I want to quit time warner cable....Which is better, Dish or Direct?

[VeraAgnes]

Tell me your experiences, I don't care for sports but want cable news, local channels. food network, green planet channel, scifi, hbo/showtime stuff.

How is the service? What doe you know about the xm channels on Direct TV?

[Cattledog]

1. I have directv

and have no complaints.

[Emillereid]

2. DISH is best - they have 24/7 free speech TV where you can se Democracy

NOW as well as other incredible programs. They also carry LINK TV. Besides I think Direct TV is owned by Murdoch.

[VeraAgnes]

5. Now I want that.

We get a poor picture of the show here on "local cable"...can hardly hear the program, visual scratchy....no surprise there with a red media.

Oh, if Murdock owns Direct......I'm off the viewers list.

How is Dish Service? How do you get started? What are the hidden costs, purchases etc.....

[grannie4peace]

3. i don't like directv- they stole money from me!!!

dishnet is cheaper- but it's not as organized . but directv stole over $200. from my bank account.

[VeraAgnes]

12. I don't need that!!!

:scared: :scared: :scared: :hi:

[grannie4peace]

16. i was so pissed off.

i transfered all my $ out of my account & hid it at another bank while i change my card. i hope that part doesn't cost much!!!:hi: :hi: rupert murdock owns directv. i don't like him anyway!on dishnet i watched obama station today . it was cool :):):) i'm happy w/ dishnet but you have to get used to different #'s for networks & the dvr is a little hokey

[VeraAgnes]

The numbers look disorganized

and not in like groups, numbers are high count. I'll have to make a cheat-sheet.:wow:

[goclark]

4. I can't stand T Worst

I just don't have the energy to go through all the time to change services.

Which is At and T's nw service?

I have an At and T Digital phone -- don't like it either.

The internet is not too bad so far.

[VeraAgnes]

9. I don't get local NBC now because they

Time Warner want it free.....so no Heroes, no NBC shows at all.

I'm not bound to them! So, I'm researching now. I move into my newly built condo at the end of the month.... It's also a Green Community.

[virgdem]

6. I've had Dish Satellite since 1995...

and I'm very satisfied with the programming. They carry Free Speech TV and Link, which has very interesting programming, and best of all, it is not owned by Rupert Murdoch, who owns Direct TV. The service is good and the channel selection is equal to Direct TV.

[GreenPartyVoter]

18. Me too. There are some great documentaries playing on LINK lately.

[Hokie]

7. Depends

Dish has better receivers. Their DVR's are way better than anything cable has. Each receiver allows you to hook up another TV and watch a separate channel. With Direct TV you need to add a box for every TV. Direct TV has more HD channels but Dish is catching up as time goes by. Both had more HD than cable. HD locals are hit and miss. If you live in a major city you can probably get them. If you live in a smaller market it is hit and miss.

[VeraAgnes]

15. I'm in a big/medium city.

Dish has a large market push here. Especially since Time Warner screwed with the local NBC programs....we don't have them at all. They tell us they are in negotiations......to go online and watch your show they say!

Oh, I'm mad!

[magellan]

8. It really boils down to deciding what channels you want

...and then comparing the packages from Dish and Direct side by side to see which gives you the better price. For us that's Dish, we've been very happy with them for four years.

[NavyDavy]

10. directv is the best....dish has piss poor service and fewer channels

for more money!!!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

11. I have Dish Network

I get Free Speech TV with Amy Goodman's Democracy Now. I also get French language television which is interesting. I don't know whether you get this with Direct TV. I've had occasional glitches with Dish Network. Every time a large jet flies overhead, the signal is momentarily lost and there are times when the signal goes out in high winds or heavy rains. But the tech support is extremely helpful and polite. It's a little expensive, I think, but worth it.

[VeraAgnes]

14. OOPS

I live near the airport but rarely any overhead flights at my new condo address...

[EvolveOrConvolve]

35. I live right under the flight path

for both landing and departing flights, I've had Dish since 1998, and NEVER had a problem.

DirecTV screwed me in 1998 so I bought a Dish and never looked back. Their customer service is excellent, the channels are FAR better than DTV, and the DVR is great.

The only draw-back is that DirecTV has exclusive rights to NFL games, but I'd rather watch the regular, network-broadcast football games than to give any money to that piece of shit Rupert Murdoch.

[blonndee]

13. I don't like Direct.

1) I hate their menu format. With Dish, you can opt out of seeing channels you don't subscribe to in the menu with a press of the menu button, but that's not possible with DirectTV.

2) Their signal goes out a lot. I don't know if this would happen with Dish, but my parents have Dish and it only loses its signal occasionally, it seems.

3) Their customer service has been pretty dickish and unaccomodating the two times I've had to deal with them.

[grannie4peace]

22. they are a bunch of thieves at directv

[fed_up_mother]

31. I can opt out of seeing channels with DirectTV as well

[riverdale]

41. How do you do that?

That really bugs me. I have had DTV forever and didn't know you could do that.......Please explain if possible. thanks

[blonndee]

44. Really? How?

I've messed around with the menu for a year and I haven't found a way to do it. If it's something obvious I'm really going to be embarrassed. But relieved, too! Please, embarrass me. :)

[ddeclue]

17. Never had Dish but I have had Direct since December 1996.

I originally got Direct because it had a better channel lineup and because Dish made you rent the equipment whereas you could own under Direct. The latest HD systems from Direct are "rented" though so that has changed and I don't know the current Dish lineup of channels.

Direct has a lot of good channels, only one missing is C-SPAN3 as far as I'm concerned. It also has a lot of foreign language channels especially for Spanish speaking viewers but also in Mandarin Chinese.

Direct gives you most of your local channels if you live in a major metro area and will give you channels for major network if not available in your area (rural). DirecTV has a lot of sports packages available too.

Not all inclusive but here's my best recollection of what is available on DirecTV: CNN, CNNHLN, CNNESP, Telemundo, Univision, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, FauxNews, NPR, C-SPAN1, C-SPAN2, NASA, Discovery, NatGeo, History, Biography, Military, Comedy, a channel about farming and ranching, several MTV's, several VH1's, CMTV, several ESPN's, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, Universal, Smithsonian, TNT, TBS, that Chicago superstation, Nick, TVLand, Cartoon, UHD, several HBO's, several Cinemax, IFC, Sundance, a variety of XM radio chans (they used to do their own radio chans but switched over to XM a few years ago), various regional sports networks, pay per view movies and programs, seasonal sports packages for NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, College Football, College Basketball, Current TV (Al Gore's channel), a variety of religious chans, Spike, BET, Lifetime, DemocracyNow, Lifetime Movie Channel (movie of the week crap), CourTV, China's Channel 4 and 9, various channels from central and south America and puerto rico...

Many of these are add ons to the base package and I'm sure I forgot some but I hope that helps...

[VeraAgnes]

21. Great information for the frustrated shopper.

You say Direct has Democracy Now?

[ddeclue]

23. DN=376?? as last I recall...

[Warpy]

19. I have DIRECT and have been pretty happy with it

but compare the two packages to find out which one suits you better.

My dad had DISH and the receivers were buggy as hell, required rebooting a couple of times a week. I've rebooted one of my DIRECT receivers exactly once in two years. I understand they've improved them now.

Other than that, it all depends on which package you want.

[Wiley50]

20. Rupert Murdoch OWNS Direct TV

That should be enough

[ddeclue]

26. SO?? DirecTV is no better or worse than any other MSM...

It's not like Dish Network is owned by George Soros or Warren Buffett.

One corporate mogul is just as bad as the other and just because Dish's owners are more anonymous doesn't make them any less corporate.

DirecTV has excellent customer service and runs their call centers in the US employing Americans rather than shipping the jobs overseas like so many other operations. They come out and do the dish installs for free and will give you a new dish when you move. They are very good at solving technical problems and I recommend them along with JetBlue and Westin hotels as examples of exemplary customer service.

Doug D.

[greguganus]

24. I switched from DirectTV to Time Warner Cable.

I live in the country and satellite was all you could get here for years until Time Warner ran lines out here.
With DirectTV, every time a storm comes up, the clouds and heavy rain would block the signal. During storms is when I need to access the weather in case of tornado warnings.
Also DirectTV was notorious here for regrouping select channels to make new packages. Back when I had it, I tuned to my favorite hockey channel one night and it was blocked. I called DirectTV and they told me that channel had been added to an upgraded package and I could only get it if I upgraded. When I threatened to cancel my account, they magically were able to give me the channel back within minutes.
I grouped my internet, tv, and phone through Time Warner with no complaints as of yet, and I'm saving around $100.00 a month.

[Qutzupalotl]

25. Dish is great, with one caveat.

Don't get the low-end DVR. You'll get a refurbished one, since they stopped making the 510 series. We had to return one, and the replacement still needs resetting periodically.

If you can get a deal on one of the higher-end models (as in free for new subscribers), take it. By higher-end, I mean one that has two outputs, so you can watch live TV while you're recording something else. I would have gotten one of those if they'd had the promo when I signed up. As it happened, I was a customer for four years, so I had to pay for it, which sucks, so I bought the cheapest model.

Other than that, I'm happy with Dish Network. You can get lots of Sirius music channels and they have just about everything I want (except C-SPAN 3).

[VeraAgnes]

32. I'm already a subscriber to Sirius

for in my car and house radio....then we also get online Sirius. Dish does not show any of the talk shows on Dish....Stern, Martha, Talk Left....but since I have it already it's not an issue...just saying out loud my thoughts. Looks like I'll look closer at Dish based upon the feedback.

Boy, this sure does help.

[needledriver]

27. Take a look at Uverse

Uverse is ATT's fiber optic system. It is not available in all areas, but if it is available where you live you might want to check it out. It is a hybrid - fiber optic to a box in the street, then copper to your house. You have a choice of three tiers of download/upload speed. The lowest (cheapest) choice works for for me. One advantage is that you can package your internet access, TV, and phone service. I switched from different suppliers and got a package of internet/TV/phone that cost basically the same as internet and phone from different suppliers. It's like the TV service is free! They have their own music channels, not XM or Sirius. Good channel selection, good HD selection, local channels included. No I don't work for them. I'm just a happy customer.

[madmom]

28. Had direct and got rid of it was always loosing the signal

[lelgt60]

29. So here's my beef with DirectTV

I had DirectTV, but they didn't have local channels in high def. That was OK, I hooked up an over the air antenna for local hi-def channels. Then, I realized that I could get the channels, but there was no guide. My wife just didn't like that. To keep peace, I decided to go back to Time Warner Cable. You cannot believe the hassle I got from DirectTV. They didn't want to let me cancel (within the 30 day period). I had to claim I was dying of incurable cancer. Their answer: Well, your wife will still want DirectTV. No kidding!

On the other hand, when I canceled Time Warner, they just said fine - drop off your cable box at the store in the mall. No hassle.

Of course, right now DirectTV does have the better channel selection and better quality of hidef. But ask them about how hard it would be to cancel and search the web for stories about "canceling DirectTV". Also, if you can get a package without a one year contract, pay the extra if you have it - they will not want to tell you about that possibility - and even if they say you can get it, the salesman will already have the box for the one year contract checked when they ask you to sign the paperwork.

Good luck

[colorado thinker]

30. I had direct, worked for Dish.

In a professional technical position. The guy who owns and runs Dish is crazy as a loon, he built the company up from his garage to the organization it is today, so he's not an idiot, but definitely has a screw loose.

I had Direct for several years, the only reason I switched to Comcast was I was sick of losing the signal every time it snowed and some winters it snows a LOT in Denver. I've been happy with Comcast up till now but the monthly cost seems to be going up, up, up lately.

[DemoTex]

33. I lost KO for 45 minutes tonight .. heavy rain in upstate SC (DirecTV)

But that is a rare exception. I can live with it. During our horrible early December ice storm in 2005, many CATV customers were out of TV and ISP for over two weeks. SAT-TV customers were only dependent on the power company restoring power.
I never lost a thing (TV, DSL, phone, power). But some of my neighbors lost Charter cable when they had all other "wire" utilities.

[UTUSN]

34. Direct is owned by MURDOCH/NewsCorp/Faux. They've got basically the same programming

Dish used to be EchoStar.


It costs $500/yr for hundreds of channels *I* don't use. I'd like a la carte, but am sure they would charge me the same for using only 9 channels as 200.

[Dem2theMax]

36. I say Dish.

I pet sit. And I stay in the homes of many people. So I've used every TV source we get around here.
Dish is the best by far. The DVR is great. You can watch one program while recording another. Or record two while watching yet another program that you've already recorded. The menu is a lot better and they update the software all the time. You can make your own channel line-ups. And you can have many different channel line-ups. Say, one for your favorite movie channels, one for sports, one for the kids, etc. You can't do that with Direct. You get what they give you and that is it. You can't play around with their menu at all. I like being able to set it up any way I want it.

We have Dish at home and have never had a problem with it. I hate it when I go to homes that have Direct. LOL.

[csziggy]

37. I've had both DISH and DirecTV - service for me has been about even

Had DirecTV from very early on until I wanted to move the dish location and upgrade my equipment. DirecTV had no upgrade path even when I called and told them I had a great offer from DISH - until I canceled my account after I signed a contract with DISH. Then DirecTV spammed me with offers.

When we built our new house, I again wanted to upgrade equipment. DISH would only offer on HDTV receiver/DVR and only one other receiver for our four TVs. DirecTV doesn't care how many different receivers, HD or DVR, as long as you are willing to pay the price. We ended up with one HD-DVR, one HD receiver and two regular receivers. Our total price for DirecTV is about the same as we were paying from DISH.

I think DirecTV has more music channels than DISH but I am not sure since I seldom use them. DirecTV has all the channels you named and has Chiller Channel which DISH did not have when we canceled it in March. Chiller runs some of the more horror oriented movies and shows that used to be on SciFi Channel.

DirecTV does not have Free Speech TV but it does have LINK TV with Democracy Now! on channel 375.

Edited to add - although I had pretty much made my decision, I signed up for DirecTV through Circuit City. I had comparison shopped and selected the HDTV LDC TV I wanted at the after Christmas sales. At the last minute I saw an offer from CC for $300 off any HD TV if I signed up for DirecTV there. No brainer - I walked out with an Olevia 47" HD 1080 LCD for under $1000 including tax & everything.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

39. I get Chiller on Dish Network

It's great, one of my favorite channels, with old Night Gallery, Kolchak, and Alfred Hitchcock Presents re-runs and oldie science fiction and horror movies (channel 199, just before CNN). I'm not sure when Dish started carrying Chiller but I seem to recall that I noticed in late spring/early summer of this year so maybe they didn't carry it before.

My beef is with the movies on HBO, Showtime, Max, Encore, Western Channel, Action Channel, Mystery, and all the movie channels. They keep running the same movies over and over and over. The variety is really pathetic. There are so many great films out there and I'm not just talking about classics (TCM is great for that). They show only a small selection of newer films and ignore a lot of great old films. I think going to the video store is much better than relying on the movie channels for entertainment because their selection is pretty bad.

[csziggy]

40. Dish has added Chiller since March then - it may be a completely new channel for any service

I agree with you on the movie channels. I like Starz and the Encore group of movie channels. Starz gets a lot of good recent movies, though maybe not all the blockbusters HBO and Showtime have. And the Encore channels show a LOT of great older movies.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

42. Well, I guess we disagree on that

I find the selection and variety of movies on Starz and Encore to be attrocious.

[nonconformist]

38. I have Directv... which has Link TV and airs Democracy Now!... as for DISH...

We thought about switching recently because DISH had a good deal going on, but they required a credit card. They wouldn't take our debit card, which has the VISA logo. It's the first time we've EVER had a problem using our debit card as a credit card, which we've been using as such for years now. We don't have credit cards anymore and don't want them, so we just passed.

All in all, we've been happy with Directv. They really do have a better channel line-up overall, and we've had good experiences with customer service - much of which can be done right from their website instantaneously. The DVR service is really good now, they've improved it a lot over the years we've had it through technical updates.

[ThePhoenix]

43. Dish Network

has the Obama Channel.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dawn-teo/obama-campaign-buys-chann_b_131105.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4151731

:)