jack707
Veteran Member
I don't like both company's because they want to tie you up for 2 years. Or push there phone on you most people today use a cell phone not a land line and both company's rip you off in their own way!
Dish Network vs Direct TV
- Thread starter NoTrespassing
- Start date
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Oaktree
Super Member
We were in the same situation until about 4 years ago. When analog tv was turned off a few years ago we went from a half dozen snowy, but watchable channels to one (neighboring state's public tv). Satellite or dial-up were my only choices for internet.
Time Warner came thru in 2012, Fairpoint ran fiber for DSL the same year. We went with TWC, cheapest tv package (mostly off-air, with a handful of cable channels), I think it was $18/mo. Bundled with 15mB internet and landline phone it still comes to <$100/mo ,much less than what we paid for satellite internet and phone before. We're not big tv users, more than enough for us. Added bonus, this tv package does not require a cable box. :thumbsup:
Had cable not come thru, we probably would have gone with the "welcome" package from Dish (not something they make well known, heard about it from a neighbor). Maybe 20 channels, mostly OTA, under $20/mo. Only catch is you need to provide the equipment...checking around online it seemed that it would run us ~$150 for that. Not sure if DTV offers something similar...didn't see any mention on their website, and I don't know anyone who has it.
Of course still the drawbacks of satellite reception in bad weather, but better than nothing.
Must be nice to live where it's flat. We're 75-100 mi from any city with tv stations, and in every case there's a mountain range between us and them.
The trouble is with the streaming services is that they all seem to have some pretty major gaps in what they offer. You need 2 or 3 to get full coverage, then you're stuck with a bunch of others of no interest, as well as monthly fees that add up to what you'd pay for a mid-tier cable/satellite package. Might as well stay with cable or satellite.
No CBS???? That and MyNetworkTV account for probably 90% of what we watch. Just what we need is another 57 channels with nothing on.:thumbsdown:
Curiously, do you need some external box for these streaming services? We have a "smart" tv, but the choices seem limited to Youtube, Netflix. HuLu and a couple others.
I've also read about there being free streams, but most of the links on my tv are to subscription services.
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roadhunter
Elite Member
It's not really flat here even though everybody thinks Nebraska is just a big corn field. Hard to believe we have bighorn sheep and elk in our national forests. We are at about 5,000 ft in elevation. We live a couple of miles from the pine ridge national forest. I just have an antenna way up on the top of the roof and use a booster. We get OTA channels from about 100 miles out near scottsbluff.
We use Roku boxes on the TV's that don't connect to the internet by themselves but there are many other choices.
There are an enormous amount of choices available for internet TV. Quite frankly much more than is what's available on satellite by a wide margin. But some people struggle with change and prefer the old way because it doesn't require thinking. You just turn it on an flip between channels as opposed to picking what you want to watch and starting it from the beginning no matter what time it is. When you step back having to tune in for a TV program at the right time when it is showing is really not very convenient.
Satellite and Cable are going the way of home phone service and pagers.
Looks Like you have plenty of OTA antennas closeby, have you tried a long range antenna?
Coos County, NH - TV Channels & Antenna Map
There are gobs of free streams out there. Crackle has lots of movies for free. Tubit is another one great free movie channel. Weather Nation is a free knock off of the weather channel.
What I notice is older people seem to think that what they watch is not available on the internet. When you ask them what's not available they typically can't give you an answer because in reality they have no idea what's available.
So what specific channels do you require that force you to have "2-3" of the internet streaming options as opposed to just satellite?
Larry Caldwell
Elite Member
I went HD with dish as soon as it came out, with the old 721 receiver. They changed date compression schemes, so I had to switch to the 622 receiver, which I bought outright 12 years ago instead of renting it. I have been in the black on that for a couple of years now. There was no contract. I think there was a fee for upgrading to HD, but that happened with the 721, and was so long ago I can't remember it.
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
I have Direct, and that isn't true for us.
We just set up the DVR to record all the shows we like, VERY easy to do... then we watch them "any time" after that, PLUS we don't have to watch any commercials at all!
Also, we can stop watching and come back and watch the rest of the show any time we want...
SR
roadhunter
Elite Member
Sure, if you spend the time to pick out which shows/times/dates you want to record and go through the process of storing the data like a cave man. There are certainly downsides to that antiquated method of pre recorded TV to watch. Recording TV won't be around much longer as there is no reason to do so when the shows are all available on demand without wasting your time.
That's the beauty of on demand. Pick you show and episode and watch without having to do anything in advance. And you can stop watching and come back when you want as well as pick which episodes you watch even going to different seasons which you can't do while recording live TV. No worrying about standing in front of the screen when the show is on live and no hassle of recording TV to watch later via a hopper.
LOL, Have you never watched any TV on demand?
Live sports is the last hurdle for internet cable services to tackle and several already have done so with options as low as $25 for ESPN. The rest of the content from movies to TV series and other programming on just about every topic you can imagine can be watched on demand which is the future of TV. Pre recording live tv events with a DVR is just slightly better than recording TV shows with VHS tapes to watch later. Time to catch up with technology and get past the stone ages of TV.
sixdogs
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Keep this thread going because I would love to ditch Direct TV and find plan B to watch the few shows we actually like. The other hundreds of channels in the package aren't worth getting. I do not understand all the options but they appear complicated.
OP
NoTrespassing
Veteran Member
On demand only works with High Speed internet and much of the country doesn't have that option yet. Myself and three of my neighbors are without it where we live. My wife has 10 gigs on here phone for 55$ per month and we 5 gigs on a wifi hotspot for a total of 15 gigs per month. Who knows when we'll be able to get unlimited high speed internet but we won't get on demand tv until then.
Kevin
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
Aaaaaww, if you find it too difficult to program shows with Direct, I'd say you are calling the wrong person a caveman! Perhaps you should look in the mirror for the caveman, if you find even "that", too difficult!
As for on demand, yes I have used it, Direct has that too and I have used it.
SR
nybirdman
Super Member
I have been a Direct TV customer since 1992.We like it but the cost just keeps going up.Just got another notice of a rate increase for Jan.2017.Next summer we are suppose to get high speed internet in our area;they offer internet,phone and t.v.Looks like a big savings on phone,much faster internet(for less money) and will have to check out what's offered on the t.v.