Dish TV or Direct TV ?

   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #1  

EddieWalker

Epic Contributor
Joined
May 26, 2003
Messages
25,141
Location
Tyler, Texas
Tractor
Several, all used and abused.
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
 
   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #2  
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.
 
   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #3  
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.
 
   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #4  
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...
 
   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #5  
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.
 
   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #6  
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/
 
   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #7  
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:confused:), 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.
 
   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #8  
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.
 
   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #9  
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
 
   / Dish TV or Direct TV ? #10  
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.
 
 
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