Anyone here have DirecTV? or DishNetwork?

[aphex]

Were lookin at getting satellite to completement our new 32" Sony HDTV. The new tv really shows how crappy our cable line is.

Do ya reccomend it? and how much better does it look?

 

[Danman]

We have Dish Network and it looks great.......I'd get it.

 

[crab]

I have DirecTV, but Dish n/w seems to have better quality.

 

[RossMAN]

First we had AT&T cable then we upgraded to digital cable which is a joke.

Then we got DirecTV, 1 dish, 3 receivers (2 RCA & 1 Toshiba, RCA has the best interface cost around $79 @ Circuit City).

DirecTV is awesome. The extra HBO & Starz showpack is a good value. Skinemax doesn't show as many good movie as Starz does.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
First we had AT&T cable then we upgraded to digital cable which is a joke.

Then we got DirecTV, 1 dish, 3 receivers (2 RCA & 1 Toshiba, RCA has the best interface cost around $79 @ Circuit City).

DirecTV is awesome. The extra HBO & Starz showpack is a good value. Skinemax doesn't show as many good movie as Starz does.

Hows about the quality of the picture, is it much cleaner than regular cable? (not just the premium channels, but everyday ones as well) If i remember correctly its 480i.

 

[Electric Amish]

Yeah, it's great!

Rossman How do you do the 3 reciever thing??

amish

 

[pyonir]

we went from digital cable to dish network. i personally didn't notice a difference in quality of picture, but i don't have an HDTV and never viewed them side by side.

 

[crab]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Yeah, it's great!

Rossman How do you do the 3 reciever thing??

amish

You can get a certain splitter, but AFAIK you still need dual LNB.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: crab453

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Yeah, it's great!

Rossman How do you do the 3 reciever thing??

amish

You can get a certain splitter, but AFAIK you still need dual LNB.

Yea, i think you can get up to 4 boxes on the dualie.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Yeah, it's great!

Rossman How do you do the 3 reciever thing??

amish

I dunno, I leave all the HT technical stuff up to my roommate. I think we only have 2 lines and had to split one of the lines to feed to two receivers if that makes sense.

AVSForum.com or HomeTheaterForum.com would probably know.

The picture quality is noticably sharper, vibrant and consistent compared to cable.

The only bitch is getting local channels but recently we were able to add local channels for $5 more per month AND we also get the East Coast NY channels as well. Although we're in Portland, Oregon (PST) we can watch David Letterman at 8:30 PM PST instead of waiting until 11:30 PM that's pretty sweet.

 

[arod]

If you get DirecTV I would go ahead and get a HDTV receiver and an elliptical dish. With any programming package you get HDnet for free and if you get the HBO package you can watch one channel of HDTV movies which is what I have right now since most of my locals arent broadcasting yet.

 

[RossMAN]

Also if you get DirecTV make sure to get a DirecTivo.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: arod
If you get DirecTV I would go ahead and get a HDTV receiver and an elliptical dish. With any programming package you get HDnet for free and if you get the HBO package you can watch one channel of HDTV movies which is what I have right now since most of my locals arent broadcasting yet.

I think were gonna wait on the tuner. $500 is a little pricey for something that will more than likely be $150 or so in less than a year. Plus, arent there competing standards that havent been deciced on yet?

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: RossMAN
Also if you get DirecTV make sure to get a DirecTivo.

What about interference and fuzzyness?

Thats our main problem with the local cable. It just looks fuzzy and seems to pick up shitloads of interference...

 

[TDSLB]

Get direct TV and a Direct TiVo I promise you won't regret it. I use a similair system with Cable but would prefer DirectTV

the people here know it better then I do

 

[crab]

Originally posted by: crab453

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Yeah, it's great!

Rossman How do you do the 3 reciever thing??

amish

You can get a certain splitter, but AFAIK you still need dual LNB.

like this

 

[Skawttey]

If you are going to buy something right now, i would get dish network since they are buying direc tv.

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: aphexII

Originally posted by: arod
If you get DirecTV I would go ahead and get a HDTV receiver and an elliptical dish. With any programming package you get HDnet for free and if you get the HBO package you can watch one channel of HDTV movies which is what I have right now since most of my locals arent broadcasting yet.

I think were gonna wait on the tuner. $500 is a little pricey for something that will more than likely be $150 or so in less than a year. Plus, arent there competing standards that havent been deciced on yet?

I would also suggest waiting for standards to be hammered out, the technical stuff and most importantly for prices to drop.

Assuming you have installed the dish correctly, your cables are good, the reception seems to be clearer than cable. It's slightly finicky in bad weather though, but that rarely affects our DirecTV. We do get 9 months of constant rain here in Oregon and usually the picture is crystal clear ... I'm sure it'd be beautiful on your new TV.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: Skawttey
If you are going to buy something right now, i would get dish network since they are buying direc tv.

Is there anything DN has that makes it better than DirecTV?

 

[TNTrulez]

 

[tm37]

Originally posted by: aphexII

Originally posted by: Skawttey
If you are going to buy something right now, i would get dish network since they are buying direc tv.

Is there anything DN has that makes it better than DirecTV?

DirecTV Has the NFL package but is a little more money, If you don't plan on getting the NFL package you may want to look at dish Network.

they are pretty similar so see what you want and then get the cheaper one.

<- Has DIrecTV for football. GO Chargers.

 

[aphex]

Originally posted by: tm37

Originally posted by: aphexII

Originally posted by: Skawttey
If you are going to buy something right now, i would get dish network since they are buying direc tv.

Is there anything DN has that makes it better than DirecTV?

DirecTV Has the NFL package but is a little more money, If you don't plan on getting the NFL package you may want to look at dish Network.

they are pretty similar so see what you want and then get the cheaper one.

<- Has DIrecTV for football. GO Chargers.

Any retailers sell DishNetwork? I cant seem to find much about any deals right now on Dishnetwork. We can get a dual room DirecTV for $35 up front, and $45 a month for the Plus package...

 

[aphex]

ttt ^

 

[dude]

You can receive more than one satalite provider if you have an oval dish.

But ya, the quality is a big step up from cable. It's like watching a DVD. I never have problems with bad weather, even on really bad, rainy, cloudy days. I have experienced some signal loss, such as picture freezing and audio working or blockiness in the video but it had to do with the particular station as it works fine when I switch the station. Some stations seem to be allotted with more bandwidth than others though so it's odd...

Either way you have it, satalite is a huge step up visually and audiabally from cable. Had my DTV for about 4 years now.

 

[Skawttey]

Originally posted by: aphexII

Originally posted by: Skawttey
If you are going to buy something right now, i would get dish network since they are buying direc tv.

Is there anything DN has that makes it better than DirecTV?

Once the merger goes through, there will be no more direc tv. Dish Network will take all of the services that are unique to direc tv and it will start to offer them and will get rid of the duplicate programing. With this merger, one will be able to recieve the signal for 3 satelites on one dish due to the increased capacity by from the empty direc tv satelites. this also means more channels will be available. There are some stores that sell dish network, go to www.dishnetwork.com to find a local one. they also have more information about the merger on the site.