Direct TV or Dish..Satellite Television??

[defender56]

DirectTV over DishNetwork hands down.

As far as rain attenuation - that's a common problem with VSAT dishes. After the last several weeks of no rain, I would love to loose my service for a bit due to a heavy rainstorm.

I did not loose my service at any point during the XMAS eve blizzard or the other heavy snowstorms this winter. If you get a bunch of snow on your dish, just sweep it off with a broom. Generally, they mount the dish close to the edge of the roof and a short ladder and broom will do the trick.

The equipment (receiver) that DirectTV has is much better than DishNetwork. HDTV channels never worked/looked right when we had Dish.

 

[Shadowrider]

I just switched to U-Verse after being with Dish for about seven years. I really like the U-Verse. The HD picture does seem to have some compression going on but it's pretty darn good. Will know pretty quick when football season starts up. Someone asked about the U-Verse internet. You get all the speed you pay for. I had 3mb/s DSL with AT&T for a loooong time and never got much more than 1.6 or so. With the U-Verse I have the 6.0mb/s plan and I get it all.

The Dish HD picture is the industry standard for excellence. IOW it's the one to beat and it's awesome. My gripes about Dish were having to have separate DVRs for each room and the $5 fee for each, the fee for not having a phone line plugged in for Guide and software updates, and then there was the HD fee for each HDTV you had. I had two TVs running off of one receiver and it wouldn't feed HD to the secondary TV. And probably my biggest gripe of all about Dish was the receivers were just plain friggin slow. You change a channel and it took a couple of seconds to get the picture. Also my secondary receiver had to be rebooted constantly and it was very irritating.

They will go out in very bad storms with very heavy cloud cover but it usually is only a minute or two and it's gotta be very heavy and thick clouds to block the signal. It's much better than years ago when if the wind blew you lost your signal. Those days are gone if the dish is pointed correctly. I also remember once upon a time Cox cable had the same problem.

I never had a problem with Dish billing or customer support. If I ever go back to satellite it will be Dish. They were cheaper than DirectTV (my inlaws have it) and while it appears pretty good I don't see any advantage over Dish unless you get some killer deal for signing up.

 

[gsarg]

My DirecTV has been more reliable than my Cox service. HD is better than Cox, too. Plus, Direct has more programming choices than Cox it Dish.

 

[SoonerBolt]

Cox cable was out for a while during that huge ice storm while my direcTV was working.

Now DirecTV now has one DVR that can be viewed in multiple rooms.

direcTV is the only way to get NFL SundaynTicket and get every NFL game. I'm a Chargers fan too and it's the only way to go for that.

 

[TheSanDiegoKid]

direcTV is the only way to get NFL SundaynTicket and get every NFL game. I'm a Chargers fan too and it's the only way to go for that.

You sir are a gentleman and a scholar. Welcome at my home anytime. Just bring beer and we can watch the chargers kick ass this year!

 

[1911Sooner]

Did you read your own link? It says on the premier package that you get HD free for life in big red letters. Not lucky, just took advantage of the deal everyone else gets.

Yes but that is more money than I'm willing to spend to watch tv. So with the choice package it is an extra $10.

 

[Bierhunter]

How about none of the above.
Anything we are interested in can be seen OTA, or rented, or watched online.

Been without for 8 years.

$50/ month * 8 years = $4,800

That can buy quite a few toys.

You know...I've been really thinking about that recently.

I bought a new Blue Ray DVD player that is internet capable this month. Now I can watch Netflix instant play on my TV in the living room instead of just on my computer.

For the past three weeks, I haven't watched anything on satellite. It's all been through Netflix. Netflix is a lot cheaper. Now if only I could get the military channel through Netflix I'd be all set.

On Dish, I have a few hundred channels that I never watch. But, they are in HD I just don't watch them, so it's irrelevant.

 

[SoonerBolt]

You sir are a gentleman and a scholar. Welcome at my home anytime. Just bring beer and we can watch the chargers kick ass this year!

Sounds like a deal. Hopefully "our" year is soon. I'm tired of waiting. lol

 

[Gunrunner45]

I had Dish Network for years. It was OK. Got used to the channel guide.

It only went out in torrential down pours, not every little cloud. My gripe was they kept increasing the cost but I wasn't getting anymore value from it.

I recently switched to Direct TV & upgraded to HD. We have about the same channels as we did with Dish plus a few extras and HD for a lower price. As for the actual operation I don't see a huge difference except it looks better on an HD channel.

I avoided the Uverse for now, because it was higher than Direct TV and a friend that lives close to me says his is out at least 1 -2 times per month. Thats everything, phone, Internet & TV.

If you want to avoid snow & ice build up on your Dish, spray it with PAM cooking spray in the fall and snow & ice will not stick to it. Spray just the inside of the dish, not the feed horn.

 

[onwmed]

Neither. Over the air broadcasting, netflix and hulu.com from my laptop with HDMI output. Total cost of $10 per month.