Direct vs. Dish

[onething]

OTHER OPTIONS ARE NOT IN PLAY...Direct or Dish is the topic.

I have one and the other is offering me the moon.

IF you have experience with them, please offer your opinion.

[sammm]

We had Dish the first year in the new house. Couldn't wait to get rid of it! No experience with Direct.

[POS Racing]

Take the Moon if it saves ya $$$$$$$$$.

I had Dish & I liked it it! Harley Pal has Direct he has no complaints!

[Jim_H]

We have Dish Network. I really like it.
I was concerned about satellite outages at first. In the 3 years we've had it maybe 5 minutes of outages. And that was when a major rain storm was right on top of the house.

[CarCar]

Have Dish. I have the Top 250 HD with Showtime and HBO and DVR. Top 250 was only way to get Versus so I could get Indy and some other motorsports I keep up with. All the intro promotions and pricing have ended and I pay about $93 monthly. Have had absolutely no problems or surprises with service or billing. I have the older 500gig HD DVR that allows 2 room viewing. Only thing that does bug me is the receiver dvr. It does have 2 tuners so you can watch and record 2 different programs at the same time but the output to monitor number 2 is down converted to analog only. You can watch the same HD channels and programing on monitor 2 as monitor 1 but it is down converted to SD and stereo on monitor 2. HDMI output to Monitor 1, coax or composite output only to monitor 2. meh, I think Dish came out with a new HD DVR recently that has 1 ter dvr and does do HD out to a second monitor.

[trickyrix]

I've had experience with both systems, and they're both fine. I prefer DirecTV's DVR operation over Dish Network's, and DirecTV offers the NFL Sunday Ticket - if you're interested, that is. Dish Network was cheaper, but the install process was a hassle and I had a few remotes go out on me. If I had to go with some sort of dish, I'd probably pick DirecTV because I prefer their equipment and sports programming.

[AlanP1964]

We've had Dish for quite a while. My parents and my brother both have DirecTV and they have no complaints. I've never had any bad dealings with Dish customer service. The equipment has worked great. My DVR quit a couple of years ago and they were quick to come and resolve it. I rent the equipment, not own so it was painless. Heavy rainstorms can cause loss of signal but when I had Charter cable rain storms would screw with that as well. I hated Charter and dont miss it a bit. Basically, I dont believe you could go worng if you chose Dish or DirecTV. That NFL ticket thing might be something that sways you. I've always heard that for a sports nut, DirecTV is the better choice.

[channelmaniac]

We had Direct for years before switching to FIOS. They were jerks and would raise the bill ever 6 months like clockwork once the initial period wore off. When we discontinued service they asked us why and when we said we were switching to FIOS and saving $25 a month they simply said "OK"...

I thought that was weird that they didn't try to sweet talk us with some special deal to stick around.

Their customer service sucked. Their billing department sucked. Good riddance.

[jeff_man]

fiber > dish. i like my service to work when it rains and fast net is a plus

[OZMDD]

I prefer DTV greatly to Dish. Haven't had FIOS or UVerse, but both seem desirable if available.

[MadMonkey]

Netflix

I was about to get DirecTV when I discovered it. Unless, of course, you like stuff like the History channel and such.

[onething]

jeff_man & MadMonkey didn't read the first sentence in the first post.

[Dave04]

Yeah... I was a DirectTV customer for years before switching to U-verse. On the whole they were good and I really didn't have any trouble with them. I have trees in my neighborhood and could never get a good spot for reception. Any time we got even light rain, you could plan on the reception dropping out.

[HudsonHawk]

We had Direct TV, It always worked great unless there was a very heavy rain storm south of us. We could use it as weather alert system. But any Sat product will have the same problems.

Only reason we replaced it was because FIOS came into our area and could not pass up the internet bandwidth.

[trickyrix]

I know this is a satellite thread, but if you can get FiOS, pounce on it. It rocks.

[joe.MIATA]

I just switched to Dish, because after 11 yrs of Directv loyalty, I was just a lowly 'existing' customer. Dish gave me the moon.
But, after I switched, Directv fell all over themselves to keep me. I told them after my current obligations are complete with Dish I would be happy to be treated like a 'new' customer again.

[onething]

I know this is a satellite thread, but if you can get FiOS, pounce on it. It rocks.

Careful, you'll be put on the list with you-know-who!

IF anything resembling FiOS ever comes to my neighborhood, I will break contracts to get it. At this time that is not an option.

YMMV

[channelmaniac]

Careful, you'll be put on the list with you-know-who!

IF anything resembling FiOS ever comes to my neighborhood, I will break contracts to get it. At this time that is not an option.

YMMV

It's worth it. We're moving to another house and the big thing for me was "Is it Verizon territory and can I get FIOS?"

[Titus]

IF anything resembling FiOS ever comes to my neighborhood, I will break contracts to get it. At this time that is not an option.

YMMV

You an me both!

I have had Dish for about 8 years now with zero complaints. It has always been better than the digital cable I had prior. My parents had DirectTv for about 4 years and always complained about it. Whenever I was visiting them, I would find myself hating the guide interface, hence re-enforcing my happiness with Dish. After spending some time with the Dish interface a few years ago, Dad decided that he like Dish better too so he switched. He says he is still happy he made the switch.

I will say that Dish is just as bad to existing customers as DirectTV, but there is a way around this. A few years back, I canceled service in my name that charged our CC each month and started up service in my wife's name using the debit card. This got us all the new customer freebies including the all new equipment for free that they wanted to charge "me" over $300 for. They still send "me" monthly cards asking to "switch back", offering all types of free stuff. When I decide I am ready for new equipment again, I will take them up on their offer to "switch back".

[shortshift]

I've liked FIOS. But I'm a bit curious about the rumored $30 per month hike that's supposed to come along in February.