Thread: Went from DirecTV to DISH last week, my impresions

I live in Puerto Rico. DirecTV is not the same. That's the first thing I have to mention.

I signed up for DirecTV in 2004. In 2011 I changed to DISH. Why? simple, I bought an HD TV and it was cheaper to switch than to pay DirecTV to put it in my home. DirecTV never made an effort to retain me as a client with 3 receivers and all the channels paying about $130 a month. I never payed much attention to my tv and I was a quiet costumer. I still had 2 of the original boxes the black ones and only one with DVR. Now I switched to DISH, right away the bill went down but that's because I took only one box this time, one TV went full internet streaming connected to a computer and that was it for that room (I only HULU now). That's not fair to DirecTV but it's worth mentioning. The DirecTV service was atrocious, they never let me modify my plan or get new boxes. I really don't like fighting with people but they always made me feel bullied into things. Like I was locked in. To get out of my expired contract I just went over and told them I was moving to another country and still the lady asked if there was anyone who wanted to get my account. Like there's any benefit to that. I stayed quiet and stonewalled until I was released.

For a Latino version of DirecTV they sure had few Latino channels. My dad doesn't like to watch TV in English, he understands it but he doesn't bother with it so I needed more Latin channels. DISH has more Latin channels but i feel like it has fewer SAP. DirecTV did have it's own channel with excellent Latin programs, now I lost that in the move. LAS is the sickest channel that I have ever seen and DISH has it, I might even stop the premium channels because all we do is watch LAS now. On a regular day dad watches De Pelicula, Cine Latino and LAS. That's all he watches. So I will certainly start modifying the plan next month, trim it up and make it cheaper.

DirecTV here doesn't have SyFy, I need to get my Smackdown! on.

I was able to get my DISH with America's Everything, Latin package that supposedly covers all the Latin Max channels (I still haven't sat down with it) and Multi-Sport for less than what I was paying for Latin DirecTV. Of course 2 less boxes, one less TV, but one with HD, it was a good compromise. Gained HD, gained a ton of channels that I actually watch, lost a lot of the SAPs, lost MLB! which is going to be crisis mode when the season starts (I still haven't told my dad we lost MLB). And I still haven't figure out how to set SAP on DISH.

So in the end I think it has to do with your needs as a consumer. I was looking forward to getting NBA League Pass but turns out that even mid season you have to pay for the whole thing. In my case it was all about getting HD in my home without having to put up a huge fight, I swear that they didn't want to sign me up as a new costumer when I had an expired contract. If I can correct the SAP thing I will be better off. And no MLB is going to suck. I still can't find a lot of the NBA games on DISH and I thought Multi-Sports would help with that but it really doesn't, it's just a bunch of high school games.

So in the end I think it has to do with your needs as a consumer.

That's the key statement. MLB was a great addition for me switching from Dish to Directv and it will be very hard for me to switch back to Dish Network because of this channel and MRV.

I'll just tell my dad that MLB is on strike or something.

Originally Posted by Eduardito

I'll just tell my dad that MLB is on strike or something.

just get a ROKU and stream it.. They have the MLB package but maybe not the SAME MLB channel

You Sir are a genious! I hadn¡t even considered Roku, Good IDea!

Yep some people love baseball and stuff but yeah for me I much prefer having G4 and 30 more HD nationals such as AMC HD, DIY HD, BBC America HD, History International HD, and Nat Geo Wild HD. Not to mention the better DVR's.

I think it's an improvement in the sense that I got HD and I will have more flexibility for the first 2 months to move the plan around for free. But losing Antena 3 (La Ruleta De La Suerte!) and MLB kind of sucks. But I gained a ton of awesome channels (LAS!). The SAP thing is still bugging me. Looked into Roku and it looks great, I might just use the PS3 for MLB thou. Here's where the contrast in user comes in. My dad is 60 he just watches whatever is on in Spanish, I used to have his DirecTV default in Spanish because that's all he watches. Right now he's watching Enemy Of The State on a local channel, a local channel! something we could get with rabbit ears. He doesn't know how to browse the guide or change the language or anything. So he only watches whatever is on. I swear I'm removing all the premium channels. He doesn't watch them because they are not in Spanish. (The one in Spanish is not HD and makes the whole thing super moot).

I'm on the other side of the spectrum, cutting edge, i've always had my PC connected to the TV even before it was cool. And that's how i consume all my content. Hulu Plus, Amazon Video, Netflix, I stream stream stream, I hate DVRing for some reason. I would rather wait for a show to come out on Hulu the next day than DVR it, I think it's all that commercial skipping that bothers me. So now when we were switching I just took my HDTV Monitor (Samsung SyncMaster B2330HD, I am in love with this thing, it even plays from USB which is a revelation for me). I'm such a freak that I rather watch a BlueRay at 1080p than watch on DISH at 720p, I'll go out and rent the thing, and I don't think it even makes a difference on a 23 inch screen. I think I'm at the point where everyone is heading eventually. A personalized entertainment experience.

Now Roku seems like a nice little thing to load up for him with all his shows in Spanish and put MLB and NBA.

Couple more notes on the change. The SAP is working, is just that it's almost innexistent on DISH programing and the guide doesn't specify when it's avaliable. So it's just luck to find a program with Spanish audio. The interesting thing is that programs like Bones and CSI have SAP on DirecTV and not on DISH. I verified this last night. I know SAP is not a big selling point on the US but it's worth mentioning. Also I may be suffering from having too many channels. I have watched at my dad while he watches TV and he starts watching a program then continues surfing when commercials come on and goes on like that, never watching anything in it's entirety. I think it's still growing pains of getting familiar with the equipment and learning the channel numbers but surfing with so many shovel ware channels makes you overlook the ones that offer actual content. I will try to remove all the music and shopping channels on my receiver as they are not watched. I am very tempted to get NBA League Pass now that it dropped for mid season. Even if I can't get the free preview, I am still interested to see how it works.

Ordered my Roku today but still the MLB.TV is not the same as MLB Extra Innings pack that DirecTV offer, so that's still a loss.

I intend to fully pimp my 722k with the OTA Module, Sling Adapter and Wifi Broadband Connector that I ordered from DISH last night and hopefully that will add Canal 13 which is a local channel.

Edit: Just orderd the NBA League Pass. I had to do it thru DISH because NBA.com had a lot of problem recognizing my area. I would've preferred doing it thru NBA.com to get it thru broadband but alas.

League Pass does drop down after the All Star break.