Direct TV or Dishnetwork????

My better half has been wanting to get rid of our local cable and getting one of these. I constantly get promo offers in the mail for both (with plenty of fine print.) We are looking at 2 recievers, a dvr and the channel package is open at this time. Pricing out a decent channel package with 2 recievers and dvr is in the neighboorhood of $80.00????/mo. I don’t watch tv like her and thought this was crazy. Anybody have any pro’s and con’s of DirectTV or Dishnetwork? I’m not looking for the top of the line package with all the channels but somewhere in the middle. Any help as to what you guys are paying etc, etc, is much appreciated. Geez, these guys are as bad as cell phone companies. Thanks in advance, Randy

Direct TV. $80.00/month sounds about right. I am sure you can get less expensive packages tho.

Get the one that starts with “D”

We have DirectTV. The introductory offers should be less than 80.00 per month for 2 receivers and a DVR. We have 2 DVRs and 1 receiver. I think our introductory offer is good for 1 year and is 53.00 per month (DirectTV Choice Plus package). After the first year it will go up to about 80.00 per month. I think Dish maybe a little cheaper intially, but their intro rate only lasted 6 months when we were looking. I think both of them have a 2 year contract. Whichever you choose, get all the DVRs and receivers you want up front. Once your a customer its expensive to add them later. The one feature that Dish has that DirectTV doesn’t is if you have 2 DVRs, you can watch shows from either of them from different TVs.

Yup I looked at a similar offer through Direct tv at Besy buy a couple weeks ago, $50 a month (1st 12 mo, $70 second 12 mo)for an average channel line up with HD, free first HD box, $50 in BB gift certs. and if you bought a HD tv $499 or more by the end of Jan. you get a $300 BB gift cert, too. Sounded like a great deal, I didn’t really want to lock into 2 years of Direct tv, and I expect us to pass on the offer, but it still sounds pretty darn good.

I get charter cable for 39.99 with the basic expanded which has more than enough channels 4 me,not that I like any of these companies,I do have to call them every year when my 12 month promo fee is up.I dont care for any of these companies and 80 bucks seems like alot to me

If you must go with Direct TV!
If you can throw out your television and go fishing instead

I have dish network at work, for 7 years. I have direct tv at home, for 10 years. In my opinion direct tv is better, but thats just me.
Dream’n

Used to have Direct TV, switched to Dish a few years back. Would have to say Dish has much better DVR options. You can record two shows at once while watching other shows previously recorded. If you have kids you will use this feature all the time so mom & dad can watch programs while the kids are watching their shows. A Direct TV consultant tried to get me to switch back but had to admit that Dish DVR was far better at this time. I really like the Dish HD programing also. I have a HD channel that’s all fishing shows 24/7/365.

i’ve used both extensively. i choose dish. their channel organization, their pricing, their package variation are all superior to direct tv in my opinion. the only reason i would purchase direct tv for at this point is if you have to have direct ticket for the nfl.

otherwise you pay out the wazoo for channels you want (want your local fox sports station? you have to buy their entire sports package for 10 bucks a month and you get ALL of them)

2 years ago i got fed up with dtv and went to dish….went with their turbo hd silver package for 45 bucks a month with 2 hd receivers.

Direct TV hands down from top to bottom.

The reason Direct TV crushes Dish-network in Churn-ratio “the amount of customers you lose” is because of a superior product which starts at the customer service level. Dish-Networks customers service is one of the worst you will every encounter.

I have only ever had DirectTV.. am happy with it. Mine runs around $64 a month, got all the channels I want too. They run specials every once in a while, I remember I got FSN and a bunch of other sports channels, maybe 5 years ago…. for $1 more a month…not a short term deal either, it is as long as I have DirectTV !!!! Did that a couple times, $1 more and they add about 10-16 channels, depending. I would try that way, instead of ordering them all upfront. It doesn’t cost them anymore, the signal is there already, do they want $1 more ??? Good luck

big G

I’ve had both…. I liked both… I have Direct TV and would pick it again if forced to choose. I ended up switching because I wanted 2 HD DVRs… Which Dish would not provide unless I paid an upgrade fee….. I’m please with the variety of HD channels. Dish does have better pricing.
Service ebbs and flows. Direct used to make a lot of people ticked off, but when they looked at how many people they were loosing they picked it up a notch.
It really is a horse a piece….if you get a quality installation.

Ditto with Dish Network for me big G. You said it just right, you have only had Direct TV and your happy, why change

Me it is the same story with Dish.

Larry, with the upgrade fee did you tell them I’ll just dump you then? Sometimes it works and sometimes not. 85 percent of the time it will because they don’t want to loose a customer over penny’s, either one, Direct or Dish.

There next step most times will be to give you an upgrade if you sign a 2 year contract with out a cost or raise in fees, and don’t let them take payments from a credit card

From Dish when I wanted to upgrade are receivers and my dish to get the local channels and the next package they told me how much it would cost, I just mentioned the free 2 receivers and instillation Direct would give me…two days latter we were upgraded

So to answer the question of which one…go with who offer’s you what you can afford and be happy with

Like Larry said, horse a piece

We have dish and it works great.

How many of you have had to pay for new equipment when looking to upgrade from standard to HD?
I have had d tv allmost two years now and have liked it, but do not want to pay to make the upgrade.

No question, Dish.

Not sure why Dish’s customer service is getting raked because I’ve never had to use it! Last time I spoke with a Dish rep was when it was installed. Been flawless ever since.

Jake,
Everyone I know that has upgraded equipment has had to pay quite a bit for the upgrade, especially if they have you under contract. I know some people that have purchased DVR’s and other recievers from Craiglist or Ebay and saved quite a bit of money. If you do this, you would want to make sure you check with DirectTV or Dish to make sure they will activate the reciever you buy (make sure its not still tied to someone elses account or stolen). If you don’t want to pay what they are asking, wait until your contract is up, then switch to the other provider and get the equipment for free.

direct tv made my parents pay an arm and a leg to upgrade to hd receivers…so they left….

i called dish for my brother when we bought his tv and got him hd upgraded boxes for free, he just had to change packages which cost more per month.