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DirectTV vs. Dish Network

Capt. Kaos

By Capt. Kaos
in The Tailgate

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Capt. Kaos

Capt. Kaos

Posted
Posted

You may have seen this question on FB, but I figured I'd turn to the collective here at ES...

Our local cable company is raising rates again so we are looking into getting DirectTv or Dish.

Verizon is not an option and Sunday Ticket is not a dealbreaker.

Anyone had both and can pick a side?

TIA

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DM72

DM72

Posted
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If you're into sports, not just football, Directv is the way to go. If you're a golf or/and a tennis fan, you won't miss a second of any major tourny. Other than that, I guess they're about the same.

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hunterx

hunterx

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I can't answer this question directly, but maybe you can find another way.

I live in an apartment, so I have had cable for several years. Once it got to the point that my internet+tv (no phone) was costing $160, we had to think about our needs. My wife enjoys some home garden shows, cooking shows, but she can live without them. I looked at how much we were paying, compared to how many TV channels we actually watched and I was taken back. Including local channels, I would watch NFL, Golf and ESPN. That's it. We had other channels but we weren't in dire need of them. Doing the math, for about 7 or 8 channels we were paying about $110 a month... Considering you can get local channels in HD for free with an Over the Air antenna, I was paying about $30 per cable channel.

We just couldn't justify it. We cancelled the TV completely. I upped my internet to about 18 MB/sec or whatever is in that range to handle streaming video on 1-3 devices at a time. With the ability to purchase sport packages online ($50 asking a friend to upgrade his Sunday Ticket to to-go & $120 for MLB), and assuming I could stream certain other events on other websites that won't be mentioned here, I figured...why not save the near $1500 a year to ditch TV service.

I now have a laptop plugged into my bedroom TV, installed is XBMC which streams my video from my Media Center in my living room. I have HD Antenna's in both rooms to get--to my surprise--many more than just 5-6 local channels. We even get a Music Video channel, weather channels, movie channels, kids networks and a few other free channels. All in all I think we get like 30-35 free channels, over the air.

You can redbox/netflix/blockbuster any new releases. You can get them other ways. There's a lot of options.

Sorry I couldn't answer this question directly, but maybe this will raise an eyebrow and cause you to consider other options.

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ClemsSC7Skinfan

ClemsSC7Skinfan

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I personally have been with DirecTV since 2004, I would never switch or go without it. I am a huge sports junkie as well. My parents have Dish and have had it for quite some time. I would say if I were to rate them side by side that DirecTV would win basically just because of my familiarity with DirecTV more than anything else. If you have a chance to view it at a store and maybe compare that would be a suggestion.

I will say that the customer service with DirecTV has always been pretty excellent (except when I had to pull a power move on them to send a service tech out for no charge but that's another story all together but they did the right thing and did what I said.)

Funny thing is they are both owned by DirecTV so overall it shouldn't be that different from one to another anyhow.

Just know that if you like certain channels, etc. check out what package would be required to get said channel preferences because typically the "hook" price of $24.95 is complete b.s. with nothing really of value included (both DirecTV and Dish on that).

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USS Redskins

USS Redskins

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Never had Dish but I am a 10 year DTV customer and will never go anywhere else - mostly because of the Sunday Ticket but they have other great sports packages as well. I have only run into a few slight problems over the years - mostly the technicians that come out to the house - they run from horribly bad to great, and I tend to usually get the bad.

The HD selection is incredible and they add more just about every quarter.

We get the gold package which includes all the movie channels. We dont rent movies, we just watch HBO, etc... its expensive but since I pay a high monthly bill (and get my moneys worth) they usually are willing to cut me a deal for the $300 NFL package - I usually end up around $160.

We also have the whole home DVR service. Its great - you can watch anything recorded in one room, in any room. We have kids, so its great.

The DVR is one of the greatest inventions in the last decade.

DTV is the way to go.

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chess

chess

Posted
Posted
You may have seen this question on FB, but I figured I'd turn to the collective here at ES...

Our local cable company is raising rates again so we are looking into getting DirectTv or Dish.

Verizon is not an option and Sunday Ticket is not a dealbreaker.

Anyone had both and can pick a side?

TIA

Hopefully you dont live in BFE like I do...

I am down in St Mary's and the only viable option is satellite....Metrocast is absolutely terrible....

I prefer Directv but you can haggle with either of those guys......

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skinsmarydu

skinsmarydu

Posted
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We had Dish for 10 years and LOVED IT...FreeSpeechTV can't be received with any other provider. The service is outstanding, you can add/delete channels with your remote, etc. We now have Xfinity in a bundle, and the one thing I love about this service is the caller id on the TV screen...best thing since self-sticking stamps.

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The Evil Genius

The Evil Genius

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Posted

Dish has the Hopper now. Looks promising.

Record up to six live HD channels at once during primetime*, including your 4 local HD networks and 2 channels of your choosing, and stream four HD programs to different TVs simultaneously. That means you can watch more and miss less of your favorite programs.

Massive 2 TB Hard Drive.

Record and store up to 2,000 hours – the most available from any TV provider! Plus, hundreds of On Demand titles are available for instant viewing.

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Capt. Kaos

Capt. Kaos

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Make them throw in Sunday Ticket for you as a new subscriber.

That was going to be my plan but we have hit a snag. We use a VoIP service for our home phone and to use the DTV Cinema and On Demand features you need a land based phone line.

Looks like we'll be reconsidering our options.

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grego

grego

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DirecTV by a longshot. I switched to FiOS a few months ago to save some money every month but I have found myself missing DirecTV.

out of curiosity, why?

i guess i'm asking cuz, if i'm getting the same channels, i'm not sure i care who my provider is, i'll go with the lower price.

i cant get dish or directv cuz of some large trees next to my house (so my neighbors have told me when they tried to get it), but i've had comcast and fios. i MUCH prefer fios channel grid- comcasts still looks like something from the 80s and i've seen one of the satellite providers and didnt think it was much better. verizon hasnt found a good replacement for exercise tv yet, while comcast has.

i had a few technical issues with comcast and i do prefer verizon, but, still, all things being relatively equal, if you are getting the same channels, why would some of you 'never' switch?

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Heisenberg

Heisenberg

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That was going to be my plan but we have hit a snag. We use a VoIP service for our home phone and to use the DTV Cinema and On Demand features you need a land based phone line.

Looks like we'll be reconsidering our options.

Not true.

I'm not sure why their promotional stuff still says that but it's 100% false. I had DirecTV at my apartment and house for year with no phone line whatsoever and I used On Demand and Cinema all the time. The only thing needed for the stuff like HBO On Demand, etc. is a broadband internet connection.

---------- Post added April-5th-2012 at 03:51 PM ----------

out of curiosity, why?

i guess i'm asking cuz, if i'm getting the same channels, i'm not sure i care who my provider is, i'll go with the lower price.

i cant get dish or directv cuz of some large trees next to my house (so my neighbors have told me when they tried to get it), but i've had comcast and fios. i MUCH prefer fios channel grid- comcasts still looks like something from the 80s and i've seen one of the satellite providers and didnt think it was much better. verizon hasnt found a good replacement for exercise tv yet, while comcast has.

i had a few technical issues with comcast and i do prefer verizon, but, still, all things being relatively equal, if you are getting the same channels, why would some of you 'never' switch?

You're not really getting the same channels anymore. They're still pretty close but DirecTV has been adding HD channels pretty consistently while FiOS has hit a wall where they don't have the bandwidth to add anymore without degrading the quality or removing other channels. FiOS hasn't added a single new HD channel since I"ve been a subscriber and it was a common miconception for a while that they had unlimited bandwidth.

Also, I found the PQ on DirecTV to be just a bit better - mainly due to FiOS converting everything to the MPEG2 format due to compatibility with MPEG4 and some of their old receivers (MPEG4 allows for a better picture while using lower bandwidth). I definitely notice a PQ difference on certain channels like USA and a few others.

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Capt. Kaos

Capt. Kaos

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Not true.

I'm not sure why their promotional stuff still says that but it's 100% false. I had DirecTV at my apartment and house for year with no phone line whatsoever and I used On Demand and Cinema all the time. The only thing needed for the stuff like HBO On Demand, etc. is a broadband internet connection.

Now that's the exact opposite of what the rep just told me, maybe I'll call back and see if i get another rep with a different answer (kinda like dealing with the Skins ticket office)

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Heisenberg

Heisenberg

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Now that's the exact opposite of what the rep just told me, maybe I'll call back and see if i get another rep with a different answer (kinda like dealing with the Skins ticket office)

What's their reasoning? You can easily order Cinema stuff using the directv.com website if you don't have a phone and On Demand wouldn't need a phone line - it would need an internet connection because you are essentially downloading the content onto your DVR - unlike On Demand on cable where it is basically streaming to your TV.

Saying you need a phone line doesn't even make any sense and would be a horrible business model for any TV company now when you consider how many people are getting rid of their landlines in favor of wireless phones. Definitely speak to a different CSR - I can assure you that the last one was wrong.

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