Need a Dish Feature Refresher. Please Help!

[Moondoggy51]

I had Dish for many years and gave up and switched to DirecTV about 3 years ago out of frustration with the price of service. Now that my discounted priced from DirecTV has lapsed I wanted to check back to find out what if anything has changed with the idea that I might switch back. Here are a few things that I really like about DirecTV that I did not have with Dish when I switched and I wonder if Dish is now providing a similar service.

With DirecTV I can move the cursor on the guide over the channel identifier, press OK and I will get a menu that will allow me to view episodes of shows that have previously aired on that channel. For example, if I want to watch an episode of Chicago Med that appeared earlier this year on my local NBC station I can view that episode on demand. With DirecTV I can watch any episode of any program that appeared on NBC, ABC, FOX and CBS as well as many satellite TV stations like SyFy. When I had Dish previously you could only do VOD on the premium channels and a few other satellite TV stations but not any broadcast channels like NBC and the number of satellite TV stations that offered VOD was far less than what I have available with DirecTV today. Can anyone tell me what Dish now offers?

The next thing that I really like about DirecTV that I did not have available with Dish when I switched is the ability to restart some, not all, but some shows from the beginning of the show if you arrived late and missed the first part of the show. With DirecTV shows that can be started over have a rewind arrow next to the program name indicating that it can be restarted by selecting the show and then immediately pressing the back (rewind) arrow on the controller twice. Does Dish have a similar feature now or is this still something that's exclusive to DirecTV?

Besides the things I described above that I really like about DirecTV, are there new features that Dish has added in the last few years that I may now not be aware of? For example I understand that you can do some sort of voice commands with the controller to make it easier to use but I'm more concerned about the ability to watch what I want to watch, when I want to watch it.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[HipKat]

Yes, you can find info on other episodes of a given show, no you can't rewind a show if you come in late, but unless it's on CBS, you'll most likely find it on On-Demand, which now hosts over 95,000 titles.

 

[ncted]

The next thing that I really like about DirecTV that I did not have available with Dish when I switched is the ability to restart some, not all, but some shows from the beginning of the show if you arrived late and missed the first part of the show. With DirecTV shows that can be started over have a rewind arrow next to the program name indicating that it can be restarted by selecting the show and then immediately pressing the back (rewind) arrow on the controller twice. Does Dish have a similar feature now or is this still something that's exclusive to DirecTV?

I'm impressed this works well enough for you to be a feature you are asking for. When we had DirecTV, this worked maybe 1 time in 10 tries for us. Often it would start playback and then throw and error and stop. Dish doesn't have an exact analog, so, if this is a killer feature, you might prefer sticking with DirecTV. I also believe DirecTV Now offers this, but that is a very different beast in many respects. TimeWarnerCable also used to offer this, but it looks like Spectrum dropped it after the merger.

 

[Howard Simmons]

Yes, you can find info on other episodes of a given show, no you can't rewind a show if you come in late, but unless it's on CBS, you'll most likely find it on On-Demand, which now hosts over 95,000 titles.

You can if you program the channel to auto tune. I do it all the time when I know I'll be late to watch it.

 

[Moondoggy51]

Thanks for the feedback. If it were me I would cancel DirecTV and switch to streaming but I can't have an outside antenna in my neighborhood and I can't find a streaming service that has NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and CW. They have some but not all so I'm screwed unless I want to switch from DirecTV to Dish. Right now DirecTV is having a contract dispute with both our CBS and NBC affiliates so we're blacked out until they settle down and negotiate a new contract. I always thought that Dish was better than DirecTV but I'm kind of hooked on these two features so I'm stuck for a while yet.

 

[ncted]

Thanks for the feedback. If it were me I would cancel DirecTV and switch to streaming but I can't have an outside antenna in my neighborhood and I can't find a streaming service that has NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and CW. They have some but not all so I'm screwed unless I want to switch from DirecTV to Dish. Right now DirecTV is having a contract dispute with both our CBS and NBC affiliates so we're blacked out until they settle down and negotiate a new contract. I always thought that Dish was better than DirecTV but I'm kind of hooked on these two features so I'm stuck for a while yet.

What do you mean you cannot have an outside antenna in your neighborhood? Have you ever heard of OTARD?

Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule

 

[Cheddar_Head]

What do you mean you cannot have an outside antenna in your neighborhood? Have you ever heard of OTARD?

Over-the-Air Reception Devices Rule

Yes, OTARD is a thing and definitely enforceable against HOAs BUT sometimes it just isn't worth the hassle as some HOAs retaliate by being really pissy about all the other bylaws. HOAs serve a purpose but man they can be a real PITA.

 

[JSheridan]

Yes, OTARD is a thing and definitely enforceable against HOAs BUT sometimes it just isn't worth the hassle as some HOAs retaliate by being really pissy about all the other bylaws. HOAs serve a purpose but man they can be a real PITA.

We had a customer who challenged their HOA on OTARD grounds and the HOA made their life a living hell until they finally moved.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I'm impressed this works well enough for you to be a feature you are asking for. When we had DirecTV, this worked maybe 1 time in 10 tries for us. Often it would start playback and then throw and error and stop. Dish doesn't have an exact analog, so, if this is a killer feature, you might prefer sticking with DirecTV. I also believe DirecTV Now offers this, but that is a very different beast in many respects. TimeWarnerCable also used to offer this, but it looks like Spectrum dropped it after the merger.

I have 1 gig AT&T Fiber connected via eithernet and the on demand and rewind still doesn’t work right 100% of the time.

So I doubt it’s my internet or how my stuff is connected

 

[bwexler]

If you're concerned about Prime time shows and you have a Hopper 3, you can automatically record at least 4 or 5 networks every night. This is in addition to shows you choose to record every time they are on.

 

[Jim5506]

Prime Time records 4 networks.

 

[DISH Support]

If you're concerned about Prime time shows and you have a Hopper 3, you can automatically record at least 4 or 5 networks every night. This is in addition to shows you choose to record every time they are on.

Hey bwexler, PrimeTime AnyTime records your 4 major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) all on 1 tuner during PrimeTime hours.