Thinking about switching back to Dish. Need Info

[Moondoggy51]

I had Dish for years and then they honked me off by jacking up the price and I switched to Directv and I've been satisfied with them but from what I read, AT&T is trying to dump Directv and Uncle Sam says that Dish can't buy them so I'm thinking about switching before the ship sinks.

At the time I switched from Dish to Directv there were features on Directv that Dish did not have and I'm seeking info from a Dish subscriber to see of these services are now present.

With Directv, on some shows and movies shown on my guide there's an arrow to the right of the program name that looks like it made a u-turn but what it signifies is that the show or movie can be restarted from the beginning even if the show has already started and has been playing for a while. I really like this feature as sometimes I'll sit down and find a really good movie that I'd like to watch but it's been playing for 45 minutes. If I select the show and hit the reverse button twice it's starts the show over. I'm assuming that the show I restarted is streaming over the internet as opposed to being broadcast over the satellite. Dish did not have this feature at the time but do they have that feature now?

With Directv, a large number of channels have a corresponding channel 1000 numbers higher on the guide that has on demand playback of shows on that channel. For example on my guide channel 15 is my local NBC channel and channel 1015 is the playback channels for NBC. So, if I miss an episode of Chicago Med I can go to channel 1015 and watch the episode I missed within 24 hours the show was normally on. I can even go to that channel in the summer and binge watch and entire season of a show I had not watched because something better was being shown at the same time. Directv has a on demand playback channels for all of my local channels and a LOT of channels that are not considered premium channels like HBO. When I switched from Dish to Directv, Dish only had on demand playback channels for their premium channels like HBO but not for local channels and channels like ESPN, TBS, Syfy, etc. so I wonder if Dish has improved their on demand capabilities to covers your local channels and other channels like Directv does?

In 2019 a number of local channels came up for contract renewal and Directv could not come to an agreement to with the provider so the channels was blocked and blocked for a LONG time. During that time Directv offered subscribers a free over the air antenna that connected to the "block" and that block plugged into a port on the back of the Genie. After setup, my Directv channel guide now shows my over the air channels on the channel guide along with the local channels shown via satellite. In addition to listing just the local channel for ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX, it's also shows over the air channels that I cannot get from Directv like METV, CHARGE!, etc. and, in addition, the guide also shows what's playing on those channels in that particular time slot. Does Dish have this same functionality?

Other than the price, I really liked Dish but now that I'm on Directv, I'm a bit reluctant to give up this functionality unless Dish now has the same functionality. Can I get some feedback from people on whether or not this functionality now exists?

Thanks.

 

[pattykay]

Dish has a very limited selection of On Demand versions of channels that have their own dedicated channel numbers in the guide. The few that do appear on the same channel numbers as the regular versions of the channels:

However, you can find On Demand versions of many more channels than that, by going to channel 300. From there, scroll down until you get to the Browse By Channel shelf, and then select See More. There are many categories of channels to choose from, including most of the popular cable channels. As far as the broadcast networks, only the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) are available On Demand. And of course, Dish no longer has HBO in any form whatsoever.

Over-the-air channels can also be integrated into the Dish guide, by using a small USB-connected OTA adapter to connect your antenna to the Hopper or Wally. Whether you actually get accurate guide information on those channels can be a bit hit-or-miss, though.

 

[navychop]

Maybe Claude can help you with this.

 

[pattykay]

Maybe Claude can help you with this.

So, you are trying to get the OP to not switch to Dish.

 

[Moondoggy51]

My goal was to get an update on Dish. I had dish from 1990 thru 2015 and I was happy with the package I had and the quality but they just kept raising the rates and Directv was offering a package at a 2 year discount that was far less than I was paying for Dish and they also had a $200 signup bonus and it was too good a thing to turn down. At this point it's been 5 years since I looked at Dish and things change. Dish is also offering me a $400 incentive to come back so that's what prompted my inquiry. Bottom line is money talks if things are the same.

So what's up with no HBO? Does this include no Cinamax as well? I can get HBO and HBO NOW on Ruku but it's a bit of a hassle to have to switch the input source from satellite to ruku as my TV is older and doesn't have Ruku built in.

I've actually thought about switching to streaming instead of Satellite but I'm just not convinced that the streaming services offer the same channels that I have on satellite. Kind of sucks when your only options are satellite or streaming as there's no cable in our subdivision.

 

[pattykay]

That is correct: No HBO and no Cinemax on Dish. There was a huge dispute between Dish and HBO a couple of years ago, and they never kissed and made up since then.

 

[Moondoggy51]

Probably doesn't help that AT&T that owns Directv also owns HBO. Perhaps that was a tactic AT&T thought might increase subscribers on DirectV? To be quite honest I'm wondering if any of the premium channels are worth it anymore. It use to be that HBO was where you could watch boxing or a new movie after the video stores had a chance to rent the movie but now there's no more boxing and new movies are slim to none and it's just one rerun after rerun of movies that have been shown far too many times. Since the Covid-19 hit my wife and I have pretty much relied on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime to meet out need for something that's not a rerun. Pretty soon it's probably going to be all streaming which may be better than having to pay for a bunch of channels that you never watch anyway. It use to be so much easier but things keep moving..

 

[N6BY]

...
I've actually thought about switching to streaming instead of Satellite but I'm just not convinced that the streaming services offer the same channels that I have on satellite. Kind of sucks when your only options are satellite or streaming as there's no cable in our subdivision.

Over the past 10 years I started with Dish, and then cable tv, followed by YouTube TV, Orby, and am now back with Dish.

Cable kept raising their rates and adding miscellaneous charges so I left them.

YouTube TV was OK, but I didn't like the interface. Also it used a lot of bandwidth.

With Orby, the DVR lacked the capabilities I wanted. Also the DVR had bugs and I had to power cycle it about every other day.

So I have gone full circle and am back with Dish and very happy. I like the way they don't require you to pay for locals because I have a TiVo for that. My current Dish bill is lower than all the previous services. But it will go up after my 2 year contract is up.

 

[HipKat]

Probably doesn't help that AT&T that owns Directv also owns HBO. Perhaps that was a tactic AT&T thought might increase subscribers on DirectV? To be quite honest I'm wondering if any of the premium channels are worth it anymore. It use to be that HBO was where you could watch boxing or a new movie after the video stores had a chance to rent the movie but now there's no more boxing and new movies are slim to none and it's just one rerun after rerun of movies that have been shown far too many times. Since the Covid-19 hit my wife and I have pretty much relied on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime to meet out need for something that's not a rerun. Pretty soon it's probably going to be all streaming which may be better than having to pay for a bunch of channels that you never watch anyway. It use to be so much easier but things keep moving..

People have wondered the same thing about AT&T pulling HBO. Direct was starting it's slide when that happened. And when HBO stupidly dropped Boxing, they lost a good chunk of interest, anyway. It was the only reason I had HBO. Most people I know also don't watch many premium channels/ Netflix, Prime, etc have made it much easier to just stream them on demand. The Hopper 3 has Prime as a native app as well as Netflix which is also on the rest of the Joeys.

On-Demand is based on your Channel package, but there's a ton on there and just about every channel has content you can D/L. Discovery, TBS, etc...

 

[bobtet]

Over the past 10 years I started with Dish, and then cable tv, followed by YouTube TV, Orby, and am now back with Dish.

Cable kept raising their rates and adding miscellaneous charges so I left them.

YouTube TV was OK, but I didn't like the interface. Also it used a lot of bandwidth.

With Orby, the DVR lacked the capabilities I wanted. Also the DVR had bugs and I had to power cycle it about every other day.

So I have gone full circle and am back with Dish and very happy. I like the way they don't require you to pay for locals because I have a TiVo for that. My current Dish bill is lower than all the previous services. But it will go up after my 2 year contract is up.

when contract is up just call and ask nicely for a discount, I did and got 30.00 off for a year!