paoutdoorsman Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I'm considering switching from cable to satellite TV service and am trying to decide between Dish Network and Direct TV. I've never had either. Any big pros or cons to one or the other? Thanks in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Adam's Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I've had both, sold both, and installed both in the past. DirecTV all the way. They tend to be a little more pricey, but the service and equipment is just all around better IMO. Plus if you're into just about any sport they have the market cornered on sports networks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BubbaHiTec Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I'm considering switching from cable to satellite TV service and am trying to decide between Dish Network and Direct TV. I've never had either. Any big pros or cons to one or the other? Thanks in advance. Dana - I think you're going to find people in both camps. I am personally a Dish Network guy - have had them for about 15 years. I live in 2 states and travel a lot and there are 2 features I like a lot with Dish - 1)Using a Sling Adapter I can access my DVRs anywhere whenever I have time to watch the programs I'm interested. 2)I can get super stations for like a $1.00 a month. So while I'll watch local newws in Atlanta or Houston, I'll record and scan (watch) news in Boston, move to New York City, Denver, LA & Chicago. I just love being able to get local news with a local slant vs. internet delivered or news station delivered. My sister has DirecTV and loves it (I struggle with their remote) but a buddy of mine has DirecTV and loves it and they just added TIVO so now he's even more attached. I know other folks who swear by the NFL Sunday Ticket access. The company myself and one other person on the Adam's Forum work for are about to deliver (for the commercial market), a TV with a DirecTV receiver built-in. So I guess I'll learn more about DirecTV very shortly but I doubt I'll change my service at home. Remember - the video content being delivered by satellite is the same, so the tricks you're looking for that will make a difference to you are in each satellite company's service offering. I'm not a cable guy at at all but I know some of our engineers who design & build our TVs are in the cable camp, and, some are in the satellite camp. So it's personal preference. Is there any specific thing that is important to you when viewing TV? I think that's what you have to define. Hope that helps a little. Randy:lurk: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
camaro2ssblack Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Definitely DirectTv. The HD and sports packages are way better and they just upgraded the guide and interface and its much faster and easier to use. Just be prepared for static during winds, heavy rain or snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieselDude Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I have had Dish Network for three almost four years now and have not had any problems with them. I looked at both companies for the package that I wanted and Dish had the package with the better price and then found out I could bundle it with my phone and internet and receive only one bill a month. (It was cheaper than the cable here). I know my next door neighbor went from DirectTV to Dish Network due to alot of problems he was having. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewy Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I prefer the menu's and user interface of Dish. Dish has a new 2TB DVR that'll record 6 channels at once and the ancillary boxes that allow you to view the DVR from any TV, coming out soon too I see. I've had Dish for 12 years and NEVER had an issue with the service or the customer support. My dad has Direct, but he does that NFL package thing. I don't do sports and I won't pay more for the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3PedalMINI Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Direct TV handsdown better in every way. the New HR34 DVR's are simply amazing 5 tuners!! and really quick too. As a Custom installer and having a customer that had dish once i have to say it is the absolute worst system i have ever seen, let alone to integrate into a control system Menus are clunky and the boxes are super slow. DTV, also has SWM (single wire multiswitch) which means they only need one wire to the dish. The picture quality with DTV is crystal clear where as with dish it seems more compressed and grainy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z71_Denali Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 have you looked into AT&T U-Verse or Verizon Fios in your area? i've got U-Verse now and i'm satisfied with it. i can watch recorded shows from any TV, it records 4 shows at once, and there's no dish on the roof/porch. i live in an apt, and satellites aren't apt friendly. plus i have a month to month contract, so i'm not locked in if i want to change service or if i move (which i've been doing a lot lately) i think AT&T owns DirecTV, also. i think a lot of the programming and services are similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Adam's Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 DTV, also has SWM (single wire multiswitch) which means they only need one wire to the dish. The picture quality with DTV is crystal clear where as with dish it seems more compressed and grainy. Huge from a 'clean installation' standpoint. Nothing worse than a rats nest of wires all down the side of the house or thru the attic in order to get signal into all the rooms. SMiM was just coming into the market when I got out, and man... the old LNBF systems were a pain. HD, in 5 locations required a 5 line RG6 drop to the switch. Was such a messy PITA to deal with. They've come a long ways. Brendon, You ever work with any of the larger Spaun distribution systems? That used to be my specialty. I could design a 500 drop SMATV system for a hospital like it was nothing. For some sick reason I enjoyed engineering them - our guys on the other hand hated installing them LOL. This was also back in the day of modulated signals for large distribution... hotel style. We did a prison once that ended up including a rack of 200 4 channel modulators! It was a monster!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Z71_Denali Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Huge from a 'clean installation' standpoint. Nothing worse than a rats nest of wires all down the side of the house or thru the attic in order to get signal into all the rooms. SMiM was just coming into the market when I got out, and man... the old LNBF systems were a pain. HD, in 5 locations required a 5 line RG6 drop to the switch. Was such a messy PITA to deal with. They've come a long ways. Brendon, You ever work with any of the larger Spaun distribution systems? That used to be my specialty. I could design a 500 drop SMATV system for a hospital like it was nothing. For some sick reason I enjoyed engineering them - our guys on the other hand hated installing them LOL. This was also back in the day of modulated signals for large distribution... hotel style. We did a prison once that ended up including a rack of 200 4 channel modulators! It was a monster!! last thing our tax paying dollars need to go to is TV in prison! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc2hill Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I have DirecTv and would not change. I am a tennis fan and they broadcast the first 8 days of each major tournament - 6 channels plus a mix channel (too much of Gisela Dulko is NOT a bad thing ). The new HD interface is very nice. My parents have Dish Network and I struggle with the interface and remote whenever I visit them. It is more difficult to record programs and to edit the recordings on Dish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chewy Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I have DirecTv and would not change. I am a tennis fan and they broadcast the first 8 days of each major tournament - 6 channels plus a mix channel (too much of Gisela Dulko is NOT a bad thing ). The new HD interface is very nice. My parents have Dish Network and I struggle with the interface and remote whenever I visit them. It is more difficult to record programs and to edit the recordings on Dish. I believe it's because you're used to one over the other... That is my problem with Direct... It's the same thing when you get in a new car. It takes you a while to learn it. IMO, they're both great, and they both have their place. You need to way the positives and negatives and pick the one you want. Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mc2hill Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I believe it's because you're used to one over the other... That is my problem with Direct... It's the same thing when you get in a new car. It takes you a while to learn it. IMO, they're both great, and they both have their place. You need to way the positives and negatives and pick the one you want. Chris May be a little bit of it, but sometimes the function I want to perform isn't there or takes several steps. I can't think of the specific issue I was having, but it was something that should have somewhat intuitive and it was not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I've had DirecTV for almost a decade and would never consider dropping it - well as long as they are the only place to get Sunday Ticket. NEVER a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGenCoupe Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Direct TV...hands down....I used it when I had FTA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BubbaHiTec Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Dylan - the hotel industry is what I currently sell into - large RF systems and/or IP over RF. I've never done retail- in the past, schools, sports stadiums, convention centers, large churches and other private or public multi-drop facilities (not apartments). We have also gotten involved in and continue to bring to market bi-directional and remote computer control RF access via whatever platform. That's why making cars shine is soooooo rewarding (distributing compressed, encrypted HD via RF and making it work at the TV creates plenty of deep brain scratching)! Huge from a 'clean installation' standpoint. Nothing worse than a rats nest of wires all down the side of the house or thru the attic in order to get signal into all the rooms. SMiM was just coming into the market when I got out, and man... the old LNBF systems were a pain. HD, in 5 locations required a 5 line RG6 drop to the switch. Was such a messy PITA to deal with. They've come a long ways. Brendon, You ever work with any of the larger Spaun distribution systems? That used to be my specialty. I could design a 500 drop SMATV system for a hospital like it was nothing. For some sick reason I enjoyed engineering them - our guys on the other hand hated installing them LOL. This was also back in the day of modulated signals for large distribution... hotel style. We did a prison once that ended up including a rack of 200 4 channel modulators! It was a monster!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Adam's Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 last thing our tax paying dollars need to go to is TV in prison! Funny story actually... I bid, engineered, and oversaw a project that put multiple channels of satellite TV into the cells of 4 different Riverside County Prisons, including the big SW Detention center where they keep the really sick ones. The money for the TV installs actually was a reallocation of the money that went to weights and other strength training equipment. Problem they were seeing is scumbag would get arrested, go into do his 10 years, get HUGE while in the joint, come out angry and find the people who put him there and beat the hell out of them. So when the state said "No more weights" the only other thing they could think of was TV (keep them fat, and docile I guess) They got channels like Discovery and National Geographic... no sports, no local news (don't want them knowing whats going on in their neighborhoods or getting riled up about someone coming in soon) It was an unreal experience and I got so see some things that really made sure I NEVER WANT TO GO TO JAIL. The only cells that didn't get a 15" TV with a couple channels were maximum security and solitary. Everywhere else got TV including common rooms. Dylan - the hotel industry is what I currently sell into - large RF systems and/or IP over RF. I've never done retail- in the past, schools, sports stadiums, convention centers, large churches and other private or public multi-drop facilities (not apartments). We have also gotten involved in and continue to bring to market bi-directional and remote computer control RF access via whatever platform. That's why making cars shine is soooooo rewarding (distributing compressed, encrypted HD via RF and making it work at the TV creates plenty of deep brain scratching)! HAHA! Cool... Hotels was a market we never got too big into. We were #1 in commercial (private, semi-private, and public accounts) for a couple of years when I was working in the business. We did a lot more board corporate board rooms, bar/restaurant setups, lobbys, etc. The few hotel accounts we did were serious work... you're definitely in a unique field b/c not many guys want to get into that side of the business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cygnus Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 last thing our tax paying dollars need to go to is TV in prison! Depends on the TV. Give them Barney or Teletubbies 24/7 and they'll never commit another crime in their life. The ACLU would probably sue though for inhumane treatment of prisoners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BubbaHiTec Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Brad - keep that quite - you're trying to cut out my sales to the "extended stay lodging marktet.".............(btw - that's the best treated equipment in a prison, the TV.) Depends on the TV. Give them Barney or Teletubbies 24/7 and they'll never commit another crime in their life. The ACLU would probably sue though for inhumane treatment of prisoners. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paoutdoorsman Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Interesting. Thanks for all the info so far. I see there are people on both sides of the fence, but looks like more on the Direct side. I'm not into sports much; the superbowl and world series is honestly about all I watch in that department. I do like to catch some motorcross and snowcross occaisionally. I'm out in the stix, so I doubt I'll ever see FIOS or U-verse here. My cable service is a local mom & pop cable company, and while it has felt good to support them for the past 12 years, it's time for me to move to something else. I like the idea of a whole house DVR. I ditched the last remaining VCR when installing my first HD TV last month, so I have no way to record anything at the moment. I like the idea of a clean simple installation. One wire from the dish to my distribution block in the basement would be ideal. Tell me more about static/outages with wind/rain/snow. Also, does Direct or Dish offer remote set up of the DVR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paoutdoorsman Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Dana - I think you're going to find people in both camps. I am personally a Dish Network guy - have had them for about 15 years. I live in 2 states and travel a lot and there are 2 features I like a lot with Dish - 1)Using a Sling Adapter I can access my DVRs anywhere whenever I have time to watch the programs I'm interested. 2)I can get super stations for like a $1.00 a month. So while I'll watch local newws in Atlanta or Houston, I'll record and scan (watch) news in Boston, move to New York City, Denver, LA & Chicago. I just love being able to get local news with a local slant vs. internet delivered or news station delivered. My sister has DirecTV and loves it (I struggle with their remote) but a buddy of mine has DirecTV and loves it and they just added TIVO so now he's even more attached. I know other folks who swear by the NFL Sunday Ticket access. The company myself and one other person on the Adam's Forum work for are about to deliver (for the commercial market), a TV with a DirecTV receiver built-in. So I guess I'll learn more about DirecTV very shortly but I doubt I'll change my service at home. Remember - the video content being delivered by satellite is the same, so the tricks you're looking for that will make a difference to you are in each satellite company's service offering. I'm not a cable guy at at all but I know some of our engineers who design & build our TVs are in the cable camp, and, some are in the satellite camp. So it's personal preference. Is there any specific thing that is important to you when viewing TV? I think that's what you have to define. Hope that helps a little. Randy:lurk: Randy, the sling thing sounds interesting. Are you saying that is only available with Dish? Not sure how to answer what is important to me when watching TV. In reality I don't watch a lot of TV as I'm into lots of stuff and on the go or tinkering in the shop a lot. I guess I'm interested in getting more HD content with the recent purchase of an HD TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Adam's Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 If you have a smart phone, directv had an app that can set your DVR. It's pretty cool. I love DTV. Also you mentioned snowcross/motocross, Fuel TV has that kind of stuff on all day long...and it's included in their basic packages. Also, I only lose signal during the BIGGEST thunderstorms now that they have the new dish design. With the old dish, I'd lose signal when too many birds flew by at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Adam's Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Tell me more about static/outages with wind/rain/snow. Also, does Direct or Dish offer remote set up of the DVR? There is no static with either since its a digital signal, its either on or its not. Like mentioned the only time weather will cause an outage is if its a MASSIVE electrical storm. In the 12 or so years we've had DTV I've only ever had 1 weather related outage and it was during what was about the worst thunder storms I'd ever seen. Even then the down time was only a couple of minutes until the worst of it passed. So long as your dish stays locked in on the signal and isn't knocked out of alignment you'll never have an outage. As far as remote use I know DirecTV does... I have an app on my phone that allows me to logon and schedule recordings when I'm away from home. You can also schedule anything by logging onto your account from any computer via the DTV website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savi01 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 A bit late to the forum - But I was wondering if anyone has ever had a problem with Dish's receivers or signal losses and had to pay to fix them? My improperly installed satellite dish outside would always move with the slightest wind and cause a total signal lost. I called Dish and they wanted to charge $75 to come out and look at it .. WTH? I pay for their mistake? Also, I think the fee's to use each receiver is ridiculous. I have no history with DirectTV so I can't compare the two, we mostly have Dish for the international channels my parents watch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Slow Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 There is no static with either since its a digital signal, its either on or its not. Like mentioned the only time weather will cause an outage is if its a MASSIVE electrical storm... ...or snow storm, especially if it's heavy wet and coats the dish. Then it's get dressed, grab the broom and ladder and climb and clean. A ginormous downpour will knock out the signal as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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