leaving cable who has better service and picture direct tv or dish?

[funlvr1965]

My wife loves football and shes tired of trying to watch football in hd and the picture looking totally compressed and looking like sd, we both want to swtich but we have no experience with direct tv or dish, we spoke briefly to dish agent that made us feel that dish had better picture and sound quality but obviously hes biased, he did say something that we liked about dish which was that you can use one box for two locations unlike cable where each room needs its own box, does direct tv's boxes work in the same way? we have a dedicated theater where we watch movies and hd on a 110" screen with a 1080p projector so we need the highest quality signal and service we would be upgrading to a hd dvr so any help would be appreciated, we live in madison wisconsin if thats any help.

[mjones73]

I'd verify they both offer locals in HD in your DMA first before you do anything else or you'll be putting up an antenna for OTA reception for your local stations. Regardless, looking into OTA isn't a bad idea because it generally gives you the best possible PQ for locals stations.

[funlvr1965]

I have checked and they both do offer local channels, we are both just fed up with the fact that cable hd just looks so compressed and their sd channels are really bad so we figured that we would switch to satellite for our hd and sd viewing at least the channels are digital but before we make the jump we want to hear from real people who are using satellite tv

[dtv757]

i dont have HD but if you love football theres nothin like NFLST only on Directv.

[funlvr1965]

are you happy with the quality of your hd and digital channels?

[nhguy]

are you happy with the quality of your hd and digital channels?

The picture quality is great when the dish is aligned properly. D*'s customer service and installation is hit or miss. My personal experience has been a lot more miss. Go w/ a private dealer for your equipment and installation.

[Blitz68]

The picture quality is great when the dish is aligned properly. D*'s customer service and installation is hit or miss. My personal experience has been a lot more miss. Go w/ a private dealer for your equipment and installation.

Nope. As long as you have a signal the quality is the same. Proper alignment has to do with how well your signal will come in when you have bad weather. Remember it is digital so the picture is the same if your signal is 40 or 100.

Now to the meat, D* rules and Sunday Ticket is a MUST if you love football, been with D* & NFL Sunday Ticket for 11 years and love it.:D :D :D

[ClubSteeler]

You need to go to a friend's house and watch their cable.

Every company is different.

My cable company is great, yours might stink. My channels are also 100% digital and there are no visible over compression. My SD channels look sooooo good. I had no idea SD could look so good on a 50 inch TV. I actually rarely ever both to watch HD. HD really shines for sports, and that's about all I ever watch in HD. Our cable company's HD is breath taking, put Dish and DirecTV to shame in my opinion.

Also, I bet your cable company also carried analog feeds, meaning that you do not need any converter boxes in other rooms to get the channels 2-99. My analog picture quality is also very good on smaller TVs. I wasn't really pleased with it on my 50-inch, but on all of the other TVs it looks great. Once they converted to all digital channels, it looks great on the 50 now.

But you won't know until you try. So before canceling SAt and going to cable, and possibly trying to come back, you best take the time to really compare and save yourself the trouble.

[carl6]

I have checked and they both do offer local channels, we are both just fed up with the fact that cable hd just looks so compressed and their sd channels are really bad so we figured that we would switch to satellite for our hd and sd viewing at least the channels are digital but before we make the jump we want to hear from real people who are using satellite tv

There is a difference between offering local channels, and offering local channels in HD. Just because they offer local channels does NOT mean they will be in HD. You need to specifically verify HD.

You will probably be happier with the SD channels from satellite than from cable. However, both Dish and DirecTV tend to have more heavilly compressed HD signals than cable. Many refer to DirecTV HD as "HD Lite". Make sure you know what you are getting before you make the change.

As others have noted, for NFL football, DirecTV is the place to be.

Carl

[mjones73]

I have checked and they both do offer local channels, we are both just fed up with the fact that cable hd just looks so compressed and their sd channels are really bad so we figured that we would switch to satellite for our hd and sd viewing at least the channels are digital but before we make the jump we want to hear from real people who are using satellite tv


What Carl said, make sure you can get locals in HD, not just in SD.

[funlvr1965]

well thanks for all the info, we called direct tv last night and this sunday ticket thing is way too much money, they want another $80.00 or so once their "introductory" offer expires, they give you 4 months free basically but my wife says that that doesnt even take her into the playoffs so and thats $80.00 a month on top of the other $99.00 or so for the other channels and programming, do people really pay $200.00 a month just for watching tv?:confused: :confused:
later this week my wife will see what pricing dish has to offer, one nice thing about dish is that you can use one box for two displays

[Clint Lamor]

well thanks for all the info, we called direct tv last night and this sunday ticket thing is way too much money, they want another $80.00 or so once their "introductory" offer expires, they give you 4 months free basically but my wife says that that doesnt even take her into the playoffs so and thats $80.00 a month on top of the other $99.00 or so for the other channels and programming, do people really pay $200.00 a month just for watching tv?:confused: :confused:
later this week my wife will see what pricing dish has to offer, one nice thing about dish is that you can use one box for two displays

I thought Sunday Ticket was like $250 for the entire season? If they charged $80 a month for it then it would be $960 for a year and I doubt many would pay that. Maybe i'm misunderstanding what you're saying though.

[funlvr1965]

nope the way it was explained to me is that they will pay 4 months free then after that you can cancel if you want but you have to make sure you tell them that you want to cancel otherwise they will bill you around $80.00 a month just for the sunday ticket but I think they wave the box rental fee, not sure about that part

[Clint Lamor]

Ok I just looked at the DirecTV website and it says $69.99 a month for 4 months for the Sunday Ticket. I would call and talk to someone else. That CSR was not correct according to the DirecTV website.

[mjones73]

They give you the Total Choice Premier package for free for 4 months if you pay for ST. After the 4 months they start billing you the monthy price for TCP. You have the option of dropping to one of the lesser TC packages at that time.

[Blitz68]

They give you the Total Choice Premier package for free for 4 months if you pay for ST. After the 4 months they start billing you the monthy price for TCP. You have the option of dropping to one of the lesser TC packages at that time.

This is correct. Plus you get the portable DVD player.

And the best programming around :D

[Blitz68]

Earl probably got the DVD player even tho he is an old sub :mad:

[ajwillys]

well thanks for all the info, we called direct tv last night and this sunday ticket thing is way too much money, they want another $80.00 or so once their "introductory" offer expires, they give you 4 months free basically but my wife says that that doesnt even take her into the playoffs so and thats $80.00 a month on top of the other $99.00 or so for the other channels and programming, do people really pay $200.00 a month just for watching tv?:confused: :confused:
later this week my wife will see what pricing dish has to offer, one nice thing about dish is that you can use one box for two displays

I got the same deal, the price is $69 online and about $80 after taxes, fees, etc... and that is for four months and includes pretty much everything (two receivers, dvr service, hd service, sunday ticket). After that, you can change your programming to whatever you want and continue on at the price of the package you choose. The Sunday Ticket IS only four months (17 regular season weeks)but that is all you need because all the playoffs games are aired nationally on network TV.

[Blitz68]

It is a great deal bud, sounds like someone who did not know what they were talking about missled you...happens sometimes.

I called yesterday to get a buddy setup and argued with the csr on the phone for about 15 minutes. she was telling me the HR10-250 can do MPEG 4, good lord.

[NoMax]

If you live for football then get D*. There is really no other reason since E* has more channels and its cheaper.

NM

[mailiang]

If you live for football then get D*. There is really no other reason since E* has more channels and its cheaper.

NM

Not necessarily.:nono2: It depends on your program options. If your not quite ready for HD, D offers the best bang for the buck. With Total Choice and my local sports channels that include YES interactive and SNY, I have 38 more channels and pay $5.00 less a month then I did when I had E's Top 120. There is only one monthly $5.99 DVR fee and I'm not penalized with a $5.00 programming charge if I decide to down grade or drop a premium channel.


Ian ;)

[Mike D-CO5]

True Mailiang on the sd part of the Directv service, but if you want hd and that is the future of tv, then Dish is still the best bang for the buck. For 104.99 you get all the 30 hd channels , all the sd channels, NO DVR fees at all and your locals if available. Dish has more sd locals and is going to finish the rest of the country soon. Especially if they lose distant networks. Directv has more hd locals than Dish but Dish will compete on this front as well in the near future. I get my local networks in hd along with the rest of the Platinum pack for $104.99 Dish's mpeg 4 hd dvr is only $199.00 to lease and $ 499.00 to own. Directv is more expensive to even lease their just released hd mpeg 4 receiver - with no ota tuners enabled yet till October.

[mailiang]

Dish has more sd locals

Not in my area.


True Mailiang on the sd part of the Directv service, but if you want hd and that is the future of tv, then Dish is still the best bang for the buck. For 104.99 you get all the 30 hd channels , all the sd channels, NO DVR fees at all and your locals if available. Dish has more sd locals and is going to finish the rest of the country soon. Especially if they lose distant networks. Directv has more hd locals than Dish but Dish will compete on this front as well in the near future. I get my local networks in hd along with the rest of the Platinum pack for $104.99 Dish's mpeg 4 hd dvr is only $199.00 to lease and $ 499.00 to own. Directv is more expensive to even lease their just released hd mpeg 4 receiver - with no ota tuners enabled yet till October.


I agree. Since E took over Zoom they have been light years in front of D when it comes to HD. I'm certain that D realizes this and it's not like that don't have the money or technology to compete. They are going to launch a new bird to help them expand, but putting all this in place will take time. D's 5 LNB dish is no match for E's smaller more practical 3 LNB version, and reconfiguring D's system may not be feasible to reduce the amount of LNB's. That alone would be an issue for people like me who live in a condo or apartment. Personally when I switch to HD it will probably be with Verizon's new fios. Until then cable (in most areas) is probably the best choice dollar for dollar when it comes to HD, since they have the extra bandwidth and most cable providers don't charge extra for the equipment upgrade.

Ian

[DCSholtis]

I'm not penalized with a $5.00 programming charge if I decide to down grade or drop a premium channel.
Ian ;)

Your right. If you make a add a channel or a package then decide within 30 days you want to delete it its a $10.00 charge not $5. You USED to be able to switch around at will. But I guess too many ppl used to "rent" HBO or Showtime etc for the weekend or a night then drop it say if there was a boxing match or something going on.

[mailiang]

Your right. If you make a add a channel or a package then decide within 30 days you want to delete it its a $10.00 charge not $5.

I have no problem with DTV's 30 day policy for premium programing. However with Dish they hit me with a programing fee when I switched from the Top 180 to the Top 120 package. Of course if you wanted to up grade, it didn't cost a thing.:rolleyes: If you dropped a premium channel like HBO, or down graded your package, they would would hit you with the fee whether you had it for 6 days or 6 years, and that just doesn't seem right to me. :nono2:

Ian :mad:

[finaldiet]

well thanks for all the info, we called direct tv last night and this sunday ticket thing is way too much money, they want another $80.00 or so once their "introductory" offer expires, they give you 4 months free basically but my wife says that that doesnt even take her into the playoffs so and thats $80.00 a month on top of the other $99.00 or so for the other channels and programming, do people really pay $200.00 a month just for watching tv?:confused: :confused:
later this week my wife will see what pricing dish has to offer, one nice thing about dish is that you can use one box for two displays

I believe you were quoted the wrong. Also, they have an offer every 6 months for $20 off TCP. Standing offer every 6 mos. You can get $5 off every 6 mos. for HD programming. Just ASK! Every 6 mos. I would call and get $25 off both packages.:D

[harsh]

And the best programming around :DUnless you want HD programming...

[Blitz68]

Unless you want HD programming...

Not true. Only currently. Everyone knows in the next couple of years DTV will be the leader in HD. Just be patient :D

[harsh]

Not true. Only currently. Everyone knows in the next couple of years DTV will be the leader in HD. Just be patient :DThis is indicated by what? The bandwidth to deliver doesn't guarantee that the channels will be there. As it is, the bandwidth is at least a year off. You could be in and out of a Dish 18 month commitment before DirecTV catches up and you might be able to avail yourself of some new subscriber benefits should you decide to return.

Again, I'm jaded because they don't offer my HD LIL yet (it was scheduled for last month).

[Newshawk]

well thanks for all the info, we called direct tv last night and this sunday ticket thing is way too much money, they want another $80.00 or so once their "introductory" offer expires, they give you 4 months free basically but my wife says that that doesnt even take her into the playoffs so and thats $80.00 a month on top of the other $99.00 or so for the other channels and programming, do people really pay $200.00 a month just for watching tv?:confused: :confused:
later this week my wife will see what pricing dish has to offer, one nice thing about dish is that you can use one box for two displays

Here's the deal, funlvr-for $69.99 a month for four months, you get the NFL Sunday Ticket, and D* throws in it's most expensive package, Totla Choice Premier, for free. Once the four months are up, you can keep the TCPremium at $99.99 a month or switch to any other package D* offers, from Total Choice Family at $29.99 on up to Total Choice Plus at $49.99/month. You can also add up to five different premium packages, with the first on at $12 a month and the rest dropping in price as you add them.

As far as your wife's concern that NFL ST doesn't get her through the playoffs-she's right, but that's only because all the playoff games are available on the national networks to everyone, so ther's no "out of market" games to sell via NFL ST.

As for the two room setup E* offers with some of its receivers, consider this-the second room has to suffer with a crappy UHF signal. If you like good PQ, you won't get it there!

[Newshawk]

Again, I'm jaded because they don't offer my HD LIL yet (it was scheduled for last month).

I'm betting you have your Portland HD LiLs today. Am I correct?