Why I Dished DirecTV (1 Viewer)

[Randy Boecker]

A couple of weeks ago, I made the switch from DirecTV to Dish Network. I thought it might be helpful to those considering a switch or considering which one of these services to get if I posted my thoughts about the change.
Equipment:
I gotta tell you, I got a hell of a deal from http://www.dishdepot.com But for my needs and based on my experience, I'm quite happy I switched to Dish and haven't looked back since the day I switched.

 

[Michael Jsmith]

Good post and good thoughts! I would have gone with Dish if they had the NFL games. But since that is primarily why I got satellite tv, Direct was the only choice for me. I think programming should be the driver in making the decsion. For people who like Sports, go Direct. If HDTV is the most important, go Dish.
mike
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Consuming air and other valuable resources since 1953.

 

[Howard Williams]

Gee, that kinda sux. I want sports & HDTV. Geuss I'm S.O.L
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"What it is, is what it is"

 

[Randy Boecker]

I wouldn't say S.O.L. for sure...
Sooner or later DirecTV is going to add more HDTV content, and since they already have the sports packages, I'm sure they'll look at broadcasting them in HDTV. In fact, many of the demos of HDTV that I've seen are specifically sports-oriented, and there's a lot of demand (from those in the know) for HD-sports. It'll happen sooner or later.
I just decided to go with sooner to get more HDTV content now. I watch way more movies than sports.

 

[Tod]

Randy,
I liked your post! Very nice summary of your experience. I seriously considered DISH Network. In fact, I even signed up for the service HOPING that I had a clear "enough" line of sight to the satellite... Unfortunately, when the guy came out to do the installation he did his LOS check and said I was out of luck because of some trees which were behind my house (which are part of a protected "green open-space") and can't be trimmed or otherwise touched.
The guy was very friendly and polite. Selfishly, I asked the DISH installer if he could check my LOS for DirecTV's satellite while he was there... He said if I knew what the azimuth and elevation were, he'd check for me.
I ran into my house, went to DirecTV's web site, plugged in my zip code and got the info... He did a check using his handy dandy thinga ma jig... and said that it looked like I have a perfect LOS for their satellite (barely). He said the trees were to the left and the right, but not in the way...
He wished me good luck and left. I was impressed with his willingness to help. I was upset cause I really wanted NASA TV (which DirecTV does not broadcast) but I was relieved that I was still able to get satellite TV because I had been a cable customer prior to this and I KNOW the picture on cable is inferior to both DISH and DirecTV!
I've had DirecTV now for about 2 1/2 months and I love it! I've got the Sony SAT-T60 TiVo DirecTV receiver and the combination of great picture quality and sound coupled with the wonderful usefulness of TiVo have me in "seventh heaven" right now!
I have read many posts saying that the picture quality of DISH is better than DirecTV but I am totally happy with what I'm seeing with my DirecTV service so I guess ignorance is bliss...! I'll try to never look at a DISH picture so that I'll never fully understand what I'm missing!
-T

 

[Zbigniew]

One more thing for dish - quite a choice of foreign programs.
I can receive 3 radio stations and 2 TV programs from my home country. When my in-laws were here it was a treat for them...
_zjt

 

[Dan Keefe]

I don't know if they were trying to reel me in but when I signed up for DISH Network I was told in the very near future they were going to get the NFL Ticket, Baketball, hockey and Baseball. I switched from cable because 1)picture quality is far superior 2) my cable company raises rates every three months and 3)my cable company didn't offer UPN which means no WWF smackdown or Buffy!!! that was the final straw
dan

 

[Marc S Kessler]

I totally agree with Randy's posting. I'd like to add that Showtime is also broadcast in Dolby Digital on Dish where only Starz was on DTV.
Marc

 

[Randy Boecker]

Just to put things into perspective:
Anything is better than standard cable or analog broadcast. I was mostly happy with DirecTV for the 5+ years I subscribed. My experience with Dish has been much more positive from buying the equipment to ordering programming to customer service.
For those of you who are considering either changing to Dish or are buying a first-time system and trying to decide between Dish and DirecTV (assuming you can 'see' the Dish satellites), I urge you to give Dish a try. However, if you're really into sports and want the sports packages, I don't see Dish being able to offer close to what DirecTV has in the near future. But if you prefer home theater and movies and especially HDTV, then I think Dish is the better choice.
Remember, these are just my opinions. There are obviously millions of happy DirecTV subscribers. But from the replies to this thread, it looks like there are also a lot of very happy Dish subscribers!! You just can't beat their customer service!

 

[Ken Stuart]

Gee, that kinda sux. I want sports & HDTV. Geuss I'm S.O.L

This seems to be a great oversimplification.
There is a ton of Sports on Dish Network:
- All ESPN channels
- ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox
- CNN/Si
- All Regional Sports Channels (except Fox Sports West 2)
- Fox Sports World (Lots of soccer, other intl sports)
- Speedvision
- OLN
- Outdoor
- Golf
- Horse racing channels
- KTLA, WPIX, WSBK, KWGN, TBS, WGN (ie Dodgers, Mets, Rockies, Braves, Cubs, etc.)
- Lots of PPV Sports (soccer, cricket, etc.)
- ESPN Game Plan (College sports packages)
Most of this is part of the regular packages.
Essentially, you can watch almost all of the available games of your local teams.
What is missing on Dish are the packages of the Out of Market PRO sports - NFL, MLB, NBA - where you pay ~$150 per year extra per sport to get most of the games of ALL the teams.
This is primarily of interest to someone who moved across the country, but still wants to follow his old team from his old town. Or else someone who is a nut about a particular sport and spends all of his time following that sport.
Most people don't really want to spend that kind of money. For example, on ABC/CBS/NBC/FOX/ESPN, you get 6 games every Sunday (and you can see those OTA or on your cable system). The NFL Sunday Ticket has the other 9 games on Sunday - which all happen at the same time - there are only 3 time slots. I don't see the point of this UNLESS, for example, you are a New York Giants fan and live in L.A. Otherwise, you can only really watch 3 games on Sunday anyway.

 

[Tony G]

Otherwise, you can only really watch 3 games on Sunday anyway

Obviously, you've never spent Sunday afternoon in front of the TV with Sunday Ticket and a good remote!!
Tony

 

[Ken Stuart]

That may be true, but with the same money, I can buy a new DVD every week, if I just watch the 3 games that are available to everyone.
It just seems to me extremely expensive per hour of entertainment. Most people do not renew Sunday Ticket after a year or two.
The baseball and basketball packages might be a better deal, since there are games all week.

 

[Adrian_N]

Marc S Kessler, what foreign channels do you get? I would kill to have some German TV. There advertising were hinting that this would be soon, but it's been 1.5 years and I haven't seen anything. All I've seen has been Spanish. I guess I should stroll to their website.
FWIW, I love DISH as well. My parents switched from DirecTV too, but I'm not sure what their motivation was. Perhaps price/channel.

 

[Randy Boecker]

My Dad saw an advertisement in a German magazine for a satellite system that would allow him to get all German channels available. He didn't remember the name of the system, but was considering subscribing (he's originally from Deutschland) If you're interested, I can try to get the info for you. My guess is that Dish *might* add a German channel, but not all of them. Hell, they've got a couple of Russian channels now. Why not German?

 

[Ken Stuart]

Dish has been trying to negotiate a deal with Deustche Welle for years now, but still nothing yet.
There is a Deutsche Welle channel on Canadian DBS, but I hear that it is just news documentaries and reports, and that Dish is trying to make a deal that includes entertainment programming as well.