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DISH Network ve Direct TV
This thread has 7 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Thursday September 30, 1999 at 00:13
David
Historic Forum Post
OK can someone tell me what the difference is between the major competitors in the Satellite biz? Are the receivers the same? Do they both use H cards? Is the reception quality equal (both for Dolby Dig and MPEG pic compression).

Is one better then the other?
OP | Post 2 made on Thursday September 30, 1999 at 14:13
RickB
Historic Forum Post
Check out the programming choices on their respective web sites. A general statement would be that DirecTV offers a better selection of sports programming, at least a year ago when I went that way. If you like football and basketball and are willing to pay the price, DTV has it all.
OP | Post 3 made on Friday October 8, 1999 at 10:58
dave
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Direct TV is the only supplier of NFL Sunday Ticket. Enough said.
OP | Post 4 made on Friday October 8, 1999 at 14:33
Todd J. Derr
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I wouldn't quite say "enough said".

If you don't mind having two dishes, you can get the best of both worlds (IMO) - get your regular programming from Dish and buy sports packages from DirecTV, so don't let that alone sway your decision. I picked up a bottom-of-the-line Hughes receiver & dish (still very nice, only thing really lacking is digital out and VCR control functions) for $80, plus an extra $20 for 100 feet of cable and some bolts, so the extra cost was minimal. It's actually a bit of a plus in that I can do Picture-in-Picture, with one coming from each satellite.

If you try this, note that some people seem to get roped into buying a 5.99/mo "package" from DTV that has 3-4 crap channels --- but you shouldn't be required to do this. I get NHL Center Ice and nothing else - I paid $119 and pay no monthly charges. Seems to depend on who you talk to at DTV.

I went with Dish initially because of the great deal they had - $300 rebate on equipment for comitting to $48.99/mo of programming (AT100 package plus 2 movie channels). I bought a 2 receiver system for less than that online so I "made" a few bucks. You almost definately want to buy your equipment online. The prices are much cheaper than in the stores and the online dealers will tell you why - they get a big 'kickback' from the provider for new subscribers (like $200+/each); they take some of this as profit and use some to lower prices.

Dish also had a few extra channels at the time (fX, which my girlfriend wouldn't go without, being one of them), although DTV has this now. Dish still offers a 'superstations' package for $5/mo which gives you a bunch of WB/UPN affiliates. If you're into those (WB has feeds from 3 time zones!) or syndicated reruns (seinfeld is on at 3 different times, also things like frasier, friends, etc.) then it's a great deal, and not available on DTV.

Unfortunately, Speedvision is only available on DTV; although I'm moderately into racing I don't care too much since my Fox Sports channel also carries the F1 races (replayed at a 'reasonable' hour to boot :)

Otherwise, their prices for programming are very close; Dish might be a bit cheaper for premium channels. DirecTV has more PPV (50-70 I think vs. 12 or 24 with Dish), but not many more movies on the PPV - mainly just more times for the same things.

You'll hear this all over the web but I didn't believe it until I tried it - DirecTV customer service is about the worst thing I've ever experienced. They'll pick up the phone fast when you're calling to activate your equipment, but otherwise forget it. I tried to call them last week on Friday afternoon, picked something like "talk to a representative" from their menu, and - I'm swear I'm not making this up - I got a recording that said "Due to high call volume, customer service is unable to answer your call at this time. [click]". Not even an option to wait on hold, no option to leave a message, you're just screwed!!! I repeated this process a few times and then got smart and decided to pick "pay your bill by credit card". Luckily this got me a person and not some automated thing... and pretty quickly too. So, it's pretty obvious that your questions aren't important to them, but your money sure is!

Anyways, that's my take on them. Now the race to provide local channels is on (actually I could get them from Dish now with yet another dish but I'm hoping they move them to where I can pick them up using my dish 500). I'm not sure what I'll do when my year commitment to Dish is up - locals could sway my decision, although I do have more and better Dish equipment than DTV, I'm sure DTV will give me a deal to switch.
OP | Post 5 made on Sunday January 2, 2000 at 20:38
Roger Linkenhoker
Historic Forum Post
As someone that sold his DTV equipment to buy DISH, let me tell you that DISH is the choice. They're more responsive, give more bang for the buck, and are poised to give better and more channels in the future. Sure, DTV offers the sports packages exclusively, for now. But what are they really offering? The hype it as having "all of the NFL games available". But how many of those games can you watch at one time? Besides, the typical NFL market gets 5 games per week, on average.

I bought the NBA package one year so that I could watch my favorite out-of-market team any time I wanted. I'll bet that I didn't watch half of their games that were available. And whenever they played in my home city the game was blacked out, even though I had paid to see it!!

I love DISH. They forced RCA to lower the prices of their systems, and I believe that they have kept the price of programming down. I do have one thing to say good about DTV, though. I was able to sell my old system to some sucker on eBay for $450, and he was glad to have it!! Guess there really is one born every minute.
OP | Post 6 made on Monday January 3, 2000 at 11:22
Lew Stead
Historic Forum Post
Both systems are completely adequate. The reception is great. DirecTV has a slightly sharper and brighter picture. Dish is a bit more muted and softer. But both are higher than anything you'll see on any cable system. It's a matter of preference.

Figure out if either system has anything you can't live without. I'm probably switching back to DirecTV because I can't live without Fox Sports World. I would say that DISH is the best choice, unless there is something you really want on DirecTV.

Probably the best receiver is the DISHplayer from DISH. It has several TIVO-like abilities. The Hughes receivers seem to be the ones of choice for DirecTV. At this point, with either system, I'd look for a brand new system that comes with a dual focus dish as both are moving towards a two satellite position solution in order to add new channels, particularly local ones.
OP | Post 7 made on Tuesday January 4, 2000 at 09:30
billy c
Historic Forum Post
hi...Lew and Roger, i agree with both of you....u both make valid points , as i sell and install both types of systems.....i prefer directv simply for the sports, and both offer 32bit processor's by the various manufacturer's in their respective rcvrs.,although i feel that the output from the directv systems is superior to ' dish ', they both are very close....BUT a major difference on the east coast , or at least around massachusetts, is that u dont need a second dish, with a multi-switcher to get off-air reception from directv.....big plus, less wires, less matrixing in the system, equals= a picture with more gain from the source to ur tv set, or display device.....plus, there is a million used directv rcvrs and dishes out there, or at least around here for the pickin' as second , third or 4th receivers , THEY are real cheap.....their elliptical dish will also have a provision for a 3rd LNB within the month, besides the 2 that are supplied with it.
...which means, u will be able to get the Paratodas signal(spanish and ethnic channels), regular directv signals/programs, and the hi-def signals....all three, or any one or two of the three that u may choose..just aim the dish according to your satellite preference....DISH does not afford the end user that option....plus right after the CES show in Vegas, which is next week, u will hear about some more programming options , even more channels maybe, which will keep directv in the programming forefront;directv has a MUCH higher channel capacity than does dish, with many more transponders available since they purchased Primestar Satellite Co.....i guess they wanna stay 'numero uno '.....by the way PPV channels on directv are from chan's 100-200, which i think equates to around 100, plus or minus the dirty channels and johnny carson, and whatever BS propoganda channels they may want to use.....happy satellite tuning
billy c
northeast satcomm
OP | Post 8 made on Thursday January 6, 2000 at 10:19
Roger Linkenhoker
Historic Forum Post
Billy, I can't really get into any intelligent debates about the technical aspects of DISH vs DTV. All that I know is that my DISH picture look as good as, if not better than my DTV ever did. Dish can offer me one-dish local channels in Denver, not NYC or Boston, today. Dish offers better packages for the money, even though things have probably gotten better on that front since USSB went away, and DTV users no longer have to worry about two invoices a month. As far as the PPV is concerned, even though DTV has 100 channels reserved, most of them are dedicated to multiple start times for the same movies, or for what I consider "Grade B" movies that I would never pay to watch in a million years. True, I would like to see DISH increase their PPV channels a little, and I believe that with DISH 500 you get that, I really am not that hung up on it, since I have a hard time justifying spending 3 bucks to watch a movie that will be on the premiums next month. Besides, with my new DVD player, I'd just as soon have Netflix send it to me and watch it on DVD.

As a disclaimer, I must admit that I am still a little PO's at DTV/RCA because I went out and bought a first generation system for about $1500, got it home and found that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Within a year and a half DISH came out with some great hardware/programming deals and the price of the RCA systems went from over $1000 to under $200 overnight. I understand that's the American way, but I'll always admire DISH more for being the one to bring realistic pricing to the market.


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