Switching to Dish...

[FN Phat]

Just made the call to switch to Dish. The only channel I will miss is AMC (besides the mtn for the next 4 months) for the Walking Dead, but I can find those episodes online.

My bill will be 40 bucks a month less than my current bill with DTV and that includes HD service which I don't have now. After 12 months, my bill will still be 25 bucks cheaper than DTV. I also got a 100 dollar gift card to amazon for signing up. So long DTV, I won't miss you or your crappy DVR and delayed remote control.

My biggest complaint about the Dish is the DVR. I prefered Direct TV's DVR over the Dish...hands down. The only added bonus of the Dish is the ability to watch tv and recordings on two tvs from the one HD DVD (with no additional costs), which is nice when you are wanting to watch a recording on HD in the comforts of your bedroom. I miss the layout and functionality of the Direct TV DVR.

[LiveCoug]

My biggest complaint about the Dish is the DVR. I prefered Direct TV's DVR over the Dish...hands down. The only added bonus of the Dish is the ability to watch tv and recordings on two tvs from the one HD DVD (with no additional costs), which is nice when you are wanting to watch a recording on HD in the comforts of your bedroom. I miss the layout and functionality of the Direct TV DVR.

Totally the opposite. I like the Dish DVR 100X more than DTV. I had Dish for years until I made the switch to DTV for the mtn. The DTV DVR is fine, but it's not as good as Dish. And seriously, what is up with the remote control delay that nearly everyone has? Sooooo lame. Add those to the fact that DTV is significantly more expensive (for what I want), Dish is a no brainer.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I must have the only set of DTV DVRs that have no lag. My main TV even runs through an RF blaster on the way to the receiver and there isn't a lag. I love DTV, I love Sunday Ticket.

I am happy for my friends that you have found happiness in your TV search also.

[FN Phat]

I must have the only set of DTV DVRs that have no lag. My main TV even runs through an RF blaster on the way to the receiver and there isn't a lag. I love DTV, I love Sunday Ticket.

I am happy for my friends that you have found happiness in your TV search also.

I loved DTV as well and never experienced the lag. My wife found a better deal with the Dish and alas...we went with Dish.

[cougjunkie]

I must have the only set of DTV DVRs that have no lag. My main TV even runs through an RF blaster on the way to the receiver and there isn't a lag. I love DTV, I love Sunday Ticket.

I am happy for my friends that you have found happiness in your TV search also.

I will never switch from DTV because of Sunday Ticket.

[ewth8tr]

Totally the opposite. I like the Dish DVR 100X more than DTV. I had Dish for years until I made the switch to DTV for the mtn. The DTV DVR is fine, but it's not as good as Dish. And seriously, what is up with the remote control delay that nearly everyone has? Sooooo lame. Add those to the fact that DTV is significantly more expensive (for what I want), Dish is a no brainer.

Didn't you order Sunday ticket? Since it's a subscription that was cut into monthly payments, I'm assuming that directv will bill you the remaining amount.

[LiveCoug]

Didn't you order Sunday ticket? Since it's a subscription that was cut into monthly payments, I'm assuming that directv will bill you the remaining amount.

Oh, well that would suck if true. Guess we'll see.

Edit: it was only 2 bucks a month, so if they charge me 6 bucks for the remaining part of my deal, big whoop.

[ewth8tr]

Oh, well that would suck if true. Guess we'll see.

Edit: it was only 2 bucks a month, so if they charge me 6 bucks for the remaining part of my deal, big whoop.

The way it was explained to me was that the monthly bill for the next 5 months was all towards Sunday Ticket while the rest of the package rates were waived.

[LiveCoug]

The way it was explained to me was that the monthly bill for the next 5 months was all towards Sunday Ticket while the rest of the package rates were waived.

Don't you dare rain on my parade. Calling DTV tomorrow. If they try to charge me the full sunday ticket price, guess I'll have to cancel that dish install.. Crap.

[LiveCoug]

Whew.. Looks like I am good. I'm not allowed to cancel NFL Sunday Ticket without incurring a charge for the remainder of the cost (3 months 180 bucks). But if I cancel my whole DTV account, I'm not on the the hook to pay the rest of Sunday Ticket. Good.

I'll miss Sunday Ticket and the mtn (for 3 months), but it will be nice to save some money...

[Color Me Badd Fan]

I switched to Dish and the DVR does play things back better and the guide and switching channels doesn't have the lag. With that said, here are some issues:

1. You cannot toggle between a recorded program and have the regular channel you're currently watching on delay. I will sometimes rewind the channel back so I can watch the game on delay after I'm done watching a recorded program. If I want to switch to the DVR and watch something I recorded first, I cannot keep the current channel on delay. I loved this feature on DTV and Dish doesn't have it.

2. Related to point #1, but I could turn on the DTV box from off and still rewind the program back.

3. DTV goes back 1.5 hours, Dish only goes back 1 hour.

4. DTV has a duel tuner that's not dedicated to separate TVs. You can record one program and not worry about the "1" and "2" distinction. With Dish, if you're recording two consecutive programs, the first one will record on "2" (not the main TV) and then the second program will record on "1" because they run together for about a minute. Unless you either want to cut the first program short or start the second program late, your main TV is going to be stuck recording the second program even though you may want to watch something else. This becomes a problem on Sunday Night between Football, Dexter, Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire -- luckily they have a ton of repeat broadcasts of these shows.

5. Related to point #4, but trying to switch the tuner that is recording a program from "1" to "2" is a royal pain in the ass. Also, controlling the recording that is occurring on "2" from the main TV is ridiculous and in fact it's easier just to go to the other room where the second TV is recording and just control it from there.

As others have said though, Dish's picture is better, it's less expensive and the Guide and playback on the DVR is significantly better. All in all, I'm glad I have Dish over DTV. I personally couldn't care less about dropping $300 or whatever it costs for the NFL Sunday Ticket when I can just get the Redzone channel for $5 a month. Even when the local CBS and Fox affiliates are showing the game I would watch above all of the others in their respective time slots even if I had the Sunday Ticket (e.g. Atlanta vs. Green Bay or Chicago vs. Philly last week), I still prefer watching the Redzone channel because there are no commercials and I personally prefer keeping track of what's happening in all the games at the same time.

[Donuthole]

I switched to Dish and the DVR does play things back better and the guide and switching channels doesn't have the lag. With that said, here are some issues:

1. You cannot toggle between a recorded program and have the regular channel you're currently watching on delay. I will sometimes rewind the channel back so I can watch the game on delay after I'm done watching a recorded program. If I want to switch to the DVR and watch something I recorded first, I cannot keep the current channel on delay. I loved this feature on DTV and Dish doesn't have it.

2. Related to point #1, but I could turn on the DTV box from off and still rewind the program back.

3. DTV goes back 1.5 hours, Dish only goes back 1 hour.

4. DTV has a duel tuner that's not dedicated to separate TVs. You can record one program and not worry about the "1" and "2" distinction. With Dish, if you're recording two consecutive programs, the first one will record on "2" (not the main TV) and then the second program will record on "1" because they run together for about a minute. Unless you either want to cut the first program short or start the second program late, your main TV is going to be stuck recording the second program even though you may want to watch something else. This becomes a problem on Sunday Night between Football, Dexter, Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire -- luckily they have a ton of repeat broadcasts of these shows.

5. Related to point #4, but trying to switch the tuner that is recording a program from "1" to "2" is a royal pain in the ass. Also, controlling the recording that is occurring on "2" from the main TV is ridiculous and in fact it's easier just to go to the other room where the second TV is recording and just control it from there.

As others have said though, Dish's picture is better, it's less expensive and the Guide and playback on the DVR is significantly better. All in all, I'm glad I have Dish over DTV. I personally couldn't care less about dropping $300 or whatever it costs for the NFL Sunday Ticket when I can just get the Redzone channel for $5 a month. Even when the local CBS and Fox affiliates are showing the game I would watch above all of the others in their respective time slots even if I had the Sunday Ticket (e.g. Atlanta vs. Green Bay or Chicago vs. Philly last week), I still prefer watching the Redzone channel because there are no commercials and I personally prefer keeping track of what's happening in all the games at the same time.

A couple of things:

1. I have had limited success toggling between programs when one is recording on Tuner #1. The way I do it is i push pause on the #1 program, and then access the #2 program. When I want to return to 1 in the same place, I select "Start Over" and for some reason, pausing it causes it to start where it was paused from as opposed to starting over. However, it is very temperamental--sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I've been meaning to spend 30 minutes with it to see if I can troubleshoot it and figure out exactly what makes it work and not work. I agree, this is the only feature about DTV's dvr that I like better than Dish.

4. If you hook up an OTA antenna, you get a third tuner (limited to those channels which come in OTA). The nice thing about this tuner is that it functions more like tuner 2 than tuner 1. This means you can record two things at once (one on tuner 2, one on the OTA tuner) and still watch live tv on tuner 1. Also, OTAHD is even more crisp than the regular dish HD.

5. I have mastered this. It used to bug me, but I can now control pretty much anything from TV1 by knowing which programs to skip and restore. It would be much easier, though, if you could just apply a tuner to a program from either remote.

[FN Phat]

I switched to Dish and the DVR does play things back better and the guide and switching channels doesn't have the lag. With that said, here are some issues:

1. You cannot toggle between a recorded program and have the regular channel you're currently watching on delay. I will sometimes rewind the channel back so I can watch the game on delay after I'm done watching a recorded program. If I want to switch to the DVR and watch something I recorded first, I cannot keep the current channel on delay. I loved this feature on DTV and Dish doesn't have it.

2. Related to point #1, but I could turn on the DTV box from off and still rewind the program back.

3. DTV goes back 1.5 hours, Dish only goes back 1 hour.

4. DTV has a duel tuner that's not dedicated to separate TVs. You can record one program and not worry about the "1" and "2" distinction. With Dish, if you're recording two consecutive programs, the first one will record on "2" (not the main TV) and then the second program will record on "1" because they run together for about a minute. Unless you either want to cut the first program short or start the second program late, your main TV is going to be stuck recording the second program even though you may want to watch something else. This becomes a problem on Sunday Night between Football, Dexter, Walking Dead and Boardwalk Empire -- luckily they have a ton of repeat broadcasts of these shows.

5. Related to point #4, but trying to switch the tuner that is recording a program from "1" to "2" is a royal pain in the ass. Also, controlling the recording that is occurring on "2" from the main TV is ridiculous and in fact it's easier just to go to the other room where the second TV is recording and just control it from there.

As others have said though, Dish's picture is better, it's less expensive and the Guide and playback on the DVR is significantly better. All in all, I'm glad I have Dish over DTV. I personally couldn't care less about dropping $300 or whatever it costs for the NFL Sunday Ticket when I can just get the Redzone channel for $5 a month. Even when the local CBS and Fox affiliates are showing the game I would watch above all of the others in their respective time slots even if I had the Sunday Ticket (e.g. Atlanta vs. Green Bay or Chicago vs. Philly last week), I still prefer watching the Redzone channel because there are no commercials and I personally prefer keeping track of what's happening in all the games at the same time.

This is dead on with the problems of the Dish.

[LiveCoug]

DTV really wants me to stay. The offer went from free DVR service (7 bucks a month) to 10 dollar credit per month for 6 months with free DVR service to 20 bucks a month and free DVR service. Now I get a call for 220 dollar credit for the next 4 months..

[grapevine]

ON direct can you watch one program and record another on same tv? On dish you can't record one program and watch another on same tv.

Also a vcr you can give recored program to neighbor. Can't on dish. However can you record using a vcr on dish or direct? VCR's are going extinct now anyways. Nice to be able to record a program and move it.

VCR got messed up as moved it to other tv and took it back. Now can't figure out how to hook the dvd back up on other tv. Still trying that.