fed up with Comcast - what's better - Dish Network or Direct TV?

[Hittdog]

I'm tired of paying an arm and a leg for Comcast television every month and am seriously considering going with satellite. Which satellite provider is better - Dish Network or Direct TV?

 

[majorloser]

I vote for Dish Network. Been with them for 8 years with no problems at all. I've had one receiver fail and they sent out a replacement immediately when I called them.

 

[j_garcia]

I recently switched to Dish from Comcast for the exact same reason and have no complaints. The only thing to watch out for is the whole TiVo lawsuit thing and the DVRs. They expect to lose the suit with TiVo and have said they would shut down DVR operation, so if you get service without the DVR, no worries. I have the DVR and if they shut them down, I am sure they will offer something in exchange.

 

[majorloser]

My only worry about the DVR thing is all the content I have on my external harddrive. I have a 1-TB drive that is almost full of HD content that i don't want to lose.

 

[sholling]

I went from Dish to DirectTV to FIOS. I couldn't tell much difference between the Dish and DTV pictures but Dish needed 2 roof dishes to give the same number of HD channels as DTV did with 1. It took 2 years of fighting with Dish HD DVR problems and crappy HD reception to get me to switch to Direct. The other thing that I've seen in homes places I've lived is Dish installs were butchery and ugly as heck. The 1st DTV install was so-so. Much cleaner but not solid - however in my area they have since completely replaced all the contract installers with DTV employees and they came back and did a professional job. Of the two satellite providers I prefer Direct TV.

Both DTV and Dish rely on compression to squeeze a lot of HD channels into limited bandwidth but not having seen them side by side in years I can't give a fair comparison. One thing to keep in mind is satellite reception goes out the window with bad weather. If you live in a Verizon area I'd see if they offer FIOS. The improvement over either satellite service is huge.

 

[j_garcia]

They did an excellent job on my Dish install. Looks great, and is out of the way with the eve hanger.

 

[Warpdrv]

Check out this page, http://www.directvdefense.org/hunt/

DTV was suing people like just like the RIAA did - IMO I would have nothing to do with those nasty Bastages... I knew some people that had to defend themselves against that CR@P.

I have dish, and I like their menus and CS much better then DTV thats (devil TV)

 

[GPS]

I will throw in a positive review for Directv. 2 yrs not a single problem. House got struck by lighting one night and they had a new HD/DVR box at my door 9am the next morning. no charge.

I have never had Dish Net to compare...but I have seen all my neighborhoods Dish's slowly change to Directv over the last year.

 

[majorloser]

I have noticed that most of the changes to DirectTV were part of package deals. I know quite a few people that switch based on a deal where telephone service was part of the deal. They have since wished they would have stuck with Dish.

Funny thing is I have Brighthouse cable for my my internet service. I know I could probably get a discount if I switched, but I still like Dish better than the cable.

 

[sholling]

Don't forget that Dish boxes have to be plugged into a phone line or you have to pay an extra $5/mo/box.

 

[ifsixwasnin9]

I never looked into Dish Network when I moved from Philadelphia to MD Eastern Shore cause I wasn't aware of them. But I decided to get DirecTV because they offered Center Ice package. Little did I know that DirecTV stopped carrying Versus (since I'm a big NHL fan). And Atlantic Broadband is available here but doesn't carry Comcast Sportsnet Phila. in MD, only in DE (which is 1 mi. from my house). I'm halfway between Phila. and Baltimore and only get Baltimore sports.
So it depends on what channels you want to get and if you're a big sports fan and want to pick up sports packages, etc. and PPV I guess.

 

[majorloser]

Don't forget that Dish boxes have to be plugged into a phone line or you have to pay an extra $5/mo/box.

Only one box for the account needs to be plugged into a phone line. But I wonder if that applies when you hook them up to LAN. I have both of my receivers hooked up to the phone and the internet.

 

[darien87]

How about AT&T U-Verse? We switched because we were sick of Comcast's prices also. We've had it for a year or so now and really like it. Unfortunately, it's area is kind of limited. I know they don't have it in Gilroy, where we will be moving in a couple of months.

 

[Warpdrv]

Don't forget that Dish boxes have to be plugged into a phone line or you have to pay an extra $5/mo/box.

Or connected to the network, that shouldn't be all that difficult as most people have network capable devices already hooked up to their HT, whats one more Cat5 Cable or wireless adapter...

 

[Hittdog]

I'd go with Fios, but it's not available in my area. Leaning towards Direct TV at this point unless anyone has anything very bad to say about them...

 

[j_garcia]

Only one box for the account needs to be plugged into a phone line. But I wonder if that applies when you hook them up to LAN. I have both of my receivers hooked up to the phone and the internet.

With Dish, I only have one DVR for two TVs. Both can view and record independently of the other, so no box in the bedroom, just a remote. I don't have network or phone in the living room where the box is, so the guy installed a through the wires adapter and hooked it up.

 

[jostenmeat]

I'm tired of paying an arm and a leg for Comcast television every month and am seriously considering going with satellite. Which satellite provider is better - Dish Network or Direct TV?

Or you could do like me, and just go OTA. $40-80 for a good antenna, free, uncompressed (which only FIOS could match, but at greater expense). Get a coax cable, plug it in to your TV ATSC/tuner, voila.

Use this to know what direction to point your antenna. You'll still pick up a boat load of signals, even if your antenna is sitting on the floor, in my limited experiences.
http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29

http://www.tvfool.com/

With all that money you save, you can put that towards more bluray rentals and purchases, and waste less time trying to find something worthwhile to watch. If you liked your HBO, you can rent those shows, or of course buy. On a strong rec from a friend, I bought season 1 of Mad Men for $17 on BD for instance. I wonder how much one month of HBO costs.

I get news, Olympic games, Final Four basketball, every football game, local NBA basketball games, network shows, a ton of foreign channels. It will look better than Comcast, DTV, or Dish, and yet it's totally free.

Unfortunately, you won't get NHL playoffs, ESPN, History, Food Network, Discovery, etc. Still, you can rent anything, and have a lot of money in the pocket. Just an idea to consider!

my 2 cents.

 

[Warpdrv]

I'd go with Fios, but it's not available in my area. Leaning towards Direct TV at this point unless anyone has anything very bad to say about them...

I had something bad to say about that crooked nasty company, you may want to go back and read about the blanket lawsuits they slapped across the country ...... Sorry I just couldn't support a company that stoops to measures for their own lack of security, much less on people that are completely innocent.

Good luck with your choice in DTV.... they SUCK donkey huevos !!!

 

[Hittdog]

I had something bad to say about that crooked nasty company, you may want to go back and read about the blanket lawsuits they slapped across the country ...... Sorry I just couldn't support a company that stoops to measures for their own lack of security, much less on people that are completely innocent.

Good luck with your choice in DTV.... they SUCK donkey huevos !!!

I'm not really all that concerned, as I don't think they'd come after me. I don't have any of the devices that seem to be at issue, nor will I have them in the future. I just want inexpensive HDTV!

 

[Warpdrv]

To me its like doing business with AV123 after knowing they stole benefit funds, which to me is shady and as low as one would go, but the fact that they (DTV) sued people like they did would ward me off....

I'm sure there were people that were guilty and got what they deserved, but for those that were not guilty - that is just sickening, lumping everyone together like that IMO.