What I've learned after 6 months without Dish.

docdaddy

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Sep 2, 2016
465
277
Birmingham, AL
I had an unexpected job change, had to move across country to the new job, leaving my wife behind to try to sell the house. In the dead of winter. In a state with miserable winters. So, I've been in an apartment for the last 6 months and without Dish. This is the first time I've been without some form of satellite TV (Directv or Dish) since 1995.

So, for reasons, been in two different apartment complexes. First one had ATT uVerse cable (and internet.) Had a TV in the den, one in the bedroom, bedroom was a box connected to the main box via wireless. Current apartment has Charter/Spectrum cable, with a DVR in the den and one in the bedroom. No whole house setup, so each box/DVR is independent.

First learning: Oh how I miss Dish's DVR system! AT&T uVerse's was soooo slow to navigate, could only handle 4 tuners (so what you're watching plus record 3 others,) had a fairly limited recording capacity. Did I say it was slow? The guide was also fairly slow. TV picture quality was just OK at best, especially with a Sony 65" 950G TV. Search, everything felt two generations behind my Dish Hopper 3 system.

Then I moved to another apartment complex, and now I have Charter/Spectrum Cable. Once again, everything is slow and cumbersome. The interface is primitive. You can't click on a series set of recordings and delete the folder, so to speak. Deleting a single show - no single button delete, you have to bring the episode up, then move the cursor over to the delete button, press delete, then it asks you if you want to select everything or the single show (even if there's only one show in the folder) then delete. Then yes, I do want to delete it. Everything is like that. The guide: you can skip back 10 seconds but there is no skip forward button. I couldn't find it on the remote, couldn't find it in documentation, asked Spectrum, nope, can't do it. The entire interface is like that. Like it was developed in 2000.

But even worse: the PQ. OMG is it bad. I thought my TV was faulty at first until I tested with other media, Netflix, etc. My wife was visiting down here, she watches the Bachelor (don't judge) on CBS, and it looks SD with all of the noise, etc. Most of the networks look far from HD. It is simply horrible. Since the two boxes I have are actually different models I tested on both, same results. Tech came out, checked the connections, signal strength coming in, and everything was fine, he commented "yeah, I used to do sat installs, Spectrum just doesn't have that kind of sharp picture.)

I did, out of frustration, try Youtube TV. Nothing to lose, no need to have an install, just pay for the month, cancel anytime. Pretty nice other than missing a few channels that are "must" for us, but I just can't live with their guide (or lack of one.) You can't just pull up a guide and browse for the next couple of weeks to see if anything interesting is on, perhaps a movie or documentary or anything else that interests you, then hit record to record it. There really isn't much of a guide at all (I think maybe for a day or two?) When I asked in that forum, I was told I need to put aside my old fashioned habits and adopt the mindset more like Netflix, and just use search for any show you may be looking for. But what if I'm not looking for anything specific? Just browsing? Sorry, that's not the new way! Or browse in something on your computer then if you see something go into YTTV and search for it and record. Also, I really don't like that if I want to record, say, Law and Order SVU, I can't tell it to just record new episodes. It will put every episode it can find from every channel including L&O SVU marathons on USA into the L&O SVU folder. Up to you to sort through them all. No real way to mark any of them read, either.

So, for any griping and moaning I may have done about Dish, at this point I told my wife we don't buy a house without a clear shot for the satellite. I really, really want my Dish and everything I've taken for granted back.
 
Yes, indeed, the DVR familiarity is one of the main things that keeps me with Dish. A friend let me have one of his six Youtube TV subscriptions last summer, and it came in real handy when we lost the regional sports networks. The main thing I like about that is the limitless DVR storage, and eventually I just set it to record most anything I might possibly want to see. I'm not crazy about the skip 15 seconds back or forward, as opposed to visually fast-forwarding while pausing and catching up with a sporting event as the Dish DVR allows. It's still nice to have Youtube TV as a backup, but I would never want to have to start over with another DVR from anywhere else, based on the few others I've seen.
 
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I had an unexpected job change, had to move across country to the new job, leaving my wife behind to try to sell the house. In the dead of winter. In a state with miserable winters. So, I've been in an apartment for the last 6 months and without Dish. This is the first time I've been without some form of satellite TV (Directv or Dish) since 1995.

So, for reasons, been in two different apartment complexes. First one had ATT uVerse cable (and internet.) Had a TV in the den, one in the bedroom, bedroom was a box connected to the main box via wireless. Current apartment has Charter/Spectrum cable, with a DVR in the den and one in the bedroom. No whole house setup, so each box/DVR is independent.

First learning: Oh how I miss Dish's DVR system! AT&T uVerse's was soooo slow to navigate, could only handle 4 tuners (so what you're watching plus record 3 others,) had a fairly limited recording capacity. Did I say it was slow? The guide was also fairly slow. TV picture quality was just OK at best, especially with a Sony 65" 950G TV. Search, everything felt two generations behind my Dish Hopper 3 system.

Then I moved to another apartment complex, and now I have Charter/Spectrum Cable. Once again, everything is slow and cumbersome. The interface is primitive. You can't click on a series set of recordings and delete the folder, so to speak. Deleting a single show - no single button delete, you have to bring the episode up, then move the cursor over to the delete button, press delete, then it asks you if you want to select everything or the single show (even if there's only one show in the folder) then delete. Then yes, I do want to delete it. Everything is like that. The guide: you can skip back 10 seconds but there is no skip forward button. I couldn't find it on the remote, couldn't find it in documentation, asked Spectrum, nope, can't do it. The entire interface is like that. Like it was developed in 2000.

But even worse: the PQ. OMG is it bad. I thought my TV was faulty at first until I tested with other media, Netflix, etc. My wife was visiting down here, she watches the Bachelor (don't judge) on CBS, and it looks SD with all of the noise, etc. Most of the networks look far from HD. It is simply horrible. Since the two boxes I have are actually different models I tested on both, same results. Tech came out, checked the connections, signal strength coming in, and everything was fine, he commented "yeah, I used to do sat installs, Spectrum just doesn't have that kind of sharp picture.)

I did, out of frustration, try Youtube TV. Nothing to lose, no need to have an install, just pay for the month, cancel anytime. Pretty nice other than missing a few channels that are "must" for us, but I just can't live with their guide (or lack of one.) You can't just pull up a guide and browse for the next couple of weeks to see if anything interesting is on, perhaps a movie or documentary or anything else that interests you, then hit record to record it. There really isn't much of a guide at all (I think maybe for a day or two?) When I asked in that forum, I was told I need to put aside my old fashioned habits and adopt the mindset more like Netflix, and just use search for any show you may be looking for. But what if I'm not looking for anything specific? Just browsing? Sorry, that's not the new way! Or browse in something on your computer then if you see something go into YTTV and search for it and record. Also, I really don't like that if I want to record, say, Law and Order SVU, I can't tell it to just record new episodes. It will put every episode it can find from every channel including L&O SVU marathons on USA into the L&O SVU folder. Up to you to sort through them all. No real way to mark any of them read, either.

So, for any griping and moaning I may have done about Dish, at this point I told my wife we don't buy a house without a clear shot for the satellite. I really, really want my Dish and everything I've taken for granted back.
Like the old saying goes "You don't appreciate things till they're gone".:)
 
Similar experience for me.

I recently left cable and had a "Pace" brand DVR that I really liked. It was flawless.

But they kept jacking up the price to the point where I had enough and switched to YTTV. I dislike the interface (especially the short guide and recording). But I will live with it for the $80 in monthly savings.
 
The main thing I like about that is the limitless DVR storage,
But it's actually NOT "limitless", as any/all recordings are automatically deleted after 9 months - whether you have watched them or not, or regardless of how many (or few) recordings you already have. Sorry, but at least for me, it IS a BIG limitation! I do NOT want to be told by my TV provider how long they're going to allow me to keep any of my recordings & there is NO way I would be able to keep up without loosing shows that I absolutely (& eventually) WILL watch. AGAIN, I want the control of what comes & goes on my DVR(s) & NOT Google, thank you! :mad:
 
But it's actually NOT "limitless", as any/all recordings are automatically deleted after 9 months - whether you have watched them or not, or regardless of how many (or few) recordings you already have. Sorry, but at least for me, it IS a BIG limitation! I do NOT want to be told by my TV provider how long they're going to allow me to keep any of my recordings & there is NO way I would be able to keep up without loosing shows that I absolutely (& eventually) WILL watch. AGAIN, I want the control of what comes & goes on my DVR(s) & NOT Google, thank you! :mad:

We're the same. We will record something on our Dish DVR, sometimes move it to the external drive, such as movies or documentaries, and keep them and rewatch them much later. With the ability to add large external HDDs to the Dish DVR, it has more "unlimited" DVR space than YTTV. (I've still got my YTTV sub trying it out and it does some things really well, but for us it won't be a replacement for Dish.
 
Oh, I get that. I've got tons of stuff saved on my DVR and a couple of ext hard drives that I'd never want to lose. I'm just running low on space available at this point (I've got a 1TB ext hard drive coming soon), and I've been so relieved to have this Youtube TV subscription that was given to me. I still mainly look at this as a backup, and it's been great to record anything (even if I may only be watching a portion of a show or newscast) without worrying about how much space I'm using. Yeah, there will be a few things I might miss when they come off after 9 months, but I will have long since forgotten about them. I may lose my subscription long before then as my friend who's paying for it is not happy with possibly losing the regional sports networks and may bail soon, depending on how short this extension is. The priority stuff still goes on the Dish DVR, for sure!
 
I'm struggling with similar issues with Dish vs YouTube TV notably - That said - I'm sucking it up because I'm looking at $70 per month in savings. All of my TVs are all Roku TVs so I already have native support for all the major streaming services built in.

  1. Cost: Dish $120 vs YouTube TV$50 - YouTube TV wins
    1. I'm paying $120 for Dish as part of a reupped preferred customer offer and frankly I just tired of paying it that much as well as the constant annual $5-$10 increases.
  2. Concurrent Viewing: Tie but slight tilt to YouTube
    1. While you can do concurrent viewing with Dish, you basically pay an extra $7 a month to do so for an extra Joey for each room.
    2. YouTube TV is limited to 3 concurrent streams thought I haven't hit this quite yet - next week will test as I go on Dish Pause for a month to force all my family to use it for all viewing. You can also logon to really any device you want so you are not limited to a specific room location.
  3. Mobile/Remote viewing: YouTube TV wins hand down.
    1. DishAnywhere is great in principal but has issues in practice - I've experienced multiple pixelation and disconnection issues and viewing on large screen is cumbersome.
    2. YouTube pretty much works on anything, most smart TVs, smart phones, tablets and laptops - experience is consistently good across the board.
  4. DVR: Dish Wins
    1. Dish DVR is much more intuitive
    2. I miss the only record 'New' and 'New and reruns' option.
    3. DVR - lack of 'watched' indications but that was added within the last week.
  5. Guide: Dish Wins
    1. YouTube TV Guide kindof sucks - at little sluggish and trying to see what is out more than an hour is cumbersome.
    2. No channel numbers. That said, this is more a retraining issue with retraining myself how to use the system.
 
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  1. Mobile/Remote viewing: YouTube TV wins hand down.
    1. DishAnywhere is great in principal but has issues in practice - I've experienced multiple pixelation and disconnection issues and viewing on large screen is cumbersome.
    2. YouTube pretty much works on anything, most smart TVs, smart phones, tablets and laptops - experience is consistently good across the board
So how do you use YTTV on a plane, train, etc...that does NOT have Wi-Fi &/or no/poor cellular connectivity???
DA (preloading shows on your device obviously) is the ONLY way there hands down...& I do this quite a bit & would miss that feature.
 
Another question (or two) for YTTV vs. the Dish I miss so much: When I go to watch my networks/locals and also local RSN on YTTV, it requires me to allow location checking. If I am out of town, does this mean I can't get my local news, sports, networks, RSN?

Second question: I wanted to just put the TV on a channel and watch the channel live all evening (three shows in a row I like) so I went to the "live" to get the guide, clicked on the program on the network I wanted to watch, but at the end of the show it stopped rather than just keep watching the channel. Am I missing something or does it not let you just tune to a network and leave it there?
 
So how do you use YTTV on a plane, train, etc...that does NOT have Wi-Fi &/or no/poor cellular connectivity???
DA (preloading shows on your device obviously) is the ONLY way there hands down...& I do this quite a bit & would miss that feature.

Fair point but I do not use, nor have I or any member of my family ever used that feature so there is no loss there.
 
Another question (or two) for YTTV vs. the Dish I miss so much: When I go to watch my networks/locals and also local RSN on YTTV, it requires me to allow location checking. If I am out of town, does this mean I can't get my local news, sports, networks, RSN?

Second question: I wanted to just put the TV on a channel and watch the channel live all evening (three shows in a row I like) so I went to the "live" to get the guide, clicked on the program on the network I wanted to watch, but at the end of the show it stopped rather than just keep watching the channel. Am I missing something or does it not let you just tune to a network and leave it there?

1) I honestly don't know as I haven't yet traveled out of my local channel market yet.
2) I have seen that only when I go to enter a live channel and I select 'start from the beginning' instead of 'join live'. If I join live I can watch that same channel for days.
 
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