dish vs direct???

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purvis

Well-Known SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Dec 24, 2004
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Hello:

I am currently a dish subscriber. I have a 522 and a 322 receiver. In a few weeks I will be moving to a new home. And, I want to be sure that I want to use Dish moving program and not move to direct ( cheaper for first time customers ).
Questions:

1. Looking at directs web site, it appears that they don't offer Dual tuner receivers, I know that for some of you the extra $10 is not much, but is this a advantage or disadvantage for direct?

2. I noticed that direct charges a lot more for the equipment and installation for first time customers than does dish. Is it worth the extra charge?

3. I have heard that directs picture quality is slightly worst than Dish, especially in HD, is this true???

4. It seems that directs programing cost is slightly higher than dish for about the same programing??

5. I am not at all interested in the NFL programing packs.

Trying to make a informed decision with your help,

Purvis

5. Any possiblity of Direct offering the Voom channels down the road?? Or, are they exclusive to Dish???
 
1. D* DVR's are dual tuner.

2. D* offers new customers 4 rooms + installation for free as long as you sign a 1 year programming commitment

3. I've never seen E*'s PQ so I can't answer that.

4. D* may be a little more $$$$ but their equipment is far superior to E*'s from what I've heard

5. It's a possiblilty that when D* launches the 150 national HD channels, that some of the Voom channels will be in there.
 
E* PQ is way better, but I have SD, so i dont know about HD.

E*'s equipment seem a lot more superior, my 625 works nicer than my friends RCA direcTivo.

E* gives more programming cheaper, more music channels, better premium channels, plus the free Encore channels with AT180.

I dont think i would switch back to direcTV.
 
I switched from Dish to Direct

I switched almost two months ago from Dish to Direct. I don't agree with everything the poster said above.

I had a a Dish 522, 811, and a 721 with Dish. I think Dish's receivers are junk. In the almost two years I was with them I went through 2 Dish 522s, and 3 811 receivers before I gave up on the 811 and went to the 721. The Dish receivers need to be rebooted about once a month because they start acting strange or lockup. The 522 and the 721 missed my programs on occasion and don't hold a candle to the DirecTV Tivo. The Tivo has season pass where you can record first run, or repeats, and features searches. When I come across a movie that is showing I can hit the record button and the Tivo can tell me when it is playing again over the next few weeks and I can tell it to record the movie. The 522 and 721 were just glorified hard drive recorders.

As far as picture quality its better than Dish in my house. On my 52" projection TV the Dish picture was soft and fuzzy especially on my locals and channels such as SpikeTV (I'm a trekkie). Most of the other channels were pretty comparable. I think the DirecTV picture is much sharper but have noticed a little pixelation which I would rather have versus a softer, fuzzy picture.

My mom who has DirecTV and came to visit a while back and couldn't believe the difference in the DirecTV picture vs the Dish picture when she visited just after it was installed. She baby sits occasionally and noticed right away how much sharper the image was on my big screen TV.

I called DirecTV and got two Directivo's for free with free installation and then purchased a third one for my basement.

As far as pricing goes it is actually a few dollars cheaper per month for me than Dish. I have Total Choice Plus and had the AT180 with Dish. Yeah I know you get the encore movies and Sirius with the AT180 but I didn't watch them. I wanted the Hallmark channel and to get it I had to shell out alot more money per month with Dish when the DirecTV package is more to my liking. So I guess each his own.

I like the idea that I own the receivers and don't have to pay a company for the priviledge to lease one of their receivers. I think that is really wrong to ask $250 to lease a new receiver from Dish. I think they should make it free. Also if you lease the equipment shouldn't the maintenance be included you don't own it Dish does. I dislike the way Dish wants a DVR fee per unit too. Anyway I have three Directivos and pay just $4.99 for all three vs the Dish charge per receiver but I still have to pay $4.99 a receiver so I pay for one extra receiver with DirecTV. The nice thing about that is I have another receiver with two tuners and a hard drive that is recording what I want to watch vs a 522 that is two tuners shared between two rooms. If the 522 is recording something on the second tuner than the person on TV2 is stuck watching it or cancelling the show.

To each his own -- just my thoughts.
 
I had E*'s piece of junk 811 box. Our D* HD box is far far superiour in quality and reliability.

The DTivo blows any E* DVR out of the water, hands down.

D* takes care of it's customers. DISH will make an existing customer wait for new equipment (i.e. the 522 when it was first released). I was able to, as an existing customer, get the R10 when it first came out.
 
I have to agree what the majority have so far said about Dish.

I always felt Echostar receivers were kinda shaky if not what I would consider junk. Directv receivers always excelled.

As others have mentioned, Directv DVR's are indeed dual tuner receivers.

Directv offers 4 room free equipment and installation. Not sure where you heard that D* charges more.

E*'s picture quality was always flat and dull. That may minimize some minor macroblocking that you may see on D*, but IMO the picture is no where near as good as D*.

D*'s HD picture quality is suffering right now and E* does currently offer better HD PQ. Will all that change with MPEG-4? We can only hope. I am banking on it improving.

Voom may be offered. Hopefully we'll find out more in a few weeks. Hopefully sooner than a month or two.

After using both services, I prefer D*.
 
i'm sorry, i still prefer E*, my receiver is perfect, never had a problem with it. my friend has a D* receiver, and it has poor PQ. E*'s PQ is great on my TV, better than what we had with D*.

I prefer E*, with the price, channels, receivers, and PQ.
 
Currently from a programing point of view.
Movies - E* Offers a few more Premier Movie Channels than D*.
Sports - D* Offers More choice.
Music - E* Offers More choice.
HD Content - E* Offers More choice.

But all this can change once D* has its new satellites in place, kind of a wait and see game at this point.
 
I have had both at the same time, so I was able to really notice the difference between the two.

I do not know why somone would get a "fuzzy" pic on E* and not D*. If they were connected differently, or one of the receivers was defective, that would make sense.

The part about the locals being differnet is true b/c one might be getting the signal from the station via microwave, the other via OTA

Are you moving somewhere locals will be on the Superdish? Some do not like the larger dish.

As far as pic quality. I thought E* was a slight bit better.

As far as E* receivers being a little "shaky". I know that some software versions are not free of bugs, from time to time, but at least E* can easily change the software for improvements for the guide adding sats, etc. For example, my neighbors who had to agree to another 12 month commitment when they switched the locals from 101 to 119. They had to get a receiver that supported sat. 119; E* would not have that problem.

The 522 can serve either as a one TV setup, where you can use the receiver with one TV and have picture-in-picture or run 2 different TVs at the same time and watch 2 different programs. I don't think D*'s Tivo can do that.

E* also has some older model DVR (PVR) receivers which do not have the DVR fee. I don't think that there is such a thing as a no-fee DVR with D*.

That $5.99/month can add up, they went up from $4.99, with D*. However, it is my understanding, that D* only charges the fee once ex: you can have 3 DVR receivers and only pay $5.99. If you have multiple E* DVR receivers, you have to pay the fee, $4.98, for every unit; ex: you have 3 510 receivers, you pay an additional $14.94/month. Yes, I know, with both services, you can have a high service package and not pay the fees.

As far as treatment of existing customers, I do think it is unfair that E* treats the new customers like gold and the current customer not so well. Back in 1999, I had to pay $99 for a Dish 500 upgrade, which is about the cost of the supplies back in 1999. I had the Spanish language pack, they added channels and changed the pack to Dish Latino, with some channels on 110. I was told I had to pay for the additional channels and had to pay for the upgrade, if I wanted it. Had I been a new customer, they would have brought a Dish 500 b/c I was subscribing to Dish Latino.

At least D* gave my neighbor a change to get new equipment with a 12 month commitment when they moved the locals . they came and put the multi-satellite antenna on thier house and gave them a new receiver; E* did not give me that option with the Dish 500 upgrade.

I was told by E* that the 522 was a rental only situation, that's why current customers cannot get one, maybe that's wrong. I also heard that they can be professionally installed by a retailer and they will add it to a non-renting customer.

I do think that it is unfair that a new customer can get an upgrade cheaper than a current one. EX: at one time, they were giving away 811 receivers to new customers as a part of Free Dish, not renting, but charging current ones $199. They also gave way lots of DVRs with Free Dish, while charging current customers for the upgrade and putting them in a 12 month ,or longer, commitment. I do not see the fairness in that.

I have never heard of D* giving away those free things to new customers. They charge new customers for a DVR or HD upgrade, just like they do current ones. I have heard of them giving stuff away for customer retention, but E* does that also; at least D* is trying to work with customers who have been loyal to them, not sucking up to the new ones!.

As far as programming. I like D*'s current packages better than I do E*'s.
Unless you were just going to get the lowest package available, it seems that D* is the better deal. I prefer the way they do premiums, HBO is $12, not $13.99, and Starz / Encore are the same package.

I like Spanish channels, Comedy Central, and History International. With E* I would have to have AT180 and Dish Latino, but with D* there is a $39.99/month package that has a lot more channels than Latino Max does and it includes History International.

I currently have a Dish 501, but I'm thinking about going to D*. I just HATE DVR FEES
 
You go Ray! I was watching "In Living Color" yesterday and they had the skit with Jim Carey dressed like Pee-Wee offering the new Pee-Wee doll with goatee and "Trubo-Fist", so it could beat a drum of course.
 
Ray_Air said:
Dish offers a better selection of porn channels.
That's true. I don't beleive that D* even offers monthy porn, except for Playboy. How could I forget to include that?!
 
The Tivo has season pass where you can record first run, or repeats, and features searches. When I come across a movie that is showing I can hit the record button and the Tivo can tell me when it is playing again

If I'm not mistaken this can be due to patents that Tivo owns rather than E* DVR being inferior?
 
Roger said:
If I'm not mistaken this can be due to patents that Tivo owns rather than E* DVR being inferior?
'

The Motorola 6412 DVR from Comcast can do the same thing and the D* Tivo (see upcoming times that a show is on, to record it, new episodes etc.).
 
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