[Da Rafsta]

Which has been the best product thus far for you. I've dropped T.W. in favor of DirecTV....but now, I'm wondering if I should have gone Dish Network instead. Any suggestions, comments, recommendations from you guys?

 

[Da Rafsta]

Man...no insight whatsoever?


Why have you Dish subscribers opted in favor of Dish over DirecTV, and why do you remain a Dish customer over considering switching?

 

[shortspark]

I just signed up for Dish a few minutes ago. They will install my vip622 in the next couple of days. I had been a long time D* subscriber, ever since they started about a dozen years ago. During this time D* has been a good provider and I have had no complaints with the equipment, customer service, signal, etc. So, why did I switch? I thought long and hard about it but the HD programs are quite extensive on Dish whereas Directv has not moved much in furthering their HD offerings. Dish has just about every HD channel available.

But the real issue was the music channels. Sirius has one particular channel that just went on line that I must have and Dish has it as part of its package. D* has XM which I don't care for much and they won't let me record any of XMs broadcasts to my dvr (Directivo). Dish has no such restrictions and I can record, save and playback my music channels whenever I want. Finally, I heard their vip622 is as good as it gets for what it does.

My only reservation is not being able to use my Directivo - I love that thing. That aside, I think I made a good choice. Of course the proof is in the pudding so I am not taking down my D* dish and equipment until I have tested Dish for at least a week - we shall see.

 

[Da Rafsta]

Thanks shorspark! You notice a difference in pricing?

 

[kevreh]

My only reservation is not being able to use my Directivo - I love that thing. That aside, I think I made a good choice. Of course the proof is in the pudding so I am not taking down my D* dish and equipment until I have tested Dish for at least a week - we shall see.

I recently moved on from my Directivo to the 622, and can tell you to fear not. The 622 works a lot faster, has more options, and is all around a better solution. I had the Series 1 Directivo for ~5 years and was also apprehensive about going to the 622. The only reason I can think why someone would miss Tivo is that the interface is simpler and more cutesy.

To answer Da Rafsta, I went to Dish primarily because they get 25+ channels of HD and D* doesn't. For the SD channels, I think the image quality is better now that I've had it a week. Maybe this is unfair because it could be a compression issue with the PVR's, but if you read around there's a lot of talk about D*'s macroblocking, overcompressing, and bandwidth issues.

Let me know if you have any other questions...it was a scary jump to E* but am glad I did it!

Kevin

 

[dishrich]

Well, let's see what happens the first time one of your DISH DVR's reformats & dumps your entire hardrive of shows - there's a dealer over on Claude's board this morning crying in his beer about loosing 100 hrs worth of shows on a 622...

I have done the exact opposite, switching many longtime E* customers over to D*, specifically for the D* Tivo. It only took a couple of days in all cases for them to ask "why didn't they do this sooner". You could NOT pry a D-Tivo out of ANY of these folk's hands. (nor mine - I have 4 myself, with 2 new units for backup, in case something fatal happens to any of mine) And, I have NEVER, EVER heard of a D-Tivo dumping it's hardrive. (unless due to a complete HD crash) As far as I'm concerned - this would be the main reason why I would NEVER try to depend on an E* DVR to get all my shows.

To the OP - there are plenty of posts on 3+ well know boards (this being one of them) that will answer your questions. It should give you several afternoons worth of reading for you to decide for yourself - you will NEVER get everyone to agree on which IS better, so you will have to do this on your own.

 

[Da Rafsta]

I hear ya dishrich....I concur as well. Gotta do it on my own.

I really appreciate all you guys piching in the way you have. Thanks a whole lot!

 

[harsh]

Well, let's see what happens the first time one of your DISH DVR's reformats & dumps your entire hardrive of shows - there's a dealer over on Claude's board this morning crying in his beer about loosing 100 hrs worth of shows on a 622...

Suffice it to say that it has indeed happened. DTiVo users who want HD content are in a horrible bind. DTiVo SD users should be fine for another 2.5 years.

• If you want DTiVo, you can't have much HD and much of what you can receive today will be reduced in a matter of months.
• If you want the most HD, you need to be with Dish Network.
• If you can't get DTiVo, you're stuck with some pretty shakey DVR options in the R15 and HR20 over in DirecTV land.
• DirecTV has a two year commitment versus the 1.5 year commit at Dish Network.
• DirecTV has fewer SD local markets but more HD local markets (although many are less than the promised four networks).

What is best for a particular subscriber is up to the subscriber. One must establish a list of priorities and go from there. Dismissing one or the other provider out of hand because of a rare or inconsequential issue is no way to make a decision.

 

[clay_w]

Suffice it to say that it has indeed happened. DTiVo users who want HD content are in a horrible bind. DTiVo SD users should be fine for another 2.5 years.

• If you want DTiVo, you can't have much HD and much of what you can receive today will be reduced in a matter of months.
• If you want the most HD, you need to be with Dish Network.
• If you can't get DTiVo, you're stuck with some pretty shakey DVR options in the R15 and HR20 over in DirecTV land.
• DirecTV has a two year commitment versus the 1.5 year commit at Dish Network.
• DirecTV has fewer SD local markets but more HD local markets (although many are less than the promised four networks).

What is best for a particular subscriber is up to the subscriber. One must establish a list of priorities and go from there. Dismissing one or the other provider out of hand because of a rare or inconsequential issue is no way to make a decision.

And I have been considering the jump to Dish for another reason - the lastest software update to my HDTivo has caused so many audio drop (mostly on Fox OTA). It wouldn't be so bad if D* would at least give an eta on a fix....

 

[Ohioankev]

And I have been considering the jump to Dish for another reason - the lastest software update to my HDTivo has caused so many audio drop (mostly on Fox OTA). It wouldn't be so bad if D* would at least give an eta on a fix....

My experience with cable dvr through Charter's Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 box is that it can't hold a torch compared to my 625. The sad part is i'm planning on going back to this box just to get my locals after Dec. 1st.

Dish Networks EPG is better, especially after recent update (Episode numbers, original air dates etc.)
SA Explorer 8000 only has an 80 Gig HD, where the DISH seems to have a 100 gig (assuming 1 hour = 1 gig)
The menu system on the DISH is better than the menu system on my cables set top box.

Also it seems my cable company has problems keeping audio after airing a Charter commerical... usually resulting in a box reset. I noticed sometimes the audio drops on some of the stuff my dish 625 records too.

I don't have an HD box but i know in my area DISH network is the way to go between the cable company here... Cable only has 7 HD channels. (2 locals, Discovery, HBO, Starz, ESPN, TNT)

 

[bderouen]

Which has been the best product thus far for you. I've dropped T.W. in favor of DirecTV....but now, I'm wondering if I should have gone Dish Network instead. Any suggestions, comments, recommendations from you guys?

Hi! It's funny you should ask that. I have been a DirecTV customer for about 2 years and was overall very satisified. That was until I just moved to my first home and scheduled my move. The call center rep I spoke with was VERy helpful and very nice. He worked out some great deals for me to switch to the HD-DVR and i was excited about it.

The problem came in when I was supposed to have my install this past Wednesday. The guy showed up 6 HOURS LATE!!!...this was 9pm at night! Then he started giving me hogwash about no line of site...not willing to try some alternative placements and generally was working on one excuse after another. This was on top of him looking like hell and having an old broken down truck...and generally not looking very professional, in my opinion He offered to get someone to call and come give me a '2nd opinion.' The problem is they never called. I had to call them and then the nearest date they can get ot me is 2 weeks from now...and this is after having to wait 2 weeks for THIS date!

Anyway, I did some research on Dish and found some very interesting information. I phoned them and they are coming out Wednesday to hook me up! Their equipment seems very interesting...particularly their HD-DVR, cuz it'll support an HD set and a SD set.

Anyway, They are giving me a 30 day satisifcation guarantee, so if I'm not happy with the Dish service, I'll have them tear it out and will keep the DTV appt on the 11th, but if their customer service is any indication of what their service is like, I think I'm gonna like this.

Bruce