DIRECT TV or DISH?

[Grey Mountain]

We have been DIRECT TV customers for years; however, we are now considering switching to DISH. Since DIRECT TV was acquired by AT&T, the service has deteriorated considerably.

Opinions and/or experiences?

GM

[MT Woodworker]

We have had DISH for many years, has worked well for us.
But here in Montana, had to remove snow from the antenna now and then...

[Grey Mountain]

We have had DISH for many years, has worked well for us.
But here in Montana, had to remove snow from the antenna now and then...

Snow removal is normal, even here in Oklahoma on rare occasions. Lots of folks don't realize that.
Thanks for your response.

GM

[fredhargis]

We've had Dish about 5 years, and it's worked well for us. My sister switches back and forth between them (Dish and Direct) and says there's no performance difference but there are some programming differences. Dish doesn't offer HBO (at the moment) for example. But if you think AT&T is the problem you may want to wait. They are spinning off the Direct TV system (reportedly at a huge loss) as well as some of the other stuff like HBO (that's the reason Dish doesn't carry HBO, AT&T tried to jack the price beyond all reasonable expectations....so the story goes).

[crokett™]

I liked the Dish UI better. It was slightly cheaper than DirecTV for equivalent service. Dish has (or used to have) more options for packages, so you potentially didn't have to spend so much.

If it's an option at all I'd consider streaming before I go back to Dish or DirecTV

[Wild Turkey]

Be careful with Dish.  I feel they ripped me off for $450.  Yeah, my own fault somewhat but they sure make it easy to get misled.

I forget how many channels they advertised in their basic package but when I went to their website it was a bunch but their graphics made it semi-impossible to get a good list of what channels they offered.  Getting a description of what the channels were about was also a real pain.  I did copy their list and ran it through a couple of programs to sort out the GIF garbage and get a good list of the channels and the number I counted wasn't even close to the number they claimed.

And by the time you subtracted the music channels and porn channels and "infomercial" channels and the religious channels and the non-English channels there weren't a whole lot left.


What really irritated me to the point of canceling was that their program guide listed about a zillion channels but you couldn't tell which ones required additional fees/subscriptions and setting up your "favorites" was also a huge hassle. So I decided to drop them but dealing with their "customer service" was a "trial by touch-tone hell" and I got a real negative vibe from them once I got through to them.

Your experience may vary, but I'll stay far far away from them.

[gear jammer]

We've got dish. It is alright for what we watch. Our internet is slow so streaming is a catch can deal. Never had Direct tv so can't compare. Their channel count is at least 40%  infomercials. When we go to Texas over the winter we put the Dish on seasonal, Pay close attention to this they have a tendancy to forget the price that was agreed on and try to raise it coming off seasonal. Had a go around with customer service over this. 
In Texas we have a smart samsung tv. We have the internet (much better than what we get in the sticks here) And use their free streaming. Like 150 channels, More than I'll watch. It's free, free free, free

[Grey Mountain]

Thanks for all the responses. Going to forego the switch for the time being and stick with DIRECT RV. I guess a bit of "the devil you know..."

GM

[Wipedout]

Hey Lonnie

Do you have good internet?  If so I would say get a streaming service rather than either

Are y'all still traveling in your RV?  I had they are opening up Canada finally mid June

Robert