Scott's DirecTV Review (DirecTV -VS- Dish)

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Thanks for the review Scott. I would appreciate it if you could tell me how you were able to dim the LEDs on the front panel. I can't seem to find it in the setup menu. I find the LEDs are way too bright. They do make for a great night light though.
 
On the front of the receiver, press both the left and right buttons (that surround the LED's), each time you press it it dims it, press them 4 times and the LED ring goes off completely. :) (Thanks for RAD for telling me that)
 
If the receiver is rebooted (including a software update--0x166 is apparently rolling out nationally) the LEDs will reset to full brightness so you will have to dim them again. I wish it would dim the very bright yellow record LED as well.
 
Do you guy's always leave your unit on when going to bed ?
I turn mine off, that way I don't see the lights, unless of course it's recording, matter of fact I turn the one in the front room off also.
I just wish the fan did not have to run all the time ...

Jimbo
 
This was an interesting review. Here is a suggestion, get a friend, who is not a champion of either DirecTV or Dish (perhaps a cable subscriber), and show him the same channels on both, and ask for a rating between the two. I'd be very curious about how that comes out.

Particularly since we have our own biases.
Oh good Lord, just go over to AVS and look at the screen grab comparison thread. D* sucks hind tit in PQ. I tried to watch Kill Bill on TNTHD and saw several 1/2 green frames.:rolleyes:
 
Do you guy's always leave your unit on when going to bed ?
I turn mine off, that way I don't see the lights, unless of course it's recording, matter of fact I turn the one in the front room off also.
I just wish the fan did not have to run all the time ...

Jimbo

I need a TV on when I sleep, I can't sleep without it, can't be to quiet.:D
 
Yup I need to fall asleep with the TV on, I have my TV's on timers to shut off at 1:30am, and then they turn back on again at 6:30am so I can wake up with the morning news. :D
 
Scott, it's been a couple of weeks since you've updated your diary, any new thoughs on the service, especially after the latest HR20 CE???
 
I havent really played with it the past few days, I did grab the CE last night.

One thing I can say is that with each CE release the HR20 keeps getting better and better. :)
 
I havent really played with it the past few days, I did grab the CE last night.

One thing I can say is that with each CE release the HR20 keeps getting better and better. :)
Scott I totally agree with you on this one! If it wasn't for me selling my house I would have already gotten another HR20. But it has definately gotten better. I do still miss the HDtivo GUI though! Very quick and easy navigated and the FF/RW feature is still unequal!
 
two issues.To my knowledge Directv does not have a dual tuner STB that has two tv capabilty. Also Directv does not have a band stcking capability as Dish does..So install requires two cables ot be run to the STB location AND the connection is to one tv...Based on that, IMO Dish is a better product...
 
Actually DirecTV DOES have a single wire solution, a number of folks here are testing it.

But it is correct that DIrecTV does not have a dual output receiver like Dish does.
 
Actually DirecTV DOES have a single wire solution, a number of folks here are testing it.

But it is correct that DIrecTV does not have a dual output receiver like Dish does.

I agree that Dish's two tv box is nice, and it only needs a single cable that goes to a splitter then the box. Why D* cant do that, I don't know.

But when my friend who has Dish needs a reset, it kills two TV's instead of one like mine, that part I don't like. I prefer that the box needing a rest only affect 1 set so two people won't be disrupted.

And even though D* charges for each box ($4.99), when I compared my package to Dish's, Dish was still higher by like $7.00/month. Wouldn't it be cheaper if there would be less mirroring fees? Didn't seem to make sense to me.
 
MPEG4 Quality
(Now because Dish does not have any MPEG4 channels which I get off of DirecTV this ranking comes from overall MPEG4 perfomance. I do understand that the PQ varies by area as other areas may be using older MPEG4 encoders, I am basing my findings on what I am seeing in Hartford, CT)

DirecTV 9.5 out of 10
Dish Network 8 out of 10
AT&T UVERSE 4.5 out of 10


Scott - what were the factors that brought the AT&T Uverse picture quality down compared to the DirecTV and Dish PQ?
 
I agree that Dish's two tv box is nice, and it only needs a single cable that goes to a splitter then the box. Why D* cant do that, I don't know.

But when my friend who has Dish needs a reset, it kills two TV's instead of one like mine, that part I don't like. I prefer that the box needing a rest only affect 1 set so two people won't be disrupted.

And even though D* charges for each box ($4.99), when I compared my package to Dish's, Dish was still higher by like $7.00/month. Wouldn't it be cheaper if there would be less mirroring fees? Didn't seem to make sense to me.

As Scott said previously, Directv does have a single-wire solution. It is being tested by a large number of people (including me). It works fine on my HR20, but is not yet supported by other models (the H20 and D12 will work with it after a suitable software upgrade). I suspect they will wait until after Directv 10 is operational before making it generally available (there are some functions which won't be tested until then). My 5 channel model has two legacy ports which I use with my R15. The 8 channel model has 3 legacy ports plus an OTA input (internally diplexed). An external OTA diplexer can be used with the 5 channel model (I have not yet done so, however).
 
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