Dish or Direct TV

[Bird]

Dish had the local channels, DirectTV doesn't

When we lived down in the country, DirecTV (actually Pegasus) didn't have the local channels and I put up a big Radio Shack antenna for the local channels and that worked very well. But now, here in town, both Dish and DirecTV have the local channels. And today the mail brought a letter from Dish asking me to come back and a letter from Charter Communications asking me to change to their cable system,.

 

[Rocksprings]

Thank God for competition to keep the rates down. At least for the first year. I am going to try DISH. They have a $24.99/month basic one year package that includes local channels.Two year commitment with auto pay. (Your credit card) They say free insulation but charge a $99.00 processing fee or something like that. Thanks for all the replies folks. I think in the long run both Direct and Dish are real close to being the same channels/price, ect.

 

[thatguy]

we have had directv for 4.5 yrs (with DVR) and had no issued with service - but as mentioned the price does go up regularly..

rocksprings - just so you know (at least for directv) - the installers are contractors so you may have to pay extra if they run extra lines or have to set a post to mount the dish..

brian

 

[clemsonfor]

Directv was flawless in the 10 years I was with them - this was before HD.

I switched to Dish for the HD 3.5 years ago. It has not been flawless - not even close. The DVR equipment is unreliable - mine has been replaced 4 times. Everytime this happens I lose all the timers. I have an external drive (which I paid Dish $40 to be able to use) and its job is to save programming for when the equipment goes out, which it always does.

Directv has networkable receivers and the only thing holding me back from switching is I'm not sure Directv handles DVR recording of off-air channels. The Dish DVR handles this nicely. Dish HD is also very good (though not as good as Blueray or off-air), I assume Directv would also be good.

Makes me wonder. IEEEE. i need to look into saving my progrms somehow. I have hours of DVR that is goto stuff to watch when nothing is on. Im months behind in some not so important programs. I have like 60 timers! I have been lucky my dish DVR has not had problems in over 3 years. Hope im still good after this!

 

[Kal130]

Don't know if it is local or national, but dish subscribers in my are can no longer receive CBS.

 

[jwstewar]

Don't know if it is local or national, but dish subscribers in my are can no longer receive CBS.

It is local. DISH Network and LIN communications are in a fight over rates. We lost our local CW station - not that it really matters to us. We never really watched it - at least any more since they took According to Jim off around dinner time.

We had DirecTV through Pegasus from '99 to probably '03 or '04. Then went to DISH. Had them until '07 when the house burnt. They had a hard time finguring out why I wanted to cancel my service. Told them the house burnt so I didn't need TV service. They sent a box for me to sent the old receivers back to them. I was able to find them in the rubble. They were dripping with water had stuff on and in them. I put them back in the plastic to "protect" them and sent them back. Didn't hear any more from them about it. During the winter while living in a house trailer in the driveway, we just used an antennae and received the local channels. Moved into the new house, used the same antennae and TV and couldn't pick up any channels. Researched both DISH & DirecTV again, and DISH came out to be just a bit cheaper. Went with DISH HD/DVR on the main TV and standard TV on 3 other TVs. I've actually split this signal out to about 7 TVs now.

I actually just went through the cost analysis again a couple months back to see if it was worth switching. The first year DirecTVs specials make them cheaper, but then the second year, DISH catches back up and ends up being cheaper in the long run.

 

[Molerj]

I think they are both about the same. BUT, make sure you know what it is going to cost you. Lots of fine print. Recently added a second receiver, for Dish. Person said the cost would be an additional 6.00 per month, free installation. Got a bill with installation charge primary receiver charge, secondary receiver charge and a warranty charge. Had to make a phone call, talked to a foreign person & got a little irate, She connected me to another very nice lady that did make adjustments and now the charge is going to be 7.00 a month, she said the other information I got was wrong. This is for my 81 yr. old mother's house & if my mom didn't tell me about the bill, they would have gotten away with all the charges. Make sure you know what your going to pay.

 

[dgl24087]

I've been with Directv since 2000, and have been 99.9% trouble free. I've only had one issue, I upgraded to an HD DVR and the one that I received was defective. It would reboot continuously about 5 hours after it was installed. I called and the rep stated she would have a new one sent immediately. The only problem was that I was going to be 900 miles away on vacation at the expected arrival time. Couldn't get the rep to delay shipping, so when I got back home from my vacation, the DVR was on the front steps, where it had been for 4 days. Thankfully I live in a good community :thumbsup:. Anyway, boxed the old DVR up and sent it back, and have been troublefree since.

 

[dieselbeef]

im goin with free air broadcast hdtv...puttin up an antenna

 

[IXLR8]

im goin with free air broadcast hdtv...puttin up an antenna

I wish I could, since the gov't made tv better by going to a digital signal... I now get no signal at all where I live. Cable bills are killing me, Internet service and 2 digital box's with basic service is running $140/month. Dish and DTV for the 1st year would cut that by a good deal, but after 2 years I would be back to the same rates. I am considering doing 2 yrs of Dish, 2 years DTV... then going back to 2 yrs of Dish. I am going to start by calling TWC to see if they will do any better before I switch.