Posted: 4/23/2009 7:44:42 AM EDT
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I have dish network now. its ok. pricey though. I just bought a house and looking indo direct TV. looks like they have more HD channels to offer. Any down side to Direct?
I WILL be getting a DVR. Can I watch one channel and record another on directtv? This is important to me.. Thanks |
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I have dish network now. its ok. pricey though. I just bought a house and looking indo direct TV. looks like they have more HD channels to offer. Any down side to Direct? I WILL be getting a DVR. Can I watch one channel and record another on directtv? This is important to me.. Thanks I have and like DirecTV. I don't subscribe to HDTV, I just can't justify the additional cost. I'm signed up on a basic package that gives me the channels I like to watch. If you're a sports fan, DirecTV is the only way to go. My DVR can record two channels simultaneously. However, you have to be watching at least one of the two. Otherwise, you can record one channel and watch whatever else you want. |
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I switched from Direct to Dish a few years ago and have more or less been happier with it … I originally had the DirectTV-Tivo combo unit, when I wanted to upgrade to HiDef, they didnn't have a reasonable solution, I don't know if this has changed since.
When I switched, DirecTV's DVR wasn't very good. Dish's allows you to record 1 tuner, watch the other, and flip back and forth, OR view the other tuner in a Picture-in-picture mode … the PIP is part of the DVR software, so you don't have to run separate feeds to your TV and flip back and forth with the TV inputs to use PIP, very streamlined setup IMHO. Also worth mentioning if you go to the trouble of rigging an OTA antenna, you can record 3 feeds simultaneously (provided one of them is from an OTA source). |
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I have dish network now. its ok. pricey though. I just bought a house and looking indo direct TV. looks like they have more HD channels to offer. Any down side to Direct? I WILL be getting a DVR. Can I watch one channel and record another on directtv? This is important to me.. Thanks Make sure you tell the installer that.. He will need to run two cables to your box in order to do that (or that is what they did with ours 2.5 yrs ago).. NOTE - IIRC the installer will charge extra for that and you pay him directly - You also have to pay if they dig a hole and mount the dish on a pole.. They (and it was talked about on here) wont mount a HD dish on the house - it has to be on the roof or on a pole. We have had Directv since we moved here and have been very happy. We have lost signal a handful of times with heavy rains/snows, but that only lasts a few minutes.. brian |
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DirecTV has better sports packages. But DirecTV is stagnant on adding more HD until they get a new satellite up and running, probably six plus months before they can add much more.
Dish now has the edge in non-sports HD programming and is adding programming in HD. Dish’s DVR’s are much better than DirecTV’s. I have had both and currently have DirecTV, I prefer Dish due to the equipment and they are cheaper. If you go with DirecTV be very careful they are very devious in their commitment practices, I have seen people get a increased commitment when retuning a defective receiver for a new one. Never trust anything a DirecTV rep tells you, get it in writing and record the conversation before you commit. |
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Having worked for DTV from '99-2003, I became pretty familiar both products. DTV has the sports packages if you want to buy them. If you're a sports fan, be prepared for blackouts-it's a complicated issue, and needless to say it's beyond the control of DTV in most cases. We had the NFL Sunday Ticket free, and never had a blackout, but I understand that's changed due to more local channels being offered in the last seven years or so. The MLB package was a nightmare of blackout customer complaints. No matter how many times we explained it, people just can't understand that not all games are viewable to all people. I don't miss that aspect of the job, at all.
If you have a good install by an experienced or at least intelligent technician (properly grounded, dish mounted on a pole or on the side of the house-NOT ON A TREE!!-and good, fresh RG-6 coax cable), and your equipment that's brought out to you is good, you'll get years of good service. We had it for eight years, and never had a problem other than snow on the dish, but I just swept it off and that was that. People called in about heavy rain storms interupting signal, but it doesn't last long, and cable used to go out up here more often than DTV did due to weather. Dish Network and DTV actually share transponders on one or two satelites. I didn't like Dish, and would never buy their service. Their business ethics suck, and my own experience with them wasn't something I'd call "positive". |
| I think the service is basically the same. I've been with Direct TV for 13+ years now. The one thing that I absolutely hate about Dish is the menu/channel selection setup. Its fucking awful and horribly slow compard to Directv. I would never switch based on that factor alone. Can't stand going to a Dish person's house and having to navigate that shit. |
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I think the service is basically the same. I've been with Direct TV for 13+ years now. The one thing that I absolutely hate about Dish is the menu/channel selection setup. Its fucking awful and horribly slow compard to Directv. I would never switch based on that factor alone. Can't stand going to a Dish person's house and having to navigate that shit. Weird Compared to DirecTV horribly sluggishly molasses like very slow DVR menus Dish's are flat out fast... I have had both DirecTV DRVs are just not as good and more buggy to boot. |
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The one thing that I absolutely hate about Dish is the menu/channel selection setup. Its fucking awful and horribly slow compard to Directv. . We switched from DirecTV to Dish last year and I had the opposite experience. The DirecTV receiver was extremely limited in the size and number of custom channel lists one could create. The Dish receiver is not. I think the DVR is free with Dish now. We ordered standard service and got the DVR gratis. |
the only thing i hate about dishnetwork, is that in the basic package you get every news channel but FOX NEWS . you actually have to upgrade to get FOX NEWS!!!!!! i think thats some bullshit personally. im probably going to cable when we move into our new home. atleast my cable supplier doesnt charge more for my beloved FOX NEWS
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If i got a sports package it would be MLB. and maybe the nascar one. both are on direct.
So here is a problem. One person who replied said i will need 2 cables ran to the DVR box if i want to record and watch something else. How the hell is he going to run the cable. The basment has all the sheetrock up so i couldnt feed it from downstairs. maybe a simple problem im not sure, iv never installed this stuff. The guy who had the house before me had direct, the dish is still there and the cables are already ran |
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If i got a sports package it would be MLB. and maybe the nascar one. both are on direct. So here is a problem. One person who replied said i will need 2 cables ran to the DVR box if i want to record and watch something else. How the hell is he going to run the cable. The basment has all the sheetrock up so i couldnt feed it from downstairs. maybe a simple problem im not sure, iv never installed this stuff. The guy who had the house before me had direct, the dish is still there and the cables are already ran Depends on how your house w/ basement is set up. I've seen some horrible instalations, and be advised that doing custom work like a "wall fish" costs extra-if they do it at all. You may need to coordinate with an electrician who can run your cable for ya, so the install job doesn't end up looking like a Sunday morning fuck story (ya, I'm pretty unrefined, but that's exactly what come to mind when I think of some the installation jobs the sub-contractors call "acceptable" that I've seen). DTV installers often take the path of least resistence, so you can have your DTV box installed in any room you want, but you could also have RG-6 cable laying all over the floor and walls, hanging from the ceiling, what have you. Sometimes the installers are actually good about such things, so it depends on who the sub-contractor is at the time of the install. You can call them out for an install, and if you don't like what he's going to do, then the only option is to reschedule for a later date, and get the electrician out there in the mean time to do the custom work. |
If you have 1 or 2 TVs with basic service and basic receivers, Dish is cheaper. If you want more advanced services (HD, DVRs) or 5 or more TVs, DirecTV is cheaper. The chart above strongly reflects the fact that DirecTV bills itself as a premium TV provider and targets the upper half of the market, while Dish bills itself as a "low-cost alternative" and targets the lower half of the market. Over the last two years, the lower half of the market is either canceling paid TV, or is electing to go with a cheaper solution (almost always a "bundle" from cable or a telecom, where the TV service isn't as good, but is cheaper). The upper half of the market hasn't been affected as much by the economy, so DirecTV continues to do just fine, while Dish is bleeding customers. -Troy |
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You won't find a better HD DVR than the new one Dish came out with.
I tried switching to Direct a year ago, but they were going to have to put up 2 dishes and they didn't have a good way to watch recorded shows on more than 1 TV, which was unacceptable for us. I'm very happy with Dish and give them a lot of recommendations. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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You won't find a better HD DVR than the new one Dish came out with. I tried switching to Direct a year ago, but they were going to have to put up 2 dishes and they didn't have a good way to watch recorded shows on more than 1 TV, which was unacceptable for us. I'm very happy with Dish and give them a lot of recommendations. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile Seen the new ViP 922 DVR... Wow http://www.slashgear.com/ces-2009-dish-network-unviels-slingloaded-vip-922-0829470/ DISH Network Corporation has unveiled the world’s first “SlingLoaded” HD DuoDVR, the award-winning ViP 922. The Vip 922 is the first high definition video recorder to incorporate placeshifting technology. This device was build by EchoStar Technologies and DISH Network as an entertainment centerpiece that combines 1080p Video on Demand and 100 percent, all-HD suite of programming packages available today.
The Vip 922 will be available to customers starting in Spring of 2009. With this new technology users can not only watch but control their favorite TV programming from anywhere in the world over broadband internet on their laptop or mobile phone. TV enthusiasts will never run out of programs to watch with five video sources including satellite, broadband and optional over-the-air tuners. The Vip 922 also features a multi-tuner DVR with up to 1,000 hours of recording time with support for connecting external storage for more storage capacity. “DISH Network is pleased to add another award-winning product to our suite of MPEG-4 HD DVR ViP receivers: a groundbreaking set top box that offers consumers the true experience of TV everywhere,” said DISH Network Chairman, CEO and President Charlie Ergen. “By integrating Sling Media’s Slingbox technology into our industry-leading HD DVR, DISH Network is providing even more ways for our subscribers to view their TV programming – through their television sets, their desktops at home, their laptops on the road, and their smartphones including Blackberrys, iPhones and more.”
With the Vip 922 you have an innovative remote control that eliminates half of the buttons on the standard remote control which providing cursor-like navigation on the screen. Viewers also have access to many onscreen widgets which allows you to get instant access to news feeds located right on the home screen. Users can also control the Vip922 with the new SlingGuide over the Internet. |
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I used to work for Dish.
They will sell you something over the phone, change the work-order afterwards, and then when the installer gets there they will tell the customer they need X amount of dollars with a CC over the phone to get what the customer thought he was getting all along, and had already paid for. Among other reasons I quit that job due to the fact 1/3 to 1/2 of my jobs were getting canceled due to this practice. Some customers would pony up the money but most would not. If the job gets canceled I didnt get paid, and the job became a losing proposition. The 381 receiver is a POS. The 722K is a good unit which is HD/DVR dual tuner. The dual tuners are pretty cool but a lot of customers dont know you are only going to get HD to the TV that has the receiver. The 2nd room is going to get standard programming only. Most customers are expecting both TV's to be HD. So if you want both TV's to be HD you need a seperate HD receiver in each room. HD signals and standard can be done with one dish which is a 1000.2 series unit. The setup with the 2 dishes gets HD as well with one dish picking up the 110 and 119 satellite and the 2nd getting 61.5. The 61.5 is a newer HD satellite so the picture quality comes in a bit better, and it offers local channels in HD. The setup with the 1 dish gets HD but not local channels in HD. 129 is the other HD satellite. So if you want your locals in HD you need a standalone dish for just for the 61.5 satellite as its too far away from the other sat's to be on one dish. |
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HD signals and standard can be done with one dish which is a 1000.2 series unit. The setup with the 2 dishes gets HD as well with one dish picking up the 110 and 119 satellite and the 2nd getting 61.5. The 61.5 is a newer HD satellite so the picture quality comes in a bit better, and it offers local channels in HD. The setup with the 1 dish gets HD but not local channels in HD. 129 is the other HD satellite. So if you want your locals in HD you need a standalone dish for just for the 61.5 satellite as its too far away from the other sat's to be on one dish. Most of this is not correct or only applies to specific small areas. There are 3 common setups for Dish and HD, depending on where you are and what equipment you have: a single 1000.2 dish, a pair of Dish 500s with the "wing" dish pointing at 61.5, and the 1000.4 "Eastern Arc" dish. In some areas, you may even need a 1000.2 plus a 500 wing dish. Also the 61.5 sat isn't new; it's been around quite a while. It's replacment, AMC-14, that was launched about 14 months ago, failed to reach proper orbit and was considered a complete loss. There won't be a 61.5 replacement until 2011. The failing 129 satellite was replaced by a new Canadian sat, Ciel-2, which went on line in Februrary. As for DirecTV having to use 2 dishes, that only applies to a handful of small DMAs, and is now down to 4 of those DMAs. In the vast majority of areas, you can get everything (except International channels) from a single dish. Keep in mind that these things are constantly changing (especially with Dish, who has to manage a lot more satellites to provide coverage), so what might have been true a year or two ago is often no longer relevant. -Troy |
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Quoted: Make sure you tell the installer that.. He will need to run two cables to your box in order to do that (or that is what they did with ours 2.5 yrs ago).. It can be done with one wire coming into the house with a single wire multiswitch. I had to do this about a year ago when I had my existing install upgraded to HD in order to use two tuners on one DVR. There was no feasible way to get a second cable run from the attic to downstairs. I also had to use a power inserter. I believe they're starting to use a new model dish now for new installations that only need a single wire running into the house. It's been a long time since I did research on this though. |
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Having worked for DTV from '99-2003, I became pretty familiar both products. DTV has the sports packages if you want to buy them. If you're a sports fan, be prepared for blackouts-it's a complicated issue, and needless to say it's beyond the control of DTV in most cases. We had the NFL Sunday Ticket free, and never had a blackout, but I understand that's changed due to more local channels being offered in the last seven years or so. The MLB package was a nightmare of blackout customer complaints. No matter how many times we explained it, people just can't understand that not all games are viewable to all people. I don't miss that aspect of the job, at all. If you have a good install by an experienced or at least intelligent technician (properly grounded, dish mounted on a pole or on the side of the house-NOT ON A TREE!!-and good, fresh RG-6 coax cable), and your equipment that's brought out to you is good, you'll get years of good service. We had it for eight years, and never had a problem other than snow on the dish, but I just swept it off and that was that. People called in about heavy rain storms interupting signal, but it doesn't last long, and cable used to go out up here more often than DTV did due to weather. Dish Network and DTV actually share transponders on one or two satelites. I didn't like Dish, and would never buy their service. Their business ethics suck, and my own experience with them wasn't something I'd call "positive". I Agree with this post 100%. I have worked for both companies on the installation side. DirecTV has better equipment hands down. If you get a good installer who knows what they are doing, it will go a long way towards your satisfaction with the system. Dish network is the only company I ever worked for that made lying to both employees and customers some what of a company policy. |