2006 Edition / Direct TV vs. Dish Network (1 Viewer)

[Henry Gale]

Did a search and there are PLENTY of threads on this subject, but I don't think they age very well, so, I'm askin'...

[c]Direct TV or Dish Network??[/c]

I probably can't afford to get all the channels I want, and I've put this off so long because of things I hate about the service; bugs in the corner of the screen and packages that consist 90% of stuff I'll never watch.
I do need to get the networks. Lousy reception at my house.
Please give me the benefit of your experience.

 

[Robert_J]

DirecTV while they still have some DirecTivos for sale.

-Robert

 

[BrianShort]

Are they planning on discontinuing DirecTivo or something?

 

[Robert_J]

Yes. It was announced last year that they were taking all receiver development in-house. The new R15 DVR run NDS software. NDS is another News Corp owned company. The R10 is available at most reatailers and some older series 2 DirecTivos are at places like Value Electronic but when they are gone, that's it. It will be like the UltimateTV receiver. No new software and hope it doesn't break.

DirecTV doesn't have an in-house HD DVR yet so there is still a good supply of HR10-250's (HD DirecTivo). The HR20-250 won't be available until the middle of this year at the earliest.

Then there's the whole MPEG4 issue the OP needs to research.

-Robert

 

[Reginald Trent]

Henry,

Go here.. http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/ for more discussions and info on this subject.

Robert,

DirecTV will replace recievers free of charge to continue recieveing the new DTV signal.

 

[Henry Gale]

Thanks for the responses...

Reginald,
Thanks for the link to DBS!

 

[David_Rivshin]

If programming cost is a primary concern then Dish has the cheapest package with AT60. Keep in mind that Dish's prices are going up by $2-3 (I believe on 2/1). While DirectTV hasn't announced price increases yet, it's highly likely that they will go up a similar amount in a few months, if history is a guide.
If you're only interested in SD programming, then the whole MPEG4 issue isn't going to be a concern anytime soon. MPEG4 will be primarily for HD locals and newly added HD channels on both Direct and Dish for at least 1-2 years. After that, it'll be time to change hardware anyways, likely for free or heavily subsidized. If you want HD programming, then the situation is much more complex.

Hope this helps,
-- Dave

 

[gene c]

I had DirectTV for 7 1/2 years before switching to Dish. Only reasons I did was my brother got a job at SBC (which owns a chunk o' Dish) and Dish has a few more HD channels thanks to their purchase of Voom. But I completely agree with the others that Tivo was fantastic. If I was starting over I would go with DirectTV. Sorry brother!

 

[Henry Gale]

I did go with DirecTV and now I'm wondering if that was a mistake. A service problem...
The screen went to blue late Sunday night. The usual troubleshooting is not working so they plan to send out a service person...Thursday afternoon.
Even if they show up then, and fix it, that's after the Grammy show that I was planning on watching in HD.

 

[Robert_J]

Is the receiver generating the blue screen or did the video connection between the receiver and TV get broken and the TV has defaulted to it's blue screen? What troubleshooting techniques have you tried? Have you connected the receiver to another TV or another input on the TV? Since it's an HD receiver have you changed the output resolution?

-Robert

 

[Henry Gale]

It's the receiver, I'm getting the logo and the screen saver from DirecTV.
Tried the reset button, tried unplugging. The best guess at this point is that the wind has pushed the dish out of alignment. I'm not going up the 30' chimney to find out.
Purchased the monthly insurance so it's their problem. They told me they'd adjust the bill.

 

[Henry Gale]

That was the problem, but it had not been all that windy. Turns out the original installer had not tightened the bolts.

 

[RickRO]

Love my Dish

At this point I'm non-HD just the standard top 120 package and love it. Just a few times has the signal dropped off, but of course it was when the wife was watching her show(s)so she was grouching a bit but over all love it. Much better than our previous cable provider (Comcast)

 

[Scott Wong]

I have DirecTV and have had it for about two years now... I really enjoy it. TNT-HD was added last week Friday... but I wish there were more HD channels. :frowning:

 

[Teddy TD]

I had both DTV and Dish net at one time, Dish had a bit better picture quality, best thing to do is see what service will be best for you, If I was going to get back into small dish at them moment I would probably jump on Dish net, though with Murdoch owning DTV I would expect them to really blow up big time in the next few years, and the fact that Dish net does not care enough to secure there service I have more repect for DTV, so actually I would probably go with DTV

Good luck hope you enjoy whatever service you go with.