Dish Network or Direct TV

[lawdog]

What are the pros and cons of each service?

[tashit]

My brother and I agree that the $5/month we spend for our DVR service is the best $5/month we spend on anything. It drives me crazy when I'm at someone's house that doesn't have DVR!

[Jeremy airjer W]

I'm pretty sure you have to have a land line to activate a Directv or dish service also. Once its activated a phone line isn't needed unless you order pay per view movies. A guy could get around this by activating at a friends house and the bringing everything home. Don't quote me on this but I'm pretty sure. The reciever I have upstairs has only been hooked up to a phone line until it was activated. It hasn't been for a couple of years.

Once it has been activated it can be brought just about anywhere. The cabin, fish house, houseboat, etc. as long as you have a dish, receiver, and power.

[burl]

I have had Direct tv for about five years.The only problem i had was when pegases quit beening the satalite provider and for about six months i was getting bills from both.It took a while to figuere it out and after dropping some late payment fees and some cancelled check problems everything is cool.They gave us about six months of some premium programing for free because of the problem.The only issue i have is for fifty bucks a month you dont get alot shows worth watching.If it wasnt for the better reception for the local channels and being able to watch the wild games on fox sports i would be shutting it off.Burl.

[KJSnider]

Quote:

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I'm pretty sure you have to have a land line to activate a Directv or dish service also. Once its activated a phone line isn't needed unless you order pay per view movies.

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You do not need a land-line to activate Dish. (I do not know about DirecTv.) My wife and i only use our cell phones. When they set it up, the installer calls Dish with a cell, and they set everything up. You will pay an extra $5/month, but we still come away far ahead. You cannot add channels through the remote, or do pay-per-view, but you can do that through their web-site.

We've had Dish for over a year now. I don't think I could get along anymore without the DVR on it. If there is a show or game coming on, and you might be late or need to do something outside, you can either pause it, or start taping it and start it when you are done with whatever else you were doing. At this point you can skip the commercials. We often start watching the Vikings about an hour late, and we usually catch up to live tv at the end of the game. It's great.

KJ

[PierBridge]

You can use a Direct Tv DVR/Tivo without a phone line but if the unit is not MODIFIED or you do not have an internet connection it can be a pain but it can be done.

Your Tivo will not record anything without paying the $5 or subscribing to the top package...

[caseymcq]

GET DIRECT TV. I saw that somebody corrected everyone that said you had to surf through every channel. You can make lists of your favorites so you don't have to scroll through channels you didn't subscribe to or channels that you have but don't watch.

Direct TV's customer support is excellent. For example, I decided I wanted HBO. I went to the Direct TV web site and logged into my account. Navigate through the site and ordered HBO. By the time I went from one room to the living room HBO was on the TV.

[Slyster]

I absolutely love DISH passes.. (On Dishtv).. I rarely set timers anymore.. I setup dish passes. This is an auto record feature where you have the DVR look for key words. Like "bass" in the show description.. or "walleye".. you get the idea. It automatcially sets the timers. I have around 50 dish passes setup and it always amazes me what I catch. Stuff I'd never normally find. Of course you can dish pass titles too like "charlie moore" or whatever.. and it will NOT record the same show twice.. automatcially skips episdoes you've recorded previously. Even if it repeats like 10 times in a week like many shows do on dish channels.

[McGurk]

Thought I'd chime in quick. It is as much about the product running the service as the service. I have had DTV for about 4 years and will not give up satellite. It only drops out about 10 minutes before a _BAD_ storm comes in, and usually when it starts and for the duration of the storm I've got signal again. This happened only 4-5 times this past summer, and almost never in winter. Having your dish aimed and locked a couple times max a year will keep the signal up, and check for the strongest transponders for signal strength in your menu.

I had originally purchased Hughes product and returned it for RCA product because of the ease of use and nicer menu layout, and watching your current program while looking at the channel guide. These 4 yr old models have a "scout" feature which will hunt for programs by title or subject keywords, and you can then browse the results to watch or not. This is NOT a DVR receiver and not an expensive receiver. I am not bashing DVR/TiVo, but showing there are differences in receivers with both DN and DTV.

My in-laws have DN and I _HATE_ their menu; can't continue watching the show while searching, and only 4 lines on it's onscreen channel guide, versus the 10 or so on the RCA along with 5 custom channel guide lists which you can add/del channels at a whim. I have a Family, Mine, Wifes, Music, and Movies. Easy.

I heard that DTV is getting all proprietary product now instead of having it sourced through other manufacturers. They will also not have TiVo but their own type of "Smart" DVR with TiVo-esque features, more to come as it is released.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I just want to see other happy customers like myself. Good Luck! McGurk

[Slyster]

That must be old dish hardware. I have the 522 dual tuner DVR.. I can watch a show.. and record two others.. or record two shows at the same time I watch a third.. and do all my searching and deleting (basic DVR cleanup work) all while watching and seeing the picture (upper quarter of screen).. truly amazing hardware now-a-days. IMO- much better (and cheaper) than anything dealing with TiVo