Directv vs. Dishnetwork

TerryinMD · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Mike,

Oh, I understand the why's. No problem.

It's the quality of some of the installers. When I had my Dishnetwork system installed 3 years ago, it took the installers two days to get it done. Had to move on of the dishes because of improper location (they didn't scope out the placement before installation). I have two dishes on my roof. This was prior to Dish 500 capabilities so you needed two dishes to receive certain channels.

The guy they sent out was a newbie. He had helped on other installations and this was his first install alone. We have a Cape Code and crawling around on a 12/12 pitch roof is no picnic. That's why I had them do the install. I hate going up on roofs /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif. I not slamming the guy. He did the best he could with the skills he had. It really was a two man job. I blame the dealer for not sending two people. Day one - one newbie. Day two - one newbie, one experienced.

I've heard others complain about the installation services. Not all dealers are bad.... so ya never know. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Terry

MikePA · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

I installed my own DirecTV dish (dual LNB) but I had the luxury of being able to stand on a flat roof to do it.

MossRoad · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

I installed mine too, twice. Not hard at all. I had it on the roof of our porch. We got a new roof a few months ago, so I moved it to our garage because of that and a little tree that wasn't getting any smaller. I have a hand held TV, so I took it up by the dish and adjusted it in about a minute. If the internet unit comes with a built in signal strength meter like the TV units do, I imagine it would be the same setup routine. Make sure the mount is plumb. Point the dish to the right compass setting, tilt it to the correct declination and you're there. The first time I installed it, I didn't need any adjustment. I thought, that couldn't be right, so I adjusted it out of signal and back in and it was right on the money the first time.

 MossRoad

Bird · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Yep, I've installed two DirecTV systems myself; nothing to it, but I haven't seen one for the Internet, so don't know whether it's supposed to be more difficult or not.

scruffy · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

I've installed both Dish and DirectTv twice on each. Have the rcvrs boxed up, and the dishes (both) boxed up out in the garage. When we moved here, I said to heck with it and got cable! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif When you move on an average of once a year, halfway across, or all the way across country....well, I'm sticking to cable until that ceases! Sure glad we got rid of the ten foot dish!

Bird · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

I'm sticking to cable

I would, too, except that cable ends about 20 miles from here./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Oops, left out one word to start with.

Edited by Bird on 12/03/01 09:29 PM (server time).

scruffy · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

That's the only reason I've held on to them Bird. That, and the spouse lost the remote for the main rcvr on the Dish set. Can't set it up w/o it. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif Choice of $50 for a remote, or the DirectTV setup for free...no problem! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Jeff396 · Dec 3, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Did you check into Direct TV's movers special? I looked into it and what you do is leave your old dish at the old house and take the receiver with you. Then you only pay for the shipping charges for a new dish that they will install for you to get you back on with them. I guess they figure they keep you and possibly get another in the new owners of your old house. I would have gone for it except I'm very particular(****) on how the thing is installed. So I, like you, just went for the cable and said the heck with it....for now anyway.

Jeff

MossRoad · Dec 4, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Circuit city had an RCA universal remote for 9.95. It also came with an extra samller remote. Works great.

I, personally, would never go back to cable. There are fewer channels, no music channels, the picture is fuzzy, it can be out for days after a major storm, there are fewer pay for view movies, they have no sports packages and it cost more. I'd jam a post in the ground, mount the dish and run the coax through a small hole in the wall near the foundation. It would only take an hour. Heck, I had a friend that lived in an apartment complex and they wouldn't let him mount it to the porch railing, so we got a 5 gallon pail, a bag of cement and a piece of pipe. Once the dish was aligined, he could take it in the apartment. All he had to do was put it back in the same general place on the porch and give it a trun to the left or right to align it. Did I mention that I would never go back to cable? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 MossRoad

Jeff396 · Dec 4, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Now understand that I am not defending cable.....hate 'em! My current cable system looks an aweful lot like Direct TV. In both cases I got everything, direct TV $89.99 and Cable $80 something. Our cable has about the same number of pay per views, music channels and it doesn't go out every time it rains which when I lived in Tucson, wasn't all that often but might be more of a problem in SC. It does lack some specific channels that I miss. ie Speedvision and PBS kids and multiple Disney channels. Fortunately, I haven't experienced the outages but I have only been a subscriber since August. The one thing I can say against Direct TV is that when I wanted to add Speedvision, I had to take an entire package of sports channels with it so it was another $10.00 or so a month. I love racing of any kind but could care less about sports (except NFL football). I also was quite irritated when the little card that goes into the receiver went bad and I had to spend $40.00 for a new one. I had to pay so they could have security...doesn't make much sense./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Jeff

TBone · Dec 10, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

M.R. I just paid $50 for a Dish remote because I was told none of the universal remotes would operate my Dish system. I did look on the programming directions on a couple of them and none of them listed codes for Dish network systems. Does the RCA remote work on your dish system???????? If so, what model receiver do you have (mine is a model 3000)?

It really makes me feel stupid to pay $50 for something I could have bought for $9.95. THANKS.

PitbullMidwest · Dec 10, 2001

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Several friends have tried universal remotes on their Dish Network receivers and so far no luck. I have the 4000 model and my up/down buttons don't work very well, I found out that you can "page" up/down using the FF/REW buttons. Yeah, $50 for the remote, how come they never talk about that on Charlie Chat? /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Edited by PitbullMidwest on 12/10/01 12:43 PM (server time).

DVerbarg · Jan 21, 2002

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Well I finally made a decision and now have Starband 2-way satellite service. What a speed difference from the 'ole dial-up connection! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif This is great!

Would not want to install it myself, that dish had to be adjusted to such small tolerances, much tighter than typical satellite TV tolerances, and was much heavier (not to mention the FCC will not allow an amateur like me do so).

TBN was great before and its even better now! /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

TerryinMD · Jan 21, 2002

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Dave,

What was the final damage for equipment and installation for your Starband system? I've been watching this for a year now and just hate the thought of putting out nearly $1k for this system. And your thoughts on the entire process.

Terry

DVerbarg · Jan 21, 2002

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Final damages /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif!

Starband Internet Access: Equipment + Installation = $750
Dish Receiver for TV: $158

Monthly Costs: Starband = $75
Top 150 TV = $4 (for the first year)
Total = $79

The good thing about this is that the great company I work for paid for the Internet equipment and installation and are paying for the monthly internet access. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif So my costs are the initial $158 and a monthly whopping $4 (for the first year)! Not too bad! Does anyone have any ideas of how I can justify work paying for some new tractor implements?! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif A backhoe would be really nice for this next year...

GlueGuy · Jan 22, 2002

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Wow!!! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

That is just way too expensive for our usage. As for TV, we only watch a couple hours per week. I once did a survey, and they asked me how many hours of TV we watched per week. I reponded with "2", and they said, so that's 14 per week? I said no, 2 per week. We only watch one or two shows total. The person at the other end seemed to think we were pretty "unusual"...

We probably are online a whole lot more, but I still don't know if we could justify that kind of expense.

TerryinMD · Jan 22, 2002

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

Dave,

Yep, the cost is still high!!

--SOAPBOX-- I don't get it. Now that Hughes is into the two-way satellite business, one would think that the prices would come down some. --OFF SOAPBOX--

We typically use between 190-200 hours of internet service per month. Yes, we are on a lot. The cost of a second phone line, ISP (Internet Service Provider), and our Dishnetwork service are equal to the monthly service costs. But having to shell out nearly $1k for the equipment and installation is not very cost effective. We don't have cable or DSL service either. ISDN is a joke and not cost effective either since you have to have a different service to connect.

Ack!! I WANT HIGH SPEED SERVICE. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif

Terry

patrickg · Jan 22, 2002

HMMMMM, I have DirecTV and I get an outdoor channel with hunting and fishing (OLN - Outdoor LIfe Network)

Patrick

patrickg · Jan 22, 2002

Worse yet, whimper, whimper, we are way too rural for cable. There is a provider that gives cable programing via microwave broadcast but it is one way, i.e. no data service. Our telephone service (a bad joke, service) is long distance to anyone you can't hit with a rock and about 1/2 of those you can hit with a rock are long distance. My ISP is the Citizen Pottawatomie Nation (indian tribe, never mind, I've heard all the baud rate of smoke signals jokes) I have to have a special long distance calling plan at $20/month to call the ISP with no additional phone charges and now that ISP is thinking of dropping out. Sat equipment is a bit expensive but I really don't want to pay long distance to surf the net so DirecPC or equivalent may be an option. Anybody got any ideas?

Patrick

DVerbarg · Jan 22, 2002

Re: Directv vs. Dishnetwork/T1

It is difficult to justify the expense for both monthly costs and one-time installation. We would still be dial-up service if it weren't for my employer footing the bill. Just one of those perks, but of course they probably expect that I'll get more work done from home now /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. Well, as long as I can spend a few quick minutes here on TBN the tradeoff might be worth it! /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif