I've Had It.....DishTV or DirectTV

[rsmith6621]

.....I have had it with ConCast Cable......I have had three boxes blow out and become unable to recieve a signal.. The phone tech says it is the line from the box outside to the inside that is not working properly. They said it would be next week for them to get out here to fix it thus limiting my TV vieweing to RABBIT EARS as I am not going to go and blow the bucks for a DTV converter until the issue is resolved.

I am so pissed right now I just want to take the box and toss it through the window at the local service center....ConCast support is just awful here just awful the only thing they care about is getting their money at the end of the month...


If I switch to SAT TV what would you recommend.

[MrSlayer]

1. I've had DirecTV for 11 years.

No complaints.

[Retrograde]

6. some very rare weather problems

when we have an extremely hard downpour it can interfere with the satellite reception (my sister in Buffalo's snow belt has the same problem with snowstorms), but otherwise I've had no problems in the 5 years I've had DirecTV. Unlike ComCast, they don't lose my payments.

[MrSlayer]

16. Yes during a blizzard or a very heavy thunderstorm.

I'll get some outage. It's fine with regular rain and snow.

[Minimus]

2. I have Dish and I have been extremely happy with it.

[Earth_First]

3. :cue "Free the TV" in 3...2...1... n/t

[tridim]

4. I couldn't be happier with Dish

Except that I had to pay a bit extra for the Science Channel.

[Andy823]

5. Well I have had both.

Started with Primestar then Directv bought them out, and the switched to Dish network because at the time Direct didn't offer my local channels, but had been promising me for several years that they were "about" to get them for me.

They both cost about the same, but they offer specials to encourage you to sign up with them. Check out their sites to see what kind of specials they have. I think Dish offers more channels, and if you have HD they offer more HD channels.

[bdamomma]

7. I have no complaints about Dish.

[Ioo]

8. I love Direct TV

[rufus dog]

9. a thought

Is the box in a cabinet? I ran through two of them quickly (about 6 months each) then added a fan and cut a ventilation hole in back of the cabinet and have been on the same box for about three years.

[moc]

10. We have DirectTV; my parents had Dish but recently switched to DirectTV.

I can't remember exactly why they switched. Our service with DirectTV has been fine.

[regnaD kciN]

11. Name your poison...

Choose DirectTV, and help further enrich Rupert Murdoch, fund Faux News, and assist him in buying up even more media outlets.

Choose Dish Network and, at least here in the Pacific Northwest, lose access to ABC. (Dish has stopped carrying their feed due to a contract dispute with the local ABC affiliates that shows no signs of ever being resolved.)

Such a choice...there's a reason I haven't dropped Comcast yet. :-(

[glinda]

15. I know. We quit funding Rupert when we chose Charter Cable. On purpose.

[elocs]

23. I read that Charter is filing for Chapter 11. n/t

[glinda]

29. Yupperee. They say they are reorganizing.

[BlueJazz]

12. I'm a Dish person....They have more cool channels...

[LSdemocrat]

13. If you want the best HD lineup, especially sports wise, go with DirecTV

If neither of those is important, then just go with the one that's cheaper.

[Gregorian]

14. Directv gets the Daily Show. I'm going on 15 years!

Can't really complain.

[Raven]

17. Direct TV. Very seldom any problems and it seems to work through

all kinds of weather. We had an ice storm here in December that had people in the dark for two weeks. The TV worked...I had an emergency generator but the phone and the internet were out and Direct TV never failed.

[Still Sensible]

18. I understand ComCast varies widely depending

on the market you are in. My daughter absolutely hated them when she went to school in D.C. and considered them the worst company she'd ever seen. When she moved to Lansing last year for grad school, she was really pissed to find out that her only option was ComCast. Fortunately, she says they are surprisingly good there.

I had satellite--DirecTV--for 8 years and loved it, except for occasional interruptions from thunderstorms, snow and ice. I pretty much had to switch to cable because the corresponding internet service wasn't very good and with the cable I get a bundled service including phone. If you can get a good ISP (can't recommend bundled with satellite), I think you'll like satellite.

[WhiteTara]

19. the difference is FSTV...if you want progressive

you will enjoy the addition of Free Speech TV which is only on DISH. DISH has more channels and I found them to be better to work with then Direct (I've had both). I got the greatest deal from DISH this year. They are both going for customers and you can call both and obtain the best deal.

But whatever you, be sure you get DVR (digital video recording). It is definitely TV your way. We have 2 receivers and we get to record double the amount that way and it is the same price.

[cliffordu]

20. Directv here. I've had both, actually, and 'the dish network' is completely useless.

[MadBadger]

21. Definitely DirecTV

[StrongBad]

22. I have DirecTV and am very happy with it

[Melinda]

24. If you want to help support Rupert Murdoch, go DirectTV. Want FreespeechTV? Go Dish

Murdoch owns the majority share of DirectTV. :shrug: It was an easy choice for us to make when we went with Dish. Check out Free Speech tv on Dish. IOW, Dish=progression, Murdoch... not so much.

[natrat]

25. dish has sirius,,and i get the feeling it's a bit more progressive

[ConsAreLiars]

26. Dish carries some progressive/instructive channels that DirectTV does not.

Free Speech TV has a lot that I find valuable, and was the main reason for my choice - http://www.freespeech.org . Laura Flanders has an hour 4 days and does a lot of interviews with people actually doing the good work.

The Documentary Channel shows a lot of the documentaries funded by Canada's Film Board as well of a lot of Indie films that you won't see anywhere else - http://www.documentarychannel.com/main/index_new.php .

Both have LinkTV. FSTV carries Al Gore's CurrentTV, but I'm not sure about direct.

Service has been fine. When a box fails they will send a new one quickly with prepaid return for the old one, and replace for free if you tell them you can switch to Direct and get free ones from them.

I think the program guides and software for setting recordings are comparable. Read as much of the weeks schedules and click to record and such. Newer boxes have an interneet connection and address, if you want that.

[hulklogan]

27. DISH does not offer the LOGO channel.

They also seem to be constantly having problems with some of the other broadcasters causing channels to mysteriously go off the air while they renegotiate contracts, or they put up some crazy channel with a repeating commercial telling you to call so-and-so and complain about unfair negotiations.

But DirectTV doesn't offer local channels in as many markets as DISH. I guess it all depends on what you want.

[Rosco T.]

28. Starchoice :) Get Canadian Programming + US Networks

but it's a do it yourself issue.

[me b zola]

30. Dish!

We had it for 2 years and never had a problem. Dish is blue, direct is puke. Freespeech tv was trans formative for me.

We recently had to give it up due to cost (same cost as direct), but i miss it daily.

[Dappleganger]

31. We switched to DirecTV 7 years ago from Dish and here's why...

because they will actively help you lower your bill when you call them up to ask! Dish wouldn't give me the time of day when we needed to try to cut back, and instead offered to switch us off. We weren't behind at all but just needed to save some $$. We switched over to DTV and they are always giving us concessions of some kind (right now it's a total of $25/month in credits for the next year). We have not been disappointed at all.

[dixiegrrrrl]

33. Funny...I just negotiated 15.00 less for my DISH package.

We have had it because previous owner had it, so the sat. dish was on the roof.
Got the usual 2 year contract when we signed up, 250 channels cost 65.00 a mo.
( 2 receivers for 2 tvs)
Just tv, no internet.
Anyhow, that was 4 years ago, so we have been "off contract", never a raise in prices.
I called them Jan. 1 this year, told them Cable was making all sorts of offers,
I needed to lower the DISH bill so we could keep Dish.
Got 15.00 mo. off for a year.

No complaints with Dish...we are in the country, can get cable, but cable company is hated here.
We don't watch much tv, do watch Daily show and Colbert and MSNBC and C-Span, the rest we can get on demand on puter.
Hurricanes and thunderstorms black out the signal, but tv here should not be on if the weather is that bad b/c lightening.

Oh..if you are going to call DISH, here is the super secret number to a human in the United States, they answer on first ring.:
1-888-387-6371

[Elwood P Dowd]

32. Direct TV for over 8 years.

They have replaced two receivers destroyed by lightening at no charge. I was only out of TV for a couple of days before they sent a guy with a new one. Only lose the signal during terrible storms. Oh, and they also replaced the dying dual LNB for no charge.