Directv vs. Dish?

Prone2Clone

Well-Known Member
Oct 20, 2006
9,896
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I have gotten to see the ISU-Minn wrestling meet, and will get to see the ISU-Minn women's BBall game on the 21st on the BTN, so I am not complaining. I also get to see Seth Gorney, which cracks me up more than any show on TV.

I watched the wrestling meet, too. Glad we won. And all joking aside, a Big 12 Network would be awesome.
 

t-noah

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2007
17,110
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I didn't have a bundled package or anything and I noticed that DirecTV began to send bills every other month and bill me late charges in between. Nice scam. They wanted to direct bill from a credit card I but I didn't want to do that. I told them the late charge scam was a nice gimmick and I would close out the account. But, they wanted to add ANOTHER late charge before I could do it. I told them to shove the late charges up their....... and I've never heard anything back.[/QUOTE

Haha, nice work! That wouldn't create a warm & fuzzy w/ me either.
 

crazyclone21

Member
Mar 25, 2006
35
3
8
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Le Mars, IA
Not that any of you would want to post this on the public message board, you could PM me if you'd like, but I am a cable subscriber here in D.M. with Mediacom. I have been happy thus far, but have been scouting out the perks of DirecTV and Dish Net. What are some of the prices some of you pay for services. With my wife and I, we have the regular cable, about 75 channels (we do not have the digital box any longer as we were trying to save money on our bill), we have the high speed internet, and telephone. We pay nearly $130/month for this. On the flip side, my parents who live in Algona and have a local cable provider, have showtime, starz, and encore, digital and expanded digital cable with about 30 HD channels, high speed internet and phone, and pay about $120. I know I could use a change, what do some of you suggest?
 

t-noah

Well-Known Member
Feb 2, 2007
17,110
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yeah, din't think I'd ever want to watch the BTN, but could occassionally see the cyclones playing big ten competition. It's good to hear ISU beat MN in wrestling! I didn't know that. A Big 12 Network would be very nice indeed.
 

CTAClone

Addict
Mar 28, 2006
8,996
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Amerika
I've had both DirectTV and Dishnetwork. The only big difference between the two is that DirectTV carries more sports channels and has the MLB and NFL package. Possibly in the future they may by the other sport packages also. All of the extra HD channels I never watch. I liked the navigation better on Dish, but otherwise I don't really care.
 

superdorf

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2007
6,955
256
83
Des Moines, IA
www.superdorf.com
The one thing I really like on DishNet (i used to be on DirectTV) is that I get both Comcast SportsNet Chicago (Cubs games) and FSN Midwest, for college football and other baseball games. Also, they always have other sports events on the ALTERNATE channels, I never got that with DirecTV.
 

4VR4CY

Well-Known Member
Aug 28, 2007
3,474
51
48
Ankeny, IA
The one thing I really like on DishNet (i used to be on DirectTV) is that I get both Comcast SportsNet Chicago (Cubs games) and FSN Midwest, for college football and other baseball games. Also, they always have other sports events on the ALTERNATE channels, I never got that with DirecTV.

I think we get those on Directv in the mid 600s.
 

xhenxhe

New Member
Dec 15, 2007
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Which one do you guys recommend and why? Specifically, for Dish, would I have to go up to the 200 package to view, say, Cyclone basketball or football (which is what I'd like to do, some of the regional spors broadcasts)? How about Directv? What tier to you have to go to to get cyclone sports? This for a guy who lives in SW MO. Thx!

I've heard more positives going w/ Directv in terms of overall service and customer service, but I don't know why. Anyone have bad experience w/ Dish network? Dish does seem to be a bit less pricey.

You can compare different packages at DIRECTV vs. Dish Network - Satellite TV Comparison Guide

If you're a sports fan, I would say go with DIRECTV. Dish Network is a little cheaper, but it pretty much comes out even in the end. If you want HD, you'll pay $10 less per month and get more channels. If you want local channels, Dish charges $5.99/mo where all of Directv packages come with locals. So if you put those two things into the mix, DIRECTV is actually cheaper!
 

dmclone

Well-Known Member
Oct 20, 2006
20,854
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I posted this on other thread.

I had Mediacom online forever and I also had cable. As soon as I had my home theater built I knew I'd move to Directv because of their. It was harder for me to move off of Mediacom online but I haven't regretted it once. I sometimes work from home and I've noticed no downgrade in speed and it costs me 1/2 as much. As far as Directv costs.

I have 1 HR20-HD DVR
1 SD DVR
1 SD receiver

I pay 83.40/month

HBO $13
Total Choice $48
HD package $10
DVR service $6
3 receivers 3x4.99=$15
1 receiver discount $-4.99
Sales tax = 4.45


This gives me over 200 channels, 68 xm channels and nearly 100 HD channels. I get a better picture but I do have to admit that my Directv goes out about 3-4 times a year. I've never had it go out for more than a few hours. The picture is also better with both SD and HD. The DVR is also better than Mediacom's.


My total bill with Mediacom was $115 which included internet. My total bill with Directv/Qwst DSL is $114. I gave up a little speed but have a lot more channels with Directv.

Another thing that made me change was when I got rid of Mediacom Cable they upped my online by $10. I was paying $60/month, which I think is ridiculous.
 

83Clone

Well-Known Member
Apr 27, 2006
2,869
457
83
Ankeny, IA
This is no longer true with the HR20 and newer stuff (which you need to get most of the HD content on DirecTV). The channels are right next to each other, and it's possible to set it to automatically go to the HD channel if available.

To be honest, they are pretty much identical services with a few important differences.

DirecTV has better HD content and selection than Dish does, and will in the near future. If you're inclined to subscribe to Sunday Ticket (the NFL package), you can only get that and a few other fringe sports packages on DirecTV. Otherwise, they are very similar offerings.

Unfortunately, living in SW MO, you're only going to be able to pick up what's on the national broadcasts, and ESPN Full Court.

On another note, I usually get the College Gameplan package every year. It's alright, but there are usually only 2 or 3 games a year I watch on it that I couldn't have otherwise gotten. The Big 10 network, and having all of it's alternates available, really kicked a lot of interesting games off of gameplan. If you're a tremendous CFB junkie, it's worth it. Otherwise, I'd avoid it.

Do you have a list of the HD channels that DirectTV has and Dishnetwork doesn't?

I'm curious because I wonder if they are obscure and/or pay channels. Dish has all the basics-
Dicsovery/ESPN/ESPN 2/History/TNT/TBS/NFL
VS/BTN, etc, and a bunch that I don't ever watch or wouldn't want to pay for
 

Cyclonepride

Thought Police
Staff member
Apr 11, 2006
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A pineapple under the sea
www.oldschoolradical.com
I have Dish and wasn't real impressed with my installer. He basically stuck it to the side of the house, went inside, and since there was a picture there, he left. I had problems with it going out whenever it rained, snowed, was windy, or anything for about the first year or so. Finally, it irritated me enough that I checked the overall signal level, found it pretty low, and went out and adjusted it myself. Now it's pretty steady, and rarely goes out.

A couple months ago I had to go Paul Bunyan on a huge tree branch that got in the way too.
 

brianhos

Moderator
Staff member
Bookie
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Jun 1, 2006
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Trenchtown
Wowza, DTV has a lof of HD channels... too bad I cannot get any of them yet.
 

jumbopackage

Well-Known Member
Sep 18, 2007
5,481
249
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Do you have a list of the HD channels that DirectTV has and Dishnetwork doesn't?

I'm curious because I wonder if they are obscure and/or pay channels. Dish has all the basics-
Dicsovery/ESPN/ESPN 2/History/TNT/TBS/NFL
VS/BTN, etc, and a bunch that I don't ever watch or wouldn't want to pay for

Yeah they both have all the basics, so it's getting to be mostly fringe channels that one has that the other doesn't. DirecTV has basically the entire Mediacom lineup in HD now. Mediacom wont' have that for years down the road.

If HD is important to you, DirecTV is pretty much the only way to go. Not only do they have more HD channels right now, they are going to have more in the future, since they have more satellite space and bandwidth, partly since they've bitten the bullet and gone to MPEG-4 on their new HD channels (which is something that everyone else will have to do eventually).

Also: long, run-on sentence.
 

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