than pay the monthly lease fee for one provided by DISH. Also, they have a monthly DVR fee per DVR- another reason you might not want 4 of them.

If you want to get really cheap, you can buy everything (used dishes, LNBF's, etc are in pawnshops), buy hardware, including receivers, online and DIY. Then no lease fees, contracts, etc. This is the way I did my first install (and several others) and it is well known that I'm not a rocket scientist.

Example - You can take a basic receiver with the RF remote, split the output to several other TV's and watch (and control the receiver) from the secondary location. (All TV's see the same program this way - the earlier example actually gives you different programming simultaneously).

Their telephone sales people are obviously trained to steer you to the most profitable items. A little research and time may save you a couple of bucks.

Also - not every DVR receiver is HD -- that's what caused my recent changes.

Dish, as a company, is easy to deal with and basically honest in my experience. They just train their sales people to maximize their profit, so use care and do some research when setting up your account.

BTW - you will have signal outages when a big storm blocks the signal. Your Dish receiver might lock up on the "acquiring signal" screen and not let you watch local off-air (antenna broadcasts). I rigged the off-air antenna input coax into the dish box with a splitter and a direct input to the TV so that I can switch my TV input from "Sat" to "Ant" and still catch the local broadcasts

I have Dish now and have had Directv before, along with every other cable company out there.

No matter what they say, during bad rain or snow storms, reception will suck.

IcantC said:

I have Dish now and have had Directv before, along with every other cable company out there.

No matter what they say, during bad rain or snow storms, reception will suck.

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Yeah, but it doesn't go out for no reason for hours at a time at 9PM like cable.

I've had dish for 10 years and have to give them credit for excellent customer service. Unlike the large corporated-controlled providers, they work hard to provide great service and good value. I recently had a reception problem. I went online, got instant help via instant messaging, had the problem diagnosed, and within a day had a repairman replacing the lnbf on the dish. A reasonable flat rate charge was added to my bill. I have two dishtv dishes and one globecast dish on the roof. The repairman jostled the second dishtv dish creating a new problem and again, via instant messaging, I had it resolved the following day. I went with dish initially because of foreign language programming (direct how has some also) and because of their fine customer service reputation. All in all they have proven themselves to me.
BTW, reception is dependent upon your dish installation. I did my own and in ten years have had near perfect reception regardless of weather conditions. It takes the height of a torrential downpour to affect reception and even then it is a rare occurrence. In ten years maybe 3 minutes lost total.

Like Shakeylegs said, poor-weather reception is greatly dependent upon the accuracy of aiming the dish. It's not at all difficult to do yourself - the system has on-screen strength metering. It's possible some of the installation guys just do "good enough" aiming.

But with a really strong t'storm between you and the bird, you will loose reception (and the signals are digital so it's all or nothing). I don't think you get too many of that caliber in Napa, Shake!!!!......

Given any thought to Uverse?

I've had Dish for about 5 years. Tech support is USA based. Like BIGIRON, I did my own installation.

I run a triple LNB on a single dish and feed 3 TV's and 2 receivers.

BIGIRON said:

Like Shakeylegs said, poor-weather reception is greatly dependent upon the accuracy of aiming the dish. It's not at all difficult to do yourself - the system has on-screen strength metering. It's possible some of the installation guys just do "good enough" aiming.

But with a really strong t'storm between you and the bird, you will loose reception (and the signals are digital so it's all or nothing). I don't think you get too many of that caliber in Napa, Shake!!!!......

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That "Shake!!!!" is appropriate for Napa valley. That is one thing they can get, ever so often, shake and quake.

Bill

Good catch, BEBill.......

And very good point - "tech support is US based" so there are no language/ understanding difficulties. (I intend no offense to anyone, please, just real world stuff).

BIGIRON said:

But with a really strong t'storm between you and the bird, you will loose reception (and the signals are digital so it's all or nothing). I don't think you get too many of that caliber in Napa, Shake!!!!......

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That is very true. Weather here is usually not a factor. We get the odd and occasional 5 - 6 inches of rain in a twenty four hour period. Even at those times, only the heaviest rainfall is noticable with regard to reception.

And yes Bullzeye,
It gets shakey here now and then. No noticeable effect on reception though
At the time of our last shake ( a mere but very shallow 5.0 a few miles south) I was selling perfume exclusively in my store. All inventory was on glass shelving or in glass cases. The jolt threw me out of my chair at home. I rushed over to the store and not a thing was out of place! 20 miles south, many napa businesses were devastated. You might have felt that one Bill.

I have Dish Network and have been with them for over 10 years. I'm happy with them and have no plans on switching. However, I know many people who have DirecTV and they are very happy and consider that to be better.

I don't know if this still holds true but I've always heard that DirecTV has more sports.

From looking at the Dish website I KNOW I get everything I desire and more from the top 250 package.

If the wife (or secretary) of the guy who came out and fixed DTV after IKE (probably just dish aiming but no two way radio or cellphones to do it myself) wasn't lying through her teeth we are cool with the deal.

Will have to do a LOT of learning of channel numbers and to make the DVR get what I want!

Can't be much different from DTV as far as reception and it only gets sketchy when a BIG BAD storm is between dish and sat.

Oh yeah... No HD in this house and not likely to be unless we get dragged kicking and screaming into it. I'm perfectly happy with my tube 32" RCA.

Trust me - HD is worth it.

Aiming - to do it alone, take a receiver and a small tv to the dish and do it all there. A little clumsy but probably gives you the most accurate info.