--Sorry no Cliff's
Part I - Background
Just some preleminary growing pains. I had Dish for over a year and really enjoyed the service. I had the top everything package which was expensive, but I really liked the programming but this year legislation was passed to disallow receiving distant local stations which l used extensively last year for football games. Hence why I'm now a DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscriber.
Part II - Initial impression
Barring the Sunday Ticket, both systems are very comparable in programming and pricing (Dish is a little cheaper). DTV even seems to have a little better picture to my eye (although the guys at AVS disagree). The real difference is in the hardware. I had the 522 and 322 (both dual tuners. The 522 was a DVR) with Dish wich controlled a total of 4 rooms. This was a really convenient setup, especially the 522 which shared the DVR function with two rooms and both used RF remotes for the second room. DirecTV has no such animal, but I did grab the DirecTivo.
Instantly I missed the Dish 522's ability to record a show in the living room and watch it later in the bedroom. I worked around this by using a Rat-Shack RF remote extender ($50.00) and piggybacking the second RF output on the Tivo into the ANT input on the regular DTV receiver now in my bedroom. Basically when I want to use the Tivo in the bedroom I turn off the standard receiver. This solution works and allows both rooms to watch different channels, but it's still not the same...
Part III - Annoyances
First of all the lack of an RF remote that can talk through walls. Secondly I'm up to two remotes in the bedroom when I want to use the DVR (even though the standard receiver has a universal remote that is supposed to be programmable for multiple receivers - more on this later)
The menu guide on the Tivo leaves much to be desired. With Dish, the font was large, the colors were good and the menu was easy to understand. The 522 had options to create timers for recording, to auto tune to a channel, or just give a reminder when a show was coming on. There was also like a PIP window in the menu which showed the current channel while you channel surfed. The standard DTV reciever isn't much different from the 522/322's menu, but the Tivo's menu tries to display too many channels at once. Basically the font is so small I can barely read it and there is no PIP window which kinda sucks. However, the unit did allow me to select 16:9 as a native aspect ratio (something the Dish equipmet doesn't do)
Part IV - Customer Service
I have to say that everyone I've spoken with has been nice enough, but not as knowledgable as Dish customer support. When I called to find out if there was a way to change the font size on the Tivo, it took almost 30 min just for someone to tell me it was not possible. To the representative's credit, it seemed like they exhausted their resources searching for the answer.
I called them again when I was trying to program my standard receiver's remote. So you know, the standard receiver walks the user through prgramming the remote to control other equipment including other DTV receivers, but none of the codes listed seemed to work. When I called the DTV rep gave me a new code to try, but that didn't work either. After they researched this further, it turns out that this functionality has not been implemented yet even though the receiver leads you to belive otherwise (I hate vapor-ware).
Part V - Conclusion
So, in summary, my initial impression of DirecTV has been kinda 'meh', but hopefully this is just me getting used to a new system more than anything else. But there is no denying that Dish has their act together.
For now I can justify my decision in three words; NFL Sunday Ticket. What can I say? I'm obsessive when it comes to football. However, I truely think that all other things being equal, Dish's setup OWNS DirecTV in a big way and if Dish offered something similar to the Sunday Ticket I'd readily swallow the breach of contract fee with DirecTV, pay the 2 months programming in advance plus the $49 reconnect fee to Dish and go back. Getting DirecTV setup to behave like what I'm used to has been a big P.I.T.A!
That is all...
Edit: Just for simms...
Dish Network kicks DirecTV's butt except for the Sunday Ticket.
Part I - Background
Just some preleminary growing pains. I had Dish for over a year and really enjoyed the service. I had the top everything package which was expensive, but I really liked the programming but this year legislation was passed to disallow receiving distant local stations which l used extensively last year for football games. Hence why I'm now a DirecTV Sunday Ticket subscriber.
Part II - Initial impression
Barring the Sunday Ticket, both systems are very comparable in programming and pricing (Dish is a little cheaper). DTV even seems to have a little better picture to my eye (although the guys at AVS disagree). The real difference is in the hardware. I had the 522 and 322 (both dual tuners. The 522 was a DVR) with Dish wich controlled a total of 4 rooms. This was a really convenient setup, especially the 522 which shared the DVR function with two rooms and both used RF remotes for the second room. DirecTV has no such animal, but I did grab the DirecTivo.
Instantly I missed the Dish 522's ability to record a show in the living room and watch it later in the bedroom. I worked around this by using a Rat-Shack RF remote extender ($50.00) and piggybacking the second RF output on the Tivo into the ANT input on the regular DTV receiver now in my bedroom. Basically when I want to use the Tivo in the bedroom I turn off the standard receiver. This solution works and allows both rooms to watch different channels, but it's still not the same...
Part III - Annoyances
First of all the lack of an RF remote that can talk through walls. Secondly I'm up to two remotes in the bedroom when I want to use the DVR (even though the standard receiver has a universal remote that is supposed to be programmable for multiple receivers - more on this later)
The menu guide on the Tivo leaves much to be desired. With Dish, the font was large, the colors were good and the menu was easy to understand. The 522 had options to create timers for recording, to auto tune to a channel, or just give a reminder when a show was coming on. There was also like a PIP window in the menu which showed the current channel while you channel surfed. The standard DTV reciever isn't much different from the 522/322's menu, but the Tivo's menu tries to display too many channels at once. Basically the font is so small I can barely read it and there is no PIP window which kinda sucks. However, the unit did allow me to select 16:9 as a native aspect ratio (something the Dish equipmet doesn't do)
Part IV - Customer Service
I have to say that everyone I've spoken with has been nice enough, but not as knowledgable as Dish customer support. When I called to find out if there was a way to change the font size on the Tivo, it took almost 30 min just for someone to tell me it was not possible. To the representative's credit, it seemed like they exhausted their resources searching for the answer.
I called them again when I was trying to program my standard receiver's remote. So you know, the standard receiver walks the user through prgramming the remote to control other equipment including other DTV receivers, but none of the codes listed seemed to work. When I called the DTV rep gave me a new code to try, but that didn't work either. After they researched this further, it turns out that this functionality has not been implemented yet even though the receiver leads you to belive otherwise (I hate vapor-ware).
Part V - Conclusion
So, in summary, my initial impression of DirecTV has been kinda 'meh', but hopefully this is just me getting used to a new system more than anything else. But there is no denying that Dish has their act together.
For now I can justify my decision in three words; NFL Sunday Ticket. What can I say? I'm obsessive when it comes to football. However, I truely think that all other things being equal, Dish's setup OWNS DirecTV in a big way and if Dish offered something similar to the Sunday Ticket I'd readily swallow the breach of contract fee with DirecTV, pay the 2 months programming in advance plus the $49 reconnect fee to Dish and go back. Getting DirecTV setup to behave like what I'm used to has been a big P.I.T.A!
That is all...
Edit: Just for simms...
Dish Network kicks DirecTV's butt except for the Sunday Ticket.
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