DIRECTV vs. DISH NETWORK vs. CABLE
 

Hi All,

I know that there are people wondering which T.V. (Entertainment Service) to go with as their choice, it's with that in mind that I decided to start this thread:

Here's what you can get with DIRECTV:

DIRECTV satellite service is set up to cater to almost any type T.V. entertainment consumer. It offers 95-99% of what cable does but BETTER and at a much cheaper price. With satellite TV, ALL of the channels you receive are digital, unlike with "digital cable" which only offers it's "premium" services (HBO, Showtime, ESPNEWS, ESPN CLASSIC, Noggin, Boomerang, etc. as digital channels. Other channels in your line-up such as your local WB, FOX, ABC, UPN and other "Basic Cable" channels are offered in analog. Pricewise, you can get a 145 +local channels, 2 room system, including HBO for $65.00 TOTAL. A VERY similar package gotten through cable would cost you roughly around $90.00 TOTAL.

Dish Networks' service, packages, and pricing is VERY similar to DIRECTV (+ or - $2-3.00). The only signfificant disadvantage that DISH NETWORK has is that of poor to no CC (closed captioning) support when one hooks their receiver to directly to their T.V. set. That is to say, closed captioning only works or is supported for T.V. who share the DISH NETWORK service but DO NOT have the receiver directly connected to a T.V. set. And if one does want a receiver that supports closed captioning, he/she would have to pay to upgrade to said receiver. In contrast, all of DIRECTVs' receivers support closed captioning.

With cable, one does indeed get mediocre customer service, poor reception (of non-digital channels as well as *NO* WWE 24/7 VOD service. And as mentioned earlier, you get all these "great" services for $25.00-$30.00 more than either dish service.

The bottom line:

-Both DISH services far exceed anything cable offers and at a lower price than cable.

- It should also be noted that while both DISH and DIRECTV are similar in many ways, DIRECTV seems to be more geared toward the "Sports Fan" (NFL Sunday Ticket, Mega March Madness) whereas DISH is more movie oriented.

Dan D.

DISH Network uses inferior hardware compared to that of DirecTV. The receivers mostly, which often results in poor color saturation and a poorer digital to analog conversion (which leads to a high compression artifact count). But they have less on the transponders, so the original signal is cleaner. However, it can range from station to station (SciFi Network, for example, is only 2.0 Mb/s while something like Toon Disney is closer to 3.0Mb/s).

DirecTV stuffed their transponders in late 2002. The results were channels that degraded a bit with blockiness, especially on certain channels. It is also a couple dollars more expensive and tends to have less "intro" deals than DISH does.

Digital cable is "digitally compressed analog" most of the time, which is not the same as a digital stream used in satelluite (DSS, DVB, and variants).

When bad weather blows through, you need to remember all those cable commercials are bullcrap. The local cable provider gets its signals from satellite too. So if it rains, all cable and satellite tends to go out equally. Even old antenna would go down if the repeaters, boosters and transmitters got struck by lightning.

I have had them all through the years. My favorite is easily DirecTV.

I don't get the comment about closed captioning. I have my receiver connected to my TV, and I use the close captioning all the time. Are you talking about something separate from the TV's own ability to interpret caption tracks?

DISH actually has a lot of specialty sports packages, including cricket, soccer and a couple of others I never bother to pay attention to - no one offers a figure skating package, and I'm finding the best figure skating coverage these days is to be found on CN8, the Comcast cable channel. I have cable too, for my Mom - she hates having to go through a box, so she's got analog cable upstairs, tuned through the TV and/or VCR.

Also remember that DISH Network offers more HD Channels than direct or cable.

Yeah, I found there's another DVR offered by DISH for existing customers that does everything I want, and costs about $150 less than the one I was looking at. So I'm thinking it may be time to have that SuperDish installed so I can graduate to HD. There are local channels I don't get right now that I'd be able to get with the SuperDish, so that's probably the first step - the SuperDish is free installation for the local channels. :>

Sometime in early 2006 they will have more VOOM channels on their HD lineup, can't wait for this to happen.

Dish may be adding those Voom channels sooner rather than later... several threads over on dbstalk.com regarding their recent reshuffle of channels across the main satellites that may possibly free up space and make more HD available to everyone...

Plus the MPEG4 conversion is supposed to happen in '06 as well.

We're currently getting 15 HD channels on Dish for $14.99/month and I'm hoping that the changes will bring the network HD feeds on board soon :)

The frustrating part is that lots of different feeds are picked up by Direct and Dish that we never see (i.e. channels that could be available and in theory are already there if they could just negotiate decent rates)...

I miss Direct TV :(

You guys are so lucky

Did u fianlly get your Monsters HD Ron. Its awesome.

I sure did gatch!!

We've been watching it nearly every night, and I've grabbed a few movies that I haven't been able to locate otherwise :D

I've also enjoyed the Monsterama shows, although it looks like they're off the schedule now?

What other HD channels is DISH going to add? Have you heard anything specific?

The last rumors I found were that more Voom channels would be coming (they only have ~ half of what's still available), as well as HD feeds for more networks (I currently receive ZERO HD network feeds but some people can get the WCBS HD feed based on location).
There's also speculation that FX may add an HD feed.

From what I've read, the Voom channels were nothing spectacular but at this stage in the HD game I guess it's still quantity over quality ;)

With the NFL and NHL seasons coming up soon, I'm more interested in the network feeds. I thought NBC announced last season that all of their NHL games would be HD, and after watching previous Stanley Cup games on HDNet earlier this year that will be awesome!!!

Universal HD would be cool to have, but apparently that's only available where there's no NBC feed available. That channel's been running short-lived series that I liked. Then again, HDNet is running stuff I'd like to have, too (thanks, Ron!). If I'm reading the requirements right, I might be eligible for the WCBS HD feed.

The 921 receiver I'm drooling over will apparently record off-air HD in addition to DISH-fed HD. The thing I like best about it is it will record two different channels at once. That would ideal with Veronica Mars going up against Lost this season ... :>

Universal HD also runs the new Battlestar Galactica... at least they did back when I had cable.
Massive quality difference between that and the Sci-Fi broadcasts!!

The Universal vs. NBC feed may only apply to satellite, as I had both of those in HD when I used Charter for cable several months back.

But I can wait it out... as Dan pointed out at the beginning of this thread concerning price I'm getting much more from Dish for less than I was paying cable...

The only one I can remember right now. its called The Gunslinger Channel

Hi Deb,

I made the comment about DISHs' inability to offer closed captioning after my brother-in-law (who is deaf) was unable to receive closed captioning on his T.V. where the receiver was directly connected. He was however able to receive closed captioning on the T.V.s which had the DISH service but did not have the receivers directly plugged in to the T.V. It was after having called DISHs' customer service, and them subsequently telling us that some of their receivers have issues supporting CC, and that if we wanted the "luxury" of having CC we'd have to upgrade (not for free) to their HD receiver. Only after that exchange did my brother-in-law switch over to DIRECTV, with as I said earlier has no problems whatsoever supporting CC.

Winner: Directv (at least for me)

Dan - HD meaning "Hi-Def" or HD meaning "hard drive"? I have a DVR receiver hooked up to my closed caption enabled TV, and I generally do not have a problem, except for the odd commercial that doesn't have captions (oh, that's a big loss). I'm hard of hearing, so I use caption tracks on almost everything I watch. I never noticed an issue with the other receiver, which did not have the DVR capability, because it was hooked up to a TV that was not caption enabled. It frustrates me that the TV in the family room, where I do all my DVD recording, does not support captions - or at least, we can't turn them on, as the original remote control was lost years ago. Sigh.

I was wondering if you were looking for a different type of captioning, more like what WGBH originally introduced in the early '80s when they invented captioning, where captions were actually built into the video of the broadcast, not another track to be interpreted by the TV.

Hmm, the lack of caption support on the receiver seems to be in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. TV manufacturers are required to offer captions (anything past what - 1991, I think?). I'm surprised that receivers could legitimately bypass them. Then again, we have a lot of DVD sets coming out these days that have not licensed the caption tracks - A&E DVDs, for example. They're missing the boat, IMHO.

Hey Ron
I got a email from a VOOM personal and they sadi expect to see more channels in early 2006. Lets hope more cool stuff.
I wonder if they might have 24/7 the all wrestling channel, it has all the old stuff. That would be cool...
Thankx
Billy

DISHNETWORK , ANTI CHRIST. Comcast, Ihave another name for them. I ll behave. Direct-tv best rates, more reliable service friendly customer service reps.

Direct is limited on their HD channels.
I've had direct, dish is better.

I love my DISH Network. I just upgraded from cable about a week ago. DISH Network offers more for the buck, and the quality is SO much better than cable. I was making a copy of some tapes of shows that I had recorded off cable, and I was amazed at how bad the quality was from cable (in comparison to DISH). The only thing I have found that I don't like with DISH is that I had to pay $5.99 for five extra superstations (KTLA, WPIX, and a few other WB/UPN affiliates), then $1.50 per ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX. I also had to request a distant network waiver so I could get ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX from Los Angeles. However, I'm sure that I'd have to do the same with DirectTV to get "local" channels. Also DISH Network even called to make sure everything was going okay!

The only problem I've had with Dish was when I requested the second dish that they install free for some locals in my area.
After wrangling with them for ~3 weeks they finally installed it, plus I got a free month on my Top 180 package for the hassle.

It was worth the headache though, because that second dish was the one required to get VOOM HD, and if you don't happen to need it for your locals they charge ~$200 to install it!

My second Dish install was a total mess,when I had them installed the second dish for Voom. The installer got lost and showed up at 10:30 pm, he was done around midnight.

VOOM is awesome..If you have HD TV, you should get it.. Also like I said, more VOOM channels on the way!!!!

Hi Deb,

Yes, HD, meaning HI-DEF. Also, none of the programs were receiving CC through the T.V.s directly connected to DISH receivers, not even those programs produced with CC capabilities. I understand that we may have had 1 bad receiver, but two bad receivers who couldn't handle CC?...that's hard for me to believe.

As to your supposition that receivers/t.v.'s that don't support CC are in violation of the AWDA, you're correct. But rather than get in to a long and heated argument with the DISH rep on the phone, my sister opted to cut the service and switch to Directv.

I think directv is the best. What I don't like is that they ask you for your SS# to setup your account. I just want to watch cable for chrissakes! I'm not applying for a credit card.

I've said it once and I will say it again, Direct doesnt offer HD channels like Dish does, Tobal2 will agree with me on this, VOOM ROCKS!!!!

bumped for informational purposes...

1.09 service charge included in this post lol

wow, this thread is 2 yrs old and I only stumbled on it today! Very very informative! I was in the market for a dish service (currently have basic cable with comcast), and the side by side comparison really helps.

Thanks for making my life alot easier! Thinking of going the Direct TV route!

I hope one day to have DN. :)

I totally agree with this. I just got off the phone with a Direct TV rep and I was totally turned off by this request.

Well in the end, I did finally gave my SS# and we're having Direct TV installed this Friday.

I was toying back and forth between Comcast Digital Cable and Direct TV. I currently have Comcast hi speed with Basic cable and that package amounts to 62 bucks a month. If I were to drop the basic cable portion, my comcast bill only goes down a buck! These f'ers really want you to stay!

But anywho, I'll report in and give my final review of Direct TV!

I'm interesed in finding out when DirectTV will have the expanded number of HD channels. I'm ready to dump Comcast Digital cable and switch to satellite.

Where the hell is the competition for Comcast???? They charge way to much money for cable.

Well, it seems to me that Dish looks to be the best sat option :)

I just compared prices and Dish is cheaper with all the channels excluding sports.

Brent

bumped again for informational purposes...

I'm gong to say Directv all the way-unless you need tech support, and then good luck getting someone that can actually speak English. Oh well-they have to work as well, but it gets tiresome having to repeat your self so they can try to understand what you are saying-I usually get aggravated and ask for prootection plan, afterall mom pays for it, and they usually solve the problem within minutes.