Dish Network Vs DirectTV

We had diectc my dad had a freind that installed dish used it for a week "less than" canceled that went back to directv ITS awsome plus more HD Channels and by the middle of next yearthey wil have almost 90 HD CHANNELS WOW

Had Direct for 11 years then switched to Dish, very happy with the improved picture quality and the Dish VIP High Definition recorders. They just enabled external hard drive capabilities for up to 750 gigs of storage. The picture quality dropped with every additional HD channel Direct added so bad I gave up on them and their lies to add bandwidth and more HD channels.

I can't say anything about Dish since I have no experience with them, but I've been with DTV for 7 years and I've been very happy with them. This year has been especially rewarding since they launched their latest bird (DTV 10). To boot, I called them and they upgrade me to the new 5 LNB and a HR20-700 DVR in June 07. Once DTV10 in orbit and operational last month (SEP07), I called them again and ask if there is any promo to upgrade my HR10-250 to HR20-. With no hassle whatsoever, they offered my to upgrade both of my HR10 to HR20-100. So, with no question ask, I've got 3 HR20, 5 LNB all for $0. 2 years new commitment is required, but I have no problem with that since I am not going anywhere. The new HD line-up is great, definitely worthed the price of admission, or lack of it..

I know it sounds like a fanboy DTV commercial but it is what it is.

I had Directv for about 10 years (with parents then on my own) and was mostly satisfied. When I moved in with a roommate that already had their service, they wouldn't transfer the HD receiver I already owned to her account with a new card, which they wouldn't just give me, even though they already charge a subscription fee. I switched to Dish Network in August and have been happy. It is nice getting the free HD DVR. The HD package is free for 6 months, although its regular price is about $5 more than Directv's full HD package (they have two tiers). Also got HBO and Showtime free for three months. Another nice point for Dish is that they have dual tuner boxes, so if you have four rooms hooked up, you had one extra box charge of $5. With Directv, if you have a four room system, you have to have four boxes, for $15 in extra box fees. Also they have an option for connecting an external hard drive to your DVR for extra storage, so I have a 500gb HD DVR, and although I haven't called to activate it yet, I got a 500gb hard drive to add to it. Pretty cool.

Also take Directv's marketing about HD channels with a grain of salt. For a long time they advertised that they were soon going to have 1500 HD channels. Sounds great, except there aren't that many channels. They were counting the local station for every market, of which you get one set of locals. Now they advertise 70 HD channels, which includes about 10 pay-per-view channels as well as regional sports networks that are hardly ever HD. Dish has recently started doing the same thing since Directv's ads were so misleading. Even the latest ads say their HD blows cable and Dish away, but it's only about 7 channels difference (approximately even if you count PPV). Also if you don't care about SD programming, Dish has a package for about $10 less too. At the end of the day, they are both pretty good services as far as pay tv providers go, but Directv isn't as rosey as people make it out to be.

It wasn't the number of HD channels, eventhough Dish had more at the time, it was the quality of the picture. Direct started compressing and not only did the picture suffer the music channels did too.

We have Dish America's Everything package, mid grade dsl and home phone all on one bill a month. It runs $150. Everything the wife and I watch is in HD. Seems like plenty of HD. They have never called me for anything. We've lost reception maybe 2 - 3 times in the last 6 months when there was heavy lightning. We have the vip611 dvr and the vip211. No complaints and no experience with Direct. Good luck!

Marty913 wrote: »

Direct will put CNN on 202 and CNN HD on 202-1 so when you punch in 202 (only 3 digits allowed) you always go to the low definition channel and have to channel up.

are you sure? on my HR20-700 and HR20-100, the default is, punching 202 will give me CNN HD, and if I open up the guide, then I can select 202 SD manually. Both CNN (SD and HD) show as 202 on the guide. Same thing with several of the other SD/HD channels.

polkatese wrote: »

are you sure? on my HR20-700 and HR20-100, the default is, punching 202 will give me CNN HD, and if I open up the guide, then I can select 202 SD manually. Both CNN (SD and HD) show as 202 on the guide. Same thing with several of the other SD/HD channels.

I just tested it again (to make sure I wasn't going crazy) and my guide lists 202 CNN the 202 CNNHD, 229 HGTV, 229-1 HGTVHD, etc. When I punch in a number it goes to the first one in the list (202 or 229) which is the non-HD channel. I wonder what's going on here. A possible firmware upgrade perhaps?

Now you've got me wondering.

polkatese wrote: »

do you have HR20-**** or H20-****? You might know this already, HR-**** is the DVR. Firmware should be updated automatically at around 4-5am (in West Coast at least), no intervention needed. However, you can also force it to re-install the firmware.

here is the code to force firmware download:

"you have to press the 0-2-4-6-8 when the system gets the blue screen after pussing the reset :"

No DVR, just the H20. I would assume the box does NOT have to be plugged into the phone line, right? The firmware upgrades would come from the SAT? I suppose I could just start with a Reset back to defaults although I don't see anything in menu options that would control or effect what we're talking about.

polkatese wrote: »

with the HX-20 (non TIVO) series, no phone line is needed. It's all satellite driven update.

I am not familiar with H20, but resetting the box can be done by pressing the RED button, or unplugging the power cord for a minute.

Well, there was a software update and that has been applied.:) The bad news is that nothing changed with the listing. It stills go to the first channel number listed which in my case is the standard definition channel . I've re-read the manual and checked all the options (none apply). I'll peruse the Direct website support section just in case but it looks like programming around it with macros is the only way. That reduces everything to a one button push which is nice.

Thanks for all your help. The software upgrade was overdue so that's a good thing that got accomplished.

polkatese wrote: »

Sorry that it still doesn't resolve your issue. Definitely check the DTV forum for someone with similar problem.

glad that you are up to date on your firmware level.

Thought you might be interested in this quote from the DTV tech forum:

"When you key in the channel number on an HR20 for a channel that has an HD and an SD version, the HR20 goes to the HD channel. The H20 goes to the SD channel. The latest test software for the H20 works the same way as the HR20, it defaults to the HD channel, so you can expect this problem to be fixed in the next national software release - soon but I don't know when. There is NO workaround to solve this."

Well, now we know. At least I'm not crazy although I probably should not have made the "blanket" comment without researching it first. I guess I'll just wait for the software upgrade.

Thanks again. Without your prompting, I would have just remained stupid.:o

[QUOTE=
After the B.S. we went through with Dish...I'll never go back.[/QUOTE]

Same with me.

I had been a customer for about 5 years when I called and asked to have my receiver upgraded. They were giving out four room systems to new customers and all I wanted was an upgrade on my original box...even told them I'd sign a new 2 year contract. Anyway, each time I called I was told that I was out of luck since I wasn't a new customer. When I called to cancel after getting cable installed they all of a sudden tell me they can upgrade me. No problem, they say. I told them I'd given them three chances to keep me as a customer and each time they'd refused.

I've since cancelled cable and have been with DirecTV for 2-3 years. Very happy with the product and fairly happy with the customer service.

PSOVLSK wrote: »

Same with me.

I had been a customer for about 5 years when I called and asked to have my receiver upgraded. They were giving out four room systems to new customers and all I wanted was an upgrade on my original box...even told them I'd sign a new 2 year contract. Anyway, each time I called I was told that I was out of luck since I wasn't a new customer. When I called to cancel after getting cable installed they all of a sudden tell me they can upgrade me. No problem, they say. I told them I'd given them three chances to keep me as a customer and each time they'd refused.

I've since cancelled cable and have been with DirecTV for 2-3 years. Very happy with the product and fairly happy with the customer service.

Same thing with Direct, after about 10 years of the premium package I called about an upgrade to a DVR, they told me go buy one at Best Buy, I cancelled got Dish and then Direct starts calling every night saying they will give me the moon to come back...F@@K Them.