Directv vs. Dish Network

[CelisHorn]

My folks have had directv for years and my fiancee has dish, while I'm still using cable. However, I'm about to move into a new house and get one or the other. Which is better? I'm assuming both have comparable prices, but tell me about the other aspects. Does one have channels the other doesn't like ESPNU? Do you have to pay extra for directv tivo r dish's dvr? What about installation? Who installs on the weekends? Do either of them still require you to pay extra for local stations? Thanks in advance.

 

[Rusk]

They both still require extra money for locals, but they aren't necessary if you get a strong signal, you can use an antenna in your attic or whatever.

I think the DirecTV-Tivo service is another 5 or 7 bucks or something.

The DirecTV-Tivo boxes have dual tuners which is cool. The stand-alone regular TiVo boxes only have one tuner, so you can only record one thing at a time, and if you are recording something you can't watch anything else.

The dual tuner DirecTV-Tivo allows you to either record two things at the same time, or record one thing while channel surfing on the other tuner.

My dad has a DirecTV-Tivo High Def box. He uses an over-the-air antenna for the locals (all of which are digitals in Dallas), and he has the HD package for DirecTV, (which right now is like 5 channels).

The over-the-air antenna cable, the HD sat cable, and the regular sat cable all plug into the one box, and then it presents everything together on one channel guide. So he doesn't have to switch around sources or anything, every channel is on the same guide regardless of the source it is coming from. It works really well.

 

[Orange Infused]

I recently switched from Direct tv to Dish Network, and am very happy............I get more channels (I got the 180 channel plan v. the Direct tv plan that had a little over a 100 channels), have the service hooked up to three tv's (I previously had it hooked up to only one), and 1 DVR receiver (that is good for two of the tv's), and pay about $5/month less than I was paying for Direct tv................they didn't charge me anything for installation, and did come out and do it on a Sunday (the only day I had free)..............my only complaint was that the first three weeks, I had problems with losing the signal for the "110 sattelite" which caused me to not be able to receive some of my channels.............it was kind of inconvenient since I had to wait until the following Sunday (due to MY schedule) from someone to come out...............finally, after this going on for three weeks, the technician took out the first receiver, and exchanged it for another one....................since then, NO PROBLEMS.................AND, the service person I spoke to on their customer service line offered (without my asking) to credit my bill for the difference in cost (until the problem was fixed) between the 120 plan, and the 180 plan since it seemed to be those higher tier channels that I was not able to receive....................I questioned my decision to switch those first couple of weeks, but since the problem got ironed out, I couldn't be happier.

Hope this helps.

 

[Bob in Houston]

I've had DTV for about five years. I don't plan to switch because DTV is the only service that has the supplemental NCAA basketball tournament package. If you want the NFL's supplemental package, they are the only place for that as well.

As far as the rest of it goes, DTV and Dish are comparable. My parents had DTV at their last house but switched to Dish for their new one and are fine with it.

As far as ESPNU goes, I don't know if Dish carries it. DTV does, but it's part of the tier of supplemental sports channels that costs extra.