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What's the best dish to get? directv, dish, other(c k/u band)??

post #1 of 33
4/4/12 at 4:52am
Thread Starter 
First off is there a dish only thread in here anywhere, couldn't find one.

I have no idea about dishes, never had one. I always have had digital cable and currently have no cable just my htpc netflix etc. Been toying with getting a cable card tuned for awhile.

What are my options as far as sattelite dishes and are the big ones still available, is that the c band and the c k/u band people talk about? Also what is 4dtv? Which has the best/highest bitrare 1080p signals and most hd channels? Is there any diference between services as far as having 1080p only available on VOD and the other having regular network 1080p? Does one company have better DVRs, does one have better reception in bad weather given everything is equal in hardware and location/position of unit(it would just be up to the band/frequency then, correct)?

Any other options I didn't mentioned. Or know about and any other features, hardware, problems, channels, pros/cons etc. I'm not thinking about?

Thanks in advance.
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post #2 of 33
4/4/12 at 6:12am
http://www.satelliteguys.us/
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post #3 of 33
4/4/12 at 11:07pm
Same here, virtually hundreds of threads and nothing on Dish & DirectTV
Are you people living in a cave???
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post #4 of 33
4/5/12 at 2:40am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jack54 View Post

Same here, virtually hundreds of threads and nothing on Dish & DirectTV
Are you people living in a cave???

Thanks for help, appreciate it.
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post #5 of 33
4/5/12 at 2:41am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ncted View Post

http://www.satelliteguys.us/

thank you, Im on avs most of the time so this is where I started my search. I've checked there but was hoping there was a sattelite thread on avs I overlokkjed or one of the many sattelite users on avs could chime in.
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post #6 of 33
4/5/12 at 4:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by joeydrunk View Post

First off is there a dish only thread in here anywhere, couldn't find one.

I have no idea about dishes, never had one. I always have had digital cable and currently have no cable just my htpc netflix etc. Been toying with getting a cable card tuned for awhile.

What are my options as far as sattelite dishes and are the big ones still available, is that the c band and the c k/u band people talk about? Also what is 4dtv? Which has the best/highest bitrare 1080p signals and most hd channels? Is there any diference between services as far as having 1080p only available on VOD and the other having regular network 1080p? Does one company have better DVRs, does one have better reception in bad weather given everything is equal in hardware and location/position of unit(it would just be up to the band/frequency then, correct)?

Any other options I didn't mentioned. Or know about and any other features, hardware, problems, channels, pros/cons etc. I'm not thinking about?

Thanks in advance.

If you want the best picture quality with Network feeds and sports back hauls go with C/Ku dish and get a DVB-S/S2 tuner with 4:2:2 and you will rival anything on Direct/Dish/OTA.has to offer hands down....
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post #7 of 33
4/5/12 at 4:24pm
So who has used all three, Comcast, Direct TV & Dish?
Which is the best? I'm tired of 10 year with Comcast and want a change.

This is the deal that Dish made me today,
I'm thinking of signing up for dish network tomorrow, but will research a little more:

Getting the top 200
Getting the Hopper/Joey, enough for three rooms.
Clear Network
GMA PINOY MEGA PACK for my Filipino wife
Sling adapter
3 months of HBO/SHO/MAX/STARZ/Blockbuster
$200 gift card
All for $120 if I sign a two year contract.

Is this a good deal? I chose it over DirectTV
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post #8 of 33
4/5/12 at 4:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jack54 View Post

So who has used all three, Comcast, Direct TV & Dish?
Which is the best? I'm tired of 10 year with Comcast and want a change.

This is the deal that Dish made me today,
I'm thinking of signing up for dish network tomorrow, but will research a little more:

Getting the top 200
Getting the Hopper/Joey, enough for three rooms.
Clear Network
GMA PINOY MEGA PACK for my Filipino wife
Sling adapter
3 months of HBO/SHO/MAX/STARZ/Blockbuster
$200 gift card
All for $120 if I sign a two year contract.

Is this a good deal? I chose it over DirectTV

I have not worked for Comcast in 10 years so I can not form an opinion, TWC is out so that leaves you with Direct/Dish...? Your choice...?
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post #9 of 33
4/5/12 at 5:29pm
I forgot to say that my current Comcast deal is the "Digital Starter" with HD box, Internet, no DVR. Cost me $146 a month.
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post #10 of 33
4/5/12 at 8:03pm
My opinion only, but......

Having had both Dish and Direct, I think I prefer Dish, mostly because of their DVR (the old one, but the new hopper/joey system looks intriguing). Direct has a noticeably better PQ, but I was satisfied with Dish. Our Direct DVR has a restrictive limit on the number of series that we can record. When our commitment runs out in December, we may change, although to what, I'm not sure yet....
I'd be tempted to go with broadcast, but Mad Men and Justified are too good to give up.

Is Prism available in your area? That interests me too.
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post #11 of 33
4/5/12 at 9:03pm
Thread Starter 
I will tell you what I want, watch etc. I would like the cheapest price possible, best hd quality, the main channels watched in the house are on hbo, amc, showtime, mtv, history,discovery, spike, and fx, lots of movies, service with best most/best features/functions, most tuners, be best internet/network functions, and android apps, I have a logitech revue so it would be nice if daisy chain of hdmi, ie: DVR>googletv>avr(I forget wich system integrates with this, I don't think I would base my devising solely on the googletv integration though), hdd size, plays nice with my onkyo txnr1008 avr. These are some of the main things I can think of, let me know if I'm leaving out anythinf I'm not considering.

What are some pros and cons of each system, wich is better in each category?(ie: number of tuners, price, options per price point, quality of hd and SD channels, customer service, selection of networked/internet capabilites(ie: netflix, hulu, etc.) HDD space, hacks available, available add on gadgets(ie: googletv, slingbox, etc.) android/ios apps, any networked/windows capabilities, price for movie channels, remotest, extenders,start in one room/continue in another, etc. Can you get a cablecard from a sattelite company to use in a htpc tuner like you can from a cable company? If so wich has more copy freely and copy once as opposed to copy restricted. Any other options I didn't mentioned. Or know about and any other features, hardware, problems, channels, pros/cons etc. I'm not thinking about?

Terms I'm not sure of - hopper, hr32, joeys, PTAT, EHD, SLING, sattelite LOS.

Thanks.
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post #12 of 33
4/5/12 at 9:31pm
I had DirecTV from 1990 to 2001. Switched to Dish in 01' and have had no reason to go back. Customer service has always been excellent. Any issues have been resolved promptly and to my satisfaction. I just upgraded today to 2 Hoppers and 3 Joey's from two HD dual tuner DVR's (vip722k's) and a single tuner HD DVR (vip612).

The number of Hoppers (main DVR units with 3 HD tuners each) you need depends soley on the number of tuners you require. I came from 5 and did not want to step backwards thus I went with two of the Hopper DVR units. Each Hopper has 500GB of internal space for selected recorded events and another 500GB reserved for the PTAT (Prime Time Anytime) capability. There is 1TB reserved for VOD and other Dish data for a total storage capacity of 2TB for each Hopper.

The Joey units allow additional TV's to access the Hopper's to display live programming and recorded shows as well as VOD, apps etc. HD video quality is excellent and the Joey's can access both Hoppers in my case. Currently the Hoppers cannot share recorded material between them but that capability is a planned future software upgrade. The flexibility of this system is amazing.

PTAT was one of the primary drivers for my upgrade and it worked great when using it for the first time tonite. Records the four primary HD networks simultaneously during prime time viewing hours. 8-11EST M-S and 7-11EST on Sunday's. Automatically records everything on ABC,NBC,CBS and FOX if they are available in your market for 8 days and then rolls the first day off the drive on day 9. You have the option to permanently save shows you do not want deleted after 8 days.

I currently have Netflix and have been a long time subscriber but dumped physical media during the corporate brain fart last August and have been using just the streaming service. Service is good but I feel the content is crap, really hate the fact that I Redbox anything that is a prospective new release so I am about to dump Netflix streaming and just continue on with Redbox for now.

What I may replace it with is Blockbuster online via Dish. The selection of content appears to be much better along with a physical media option as well. Now that I would have access to it in every room without a requirement for an additional box is very enticing and much more convenient as well. This means I can also sell the AppleTV that I really only use for Netflix currently.

Good luck in your search,

JD
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post #13 of 33
4/5/12 at 9:40pm
Moved to proper forum.
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post #14 of 33
4/5/12 at 10:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H View Post

Moved to proper forum.

Actually, the proper forum would be adding Dish / Direct TV to this title:
Cable, Digital Cable - Non-HDTV

Should say:
Cable, Digital Cable, Dish, DirectTV - Non-HDTV

HDTV Technical is where I would never think to look....

Thanks everyone for the tips/posts! Very helpful.
I think I'll go with DISH tomorrow...
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post #15 of 33
4/5/12 at 10:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by joeydrunk View Post

Terms I'm not sure of - hopper, hr32, joeys, PTAT, EHD, SLING, sattelite LOS.

Thanks.

This might help some:
http://www.mydish.com/Support/manuals

Say, I'm from WA state too...
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post #16 of 33
4/5/12 at 10:48pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jack54 View Post


Actually, the proper forum would be adding Dish / Direct TV to this title:
Cable, Digital Cable - Non-HDTV

Should say:
Cable, Digital Cable, Dish, DirectTV - Non-HDTV

HDTV Technical is where I would never think to look....

Thanks everyone for the tips/posts! Very helpful.
I think I'll go with DISH tomorrow...

+1 Completly agree. The way they have it makes no sense.
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post #17 of 33
4/5/12 at 10:55pm
I'm signing up at the Blockbuster that is on Pacific and 38th, Tacoma tomorrow at noon. The rep there is really helpful.
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post #18 of 33
4/6/12 at 1:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdskycaster View Post

I had DirecTV from 1990 to 2001.

That's pretty impressive, especially considering DirecTV didn't launch until June 17, 1994.
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post #19 of 33
4/7/12 at 12:33am
I've been a Dish Network customer for many years. Their service has been reliable, the HD picture quality is very good, and their DVRs are excellent.

Larry
SF
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post #20 of 33
4/7/12 at 11:10am
Quote:
Originally Posted by joeydrunk View Post

thank you, Im on avs most of the time so this is where I started my search. I've checked there but was hoping there was a sattelite thread on avs I overlokkjed or one of the many sattelite users on avs could chime in.

AVS has a sister web site dedicated to DBS - http://www.dbstalk.com/

That's why the topic in the SD forum is only for cable.
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post #21 of 33
4/7/12 at 11:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jack54 View Post


HDTV Technical is where I would never think to look....

The question was originally posted in the HDTV Recorders forum, so my assumption was an interest in HD. The Recorders forum is more specific to just recording HDTV, and the HDTV Technical forum is where comparison of providers is usually done, unless the comparison is strictly programming, then it takes place in the HDTV Programming forum.

AVS is a big place with a lot going on, it usually takes a little effort to figure it out.
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post #22 of 33
4/7/12 at 11:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Mehs View Post

That's pretty impressive, especially considering DirecTV didn't launch until June 17, 1994.

Thanks for the laugh of the day.
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post #23 of 33
4/7/12 at 11:29am
As noted, for the best HD image, go with a big dish. But if you want HBO, AMC, Showtime, etc., you'll also need some kind of pay provider; Dish Network, DirecTV, cable, fiber, IPTV.

The general forum consensus for DBS providers is:

Dish
More HD channels
Better DVR

DirecTV
Slightly better HD image quality
More sports channels and packages

The Dish Hopper is relatively new, and I haven't heard a lot about it as yet. It sounds interesting if you have a lot of TV viewing locations in your home. DirecTV also has their Whole House DVR system that you may want to look into.
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post #24 of 33
4/9/12 at 12:24am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H View Post

As noted, for the best HD image, go with a big dish. But if you want HBO, AMC, Showtime, etc., you'll also need some kind of pay provider; Dish Network, DirecTV, cable, fiber, IPTV.

The general forum consensus for DBS providers is:

Dish
More HD channels
Better DVR

DirecTV
Slightly better HD image quality
More sports channels and packages

The Dish Hopper is relatively new, and I haven't heard a lot about it as yet. It sounds interesting if you have a lot of TV viewing locations in your home. DirecTV also has their Whole House DVR system that you may want to look into.


Thanks great info, so what kind of viewing is available on the big dishes then? Are the big dishes the C ,ku bands?
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post #25 of 33
4/9/12 at 12:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by joeydrunk View Post

Thanks great info, so what kind of viewing is available on the big dishes then? Are the big dishes the C ,ku bands?

Who carries big dishes here in USA? I haven't seen any around here?
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post #26 of 33
4/9/12 at 12:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ybsane View Post

If you want the best picture quality with Network feeds and sports back hauls go with C/Ku dish and get a DVB-S/S2 tuner with 4:2:2 and you will rival anything on Direct/Dish/OTA.has to offer hands down....

However, due to open postings like this here and on other public forums, such feeds tend to disappear via encryption...So never buy a big dish and said receivers expecting to be guaranteed reception of these feeds. They come and they will go.
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post #27 of 33
4/9/12 at 1:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jack54 View Post

I forgot to say that my current Comcast deal is the "Digital Starter" with HD box, Internet, no DVR. Cost me $146 a month.

$1752 per year for television I'm glad I live in a cave.
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post #28 of 33
4/9/12 at 1:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by joeydrunk View Post

Thanks great info, so what kind of viewing is available on the big dishes then? Are the big dishes the C ,ku bands?

Typically some broadcast networks are available on a regular basis via big dish; C-band and Ku/Ka band satellites.

There are also others like found here and in the reply in post #16: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post21852523

But as noted, feeds are not dependable for the average home TV viewer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_receive-only
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post #29 of 33
4/9/12 at 1:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H View Post

As noted, for the best HD image, go with a big dish. But if you want HBO, AMC, Showtime, etc., you'll also need some kind of pay provider; Dish Network, DirecTV, cable, fiber, IPTV.

The general forum consensus for DBS providers is:

Dish
More HD channels
Better DVR

DirecTV
Slightly better HD image quality
More sports channels and packages

The Dish Hopper is relatively new, and I haven't heard a lot about it as yet. It sounds interesting if you have a lot of TV viewing locations in your home. DirecTV also has their Whole House DVR system that you may want to look into.

i was under the impression that a c-band dish was not the best place for the best hd.
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post #30 of 33
4/9/12 at 1:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H View Post

Typically some broadcast networks are available on a regular basis via big dish; C-band and Ku/Ka band satellites.

There are also others like found here and in the reply in post #16: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post21852523

But as noted, feeds are not dependable for the average home TV viewer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_receive-only

A big dish would be an eyesore anyways. I can remember when having a big dish was a status thing years ago.
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