Hey does anyone use Dish TV or Direct TV for TV and/or internet access?
If you do - what has your experience been? Good? Bad? so-so?
If you do - what has your experience been? Good? Bad? so-so?
Dish TV or Direct TV
- Thread starter Smitty37
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Monty
Group Buy Coordinator
I have DirecTV for TV. Their internet is through another source line ATT or such.
I have had DirecTV for the past 10+ years with no major problems. Just loose signal when there is a very heavy rain storm which is usually no more than once or twice a year, and then it is usually back in 10-15 minutes.
If you are into NFL, they are the only one that has the NFL Sunday Ticket which will get you every NFL game being played. Thy also have a similar program for baseball, basketball, hockey, and car racing.
If you decide to go with DirecTV, let me know and I'll send you my info and we can both get $10 off per month for 10 months.
I just upgraded to their Genie system which allows you to record up to 4 programs at once and play them back through any receiver in the house. My only complaint about it is if two sets are close to each other and you want to watch the same program on both sets, the signal is about 5 seconds out of sync. I find that very annoying.
I have had DirecTV for the past 10+ years with no major problems. Just loose signal when there is a very heavy rain storm which is usually no more than once or twice a year, and then it is usually back in 10-15 minutes.
If you are into NFL, they are the only one that has the NFL Sunday Ticket which will get you every NFL game being played. Thy also have a similar program for baseball, basketball, hockey, and car racing.
If you decide to go with DirecTV, let me know and I'll send you my info and we can both get $10 off per month for 10 months.
I just upgraded to their Genie system which allows you to record up to 4 programs at once and play them back through any receiver in the house. My only complaint about it is if two sets are close to each other and you want to watch the same program on both sets, the signal is about 5 seconds out of sync. I find that very annoying.
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Dish for TV here - I use AT&T DSL for my internet.
I really like Dish - never used Direct TV but my brother used to have Direct and has changed to Dish & likes it much better.
I have a Sling with my Dish receiver and sometimes use it to watch TV on my iPhone or iPad when I'm out in the boonies. If I have a cell connection, I can watch TV.
Cost of internet from Dish vs AT&T is a wash. Since I have a land line anyway, I prefer DSL because it's always up. Dish service sometimes drops out for a while when it rains.
-- Ed
I really like Dish - never used Direct TV but my brother used to have Direct and has changed to Dish & likes it much better.
I have a Sling with my Dish receiver and sometimes use it to watch TV on my iPhone or iPad when I'm out in the boonies. If I have a cell connection, I can watch TV.
Cost of internet from Dish vs AT&T is a wash. Since I have a land line anyway, I prefer DSL because it's always up. Dish service sometimes drops out for a while when it rains.
-- Ed
eranox
Member
I have DirecTV and am reasonably happy with the service. I'll warn you that their advertised price in no way reflects what you'll actually pay, though. Perks such as "free" whole home DVR or the new Genie aren't free. The equipment is a free upgrade; the service will cost you an extra $20/month. I think this works the same way for Dish's "Hopper."
In theory, if you had service to only 1 TV, no DVR, and the basic package, you would pay the $25/month plus taxes. Extra TVs are $6/month extra, and the DVR is $20/month as stated. In the end, it's no cheaper than cable, plus you have a contract. Also note that your price goes up after 12 months--and the contract is for two years. I believe your service goes up by $20 or $25 per month after that. It is worth noting that I asked a lot of questions when I ordered the service, and much of this was misrepresented to me.
Also of note is that you own the equipment. This is good and bad. Part of your bill is apparently paying off the equipment, so service should theoretically be cheaper once your two year contract is fulfilled. The bad is that if your equipment fails, you have to replace it. DirecTV wants to squeeze you for an extra $5-10/month for "insurance" to cover the equipment.
In regard to the service itself, it is excellent. Install was done very professionally, and the service only goes out in very severe storms, and even then, only briefly. Picture is great, and the DVR service, while not truly free, is excellent.
In regard to internet: satellite can work well for some applications, but not all. The download speed is decent, but the satellite delay makes things like games, voice calls, and video calls unworkable. For text and graphics pages it works well. Streaming video (YouTube, etc.) gets tedious over satellite.
In the unlikely event that fiber (FiOS) is available where you live, that is the best choice on all fronts. After that, I like cable internet (have it now, very happy), and then DSL. You may have a wireless internet service that works off of the cell phone 4G service in your area. This is much faster than dial-up, but slower than cable/DSL, and can be spotty and unreliable in many areas. I rate it as being on-par with satellite internet; it usually has less of a delay, but isn't as reliable. Speeds are about the same.
An important question to ask your potential internet provider is whether your download/upload speeds are shared or not. Satellite and cellular-based internet are almost certainly shared. This means that your bandwidth is possibly shared between up to 255 other people (although 16 or 32 is more common). If nobody else in your bandwidth pool is downloading data, you'll see the full advertised speeds. More commonly, though, you'll see only a fraction of this. This can become a problem during high-traffic times, such as the evening.
Anyway, sorry about the rambling. I'm a satellite IT guy by trade, so this is kind of my thing. I hope I cleared up more confusion than I caused.
In theory, if you had service to only 1 TV, no DVR, and the basic package, you would pay the $25/month plus taxes. Extra TVs are $6/month extra, and the DVR is $20/month as stated. In the end, it's no cheaper than cable, plus you have a contract. Also note that your price goes up after 12 months--and the contract is for two years. I believe your service goes up by $20 or $25 per month after that. It is worth noting that I asked a lot of questions when I ordered the service, and much of this was misrepresented to me.
Also of note is that you own the equipment. This is good and bad. Part of your bill is apparently paying off the equipment, so service should theoretically be cheaper once your two year contract is fulfilled. The bad is that if your equipment fails, you have to replace it. DirecTV wants to squeeze you for an extra $5-10/month for "insurance" to cover the equipment.
In regard to the service itself, it is excellent. Install was done very professionally, and the service only goes out in very severe storms, and even then, only briefly. Picture is great, and the DVR service, while not truly free, is excellent.
In regard to internet: satellite can work well for some applications, but not all. The download speed is decent, but the satellite delay makes things like games, voice calls, and video calls unworkable. For text and graphics pages it works well. Streaming video (YouTube, etc.) gets tedious over satellite.
In the unlikely event that fiber (FiOS) is available where you live, that is the best choice on all fronts. After that, I like cable internet (have it now, very happy), and then DSL. You may have a wireless internet service that works off of the cell phone 4G service in your area. This is much faster than dial-up, but slower than cable/DSL, and can be spotty and unreliable in many areas. I rate it as being on-par with satellite internet; it usually has less of a delay, but isn't as reliable. Speeds are about the same.
An important question to ask your potential internet provider is whether your download/upload speeds are shared or not. Satellite and cellular-based internet are almost certainly shared. This means that your bandwidth is possibly shared between up to 255 other people (although 16 or 32 is more common). If nobody else in your bandwidth pool is downloading data, you'll see the full advertised speeds. More commonly, though, you'll see only a fraction of this. This can become a problem during high-traffic times, such as the evening.
Anyway, sorry about the rambling. I'm a satellite IT guy by trade, so this is kind of my thing. I hope I cleared up more confusion than I caused.
monark88
Member
Flip a coin. I can't see meuch difference between the 2. The big difference, to me, is that on Direct TV you can order MLB. Not available on Dish.
I've had both in the past 10 years and not really happy with either one. Currently I have Dish.
Fios for internet.
Russ
I've had both in the past 10 years and not really happy with either one. Currently I have Dish.
Fios for internet.
Russ
LagniappeRob
Member
I've had both Dish and DTV as well as hughesnet (DTV's satellite internet service).
Dish vs DTV - I'll never go back to Dish. Equipment was sub-par and customer service horrendous. I've been with DTV for years and won't switch. I've converted 2 other former Dish owners as well, and they're very happy.
As for HughesNet.com (formerly DirecPC): Better than nothing and better than dialup or ISDN. For normal web surfing, email, downloading some stuff, it wasn't bad. For games or VPN access (anything where latency is a problem), it's pretty bad. The problem is the bounce from PC -> Sat -> NOC -> Sat -> PC is about 1/4 second (not including the times from NOC to destination). That 1/4 for every round trip adds up pretty fast when you're trying to do anything that requires that has to go and come back over and over. Don't try to do FPS games, or work from home via VPN. But if your alternatives are dialup/ISDN or nothing, it's a step up.
Dish vs DTV - I'll never go back to Dish. Equipment was sub-par and customer service horrendous. I've been with DTV for years and won't switch. I've converted 2 other former Dish owners as well, and they're very happy.
As for HughesNet.com (formerly DirecPC): Better than nothing and better than dialup or ISDN. For normal web surfing, email, downloading some stuff, it wasn't bad. For games or VPN access (anything where latency is a problem), it's pretty bad. The problem is the bounce from PC -> Sat -> NOC -> Sat -> PC is about 1/4 second (not including the times from NOC to destination). That 1/4 for every round trip adds up pretty fast when you're trying to do anything that requires that has to go and come back over and over. Don't try to do FPS games, or work from home via VPN. But if your alternatives are dialup/ISDN or nothing, it's a step up.
tomas
Member
I have had Dish Network for TV for many years. I am very leery of any sat. for internet. Down load speeds may be OK but up loads can take a very long time. My parents lived in the boonies and all they could get was Hughes Net. It was the absolute worst. They limited your bandwidth and if you exceeded it, they either cut you off entirely or made it so slow that you couldn't do anything. They said you could buy more bandwidth, but when you did, it took 72 hrs to get your system back to normal speed.
Tomas
Tomas
LagniappeRob
Member
tomas - when was that for DPC? Their newer VSAT equipment is 1 to 2 mbps up - but that's only on EStar17.
When I had it (fortunately I live in a city now so I can get cable - unfortunately, it's Cox), they never cut me off but did throttle me more than once.
When I had it (fortunately I live in a city now so I can get cable - unfortunately, it's Cox), they never cut me off but did throttle me more than once.
I have cable now - Comcast but their pricing is outrageous. They now want to collect more in a year than my electric, water, local telephone, and sewer combined. And that's just for internet and cable tv. btw, they frequently go down when it rains also.
hanau
Member
Happy with dish pay $130 a month for
250 channels
3 dvrs running 4 TV'
Hbo and showtime
Wife pays that bill I can find everything that I watch
Online and stream it my TV but she won't cancel the TV bill.
Internet about $50 month from time Warner
250 channels
3 dvrs running 4 TV'
Hbo and showtime
Wife pays that bill I can find everything that I watch
Online and stream it my TV but she won't cancel the TV bill.
Internet about $50 month from time Warner
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Haynie
Member
We have that issue here with Cable One. Where we live there is no fiber optic lines and the cable is sent here through....wait for it....Direct TV. Then it is piped through the cables. But after all is said and done it is still cheaper to have the cable than to just go with DTV. Go figure. Though we seldom go down because of storms-we seldom get those-it is back up pretty quick. In fact we have apparently angered the gods because the humidity is way up, hovering right around 11%. There is also strange rumbling and dark puffy things in the sky.
ashaw
Member
Direct TV here and Clear for my internet.
flyitfast
Member
I've had Time Warner and DirectTV. Time Warner not worth talking about.
Had DirectTV for over 12 years. Good and bad. However, rates kept going up and up without any added value and happened without notice. Had one DVR and three receivers. Asked to upgrade and boy did they ever seem proud of what I was asking for with more added costs. Had one receiver go out and they sent me a bill. The DVR went out and like someone previously said I owned it and would have to pay for the replacement. Told them I wasn't happy and they offered me HBO and Cinemax free for three months - Whoopie! So much for customer loyalty - just give the new customers everything.
Talked to UVerse and I am very happy. I already had phone and Internet with them and they were able to bundle those plus the TV service for about what I was paying just for DirectTV and I got a lot more TV plus almost tripled my Internet speed to 18mb download and 1.3mb upload with no interruption so far. Includes four Receivers and I can record or play recorded from anyone of them. One of the receivers is wireless, so I can take it to the shop or out on the patio.
The neat think is by bundling I am saving over $60 per month, which includes unlimited phone, over the separate services and I think they all are good. And the price is locked in for two years along with several rebates I have received. I have all the channels I need and had on DirectTV and I think there are more HD channels. If I do have an outage, it doesn't take 15 minutes for the system to find satellites, resync, find menus, and get back on the air.
Just my 2 sense worth!!!
Oh, BTW, I don't own the equipment so if it breaks, they replace......... :biggrin:
However, all of a sudden I get all kinds of offers for the fancy new stuff that new DirectTV customers get - several letters and calls every week. NOW they want me back !!!!! Where were these rates, equipment, and special channels when I was a loyal customer.
Sorry 'bout the wordiness...............
gordon
Had DirectTV for over 12 years. Good and bad. However, rates kept going up and up without any added value and happened without notice. Had one DVR and three receivers. Asked to upgrade and boy did they ever seem proud of what I was asking for with more added costs. Had one receiver go out and they sent me a bill. The DVR went out and like someone previously said I owned it and would have to pay for the replacement. Told them I wasn't happy and they offered me HBO and Cinemax free for three months - Whoopie! So much for customer loyalty - just give the new customers everything.
Talked to UVerse and I am very happy. I already had phone and Internet with them and they were able to bundle those plus the TV service for about what I was paying just for DirectTV and I got a lot more TV plus almost tripled my Internet speed to 18mb download and 1.3mb upload with no interruption so far. Includes four Receivers and I can record or play recorded from anyone of them. One of the receivers is wireless, so I can take it to the shop or out on the patio.
The neat think is by bundling I am saving over $60 per month, which includes unlimited phone, over the separate services and I think they all are good. And the price is locked in for two years along with several rebates I have received. I have all the channels I need and had on DirectTV and I think there are more HD channels. If I do have an outage, it doesn't take 15 minutes for the system to find satellites, resync, find menus, and get back on the air.
Just my 2 sense worth!!!
Oh, BTW, I don't own the equipment so if it breaks, they replace......... :biggrin:
However, all of a sudden I get all kinds of offers for the fancy new stuff that new DirectTV customers get - several letters and calls every week. NOW they want me back !!!!! Where were these rates, equipment, and special channels when I was a loyal customer.
Sorry 'bout the wordiness...............
gordon
ashaw
Member
I have had Clear wireless for four years now. The service is great very view outages. I have a three device option. Internet, Phone and wireless modem for a laptop.
TellicoTurning
Member
I have Dish here, but internet is a DSL line through the phone company. TV is okay at best... we only have basic service and price is way too high for what we get. Service is okay as long as it doesn't rain... a heavy rain will guarantee the service drops...
Scott
Member
We switched from Dish to DirecTV about four months ago. Good reception on DirecTV, and the Genie is nice, with the ability to record up to five programs at the same time. And I like the iPad app too!
We didn't hate Dish. Once you're a customer, they don't care so much about upgrading you, so we switched to DirecTV to keep a good price and get current equipment. Maybe in two years we'll switch back to Dish for the same reason.
As far as Internet, I don't think either service offers Internet.
Good luck!
Scott.
We didn't hate Dish. Once you're a customer, they don't care so much about upgrading you, so we switched to DirecTV to keep a good price and get current equipment. Maybe in two years we'll switch back to Dish for the same reason.
As far as Internet, I don't think either service offers Internet.
Good luck!
Scott.
tomas
Member
It was about 4 years ago, however, the new Hughes Net service still isn't available there (Priest Lake, ID in the very Northern tip of the ID panhandle.)
Tomas
Gilrock
Member
I had HughesNet at my old property. They ripped me off for $400 when they put me under a new contract without my permission. The full description of what happened is a long story and there was a class action lawsuit against them for the type of behavior they did to me but I only recovered $40 in the settlement.
I've had Dish Network at my old house and DirecTV at the newer house. I recently cancelled DirecTV and switched back to Comcast who was already providing the internet. It saved me money and the wife was really happy I was able to take the DirecTV cables and satellite off the house. They ran the cables right across the middle of a two story house and it was a big eyesore. All the Comcast wiring is internal. I lost DirecTV when it rained but never Comcast....you shouldn't be losing it due to rain. I would complain and have them redo the cabling where it enters the house.
I also decided to use TiVo boxes instead of the Comcast DVRs. Mainly because Netflix is integrated but it turns out TiVo has the worst Netflix application of any piece of hardware I have that can run Netflix.
If your current internet is through Comcast you probably aren't going to find a better option for internet and paying Comcast for internet and somewhere else like DirecTV for TV is going to cost a lot more than getting both from Comcast.
I've had Dish Network at my old house and DirecTV at the newer house. I recently cancelled DirecTV and switched back to Comcast who was already providing the internet. It saved me money and the wife was really happy I was able to take the DirecTV cables and satellite off the house. They ran the cables right across the middle of a two story house and it was a big eyesore. All the Comcast wiring is internal. I lost DirecTV when it rained but never Comcast....you shouldn't be losing it due to rain. I would complain and have them redo the cabling where it enters the house.
I also decided to use TiVo boxes instead of the Comcast DVRs. Mainly because Netflix is integrated but it turns out TiVo has the worst Netflix application of any piece of hardware I have that can run Netflix.
If your current internet is through Comcast you probably aren't going to find a better option for internet and paying Comcast for internet and somewhere else like DirecTV for TV is going to cost a lot more than getting both from Comcast.
I have cable.
The people around here that get TV from a satellite always have problems when it storms. That just maybe the provider.
I have had cable at a number of different locations around the country and the one thing I have observed is that COX is probably the worse cable provider in the country. If one of my options is Cox, then I would choose any other.
The people around here that get TV from a satellite always have problems when it storms. That just maybe the provider.
I have had cable at a number of different locations around the country and the one thing I have observed is that COX is probably the worse cable provider in the country. If one of my options is Cox, then I would choose any other.
Direct TV for 15 years and they seem to be the only game in town. Good and bad, the price is whatever you want to pay. We have NFL Sunday Ticket and have had it for for long that it's almost free. We recently scaled back since I'm headed back to med school, but over all a good experience. Internet through whoever is in you area, but they contract well.
Sandy H.
Member
We had DirecTV for about 12 years. Time Warner cable before that (never again).
We ditched satellite TV service in January as an experimet to save the $100+/mo. We have an HTPC with antenna for locals and Netflix for other stuff. A lot is available on station websites (USA, Sci fi etc) but not everything.
It has had a few quirks (I like Nascar and there is no coverage right now because of TNT. . . ) but overall we are satisfied. We'll saved $1200 on the service for the year and I spent around $600 for 2 HTPC's with certain bells and whistles, I imagine it could be done in the $300 range but haven't tried.
For internet, we have DSL through Windstream as that was the bundle with DirecTV when we moved in and it was OK. The only reason we got rid of DirecTV was cost, not quality. We always had good service and quality when we had it. If it was $30/mo, we'd be all over it, but at this point in life, $100+/mo is just not worth it to us.
Sandy.
We ditched satellite TV service in January as an experimet to save the $100+/mo. We have an HTPC with antenna for locals and Netflix for other stuff. A lot is available on station websites (USA, Sci fi etc) but not everything.
It has had a few quirks (I like Nascar and there is no coverage right now because of TNT. . . ) but overall we are satisfied. We'll saved $1200 on the service for the year and I spent around $600 for 2 HTPC's with certain bells and whistles, I imagine it could be done in the $300 range but haven't tried.
For internet, we have DSL through Windstream as that was the bundle with DirecTV when we moved in and it was OK. The only reason we got rid of DirecTV was cost, not quality. We always had good service and quality when we had it. If it was $30/mo, we'd be all over it, but at this point in life, $100+/mo is just not worth it to us.
Sandy.