Tempted to move to Dish...

[IcEWoLF]

Bern with Directv since 2007, been happy with their service mostly, their sports packages have been excellent, but it seems their pricing and fees are getting huge every year...I remember when the premier package use to go for around $90-$100, these days they advertise $120 and 2nd year jumps to $180...anyways fast forwarding I think I'll skip Sunday Ticket this upcoming year, and I'm considering switching, my contract expires in September, I'm okay paying the EFT and move to Dish, it appears these days Dish has better receivers, I have 2 4K tv and one of them has a genie wireless and it's total garbage, it's frustrating, and if I want something to replace it with I'd have to shell out money to get another receiver.

Anyways moving on here are my questions:
Dish appears to offer two year price lock, which is very nice, do you expect to pay the same amount of the two years even if there is an increase in price?

2nd question: How is the wireless Joey? Is it fast? Are there any noticeable delays when switching channels or fast forward or rewind? With Directv audio cuts out a lot, the channels sometimes take several seconds to change...

3rd question: for the main receiver, are you guaranteed to get the Hopper 3 which I believe it's their latest piece of equipment.

4th: Are there any promotions like gift cards out there or referrals one can give out to sweeten the deal?

 

[Joe891]

Bern with Directv since 2007, been happy with their service mostly, their sports packages have been excellent, but it seems their pricing and fees are getting huge every year...I remember when the premier package use to go for around $90-$100, these days they advertise $120 and 2nd year jumps to $180...anyways fast forwarding I think I'll skip Sunday Ticket this upcoming year, and I'm considering switching, my contract expires in September, I'm okay paying the EFT and move to Dish, it appears these days Dish has better receivers, I have 2 4K tv and one of them has a genie wireless and it's total garbage, it's frustrating, and if I want something to replace it with I'd have to shell out money to get another receiver.

Anyways moving on here are my questions:
Dish appears to offer two year price lock, which is very nice, do you expect to pay the same amount of the two years even if there is an increase in price?

2nd question: How is the wireless Joey? Is it fast? Are there any noticeable delays when switching channels or fast forward or rewind? With Directv audio cuts out a lot, the channels sometimes take several seconds to change...

3rd question: for the main receiver, are you guaranteed to get the Hopper 3 which I believe it's their latest piece of equipment.

4th: Are there any promotions like gift cards out there or referrals one can give out to sweeten the deal?

I'm currently in year 2 of my price lock and the price is still the same even after a price increase for others
2. Our wireless Joey faster than our regular but has been known once a week or so to disconnect from the access point for a few seconds but I'm told it's because my home Wi-Fi and the wireless Joey access point are using the same wireless channel and it's far from the access point.
3. The only way to know for sure is if you called because it would be based on credit if I'm not mistaken.

 

[lgb0250]

I've been switching back and forth between them for years now. I'm on 2nd year now and price has remained constant.

While my wireless Joey doesn't seem to lag at all, our wired one does! Not enough to become annoying, just slightly noticeable. The neat thing is that with the wireless one it can be moved from room to room without having to pay another re wives fee.

I was guaranteed and received the H3. Much better than the HR54 I had.

Don't know about now but when I signed up I got a $200 gift card which paid my ETF with D*.

Very happy with this most recent move except for the recent switch in guide providers. Taking way too long to get their act together.

 

[DWS44]

I can't compare them to DirecTV receivers, but don't expect to be blown away by the speed of the Wireless Joey or the wired Joey 2. In my experience, Wireless Joeys are slightly faster than the wired Joey 2, but still not a speed demon by any stretch. Changing channels and trick play aren't too bad, but there is usually a bit of lag going between menu screens, navigating the DVR list, etc. The "4K Joey" (also wired) is said to be considerably faster, but avoid that one if you have any interest in Netflix. Netflix works on the other Joey models, but not the 4K Joey and no real promise of it working anytime soon, if ever.

As far as getting an H3, just make sure you tell them you have 4K TVs, and that should guarantee an H3.

Lastly, like the last poster mentioned, you might want to read up on the current Dish guide info problems and the resulting problems with timers and recordings before you make the switch.

 

[docdaddy]

I had Directv for many years (from 1995 to 2009) and switched to Dish when we moved to this area because, at the time, Directv did not carry the locals in HD and Dish did. (They both do now.) I discovered that the two providers have some differences, but I could live with either one. I grew to really prefer the Dish hardware and software, but moved back to Directv a couple of years ago when they gave me free Sunday Ticket. I had the latest Genie and two Minis.

I found the Genies to feel like they had pushed the hardware/software past it's capabilities. For example, I was told repeatedly in the various forums not to worry about the Genie To Do list being inaccurate, just trust the Genie to record what you told it to, as the To Do list was not reliable. Compared to the Hopper 3, the Genie and Minis were pretty sluggish. The limited 1.5 hour wide guide was really a pain to me. However, Directv has a bit more in HD (on minor channels, like TVLand, at this point - though TV Land is the only one on Dish in SD that I really want in HD.)

I moved back to Dish in August 2016 and got a $200 gift card for the move. 2 year price guarantee and my monthly price for the same channels I had on Directv is currently about $20+ a month cheaper. The Hopper 3 is, IMO, very much a next gen machine compared to the Genie in terms of speed,, software, etc. I have two 4K Joeys and they are just as fast as sitting in front of the Hopper 3. I'd be very unhappy going back to the Genie.

The only issue I have right now is with the external HD. Remember that in the Genie system if you hook up an external HD it takes the place of the internal HD and is locked to that receiver; with the Hopper 3 the external HD is in ADDITION to the internal HD and you can move it to another Hopper if you like. However, some of us, with a software update a few months ago,have an issue where the EHD is "lost" every morning when we wake up - it simply doesn't show up in the DVR guide. A red button reboot fixes it, but it's a pain to have to do that every morning. A lot of people don't have this issue, but a number of us do. After the reset, the EHD is seen the rest of the day and night, no problem, but when we wake up you have to do it again. I assume there's some system reset or something that occurs in the wee hours of the morning that causes it.

That said - I would have a very hard time going back to Directv from the Hopper 3 system.

 

[Scion142]

I too was a long time customer of DirecTV, having subscribed to their service at the beginning of the transition from SD to HD as they were the only provider at the time that even had an HD broadcast (an HD demonstration channel and one HBO channel). I swore I would never leave them but did last August to try DISH. I had reasons for leaving DTV, principally the escalating costs of their service, no Pac-12 offering, and no 4K programming unless you subscribed to their upper-tier packages (I understand that this has now changed).

The Hopper 3 is a more advanced DVR than DTV's Genie, but is plagued with bugs. While I enjoy the speed and features of the H3, I don't appreciate Netflix not working (causing me to reset the Hopper), missed recordings (recently) and some issues with with HDMI connectivity after the initial installation of the system (since resolved). I have a Samsung 4K TV.

I'm currently in the first year of a 2-year "price lock" on my contract. There has been no increases in service costs and there won't be during this initial contract period. The overall performance of the two satellite systems appear about the same to me, including picture and audio quality although I would give DTV a slight edge over DISH in PQ. DTV didn't seem to care that much about me leaving and simply said "good bye" and I was disconnected.

I will probably cut the cable cord at the end of my 2-year contract with DISH. There are so many other over-the-top services out there to choose from and we have good bandwidth at the house and a rooftop antenna on a 10-foot high pole. The only thing that has been holding me back is the rather poor picture and audio quality from the streaming services. I have spent a lot of money on home theatre components and don't want to waste that investment by watching 720p content on a 4K set and listening to Dolby 2.0 audio. If anyone can recommend a quality streaming service with good PQ and audio, please let me know....

 

[IcEWoLF]

I can't compare them to DirecTV receivers, but don't expect to be blown away by the speed of the Wireless Joey or the wired Joey 2. In my experience, Wireless Joeys are slightly faster than the wired Joey 2, but still not a speed demon by any stretch. Changing channels and trick play aren't too bad, but there is usually a bit of lag going between menu screens, navigating the DVR list, etc. The "4K Joey" (also wired) is said to be considerably faster, but avoid that one if you have any interest in Netflix. Netflix works on the other Joey models, but not the 4K Joey and no real promise of it working anytime soon, if ever.

As far as getting an H3, just make sure you tell them you have 4K TVs, and that should guarantee an H3.

Lastly, like the last poster mentioned, you might want to read up on the current Dish guide info problems and the resulting problems with timers and recordings before you make the switch.

I see, I didn't know they had a guide problem, I record channels and some shows I record them 5-10 minutes more to make sure I don't miss the ending if it goes over.
How long have they had this issue for?

 

[docdaddy]

I see, I didn't know they had a guide problem, I record channels and some shows I record them 5-10 minutes more to make sure I don't miss the ending if it goes over.
How long have they had this issue for?

FWIW, I wouldn't let the guide issue stop you from switching (as a previous DTV/Genie user.) This is an issue that has popped up for some but I think most of us haven't seen it (though it's a pain for those for whom it has happened to.) My understanding is Dish knows this occurred for some due to a recent change they made and are committed to fix it ASAP.

 

[IcEWoLF]

FWIW, I wouldn't let the guide issue stop you from switching (as a previous DTV/Genie user.) This is an issue that has popped up for some but I think most of us haven't seen it (though it's a pain for those for whom it has happened to.) My understanding is Dish knows this occurred for some due to a recent change they made and are committed to fix it ASAP.

That's re-assuring, Dish hardware seems to be much better, in just tired of the genie wireless, it's total garbage. The main receiver is fine, but yeah the rest is crap.

Also Joey has more tuners so I can record more shows.

 

[Bobby]

That's re-assuring, Dish hardware seems to be much better, in just tired of the genie wireless, it's total garbage. The main receiver is fine, but yeah the rest is crap.

Also Joey has more tuners so I can record more shows.

Keep in mind Joeys have no tuners at all. They access the tuners on your Hopper. So, if it's a Hopper 3, you have access to 16 tuners....

 

[DWS44]

I see, I didn't know they had a guide problem, I record channels and some shows I record them 5-10 minutes more to make sure I don't miss the ending if it goes over.
How long have they had this issue for?

I guess about a month or so now. It all started happening because Dish had to switch guide data providers from Gracenote to Rovi. (Supposedly because Gracenote wanted to hike the rates for renewal) The switch was made so quickly because of the expiring Gracenote contract, and it created a lot of issues that Dish is having to iron out. The quality of the guide data isn't what it used to be, and its caused some timers to not fire properly, miss episodes, etc. Like docdaddy mentions, it's not the end of the world, but something I thought was worth mentioning so you could decide for yourself.

 

[navychop]

FWIW, I wouldn't let the guide issue stop you from switching (as a previous DTV/Genie user.) This is an issue that has popped up for some but I think most of us haven't seen it (though it's a pain for those for whom it has happened to.) My understanding is Dish knows this occurred for some due to a recent change they made and are committed to fix it ASAP.

I hope you're right, but I can't say I recall anything Dish fixed ASAP.