DISH or DirecTV -- Help

[Sat4me]

I have been a Dish customer almost from their beginning and have been very satisfied. Three weeks ago they began messing with my locals and I basically had little or no locals for 2 weeks. Now they are ok but during this time with no locals, I started looking at D*as an alternative. It is amazing what I have been offered if I will commit to 24 months of service ---

1. First month service is free -- $49.95 value
2. DVR Plus receiver for free and no lease fee
3. Up to 3 additional standard receivers with lease fee but no up front cost
4. $150 rebate in the form of $10 discount off first 15 months of service
5. Portable DVD player -- $149 value for free
6. Free delivery and installation
7. Free 30 day trial

So, I have a question for those of you who are familiar with both services. Am I better off staying with DISH now that my problems have been fixed or should I take a chance on D*? Is it worth the free items listed above to go to a service which apparently has poorer PQ and also apparently has many problems with their DVR receiver (at least that is what I read on these forums)?

[Earl Bonovich]

Dig some more into the forums for the R15.

You will find that not everyone has issues with the R15... it isn't that bad of device that the "loud" voice make it seem.

Don't get me wrong... it isn't perfect, but it is pretty good (IMHO) and it is getting better.

As for PQ...
If you did a channel by channel comparison, you will find some that are
D*>E*; D*<E*; D*=E*

Overall.. on average, you are going to have pretty much the same PQ between both services.

The package they are offering you is pretty darn sweet (regardless of which system I preferr for my home), that is a pretty darn good eal.

You will find customers that will say: Love Dish, Hate Direct... .Love Direct, Hate Dish... Hate them both, went to cable... hate cable, took the best deal.

I know it is not helping... but if you are not satisfied with Dish..
go with the 30 day trial of DirecTV... you got really nothing to lose, other then some time for the installers.

Plus... I am sure Dish will give you a decent deal to come back (as I know they took care of my neighboor when he switched back from Comcast)

[dbronstein]

I've had both (currently with DirecTV) and there isn't any difference. Go with whoever gives you the best deal for the programming you want.

[Chad1]

I was also very curious to this question as to others preference. At one point I had both but believe when I had Directtv before it was hopefully just a bad experience. I am now considering going back to Direct TV and leaving Dish. Since returning to Dish it seems as if the problems are regular. Constantly losing channels. I have had to replace the LNB approx. 2 times in the past year along with a new receiver that went out after 1 month. (By the way the new one they sent to replace the broken one was defective also..go figure). And now my channels are going out again and I need another service call again for problems. Now I know problems are to be expected but how often is abnormal. Any expertise would be appreciated. Not sure if I want to dump out more money for another service call or just go ahead and make the switch to Direct TV.

[juan ellitinez]

I've had both (currently with DirecTV) and there isn't any difference. Go with whoever gives you the best deal for the programming you want.unless you want HD E* is (temporarily) ahead in HD channel quality and quanity