Thinking about switching to directv...

[SHEEPareBAD]

Hello all.
I am currently a DISH customer (and ex-installer) and am pondering switching to directv for the main reason of price. I've been a customer with dish for 6+ years, when I became an installer for them. OPTIMALLY I would like to upgrade to a hopper for free ( or at least the price a new customer gets) and get the introduction rates. I know as an existing customer with BOTH providers, that's not happening.
I've concluded that my options are:
1. Pay the full upgrade price...
2. Cancel dish, wait three months
3. Cancel dish, try to put a new acct in my wife's name
4. Give directv or (gasp) cable a try.

Here is my current setup, which I would like the final directv setup to be real similar. I have a ViP722 as my receiver and the 2nd tuner from the box, going to 4 locations. Our family doesn't need to watch 5 separate programs at once, so having that tv2 split to 4 locations works great. Our main tv is hd, all others aren't for now, but the ability to upgrade or move things around easily is a must.
Would I be able to get by with an HMC at my HDTV location, and put a plain hd receiver at my junction? Does that plain receiver have UHF remote capabilities? Am I able to get 3+more remotes without getting charged $20 for them?

What do you think my best route would be?

Thanks

 

[Liquidforce88]

Hello all.
I am currently a DISH customer (and ex-installer) and am pondering switching to directv for the main reason of price. I've been a customer with dish for 6+ years, when I became an installer for them. OPTIMALLY I would like to upgrade to a hopper for free ( or at least the price a new customer gets) and get the introduction rates. I know as an existing customer with BOTH providers, that's not happening.
I've concluded that my options are:
1. Pay the full upgrade price...
2. Cancel dish, wait three months
3. Cancel dish, try to put a new acct in my wife's name
4. Give directv or (gasp) cable a try.

Here is my current setup, which I would like the final directv setup to be real similar. I have a ViP722 as my receiver and the 2nd tuner from the box, going to 4 locations. Our family doesn't need to watch 5 separate programs at once, so having that tv2 split to 4 locations works great. Our main tv is hd, all others aren't for now, but the ability to upgrade or move things around easily is a must.
Would I be able to get by with an HMC at my HDTV location, and put a plain hd receiver at my junction? Does that plain receiver have UHF remote capabilities? Am I able to get 3+more remotes without getting charged $20 for them?

What do you think my best route would be?

Thanks

Trust me you will be happy with the HR34. I would go ahead and get more than just one H25 maybe get 2 of them, it's only $6 a month. The H25 can do RF, but you would have to buy extra remotes. I am sure you can find them for much less than $20 on ebay. Also with the SWM system, and you being and ex-installer. It's pretty easy to move a receiver around. Just make sure the installer uses the 8-way splitter. You will need an old VCR or a modulator as the HD receivers do not have a ch3 coax output.

 

[zim2dive]

Hello all.
I am currently a DISH customer (and ex-installer) and am pondering switching to directv for the main reason of price. I've been a customer with dish for 6+ years, when I became an installer for them. OPTIMALLY I would like to upgrade to a hopper for free ( or at least the price a new customer gets) and get the introduction rates. I know as an existing customer with BOTH providers, that's not happening.
I've concluded that my options are:
1. Pay the full upgrade price...
2. Cancel dish, wait three months
3. Cancel dish, try to put a new acct in my wife's name
4. Give directv or (gasp) cable a try.

Here is my current setup, which I would like the final directv setup to be real similar. I have a ViP722 as my receiver and the 2nd tuner from the box, going to 4 locations. Our family doesn't need to watch 5 separate programs at once, so having that tv2 split to 4 locations works great. Our main tv is hd, all others aren't for now, but the ability to upgrade or move things around easily is a must.
Would I be able to get by with an HMC at my HDTV location, and put a plain hd receiver at my junction? Does that plain receiver have UHF remote capabilities? Am I able to get 3+more remotes without getting charged $20 for them?

What do you think my best route would be?

Thanks

I had a 622 and 3 remote TV2s when on Dish... my thoughts after converting

a) the HR34 has been a buggy piece of kit... its only starting to become stable. I'd take my 622 back any day
b) the H2x series cannot fully manage recordings on the DVR.. it can schedule them and delete them, but not change, edit, or even view a list of upcoming recordings.. so if you switch, and as you say you don't need the tuners, get the new C31 modules (thin client, no extra tuner), which appear to work more like an ex-Dish customer would expect.
c) I also left Dish b/c there was no attractive price for an existing sub to get the Hopper... but as soon as I qualify as a new customer and my DTV contract is up (2 years).. I'll be going back...I've had issues with the install, billing, etc.
d) cosmetic issue, but the HR34 only shows 1.5 hours(?) of guide listings... I still very much miss seeing 3 hours of guide at once... I find the HR34 guide a significant step backwards.. and still sometimes suffers from lag (much less than when I first got the HR34)

 

[teneightyp]

Going from Dish to Directv is kind of like going from Apple to Microsoft. Microsoft has some cool stuff, but it's not as good as Apple. I'm a couple weeks into Directv and I already know I'll be going back to Dish in 2 years. The only advantage I see with Directv is a little better HD quality.

 

[mdram]

i ditched a 622 for an hr24 and an h24, and couldnt be happier
channels dont disapear, more hd being added regularly
all the sports you could want

i cant see myself going back to dish

 

[reybie]

Cool, just the discussion I'm looking for. I'm off contract and Dish wants me to shell out $99 to upgrade, Directv is giving it away for free now with the Genie... I should try another chat session with retention to see if they will budge. I had Directv a looooong time ago before HD.

 

[zim2dive]

Cool, just the discussion I'm looking for. I'm off contract and Dish wants me to shell out $99 to upgrade, Directv is giving it away for free now with the Genie... I should try another chat session with retention to see if they will budge. I had Directv a looooong time ago before HD.

Dish retention didn't offer me squat (maybe $5 discount/month for 6 months) until I scheduled the disconnect . After that they got all buddy buddy, but I thought it was worth trying DTV so I told them it was too late and kept the disconnect appt. shrug.. not major, but definitely minor regrets.. but life does go on either way

Plus, dish should be very aware of the new customer offers from DTV. So *IF* you want to stay, give it a shot. If you want to switch, more power to you. Dish wasn't perfect either.. but overall I had fewer problems there, and in preferred the user interface choices they made on their products.

 

[reybie]

I have no basis for comparison when it comes to dish or direct's whole house dvr so going with either one would be a learning experience for sure. Have to give that chat session a try again when I get home tonight. I have a single 622 in shared mode with another room so the extra tuners would come in handy. I have no OTA connection, signal sucks.

 

[reybie]

The best they could do for me was $50 for the Hopper. Will price out the Genie and see where I'm at

 

[reybie]

Got the Genie + 2 clients installed yesterday. Good experience except for the installer not having a 10 Pin to Component breakout cable, I will sort that out on my own. It will take a little bit of adjusting setting up recordings and navigating the DVR.

 

[raoul5788]

Glad to hear you are up and running. The changes from one service to another won't even be noticeable in a few months I bet.

 

[insul1n]

I too am thinking about switching. I have one question, seven years ago when i had direct the first dvr i had could only fast forward and rewind but skip ahead like dish (skip ahead so many seconds instantly) , has that changed?

 

[cparker]

DirecTV can skip ahead. I think it's a 30 second skip and also skip back for those, "What did she just say?", moments. It also has the fast forward and rewind multiple speeds of each.

 

[smitbret]

Glad to hear you are up and running. The changes from one service to another won't even be noticeable in a few months I bet.

For the most part that's true. I switched from Dish to DirecTV about 3 years ago after five good years with Dish. I remember I was ready to throw the entire thing out the window for about the first 3 months. A lot of the frustrations eased after that but I still miss the 3 hour guide, the DVR system of Dish is just much better and the general responsiveness of Dish's IRDs is crazy better. I have 3 HR24s and an H24 and no matter what anyone tries to convince me, they are nowhere near as responsive as my 722 was with Dish. I am reminded of this everytime I go to my parents house and turn on their TV. There is a huge difference in how quickly the boxes respond to commands. The Dish interface is just smooth. I stay with DirecTV simply because I like the MRV (Hopper does not have enough tuners), ESPNU in HD and AMC. Fix those and I would probably go back to Dish if costs were roughly equal.

 

[Mr Tony]

DirecTV can skip ahead. I think it's a 30 second skip and also skip back for those, "What did she just say?", moments. It also has the fast forward and rewind multiple speeds of each.

Directv has both a 30 skip (which jumps 30 seconds) and 30 slip (which is like hitting FF in 30 second increments) Skip back is 6 seconds

 

[reybie]

Directv has both a 30 skip (which jumps 30 seconds) and 30 slip (which is like hitting FF in 30 second increments) Skip back is 6 seconds

Is there a way to switch between the skip and slip? Also, is there a way to tell how many tuners are in use?

 

[Mr Tony]

yes there is a way to change
The default is 30 slip but what you do is a keyword search for "30skip" which changes it over. "30slip" changes it back. Old thread on how to change it
http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=235339#post2393384

Also, is there a way to tell how many tuners are in use?

I only have a HR34 (no other receivers) so dont know. When I record stuff I hit "list" and it shows how many programs are recording

 

[reybie]

yes there is a way to change
The default is 30 slip but what you do is a keyword search for "30skip" which changes it over. "30slip" changes it back


I only have a HR34 (no other receivers) so dont know. When I record stuff I hit "list" and it shows how many programs are recording

Oh cool, thanks. I will try the skip tonight, I've gotten used to it with Dish.
Just curious on the tuners in use part, control freak, ocd, something like that always wanting to know what's going on and who is hogging my tuners!

 

[reybie]

30skip worked like a charm! Are there any other keywords we should know about?

 

[reybie]

Almost a month now and I'm still happy with the switch! Everyone gets to watch their shows, I record what I want to and so far noone's complained yet. Liking this 5 tuner deal, big step up from the 622.