Dish Network or Directv...which do you recommend?

[cedahlia]

We are moving to the sticks, and will be going satellite. Never had it before though...I'd appreciate the help of my fellow DUers in deciding which way to go. And if there's another satellite provider you use besides those two, please feel free to share.

Thanks! :)

Oh, and we may possibly be looking into the satellite internet thing, but so far I've only heard bad things about that, so I don't know if we will. Please feel free to share any input on that front also.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Dish

Not owned by Murdoch and they carry a channel called FreeSpeechTV...great liberal programming

[cedahlia]

7. FreeSpeechTV

sounds pretty cool! Guess it's no surprise we wouldn't find that one in Murdoch's deal. Thanks for the info!

[AlFrankenFan]

32. what channel is that? n/t

[Kitka]

20. FSTV is why I got Dish Network

LINK is cool too. And other than when a tornado hit town, I haven’t had a service interruption in the 7 months I’ve had it. Overall I’ve been pleased.

[mac56]

2. We looked at both.

Similar situation to what you described. Smaller town, virtually non-existent TV reception via antenna. Had cable for awhile, but got tired of the price gouging.

We decided Dish was the better format. Bypass the Top 50 (smallest) channel assortment and get at least the Top 100. Be sure to pay extra to get your local stations too. You'd have to do this on either Dish or Direct.

We decided all this before Direct got bought up by Rupert Murdoch (Fox). That just confirmed that our decision was right.

Add on edit: The Top 100 package gets you many commercial-free audio stations, as well as a bunch of Sirius music stations. Our radio reception via antenna was just as crappy as our TV reception, so this has been a godsend. And radio sucks in this town anyway.

[Tiberius]

3. Dish is overcompressed

The Dish Network's channel quality is not as good as Directv's. The picture is too compressed.

I got Directv about three weeks ago and absolutely love it. Their Tivo is the best on the market. Some channels come in 5.1 sound, which may or may not matter to you.

As far as the internet thing goes, I heard the cost was prohibitive, but I don't know that for a fact.

[StClone]

11. I just Dropped Murdoch and DirecTV yesterday for Dish!

I notice no difference on my 42-inch TV.

The price is less by 6% for comparable package.

***NO AIR AMERICA*** on the Sirius audio offered on Dish, though they do have Free Speech Channel TV.

I also get 5 local channels which I could never got on DTV!

It was fun telling DTV when I canceled that I don't like Murdoch. Service person said he is only a share holder... HA!

[belladonna]

31. You're somewhat right about the compression

But little known fact... DirectTV pays Dish to allow them to use their satellites. They have 3 or 4 up there at the moment, and eventually they're going to have to launch more or it'll only get worse.

The internet I wouldn't recommend to anyone who doesn't have ALOT of money to blow. It is extremely cost prohibitive and will be for a few more years. Special equipment, another dish pointed in an entirely different direction.... they have one satellite that carries all of their foreign channels, and unless it's changed recently, you have to buy it in order to use the internet.

Disclaimer: If any of this has changed in the last year, feel free to correct me... haven't worked there in awhile, so I may be behind on recent developments.

Personally, I'd go with DirectTV if I ever wanted to go back to satellite.... they each have their ups and downs. You will probably get better reception with DirectTV, but their tech support is horrible and Dish has PRETTY good tech support. Their channel lineups are practically identical, save for a few odd channels here and there. Very little difference in price as well... look at the channel line-ups, see who has the better installation deal and make your decision that way :shrug:

[Momof1]

4. I had Dish for 3 yrs. And I loved it

Plus I wasn't giving Murdoch a dime. The other poster is right fork out the extra few bucks for your local channels.

[Rainbowreflect]

17. Ditto! We have had our for over 3 years & love it.

Great programming, great prices & we have always had great service.
We got a new dish about a month ago so we could get local channels and when it was first installed we could not get all the channels we were suppose to get. They came back out in about 10 days (they wanted one of their more experience guys to check it out) and they credited us for everything for 2 weeks. I though that was pretty cool considering that it was only about 12 channels that we could not get & not even ones we watched a lot.

[trof]

24. Cost? And how many TVs?

thanks

[Rainbowreflect]

26. We just have it hooked up to one TV.

I believe we get 150 channels plus 6 or 7 local & it's less than $40 a month.

[mede8er]

5. Direct........

Only sat with the NFL package.....hehhehheh.....get the 3 gun elliptical setup with HDTV......Discovery HD is The Bomb!!!!!!

[livetohike]

25. Just got Direct on Monday

I have to see my Steelers games and not go broke sitting at a sports bar. Looking forward to the NFL ticket, obviously! :-)

[buff2]

6. Dish Network

We had Direct TV and hated it. Everytime it clouded up outside,we lost the picture. Plus,I wouldn't have Direct now if my life depended on it.....it's owned by Fox's Rupert Murdock. NO WAY would I contribute to those democrat haters. :puke:

[RebelOne]

9. I have the same problem with Dish. Any little dark cloud

there goes the picture. We had rain here all this weekend and half the time I didn't have any picture.

[buff2]

10. Really?

We don't have that problem very often. Once in a while it goes off....then comes back on in a couple of minutes. Direct TV was worse. :hi:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

12. That happens with all satellite stations about twice a year

the position of the sun intermittently blocks the signal..and you get screen freeze during extreme storms

[RebelOne]

8. I can't speak for DirectTV because I have Dish Network,

but I am fairly satisfied. But I have heard that DirectTV is offering a great introductory deal.

[nosmokes]

13. we have dish

with the local package. sorely miss the NFL but no way is murdoch being supported by this household any more than we necessary. the service here is great, but it's all provided by local contractors. and free speech TV is great, as is link TV and PBSU and the other public service channels dish provides.

web access via sat costs about $70 - $90 a month and can be unreliable. unfortunately you'll probably end up like me, on a dial-up, but hopefully your's will be better than the piss poor speed of mine which is a scorching 24000bps. and most every place on the planet is. but the trade-off of living in the country is worth it, for sure.

oh yeah, don't get the local channel package out of LA. the fox station shows every car chase and dog fight that happens in socal endlessly and has no compunction about preempting shows like the simpsons or arrested development to show you mindless drivel like that.

[4_Legs_Good]

14. DISH NETWORK for FREE SPEECH TV

Do not pass go, do not spend $200 UNLESS you get FSTV! Then watch Democracy Now! every day.

You gotta crank the thing up to channel 9415, I think, though to do it.

This is your opportunity to get away from the Right Wing Corporate Media Machine, definitely Dish Network for FSTV.

david

[chaska]

15. I have direct tv (didn't know it was murdochs), and I can honestly say....

that I freakin' hate it. I'd rather not watch than to have to deal with alla that crap. It's slow to change channels, and there's a million channels with nothing showing on them. I can never find what I want to watch on it ... consequently, I don't.

[Bertha Venation]

16. we have DirecTV -- never any problems except the universal one: weather

Heavy storms disrupt the satellite signal. Other than that (which is relatively rare) it's golden.

[Xithras]

18. Dish, but skip the internet stuff

Since Dish moved to the dual-head receivers a couple of years ago, the signal quality and reliability of their broadcasts has been great. I've lost signal ONCE in the last two years, and that was during a very intense thunderstorm. FSTV is just icing.

If you go Dish, I'd personally suggest taking them up on their free DVR offer. Being able to pause live TV and record shows while you're gone is great! If you can afford the upgrade to the higher end DVR, which will allow you to record one show while watching another, I'd recommend going for it.

As for satellite Internet, I've known several people who've had it, and none who were happy. It's faster than dialup, but latency is horrible and your connection will slow WAY down if there's any kind of inclement weather. It's a product targeted at people too remote to access normal broadband services, who are looking at something faster than dialup, so it sounds like you MAY be in their target audience, but I still have a hard time recommending it (it's way too expensive for the speed).

You may want to find out if there are any microwave services in your area. I've got a buddy in the sticks (dairy farm WAAAY out of town) who wanted a faster connection than dialup. It's still expensive at nearly $100 a month for a 384k connection, but it beats dealing with busy signals and connection latency is comperable to DSL.

[sandnsea]

19. satellite internet, ugh

You can't game on it, it's got a latency problem. It's a little faster than dial-up, but for the cost, eh. We bought it because we needed something with more speed for downloading for business. As soon as we got DSL, we dumped that thing. I would only recommend it if there's no other internet option at all or if you have specific downloading needs.

[Beaverhausen]

21. Just had Dish installed- but they play the shows on east coast time

and I'm here on the west coast so that screwed me up for a bit. Missed monday's daily show.

Definitely get the DVR feature if you go Dish- it's like Tivo...I think.

[Maestro]

22. Love the Dish

but if you have HDTV the signal is very compressed.

[jukes]

23. Dish

their business ethics & customer service are superb.

direct blows.

[cedahlia]

27. Thanks to all who posted their input!

Sounds like Dish Network is going to be the way to go!

I think we will definitely nix the idea about getting satellite internet. Earthlink will just have to do until DSL or cable are run out to our neck of the woods.

[cedahlia]

28. sorry...dupe!

.

[havocmom]

29. Dish! Direct sucked. Spent a lot of time on hold to them or returning

defective boxes (4 in one year)

Dish Network going on 3 years and no compaints, no problems, no bad equipment AND they sent a guy to install even tho we live in the most remote community in the lower 48! Their costomer service is great, reception great, billing great.

Plus, Murdoch boo, hiss owns Direct TV

[AlFrankenFan]

30. Dish!!!!

There is no question about it - take it from me, I've lived with both at some point or another. Dish you can look ahead farther for programming than DirectTv. And overall, I prefer Dish's format to that of DirectTv's. I highly recommend Dish - and if you want, you can get a DVR recorded with it - ours has 100 hours and we love it!