Considering switching from Directv

[tsduke]

I've been with Directv for nearly 10 years but having a continual problem of audio cutouts they can't resolve. I have a HR44, HR24 and 3 clients currently.

Anything I should consider before making a decision? Will I be happy with Dish picture quality? Genie vs Hopper?

Appreciate any feedback.

 

[JSheridan]

The Hopper 3 blows any and all Genies away. I've got Hopper 3's and HR44's here. It's like comparing Windows 10 to Windows 95.

 

[Joe891]

I just switched from dish and to directv and on some channels the picture quality was night and day better on Directv but that will honestly depend on your setup and your personal opinions the hopper was very feature rich and I miss the ui but from what I hear the new ui for Directv is supposed to be nice too. I like Directv's layout and on demand selection better. But setup wise if you go hopper 3 you will only be allowed to have clients which isn't a huge deal since you'd have 16 tuners.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Are the audio issues on the HR24 or just with the genie and clients or all tv’s

 

[tsduke]

We watch on the Genie the most and it's the worst because it's hooked to HT receiver. It's a very annoying 1-2 second cut/dropout in sound. I've tried both the HR24 and Genie and they both do it. Tried them direct to the tv and it still does it but it's a more subtle and quick pop. I don't notice it as much on the clients if at all but I also do not watch them nearly as often.

 

[tsduke]

I just switched from dish and to directv and on some channels the picture quality was night and day better on Directv but that will honestly depend on your setup and your personal opinions the hopper was very feature rich and I miss the ui but from what I hear the new ui for Directv is supposed to be nice too. I like Directv's layout and on demand selection better. But setup wise if you go hopper 3 you will only be allowed to have clients which isn't a huge deal since you'd have 16 tuners.

I'm reading a lot of negative from those who have the new Directv guide.

 

[ncted]

I've been with Directv for nearly 10 years but having a continual problem of audio cutouts they can't resolve. I have a HR44, HR24 and 3 clients currently.

Anything I should consider before making a decision? Will I be happy with Dish picture quality? Genie vs Hopper?

Appreciate any feedback.

I just switched in September. The only audio drops I experience are local-station specific, and they exist on OTA, Cable, and DirecTV feeds as well. That said, I never had an issue with drops my HR54 connected to my Pioneer VSX-90 or C61k connected to a Samsung soundbar.

The user experience is different with Dish, and there will be some things that don't make sense at first after you switch. Kind of like switching between Windows and Mac or Android and iOS. The biggest differences/annoyances my wife and I notice are:

1. If you stop watching an in-progress recording, you may not be able to resume at the same place you stopped.
2. When resuming a recording, you often have to rewind 10 seconds or so to get to the actual place you stopped watching.
3. FF/RW were easier to use on DirecTV. FF especially, as Dish doesn't "snap back" once you press play again.

Picture quality on most channels is about as good as DirecTV was, but some are not as good. I am sure a trained eye will notice subtle differences, but most people probably wouldn't. I was pleasantly surprised at how good Dish looked compared to DirecTV.

There are a lot of things we like better about the Hopper3 vs. the HR54:

1. Twice the storage (and it feels like more than 2x). Our Genie was always 75-80% full, and we felt pressure to delete things to keep it from filling up. With the Hopper, we are routinely in the 35-40% full range, and it isn't a big deal if we store some movies or shows to watch later.
2. 16 Tuners. I cannot say enough about never having to deal with recording conflicts.
3. Speed. The Hopper3 is so flippin' fast compared to the Genie, especially in the Guide. The caveat to this is the Joey 2.0 is not that much faster than the C61k. If you are willing, ask for and pay for the 4K Joey.
4. Autohop. This isn't what it used to be when we had the original Hopper, but it is nice when it is available.
5. Rain fade seems a little better compared to DirecTV, and that was my experience with Dish previously.
6. The skip forward and back work so much better on Dish.

Before you jump in with Dish, I assume you have confirmed the audio dropouts are specific to your DirecTV receivers? That is, other devices do not experience them, and you've tried plugging in the receivers directly to the TVs, and all that?

 

[navychop]

Why would you use FF when you have skip forward? No need for “snap back.” And if you overshoot with that 30 second skip ahead, you can skip back 7-10 seconds.

 

[ncted]

Why would you use FF when you have skip forward? No need for “snap back.” And if you overshoot with that 30 second skip ahead, you can skip back 7-10 seconds.

I would not on Dish, when skipping commercials, especially given the inferiority of the FF functionality compared to DirecTV and Tivo, and superiority of the Skip Forward. But there are other times when I need to FF more than a few minutes forward, and then snap back would be preferable.

 

[n0qcu]

I would not on Dish, when skipping commercials, especially given the inferiority of the FF functionality compared to DirecTV and Tivo, and superiority of the Skip Forward. But there are other times when I need to FF more than a few minutes forward, and then snap back would be preferable.

The work around for that is when using FF don't hit play, instead hit the skipback button. It will switch to play AND skip back 10 sec.

 

[charlesrshell]

I would not on Dish, when skipping commercials, especially given the inferiority of the FF functionality compared to DirecTV and Tivo, and superiority of the Skip Forward. But there are other times when I need to FF more than a few minutes forward, and then snap back would be preferable.

Yep, me too on using the FF when needed. Especially with the resume issue for a recording if you had started watching it while still recording, pause, then go back to it later, and have to start over. DISH is the only DVRs that has this issue and it is not getting fixed for some reason. I wish the DVRs had an End button. Sometimes it is much faster to start at the end and go backwards. Charter Cable DVRs use to have an End selection in their DVRs.

 

[Brewer]

The Hopper used to be fast and intuitive. Now it's clunky and slow. Not sure what all changed in the year or so I went with another provider, but I hated it. Also, Dish will offer you a "deal" but in reality, as soon as they get your credit card number, they will charge whatever they want, whenever they want. If you have cable internet, that may be an option for TV. But I just left Dish because of the state of the Hopper, overpriced channel packages stuffed with throw-away stations and rampant price changes even though I was supposed to be "locked in" for two years. What a joke.

I already had Comcast (Xfinity) for Internet and phone, so I just went for the Prime package that includes all the premium channels. I am less than $200 for everything and say what you want about Comcast, they do NOT overcharge me or abuse my credit card.

 

[JSheridan]

 

[HipKat]

The Hopper used to be fast and intuitive. Now it's clunky and slow. Not sure what all changed in the year or so I went with another provider, but I hated it. Also, Dish will offer you a "deal" but in reality, as soon as they get your credit card number, they will charge whatever they want, whenever they want. If you have cable internet, that may be an option for TV. But I just left Dish because of the state of the Hopper, overpriced channel packages stuffed with throw-away stations and rampant price changes even though I was supposed to be "locked in" for two years. What a joke.

I already had Comcast (Xfinity) for Internet and phone, so I just went for the Prime package that includes all the premium channels. I am less than $200 for everything and say what you want about Comcast, they do NOT overcharge me or abuse my credit card.

Yet...give 'em a year and see what happens.

I don't know about all these Dish keeps raising the bill stuff. Mine is the exact same every month. Unless a charge is added to everyone across the board, mine never changes... How is that?

 

[KAB]

Also, Dish will offer you a "deal" but in reality, as soon as they get your credit card number, they will charge whatever they want, whenever they want.

I call BS. Your avatar is ironic.

 

[Brewer]

Well, Dish Quoted $65 per month inclusive of taxes and fees. My lowest bill was $75+ the highest was over $100 because of an unexplained "one time charge" of $15. It went to $85 after 3 months and that was after removing HBO that they said would be free for 12 months.

The sad thing was I had been telling people how cool Dish was because I had them for 5 years or so with no real issues (except drop-outs and snow) and the Hopper was miles above the what Comcast was offering...

Like I said, not sure what happened during the 2+ years I went back to Comcast. I only left Dish because they raised my package to $75+ per month when it had only been a little over $50 for many years and CS basically said ok, bye bye.

So then, I just want HBO and Comcast had no deals on it so I went back to Dish who offered it free for one year. Wow, big difference! The Hopper was now all convoluted and the search function about worthless. Then they start screwing around with my bill and dropped HBO after 3 months. No thanks.

Call BS if you like, it is what it is. The X1 isn't great by any means but the voice search is actually very useable. Of course the guide sucks, that has never changed, but at least now you can finally set it to just channels you get for free. Thing about it is I never wanted to spend more than about $50 per month for SAT/Cable because most of it is crap anyway! I watch the locals for sports, Comedy Central, a couple cooking and home improvement shows and that's about it. Seems I spend most of my viewing on Netflix and Amazon Prime anyway. Just wanted HBO for GoT.

So now, I just added TV to my Internet/Phone package and it only ended up costing about $50 more than I was already spending. Oh, but the package is actually called Premier Tripple Play and it was something like $149 for two years, but comes to a little less than $200 with an extra box for the bedroom and all the other bs. Still a way bettrr deal because I get Movie Channel, Starz, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and a bunch of other crap.

Peace

 

[littlecloud319]

Well, Dish Quoted $65 per month inclusive of taxes and fees. My lowest bill was $75+ the highest was over $100 because of an unexplained "one time charge" of $15. It went to $85 after 3 months and that was after removing HBO that they said would be free for 12 months.

The sad thing was I had been telling people how cool Dish was because I had them for 5 years or so with no real issues (except drop-outs and snow) and the Hopper was miles above the what Comcast was offering...

Like I said, not sure what happened during the 2+ years I went back to Comcast. I only left Dish because they raised my package to $75+ per month when it had only been a little over $50 for many years and CS basically said ok, bye bye.

So then, I just want HBO and Comcast had no deals on it so I went back to Dish who offered it free for one year. Wow, big difference! The Hopper was now all convoluted and the search function about worthless. Then they start screwing around with my bill and dropped HBO after 3 months. No thanks.

Call BS if you like, it is what it is. The X1 isn't great by any means but the voice search is actually very useable. Of course the guide sucks, that has never changed, but at least now you can finally set it to just channels you get for free. Thing about it is I never wanted to spend more than about $50 per month for SAT/Cable because most of it is crap anyway! I watch the locals for sports, Comedy Central, a couple cooking and home improvement shows and that's about it. Seems I spend most of my viewing on Netflix and Amazon Prime anyway. Just wanted HBO for GoT.

So now, I just added TV to my Internet/Phone package and it only ended up costing about $50 more than I was already spending. Oh, but the package is actually called Premier Tripple Play and it was something like $149 for two years, but comes to a little less than $200 with an extra box for the bedroom and all the other bs. Still a way bettrr deal because I get Movie Channel, Starz, HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and a bunch of other crap.

Peace

Dish has been pretty big on the bait and switch lately. It’s pretty much tell the customer whatever it takes to make them sign a 2 year contract. And in my case I never “actually” signed the contract. The tech who did the install fudged the signature with his initials as did every other tech that came out for something. So if I was to start having problems(knock on wood) that would be a big legal loophole I could use.

 

[Brewer]

Ok I just checked. Xfinity Premier Tripple Play is still $149 with a 2 year agreement, and $159 with no commitment. Also, one thing about Comcast, you don't get any early termination fees unless you quit ALL services. I didn't know that before. Dish stuck me with a $400 charge for a going away present.

 

[lgb0250]

The fact is one mans grievances does not a provider make.

I’ve had both DISH and Directv many times over the years. Half a dozen one or another. They both have their pros and cons. I tend to follow the money. The only loyalty I have is to my pocket!

The Hopper 3 blows away the HR54 I had. While some channels on Directv may have a superior pic I never noticed but I’m not that picky either. DISH SD quality is far superior to Directv. The only advantage I really see in having Directv is for the sports and I can live with what DISH offers as far as that’s concerned.

My DISH bill is and always has been, exactly what I signed up for. No bait and switch, ever. I pay the same $95 per month that I’ve been paying for the last 14 months. We will see what happens after the two year guarantee and make a decision at that time.

 

[camo]

There's no bait and switch with Dish and 2 year lock. I knew exactly what my bill was going into contract and hasn't changed. Unlike Directv tactics of nickel and diming you to death.

Dish also is much more flexible with packages even under contract If i choose, I can go down to $36 flex package and still get decent channels.

After having the hopper 3 can't imagine going with a different provider. I would go back to streaming before ever considering Directv again.