Dish Sub May Switch To DirecTv...Pros and Cons Please

[MDB in SE La]

Questions: Monthly subscription or 11/12ths deal for annual subscribers?(Pay for approx11months and get 12months) DirecTV have Dual Tuner Receivers? DVR suspect problems? Telephone hook up? Will installer use existing Dish equipment that can be used or will they put in all new stuff? Some neighbors have told me that one installer left the 'Dish' dish and put other equipment and receivers, seems like not the thing to do......I mean, to advertise to your neighbors that you still have Dish and you just switched, how tacky. One other thing, is it good to go through AT&T and bundle. I read the post about bundling but any other ideas. Any other ideas, since Sky Angel is leaving 3-31-08 I'll probably switch!

 

[jessshaun]

I had Dish for the last 3 years, and just switched to Directv this afternoon. Don't know about the annual payment, I was always monthly with Dish and will be with Direct. Yes, the DVR is a dual tuner receiver, however, there is only 1 output. Sort of like the new Dish 612 DVR.

I personally have found the Dish interface to be nicer, but it could just be because I'm used to it. Other than the interface, however, the DVR seems nice. All the features I liked about the Dish DVR are there, I'm just relearning how to use them.

I just had the installer use the existing cable from the Dish Network dish since the cable was only a few years old and worked fine. Just go over anything you want with your installer.

I hope this answers your questions.

 

[Left Field Fan]

Had Dish almost 2 years, have had Directv for about 3 weeks. Directv guide shows 1.5 hrs at a time, Dish shows 3 hrs. No PIP. Only one output. Can only record 2 shows at once. Dish could record 2 shows plus one OTA. No OTA with HR21 yet. The HDMI port works on Directv. If you add an external drive it supplants the Directv drive and you lose that storage, but there is no fee. I just hooked up a tb drive and am not worried about space. Just press the record button in the guide to record( no extra screens like w/dish ). The Dish on demand service was a extra ppv service. Directv on demand seems to be a mix of some ppv, but mostly content from reg channel providers(free). I had a non penetrating mount for my Dish 1000, the installer used the mount for the Directv dish. Use the Directv dish or you won't get all of your programming. No new wires needed to be run, but if I didn't have two to each dvr they would have ran more. Those were the only non programming differences, but the extra HD was worth it for me. I have never bundled, the local telco has worst service known to man. Sorry for the long post.

 

[Enragedalbinoyak]

I was with dish for a year, and I am now with directv.

I didn't have one of those fancy HD-DVR things with dish, though I wanted one, and have one now with D*, so I can't comment on hardware, but my experience with the programming has been awesome. I have a friend who is stuck for another 12 months with dishHD and he doesn't get half the crap I do. I'll admit, his interface is slicker than mine, but my on demand owns his any day.

There's way more HD on directv and there will be for a long ass time. Dish has yet to put another bird up for HD, and they won't for a while, whereas directv will have DTV11 up and streaming content by the end of the year. I don't know where they'll get the content, maybe add those stupid ******* voom channels, or time shift everything like BEV does up in canada, but rest assured, if you get DHD, you'll almost never go without an HD channel.

Unless you're a fan of the travel chanel, which still isn't in HD on dtv.
God, that pisses me off.

You know what, **** directv.