Should I go to Direct?

[johnalred]

I have had Dish for almost 25 years. But I have been unhappy with several Dish disputes ... mainly the loss of Metv among others.
I live in rural Alabama and am unable to get any TV unless it is via satellite.
Just want some discussion as to the pros and cons of leaving Dish.
And no I cannot get streaming.

 

[tsunami2311]

Do they have the channels you want and is worth price and or hassle?

 

[johnalred]

Do they have the channels you want and is worth price and or hassle?

That is what I have debated. They have the channels. Is it worth the price and hassle? That is the question. My equipment is old and I do not want another two year lock-in price deal. But Direct is a little higher after the switch deal is over.

 

[Bruce]

That is what I have debated. They have the channels. Is it worth the price and hassle? That is the question. My equipment is old and I do not want another two year lock-in price deal. But Direct is a little higher after the switch deal is over.

If you upgrade with Dish, you will be locked in with a contract, if you switch to DirecTV, you will be locked in to a contract.

DirecTV, depending on your package, has fees like RSN, so it could be a lot more than Dish.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I suggest you stay with DISH if you wish and add Friendly Tv app. It has Metv and Metv + and Metv Toons and its cheap with 50+ channels starting at $6.99 a month.

www.frndlytv.com

 

[NYDutch]

I have had Dish for almost 25 years. But I have been unhappy with several Dish disputes ... mainly the loss of Metv among others.
I live in rural Alabama and am unable to get any TV unless it is via satellite.
Just want some discussion as to the pros and cons of leaving Dish.
And no I cannot get streaming.

Since apparently you do have Internet service, may I ask what the problem is with streaming?

 

[AZ.]

Since apparently you do have Internet service, may I ask what the problem is with streaming?

I will assume like me rural Alabama, and Im rural Northern AZ. Caps, slow down speeds, tourism, lots of reasons I cant rely on anything streaming. It can work work 90% of the time then nothing. And 4K is totally out here.

 

[NYDutch]

I will assume like me rural Alabama, and Im rural Northern AZ. Caps, slow down speeds, tourism, lots of reasons I cant rely on anything streaming. It can work work 90% of the time then nothing. And 4K is totally out here.

How is the cell service in your area? Particularly Verizon?

 

[AZ.]

How is the cell service in your area? Particularly Verizon?

They are strong. Verizon is king but no home 5G offerings. I have T-Mobile and its just so so....Average speed, 20 or 30mb down..Ive seen 150, 175, thats in middle of the night.

 

[NYDutch]

They are strong. Verizon is king but no home 5G offerings. I have T-Mobile and its just so so....Average speed, 20 or 30mb down..Ive seen 150, 175, thats in middle of the night.

No home service doesn't mean you can't get a hotspot service. The cheapest would be Verizon's "Visible" service that allows unlimited talk, text, and data. The Visible+ $35/mo service supports a 10Mbps hotspot connection with multiple devices using various phones. 10Mbps is adequate for all but 4K streaming. I'm stream with Visible right now in a weaker signal area that's maxing out at 4 Mbps. Haven't seen any buffering yet while watching the Olympics. Verizon has other direct dedicated hotspot plans as well, for more money. Of course there's also Starlink if cost is not a problem.

 

[Bruce]

I will assume like me rural Alabama, and Im rural Northern AZ. Caps, slow down speeds, tourism, lots of reasons I cant rely on anything streaming. It can work work 90% of the time then nothing. And 4K is totally out here.

Just because it is a rural area, does not mean fast broadband is not available.

I live in a rural area, septic, well, lots of land, yet I have Charter and, as I type, Quantum Fiber is finishing up the last bit of work in my area, should have it available in about two weeks.

 

[AZ.]

Just because it is a rural area, does not mean fast broadband is not available.

I live in a rural area, septic, well, lots of land, yet I have Charter and, as I type, Quantum Fiber is finishing up the last bit of work in my area, should have it available in about two weeks.

you also live in a state with over 30 million people! Alabama 5 million...

 

[jkrumenack3r]

I get the need. For so many of us that use Satellite these days in rural areas or weak internet there is no option for streaming or cable. I tried it - I will never EVER be without Satellite again. Frankly I just don’t ever want to deal with the hassle of all that streaming BS. Every time you just want to decompress with some mindless entertainment they’re there challenge your login or what not and it’s annoying. I turn on dish and it works…. But that wasn’t your concern….

Here is the thing…. Dish is a better company than DirecTV (AT&T). Dish cannot control the greed of these channel partners and do their best and most times just cant win. Which sucks. But I would not leave Dish purely on service. When I was in the military and it came to deployments soooo many had to deal with DirecTV not letting them out of contracts (even though its a federal requirement), making final days before deployments super stressful, and then turning them over to collections while deployed - so they come back to that mess. Dish? Never an issue! NEVER will I be a DirecTV customer - but thats me based on that experience - which I figured I would share.

 

[Zbrannigan]

+1 that Dish is better than DirecTV
Remember, if you don’t like cancel culture, DirecTV cancelled NewsMax for a while. And they don’t carry Real America’s Voice (Dish ch 219). RAV by itself is a good enough reason to keep Dish if you used to like Faux News. It is one of the only channels that does not ban its hosts and guests from talking about stolen elections.

When you say streaming is not an option, is that because StarLink is $100/mo?

If you can get streaming, there is a DVR app for your Apple TV or Google TV that lets you watch and record live streaming TV - like free Pluto TV and Samsung TV. It is called Channels DVR. I switched to it after Faux News cancelled Tucker and I cancelled Dish after 25yrs. Channels DVR also integrates your OTA channels into the same guide. Plus if you still need pay TV, it allows you to stream and record most cable channels w/ a corresponding cable / satellite subscription.

P.S. The ads on this site crashed Safari several times.

Edit:
Channels DVR

 

[johnalred]

Thanks for all the help. To answer questions asked.
I do get T-Mobile but very unreliable.
I have very weak Verizon phone service through TracFone.
I have decided to stay with Dish.