DIRECT TV vs. DISH Network

[Marc]

Who do you prefer and why?

Currently I am coming up on my 2 years with Direct TV and if I can't get my bill lower (with some of the same channels I currently have), I am thinking about switching. My bill is already $170 a month with Showtime and Cinemax as my only premium channels. Just seems to be a lot of money for TV. I have only 2 DVRs and 2 additional devices (non-DVR) for TV in 4 rooms, so I know I am paying $10 a month per device.

Does Dish Network have pretty good reception? I know it don't have as many High Definition Channels as Direct TV, but for a cheaper monthly bill I am willing to give some of those channels up.

So just looking at options from your experiences.

 

[Boosted T-4]

I like Dish better. We currently have Comcast though, and I don't like it either.

I know when we had Dish, NFL Network was included but not with Comcast.

 

[MysticRob]

I was always more partial to Directv's menus and DVR functions -- seemed a bit more poished and faster to me. Dish was always cutting out in my area but the techs and their multiple DVR replacements could never figure out why.

 

[SID297]

Is anyone happy with their cable/dish provider?

 

[DefCon3]

My only experience with Dish was when I was on vacation. Seemed to have a nice basic selection and good image quality, but way too many channels were either on a higher-cost tier or Pay Per View.

 

[Sn8kebitten]

We have dish and I've always liked it. Seems alot faster than Directtv in this area and simpler channel scrolling. Though my mom is a cheapskate and downgraded to the smallest package Dish has. $36 a month and the only good channels are the history channel, tbs, and comedy central. No FX, TNT, SCYFY or however the hell they spell it now, USA, Spike, Discovery, Military, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network/Adult swim. You get the point

 

[Svtkidd23]

We have dish and I've always liked it. Seems alot faster than Directtv in this area and simpler channel scrolling. Though my mom is a cheapskate and downgraded to the smallest package Dish has. $36 a month and the only good channels are the history channel, tbs, and comedy central. No FX, TNT, SCYFY or however the hell they spell it now, USA, Spike, Discovery, Military, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network/Adult swim. You get the point

Love my dish.. Directtv is not my cup o tea

 

[Lambeau]

OP - Call DirecTV and ask to talk to the retention department. Tell them you just can't afford it anymore… Keep calling until they lower your rate, and cough-up a $200 Visa gift card. It took me 4 times. Don't give up. Good luck.

Is anyone happy with their cable/dish provider?

Nope, Comcast and DirecTV suck. They raise their prices like the oil companies raise gas prices… at a whim. That's why I don't autopay the bastards...

 

[king nothing]

We have direcTV. Switched from dish. We were pretty happy with Dish Network but when I called to try to upgrade to the new reciever they were giving away for free to new customers, they wanted to charge me 500 so I switched. The salesman said lots of people switch every 2 years because you can get the new customer deals so they go back and forth

 

[Jimmysidecarr]

They are all ridiculously expensive but so far I like dish much better than direct.

And Comcast was the most unreliable of them all. I had to ditch them because the net was going down along with their frequent outages.

My wife telecommutes so that was a big NO GO?
AT&T Internet is a bit slower but much more reliable, no comparison to the down time with Comcast.

 

[Chris!]

Is anyone happy with their cable/dish provider?

I've had
Comcast
Charter
Verizon Fios
Directv
Dishnetwork

Tried them all it seems

Comcast- over priced, horrible service. One HD DVR- mid-grade Internet- no movies $122/mo!


Charter- was in college- had a student plan- reasonable. Decent CS- $68/no

Fios- Internet stupid fast. Lots of stations. 3 HD boxes- while home DVR- no movie channels- all included $117/mo. Miss it as its not available here

Directv- great CS- $79/mo for HD- two boxes- DVR- all the movies (DSL
Internet $29.99)

Dishnetwork- horrible CS- $99 for less programming than directv. Spotty signal. Paid the $350 to get out of contract

 

[GotBoost?!]

Is anyone happy with their cable/dish provider?

Nope

We've had cable,switched from DISH to Direct TV and as soon as our contract is up,we're done with the garbage that they want people to watch on tv.

 

[Adiabatik]

I have DirecTV and it SUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On my system, the receivers loose connection to the server and cannot find a server to connect to.....so I have to reset the entire system. This happens to 1 of my 5 receivers about every 2 weeks or so.

My system is EXTREMELY slow. Pressing any button on the remote results in a 2-3 second delay in any action. This drives so damn crazy. Ive had them out here more times than I can count. They'll swap out all the receivers for new ones, they work flawlessly for 2 weeks, 3 days, a weekend, a month.....but they all end up doing the same thing and DirecTV doesn't know why. Im locked into this fkn contract for another 8 months :fm:

I came from AT&T U-Verse and it ran flawlessly (too bad they don't provide service where I know live).

 

[zak88lx]

Damn, I really wish I could get Directv or Dish up here, but unfortunately it's illegal. :nonono:
Satellite is ridiculously expensive up here, and we only have limited HD channels with forced Canadian content.
My monthly satellite bill is $240 to $300 per month depending on how many $60 UFC PPV's we order.

 

[Adiabatik]

Damn, I really wish I could get Directv or Dish up here, but unfortunately it's illegal. :nonono:
Satellite is ridiculously expensive up here, and we only have limited HD channels with forced Canadian content.
My monthly satellite bill is $240 to $300 per month depending on how many $60 UFC PPV's we order.

One of 26,550 reasons why Canada sucks :nonono:

 

[Deceptive]

I have personally had Comcast, Charter, and Directv. I had friends who had Dish.

My experience is such:

Charter-holy shit what steaming pile of cable, internet blows, cable was constantly out, and cs was a joke

Comcast-basic programming was dismal, many channels I liked you had to pay a fortune for one stupid receiver in the house, no NFL package (Steelers fan), cs was alright, still have their internet and like it

Dish-(friends) garbage, packaging sucks, unreliable, system would reset itself and be out for 10-15 minutes at the same time every day, they hated their cs

Directv-had it, moved to a place I could not have it and looked forward to buying a house so that I could get it again, my parents and inlaws ordered it after they saw it at our place and they love it, more reliable than our Charter, goes out in bad storms but we have Netflix as a back up so not a big deal, pricey but they have not raised our rates like others have stated, my wife calls every few months and they hook us up

Verizon-never had, almost ordered to try until I talked to a few people and read reviews, people would rather watch black and white tv than have Verizon from what I have read

 

[DaleM]

I have personally had Comcast, Charter, and Directv. I had friends who had Dish.

My experience is such:

Charter-holy shit what steaming pile of cable, internet blows, cable was constantly out, and cs was a joke

Comcast-basic programming was dismal, many channels I liked you had to pay a fortune for one stupid receiver in the house, no NFL package (Steelers fan), cs was alright, still have their internet and like it

Dish-(friends) garbage, packaging sucks, unreliable, system would reset itself and be out for 10-15 minutes at the same time every day, they hated their cs

Directv-had it, moved to a place I could not have it and looked forward to buying a house so that I could get it again, my parents and inlaws ordered it after they saw it at our place and they love it, more reliable than our Charter, goes out in bad storms but we have Netflix as a back up so not a big deal, pricey but they have not raised our rates like others have stated, my wife calls every few months and they hook us up

Verizon-never had, almost ordered to try until I talked to a few people and read reviews, people would rather watch black and white tv than have Verizon from what I have read

Searching the internet for reviews. Nothing stands out that separates them all. The SATs seem faster and bigger selection with Free installs.

What does the phone service provide? Cell phones or a land line equivalent?

 

[1sikStang]

Dish = no AMC no breaking bad! No Walking Dead

My 2 year directv just ended. And since I have direct deposit set up with them, my bill went up 75 w/o me knowing. Until finally I called and complained. And told them I was switching to dish. They told me to wait, and offered me only 5$ off per month. I said no way!! So I got transferred around to 4-5 promotion people. The last one really saved me money. I'm paying less then before and I added 2 receivers to 2 rooms. Kept my same package. Just had to sign another 2 year agreement. They aslo threw in free hbo for 6 months. I also tried to get nfl ticket in the deal, and that's where it stopped lol. I'm happy paying under 100 a month for 4 rooms and a free genie upgrade. Trust me just call them up and complain it helps lol otherwise these cable/dish guys will rape anyone on $$$

 

[carrrnuttt]

I have Dish and their Hopper service (two of them).

Between the two Hoppers and the two Joeys each manages, I get six HD signals in my house. I get a total of 4 Terrabytes of storage space total, not counting the automatically-recorded Primetime shows between 7PM and 10PM which goes into its own partition.

Also, all the Primetime shows being recorded is pulled from one signal, so we have five other free signals to watch other shows with when Primetime TV is being recorded/watched.

We have their 200+ channel package + HBO + a protection package where we never have to pay even if someone has to come out to our house to rewire everything (like when my German Shepherd chewed through some ground-level cables to the downstairs bedroom—we had them put the cables 8 feet up).

Best part is, the Hoppers are DLNA-compliant, so I can actually stream movies from my media server directly into any of my Hoppers, which are all network-enabled, or beam a picture, song or movie from my Galaxy S3 directly into my TV via the Hopper.

Lastly, I have access to the Dish Anywhere feature, where I can watch Live TV or anything recorded on my DVR or On Demand shows/movies any of our tablets/iPads/smartphones/computers.

All of this costs me 131 bucks a month.

 

[carrrnuttt]

Dish = no AMC no breaking bad! No Walking Dead

Huh? :dw:

This was resolved many months ago. Even then, Dish gave me a free Roku, a $10 per month discount and a $25 credit to use on Amazon so I could buy the Breaking Bad season if I wanted to.

Dish Network dishes out free Roku 2 boxes due to AMC spat | Digital Trends

Dish Sends Me A Free Roku XD Box After I Complain About Missing AMC

Needless to say, ^ that act alone has made me a loyal customer. They'd have to **** up pretty bad for me to drop them anytime soon.