Is there a difference? I ask because I see deals all the time for satellite (dish network, etc.) where they give you 3 boxes and all that. Do they have DVR/HD combos like Crapcast? And what about bad weather? Does it really F things up? Seems like there are some pretty good deals out there that they offer.
Yes, you can get receivers with DVR built in and they have HD versions of them. Really bad weather can mess up the signal. If the dish is properly set up it will take really heavy cloud cover and a lot of rain to interfere though. It's far from the signal going out every time it sprinkles like cable companies like to say. Of course when you're trying to watch something and it does happen it really pisses you off.
Weather outages was a major reason I switched from DiwreckTV. Another reason I switched from them to u-Verse (cable through Phone Line) was that u-Verse provided 3 free feeds to different receivers, with all of them being HD capable, and ONE of them a DVR'd one. One last reason is that I got rid of my satellite bill to conveniently have DSL + Cable in one bill, and then in a few months the landline phone will be included. I am sure we'll have the phone bill (also at&t) included, and all will be about $120 in one bill. A disadvantage is that there's no Sunday NFL ticket. But... eh, the Texans' games are ALL on local channels or NFL Network, which u-Verse has. See if you can get u-Verse in your home... they have a "try-before-you-buy" deal where you can see ALL their features in 30 days.
I've had DirecTV for the last 6 years and my signal goes out on average twice a year for about 2 minutes. Your satellites must really be setup wrong for weather to totally kill your connection. DirecTV 100% digital. Even "digital" cable isn't. DirecTV has more HD channels than any other provider, and more will be rolled out before the end of the year. DirecTV has NFL Sunday Ticket. Nobody else does. As for Uverse, I've heard recently that people have been unable to watch some of the recent Rockets games. And also that with Uverse you can only have one active HD feed at a time. Screw that. Oh and if anyone decides to sign up for DirecTV let me know. They have a refer a friend thing going on now where you will get $50 off your first bill, and I will get $50 off of my next bill.
Both my sister and my parents have Satellite, they have no problem with it. I might change to them if they have local stations so I can watch local sports.
They have local channels. I think you have to pay $5 for them in some cases though, but most should offer them for free. I'm quite the w**** though. I switched from Cable to DirecTV to Cable to Dish Network and back to Cable again every 12 months once their promotional rate is done. plus since I switch from cable to Sat and vice versa, they give me even better deals tee hee
Well, my mom couldn't get local channels on her direct TV. She paid for it but they had to refund that part because they couldn't set it up right. Something about our area couldn't get local channels. She doesn't care since she doesn't watch local channels anyway, she watches Chinese stations all the time (which cable does not have).
I've had DISH for over a year. Bad thunderstorms have knocked out my service twice, for about 5 minutes each time. I'll never go back to cable TV.
You mean you can record 2 HD feeds at once, or that you can WATCH 2 HD feeds at once? This is temporary with u-Verse. The best is yet to come with the ability to watch DVR'd feeds on different receivers.
I have dish network i havent had any issue with them except that there are two local channels that do have HD stations that dish does not provide. i think i may need to get an OTA antenna and hook it up to the receiver and do it that way to get those channels...not a huge issue. the signal has gone out on me when it was raining hard but it was not for a long period of time. my dish is around some trees as well and a power line so while i have a clear view of the sky there is a lot of potential interference.
Satellite goes out sometimes when its raining really hard. Their prices are pretty good NO ON DEMAND DISH NETWORK HAS A CRAPPY DVR COMPARED TO COMCAST YOUR GAME AREN'T TRULY LIVE THERES LIKE A 20 SECOND DELAY SO DONT EVER WATCH A GAME WITH 5 SECONDS LEFT AND HAVE A FRIEND ON THE OTHER LINE KILL IT FOR YOU! Comcast rarely goes out During Hurricane Rita and all that ,i was sitting at home watching HBO and nothing happened. Their internet is blazing fast.. (for some users) its either super fast or super slow.. if you like cinemax.. they have way more cinemax channls than satellite.. lol plus you can watch movies on demand which is one of the main reason i like cable so much the DVR is really good only thing that sucks about cable is the cost
How's the picture quality? Does anyone else have it? I was about to start researching this as I'm tired of paying overpriced cable for a hand full of HD channels...
rrj_gamz, the picture quality is almost as good as local antenna HD, and the regular channels are not as blurred as with satellite. There is not much of a delay as there is with satellite through my Cable'd u-Verse, maybe a 1 or 1/2 second delay from local antenna. I didn't have HD with satellite, so I can't really say I compare, but I really like the HD channels like Discovery and National Geographic's quality. I am not sure who else has it in the forum... here's another thread with it: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=137692 .
Post your cable/satellite bill I have Comcast and i loved the HD signal initially but i have noticed over the last few months that the HD quality is degrading. Specifically, during Rockets games on ESPN and football games on any channel have become less sharp then at first. Also, my dad has an older 720 HD Tv w/ no HDMI and his Dish Network HD blows away my 1080P samsung on Comcast. I'm paying $98/month for 2 HD DVR receivers, HD channel package, ESPN HD, & no movie packages. Anybody else care to share there Satellite/cable bill info so we can all compare notes and understand how bad these companies are working us over? I am looking to switch to satellite this weekend but I can't figure out the bottom line difference between Dish and DirecTV. I don't care about NFL Sunday ticket. Anyone out there have a side by side comparison sheet or a quick break down of the difference between these two?
I've had Directv for a looong time and have been extremely happy with it. Like others have said, it take a pretty significant down pour to knock out the signal, which only lasts for a short time usually, and I've never seen it go down for any other reason. I had cable when I was younger and there were a multitude of reasons why it would go out...not sure how it is now but I know I'd never go back because of that reason and the horrible customer service I hear about comcast.
