DiercTV here. I live in the sticks so cable is not an option. We thought about switching to Dish Network at one time because DirecTV did not offer UPN at the time. we got all set up and were running both systems. We decided that dish sucked so we called them and told them to cancel everything but UPN and WB. They canceled it on our bill but forgot to turn off the channels. We were getting 96 channels on that thing for around $8 a month. This went on for about a year. They sent us a new caed for it and it was over. When DirecTV started offering UPN we called dish and told them to cancel our service, and tossed the box in the trash.

 

I wish we had DirecTv here, but I don't pay the bills, so I won't complain that much about what my parents choose.

 

we have had dish network hd with dvr for about a year and a half now and wont ever go back to cable! after katrina no one in my area had cable for a couple of months and we had dish as soon as we hooked the generator up the day after the hurricane!

 

Have had Direct for about 3 years now,pretty happy with them.Only issues with us are it doesn't like snow accumulating on dish.HD programming is slowly getting better.Our local cable company sucks.

 

I was just saying in the WOW, New audio cables (calling D and Kobi) thread that the change from cable to satellite is an amazing difference. The picture quality is so much better with satellite. We have DirecTV, only signal problems I've ever had was when there was a buildup of slushy snow on the dish, the light fluffy stuff doesn't seem to affect it. Some glitches during heavy rain but so far never a complete loss of signal. Would I go back to cable...even if I had the choice (which I don't, we live in the boonies, no cable here)...NO, from now on it's satellite for us!

Dave, I think you complained in an earlier thread about your dial-up. I got rid of slow dial-up a while back and got WildBlue satellite internet. Never go back to dial-up again, and the price is way more reasonable than HughsNet!!

 

We have directtv and love it, we almost switched to dish but several ppl talked us out of it. We could also use upgraded equipment and more rooms, but apparently they wont let us?? At the time we bought ours a best buy (two receivers for only two rooms) I guess we own the equipment or something. the only bad about directtv is no local stations, we have to switch to the antenna.

 

Weird, we get local channels with our DirecTV???

 

Sucks for those of you in Time Warner areas... we have *** Communications where I live, and I love it. They have great prices and service. Their cable internet is second to none (literally). I have never tried satellite, but as long as I can get *** I won't even consider it.

 

IDK what the deal is? i know all our equipment (recivers, dish, etc.) is over six years old.

 

Where we live -

Basic Cable (Comcast) has close to 100 channels, including local programming, even though late at night it seems that there is nothing to watch but mostly infomercials, but at least the channel selection progression is understandable, and you can find the channel you want to watch.

We travel a lot with our business, and see a lot of cable systems and when we go somewhere for that, or when renting a cabin on the mountains or condo at the beach for a week it often has dish. Not being used to the menus and finding the channels we like to watch can be frustrating. Even with dish it STILL seems that late at night there is nothing to watch but infomercials, just 200 more channels of them.

Sorry, but our picture quality is fine with a flat-screen tv, we can get local programming, few outages or loss of service.

WHO DOES offer good customer service anymore except for my service business, and whatever you do for a living that is customer service related?

There is another thread out here with comments about poor or no customer service at auto dealerships...

I know what I hear about alternative ways to watch TV, but I am usually glad to get home to trusty ole' cable TV.

I also thought about doing what WMR said about wireless internet, but I have so many cheap minutes on my cellphone I hook my laptop up and use it that way.

 

the 8 dollar thing is nice
but to be honest why would you want UPN?

 

I wonder if you just need to call and have the locals turned on. Years ago, they didn't have the locals on Directv, but they added them since. For a While there was a $5 charge, but they dropped that.

 

You probably need to get the new dish. The one with 3 lnbs. Either that or multiple dishes. Many of the locals are now going on satellites that are not pointed at by the old single lnb round style. You will also need that for the HD channels. Also the receiver you have will need to be able to look at more than one satellite. Many of the old ones could not recognize that there are more than one satellite.

 

I just switched from DirecTV to cable for numerous reasons.

1. DirecTV did not have local channels in HD until a few months ago (switched in July '06).
2. DirecTV charges WAYYYY too much for their equipment. I was a subscriber for 8 years and called them to switch to HD. They wanted $300 for
the receiver back in December '04. I threatened to switch to cable and they knocked $150 off. They then wanted another $300 for the latest MPEG-4 receiver and dish.
3. We wanted an HD-DVR and DirecTV wanted $500 for the equipment! You have got to be kidding me. In 2 years they will have some new HD technology rendering it obsolete and I would have to fork over another $500. I also needed to pay to have another line ran from the dish to the HD DVR, since you have to have 2 dedicated line. Cable only need one.
4. DirecTV does not have as many HD channels as cable.

Here are the HD channels for me on cable:
1020 WESH (NBC)
1060 WKMG (CBS)
1090 WFTV (ABC)
1124 WMFE (PBS)
1135 WOFL (FOX)
1165 WRBW (My Network TV)
1180 WKCF (CW-18)
1243 HBO
1259 Showtime
1300 INHD
1302 HDNet
1303 HDNet Movies
1304 Universal
1311 TNT
1329 ESPN
1341 Discovery HD Theater
1342 A&E
(17 channels)

DirecTV HD channels:
NBC
CBS
ABC
FOX
TNT
ESPN HD
ESPN2 HD (about 1% of their programming is actually in HD)
Universal HD
Discovery HD Theater
HD Net Movies
HD Net
Pay per view HD
HBO
SHOWTIME
(14 total channels but I don't really count ESPN2)

5. I switched to cable because they were cheaper by about $15/month. I had the DirecTV Total Choice Plus with HD service. I now have digital cable, HD service, HD DVR plus HBO free for 2 years.
6. I also got tired of paying an extra $5 per TV per month. In my new house I can hook up as many TV's as I want with cable for free. The only thing that will cost me anything is if I want digital or HD on those TVs. I have a TV on my back patio by the pool and I did not want to have a satellite box and waste $5 per month for a TV that I may watch 3-4 times per month.

In summary, for non-HD satellite was a good deal. For HD service they have a long way to go. They need to start leasing or renting their equipment.

 

Just an FYI, DirecTV no longer sells the equipment. Now they do it just like the cable companies. You rent it.