Directv or dish?

[gb387]

Need some opinions here... I am finally sick of cable and the games they play in my area, lack of cust. service and high cost for a hand full of poor reception channels. Its time to change, anyone have Dish Network or DirecTV?

[RockyTop]

DirecTV here. For the most part I love it. A couple of draw-backs are when you have heavy rain you may loose your reception for a short time and when the dish is iced over you may loose reception as well. We recently purchased a DVR receiver with Tivo and love it. Internet service through DirecTV is kind of expensive to get set-up. We ended up going with a DSL service through our phone company. We have had DirecTV for 5 years and have been pleased with it.

RockyTop

[NOMADZ1]

DirecTV for me. Better selection of channels for the money. I also have the HD package with TIVO. The clarity is awesome on my 65" and if you like football, DTV is the way to go with their football package. Some games come in HD too!

[gb387]

Originally posted by NOMADZ1
DirecTV for me. Better selection of channels for the money. I also have the HD package with TIVO. The clarity is awesome on my 65" and if you like football, DTV is the way to go with their football package. Some games come in HD too!

I don't want TIVO but I do want the HD package... do I need a HD receiver?

[2000]

I have had both, and both are a huge improvement over cable. I give the edge to direct tv for the reception seems like it isn't as weather sesative as dish network was. as for ice on the dish, I put some endurance on it and ice just slides off. I did like dish networks dvr better than tivo, if you think you don't need tivo try to live with out it after you have had it for awhile. direct tv also has a better HD package and they are going to be adding alot more HD channels this year.

[Blue Thunder]

I have Directv with HD and HD tivo and I wouldn't trade it for anything. For HD reception you need a HD DTV receiver but can usually get one N/C for subscribing to a package and get a dish and free install.

[Mosca]

I have DirecTV with TIVO, and once you have TIVO you'll wonder how you lived without it, really. You can pause live TV and go get a drink or some chips, or go to the bathroom; come back and let it play, then fast forward through the commercials to catch back up to real time. Or you can slo-mo and stop that sideline play, then let the game go back to the right speed, then fast forward through the time inbetween plays. Or record every John Wayne movie on any channel for a month, or set your favorite shows to always record so that if you miss them you can catch them.

What I do is go through all the pay channels at the beginning of the month and record what I'm interested in, then watch them when it's convenient for me. So I recorded Unforgiven at 3AM one day in February, and watched it the other day.

TIVO is excellent.


Tom

[JeffM]

Next year, supposedly, DTV is going to be able to offer 100% HDTV, so i would wait it out a year before spending 300 bucks on a HD reciever just to get 10 HD chanels.

[jfelbab]

DTV w/TiVo. Been a sub since 1999 and wouldn't be without it. It's great to set up a season pass for Car Crazy.

I't makes NASCAR races about an hour shorter when you skip over the commercials, Same for football.

Watching either in Hi-Def is amazing.

Never miss an episode of anything you watch ever again. Watch what you like when you like.

I would most highly recommend DTV with TiVo.

[gb387]

Thanks for the replys... I have been leaning to DirecTV and sounds like its prefered over Dish (at MOL anyway).

EDIT: Found this....

FROM www.crutchfield.com

The transition to digital TV continues to build momentum
Until the transition to digital television is complete, TV stations will continue broadcasting on their analog channels while phasing in digital broadcasts on a separate DTV channel. Several years ago, the FCC established a timetable for terrestrial (over-the-air) broadcasters to convert to DTV. While many stations missed earlier deadlines, most commercial and public TV stations are currently broadcasting digitally at least part of the time. The remaining deadlines are still in effect, but may not necessarily be enforced.

April 2005: All stations must simulcast 100 percent of their NTSC programming on their DTV channel.

December 31, 2006: All TV stations must turn off their analog signal.

If December 31, 2006 rolls around and you still don't own a digital TV, don't worry, you won't be forced to stare at a dark screen. Virtually all current HDTV tuners are capable of converting digital broadcasts to a 480i signal that will look great on any analog TV, and manufacturers predict that simple converter boxes will be available for under $100.

Also, keep in mind that the proposed December 2006 date for the end of the transition from analog to digital television is a target date that may be extended until most homes (85%) in an area are able to watch DTV programming. At that point, broadcasting on the analog channels will end and that spectrum will be put to other uses.

[Lost Pup]

Direct TV with 80 Hr Tivo here.

I have tried the Cable DVR.....terrible compared to Direct TV Tivo.

[gb387]

I am back on the subject of dish or directv....

I am looking at Dish for the selection of HD channels, anyone on MOL have the Dish Network ViP622 DVR™? I have seen some reviews on it when it was first released the reviews pointed out that they were a little 'glitchy' anyone with real world experience?

[Deaner5]

I still live at home, but we have had DISH Network for a while now. We have not upgraded to the TVR stuff and probably won't since my folks aren't up on their technology. Dish does feature most Sirius Sat. Radio channels and is nice to turn on when you're doing something around the house and want the radio.

Dish Network is also very customer friendly. They have refused program networks rate increases so as not to pass them onto the customers and I think Dish won out in those. Sorry I cannot help with the Dish Network TVR stuff but hey at least someone is representing Dish here.

[supercharged]

After trying both I will tell that I like DirecTV better, receiver. But DirecTV DVR *****....When you fast forward, or rewind, sometimes you wait like 3 seconds before it starts doing it.....Same thing when you pause...loose 3 seconds of sound....
Dish Network is better in this...

I whink it's just a personal choice...
It's just I like things done instantly...

[Paramedic]

DirecTV! I had Dish Network for 2 months and there customer service was horrible. You call them and you think you are calling over-seas. Very hard to understand them. When they installed my dish they ended up putting it on the neighbors property and I called them to have them move it. They wanted to charge me $79.99 for them to come out and move it. I refused to pay and they refused to move it. Only way around it was to adjust the dish some to lose signal and have them send a tech out which was 4 days later and they finally moved the dish.
I ended up cancelling the service and went to DirecTV and I did have the problem supercharged mentioned with the DVR, but a call to customer service and a firmware update to the receiver fixed the problem!

Nick