thinking about leaving dish for the second time, any thoughts about Direct service?

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lwh1993

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Nov 4, 2007
118
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My dish contract is up and I'm thinking of looking at something new. Dish has been failrly good, but a few equipment issues and some spotty HD make me wonder if there's something better. This has been my 2nd dance with them and I'm on my 2nd 722 with a recent issue causing me concern.

Mediacom and Direct are my only other choices. How do they stack up?

I am interested in a good dvr, good programming and good HD in that order.

Any thoughts? How does their equipment and service stack up?

I'm not looking for negative comments, just advice and help.

Thanks,

Todd
 
What issues did you have? Dish has the best DVR on the planet. I have installed Dish and DirecTV for almost 10 years. You couldn't pay me to switch from Dish to Direct. IMHO Direct receivers/DVRs are sluggish pains in the neck, Cable Co.s equipment is even worse.

Both Co.s have very similar programming selection, SD or HD. Direct is usually about $10-$15 more per month for the same thing. The ONLY thing Direct has over Dish is NFL Sunday ticket.

It depends a lot on what HD probs you had, but assuming they are fixable, I'd stay right where you are.

Brad
 
I agree with brad...I have Dish at home and DirecTV at work, and IMHO, the Dish DVR BURIES the DirecTV DVR in a couple ways. First, the interface on the Dish DVR's are much easier to use/understand/navigate. Second, only Dish offers the ability to operate the DVR in single mode (all TV's fed with the same signal), or Dual mode (TV 1 watches one thing, TV 2 watches another).
 
You should just move to cable instead of just slamming service for the freebees. Drives everyone's costs up.

(Yea, the war zone definitely).

Edit: (God, I really hate the "it's all about me" generation)
 
The ViP series is the best DVR platform available right now, no doubt about that.

However if you decide to switch, the HR is not that bad. It is not as fast as the dish box, but tolerable, reliable, and has some nice interactive features of its own.

Most everything else is comparable. Channel offerings (dish has a slight lead in HD channels), picture quality (Dirctv has a slight edge in HD picture quality), price (some say Dish is cheaper, but not for everyone. For my situation, Dish would cost me a few bucks more. Its the darn DVR fees), and customer service (Directv wins here outright, but Dish is getting better from most accounts).

Of coure everything I posted is only my opinion. Others can, and most likely will, vary.

Anyway, hope this helps:up
 
The grass is not always greener on the other side.

Dish has the best DVR and the most HD programming at a lower price.

Just be glad that you picked a good provider and stick with it. I've got Dish and DirecTV. I would switch both accounts to Dish if I wasn't locked into another year contract with DirecTV.
 
Not looking for controversy just opinions.

I do like the DVR, but it's unreliability drives my wife nuts, I've lost hours of programs thanks to it. She just wants it to work without issues.

I also really hate the pixelly HD I've been seeing, Speed Racer in HD was a mess during any action scenes. any fixes?

I also hate the 2 weeks it takes for dish to service my equipment.
 
lwh1993 said:
Not looking for controversy just opinions.

I do like the DVR, but it's unreliability drives my wife nuts, I've lost hours of programs thanks to it. She just wants it to work without issues.

I also really hate the pixelly HD I've been seeing, Speed Racer in HD was a mess during any action scenes. any fixes?

I also hate the 2 weeks it takes for dish to service my equipment.
Click to expand...

Call dish & tell them the directv installer is on his way to your house and you want to cxl your service. I'll bet you can squeeze a few freebies from them.
 
lwh1993 said:
Not looking for controversy just opinions.

I do like the DVR, but it's unreliability drives my wife nuts, I've lost hours of programs thanks to it. She just wants it to work without issues.

I also really hate the pixelly HD I've been seeing, Speed Racer in HD was a mess during any action scenes. any fixes?

I also hate the 2 weeks it takes for dish to service my equipment.
Click to expand...

ceo@dishnetwork.com always seems to be the charm for me
 
I have both right now. I was on Dish a bit ago, switched to Direct, and have mostly switched back to Dish. Comparing the Dish HDDVRs to Directs is an effort in futility. They are slow in operation and because of the many quirks, you have to think about the DVR instead of just using it. Like the skip-to-end-bug. That and the slowness just makes me cringe!

But I do like the way that Directs HDDVRs manage the recordings, it is cleaner and more informative. But all of it is slow, which denigrates the experience.

PQ on HD is very slightly better on Direct, but Dish's SD PQ is very much better.

Programming for sports is better on Direct, but for most other things, it is nearly a wash.

The only reason I keep the Direct system is because Dish hasn't gotten around to getting my locals in HD yet. The day they do, the Direct system goes back.
 
lwh1993 said:
I also really hate the pixelly HD I've been seeing, Speed Racer in HD was a mess during any action scenes. any fixes?
Click to expand...
Speed Racer is the litmus test of HD programming. Many Blu-ray players can't get it right.

What channel were you watching it on?
 
I was watching speed racer on one the Max HD channel's.

I really don't care for more freebies, I just want a reliable box that doesn't lose my programming.

I did come back to Dish after a stint with really expensive cable, but you never know what is out there unless you look.

Everyone I know that has direct loves them. I'm one of the few with Dish.
Dish tech support said to turn the box off at night, would that help rellaibility? I thought the box went to sleep after a few hours of non activity.
 
Get yourself an external hard drive and store all your important things on the external hard drive.

While the DirecTV has gotten better over the years it still has quite a ways to catch up to the Dish Network ViP line of DVR's.
 
lwh1993 said:
My dish contract is up and I'm thinking of looking at something new. Dish has been failrly good, but a few equipment issues and some spotty HD make me wonder if there's something better. This has been my 2nd dance with them and I'm on my 2nd 722 with a recent issue causing me concern.

Mediacom and Direct are my only other choices. How do they stack up?

I am interested in a good dvr, good programming and good HD in that order.

Any thoughts? How does their equipment and service stack up?

I'm not looking for negative comments, just advice and help.

Thanks,

Todd
Click to expand...


The thing that caught me most about your post was the part about (good dvr)

You only move to direc if you want sports packages. Thats why I have them.
Not for their dvrs..

I can say this because I have both two 722 and two hr21...

Its not even in the same ballpark..

the 722 is the best dvr on the market.
 
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