Posted on 05/31/2011 5:06:16 AM PDT by 30Moves
I was between houses when we rented a house for a short time where Direct TV was hooked up. I was happy with it and wanted to transfer it over to the house we had just purchased. After four hours of being transferred back and forth and finally hung up on, I decided my experience with them would be the last. I have been with Dish since that time and always have been able to get through promptly and my problems, which have been seldom, have been courteously solved. I have DVRs in my living room and in my bedroom. The living room DVR has dual tuners, which I strongly recommend, and a single tuner in the bedroom which is adequate. Dish had an on-going problem with TIVO which was recently settled. We have our Dish service bundled with the telephone bill and it works out well for us. My neighbor has Direct TV and apparently likes his but one consideration is whether the tree line will restrict the signal. The installer will have to snake the cables through the attic and it is no small job in hot weather. Dish also allows you to move and leave the old satellite dish behind and they will put up a new one on the new house you move to. I don’t know about Direct TV’s policy. I vote for Dish based on personal experience. I have no issues with them at this time over about a 13 year period.
Approximating your location at http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=29 shows about 15 stations should come in on an outdoor antenna pointed just a little north of west.
I’d expect an indoor one to get most of those if it were near a west facing window.
for about $70 you could replace the old dish and re-use their cable and get about 30 channels IMO..
I have had Directv for about 15 years. Since I travel via RV a lot Directv is better if you travel.
At home sats are equal based on price.
I only watch Fox New, Military Channel ,Racing, Weather.
Hope this helps.
I have had Directv for about 15 years. Since I travel via RV a lot Directv is better if you travel.
At home sats are equal based on price.
I only watch Fox New, Military Channel ,Racing, Weather.
Hope this helps.
by placing my antenna outside the house on a step stool, I got one of the missing major channels. I know it is not a TV setting or antenna fault. I recalled my neighbor talked about making something with hangers & so I called him & he sent this:
@@@
I dumped cable because the price kept going up and they kept taking away channels. I got tired of paying to watch commercials. Even the History Channel went to programming like ‘Axe Men’ and “Swamp People”. What does that have to do with History?
Hey Dolly, about the DTV anternna, here is what I built from a video I found on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWQhlmJTMzw
The guy is right. It outperforms the cheapo antenna I bought. When the gov’t changed over from analog to digital, they were offering coupons for a analog to DTV converter. I got two because my TV sets are old and not DTV capable. Your TV if newer, probably is DTV capable so you won’t need a converter box. I get a bunch of channels, more with my homemade antenna than with the storebought. I get:
3, 3-1, which is 24/7 weather radar, 5, 8, 8-2 which is my favorite: classic TV shows and movies; 19, 19-2 which is 24/7 weather, 25, 25-1,25-2,25-3, 25-4 which are all PBS. 43, 43-2 which is movies and older TV shows and 55 which is classic shows and 55-2 which is a religous channel. There are a bunch of Spanish-speaking channels and religous channels that I have blocked. Here is another website that I used to see which channels I should get just by plugging in my zip code:
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx
Will Dish Network Merge With DIRECTV?
By Swanni
Washington, D.C. (May 24, 2011) — New Dish Network CEO Joe Clayton teased Wall Street yesterday by saying he believes a merger with DIRECTV would have a better chance of getting federal approval today than it did nine years ago when it was rejected.
Clayton, who replaced longtime Dish CEO Charlie Ergen this month (Ergen remains as chairman of the board), told Bloomberg Television that he also wouldn’t rule out a merger between the nation’s two largest satcasters.
< snip >
You should find the answer you are looking for, keyword HDTV, (see below);
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/hdtv/index?tab=articles
I have DirecTV from its’ beginning, no complaints.
Dish is less voracious and more tuned in to their customers. Dish costs less $, also if only a few dollars, at least I think so.
Couldn’t agree more.
Had Direct for three years, every three to four Mo’s had increases to my bill. Started out 41 monthly, end of third yr. 82 dollars per mo. I called them asking for a reduction in their price, no a-vale. When I had Dish installed, I called them (DT) and ask them to end my service. Oh my, they then begin promising me the moon and put my rate back to $41.00 mo. I told them not to waste my time, I called you three times and you would not decrease the mo. service payment and now that I have Dish you are willing to listen? go pound sand.
Definately direct tv. If possible, FiOS.
Since I got Netflix, I never watch anything else.
I'm retired military and I've moved around many times.
Directv has always been easy to move and set up my system at the new location.
My brother had Dish Network and hated it.
Dish is always giving him excuses on WHY they screwed up his bell.
They promise him a low rate, but charge him more.
If he's late with his payment to Dish, they charge him a turn-back-on fee.
Yes, he hates Dish, and as soon as his contract is up, he's dumping Dish Network.
AT&T will likely not be upgrading any rural services for DSL. They got rid of about 90% of their installation crew even for land line phones.
COMCAST won't run cable unless houses are fairly close together. They aren't in any hurry to expand either. Our only hope is if and when they get the bugs worked out they start using the power grid for internet, phone, and TV services.
I'm in rural East Tennessee also and in the same boat you are. I use Direct TV and I installed and maintain my own system. East Tennessee is far enough south that generally it takes a real heavy rain to knock out the signal unless trees are in the way of it's line of sight to the satellite.
As for internet? I use dial up and get a 50K connect speed for about $11 a month from ISP.com I have a laptop I use if I need to download a large amount of data. I go to the Krystal for free WI-Fi and a few burgers :>}
BTW on my Direct TV system the close caption works through the TV. IOW the CC data gets transmitted to the TV through the satellite system and all I have to do is turn on Closed Captioned on the TV set itself. Hope that helps.
Bookmarking. I’m deciding between Dish and Direct too.
I read your post again and you have Cable? OK get your internet there then get TV via satellite. Get your phone either by cell or landline. Do not use cable phone service and I’ll explain why. It goes out when the power goes off. Land line service is powered by huge batteries at Ma Bell. As far as I know you can have cable internet service and satellite TV in the same house.
I've had both cable and DISH. I have had Dish for, like 10 years. I actually had more outages with cable. If a storm blew through, my cable reception would be poor, and I'd have to wait until they "send out a technician". This would take several days or a week, and I'd have to take a day off as well. However, if I get dense enough cloud cover to knock out my DISH signal, I know it will always come back with no tech help needed. (Now that it no longer rains here in the Houston area, I have no outages at all).
Don't believe all the hype about Netflix. they are still a ways away from offering everything for streaming. I stream Netflix via an internet connected Blu-ray player. It's worth having; but they do not have everything.
Neither.
Satellite TV is vulnerable to the weather. Depending where you live, you are likely to lose reception when it rains or storms.
Been there, hated it.
Best, if available, that you subscribe to cable, particularly a fiber optic provider.
They all cost too much, but satellite is both expensive and undependable.
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