Direct TV or Dish

[MMLMM]

Ok, I have Cox cable. Its just over $50 a month for basic cable (no boxes, about 90 channels).

I have people keep telling me they have satellite and its about 30 a month with 150ish channels...I am all in favor of saving money even if its $20 a month. Even better if you get more for the money. Also I am not worried about satellite quality, I live in Vegas, and weather shouldn't effect anything....


Heres what I got:

Living Room has a HD/1080 TV
2 bed rooms with regular Tvs

I dont need any fancy HD or crap in the bedrooms, and to tell the truth, I could care less in the living also (if I want good quality picture Ill stick a DVD in or watch the included local HD channels....)

Ok so what are you guys paying for similar setups with Dish or DTV?

Anyone work for either and run me thru what I need?

The DVR is cool, but I dont watch TV enough that I really need to go back and see what I missed, if its included thats cool, if extra, Ill skip it.

sigh..lol

So, discuss please.

thanks.

 

[Brad92]

We have Dish. Right now, we pay $26 including tax for 120 channels, free hd for life, and 2 rooms. We signed a 2 year contract for the cheap first year. After the first year, its $40. The early termination fee is only $17 for every month you cancel, so for us, if we canceled after 11 months, we would still save money.

We got free installation, free equipment, 3 months of movie channels and 8 free ppv movies. That's pretty standard nowadays.

Only had one loss of signal during a bad storm, so couldn't be happier.

 

[SmokeShow]

Strange, I just looked into combining m internet and tv services into one company... I currently have DirecTV for tv and Time Warner Cable for internet. I don't really have a problem with either service although Time Warner did do a chinchy job when they ran the line from the pole to the house, they just left the dang thing laying on the ground. Not barried or anything. :spit: Service for both have been spot on though.

We recently downgraded out DTV package to the next to lowest package they offer and I'm not liking the lack of decent channels. There are way too many home shopping networks and not near decent stuff. It's about $65 after taxes IIRC. Our internet is $52.99/mth for highspeed cable internet. I don't have any qualms about the speed and I strictly run it through a wireless router for our laptops - no desktops.

So I call in to pay the internet today and they make an offer for combined services. Several more channels that interest me and the wife more than what we have now and our same internet service will be $87.04/mth if we do it. Clearly, that's a savings over what I'm paying now for the splits services and like I said, I'd get more channels I lost when I downgraded to a cheaper DTV package. No contracts with Time Warner either. :thumb: Oh, and that rate includes a DVR. We love it too much to go without. Which ever room you setup the DVR in (living room with the 55" LED is our clear choice) gets all the gadgets of the DVR (record, stop, pause, rewind, etc.) JUST on that tv BUT there is no fee for any additional rooms. The additional rooms just get the channels though, not all the gadgets of the DVR and no additional boxes required for each room. Fair enough, for us. That's how it is now with the DTV except we still have to have boxes in each room but they are reg. boxes, not DVR boxes so they just get the channels and no gadgets. Each additional box is $5 IIRC on DTV so each room beyond the first (whether you get the DVR or not) is an additional $5. First one is included. I'm not sure how the pricing of the DVR factored into the Time Warner quote I got today. Oh, and all the available channels in HD are free. No extra charge with the Time Warner. I understand me rambling about Time Warner is of little use to you since you may not have it in your area, I'm just comparing it to the DTV we currently have.

We don't really have much interference in service in spite of being satellite. Just on a very rare occurrence during a HEAVY storm event or obviously a loss of power.


Good luck.

 

[jraymer]

I have Dish Network going on three years. Right when I got it I just got the cheap 120 channel package and no dvr and no HD. I pay $40 a month plus $5 a month for the local Vegas channels so with tax and all it just a bit under $50. Called them the other day to possibly upgrade to the 200 channel package since the 120 doesn't come with Speed, FX, TMC, Fuel, ect. and they said I would need a new dish and new receiver for DVR and wanted to charge me 200 bucks! Haven't upgraded yet but other than that service has been good. Well DN did try to get me to pay 90 bucks to have a tech come out to adjust my dish after a wind storm. Went outside and moved it myself lol.

 

[9W3-HD]

I think they all start out with cheap promotions to get you to commit and before you know it your paying $60!

 

[Elias]

I work at one of DISH's call centers and have been a satisfied customer for years longer than I have been an employee. Just as a heads up I wanted to drop some info about Direct's promotional offer for new customers. To get the full promotion you have sign up online or submit an online rebate application, agree to getting marketing emails, wait anywhere from 6 to 8 weeks from start up...the whole time paying full price while your rebate is processed.

 

[paint94979]

Mike, DN is still hackable as well ... we run DirecTV iirc its right around 200$ a month but that includes every channel minus the naked ones.

 

[McRat]

I have DirectTV HD and don't like it.

The HD broadcasts are "choppy". That was installed about 1.5 years ago, so maybe the newer hardware is better, but right now with my existing setup, it's an inferior HD setup to either a Blueray or Cable HD.

 

[bluessmax]

I had a reply, then seen paint's new icon and totally forgot

naw, i had the old direct tv receiver and it sucked, they just came out with a updated one and i like it now, just don't let them stick you with any "read the fine-print" chit.

 

[S Phinney]

I have Dish and my father in law has Direct tv. His goes out during rains a lot more than mine would even think about doing. To get all the good channels premium ones it will cost a good bit. if you can get a combo deal with phone/internet/dish you will save a lot. I got mine in a combo after having it separate for better than a year and was able to get my internet and phone for about the same price as the dish was by itself.

 

[KEVINL]

I have had both and don't care for either one I like direcTv just slightly better it has a better picture and offers more choices.

getting cable TV or satelite TV is just an invitation to get screwed one way or the other. it is all over priced and all have poor customer service.

Satellite offer deals to get you in the door then jack up the price later on

If you want cheap and don't care about programming stick with cable.
The lower end packages on satellite offer 145 useless channels and 5 okay ones

 

[Big Block 88]

For the love of GOD do NOT get Direct TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 We switched from Dish Network last year to try somthing new and Direct is horrid. You can NOT surf channels it takes about 5-8 seconds to change channels. The reaction time to the remote is pitiful it's OS is just so shotty it gets confused easily and freezes up often. The screen format is off and is maxed out inthe adjustment, you still can't view the scores of games if they are along the bottom top or side of the screen and we have a wide screen so there is no excuse. Our signal drops have gone up over 80 persent if you sneeze the signal goes out rain, snow, clouds, wind it a freakin joke. The DVR is good sized but even it's layout is sad very hard to follow and the buttons you think would work and do what you want to do will do the oposite.

Dish network is superior the DVR memory was not as large as the Direct units but the signal was awsome and the HD quality superior, more channels you will actually watch. Direct has 15 spanish channels with a bunch loud ass mexicans yellin about god knows what.

I have made it my personal mission to try and stop any and all people I know getting Direct TV.

 

[TheBac]

We've had Directv since 1997. I agree with Jordan on quite a few of his points about tuning and the hardware, but I have no complaints about the service itself. I do wish my local channels were broadcast in HD, as it really sucks watching "blurry" football games now.

As for Dish Network, all I can say is that I am damn tired of being one of their "unofficial collection agents". I hate seeing those damn call tags telling us to pickup their equipment after their "deal" period ends.

 

[Car RamRod]

I always had cable till I moved here, now I have Directv and hate it. I would give my left nut to have cable again.

 

[TeaBagger2006]

just watch tv on the infernet.
i have cox ..... i guess im happy. hd is pretty good and lots of stufff to browse on that channel 1

 

[z79outlaw]

I'll never buy Direct TV again bunch of retards there. The guys that came and installed the system showed up in a 80's dodge caravan, didnt speak any english, hooked everything up, then left without anything working, spent an hour on the phone to get things going. I was a customer for over 2 years had a broken box, so I replaced it with on my parents had when they used to have Direct, I had to call and get it activated, 6 months later I had to pay to end the contract because I got a "new" box. I also called them numerous times over the 2.5 years to spell change the spelling in my last name because they had it wrong intially, they never fixed that either. Finally got sick of the Mr. Crudnowski bills.

 

[MACKIN]

Ii wasn't going to bother posting as this is just observations on visiting different homes with different TV providers and also with what I have.

I don't care for any dish services out there for one reception sucks two dishes hanging off your house and worse yet my neighbor across the street has a dish on a tripod on his roof that is about 5 feet up off the peek to get above the trees.What a eye-sore! I don't know which company it is but you need two dishes to receive HD programs and local programs. Third all their ridiculous gimmicks to get you to switch.

I had Comcast cable for years but the cost keep going up while they kept changing the channel line up dropping stations and adding them to 'packages' to pay more!

I have 4 TV's in my house all HD 1 Plasma and 3 LCD's all capable of 1080 resolution and WITH no movie channels I was paying $123 dollars a month!

I recently switched to AT&T Uverse which is basically fiber optics/cable . Yea they have the gimmick of bundling home phone,INTERNET and cell services. Bottom line I bundled everything but cell services. I'm not a big TV watcher or movie buff but when I want to watch TV or a football game I want great picture quality. All I can say is this switch IS one of the best things I've done to save money and receive exceptional picture quality. Hands down it's the best I've seen. HD quality is second to none and I cannot watch TV unless it's HD. My Plasma is in a perfect spot in the house and with this TV provider it shines ,I can't stand watching anything but it!

So IMO I's stay away from any Dish service and stick with cable. Now if they could ONLY have a NFL tickey I'd be in heaven!

 

[gr8shot]

Just a heads up, but here's how I got mine set up...

My parents have dish network, and upgraded to HD last year which requires a new dish and new recievers, and we had the install guy leave their two old recievers active (costs ~$7 per reciever per month) and after that I was able to take their old dish, and their old (but still active) recievers and install them on my house and I now have basically free dish network

All I had to do was mess with the dish alignment to get it spot on, but other than that it works perfectly. Of course I can't get any PPV stuff, or any service calls if anything breaks, but it's virtually free and I get the same mid-grade channel package as my parents, just minus the HD channels.

I live in the boonies, so cable isn't even an option for me, so this works great!

 

[vzfarms]

I have directv in my house, and a tripod set up that I take with me in my 5th wheel, I have been somewhat happy with them, and its pretty easy to set up yourself if you know which way is southwest. I know people that have dish and hate it. They are both a pain in the ass to deal with but its like that with all huge corporations.

 

[RKTMech]

We gave all of them the finger a year ago and went back to free tv..... Put a antenna back on the house and get HD for free (networks only). Like others here we were tired of paying around $100 a month for something we dont use that much and we were already paying for internet, So we started watching all our shows off the internet/netflix's/ DVD's! With the money we saved we bought a new tv with all the bells and whistles! I'll have to admit i miss the DVR feature only for pausing live tv, but have been looking into making one of my own!