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Which Satellite TV Provider is Better?

Direct Or Dish?

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3K views 49 replies 30 participants last post by  freestoneangler 
#1 ·
We've been without cable TV for over 6 months now and honestly I don't miss it... too much. We've nearly exhausted the library's selection of DVD's and my wife is wanting to get some of her favorite shows back. I did miss not seeing college games and Golf Channel. Direct and Dish are our options. I realize most on the forum have Infinity/Comcast, but for those not using them, what satellite TV do you use and what has been your experience?
 
#6 ·
The new Dish hardware is the best I've seen available. Mine automatically records all prime time shows for the major networks and keeps it for over a week, has a huge hard drive, and has Netflix integrated so you don't have to have a separate device connected to your tv for Netflix. Still have to pay for a Netflix account to use it, of course.

Also I can watch what is on my DVR or live TV from my smartphone, which is nice if I'm out somewhere and want to check in on the game, or if I forgot to set a record timer. I can just set it remotely from wherever I am.
 
#14 ·
After reading Freestones jive, what makes you think he's stepped into a library since one of his teachers made him do so? (decades ago) Does he strike you as the kind of individual that is interested in growing, learning, and seeking out new perspectives?
 
#8 ·
Good question. I have DirecTV and haven't had to deal with customer service much before AT&T bought 'em and have no contact after the purchase. Although I am a Big Ten person, I don't like that I cannot get the Pac 12 network. There are some sporting events from the Pac 12 I'd like to watch in addition to the occasional football and basketball game I'd like to see. I also would like to see DirecTV carry the World Fishing Network. I'm not holding my breath on that happening anymore.

The one thing I really dislike about DirecTV is that if I lose power long enough to cause the cable box to lose power, it takes about 10 minutes or so for the box to set up and reacquire the satellites. My friend had the football package and for as long as I've known him, got the red zone package. Well that changed once AT&T took over. He doesn't have HD and DirecTV won't offer the red zone to non-HD households.

Positives are that I have the Genie system and I have a bunch of recording options that I have been very pleased with, lots of storage (200 hours) on the cable box's hard drive. It is amazing. I can watch record up to 5 programs at same time. I've recorded the entire season some tv shows that I thought might be interesting that I haven't even looked at yet. But as long as I don't use up space, they will stay on the hard drive for as along as I want. It's been for recording movies on free HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc. weekends.

Overall it has been a positive experience, but I am still contemplating switching back to Comcast/Xfinity. And that would be mainly for sports.
 
#9 ·
We've had Dish for a long time. We have one account for our home in PA, and another for MT. It works pretty good for us, being able to flip from one account to the other, and putting the unused one on vacation hold when we are away.

We don't get a lot of extras, other than having a half ton of channels that are worthless as far as we're concerned, but we're obviously paying for them, but our monthly bill seems pretty high for what we get.

Another thing I like about Dish, which might also be true with Direct, is that we can add the Big Ten channel to our account in MT in the early Fall when college football season begins, for a month or two, at a very modest additional cost.
 
#21 ·
We've had Dish for a long time. We have one account for our home in PA, and another for MT. It works pretty good for us, being able to flip from one account to the other, and putting the unused one on vacation hold when we are away.
I've heard about that feature which is pretty cool since we plan to snowbird for a few months in winter.

Netflix/Hulu/Amazon/PBS on the FireStick gets it done on my television. Plenty of Hawks games on the rabbit ears.
We're out of range for the free rabbit ears stuff.

Sling is terrible. The concept is great but there are so many glitches in it right now that it's almost unwatchable. They do a month long trial if you want to see how bad it is.
Thanks for the feedback. My wife started looking at that option as well. As our wireless internet isn't all that fast, I wondered about how well this would work.

@constructeur the OP was @freestoneangler not Freestones, just sayin'
LOL
 
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#11 ·
When we first moved into our home we could get cable brought in for $5 grand or get satellite for a lot, lot less. Cable was installed at out next door neighbors about 100 feet away. So we went with Satellite TV. When comparing DirectTV and Dish at the time, DirectTV was the clear winner. We have had DirectTV for over 20 years now. Originally we were able to buy the box and not pay the $5 every month. Now it is $5 rental/mo. for regular box and $10 rental/mo. for HD box. I figure the first 20 years of DirectTV has been paid for by not bringing in cable - the original $5 grand outlay and excluding cable monthly charges which is expensive in comparison. Friends have Dish and from what I have seen Dish is not as good in channel line up overall.

In the NW, when it rains hard, snows, has very think cloud cover, etc., the signal strength sucks. On HD it is even worse. And those are the times when it would be nice to have the TV! There are a couple of additional stations available on HD e.g. Velocity. But not having Pac12 on DirectTV, while is an inconvenience, just provides an excuse to go to the local pub a couple of miles away and watch it there.
 
#15 ·
I switched from cable to DirectTV through a Costco promotion; 3 months all the premium stuff at no extra cost. Once my bill doubled after 3 months I cancelled the premium channels. 400 channels of selling crap and everything else is no different than what I had on cable except I don't get any of the Seattle news channels anymore. Used to it after six months, dislike DirectTV.

@constructeur the OP was @freestoneangler not Freestones, just sayin'
 
#18 ·
I have Dish and its fine, have never used Directv. I've actually only ever had signal issues at my place if there's actually snow accumulated on the dish itself, even in terrible weather I haven't had any signal issues. If MLB ever drops their blackout restrictions I would drop Cable/Satellite so fast. Most of what we watch is Netflix/Amazon Prime.
 
#23 ·
We go with the Seahawks. Had Dish, they got in a fight with our local Fox channel causing us to miss games, so we switched to Direct. Couple of years later, Direct gets into it with our local Fox channel in the fall, so we switched back to Dish. We have done our two years with Dish, and will switch to Direct again if Dish and Fox decide to go at it again during football season.
 
#24 ·
Quit directv. For months tried to get equipment diagnosed or replaced. Wireless kept re booting mostly while i was watching football games. Unit was 20 feet from their wireless router they would come out and tell me their equipement was fine then it would happen again while i watched a game

They became att and att is a horror for me. My att relationship ended when a branch manager forged my signature on a contract. Turns out he never proof read ad copy and it was wrong. They were so arrogant in service they sent me my signature authorizing the copy and behold it was not my signature .


Got directv when i moved from cali to vantucky. Was not att when i signed up then switched and it has been crap since. 13 years paying 175 or so a month . They did not care.

Looking at comcast cable i use them for my business internet phone. Customer Service sucks after install but service works well here and previously in cali

Customer service is worst. Thing i really liked about directv was they responded and replaced until they became att. Then shit. I paid a big premium not to hear my wife complain now .....
 
#25 ·
Here's something to think about from a delivery perspective.

Over the years I've seen lot of people who have had dish installed that within months I was picking up their satellite receiver and watch directv being installed. Most customers would automatically complain about dish and "It wasn't worth the price". As Comcast expanded onto my route more and more people were having Comcast hooked up and their directv dishes were pulled down. Most were bundling because of Centurylink internet, not directv being bad.

I just dumped directv after a decade using them. On the Comcast thread you'll see why.
 
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#27 ·
We live part time in MT and CA. Our only option for both locations is Dish or Direct, cable not being available. Did a comparison many moons ago and chose Dish. A phone call is all it takes when wanting to switch the service location. We do bring the receiver along when making the change. The internet provider is a local direct line of site company.
 
#39 ·
I presume you are renting Netflix DVD's and not streaming through your internet connection? That's the only thing we have now besides the Madison County Libraries and we've dang near tapped them out. We're now looking into the option @Kyle Smith suggested.

To get the channels I really like (primarily Golf) with Dish or Direct, it's $70/mo. Those packages have almost 200 channels and I can count on both hands and feet those that are worth a shit. After 30 years of having Comcast/Infinity, I really don't miss it. The 24/7 news cycle gives me a frigging headache too. We just opted to keep waiting as the deal on our home buy got delayed and we did not want to sign up for anything as renters.

I really only miss not being able to watch college football and Golf. There's only a handful of shows my wife misses; Project Runway, Top Chef, Big Band and couple others. I read that the average household will spend $60-70K over their lifetime for cable TV :eek:.
 
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#45 ·
LOL. Anyone else here long for the days when you got up off your ass, walked over to the 150 lb. TV and rotated the channel selector? Also when a "reset" meant slapping the side of the TV... just so. :D
 
#46 ·
Directv NOW streaming service. pay three months in advance and they send you a free Apple TV 4th GEN. I liked the first deal so well, I signed up for a second account. can watch everything on TV, iPad, PC. Awesome for $35 @ month.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
#47 ·
Directv NOW streaming service. pay three months in advance and they send you a free Apple TV 4th GEN. I liked the first deal so well, I signed up for a second account. can watch everything on TV, iPad, PC. Awesome for $35 @ month.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
Looks like after the trial period the price jumps to $70/mo? My wife has been looking into all these TV options... what a freaking head spinning mess of spaghetti! The devil is in the details has always been one of my favorite sayings and this racket may just be the poster child :eek:.
 
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