Disclaimer: This is not a way for me to bash one provider or the other. It is simply to give my impression of D*'s service/equipment compared to E*'s. This may be helpful for someone on the fence.
Equipment: 2 HD-DVRs (HR24), 2 HD receivers (H24)
Stuff I like:
- Single wire technology. Man is it nice and clean. 1 wire from the dish to the switch. 1 wire from the switch to the box. No splitters behind the box. No ethernet cable required for internet.
- Whole Home DVR. The only way to accomplish this at all TVs is to have an HD box at each TV. 3 of my TVs are HD and the 4th is an old style. I sprung on the 2nd HD box so I could access the whole home DVR from that 4th TV. The service is nice and you are able to set recordings from every TV to whatever DVR you want. Only 2 people can be watching something on each DVR regardless of the setup. So if 3 people are trying to pull something off DVR 1, it won't work. But with 2 DVRs, that won't be an issue with me.
- Speed / layout of menus. It is fast. It is easy to navigate. E*'s was very easy to navigate too. It is a tie in terms of navigation.
- Programming. I love sports and they have lots of them in HD. :up
- Widgets / Scoreboard. Press the red button on a sports station and a scoreboard comes up with all major sports. If the game is available for viewing, you can click on it and it'll take you to that channel. Widgets are just other little things you can access like weather, facebook (limited i'm sure), flickr (what for...I don't know), My NHL Team, etc..
- Quick Tune. Press the up arrow on the remote and it shows you a list of 9 (I think) channels you set as your quick tunes. Think of presets on your radio in your car.
- On Demand. I don't have it hooked up yet, but I have a feeling it will be pretty bad ass based on what i've seen in their lineup.
- Receivers are smaller and better looking.
Stuff I don't like or E* does better:
- Speed of channel changing. Noticeably slower. Or it appears that way.
- PiP. There is no PiP option. That sucks.
- 'Double Down' is D*'s version of "swap". For those unfamiliar, it is a way to swap between tuners. So you can watch/pause something on each tuner and switch back and forth. For E* you had to have the receiver set in Single mode. D*'s double down is slower to switch between tuners. E* was like lightning and make it a preference over using last channel or previous channel. D*'s also displays the channel banner every time you switch back/forth.
- D* doesn't have Style HD or DIY HD which were favorites of my GF. Lose some and gain some.
- RedZone. D* requires you to subscribe to the Sunday Ticket to get it.
- Online DVR management. You can only schedule recordings with D*'s online/mobile phone app service. No DVR management like E*.
- False promises. Be careful if you switch to make sure any promise a CSR has made that is outside of the current promotions is on your account prior to activation. I ran into an issue trying to get the RedZone channel and was told it could be done for free after my install. They were wrong. But I did work a deal out with their retentions dept.
Equipment: 2 HD-DVRs (HR24), 2 HD receivers (H24)
Stuff I like:
- Single wire technology. Man is it nice and clean. 1 wire from the dish to the switch. 1 wire from the switch to the box. No splitters behind the box. No ethernet cable required for internet.
- Whole Home DVR. The only way to accomplish this at all TVs is to have an HD box at each TV. 3 of my TVs are HD and the 4th is an old style. I sprung on the 2nd HD box so I could access the whole home DVR from that 4th TV. The service is nice and you are able to set recordings from every TV to whatever DVR you want. Only 2 people can be watching something on each DVR regardless of the setup. So if 3 people are trying to pull something off DVR 1, it won't work. But with 2 DVRs, that won't be an issue with me.
- Speed / layout of menus. It is fast. It is easy to navigate. E*'s was very easy to navigate too. It is a tie in terms of navigation.
- Programming. I love sports and they have lots of them in HD. :up
- Widgets / Scoreboard. Press the red button on a sports station and a scoreboard comes up with all major sports. If the game is available for viewing, you can click on it and it'll take you to that channel. Widgets are just other little things you can access like weather, facebook (limited i'm sure), flickr (what for...I don't know), My NHL Team, etc..
- Quick Tune. Press the up arrow on the remote and it shows you a list of 9 (I think) channels you set as your quick tunes. Think of presets on your radio in your car.
- On Demand. I don't have it hooked up yet, but I have a feeling it will be pretty bad ass based on what i've seen in their lineup.
- Receivers are smaller and better looking.
Stuff I don't like or E* does better:
- Speed of channel changing. Noticeably slower. Or it appears that way.
- PiP. There is no PiP option. That sucks.
- 'Double Down' is D*'s version of "swap". For those unfamiliar, it is a way to swap between tuners. So you can watch/pause something on each tuner and switch back and forth. For E* you had to have the receiver set in Single mode. D*'s double down is slower to switch between tuners. E* was like lightning and make it a preference over using last channel or previous channel. D*'s also displays the channel banner every time you switch back/forth.
- D* doesn't have Style HD or DIY HD which were favorites of my GF. Lose some and gain some.
- RedZone. D* requires you to subscribe to the Sunday Ticket to get it.
- Online DVR management. You can only schedule recordings with D*'s online/mobile phone app service. No DVR management like E*.
- False promises. Be careful if you switch to make sure any promise a CSR has made that is outside of the current promotions is on your account prior to activation. I ran into an issue trying to get the RedZone channel and was told it could be done for free after my install. They were wrong. But I did work a deal out with their retentions dept.
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