Satellitie TV - Dish or Direct - who should I give my money to?

[T Bone]

Right now I am leaning toward the Dish120 package for 44.99 for 3 or 4 rooms. Especially because it has World Link and BBC. Sports don't matter much to me.

Any hidden charges/costs I should be aware of?
Any reason I should go with Direct over Dish?

Direct is Rupert Murdoch and Dish looks like it is SBC.
Any experts around here on this stuff? Other considerations?
That price above is $10 less than I was paying for around 60 cable channels on one tv.

[still_one]

1. dish, murdock owns direct tv

[Ernesto]

24. Agreed

fuck murdock

[tcfrogs]

2. Go with the best deal

I have had DirecTv for 5 years and WILL NEVER GO BACK TO CABLE! At that time, we had to pay for all the receivers & the dish. DirecTv has had incredibly great service, so I have nothing bad to say about them. Murdoch may own them on paper now, but the service hasn't changed.

Like I said in the subject line - go with the best deal. I think Dish Network will be around for a while too so you'll be fine.

[Maddy McCall]

3. I have Directv

I love it. I have a good guy friend who switched from Dish to Directv last year...he won't go back to Dish.

[madrchsod]

4. had dish net for over 4yrs now

great customer service,some really good deals ,and it`s not owned by mr. m. freespeach,link, and the university channels. a million audio channels and at least 4 free spainish channels..the customer service may be alittle slow but i call late at night and it`s alot faster..again i`ve dealt with customer service for 4 yrs and never had any problems..actually had one hold off for a few days on my late bill..try that anywhere else...

[mchill]

5. I have DISH

Ok...around where I live, 2 people that I've spoken with prefer DISH over Direct (they've switched). I've never had Direct, have DISH. I'm always impressed by the programming (Free Speech TV, Link TV) and their service (never a busy signal and always very helpful). It is the only utility I have that I can say good things about!

XM Satellite currently runs a little news blurb on cable versus satellite. Customers rate satellite higher than cable and DISH beats them all in customer satisfaction.

[UdoKier]

6. Neither. Get bare-bones cable.

Not the package they call "basic" mind you. Ask for the MINIMUM package. It will include your local channels and a couple cable channels like c-span. 12 to 20 channels for about $12 a month.

Anything more than that is a total waste of money.

I used to get DirecTV and it was like 100 channels of almost all crap. Infomercials, Spanish, Bible thumping... I realized that 90% of the time I was watching the local stations, and since I watch less thanan hour a day on average, I thought more than $1 for an hour of viewing was a waste.

I really wish people would wake up to the fact that more TV is NOT better TV.

The less time in front of the set, the better your quality of life, IMO.




But do as you will...

[PinkTiger]

7. We are staying with c-band

I realize this is not the way of the new, and that in town it may not be feasible; however, c-band gives you all of it. If you get a digital receiver, you get it all and the free stuff too, and in time we will have tivo and all that too.

I don't want to be a slave to any service. Cband lets me choose.

[Gothic Sponge]

8. I have DirectTV because i can't get DishTV at my house.

Too many of my neighbor's trees are blocking. I have no complaints about DirectTV. However, i don't like funding Murdoch! If you can get DishTV go for it.

[NMDemDist2]

9. Dish ROCKS n/t

[will work 4 food]

10. Who needs TV if you have the internet? eom

[Gothic Sponge]

11. Me

:)

[Gothic Sponge]

12. Me

:)

[TlalocW]

13. Well, I can tell you about DirecTV

As I work in the Tulsa call center doing technical support... when I should be programming computers, but thanks to Bush's fucking up the economy... But, hey, I'm not bitter. :)

Anyway, you've got three basic packages:
1. Total Choice
2. Total Choice Plus
3. And Total Choice Ultra-Max Ay-Caramba Cha-Cha-Cha (Can't remember the name - shows how much I paid attention during training).

1. Costs 36.99 a month - 125 channels
2. Costs 39.99 a month - 19 more channels than 1. Five of those channels are music channels - classic R&B, arena rock, showtunes, and 2 others that I can't remember.
3. Costs 87.99 a month - can't remember how many more channels you get

If locals are available over satellite in your zip code, add $3 to each plan. The first receiver doesn't cost anything per month (you have to buy it of course). To add additional receivers onto the plan and have them work independently will cost you $4.99 a month extra per receiver. If you don't care if the TV's work independently of each other, buy a splitter instead.

Premium services such as getting all the HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc. channels costs $12 for 1 service, $11 for the next, $10 for the next, etc.

The Playboy Channel is $15.99 extra a month.

If a receiver is screwing up, turn on the TV and the receiver then unplug the receiver's power cord from the outlet or power strip you have it in. Wait 15 seconds and plug it back in. It should reboot and re-download data from the satellite. If that doesn't work, then go ahead and call tech help.

When you get the satellite dish, put Rain-Ex on it. You should also get an oval dish as the round one only gets programming from one of the three satellites, and you'll probably need an oval as your locals (if available) will probably come from a satellite that only the ovals pick up.

Don't get a Philips DSX5500 or DSX5450 (I think). The remotes for those suckers don't like working with televisions so you won't have one remote that controls both. They also sometimes get stuck at either 10% or 28% when rebooting, and extra steps have to be taken to re-reboot them. Also RCA's piss me off.

If you get a TIVO, don't call me for tech help. I fucking hate trouble-shooting TIVOs.

If you have a technician come out to hook things up, make sure he does it right and check things out - channels, remote is working, etc. and don't let him leave without setting things right. Get his name and ID number if necessary.

On edit: Other things that I could add. DirecTV is listed tops in technical support - not just in satellite TV but in general. We used to be around 36 then "upstarts" like Dish came along, and we had to clean up our acts. We're also much bigger than Dish and will probably crush them in 5 to 10 years - whether that's good or not, I don't know, but I think it's realistic.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Hope it helps. If not, please hold on a moment while I transfer you to Tier 2 Technical Support. :)

TlalocW

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

14. I recommend DirectTV

A friend of mine has Dish and he has had no end of troubles with their HDTV service - they sold him a decoder which later became obsolete, forcing him to buy a new one - and then they did it AGAIN! Even if you don't care about HDTV I bet they do similar stuff to all their customers.

I have DirectTV and I haven't had any problems with it. As for Murdoch vs. SBC, honestly I'm not sure which is worse. Okay, Murdoch is worse, but I still recommend DirectTv

[AwakeAtLast]

15. I have Dish, Mom had DirecTV

After she saw what I had on Dish and how much easier it was to use, she got rid of DTV and is now much happier with Dish. I will never have Cable again.

BTW, Dish is very good at adding channels without raising rates. Cable always does the opposite (decreasing channels and raising rates).

Hope this helps!

[nosmokes]

16. dish, hands down.

i'll be damned if murdoch gets a dime from this house if i can avoid it.

[Chomskyite]

17. Dish

. . . because of Free Speech TV, which televises Democracy Now! and shows a lot of Left-leaning documentaries.

[KT2000]

18. I've had DISH

for several years now. I can recall one price increase of $1 during that time. Occasionally they will add a new channel.

I have not had problems with reception and it works the same in all types of weather.

Free Speech TV, LINK and some of the other public interest stations are good.

This is a big improvement over the extortionist cable company that used to be the only option.

[AnnitaR]

19. Moved and had to switch from Dish to DirectTV.

Direct is a better value for me than the package I had with Dish. I also love the dual tuner Tivo service much, much better than Dish's DVR.

However I've had more problems with Direct than I had with Dish. I've had to call support 4 times over the past two months because my local channels just go to black and I can't get them back even after resetting the receiver.

I also like the on-screen guides with Dish better. They make Direct's look woefully out of date, IMHO. They are much more user friendly and easier to read. I also miss the Channel 100 on Dish. It's interactive where you can get news headlines, weather, and entertainment stuff. They must not have that with Direct TV or I've just not found it yet.

Also miss the Sirius satellite radio I had on Dish!

My suggestion... ask some of your friends or co-workers what they have. See if they'll let you come over and check out the systems for yourself.

[NewJeffCT]

25. just did the opposite switch when we moved

Switched from Direct TV to DISH because of Murdoch. However, I seem to lose my signal a lot more often now - and, I went from a fairly crowded residential neighborhood in the suburbs on basically flat ground to a house on a hill on a large lot with nobody in my backyard for a good 1000 yards.

I hardly ever lost my signal with Direct TV, though sometimes the system would get hung up.

[RebelOne]

20. I have Dish only because I can't get a signal from Direct.

Direct TV has a better deal as far as I am concerned.

[Dissenting_Prole]

21. Give you money to a library.

Turn your TV off. Read instead.

[telamachus]

22. The future of communications

in the 15th century!

I am assuming that you were joking right? :)

[Dissenting_Prole]

28. Am I joking. Well, yes and no.

We really do watch waaaay too much television, and don't read nearly enough.

As a communication medium, TV leaves a lot to be desired, especially when a Few control the message. Consider television to be an entertainment medium.

If I didn't work in the TV industry (my cable bill is a tax write-off), and if The Daily Show got cancelled, I wouldn't waste my money on cable or dish.

[X_republican]

23. But I get my internet through my cable.

I absolutely hate the cable industry and would love to switch to satellite, but I've had bad experiences with dial up internet service.

[Chovexani]

26. Well

I've had DirecTV for years and years and I could give a shit less if Murdoch owns it...flame me if you must but I had it way before he bought it and quite honestly don't give a shit that he owns it, I would be a hypocrite if I did because I watch stuff on Fox networks (not the news, by god, but I love 24 and will watch Fox Sports World because it's the only way me and the Mr. can watch Aussie Rules which he loves). I have DirecTV with the second-to-top level package (all premium channels and everything except sports) because I think it's just better than Dish.

My best friend has Dish and I hate watching tv at her house. They don't get some of my must-have channels (like the wonderful Trio, which I watch religiously). I am constantly hearing complaints from her about how shitty their customer service is (I have never once in all the years I've had DTV had a problem with their customer service), and on a shallow note they have the cheesiest looking on-screen program guide I have ever seen on a sat. or digital cable system. I like to plan ahead with my tv viewing and god help you if you try to scroll over and see what's coming on tomorrow on Dish, it takes 5 years for the guide to come down. The only advantage Dish has over DTV in my mind is if you want stuff like South Asian channels or other foreign language stuff. I think Dish has way more of those than DTV (regardless, either service makes you pay extra...I pay through the nose for a Japanese channel on DTV). But other than that I'd say DTV is much better.

It really comes down to personal preference though. If someone did the Folgers commercial thing and switched my DTV with Dish I'd rip their lungs out. :P But I'm sure other people feel the same way about Dish. :shrug:

[BarbaRosa]

27. Dish

Dish has more of the channels we watch, PLUS they just added the Sirius radio music channels for free.:thumbsup:

[gollygee]

29. Dish doesn't have Trio or PBSKids (m)

if that matters to you.

We have DirecTV and the tivo. My sister has the Dish Network DVR thing and comparitively it SUCKS (imo). So if you want a DVR - which I highly recommend - I'd definitely go with DirecTV. Or if Trio or PBSKids are important channels to you.

[ChoralScholar]

30. Extremely Pleased with Dish

I did have an LNB Problem (lost all odd transponders) which they replaced for free, out-of-warranty because the LNBs came from a bad batch (a particular lot number).

Other than that, no problems at all.