Satellite TV - DirectTV or Dish?

They both have that.

If you like sports at all go with DirecTV. Just make sure you get the HR44 when you order and if they come with a HR34 instead refuse the install and have them come back out.

Dish is fine. I haven't had them in a very long time.

I do know DirecTv has better picture quality out of the two. Better equipment is a toss up between the Hopper if you watch a ton of prime time stuff or the HR44 if you don't.

I have DirecTV and my dad has Dish at his house, so I've used both extensively. I don't think there's any huge features that one has that the other is lacking, other than DirecTV having the NFL Sunday Ticket if you have any interest in Football(you'll almost always get this for free the first year you sign up)

I'd probably just make a decision based on pricing. I know DirecTVs basic channel tier is 140 channels where Dish is only 120, so Dish has a decent amount of channels that you have to go a tier higher than DirecTV to get. I went with DirecTV because it was cheaper than Dish when I priced both(especially for the first year when you can get some referral discounts too)

Also know that the Hoppers(Dish) claim to recording 6 shows at once is kind of bogus, that only happens during Prime Time, and it just DVRs the networks automatically, and you can only choose like 2 more of your own shows.

At my home we have 2 DirecTV HD DVRs(not their new Genie), and we can record 2 shows per box, and each box communicates with the other, so our DVR guides show everything available on both boxes. It can function like a whole-house DVR even though it isn't advertised as such, I'm not 100% sure what the Genie offers that is much better than that(other than the wireless Genie boxes), but they definitely charge you more for it

One of the things that pisses me off about DirecTV (not sure if Dish does the same, but probably) is the charge for using an HD receiver. It's fucking 2014, that's just bullshit.

Then again, I cancelled mine a few weeks ago. Going with a usenet, streaming internet on HTPC (for sports), and HD over the air antenna combo. Going to end up saving something like $80/month which was just for a single receiver on DirecTV with the cheapest package.

Everyone I know of, cable and satellite, charges extra for hd boxes. Basically just because they can, there's no one that doesn't do it to give them competition

Had both, still have DISH.
Got rid of Direct TV cause of no locals, then they tried to bring a over the air antennae out when it was promised on the package( was even charging $5 for it ).
Dish has all the local networks for my town right in the feed.
Price per month was the same for both with the 250 package.
Right now I pay $80.46 a month with taxes and fees and have 3 HD tuners.
I do have a super joey in that so I get 3 tuners on the hopper+2super.
This means we can watch or record 5 things at once in any combo.( 9 during primetime but those extra 4 only include the network channels only).
My experience so far is DISH> Direct TV in being honest about the billing/channels and the website is also much better to navigate and get things done.
My TV's and such have changed so much between 2 years ago with Direct TV and Dish I have now I cannot comment on the quality, however both were exceptional compared to cable and I can't really imagine DISH getting any better than I have now. It is very sharp and clear.
Of the $80 a month I pay, $12 is for the hopper, $10 for the Super Joey, $7 for the Joey. My TV package is $45 + taxes. On both you'll get everything including prems for 3 months but after that the $45 covers all channels except the prems like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and so forth.
DISH has Blockbuster which is nice and imo worth the $10 a month since it gives you instant access( over internet ) to thousands of movies for free.

I also prefer DISH's guide and DVR system, however Direct TVs was awesome as well.
Both are far better than any options and features cable had.

Olebass_sl said:

Had both, still have DISH.
Got rid of Direct TV cause of no locals, then they tried to bring a over the air antennae out when it was promised on the package( was even charging $5 for it ).
Dish has all the local networks for my town right in the feed.

Click to expand...

Huh? When was this? And was it some weird localized thing? DirecTV has all my local channels. I think like 12 years ago or something it didn't though.

It was late 2012. They had to send off a request to the local stations to carry them which took 30 days and got denied. Because I had local stations for all the networks, they couldn't even give me networks from some other area instead.
Same thing just happened to lady I redid her new home for. She canceled Direct TV and sent the stuff back the 2nd day.
Because of that I had expected when I got DISH I wouldn't get locals and had even ordered a HD Antenna , but when they installed it the guy was like no no you got em here see?
Direct TV pissed me off ( among many other issues in just a few months ) because I missed all the new years shit on locals and even the Daytona 500 that year. I ended up going back to cable until the shit's gonna fly spell few months back where I dumped almost every leaching service I had and switched to new carriers, new tv, new phones, new insurance and more.

Now I am getting much more than I had and saving about $190 a month doing it( between everything ).

I was under the impression a hopper AND super joey was 5 tuners and 6 IF you had an OTA hooked up

The hopper itself has only 3 tuners.

How many show can you actually record at one time with the Hopper, other questions - High Def Forum - Your High Definition Community & High Definition Resource


When football is on you can easily record 5 shows at once. Heck I hit 6 the other day with my Roamio which fortunately has 6 tuners. Add a kid and their shit and you can easily max out tuners.

^ is correct.
Keep in mind tuners are used for viewing as well so in our case a 2 person home with 2 bedrooms and a tv in living room, using Hopper( 3 tuners ) and a super joey ( 2 tuners ) if we have all 3 tvs going we could only record 2 additional shows. Initially We had just Hopper and joeys and couldn't record any if all 3 tvs were in use. I called up complained and they swapped in a Super for the extra 2 tuners.

By far my biggest complaint with DISH if you can call it that is the nightly shutdown shit at 1am, guy said it was supposed to be 3am but still it annoys the fuck out of me every night. At least make it where it turns back on when done as it only takes a minute. If I wanted it to turn off, I'd turn the mother fucker off.

You got it mixed up it is DISH with the hopper and 6 tuner claim, but ya it is 3 tuners, they say 6 by assuming 2 tuners+4 networks at once which is misleading. However it is only $3 a month more than a joey to add a super to get a true 5 tuners or 9 if you for some reason do record all prime time networks. Sunday night is when for a while there we used the most tuners with The Strain, Naked and Afraid, The Last Ship and a few of her shows coming on at once.

BrutulTM_sl said:

Hmm, I just assumed that the DirecTV commercials meant that 4 of the tuners were used up by prime time anytime.

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If you watch close you see the disclaimer that it's a thing on Dish that you can turn off. Not sure about all this "tuners" etc talk, but the prime time thing isn't something you can't avoid. Just a setting you can turn off.

I still don't get the local channels thing. I've had DirecTV for like 15 years and I get all my local networks no problem, including the awful ones with religious programming and shit.

Ya, I don't and will probably never use the primetime thing. Maybe in the fall when all the marvel spinoffs hit depending on time/networks.

The best I can assume Grimlok is it is a area by area thing. The fact DISH has it built in without even mentioning it and it was a issue on mine and at least 2 others service in the area tells me DISH has a deal worked out, Direct TV doesn't( but still tried to charge $5 a month for it even though it was denied ). It may be reversed in other markets, I can only speak for my area and locals.

Then again it is Bowling Green, KY. You can watch this to see why I say that.
Everything Wrong With Armageddon In 14 Minutes Or Less - YouTube