My HOA has subsidized Cox Cable for years resulting in about a $35-40 savings per month over Dish and Direct. They are stopping this subsidy though, and now I need to figure out what to do for TV.

For those of you with Dish or Direct, what are your chief likes/complaints?

For example with COX, I pay for HBO in HD but if I miss an episode of Boardwalk Empire and want to watch it "On-Demand" it is only available for free in SD. This is unique to HBO I think as I see Cinimax/Showtime with their shows in HD in the On-Demand area. Still, bugs me. Same for HBO movies On-Demand in HD.

 

do they have Fios there?

i wish they had it over here

 

Get it if you can. I had 50 megabit up and down in Portland, loved it.

I had Dish Network in the past, I like it but I didn't watch TV enough to justify it.

 

Forget DTV for On_Demand, but everything else, I'd rather have them over Dish. I have FIOS now over DTV.

 

FIOS, I wish...

I have only used On Demand once in a year of having the service set up... Only becuase I realized my DVR skipped recording an episode of Boardwalk Enterprise, thus the discovery about the HBO On Demand issues. As a result, I am less concerned with On Demand than overall experience such as: Picture quality and the Guide.

Cox picture quality is good at times but more often sucks with HD. Tearing, clipping, etc... Also, the guide is like using DOS6.2. There have been a number of times I have been searching for a program by name and it is not listed, but if I browse four days ahead in the channel line up, there it is...

 

My parents have had DirecTV since the late 1990's and they don't have any complaints.

I went with Dish mainly because of their dual TV receivers, but for what I want they happen to be the cheapest. I have the VIP 722 receiver which will do one HDTV and one SDTV. Thus, I have service in my livingroom in HD and service in my bedroom in SD without having to pay for a second receiver.

The only downside to this is that the receiver still only has two tuners. So, if you are recording a program, you can only watch something live on one TV. If you are recording two programs, you can't watch anything live. However, you can still watch other recordings. There was one instance where two programs were recording, I was watching a pre-recorded program in the livingroom, and my fiancée was watching a pre-recorded program in the bedroom, and the receiver functioned like a champ.

I subscribe to their cheapest "HD only" package since I don't watch much TV and the basic package has enough to satisfy my occasional TV watching.

As far as picture quality goes, I am very happy with Dish's. I can't give you an accurate comparison since my parents and I have different TVs, but I've always felt that my picture looked better (but that could be because my parents have a Vizio and I have a Sharp).

I'd call both DirecTV and Dish and have them price out what you want...and go with the cheapest.

 

Thanks Thunder.

Any issues related to the feed of the signal? Macroblocking, tearing, signal cut out, etc?

 

I'm not entirely sure of Arizona's weather but when I had satellite at school it would cut out during moderate to severe thunderstorms. Up here that's only a few times a year though so its not a major concern, however when do you want to watch tv the most? during a thunderstorm.

 

The rain fade and that DTV wouldn't upgrade me to HD DVR's was a reason for leaving. But the rain fade wasn't that bad.

 

I've had Dish for a couple of years now, and my only problem is my neighbor's palm trees . My parents have a second home up in the mountains and even with all the trees around them (I forget the name of the forest they're in), DTV is pretty solid for them.

I can remember two instances at my parents house where reception was temporarily lost, and both times were during an extreme downpour (enough to make people in the house go "holy s#!t!"). Even then the outage didn't last long.

Any other feed issues have usually been on the other end and something friends/family report as an issue at that time too.

Otherwise, both have been pretty solid.

I forgot to mention....I had Comcast before going with Dish and I'd have to say both DTV and Dish's picture quality is better than Comcast.

 

Thanks guys. Looks like unless COX can give me a real discount, I will switch to a satellite provider.

 

DirecTV.....because Dish and Fox hate each other.....no Fox Sports on Dish FTL.

 

Or FX and local Fox Channels and Nat Geo, if they don't clear it up by 1 Nov.

 

Fox is playing chicken with Dish....70 mill versus 150 mill.....it does not look good.

Screw 'em both.

 

Crap. Didn't know about that.

 

I think those numbers are from the Cablevision fight they are having at the moment.

 

From what I've read, the current dispute between Fox and Dish is separate from the Fox locals...but I guess we'll see what happens soon enough.

 

Had DTV until I quit paying for TV altogether. Loved it and would highly recommend it. Only had the signal go out on me once for about half an hour in a ridiculously bad storm.

 

"DTV" is Direct TV, right?

 

^Yes.

 

I've had DTV for over a year and a half now, after briefly having Comcast (and I mean a day). I had Comcast before in another city, and Cox a long time ago. Comcast quality isn't horrible, but the selection isn't great and customer service is horrible. Once you're a Comcast customer, fuck you.

DTV, conversely, treats me great. Customer service is never a problem, they bribe me with discounts all the time, and service rarely goes out unless it's fairly bad weather. Bad as in, I'll skip running to the store right now even though we're out of milk.

I don't pay for HD, just the boxes ($5 for basic, $10 for DVR, first standard/HD box is free).

$10 off a month for 10 months if someone refers you should still be ongoing.

 

Thanks guys.

I think I am going to go with DTV. We have it here in the office and it looks good. I am confused by the guide, but am sure I can figure it out eventually...

 

^Sounds like they have it set on categories (hate that view). There is a traditional channel-based guide...just hit the guide button twice to switch from one view to the other.

 

Good info, thanks!

 

I am jumping ship from DTV to Dish in December. Its been a billing nightmare for me. I initially called and made a deal because we were moving and signed a two year contract. I got a free HD-DVR and was SUPPOSED to get HD free for two years and an additional $10 off my bill for the first year. I ended up getting HD free for ONE YEAR and they screwed up the bill about 6 times the first year and several other times in this second year. My bill was changed month to month, seriously. Its like the same place doesn't bill you and they make up cost each month. Every time I called and finally got something straight, I'd ask what the bill would be with tax and I'd get a number then the bill would come and that number wouldn't be the same. Its been a complete joke. What started out with $56.94 a month when I signed up is now $79.93 currently after all their empty promises and price increases. The problem is they promise you stuff and you have nothing to prove it. Lesson learned here.

Also, the HD-DVR box is a piece of junk, its extremely slow and takes about 10 minutes to boot up if you have to restart it. Better have the receiver on a battery if you lose power or you're missing 10 mins of whatever show you were watching. And the box WILL need to be rebooted just like a pc, it just starts flaking out from time to time.

/rant

 

^ The only thing I noticed about my parents DTV HD-DVR is that it's slower to respond than my Dish HD-DVR. Like, the whole "30 second" skip would take a few seconds on theirs where it's instant on mine. Otherwise it seemed ok.

 

^^ Maybe I got a lemon, sometimes you'll try to punch in a channel and you hit 3 numbers and you have to wait about 3 seconds per number for it to come up and by that time you think you've not typed it correctly and you start over then it finally registers and you get a bad number inputted. Even hitting guide and trying to scroll page by page is painful at times, other times its snappy. Or if you want to record a show, after you hit record, wait long, then hit it again to record series, wait longer. Then finally it'll go through. Its just extremely strange.

 

I've noticed a huge difference between the HR-23 DVR and the new HR-24 HD receivers - don't know anyone with the HR-24 DVRs.

But when my contract comes up in January, I'll probably request one along with some kind of credits.

 

Yuck! That sounds like "teh suck." My Dish VIP722 HD-DVR used to have this problem where when you first turned it on after it was "off" for a while, it'd be completely unresponsive for about 5 minutes. You were basically stuck on whatever channel you left it on last. Once it became responsive, it'd do everything you attempted to do when it wasn't responsive. It was EXTREMELY annoying...but it seems that a software update has fixed this (thank heavens).

 

Wow, good info to take in... I Will have to ask about equipment, and will be sure to get anything promised in writing...

 

I just recently switched from SD to HD with DTV (ha, that sounds funny). I have two HR-24 DVRs. So far they are great. Cuz we would all be hearing about it if one of the wifey's shows did not record!!