# Directv vs Dish Network



## Tact (Sep 9, 2002)

hi guys, i'm thinking about choosing one of the above tv providers to replace my time warner digital cable. 

i am not happy with my cable at the moment. i was hoping to hear from people personal experience with these sattelite networks what they thought. my main items of concern are:

the gui
- time warner's digital menu/navigation is HORRIBLY slow and i hate it. i'd like to know if one of the above dudes is faster and more responsive. 

refurbished junk
- i'm convinced time warner gives out refurbished junk to their customers cause i've had to replace their remotes like twice now and the replacements i get are no better. i have to press sooo hard on the buttons to get a response. this just adds to the slow navigation menu is very frustrating


downtime
- idk if satelite networks have these, but time warner seems to have a weekly emergency test RIGHT at the most critical moment of some movie or show that i'm watching. why don't they schedule these during commercials!! i thought broadcast emergency tests were a thing of the past. (or of regular broadcast tv only)

also, what i used to think was my television, was in fact the cable company prolem where my tv would suddenly lose color. i would have to change the channel and change back to get the color back. i know it can't be my tv's cause it happens to 2 of them not just one. 

i used to also have a problem where the movie channels would, after about an hour, just get this horrible digital static/corruption where i'd see giant blocks distort everything. and it would ONLY happen on certain movie channels. (mostly the ones i actually want to watch!) and it always happend like after i'm already hooked like an hour into the movie. -_-


saved favorites
- this one prolly ticks me off the most, time warner has mucked up my favorites 3 times now. the first time, they completley erased like half of them. so i had to go back and look for them to re-add them. the 2nd time, they made some wierd change where ALL the repeats were saved. so when i saved cartoon network, i now also have 5 diffrent cartoon network channels saved as well. and it's not like sattelite tv where multiple copies of the same channel are from diffrent timezones and sorta cool (watch something earlier than normal) NO! all the copies are the same timezone, same exact channel. -_- why?

so i had to remove those extras. and the last bug they have in their crappy nav menu/system is that whenever i'm scrolling through my favolite list of channels, if i press "info" to see what it's about, read it, and then press "back/last" to continue browsing, it will actually send me back to the BEGINING of my favorite list instead of where i was last so i would have to scroll ALLL the way down to where i was again. this never used to happen before. so i'm peeved.


anyways, this may sound like a time warner rant, but i thought it would help to list the things that matter to me to see if anyone knows if directv or dish do it better. 

better favorite channel management?
better uptime?
better faster navigation menu?
better equipment?
free tivo or tivo-like recorder?


also. i wanna make sure they have the anime network and the Asian network. (used to be known as International channel). 

other than that, feel free to mention anything at all about your experiences with these sattelite providers. tyvm for your time. sorry again for the rant. >.<


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## funguy123us (May 3, 2010)

I am very glad you brought this up. I am in the same boat, thinking where to go either dishnetwork or direct tv.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

You know the remote thing happen to me a couple times and redoing it all takes a long time. Need a way to get online and do it all and download to the chip and stick it in the back of the remote. That way we can always have a backup.

Guy next door has Directv and says it is many times better then cable (Comcast cable here).
Said also but don't know if true or not is he said he got to pick what channels he want and not by the picks they show you. Said he told them most of what they have he did not want and he got things changed around.
But like cable really you can only watch one channel at a time so why pay for all the others. So get them to make it so you only get the setup you want. He traded off channels and I know comcast will not do that.


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## Tact (Sep 9, 2002)

hewee said:


> You know the remote thing happen to me a couple times and redoing it all takes a long time. Need a way to get online and do it all and download to the chip and stick it in the back of the remote. That way we can always have a backup.
> 
> Guy next door has Directv and says it is many times better then cable (Comcast cable here).
> Said also but don't know if true or not is he said he got to pick what channels he want and not by the picks they show you. Said he told them most of what they have he did not want and he got things changed around.
> But like cable really you can only watch one channel at a time so why pay for all the others. So get them to make it so you only get the setup you want. He traded off channels and I know comcast will not do that.


being able to select each and every channel i want would be AWESOME. i thought nobody did that. i'll definatley give them a call and see if it's true. but i'm pretty sure they still force you to select "packages".

as long as the onscreen menu is lightning fast, i prolly dont' care for the rest.

btw, do sattelite networks have "on-demand" services? or is that only a cable thing?


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## RayPCDr (Jun 5, 2010)

Have to chime in on this subject since I'm currently dealing with it...

I've been a Dish subscriber since 2001 until today! I've just entered into agreement with Direct TV this evening for the following reasons:

1. Since 2001 I've had to replace 6 receivers. Three of those were DVR's within the last 18 months. Come to find out, all the receivers/DVR's have been, and are, refurbished. Dish's response to this is, "we'll send you another one, send the bad one back"... and hope for the best.

2. Picture goes out if the wind blows. I live in Missouri so it's windy and it rains a lot... even after pointing the Dish myself and getting a solid 90% signal it still wanes in bad weather. During storms, it typically goes out prior to the storm hitting. Solution... turn the receiver off and get a fuzzy "air" signal just to listen for tornado warnings and such! My friend has Direct TV and his goes out in severe weather, but it's nowhere near as sensitive as my Dish satellite. 

3. Remote controls seem to eat batteries like a hungry dog. Two remotes were so bad that I purchased new ones from Dish. They worked better but still seem to burn out fast. Compared to my whole house remote which is backlit and has an integrated intercom, which I use often... my master blaster lasts about twice as long.

4. Customer service... I've talked to Direct TV (albeit sales personnel) 4 times before finally subscribing today and have been pleasantly surprised by their lack of a heavy foreign accent. This may change when the day comes that I need tech help, but as of now I already like Direct TV. I'd say at least half the times I've called Dish I've had to request someone else to speak to because of an accent I couldn't wrap my head around. I've powered through a few but it's just easier to request a new voice.

5. Finally cost! My monthly Dish bill is $98 and some change. I don't do pay per view so it's very consistent. Direct TV currently has some very good rebates which means I'm going to get 2 HD DVR's, and to standard receivers, HD service, protection plan and more channels than I currently have for $67 a month for the first 12 months. Then it goes up to $98 a month, but I'll have HD service which I've never subscribed to through Dish. On paper it looks great. Hopefully the matrix won't crash!

I wouldn't say I've had a "bad" experience with Dish, just a rocky one. The defining moment for me was when my DVR clocked out the other day during the first episode of the new "Hell's Kitchen"! I was livid and I swear I could have heard some random death metal band playing in the background as I was looking for Dish's phone number.


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## vicks (Jan 31, 2005)

We have used Direct TV since early 1996. We use it in our motorhome about half of the year and house part of the time (had to prove that we have it in the coach to be able to subscribe to the networks both east/west coast, by sending them a copy of our coach registration.
We had to replace the receiver in 2005 and it just went out today. Husband talked to customer service and they are sending a replacement at N/C should receive in 2-4 business days.
Price for subscription has gone up a few times, but in that length of time most everything else has gone up too.
Have rv friends that have Dish and they are happy with their's too.
True, when heavy rains come, we will lose signal for a time (here in Nebraska it can really downpour) but when storm cell moves on service returns.
vicks


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