Who has Dish Network or DirecTV?

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I have simply lost all patience with Cox. Their Internet reliability has been horrendous and the cable tv ain't great either, especially for the $115 per month, which is soon to increase. Lo and behold, I got a flyer on the front door today for Dish and Direct. I can't figure out what each includes for how much with equipment charges, bundling and all that. But I'm pretty sure I could get everything I need for less than I'm paying Cox. Who has what service and how do you like it for the money?

Jim Richards · 06-25-2008, 12:34 PM

I had both in the past, and I preferred Direct TV. Better programming, better boxes/remotes, better pricing. Both suck when it rains or snows, but that's the nature of Ku-band satellite communications for residential TV.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

Have DirectTV. It's okay. Personally I think it's a flamin' rip-off and I'd love to pitch it, but the wife likes having it.

The Tivo is the best part, honestly. Pay-per-view and all that nonsense I never use.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Even if it went totally out in rain or snow, where I live that would be less frequent than Cox goes out in nice weather.

Mule · 06-25-2008, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I have simply lost all patience with Cox. Their Internet reliability has been horrendous and the cable tv ain't great either, especially for the $115 per month, which is soon to increase. Lo and behold, I got a flyer on the front door today for Dish and Direct. I can't figure out what each includes for how much with equipment charges, bundling and all that. But I'm pretty sure I could get everything I need for less than I'm paying Cox. Who has what service and how do you like it for the money?

Another happy Coxucker Cable customer? Unless you need NFL Sunday Ticket get Dish. Bellsouth 6mb DSL fixes the inet problem. The sooner you do it the happier you'll be. Much better picture. Will go out in a rain storm but it has to be pretty bad. Great tuners, great menus, dvr is the best.

Seahawk · 06-25-2008, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

I have simply lost all patience with Cox. Their Internet reliability has been horrendous and the cable tv ain't great either, especially for the $115 per month, which is soon to increase. Lo and behold, I got a flyer on the front door today for Dish and Direct. I can't figure out what each includes for how much with equipment charges, bundling and all that. But I'm pretty sure I could get everything I need for less than I'm paying Cox. Who has what service and how do you like it for the money?

I have Directv and Hughsnet (internet). I like them both but they aren't giving the service away. Some thoughts:

- DirectTv has the best variety of HDTV channels, the picture is insane and a real joy. Their DVR is great as well. The only time the system fails is during embedded T-storms, and then only for the duration of the storm.

- Hughsnet is expensive but very reliable. We connected the service to a wireless modem, which gives use good broadband access on all computers.

Some options I'd look at for internet would be Verison wireless broadband. I bought a months worth ($59.00 for 5 GB) to experiment with and I have been very satisfied. I plan on keeping the Verizon set-up for my apartment in Roslynn rather than cable.

Good luck

scottmandue · 06-25-2008, 12:52 PM

I have dish network and friends have direct,

IMO it is a toss up, check both out and see which one has the channels and features you want most and go with that.

DVR (Tivo) is the best invention since lesbians.

Jims5543 · 06-25-2008, 12:52 PM

I was paying $160 a month for cable TV and Internet. I switched to Direct TV after my Cable company posted my check wrong and for the 1st time in 10 years I owed them money due to their error.

They turned off my service and sent a collection agent to my door. I brew a rod and canceled them. I really did not like their collection agent coming in my house when my 4.5 year old opened up the door to see who rang the bell and my wife was in the shower. (We have been working on him with this)

Then another agent came to my house and never knocked on the door just proceeded into the backyard to make sure we were not stealing their signal. The dish was already in place and in plain view from the front of the house.

NEVER with I go back to cable TV.

Yes, your signal goes out during severe storms, but come right back as soon as it lightens up. In Florida, after a hurricane passes and your cable is out for weeks on end your satellite is right back up as soon as the storm passes.

The price is more competitive and the HDTV stuff is great.

I switched to telephone company internet light for $12 a month, its a little slow from time to time but no worse than my cable internet that I was paying top dollar for.

Rikao4 · 06-25-2008, 01:06 PM

Dish for me,
tired of the cable dance..terrible service..
resident terrorist (SAM) has eaten 4 remotes..replaced ASAP(no charges)
weather..if the Dish goes out..cable has been out longer.
not sure if true..Tech. said most cable Co's get their programing of Sat's. anyway.

Rika

sammyg2 · 06-25-2008, 01:25 PM

Used to have cable. Told them to go pack sand, but not in a nice way.
I've had dish network for a couple of years and have no intention of changing.
My only regret is that it took me too long to dump cable and get dish network.

LakeCleElum · 06-25-2008, 01:32 PM

I got tired of my cable acting up 10 years ago and have been with Dish ever since. I now have 4 receivers spread out in 3 homes and pay a total of $78/mo and that includes my Ti-vo rental.

I have one home where it rains a lot and 2 where it snows a lot. I rarely lose a signal. On my cabin, the dish is mounted on a pole for my deck, so the overhang of the deck keeps the snow off.

slakjaw · 06-25-2008, 01:38 PM

I got rabbit ears. it was a 1 time $15.00 investment.

sammyg2 · 06-25-2008, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slakjaw

I got rabbit ears. it was a 1 time $15.00 investment.

Good luck with that next February.

Neilk · 06-25-2008, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Good luck with that next February.

Actually rabbit ears work great for most OTA HD signals on my Sony Bravia with built-in tuner. All HD tvs produced today have a built in tuner.

P.S. Rick, if you go with Directv, can I be your referral? We get $50 off our next bill.

Pazuzu · 06-25-2008, 01:57 PM

I'm completely OTA via rabbit ears, which means I get to watch REAL UNCOMPRESSED HD, unlike the Satellite providers...

Large city will give you 5-10 HD channels for free. Why pay for television? That's as silly as paying for the radio (oh...wait...lots of people do that too...)

slakjaw · 06-25-2008, 01:58 PM

Oh yeah. I get good digital HD reception. I get about 20 channels, the new digital seems to come in better actually.

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

Why pay for television? That's as silly as paying for the radio (oh...wait...lots of people do that too...)

How else do you get CNN, Fox, HBO, History, A&E, Military, etc.? Do you live in a city that gives you those for free? Since I don't watch network tv, I have to pay. I must be one of those people.

scottmandue · 06-25-2008, 02:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

How else do you get CNN, Fox, HBO, History, A&E, Military, etc.? Do you live in a city that gives you those for free? Since I don't watch network tv, I have to pay. I must be one of those people.

Funny thing is I live in Los Angeles where most of network TV is produced but by a odd quirk of nature I live out on the coast where a thousand foot hill blocks me from all their antennas.

For me... there is a God.

Ronbo · 06-25-2008, 02:28 PM

Started out with cable and switched to Dish Network when I couldn't take the poor reception and idiot customer service anymore. I've since switched to DirecTV from Dish mainly because they have a better DVR (at least at the time, don't know what Dish DVR is like now). Like others have said, the only problem with sat. reception is during very heavy storms.

Jim727 · 06-25-2008, 02:33 PM

Very timely thread.

Comcast is raising rates Yet Again here and the service certainly doesn't keep up with the rates.

I'm thinking Dish since they have the best combo of things that I watch and things I want to watch (mostly foreign language). Direct would be an improvement over comcast, but direct is heavy on sports (not interested unless it's auto/air races).

The only thing I've heard here that might be a negative is the rain outages. I find it hard to believe that the rain could be worse than comcast's outages, but just how heavy does precip have to be in order to create signal problems? The other question is how easy is it to record from Dish's DVR to a separate DVD recorder?