DIRECTV vs. DISH

My parents had Dish, and my wife and I have DirecTV, so I have used both in the last several years. I was “thinking” about switching to Dish after watching some commercials, but I did a little research first. These are my findings:

With DirecTV, we currently have the “Choice Xtra” package, which runs $66 a month (in our 2nd year, got half off for the 1st year). It includes all the channels that myself, my wife, and my 3 year old son enjoy watching. Four of those channels are H2, Military, Nat Geo Wild and Science. To get those 4 channels with Dish, you HAVE to buy the “250” package which is $70 per month after the 1st year.

With DirecTV’s HD DVR (the box was free with our subscription) we can record 100 hours of HD or 400 hours of SD programming. With Dish you only get 55 hours of HD, unless you buy an external hard drive and connect it. FYI:1 hour of HD = 6 GB of space.

All of this data comes straight from both of the companies’ websites. You can research it for yourself.

Yes Dish has more satellites than DirecTV which may/may not give you more reliable reception. Dish also has the Blockbuster Movie Pass, but if you have Netflix/Hulu+ it’s a toss up as to what you stream from.

DirecTV has the lower price and better HD DVR service, hands down. The proof is in the numbers! I’ll be staying with DirecTV.

Well, had the Dish Network and got suckered into DirecTV. DirecTV is better on overall price without the sports package but don’t think you will be able to pause live tv like Dish has. Once you have it you will always want it. As soon as my DirecTV contract is up were going back to Dish.

I’ve had nothing but excellent service from Dish Network. The technicians have all been extremely helpful (even doing a little extra wiring to leave me room to grow) at initial installation and after a move, and customer service is very responsive. My billing has always been accurate and my equipment has never had problems that couldn’t be solved quickly. I recently noticed they offer sling-equipped boxes and the CSR (operator BAS) was very friendly as she answered all my questions and helped me make the best choice. I can’t imagine I would ever leave Dish. I like them enough that I looked for a review site to leave a good review on; most people only do that for bad reviews.

I liked my service I had with Directv, but they didn’t have a wide variety of international channels. I am interest in the French package, Direct didn’t carry it. My contract ends this month, therefore I will take the opportunity to try Dish Network. As soon as my 24 months are up I will switch back if Direct add more international channels.

I am not a Dish Network customer and after the experience I had over the phone with one of their managers I will never be. On Tuesday I called looking for quotes on services provided in my area, Richlands, NC. The lady I spoke with ran an application, although I only wanted quotes for cable, internet, and possibly phone. When I stated I was not interested in starting services, she stated that she would have to have a manger close the application. The manager that I spoke to was rude, pushy, and hung up on me not giving me the opportunity to get quotes on anything but cable. This was after I tried to explain to him the point of my phone call, he wanted to hear nothing that I had to say except to tell me “we all have bills to pay, and our services are the cheapest.” The point of this email is to inform you that people are not always looking for the cheapest deals. Many customers are looking for getting the best deal for their dollar, and above all else customer service. I signed up with Direct TV this week, and they are by far the cheapest, but their level of professionalism is worth not having to deal with the disrespect that Dish network gave me. I am sure they will not lose money over not having me as a customer, but rest assured that I will educate anyone interested in their services and what they may have to deal with a one time or another.

After 12 years I decided to make a change from DirecTV to Dish. They installed my new equipments on Friday and Saturday, after an all day snowday, the satellite went out and never came back. Here I am with no service whatsoever at the moment.
In theory the technician will come back today, but honestley? I loved my DirecTV. I wish I had never changed over and now I am bound by a two year contract…
Dish is ok when it works, and customer service is very friendly, but DirecTV is much, much better (not the customer service…lol).

Sometimes the hd picture quality on Dish is questionable. It’s like it looks better than SD on some channels, but not quite HD. I am certain it isn’t my tv because I had my tv in the living room hooked up to hd cable previously and the picture was a lot better. It looked like glass with cable! Sometimes when the picture moves in a scene with Dish, the colors run together slightly. Other times of the day, the Dish picture looks great. Kinda weird. I have two lcds and one plasma, all hooked up to HD with Dish, and all of the tvs do this.

In terms of Dish vs cable with respect to pricing, you’re probably going to save a few bucks each month with Dish even after your promo rates run out because cable can be very expensive, especially when you have several hd tvs and want Dvrs in each room. If picture quality isn’t as important to you as multi-room configurations are, and for multiple rooms, I would recommend Dish.

The Dish television service itelf is pretty darn good, once you have everything straightened out. You REALLY have to watch the installers because they will cut corners whenever they can, bring the wrong equipment and try to install it anyways, and just do an overall piss-poor job. Some might argue (including Dish Reps) that they’re paid by the job, and that’s why they cut corners. UMMMM Did I miss something here? I am a paying customer, right? Tired of the excuses Dish. Just fix it.

In Feb 2011 I ordered a 722 Box and a 612. That would have given us HD in two out of three rooms and DVR access in all three rooms. The tech showed up with a 722 and a 211K (non-dvr). I reluctantly let him install it but was not happy. We recently upgraded to two 612s and dropped the 722, and that tech showed up with only one 612 so we had to wait over three hours for him to go get another one.

The orignal install tech in Feb 2011 installed our system on a Monday, and I took the day off of work so that I could be home. A supervisor had to come back the next day (Tuesday) to “finish” the job because he failed to run new RG6 to the two HD rooms, ran the coax from the Dish into the gutter of the house without securing it, left tools, connectors, trash all over the place, coax across the front of the house not secured, and a number of other things. The second tech said that he did a horrible job and he apologized several times. He even went as far to say that it was the worst install job he had ever seen. I took another day off of work because of their ignorance.

When I upgraded my third room to HD, I ran my own high-quality RG6 through my attic from the master bedroom to the side of the house so that I knew that it would be done right. All the tech had to do was show up and hook the box up (still $115 dollars).

I won’t even go into how crappy the 722 box was. We think it was defective. It never worked right and whenever I called to complain they wanted me to run trouble-shooting again and again and then were rude and snappy with me. I did everything they said and all they could offer me was an upgrade and a new two year agreement.

Get it together, DISH. Customers don’t care if it’s the tech’s fault, or the person who took the orignal order, or whomever. Stop blaming everybody else for your creative incompetence and start taking some responsibilty for your actions, or lack thereof. Dish is a business, right? There is some kind of break-down between the original call-takers who take new orders and the techs who ultimately show up to install the equipment. Also, operators who get snappy when it isn’t necessary only makes things worse. It isn’t like people like to call the 800 number constantly with problems. I personally would rather be watching tv.

I am very unhappy with Dish. Was told had 30 days to cancel. When I went to cancel, was informed that it was actually only 24 hours, and there would be a $425 charge. Was not told that Dish is incompatible with our TiVo service. If you have TiVo, do NOT switch. It’s a nightmare. After several phone calls, learned that we’d gotten service through “GoDish,” an authorized subsidiary of Dish Network, rather than directly through Dish. Dish Network refused to honor the promises made by GoDish. We’ll switch as soon as possible.

I just switched from DishNetwork to Direct TV a month ago and I really miss my Dish!
The Cons of Direct TV: The guide display on Direct sucks… It cuts off the titles in the box and only displays what will play for the next hour vs. Dish, where you could see the next few hours.
Direct TV has a tiny fraction of the storage space for recordings vs Dish. I had hundreds of shows recorded and never filled it up on Dish. With Direct TV, I have maybe 50 shows and it’s at 50% capacity.
The remote function: There is no toggle to go back and forth on Direct TV between 2 shows like with Dish. Direct TV says to hit the arrow down button twice, but it always goes to some random channel I have never clicked on before rather than what I was last watching!
For the second TV in a second room: WIth Direct TV you have to have a second machine (with Dish, one machine runs 2 rooms). You cannot pause live TV on that second TV, and it totally sucks because we use that function all the time.
On Direct TV, while skipping through commercials that are recorded, it’s more like fast forwarding. It jumps in short increments. With Dish, it will skip an entire commercial with one click. For Direct, it takes 2-4 clicks to get through one commercial.
There is a big delay on the receiver from the remote. In guide, I’ll be scrolling down and it will often be 5 ro 6 clicks behind me and I’ll have to wait for it to catch up . The receiver just doesn’t get the signal nearly as fast. With Dish, it was instant. It’s a real pain to wait. It’s like going back to dial up vs. a cable connection.
The Pros of Direct TV:
When you record a bunch of one show, it only shows one heading for that show so you don’t have to scroll through 100 of the same title when searching recordings. Just click it and all the episodes will drop down.
If you are watching a show and press the guide, you can still pause, rewind, etc. whatever you are watching even though it’s only the tiny box in the corner. With Dish, the controls don’t work on the program while in guide mode.
Smart search is just a couple clicks away on Direct ( But more necesary because only one or two at a time is displayed at a time in the guide)
I definately like Dish better. The most used functions are much more effective, faster and more convenient.