Which would you get instead and why?

A) Dish Network
B) Direct TV
C) None of the Above - Other

3/18/2010 6:41:59 PM

Dish seems to have the best HD package for the money

3/18/2010 6:42:53 PM

Either A or C (Netflix).

3/18/2010 6:56:00 PM

Where do you live?

3/18/2010 6:57:40 PM

D) U-verse

3/18/2010 7:10:48 PM

I live in Winston-Salem/Walkertown

I was thinking about U-verse but I didn't know if it was available in my area or if TWC monopolized my area already.

3/18/2010 7:16:00 PM

TWC and AT&T aren't subject to the same franchise laws... but i'm pretty sure U-verse isn't available in NC outside of the triangle anyway, so... yeah.

3/18/2010 7:21:49 PM

B

3/18/2010 9:05:43 PM

wtf

across the street from me uverse is available

but not at my place

gahhh

3/18/2010 9:27:00 PM

I, too, would suggest Uverse, but since it's probably not available... ?

3/19/2010 9:42:44 AM

I have dish and LOVE it. I got granfathered into a sweet deal... every 3 months I pay $9 for what, 80+ HD channels. Cinemax channels are a penny if you use autodraft..... and carries over year to year. Google TV is rumored to be with Dish (whatever that means for now).

3/19/2010 9:47:00 AM

dish:
cheaper
highest rated dvr system (better than tivo)
you don't buy equipment
much better looking user interface/graphics (my aunt & uncle have directv)

i can email you a discount thingy that give you $50 off the first bill and free installation, which they claim costs $99. yes, it does give me $5 off my bill spread out over 10 months. i'd still recommend it over directv w/o any rewards.

oh, and this thread has been done 8472193756 times.

[Edited on March 19, 2010 at 10:32 AM. Reason : ]

3/19/2010 10:32:00 AM

Will also agree the UI for DISH is much better than Direct

3/19/2010 11:32:14 AM

hows their hd quality rank

3/19/2010 12:21:00 PM

how does one rank HD?

It looks fucking pretty on the screen, is that a 9/10 because its not 1080P?

3/19/2010 1:44:35 PM

Quote :

"dish: much better looking user interface/graphics (my aunt & uncle have directv)"

Quote :

"Will also agree the UI for DISH is much better than Direct"

I will agree that DishNetwork's ui looks better, but I switched to DishNetwork after years of DirecTV and the DishNetwork UI is absolute shit in comparison.

- It's much less responsive
- It takes like 10 keypresses (and like 30 seconds because the menus take like 2 seconds apiece to load) to toggle closed captions
- It only keeps 1 previous channel in the history (DirecTV keeps a whole list)
- It only records a live buffer when you are watching a channel on 'live tv'. DirecTV's DVRs have dual live buffers and they are ALWAYS recording whatever they are tuned to. If you turn on the DirecTV DVR at 8:10 and it's in the middle of a program, you can rewind to the beginning! DirecTV also records buffers while you are watching a recording so if you stop the recording you can rewind whatever is on TV at the time. I used to leave one of the tuners on Discovery at all times so if I didn't feel like watching a recording I could flip through what had been on the Discovery Channel for the past couple hours.
- The DishNetwork DVRs can only record 2 channels at once and only 1 OTA channel, which means it's worthless for prime time network TV. The DirecTV DVR I had could record 2 OTA + 1 satellite or 1 OTA + 2 satellite at the same time!
- DirecTV has software you can install that will allow you to watch your recordings over your home network in very high quality, whereas DishNetwork has 2-room viewing which sends a grainy, ugly analog signal over a coaxial cable to a second TV (and you can't watch OTA channels on the second TV).
- Try to create a favorites list on your DishNetwork DVR and find out what a steaming pile of shit that interface is. (You have to select the channels for your list from a tiny box that only shows like 4 channels at once and the box contains EVERY channel DN offers, whether or not you subscribe. The only way to navigate the list is up/down or page up/down. In DirecTV you can enter the channel number you want to add.)
- On demand content. This one, words can't even describe it's so bad on Dish. Try it out on Dish and then DirecTV and you'll realize that on-demand on Dish is useless, while it's superb on DirecTV.

The list goes on. I've called and tried to get them to listen to some of this feedback, which they "take very seriously". When you mention how bad the 2-room viewing is, they tell you all about the VIP-922 that's coming out very soon (it was supposed to come out before I got Dish in February of last year and it's still not out).

The only reason I recommend Dish is the fact that you can get all-HD packages and they are cheap. Their DVR interface may look nice, but functionally they are the worst DVRs available. Functionally MythTV > Media Center > TiVo >> DirecTV >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> DishNetwork.

[Edited on March 19, 2010 at 2:26 PM. Reason : added on-demand to the list]

3/19/2010 2:14:46 PM

C) I ditched cable completely a few months ago considering the only thing I really cared to watch on it was hockey and I can get that online now with an archive function. I still have their overpriced internet which they made sure to jack up $10 since I didn't have it bundled with cable anymore.

The shows that I watch regularly (House, Lost and 24) I just watch online on my time anyways.

3/19/2010 2:21:23 PM

Quote :

"hows their hd quality rank"

Quote :

"how does one rank HD? It looks fucking pretty on the screen, is that a 9/10 because its not 1080P?"

Watch HD from TWC and then from Dish / DirecTV and then over the air and then on Blu-Ray and you'll have your answer. TWC compresses their HD channels into oblivion so that they are full of artifacts and look like shit. Unlike coaxial cable, the air has virtually unlimited bandwidth so the satellite companies can send out much better quality signals (use more bits per pixel).

Coaxial cables actually have tons of bandwidth (enough for hundreds of very high quality HD channels) however, most of that bandwidth is consumed by the handful of analog channels they insist on continuing to provide. 1 analog channel uses about as much bandwidth on the cable as 3 high-quality HD channels, 5 TWC quality "HD" channels, or about 8-10 digital SD channels.


The thing that the satellite companies are missing, though, is instant gratification on-demand content. On DirecTV I usually had to wait about 10 minutes for on-demand content to buffer. On Dish, it's hours (because they provide the on-demand stuff over limited bandwidth... about 1/10 of DirecTV).

3/19/2010 2:24:45 PM

i watched a ppv movie last week on one of the on demand channels and it started immediately..

i'm not sure about the HD quality question. all hd channels are 1080i, some ppv are 1080p.

i'm also not really sure what limpynuts means about it being worthless for primetime television. maybe it's b/c i don't get them ota. i have no problem recording those channels.

the menus don't seem sluggish to me. going through them now, the next screen loads instantly. maybe your box was messed up. why are you using closed captioning? do many people really use that anyway?

my husband has a favorites list set up. he didn't have a problem with it. i prefer to use the All Sub list (just shows all the channels you pay for), and have blocked out the stupid extra temporary sports channels, or i just use the all HD list. you don't have to set those up.

my 2nd tv is a small regular old tube tv so i'm okay with the analog signal. it looks great on 13 inches!

i guess maybe i don't make use of the same things that limpynuts does, so i don't run into those same problems.

3/19/2010 5:16:32 PM

Quote :

"why are you using closed captioning? do many people really use that anyway?"

Way to be sensitive toward the deaf community, yep they watch TV too.

3/19/2010 6:22:40 PM

Why do people like U-verse over TWC?

3/19/2010 8:32:30 PM

i believe most people are just happy to get anything other than TWC for decent internet

it doesn't seem to be any cheaper if you're one of the ones that wants basic cable/internet. but for the higher end plans i believe it's a bit cheaper.. the internet is supposedly a lot more reliable/faster, DVR is better, you can watch shows from one DVR box from a different TV in your house, etc

3/19/2010 9:20:29 PM

Limpy... a lot of what you said is true, but also a lot is NOT what i am experiencing at all. On Demand starts right away.... I can scroll screens WAY TOO FAST, not slow at all...... I have set favorites, and you CAN not show other channels. I have mine set to show only HD channels. Perhaps a bit of truth in your words and user error.

and I really disagree about the DVR. That thing is fucking awesome. And what is wrong with the 2 room viewing in your opinion? My wife and I use that almost every night and it works like a champ.... you sound way biased to direct.

[Edited on March 19, 2010 at 10:08 PM. Reason : er]

3/19/2010 10:06:32 PM

Did it recently.

c) other: sprung for netflix
I'm really aggravated because after a couple years of harassing my husband to drop cable, he agrees. That same week, ATT starts installing uverse in our neighborhood //

[Edited on March 20, 2010 at 11:26 AM. Reason : fd]

[Edited on March 20, 2010 at 11:26 AM. Reason : d]

3/20/2010 11:25:27 AM

Quote :

"i watched a ppv movie last week on one of the on demand channels and it started immediately.. "

They've started pre-downloading certain movies to your DVR so if you rent it, it will start playing right away.

3/20/2010 11:48:17 AM

To answer all your questions and comments about my earlier post.

se7entythree:
1. I am not a DirecTV fanboy... I use DishNetwork.
2. For on-demand I was talking about HD stuff. Maybe it's just my area, but it only downloads at 1 Mbps on my 10Mbps connection. That's enough to watch SD immediately, but way too slow for HD. I wouldn't be surprised if Dish allowed more bandwidth for PPV stuff, but I don't use PPV so I don't know.
3. "worthless for primetime" because you can't record one OTA channel and watch another. You don't have the problem because you don't get them OTA. I can't get my locals over satellite without a second dish, which I'd rather not have.
4. I turn on CC when I'm doing something loud while watching TV... like exercising.


CalliPHISH:
I'm wondering if they have different software for their different boxes. I'm using a VIP722. In terms of the favorites, I don't think you unserstand what I mean. All HD is a built-in list. You can create your own custom list. See here.

The "list" referred to in step 6 has every channel in it. "and I really disagree about the DVR. That thing is fucking awesome." ... Probably because you've not used anything else. I've used TWC, DirecTV, Windows Media Center, and MythTV extensively (over a year each). DVR in general is great. DishNetwork is nowhere near the best implementation.

"And what is wrong with the 2 room viewing in your opinion?" ... HD signal (1) squished into a 4:3 frame and transmitted at (2) analog (3) 480i over coax cable which makes it susceptible to noise, then stretched back into a 16:9 frame.

An no, I'm not biased toward DirecTV. I had a long list of gripes with them too, which is why I switched to Dish.


DirecTV has on-demand content tagged by channel, genre, etc. so it's easy to find stuff



Dish has a small number of broad categories with thousands of programs in the list

3/20/2010 2:36:34 PM

B) Direct TV


I got all the dish equipment and install for free, HD DVR receiver for free, and the receivers for my other 3 TVs for free (didn't need hd or dvr on those). I get more channels for less money (fuck you TimeWarner) and the customer service is pretty darn good as well.

NFL channel rocks (again, fuck you TimeWarner), NFL sunday ticket rocks.

plus I got the movie channels (showtime, starz, etc) for free (3 month trial) and $100 visa card.

simply put, AWESOME. holler.

3/23/2010 12:13:18 PM

U-verse, if it is available. It is quite pricey, but so far seems quite worth it.

3/24/2010 1:09:28 AM

^pricey? We pay less for more with AT&T (12/1.5 Internet; U200 package; HD) @$123/month

Compared to TWC's 6/0.25; less channels & functionality; crappy HD; intermittent service @ $134/month

[Edited on March 24, 2010 at 8:59 AM. Reason : .]

3/24/2010 8:58:50 AM

i pay more like 80 or 90 for 10Mb internet and basic HD/DVR cable from time warner. for some packages it may be cheaper, but i'm not sure why you were paying $120 for that from twc

3/24/2010 9:19:36 AM

I used to pay $67/month for RR Turbo, HD, and Showtime. I seriously doubt any U-Verse customer has ever had that deal.

That said, U-Verse is truly awesome. The DVR can record continuously for days without filling up. With TWC he had to think long and hard before scheduling any HD content.

3/24/2010 10:59:38 AM

yeah mines 95 for hd cable, dvr, and regular RR....

3/24/2010 12:23:32 PM

when you cancel TWC because of moving, can you have them send you the last bill to your forwarding address?

5/18/2010 9:33:35 AM

If you're forwarding your mail, why are you asking that?

5/18/2010 10:10:59 AM

i haven't asked the post office to forward my mail yet...but you make a valid point.

5/18/2010 10:27:28 AM

i have direcTV and it clowns everything else. screw TWC.

5/18/2010 4:00:52 PM

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9FOODG00.htm

5/18/2010 5:08:18 PM

lol, texas.

5/18/2010 5:13:27 PM