Posted on 10/24/2011 1:06:37 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
Back in the early days of DBS I had DirecTV, and it was okay until the rather large mature trees blocked the only signal I could get. My GF has Dish, and I must say, I think I like the Dish software better. She has a ViP722 HD DVR receiver.
It can record two sat channels at once, and if you have an over the air antenna, one broadcast channel (the ATSC tuner is built in), for a total of three shows being recorded while you’re watching a DVR recording. It has an Ethernet port and a couple of USB ports so you can hook up your camera (photos can be saved to the DVR disk for slideshows) and also an external USB drive for additional space for recorded shows you may want to keep longer.
Programming is where your preferences are going to come into play and the package line ups from the two providers.
thx. Cable’s been working pretty well for me. Except FR is S L O W!
I telecommute, so my needs for data transfer are heavy.
Not installing the required ground wire to house ground is the biggest “missing” element that I saw in installs up until about a year ago.
The ground connection is not just for lightning strikes - it also takes stray voltage from reception of unwanted frequencies the dish pick up - and dumps it to ground.
Seems in the last year as I’ve watched the DISH Network and DirecTV guys at work - they’re putting in the ground wire connection. Guess a memo went out...
Post type install is best...can’t stand the roof crap.
=8-)
Direct tv is the best, hands down. We’ve tried Dish also but they suck. Never could get the bill right and their service was extremely poor. We didn’t stay with them long until we switched back to Direc. They screamed about us breaking the contract. We told them they didn’t uphold their end so they were the ones who broke the contract. No further word from them.
The only thing I will add here, and I will assume that somebody has brought it up, is that the one disadvantage satellites have is that their signal can be blocked from time to time, from clouds or passing planes, etc.
So, depending on how important that is to you.
Hey, Shotgun. We routinely receive 175 to 200 inches a year and we’ve never had to brush snow off the dish. The house, yes. The garage, yes. The shop, yes. I’d sooner think there was a glitch in your individual dish. I don’t know what else to say. We’ve had zero problems with snow on the dish, although we did have a family of wasps set up housekeeping in the LNB when the plastic cover succumbed to UV light. sd
I think the service of either company can be poor, or very good depending on your location, or so I have heard, so check that out for yourself. Fortunately we have not needed service for either.
Unless you have no other option, do not go with satellite internet, particularly HughesNet, they are just terribly slow and frustrating.
Oh yeah, don’t set the dish on the roof if you can avoid it, particularly if you get snow storms.
Secondly, I have been to both web sites and, believe it or not, right now DirectTV is actually cheaper than Dish (at least, for the channels I want). But I'm still unsure about whether local network channels are available with them, as they are with Dish.
I earlier made the comment that some of the channels available on their most basic package disappear after that. That turned out to be untrue; it's just that if you want them with more channels you have to jump way up the line in packages before they're available again. DirectTV, on the other hand, has them with the first package up from basic. So right now Direct looks cheaper. But I have time to ponder.
I don't care about DVR's or HD (we only have two televisions and they are both old-fashioned "box" types), and about the only sport I care for (aside from watching Daytona and Indy 500 on local network channels) is Major League Baseball. I actually have a visceral dislike of football (especially professional football) and don't understand why it is so popular in the South or among conservatives; baseball will always be the Great American Game.
For the moment it's nice to be saving the money that had been going to the cable company, so I will probably take my time about fixing the situation. I've also got a good price on my DSL until next August.
BTW, since we have our phone and Internet through ATT, it might pay further to go with Direct (their partner).
Finally, there are, as of yet, no trees in the yard here . . . something that has been a sore spot with this little household for some time. But I guess that means whatever trees are set out will be easy to avoid when the dish goes up.
Again, thanks to each and every one of you.
As for Obama using TV to beam propaganda, I look at it this way . . . our water is no longer fluoridated, so that's a good trade-off (jk).
Except FR is S L O W!Free Republic, for whatever reason, takes a L O N G time to start sending each page. Once it starts, the whole page downloads fast. I've seen the same behavior on numerous different internet connections, so I'm confident that the slowness is on their end.
Upon further thought, I’m going to make a guess that you are farther south than Central NY. The angle of our dish is shallow given our latitude. My guess is that your dish is looking more upward than ours. Am I close? sd
Direct TV
we dumped direct tv after 5 years, they refused to ‘move with us’ even though they advertise doing so, when we canceled they continued to bill us because we didn’t go through the ‘proper chanels’, then they billed every credit card ever used for online bill pay to try to recoup the difference. I had friends and family that paid online as gifts to us and they got billed years later. their dish is now a miniature bird bath near the back pond. Dish network had originally told us that every level adds to the basic package.
Dish Network or Direct TV?
Neither..... Steve Jobs, in an interview stated he has left plans to revolutionize TV, will be released next year through Apple ? I wouldn’t sign no long term contracts. I have also noticed some pH. and TV providers are trying to entice people to a five year contract? May-be they know what Mr. Jobs has created?
While I am leaning towards Direct, the whole question of TV access is going to have to go on hold for a while till we get a little matter straightened out about our phone bill.
It's always somethin'.
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