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