Satellite TV....your opinion requested.

[Dave Weaver]

We have let our cable TV expire, and are looking at other options.  Comcast seems to keep dropping channels and raising prices.  My latest bill here was around $65 per month, and that is with no movie or premium channels.  Those of you with DishNetwork or DirecTV, are you happy?  Does the weather or anything else cause many outages? TIA,

Dave

[fudgie]

I currently have DirecTV and like it. The heavy rains and a occasional heavy snow does make the signal disappear. I like Direct better then dish. Had to many problems with Dish. I am going to cancel mine tho. I'm getting those 'free to air' reciever systems. You pay a one time fee and you get all, I said ALL  , the channels. $200 is what some guys at work have paid. The X-wife paid $300 a year or so ago and never had any troubles with it. The reciever 'pulls' dishnetworks signal out of the air to your tv. You do have to update your card every so often but that is no problem. Its a zip file. I figure I pay $62 a month now so after 3 months its paid for. The guy doing mine lives in Warsaw in NC Ind. 

[Bigmac2]

We have dishnetwork and have had no issues for the last 7 years very happy with them better and cheaper than cable and we take it with us in our rv

[bsnicely]

Every time it rained, snowed, a plane flew over the signal went away......     I have Comcast cable and am very happy with the tv and internet.......

[Lyn-Del]

And I switched to satellite years ago because we lost cable every time it rained ....

[SANDMAN5]

We, too, got fed up with Comcast and went to Dish. We're happy with it. Only
lose service during a pretty good storm, but we don't need to be watching then
anyway. Biggest complaint is the Weather Channel don't give "local on the 8's".
You get something kinda like it...but not really.

[BamaJack]

Every time it rained or the wind blew more than 5 mph out cable went out. And when it went out it was gone for the entire evening. Call the cable company and they didn't seem the leas bit concerned. So we went with Dish. When it goes out because of rain or snow it only lasts as long as the worst of the rain/snow has passed. I don't think it's ever been out more that 15-20 minutes.

[PAVALKER]

I got fed up with Comcast internet /email earlier this year and my speeds were very low (lower than DSL) and after weeks of arguing with them and having one of their Techs here who just replaced some connectors and splitters I went with DSL.... AND I shut my cable off for TV as well.  I put an antenna up in the attic and get all my local channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and some others) in HD quality off the air for FREE !!   Yea.....I exceeded my tolerance level with Comcast..... and am enjoying DSL and FREE HD TV......  antenna and digital tuners/converters work great.  It wasn't that hard to make the change.....

With Cable TV I have had some outages and my neighbors experienced a few on their satellite as well (snow etc).  On my antenna I have no outage per say but do experience some digital blocking (loss of signal) when a helo or plane flys over kinda low now and then.  And antenna picture quality is better than cable due to no need for compression or line loss.....   Good thing I'm not one for all those channels or shows.....

[Jack]

I have Direct-TV.  I use to have cable and liked it.  As said before, storm clouds kill your signal when you need it most.  Of course, here in tornado alley, if you lose signal you better head to the cellar.

[MCRIDER]

I have DirecTV and hate it.  When you have problems, they promise you a credit for a set amount of months, then you get the credit for one month and then it stops.  Their HD receivers last about 5 months and their warranty is 90 days.  Their customer service reps tell you one thing and then enter other things in the computer. The sales reps also tell you one thing and write something completely different in the computer. You can never talk to the same rep as they have them all over the world.  Stay away from DirecTV.

[Bob E.]

I've had both DirecTV and Dish Network.  I had DirecTV first and was perfectly happy. But when I wanted to add receivers, they wanted to charge me a ridiculous amount per box.  They were running a special at the time...up to 4 receivers for $100 or something but they said that was only for new customers only.  So I switched to Dish Netowork because they were running the same deal.  I am equally happy with them.

The deal I have with them is that I lease the receivers.  So if something goes wrong and a receiver dies, I just call them and they send me a new one and I send the old one back.  I've never had a problem with my regular receivers, but I have needed to return my DVR receiver a few times...maybe once every year or two.  My dad has Dish HD and he has had problems with his HD receiver also.  So I would recommend this arrangement rather than buying the equipment.  Also, I have to say that the Dish Network customer service reps are always very nice and helpful when I do have problems.  I have no complaints there. 

My bill runs about $70 or so without any pay channels.  But I do have the largest channel package they offer.  Keep in mind that where I live, there is no cable TV.  It's either satellite or rabbit ears.  So my tolerance for issues like the short outages due to weather (and they are rare and usually pretty short) may be a little higher than someone who is used to cable.

[3fan4life]

We swithed from Dish Network to Direct TV a little over a year ago.

We had Dish Network for 8 yrs, we were happy with the quality of the programming, signal etc.

What we weren't happy with was the lack of customer service.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the hassle that we received when we tried to upgrade to HD.

First no one that we talked to could speak english, then they tried to force me to subscribe to DVR service, after I got all of that straightened out the local people refused to do the install. Because I wouldn't let them take my old equipment, when we got ours you had to buy the receivers and the dish. Now, you lease them and the local people were too ignorant to comprehend why they couldn't take something that I had paid for.

Anyway, we went with Direct TV and haven't looked back since.

Both do go out when it comes a hard rain. Direct TV does seem to go out less than Dish Network did.

We're much happier with Direct TV's customer service so far everytime that I've called the person on the other end was friendly, helpful and english was their native language.

My only criticism is the way they do their billing.

If you forgot to pay the bill, Dish Network would send E-mail reminders and also had a message that would pop up on the screen as a reminder.

Direct TV doesn't do any of this, they just disconnect you.