considering switching from Direct to Dish

Mo Fly

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Sep 4, 2008
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I am now out of contract with Direct and thinking about making the switch to Dish. I've been with Direct for 5 years. Had Dish for several years before that. I'm looking for some guidance on the equipment situation. Also, wanting to take advantage of any of the deals/credits too. I have two tv's. Actually a tv and a projector. I would like dvr functionality for both. Sharing recordings on both would be nice too(does dish call that whole home?) And does whole home cost extra. If so, how much? Also, i don't have the internet at home (i use my smartphone) - does that matter?
 
I did the same thing only to switch back after 3 months. The hopper from dish is great but other than that, Directv has Dish beat, some would say different. Make sure Dish has the stations you watch.
 
One more thing, if you don't have internet at home then you won't get all the features the hopper has to offer...
 
The Hopper with a Super Joey would do what you want. That would give you 5 sat tuners and you could add the ota usb tuner to get your locals and their sub channels. The HWS (Hopper with Sling) can address 2 external HD's at a time. If the Hopper is connected to the internet, you can access it from any computer, smart phone or tablet. I think the cost of the of the Super Joey is $10/mo in addition to the basic Hopper fee. .
 
I am now out of contract with Direct and thinking about making the switch to Dish. I've been with Direct for 5 years. Had Dish for several years before that. I'm looking for some guidance on the equipment situation. Also, wanting to take advantage of any of the deals/credits too. I have two tv's. Actually a tv and a projector. I would like dvr functionality for both. Sharing recordings on both would be nice too(does dish call that whole home?) And does whole home cost extra. If so, how much? Also, i don't have the internet at home (i use my smartphone) - does that matter?

With having two TV's if you did a Hopper with sling and a Joey you would have 3 tuners available on the receiver. As Dwarren2 said, if you change the Joey to a Super Joey you will ahve 5 tuners total. Youi can see available promotions and packages at www.dish.com, the new customer credits will vary depending on what package you have.

With a two tuner set up you would be looking at monthly fees as follows - DVR fee $12, Joey $7, or a Super Joey $10. You will ahve the protection plan freee for 6 months, if it left on the account after that point it will have an $8 fee to it. On top of those you would have your package which base price runs from $19.99 - $124.99 depending on the package.

Swarren2 covered the sling technology built into the Hopper. It also has a transfer app included that will move DVR recordings to a mobile device for viewing with no internet needed. If you ahve any other questions, please let us know.
 
thanks for the responses. So with the Super Joey you pay $3 more a month for 2 more tuners, right? Any other benefit to the Super Joey over the regular?

dwarren - you mentioned a usb tuner to get local channels. I'm most likely looking at America's Top 200. Will it include my locals?

My parents have Dish. Would I just give Dish their account number as a referral code?
 
You can use a USB tuner to view local channels, but Dish broke the subchannel recording capability, Its been broken by Dish for months now. (Hopper/Joey)
Most local cable/telco companies provide viewing and recording sub channels with full guides better than Dish.
 
The USB tuner is for OTA channels. Have your parents log onto Dish and there, generate a referral code for you if they have not received some in the mail.
 
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Your parents can log into their account, there's a link on the left called "My Referrals", this will show them a list of their referral codes that you could use. If they don't want to do that (or if you don't want to do that for them) then you can give the Dish rep their account number and they should be able to look it up and get a code for you. A friend of mine just did this and he actually didn't even have the account number, he just gave them a name and city.
 
First to our OP, ask your parents to go to this link to create the referal code:
http://www.mydish.com/customer-programs/my-referrals/?

Second to CEJ700 ... I certainly understand people's disgruntled feelings with each provider .. I left dish 2 years ago because of all the BS they were having with FX and other networks during contract negotiations. In my case I had been so disgusted with dish's movement into "DishOnline" and that its control and use of the SLING was sub par and at times so frustrating I'd liked to take a bat to it.

BUT ... in this "directv has dish beat" ... what exactly do you mean? Perhaps you're a sports fan, and that's where Directv shines .. but beyond that, I'm leaving Direct, and returning to dish because Directv's "remote dvr" functionality is absolute bullsh*t. Their Directv2PC app is THE absolute worst P.O.S. I have ever seen. At least, at the time, when Sling Adapter functionality was working, it had zero limits for what you could watch from the DVR... Directv? 80 to 90% of what is on my DVR is *NOT* watchable remotely, replacing TV Show Titles with "Title Unavailable" because of some BS DRM issues... and its only usable inside the house, not outside .. leaving you with the only options to get content as from Directv's online component, where some content is not available, even if you DO have it recorded to your dvr.

Dish's Online listing of your timers, is also superior to Directv, where on Directv all you can do is set a timer to record, you can't see any of your DVR's existing timers..

SO.. CEJ700 .. exactly what is it that makes you say Directv is better?
I did the same thing only to switch back after 3 months. The hopper from dish is great but other than that, Directv has Dish beat, some would say different. Make sure Dish has the stations you watch.

To our O.P. I've got my welcome back install on Friday ... and will try to post that night or saturday anything that's failed my expectations.

-T

PS/Edit ... oh and one MORE thing that's got me fuming over Directv... I've the HR700/34 (slighly older genie?) and after the first year, one of the updates has left my box with constant remote problems.. like it doesn't see the remote when I'm pressing keys, then suddenly it picks up 5 or 10 presses at once..

I will say the thing I liked most about Directv's DVR, was their skip forward option, either jump or visually accelerate through the commercial when 30second jump was pressed. This allowed us to see a sped up version of the commercials, so that if we saw something intriguing, and many many times we did, we could stop the skip, jump back and press play to SEE that interesting commercial.. :)
 
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First to our OP, ask your parents to go to this link to create the referal code:
http://www.mydish.com/customer-programs/my-referrals/?

Second to CEJ700 ... I certainly understand people's disgruntled feelings with each provider .. I left dish 2 years ago because of all the BS they were having with FX and other networks during contract negotiations. In my case I had been so disgusted with dish's movement into "DishOnline" and that its control and use of the SLING was sub par and at times so frustrating I'd liked to take a bat to it.

BUT ... in this "directv has dish beat" ... what exactly do you mean? Perhaps you're a sports fan, and that's where Directv shines .. but beyond that, I'm leaving Direct, and returning to dish because Directv's "remote dvr" functionality is absolute bullsh*t. Their Directv2PC app is THE absolute worst P.O.S. I have ever seen. At least, at the time, when Sling Adapter functionality was working, it had zero limits for what you could watch from the DVR... Directv? 80 to 90% of what is on my DVR is *NOT* watchable remotely, replacing TV Show Titles with "Title Unavailable" because of some BS DRM issues... and its only usable inside the house, not outside .. leaving you with the only options to get content as from Directv's online component, where some content is not available, even if you DO have it recorded to your dvr.

Dish's Online listing of your timers, is also superior to Directv, where on Directv all you can do is set a timer to record, you can't see any of your DVR's existing timers..

SO.. CEJ700 .. exactly what is it that makes you say Directv is better?


To our O.P. I've got my welcome back install on Friday ... and will try to post that night or saturday anything that's failed my expectations.

-T

PS/Edit ... oh and one MORE thing that's got me fuming over Directv... I've the HR700/34 (slighly older genie?) and after the first year, one of the updates has left my box with constant remote problems.. like it doesn't see the remote when I'm pressing keys, then suddenly it picks up 5 or 10 presses at once..

I will say the thing I liked most about Directv's DVR, was their skip forward option, either jump or visually accelerate through the commercial when 30second jump was pressed. This allowed us to see a sped up version of the commercials, so that if we saw something intriguing, and many many times we did, we could stop the skip, jump back and press play to SEE that interesting commercial.. :)
 
When I switched to dish, I did so because a friend of mine kept telling me how great the hopper was, which it is. But I soon realized that I lost a few channels that me and my wife watched. So for me, that's the only reason I say directv is better, also directv has more channels in HD that I watch. So let me put it like this and not say one is better than the other, it all depends on what you watch!!
 
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One more thing, for the shows I watch, I find that directv has more of them on demand than dish. It may be the other way around for you.
 
When I switched to dish, I did so because a friend of mine kept telling me how great the hopper was, which it is. But I soon realized that I lost a few channels that me and my wife watched. So for me, that's the only reason I say directv is better, also directv has more channels in HD that I watch. So let me put it like this and not say one is better than the other, it all depends on what you watch!!
:) Thank you!! I admit I did guess as much. I had a side bet with myself that you might have also seen it as slightly sharper HD, which subjectively I would agree with on some stations too.

And agreed about channels watched. That can be a very polarizing thing for people.. personally not a sports fan, so like with Directv, having to pay 9 dollars more to include sports with one or two other HD channels that we'd wanted, irks me. But then there opens the whole "ala carté" arguments.

:)
 
I love sports but sports wasn't the factor for me, just to name a few channels I had lost was, TV One, MeTV, and The CW just to name few. I understand your point about the $9.00, that can go towards a netflix bill, just do your research and make sure dish or directv has the channels you watch. I will say this, when the weather is bad, both sucks!!
 
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I have been through 7 black out haboobs with my dish, and haven't lost signal. In 3 years I have had the complete or partial signal loss, a total of 37 seconds. If peaked right, weather will not affect it very much at all. Of course, if it's covered in snow, that is another story. Recommendation, put the dish where you can wipe snow off of it, if you live in, say Colorado.
 
Recommendation, put the dish where you can wipe snow off of it, if you live in, say Colorado.
.. uh.. I'd say anywhere you get freezing weather.. so sayeth a Virginian. Have always had my dishes Pole Mounted on the ground.

Figure those in Atlanta this past year would be better off that way too ... seeing the ice / snow / sleet storm they had..
 
Florida too, every rain storm is a heavy downpour in summer, will cause some signal loss (measured in minutes).
 
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