Cable v Dish Network v Direct TV - opinions?

[Bren's Mom]

Dish Network, bundled with AT&T is cheapest in our area. However, I've seen some not to great reviews. If I'm going to get hit with all kinds of extra fees, etc. and if the service isn't good then it's not necessarily best for our budget to go this route. We've never had satellite before but our new home is on a hill with a totally clear view of the southern sky so we don't expect a transmission problem. Any thought??

 

[I_believe]

We have the AT&T / dish combo. Before we switched to this package we paid 140.00 a month for cable and internet and another 40.00 a month for phone. Now I pay about 145.00 for all three packaged with AT&T. The only issue we have had is the AT&T service reps. They are a little confused on how things work. I had to argue with one on whether I needed thier wireless router or not for my home network. Other than that they gave us a great deal on the Dish side of things. All I can say is that before you call to order do your homework. The fees are standard and as long as you know what they are there will be no surprises. As for the service we just went through a very icey winter and had no problems or issues. We have had 60mph winds and no issues, but I will say that a strong thunderstorm or very heavy rain can cause the feed to go out for a few minutes, just until the rain passes. So I wish you luck and can say that the change has been a savings for us.

Erin

 

[Bren's Mom]

Thanks for the quick reply! We're paying $120 for cable + cable modem now plus $40 for AT&T landline phone. The total I get when I figure the AT&T/Dish package is $125/month.

That's for the 'Pro' level internet/DSL. They told me it's another $5 for the 'Elite' speed. Do you know which you have? Is it fast enough?

And if we go with this package that price is for 5 TVs, 4 of which will have DVR on them. Which is a definite upgrade for us, for less money. I guess DISH used dual-tuners so you have 1 receiver for 2 TVs, they share the DVR. Is that what you have? Does it work well? We have only 1 DVR now and it's always a battle who gets to watch their 'stuff'! LOL

 

[dkdaisy]

I can't answer about the packaging question, but we do have DishNet and the 1 DVR for 2 TVs so I can answer for that. They use two different types of remotes for the two TVs. the TV that has the console next to it gets a normal remote and it works fine. The TV that doesn't have the console gets a different type of remote (it looks the same, but it transmits differently). It supposed to go through walls, etc to change instead of being pointed at the TV. We have had some difficulty with that remote. Sometimes it works great, but usually we have to aim it at different spots to get it to work and once we find the spot we have to hold the remote there if we want to do any functioning. Its not logical either - like we don't point the remote at the TV, in the direction of the console or in the direction of where the dish is located. Sometimes we point out the back of the house to get it to work. Its really weird and can be frustrating sometimes. Otherwise, we love the Dish and we really like having hte DVR that does two TVS. we can watch adn record, record two things at once, adn you can change a setting and record and watch on the same TV, which other setups can't do.

 

[I_believe]

We have 5 tv's connected. Two of the main "family" tv's are on the DVR / HD reciever,which has an extra cost, then there are two bedroom tv's that share a regular reciever. The last tv is in my bedroom and shares the DVR with the two main tv's. The cost for adding an extra box for the 5th TV was not worth it. We used a signal splitter and with the help of the installer we ran the last line into the bedroom. The TV in the bedroom shares a signal with the TV in the living room. I can not watch one channel in the bedroom and one channel in the living room at the same time, but since no one is in the living room watching tv when I go into to bed to watch the news it has not been a problem. If DH wants to stay up and watch tv he goes downstairs to the other family tv. The remotes use an RF signal to communicate back to the box. My DRV/ HD box is in the basement familyroom and the second tv for it is on the main level in the livingroom, the bedroom is also on this box. The other reciever is in my sons room with the second tv in my daughters room. We have never had issues with the remotes. BTW I don't know if this matters to you or not but we are getting alot more HD channels and some new channels. So cool!!!

 

[Bren's Mom]

That's great info! I'll have to talk to DH about saving the $150 initially that it will cost us for the 5th TV...I'm sure he could probably install a splitter himself.

So with these dual-TV DVRs...room A can watch a show and room B can watch a different show and the DVR can also be recording something at the same time? Can room A be watching live TV and room B be watching something recorded and the DVR also be recording something?

Our current DVR (just on 1 TV) is able to record up to 2 shows at once. If there are 2 shows recording you cannot watch live TV, but you can watch something already recorded.

(Can you tell TV is big at our house??? ROFL!!)

 

[bsquared]

That's great info! I'll have to talk to DH about saving the $150 initially that it will cost us for the 5th TV...I'm sure he could probably install a splitter himself.

So with these dual-TV DVRs...room A can watch a show and room B can watch a different show and the DVR can also be recording something at the same time? Can room A be watching live TV and room B be watching something recorded and the DVR also be recording something?

Our current DVR (just on 1 TV) is able to record up to 2 shows at once. If there are 2 shows recording you cannot watch live TV, but you can watch something already recorded.

(Can you tell TV is big at our house??? ROFL!!)

The Dish DVRs have 3 tuners in them, so yes you can do the scenarios you asked about. The thing to remember is that there are 3 tuners, so you can do up to 3 different things at the same time.

The remotes are radio frequency remotes (RF). They send a radio signal, and that is why they will work anywhere, within reason, throughout the house.

 

[DisFlan]

We had DTV for 14 years. We finally dumped it about a year and a half ago (kept screwing up our bill) and went to Dish. DTV also wanted to charge us a TON to update our boxes. We LOVE Dish. It costs less and we now have TVs in 4 rooms (with independent use - 4 sets, 4 different channels) for less than the price we were paying for 2 rooms with DTV. And no equipment charges. We have the "everything package", but no DVR or HD (yet). My last bill was $93.00. If we watch a couple of Pay Per View movies, it's a little higher.

I too love the wireless boxes. No "gadgets" needed to get signals to the other rooms. We just like Dish better all around. Great picture quality, fewer weather outages and great customer service, too.

We don't have cable available where we live outside of town. Which I wouldn't want even if we could get it (Mediacom). The quality is terrible. The folks who have it complain about it all the time.

We have our DSL with a phone bundle at a reduced "rural" rate - which has worked out to be a really good deal.


DisFlan

 

[srwarden1928]

We have Directv and love it. When we moved to the country and had to give up cable we were disappointed. I dont miss cable at all. We get far more for our money with Directv. BTW, I would have to have a higher level service for Dish, so it would cost more or I would have to give up some programming. My Directv IS associated with AT&T. I m surprised they would affiliate with the competitor services.

We pay $70 per month for three independent services. It would be $75 for four. I am considering upgrading.

 

[Savsmommy]

We have Dish Network with the AT&T bundle. Dish, internet and landline for $126.00 a month. We love it and have not had any problems with it.

 

[Bren's Mom]

Thanks everyone! I called AT&T back again and got all the same answers from a different rep so I'm pretty sure I have all the right info. Apparently they have 2 ways to bundle Dish, 24mo contract or mo to mo. The price I was quoted was month to month, so no commitment other than I have to keep it 30 days in order to get the $49.99 activation rebate and the $50 modem rebate...that's no biggie. All around it's MUCH cheaper than the other 2 options so I decided to go ahead with it. Worst case scenario is we decide after a while it's not for us and we dish it...LOL...get it? I'm looking forward to having more than 1 DVR so I can actually get to see MY shows!