the verdict is in: directv vs dishnetwork (1 Viewer)

[Reginald Trent]

I believe DirecTV requires a minimum commitment of one year. So, a one month trial is out of the question.

 

[Jerome Grate]

Well, Dish offered one month free service but the installer used the existing wire to run it from Direct (I should have been home when he installed it instead of my wife). You learn a lesson, tell the installer when you are switching satellite companies that you are keeping both of them. Anyway, since I had Dish for 4 years, I pretty much remember what the picture and the sound was like.

As to the picture, Gregory was right the DTV's picture is much more pleasing to the eye, color isn't as sharp as Dish's picture. Now I have to admit, I always thought Dish's picture (oh by the way through a Toshiba 32 inch Direct view t.v. set with S-Video) was a nice picture, I got use to the sharpness of the picture, but the artifacts were getting to me. Very nice colors with DTV, very warm picture.

Sound how ever a different story, the sound in Dish was robust when using the optical input on the HK 500 receiver with Logic 7, lots of bass and digital sound was very crisp and clear. Now through an experiment I ran the analog audio through vcr then through the t.v. audio in to take advantage of the Enhance Surround Sound, this gave me the closest to 5.1 sound out of logic 7. Well DTV's has TruSurround in their audio setup and I selected this. First TruSurround plays this sound trailer when you activate it then you can hear the the surrounds come alive. However I found that TruSurround tends to favor one channel slightly higher than the other. This may be the fact that TruSurround and the Enhance Surround sound from the t.v. is creating inacurate information. The seperation I find to be somewhat better with DTV, Judge Dredd was on Cinemax yesterday and this was a perfect opportunity to see what DTV can do. The music stations sound just great, eventhough DTV didn't give me a model receiver with Dolby Digital capability, but listening to DTV with the analog audio, the music really filled the room. I found that I had to bring down the bass a bit for DTV's analog sound, it's almost as if the difference between compressed sound and uncompressed sound. DTV appear to be uncompressed.

 

[Mike Up]

Jerome,

Congrats on the provider change, I think you'll be happier.

You learn a lesson, tell the installer when you are switching satellite companies that you are keeping both of them.

I'm the opposite, I don't like having a dish farm on my roof. That's why I was upset at Dish requiring me to have 2 dish antennas to gain "ALL" of my locals.

Plus, I had wall outlets put in with cables fished through the walls. In the crawl space, a block terminal was installed which enabled grounds on the RG6 coaxial cables and the antenna ground to all be routed to earth/electrical ground. Since I have 4 rooms wired and use the DirecTV PLUS elliptical dish, the install is quite extensive. I surely wouldn't want that duplicated twice, creating confusion which outlets are in use and which are dead.

I have many Dish Net programs taped to VHS and S-VHS. With Dish, the digital artifacts are very visible and can be used for comparison. DirecTVs artifacts are none existent to minor, they must be looked for. So if you had taped your Dish programming, you can do direct comparisons.

Now with PQ, other than artifacts, the DirecTV picture is punchier to me. The whites stand out and color differences and saturations are more defined. Dish's whites were just not bright, colors were dull, and often mushed together. Overall picture was dull, not punchy, with the aggravation of artifacts everywhere.

As far as sound, the decoding of signals seems to be implemented differently. Dish's digital signals(through optical connector) were always near the digital reference of 0db. However the analog signal was always low in overall level output.

With DirecTV, their analog output is low in level also, but unfortunately, their digital signal is low in level also sometimes being near -12db using the music channels.

However, even with Dish's higher optical digital level, their music and sound quality in general sounded metallic and edgy to me. Not a very smooth sound.

DirecTV in comparison is like a night and day difference. Their music channels sound great for an MPEG format. They don't have the metallic edginess that Dish Net's had. I can listen to DirecTV's music channels all day. Dish Nets were so edgy sounding, I could only handle for a couple of hours before needing to turn them off. I guess once you're use to a smooth sound, edgy and metallic sound quality just isn't very pleasing.

Of course this is what I found, but your initial findings seem to mirror what I found.

Welcome to DirecTV and enjoy.

 

[Reginald Trent]

Here's a excellent site for info on satellite.

www.dbsforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

 

[James Edward]

Hmmm... I have had DirecTV for 6 months and think the PQ stinks. I can only imagine how bad Dish must be. I have a 57" set, so I attributed poor PQ to large screen size, and only watch the 2 of 3 HD channels available.

Dan- Could you elaborate on the Dish HD availability? DirecTV has HBO, HDNet, and Showtime. I would be much more interested in getting the networks in HD without and OTA antenna. What's available in HD on Dish?

 

[MikeSh]

I too switched from Dish to DTV in early Feb. and prefer DTV. PQ is better, service is better and my loss of signal has been non-existent. I lost signal with Dish weekly, like every time a small cloud passed over.

And the DirecTivo unit is great! I now have 2 of them.

MikeS.

 

[Jerome Grate]

I lost signal with Dish weekly

Don't get me started. That was my biggest complaint about Dish other than the artifacting. Reginald, I've been a member of dbsforums.com for about 3 years now good forum, James, as far as your picture quality is concerned, I sometimes find that cables can answer the question. When the installer used existing wire to run the signal, he didn't check one of the wires and therefore I was getting signals on the odd xponders and not the even. After reconstructing the wire, all xponders registered now we get all channels in the bedroom. Installers, boy you can write a book on them

 

[Robert_J]

Could you elaborate on the Dish HD availability? DirecTV has HBO, HDNet, and Showtime. I would be much more interested in getting the networks in HD without and OTA antenna. What's available in HD on Dish?

Dish has HBO HD, Showtime HD, Discovery HD, HD PPV, CBS HD and a PPV Demo channel. HBO and Showtime are available when you subscribe to the HBO or Showtime movie packages. Discover HD is around $7.99 a month and requires a special module for the model 6000 receiver. CBS is only available to customers in CBS owned and operated markets. CBS from LA is on the 148 satellite and CBS from NY is on the 61.5 satellite. The free Demo channel is only available on the 61.5 satellite. The core Dish channels come from two satellites positioned at 110 and 119. These are the same locations that DirecTV broadcasts their HD signals from. Dish's HD signals come from satellites over the Pacific ocean (148) and the Atlantic ocean (61.5). To get both core programming and HD programming requires the use of more than one dish. Some people have actually mounted three dishes to get all four of Dish's signals.

-Robert

 

[Scott Kimball]

Funny... I have had Dish for over 5 years, and have lost signal due to rain fade maybe 3 times a year for 10-15 minutes max... and I'm in northern New England where the elevation to the satellite is the lowest in the states... more atmosphere to look through. If you lost your signal weekly, you had an install problem.

And artifacting... while I have Dish, a friend has DirecTV. While I haven't done a side-by-side comparison of PQ, it is hardly night and day.

If you have a preference for one system over another, that's fine... but the hyperbole in this thread is starting to make me gag.

-s

I may well switch to DirecTV soon... but not due to PQ or hardware... simply because Direct is rumored to be adding my locals this year.

 

[Mike Up]

but the hyperbole in this thread is starting to make me gag

May I call a doctor for you?

Have a good one.

 

[Scott Kimball]

See... the difference here is I'm simply suggesting people judge for themselves. There seem to be a lot of DirecTV people in this thread who just say "No contest, Direct is better." No offense intended, but you sound like a bunch of Macintosh fanatics.

Both systems have their pros and cons... speaking as one who has been a DBS subscriber (more than one system, over time) almost since the start of DBS.

There is an excellent thread over at DBSFORUMS.COM where Dan Collins, the admin over there, has much to say about the subtle PQ differences, and the technology that dictates these differences. Bottom line is it's not so much a good/bad thing, as it is a "different flavor." To me, his explanation delivers much more punch than "E* sux."

http://www.dbsforums.com/ubb/ultimat...c;f=1;t=004564

Respectfully,
-Scott