Moved to Direct TV after 8 years at Dish.

[jcarr]

The primary reason I switched is I have lost all confidence in Dish's ability to develop reliable equipment. I have been wanting a HD PVR since I looked at the 921 two years ago at CES. I have waited and waited and the problems just never get fixed. While watching the 921 product develop, I started learning about Direct TV and the TIVO units. It has been operational for 2 days and it works great.

I have had my trusty Dish 3200 from the beginning and the reliability of that product started to go down hill after installing a Dish 500. Check switch, power reboots, one LNB failure the like to keep it operational. It finally failed all together and I am sure it was a Dish programming screw-up and not a hardware failure that took it out of operation.

Lots of other little reasons the helped me switch:
-Total Choice plus cost less than the Dish 180. I get all the Discovery, History, DYI, O2, OLN channels and other neat channels for less money.
-One PVR charge per house not per unit.
-Outstanding TIVO search and record functions, search by name, search by actor, search by director, search by topic/sub topic, season pass recordings. Wow - is that cool.
-What looks to be a commitment to HDTV by Direct.

I know I am just one small customer, but I am a geek who influences others when it comes to selecting equipment. When the first local TV station started transmitting in HD, they somehow got my name and did an interview in my 10 seat theater. Somehow the word gets around. Word of mouth is a great way to grow or fail a business.

My advice to Dish is to accept nothing short of perfection, because that is what the customer base expects.

 

[korsjs]

you are not the only one who feels this way. alot of people are jumping ship right now and you are correct in we are the ones who recommend equipment/services to other people.

 

[Ransack]

Make that TWO small customers. I echo every single thing you just mentioned. I have been with E* since 1996 and will probably be jumping ship for D* within the next few weeks for those same reasons.

I had looked into getting the 510 upgrade, but I can't stomach the $4.99 "VOD Fee" for basically the same box as my 508 which has no VOD fee. Plus, i can't get a dual tuner model 522 as that's for new customers. yeah, that makes sense.

I can get two dual tuner 80 gb directivo boxes for about $150 installed AND have a lower monthly bill...PLUS get NFL sunday ticket. E* should know about Customer Retention 101...you make the most money by keeping your existing customers happy who in turn give positive word of mouth advertising to others. But what do i know...i am just ONE customer....

 

[lee espinoza]

The primary reason I switched is I have lost all confidence in Dish's ability to develop reliable equipment. I have been wanting a HD PVR since I looked at the 921 two years ago at CES. I have waited and waited and the problems just never get fixed. While watching the 921 product develop, I started learning about Direct TV and the TIVO units. It has been operational for 2 days and it works great.

I have had my trusty Dish 3200 from the beginning and the reliability of that product started to go down hill after installing a Dish 500. Check switch, power reboots, one LNB failure the like to keep it operational. It finally failed all together and I am sure it was a Dish programming screw-up and not a hardware failure that took it out of operation.

Lots of other little reasons the helped me switch:
-Total Choice plus cost less than the Dish 180. I get all the Discovery, History, DYI, O2, OLN channels and other neat channels for less money.
-One PVR charge per house not per unit.
-Outstanding TIVO search and record functions, search by name, search by actor, search by director, search by topic/sub topic, season pass recordings. Wow - is that cool.
-What looks to be a commitment to HDTV by Direct.

I know I am just one small customer, but I am a geek who influences others when it comes to selecting equipment. When the first local TV station started transmitting in HD, they somehow got my name and did an interview in my 10 seat theater. Somehow the word gets around. Word of mouth is a great way to grow or fail a business.

My advice to Dish is to accept nothing short of perfection, because that is what the customer base expects.

from a directv customer let me be the first to welcome you to directv

 

[rad]

Welcome to D*, you'll be happy you made the switch.

 

[Barry Erick]

And I moved from D* to E* after many years of DirecTV (it was called USSB). My 180 with 4 receivers, HD and locals costs less than the Total Choice did with HD and locals by $10. And the pictures are better (it looks like less compression). Locals look better due to less compression.

 

[waltinvt]

After 8 years with "E", I'm also on verge of giving my meger $130 a mo to "D". The only 2 things making me hesitate right now are that "D" is saying that people in Vermont do not qualify for any of the HD distant nets (I can't even get a quiver of signal with a good rooftop antenna)and I'd also be losing UPN's Enterprise, which is one of the few shows the whole family watches together.

 

[flavorguy]

I've been with E* since 2001....

and I posted in the Dish HDTV poll thread that the announcement that D* started to broadcast ABC-HD to eligible markets (which I'm part of) was the straw that broke the camel's back ...

I also beleive that there will be nore defections from E* to D*. In the O&O markets (which probably account for 60% of the population), D* can now provide CBS-HD, NBC-HD, FOX-HD, and ABC-HD...

My cable provider also carries the above in HD so between E*'s two main competitors, E*'s HD line up is the poorest...

Foe those who have switched recently, I was just going to pick up my equipment at Best Buy (HDTV Receiver, DirectTV 80 gig Tivo, and one regular receiver). Total cost is something like $399 for the three units. These are all DirectTV brands. Anything I should know about these products or should I look elsewhere...

For those interested in Dish equipment, look in about 7-10 days. I'll be posting my 6000u and Dish PVR units for sale...

 

[hancox]

**insert sponsor pimp here**

Value Electronics (link above) is highly regarded. Should get you a good deal on everything.

 

[PILMAN]

I want to jump ship but from the sales rep said if I wanted the movie channels that would be an extra 41 dollars a month. I pay 86.98 dollars a month right now for dish 180 but the tax kinda kills me. DirecTV looks great but for 5 receivers, the 3 movies channels, hdtv I would be paying 77.95 for the first 3 months then 106.95 dollars a month after that which seems like quite a lot. My reason for moving over is better quality and hopefully to save some money. I have a 42" plasma tv and the SD signals are unwatchable most of the time on the unit, I'm hoping to move to directv and get a HDTV box if it will be cheaper. Do I really need the movie package or doesn't hdtv come with that?

 

[flavorguy]

After reading the great comments on Value Electronics, they did indeed get my order...

No offense to Best Buy, but I'd rather give my money to a forum sponser...

 

[Jstanuthrdishguy]

No bubble busting intended, but you're not gonna be bowled over by any SD from any Carrier. You say the SD channels are unwatchable most of the time on your plasma and... sorry to say, they still will be. Increased receiver reliability will probably carry the most weight (and it's considerable, I'll agree) when you compare the two experiences. When you're listing the pros and cons, you can remove SD PQ from the equation. E* and D* are so close, I really don't think anyone can justify the switch based on that. Just to be clear, I'm not trying to talk you out of switching, because the 811 really falls on its face too much of the time to be used as the sole receiver in the house IMO. I just wanna let you know, if you think you're watching a lot of sh*tty SD now, you've got more coming.

 

[PILMAN]

I realize that but direcTV seems to be more prepared for HDTV content than Dish network. Dish also wants more money for their receiver.

 

[Jstanuthrdishguy]

Got ya. And those are good reasons.

 

[jcarr]

I can get two dual tuner 80 gb directivo boxes for about $150 installed AND have a lower monthly bill...PLUS get NFL sunday ticket. E* should know about Customer Retention 101...you make the most money by keeping your existing customers happy who in turn give positive word of mouth advertising to others. But what do i know...i am just ONE customer....

You can get a 80GB R10 from Value Electronics with the 18*20" 3 LNB antenna for about $120 including installation. After $50 rebate from Direct will be a total cost of $70 installed. Jon.

 

[Ransack]

I am working on it....

 

[Neutron]

I switched from E* to D* back in March of last year because of Charlie's cheap-ass ways and us losing channels we liked because of it. We had the 510. Don't get me wrong it's a nice unit, but it lacks and still lacks features that we really like, like Name Based Recording. This is very important to us.

I just got my mom who had been with DISH for 4 years to switch to Directv today because she said her bill was getting to high and she didn't like the idea of another price increase coming next month. My co-worker also switched from DISH to Directv last Thursday for the same thing. He had been with DISH for 7 years.

Both of them went through Value Electronics and both told me that their experience has been nothing buy excellent and that VE treated them very nice and professional.

 

[chunchma]

Does D* offer any more networks in HD (in eligible areas) without an OTA than E*? I have to admit; I was a little confused when trying to look at the HD lineup on the D* site.

 

[Neutron]

D* offers all four major networks in HD now, provided you're eligible for them.

 

[astrotrf]

I'd *love* to switch to D*, especially now that the hard drive on one of my E* 721s died last night, so I need to buy something anyway.

What's been holding me back is D*'s attitude toward plugging a phone line into the receiver. I expect to be going *mobile* in a year or so, and, while D* is happy to allow that, they don't allow a mobile receiver to get some premium programming like NFL Sunday Ticket, ostensibly because the receiver is not plugged into my home telephone.

E* doesn't seem to care about niceties like this; they're happy to mirror my programming onto all receivers with no quibbling over phone lines.

It is also my understanding that D* will not allow you to have both east-coast and west-coast network feeds, which, again, E* has no problem with.

D* can have me, *tomorrow*, if there's a satisfactory resolution to these two problems! Anybody have any suggestions?