So far I have not noticed a real huge advantage/disadvantage between Direct and Dish. Being a new customer allowed me to get different receivers for more rooms in the house at no cost. That has been nice. But we also had the Dual PVR receiver from Dish that allowed rewinding live events on multiple TV sets in our house. We lost that, which kind of sucks.

And, we were still in the process of learning the channels on Direct. We were so used to the Dish Guide/Channel lineup, so that has been a big adjustment. As of right now, I would give the edge there to Dish, but that may change soon once everything gets learned by the whole family.

Not disappointed I switched, but don't see night a day difference yet either.

:shrug:

I will be seeing a significant difference in price difference for the first year. One plus is that I will be able to watch in HD on 2 tvs now. With my dual tuner, it only allowed us to watch HD on 1 tv. And we only got that 3 years ago. Never understood why they didn't have HD for both on that dual tuner HD DVR receiver. I don't have a HD tv for the other tv as of yet. But now that I will have 2 HD receivers, I plan to buy another LCD for my bedroom. :)

The one downside is that we have a standard def dual tuner DVR for my kids. One to my boys and the other to my daughter. With Dtv, I had to pay an extra $99 up front for the boys to have the DVR receiver (they only offer a non DVR receiver for free). Didn't get one for the girl, though. I figure she doesn't really need one at her age anyway.

All in all, I figure I'm going to see around a $40 difference in my monthly bill for the first 10 months. After that it will still be a little less, but only a few dollars. I'm happy with that.

brideowanian is pretty pissed about it, because she can't watch ISU lose by 60 points every saturday.

Money factor for the first year is the biggest difference here too. The other differences at both of our houses sound pretty much the same as well. Some plus's, some minus's.

I switched from Dish to DirecTV last week. The programming is pretty much the same.

I don't think I really like the DTV dvr's as well. I got the DVR where I'm supposed to be able to watch it in multiple rooms but I haven't figured out how to get it to work in the other rooms. I was looking forward to the on-demand type feature but apparently it requires an adapter of some type and a DTV technician to come out and hook it up.

But, I like that my bill is $30 cheaper a month. It's just going to take a while to get used to everything.

All you need for On Demand is an Cat5 connection to your broadband router. If your router is nice and close, that can be as easy as a cable. If not, it can get more complicated, since you'll need a wireless access point, too.

I have the "Whole Home DVR" and according to the DTV website, I have to have an installer come out to install a connection kit.

Those bastards at Dish wanna charge me for what they call a 'discounted' shipping label to ship my receivers back to them. $15 each is discounted? :cuss: They tried to talk me into staying with them by offering Starz and saying that I'm getting NFL Redzone. I don't give a crap about those. And they also said they guaranteed that after my initial contract and for everything I get now, I would pay at least $10 more/mo. The only thing I'm not getting is a 2nd DVR for the kids. But like I said, my girl really doesn't need one. But I am gaining a 2nd HD receiver. I'm so glad I'm ditching them.

That is what I have now as well. I had an installer come out to put up the dish and the system in, and all of that was free.

Same here! :cuss:

Yeah, they offered me 3 months of Starz too. Why would they think that Starz is an appropriate substitution for a sports channel?

I canceled last week and told them no on there "discounted " boxes and they shipped them to me anyways. I love having the sunday ticket and hd on all of my households tvs instead of just 50% of them.I think direct tvs hd signal is superior to dish networks.The big thing for me was that my bill is about 50% less for the next 5 months.

If you cancell dish network dont call them to cancel untill you no longer need there service. I called two days ahead and told them to shut it down on a specific date and the guy took it personaly, shut me off immmediately . I could not get it turned back on without absurd charges there customer service people can be a tad unprofessional.

I waited to cancel. And then I had to go through 5 minutes of the "for this press 1, for that press 2" BS to finally talk to someone. Then, after I had told her I just wanted to cancel... which took another 5 minutes... I had to be put on hold for another 5 minutes to talk to her supervisor... and then it took another 5 minutes to finally get it done.

20 friggin' minutes for a simple disconnect.

Yeah I visited my mom last week, (who has DISH), wanted to watch the MU game as well as FX's Fall Thurs night lineup of programs like "It's Always Sunny" and "The League", I didn't know about this network cancellation so I spent like 20 min running through the channel list as well as trying to search by program, the whole 9 yds, then I read on the internet that DISH stopped carrying this starting Oct 1st. ****ing bullshit. It's a good thing I don't have DISH because I'd be flipping shit right now. Luckily I had it DVR'd back at my place, had to go to a bar to watch MU game, which is what my friends ended up doing anyways so I just tagged along. I don't think my mom will care, she doesn't watch sports all that much and prob didn't know the FX channel even exsisted, DISH is cheaper, which is more of the reason why she will continue to be a DISH customer. I for one, wouldn't put up w/ that...I'd cancel.

If I was a DISH customer, this would be enough for me to switch to DirectTV or UVerse. FX and FSN are major networks, it's not like they're the 1 of 10 religion channels they have on DISH (****ing stupid to include all of that shit in the basic pkg, no on watches that, you don't watch TV to worship religion). FX has a great lineup of shows and show many major motion picture flicks on weekends. FSN has a LOT of college games from teams in this area, Cardinals/Royals games. If you live in the area, I would cancel in a heartbeat. Not to mention HD mostly depends on the source it's coming from, and DISH's HD is IMO far inferior to that of Uverse, DirectTV or even digital cable (Comcast,MediaCom,Charter etc).

Just to reiterate, if anyone else out there is considering switching to DirecTV, make sure that you do it through their referral program. You'll get $100 off, as will the person who referred you. All you need is an existing DTV customer's account number, which I (and many others) would be happy to provide. :)

You can't add it after you've signed up, so make sure you sign up through the program in the first place.

Yes, thats completely true I used my moms account as a referral and we both got 100 bucks off.

I can agree with pretty much everything except for the comment on Dish's HD signal. Their HD signal is just as good from what I have seen. Maybe you have seen people's setups that don't take advantage of that. For instance, someone who had a HDTV but didn't have HD receiver. I'm pretty sure they're comparable signals.

Yeah, I've never noticed any difference in signal quality, personally. Of course, I'm content with my 720p 40", too, so I'm not exactly a quality elitist.

You and me, brother. I have a 720p 42" LCD. ;)

And the reason I felt compelled to reply is that I want to separate fact from hyperbole. I have seen too much of that when it comes to the Dtv vs DN debate.

Dish Network has just made it a guarantee that I will never return to them. In addition to charging me $15 to return the receivers, I now have to climb on the roof and take off part of the dish to mail back too or they'll be charging me $150.

LMAO those guys really know how to make a bad situation worse. I'm glad i read this thread. When I go to dish from cable, I know where i wont be going.

The direct tv guy was nice enough to hand me my old lmb from the dish because he had done so many new installs due to dish network cancellations that he knew the drill.

Dish network are complete dicks once you cancell, They did send me a flyer offering me free movie rentals if i came back to them lol .

I wonder if the AJ Smith runs dish network

Don't kid yourself, Directv pulls the same type of shit.

Exactly....i have had zero issues with Dish until this whole fox spat...still a dish subscriber atleast for now, im hoping my patience will pay off

Honestly, I'll never do business with anyone who needs my credit card # in order for me to be a customer. All that means is they are setting you up to get ****ed.

U-Verse>All.

Directv installer is here now. w00t!

Nice. :shake: They made it sound to me like if I could get that for them it would be great, but not absolutely necessary. Screw them if they try to charge me for that.

Same here. But this thing really pissed me off with the way they have handled it. Plus, their prices have been going up and up and up. I will be saving some dough for the first year.

Nice. They'll love you. (It's always a hell of a lot easier to install once a dish has been in place than for people switching from cable.)

If they don't get this shit resolved before the next Mizzou-Texas Tech game which Im sure will be on FSN, then Ill just take the damn cancellation fee and switch to DirecTV. This is ridiculous, 3 plus weeks now....I want to watch This Week In Mizzou Football damnit!

I am going to be really irritated if the local fox channel is taken off in november

Dish Network, Fox Reach Carriage Deal

While it's still fighting with Cablevision, Fox has settled its carriage dispute with Dish Network. It has signed a comprehensive deal for its broadcast network's O&O stations as well as the cable channels that went dark on Oct. 1. (They have been restored today.) The Fox network signal was in jeopardy with the two sides' previous deal expiring Sunday night. The agreement means Dish customers will have continued coverage of the World Series and the NFL unlike Cablevision subscribers who have been without Fox for 2 two weeks as the two sides have failed to agree on a new deal.

Los Angeles and Englewood, Colo. — DISH Network L.L.C., a subsidiary of DISH Network Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) and Fox Networks, an operating unit of News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS), today announced a wide-ranging distribution agreement to provide the third-largest video distributor in the United States with continued access to programming from Fox Broadcasting and Fox local television stations in major cities. The agreement also included carriage of FX, National Geographic Channel, and Fox’s 19 regional sports networks, which were restored for DISH Network viewers Friday.

“After prolonged negotiations to reach a fair deal, we’re pleased to enter into a long term agreement with Fox and to assure our customers that they can continue to enjoy these channels,” said Dave Shull, Senior Vice President of Programming for DISH Network. “We thank our customers, our retail and channel partners, and our employees for their support through these negotiations, which we believe resulted in a fair deal that reinforces DISH Network's position as the best value in television.”

"I want to thank our partners at DISH Network who worked tirelessly to help us reach a successful conclusion,” said Mike Hopkins, President, Fox Networks Affiliate Sales and Marketing. “This agreement provides a strategic partnership between Fox and DISH to bring the best programming to DISH subscribers.”

The agreement ensures that DISH Network viewers will continue to have access to Fox’s live national and regional coverage of major sporting events including Major League Baseball’s World Series, the NFL on FOX, the NBA, the NHL, college football and basketball, as well as popular entertainment programming on FOX, such as Glee, House, and The Simpsons; Sons of Anarchy and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX; and the Border Wars and the upcoming Great Migrations on National Geographic Channel.

DISH Network will continue to provide programming from the local Fox and MyNet television stations in the following markets: Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore (MyNet 24 only), Boston, Chicago, Cleveland/Akron, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Gainesville (FL), Greensboro/Winston-Salem, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Tampa, and Washington D.C.

I checked just in case, and the channels are indeed back. FINALLY. I was going to switch to DirecTV on Monday if they took away the local Fox channel, but I was optimistic they would reach a deal because Dish would lose mass customers if they lost Fox.

Heh I wonder how much fox is going to raise your rates. If I were dish I would make it extremely clear how much fox is costing the consumer per year.

But meh really it doesn't matter too much, both dish and directv will be gone well within 10 years.

But meh really it doesn't matter too much, both dish and directv will be gone well within 10 years.[/QUOTE]

Why do you say that they will both be gone in 10 years???? I don't see that happening so I'm asking why?

IPTV will kill them, how television and to some degree movies etc is going to change radically, some of the existing business models will fold. Satellite TV being one of them, much like internet radio is helping to kill satellite radio. Seriously now that I have pandora in my phone that hooks up to my car, why would I ever want satellite radio anymore? Cable/network TV will take a big hit too. The difference is they provide true data services. Cable may stop being as much TV and become more ISP. The infrastructure costs and the equipments issues will kill off satellite and they can't easily become a network provider when they lose the TV revenue unlike cable.

The real issue holding back IPTV is the bandwidth concerns and that may be solved a lot sooner than you think.

Why do you say that they will both be gone in 10 years???? I don't see that happening so I'm asking why?[/QUOTE]

I don't necessarily agree, but they are definitely dealing with some technical constraints. As on-demand video becomes more and more ubiquitous, they'll be at a major disadvantage to many of the other forms of media distribution to keep up. My guess is that they'll figure something out (DTV's "streaming" on-demand service is a first step), but you never know.

Noticed flipping channels a few minutes ago and seeing Sons of Anarchy on the listings....im a happy guy

I wondered about the bandwith on IPTV. Do you think the NFL will go to pay per-view on games?

Since I just switched to Directv, I wanted to share some insight on how the 2 services compare.

First off, whoever said that Dtv's HD signal is better is a idiot. They are the same. You can't tell the difference. Don't buy the hype.

I do like the button DTV has that pulls up the sports scores. Pretty cool feature.

With my Dish Network dual tuner receiver, I was able to hook up my antenna and have essentially a 3rd tuner on that receiver. My new Dtv receiver does not have a hookup to connect my antenna. :( I had to hook up he antenna directly to my tv. Normally, this wouldn't be much of a problem. However, I am not able to record stuff to the DVR in HD due to this issue. That is because for some ****ed up reason, Dtv doesn't have our locals in HD as of yet. :cuss:

Another thing that I don't care for is the fact that with my old Dish dual tuner dvr receiver, I was able to pause live TV on both of my tvs that were connected to that receiver. With Dtv, I can only pause live tv on the main tv. One way to get around this is to record the show to the dvr. Still, its a silly pain in the butt to have to do that.

One thing I do like is that my receiver upstairs that shares the dvr space with my main receiver in the living room is an HD receiver. With Dish, my dual tuner HD dvr was only in HD for the main tv. For some stupid ****ing reason, Dish made the 2nd tuner in the dual tuner a standard coaxial out. No HD signal on a coax.

Of course, I'm still getting used to the remote and guide. Its different in a lot of ways and similar in some ways. Not better or worse, just different.

One last thing that I like about Dtv is that I can use the Cinema to download programs and movies. And a lot of those are free. Pretty cool feature.

These are just a few things that I've noticed right off the bat. So, those who claim one is far better than the other don't know wtf they're talking about. And don't get me wrong. I am still happy that I switched. DN pissed me off with the whole Fox stuff. And I love Nat Geo, too. But it wasn't just that.

What is up with the BS that I was paying extra for HD when they advertise that it is free? Sounds like a buncha BS to me.

And they wouldn't even refund me for screwing me over by making me pay my normal bill when they weren't providing me with programming that I had paid for. I was pissed about that and I told them it was bullshit and that they didn't seem to care that this kinda shit would make their customers go elsewhere.

The pricing was getting ridiculous, too. At least with Dtv I will be saving about $40 or so a month for the first year. After that, it will be slightly less than what I was paying with Dish. After 2 years, it will be about the same.

Our long National Nightmare is over


A new ep of The League just showed up on my Dish.

Hooray, Dish has gotten the channels back. I was this close to switching to Directv, too.