Thinking of going to Directv...

[ghostyroastytoasty]

Not out of bad blood, but maybe you guys can help...
I live in zip 25880 which is ineligible to receive local chans except for one OTA. It is in 480i I believe lol... I did "move" to Atl for HD locals.

I love the Pittsburgh Penguins... So much so that I bought the CI package just to catch their games. (at that time I had NYC locals).

With D* I can get HD locals except for the OTA ABC NY and be able to catch the FSN Penguins games.

Is there a strategy I can use to get Penguins games and HD locals??

If I had my choice, I would love to stay with Dish because of the superior dvr.

 

[Chinatown]

Not out of bad blood, but maybe you guys can help...
I live in zip 25880 which is ineligible to receive local chans except for one OTA. It is in 480i I believe lol... I did "move" to Atl for HD locals.

I love the Pittsburgh Penguins... So much so that I bought the CI package just to catch their games. (at that time I had NYC locals).

With D* I can get HD locals except for the OTA ABC NY and be able to catch the FSN Penguins games.

Is there a strategy I can use to get Penguins games and HD locals??

If I had my choice, I would love to stay with Dish because of the superior dvr.

Yes superior DVR.............It is so much better then "D"....+ a lot of extra wiring.............

 

[ghostyroastytoasty]

But I would end up saving money in the long run. I just would hate to lose Dish though! It seems that dishes 250 package has more channels than the D* one that I was looking at which stated 200+

 

[Curtis0620]

But I would end up saving money in the long run. I just would hate to lose Dish though! It seems that dishes 250 package has more channels than the D* one that I was looking at which stated 200+

The difference is the extra music only channels.

 

[ghostyroastytoasty]

Thanks Curtis. I hate to leave dish, but it is looking more like the right spot for me for now at least. I can end up saving a lot without having to pay for the NHL CI package just for one team, and saving a little bit more.
But when I go to their site, I guess their receivers dont let you use more than one tv per receiver... Might not save as much after all!~

 

[Skyhi]

I stay with E* because i love the 722, but I'd drop any provider in a heartbeat if it meant watching my teams play on an RSN for considerably less money.

 

[harshness]

Depending on how are out of the ATL are you are, you may not be able to "move" for HD LIL with DIRECTV where you are sucessful with DISH Network. DIRECTV's spotbeams are pretty "accurate" (relatively small).

 

[ghostyroastytoasty]

Their site said I was eligible for all the Distant Networks (from NY) except for ABC and they were offered in HD as well on the same page. So I won't really have to "move" with them.

 

[E*Dude]

STICK WITH DISH!

I deal with Direct, DISH and Comcast in my profession and the 722 beats them all hands down in my opinion. I'm stuck in a Direct contract at home with the HR20's and can't wait to move to Dish and the 722's. THEY'RE SO MUCH NICER AND FASTER.

 

[NoCenterIceNoDishNetwork]

STICK WITH DISH!

I deal with Direct, DISH and Comcast in my profession and the 722 beats them all hands down in my opinion. I'm stuck in a Direct contract at home with the HR20's and can't wait to move to Dish and the 722's. THEY'RE SO MUCH NICER AND FASTER.

E* Dude is not an E* Dude!!!???!! Imposter... lol jkjk

 

[DodgerKing]

Is there any other reason, besides the better DVR, that makes you so reluctant to leave Dish? About the DVR, Directs DVRs are not as bad as you may have heard and have many features that the Dish DVRs do not have. Dish's DVRs are faster and do allow you to use one for 2 TV's, which is a definite plus over Direct

About DNS locals. Just be very cautious. Although Direct may say that you can receive DNS service, it is not all that easy to activate. I have read that the waivers are sometimes a pain in the butt. If you do decide to switch, first check to see if the DNS from NY is an actuality.

 

[ghostyroastytoasty]

Hmm.. The directv site said nothing of waivers other than the one I was not eligible to receive. Maybe I didnt see it stated.
Why do I not want to leave Dish??
I chose Dish and have been loyal for the past year. I have the external drive hooked up with tons of shows and movies recorded since it was installed... But in the end, I need something a bit cheaper and something where I wont have to pay for the whole NHL package, just for one team.

 

[DodgerKing]

Hmm.. The directv site said nothing of waivers other than the one I was not eligible to receive. Maybe I didnt see it stated.
Why do I not want to leave Dish??
I chose Dish and have been loyal for the past year. I have the external drive hooked up with tons of shows and movies recorded since it was installed... But in the end, I need something a bit cheaper and something where I wont have to pay for the whole NHL package, just for one team.

Sounds reasonable. I would be reluctant to leave as well... Don't blame you one bit.

I am not all that familiar with the waiver issue other than what I read. I would just research it a little and get a guarantee from Direct if you do chose to go with them.

 

[ghostyroastytoasty]

Thanks DodgerKing. I will research it before possibly taking the final plunge into unknown D* territory.

 

[bkushner]

Take the receiver out of play and Direct has many more pluses over Dish. I have both, and as mentioned the Direct receiver is not bad at all and getting better every week.

You will love the media sharing features, true ON DEMAND, more HD, more sports, mobile dvr scheduling from a computer or cell phone.

Don't let the DVR hold you back.

 

[DodgerKing]

Thanks DodgerKing. I will research it before possibly taking the final plunge into unknown D* territory.

No problem. I just didn't want you to switch thinking you can get NY locals (which more than likely you will be able to get) just to find out later that there is some issue with them allowing you to receive them.

 

[DodgerKing]

Take the receiver out of play and Direct has many more pluses over Dish. I have both, and as mentioned the Direct receiver is not bad at all and getting better every week.

You will love the media sharing features, true ON DEMAND, more HD, more sports, mobile dvr scheduling from a computer or cell phone.

Don't let the DVR hold you back.

That is true. Direct's DVRs have a worse reputation than they deserve. They are actually pretty good with a lot of cool features. They have also improved greatly. Dish may still have a slight edge though?

 

[KAB]

That is true. Direct's DVRs have a worse reputation than they deserve. They are actually pretty good with a lot of cool features. They have also improved greatly. Dish may still have a slight edge though?

Don't D*s dual tuner DVR's require two input lines per?

 

[DodgerKing]

Don't D*s dual tuner DVR's require two input lines per?

Yes and no. Many of the new install put a mulitswitch like device out side which then requires only one line.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I have had both services back in January till last month. I have had DISH since 97. I also had Directv for a year back in 03. I had the hr 21 dvr and I had two lines run to my receiver. I didn't like the hr 21 dvr. I tried to update it via the cutting edge every time they offered it. Here is what I noticed:

1)The remote control was clunky and poorly laid out and ergonimicaly a complete failure.

2)The response time from hitting a button on the remote and the actual completion of the direction given by the remote to the receiver was delayed. Making me push a couple of times to get it to work. You had to actually slow down and carefully push the button and patiently wait till the comand was received by the receiver.

3)The receiver would sometimes record the shows I wanted and sometimes not. IT was not very reliable. IF I only wanted one recording of say the soap Passions I would set up my timer for first run only. I would get the show twice a day recorded. IT couldn't discern from the first run on that show and many others and would clutter my hard drive with repeat episodes.

4)For the first month I had it the only way I could turn on the receiver was to reboot it causing me to lose my recordings that were recording at that time. THen after about three software upadates it started to turn on with my remote control - YEAH!

5)Had to buy another box for 59.99 to get my ota channels and could only record either one of them or a sat channel or two ota or two sat channels unlike DISH with three channels at a time-1 ota/2 sat.

6)I did like the native pass through feature and the aspect ratio worked fine this was a big plus in picture quality for sd channels because my tv could stretch them to fit without distorting the pq.

7)The video on demand features were nice and very quick to download but there was not many premium shows that you could record from say the Starz ,Hbo, Showtime etc for free. Mainly a pay per view selling catalogue.

IN the end I perfered the DISH over DIRECTV because of the dvrs 722 and 622. I love them, they are reliable and they always record my shows. I can record three things over 2 with DIRECTV. THey worked like they were supposed to and I didn't have to baby sit them to get my shows recorded. I felt that having a reliable durable receiver with the ability to archive my shows to an external hard drive a big feature. I now have two external hard drives with about 100 shows recorded on both on my main 722. I always have a movie to watch. I never run out of room any more for shows I really want. Unlike DIRECTv where you can add an external hard drive, but it then becomes your main hard drive making the internal hard drive useless. I also plan to buy the new 722k which will have the ability to record 2 ota channels and 2 sat at the same time and be able to use it on two different tvs at the same time.

DISH lacks on video on demand that people really want and the price is to high for old 25 year old movies I can watch on my main programming anyway. THey don't have a good schedule online feature for doing remote booking , but I really don't care about this . I can do all my scheduling using my remote control on my receiver. DISH timers are easy to set and you can even tell them under the options to save only 2 episodes or all etc. Unlike DIRECTV where you had to go back into the menus to edit the timer for each show so it only saves so many of each show .

So to me DISH has more cutting edge tech than DIRECTV with the exception of online video on demand where DIRECTV has a slight edge in selection and of course the native pass through feature which I would really like with DISH. They have about 8 or 9 more hd national channels than DISH at present but they aren't enough to make me want to stay with DIRECTV. With DIRECTV I hated to pay 99.00- 199.00 to be able to "LEASE" a receiver that I had to give back when I cancelled. I also had a big cancellation fee of over $380.00 on top of giving back the receivers. Still waiting on my final $42.50 credit from them too, going on 6 weeks now.

So if you go DIRECTV remember you will have to pay upfront to lease and you will be stuck in a 24 month commitment. The grass isn't always greener on the other side.