DirecTV or Dish Network

Sorry, forgot to turn the sarcasm font on.

Actually a Rangers/Cubs fan, so at least I know the pain of bad teams.

 

How about the satellite dish pointing in some direction...doesn't your house/apartment have to face a certain way?

 

directv

 

Props to TD for starting this thread, since I'm in the middle of a quandary.

We're moving about 5 miles further west and I'm looking for any reason to shitcan my cable. Verizon, which has wired our new home for fiber optics, has what I was told is "lightning fast" Internet throughout the house.

We have our phone service with them and it would make sense for us to add on DirecTV -- which they offer -- so I have one bill to pay every month.

Anyone who has TimeWarner Digital Cable can feel free to chime in now and let me know if I should tell them to pound sand and get a dish. Last time I paid my cable bill in person, I picked up info on their digital packages and it was like trying to read Sanskrit, deciphering the different levels, stations, packages, etc.

Which -- I'm sure -- is quite intentional.

 

I had DirecTV for a few years, but switched back to cable when I moved.

NFL Ticket was awesome, but thunderstorms always knocked out the signal.

I'm paying more for Comcast, but enjoy the On Demand feature.

 

Well, I don't think that's true at all AND two of my neighbors have Dishes. ONe has DTV and one has DN, so I don't think it's going to be a problem

 

The house doesn't have to point a certain way; the dish does. So, the only time you have a problem is if you don't have exposure in a certain direction, and they will certainly tell you if that's the case.

FWIW, my wife's company had DirecTV in the office, and she had to deal with their customer service. She said that was a nightmare. In her opinion, Dish is far, far superior to DirecTV in that aspect.

 

this thread is interesting because a week or two ago on a satellite tv thread i asked whether the dish/direct lovers had ever experienced any problems with signals and several people said they hadn't.

i have comcast digital cable. i like it so-so. we also have internet on comcast. eventually i'll switch to DSL through the phone company. my cable's quality goes in phases but the problems are only local to my neighborhood. for the past four months we've had not the slightest problem. we've also gone through months here and there where someone comes out twice a week. eventually they solve the problem. then the cycle seems to repeat itself.

 

Honestly, I think the problems with reception are hit and miss and have more to do with the quality of the equipment you receive than anything else.

In the four years I've had DN, I can count on one hand the number of times it's been out. I've got a friend whose reception goes out constantly and he lives not too far away and has basically the same setup I do. We'll get hit by the same storm, my signal will be fine and his will be down.

But the one thing you can't get past is this: If your cable goes out, it's out for hours on end, maybe days. If your sattelite signal is lost, it's lost for about an hour, tops.

 

Had Adelphia digital cable for a few years and enjoyed it...then Time Warner took over. Everything has been going downhill ever since. For instance, if I watch ESPN or ESPN2 and a locally produced commercial comes on, all you hear is an annoying static sound for the duration of the commercial. Then there's the wonderful digital box, which is the same one Adelphia issued only with new software - which is totally shit. They also have a habit of taking away channels Adelphia previously issued...and all the local channels are still only available in analog.

I'm leaning heavily in the direction of a dish...any dish.

 

I can't even say it is out for hours. Mine really only goes out during bad storms, and it comes back on as soon as the storm clouds move on. I can't remember a time where I have lost my signal for more than 15 minutes or so.