Dish or Direct TV?

[usmctpdog]

Moving out to a Home in the Country and have to give up FASTCable Internet & TV.

Need to sign up with either Direct or Dish. * I Have read alot of Horror stories on both and looks like both require atleast a 12 mo contract and my SSN which I am loath to give out. I don't care about watching sports so that makes no matter to me.

Other than that, do you Satellite guys like Dish or Direct better?
Anything to watch for? What about buying my own equipment?

Thanks!

[mwnahas]

Well I get DISH from my local telco.
I rent, but get a discount that just pays for the equipment.
Dish customer service sux in my opinion.
But Adelphia cable service was bad so I went back to Dish in a different way.
Some friends of ours defected from Dish and went to Direct and are happy with them. Best advise would be to look up the programming on the Internet and see which packages they offer and pick the one you like best. I would rent IF you can get a deal. They will be changing format in the future (encoder) so if you buy you might get stuck if you buy. Just be sure and read all the fine print and gotchas.

[pkpr1998]

I went with DishNetwork because they have more Hi-Def channels.

That's about the only reason.

[airborneod]

I have had Dish for many years and never an issue. If you have ATT you can package it on one bill and I do not believe there is a 1 year contract.

[rodgtc]

I do not know anyone who is happy with Dish up hear in Michigan. They have aoo switched to Direct TV.

[TandemCyclist]

We live in an RV and travel. The most recent problem with Dish is they will cut the feed for those people receiving the LA and NY network feeds on Dec. 1st.

If you are going to live where you might (might the operative word) be able to receive networks ABC, FOX, CBS, NBC with a regular antenna you may not be able to get network feeds from Dish unless they can feed you that local station. You might check the forums for both to figure out the situation.

We signed an affidavit with Directv saying we move around and are out of range most of the time. Dish did not offer local programing from our home address so we would not be able to get the 4 major networks. Most full time RVers are bailing from Dish.

[PMitchell]

I have had DISH service for at least 7 years. One year the local baseball team dropped their contract and I switched back to cable for a year. Dish put my account into a "sleep mode" while they negotiated with the sports
organization. A year later they had the coverage.

I have two receivers that I purchased (as part of a promotional deal) . One has an IR remote the other has an RF remote. I use the IR for the main TV in the family room. I have 4 TV's daisy-chained on the 2nd floor and can control the SAT receiver with the RF remote from any room. There has been one Smart Card upgrade to limit piracy. I also have all the local network channels for an additional $5/mo

Installed & aimed the dish myself . . . a no-brainer. They provided hard copy and a VHS tape for self installation. I called customer service once to drop the service due to the baseball issue and was given no hassles and agreed to the "sleep" mode. Local cable service always had interruptions due to tree rats (squirrels) and downed trees on powerlines. The local code requires SAT dishes to be mounted out of site from the front/street elevation.. Couldn't get a SW view and the color of the dish matched the color of my shutters. The township engineer did a drive by and OK'd the installation.

The local TV shop where I purchased the package sold both systems but recommended DISH. I like the on-screen schedules (up to 6 hours) and summaries & actor ID's of the programming with the touch of the remote.
:)

[eljeffe]

DirecTV - Had it since 1991 and have never looked back. NFL Sunday Ticket (especially the RedZone Channel) is the best thing that ever happened to Sunday TV. :D

[messenger13]

I have DISH and love it. My friend that has DirecTV doesn't like Direct as much now that TiVo has split off. Don't remember the details, but that's what he told me. Just checkout the channel options and go with the one that suits your programming needs.

[messenger13]

NFL Sunday Ticket (especially the RedZone Channel) is the best thing that ever happened to Sunday TV. :DYou don't need NFL Sunday Ticket to watch the SeaHawks get beat week after week! :rotf:

Go Favre!!!

[George_S]

I've been with DirecTV for a few years, have it on 4 sets. Cable company was a horror story. Phantom charges kept appearing on my cable bill and it would take six months of calling them to get it resolved. They kept saying it was taken care of, and then, next month those charges were back. Have used DirecTV customer service just a few times and it was a surprisingly pleasant experience.

[DavidTaylor]

I've had DirecTV for about 5 years and love it.

[cfell]

Just moved over to ATT DSL and DISH... install is this Friday.. will know soon enough, just fed up with the Kable Krud.

[usmctpdog]

*Thanks for all the Info !!! I guess I will be going with whoever has the best, least expensive deal since I don't care about sports but do love my HBO, FX, CNBC and Turner Classic Movies! I am kinda leaning towards Direct at the moment from what I have read so far..

The snow has started and over @ my friends house we had to run outside to brush the snow off his DirectTV satellite to get reception going again!!!

So I learned around her that the satellite has to be mounted low enough to brush off when it snows!!

[messenger13]

So I learned around her that the satellite has to be mounted low enough to brush off when it snows!!FWIW, I live in the snowbelt of Cleveland, Ohio...and I have yet to have loss of reception due to snow. Perhaps my installer knew something that most do not. http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/images/smilies/dunno.gif

[OKUIII]

Hey Top,
I have dish and satellite internet in the mountain home. Am very pleased with Dish. Since I use internet at this home very seldom, I worked out deal with independent satellite internet service for $25/month.

I have cable in primary home and Direct at the house in San Jose. I HATE Direct.....period.

Hope this helps

Col OKU

[davemoore]

The programming looks similar on Dish vs DirecTV. I'm switching to DirecTV after 4-1/2 years of Dish in order to get a newer HD receiver for the Philips 37" TV I just bought. The package deal was $200 off at Best Buy.

[longbow]

I have been with Direct TV for over 16 years now and I haven't had any serious problems, oh wait a minute my RCA remote finally died about a year ago and they sent me a new one free. Honor, Courage, and Commitement '' SEMPER FIDELIS ''. :beer:

[desertlizard]

I've had both. For my choices Dish was a little cheaper so I went with that. Then they dropped what was then Speedvision in a contract fight. I switched to Directv after missing too many F1 races. I switched back after they got back Speed and then a few years later they got in another contract fight and dropped Outdoor Life, now VS. I missed too many hockey games and switched again.

Their picture quality is similar, Directv is a bit softer, but digital compression is much more obvious on Dish Network. Some channels really show artifacts of their compression scheme. Especially on dark scenes. It can be distracting. Like others said look for what programming you want. But beware, Charlie at Dish plays hardball at times and is not afraid to drop programming when contract time comes up.

Dale White

[usmctpdog]

I called Dish and talked to someone in the Phillipines....
I called Direct and talked to someone in Iowa who also offered some discounts for the first year ....

Guess who I was more comfortable with ?? :)