[nykr95]

I have been waiting for the 4:3 fix for almost a year. The last tech chat made it sound that the feature was already available. Dish doesn't disseminate any info to the call centers to let us know when it might actually arrive. Meanwhile the 6000 still loses sound or picture during HDTV broadcast (ie. Gladiator) I also have a DishPlayer which is terribly buggy. Needs to be reset at least once a month and loses everything I recorded occasionally. They do not seem to be producing reliable products. I am seriously considering switching to DirectTV - although I like DISH's programming better.

 

[Randy Boecker]

I came from DirecTV to Dish. While there are obviously some problems to be worked out, I think a lot of this is due to the fact that Dish is really pushing the envelope technically to stay current with technology. I have found the customer support from Dish far superior to what I got with DirecTV. I even got a call recently from a department head to address some concerns that I had. I never got that far up the chain at DirecTV. Plus Dish, has more HD content that DirecTV. I've spent some time in the software development industry, and it's not just a simple matter of someone writing code and throwing it into production. A great many variables all must be considered, code must be checked and re-checked, tested and re-tested, and then checked and tested again before it goes into production. People are complaining now about features they've been waiting for. Imagine if Dish rushed to deliver these features and the delivery actually caused more problems than it solved. A public relations nightmare. It takes a long time to develop upgrades and make sure they are stable. The company's reputation rests on this fact.


Each company obviously has it's strong and weak points. You have to choose the one that's best for you. Personally, I like Dish better for a number of reasons too numerous to go into here. But that's my opinion, for my needs, and my expectations. You must choose the path that's right for you http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

[rad]

Also being a former DirecTV customer I have to agree with the above post. At least Dish will admit when there is a problem, with DirecTV they never have any problems on their end, it's always the users equipment, even when others on the internet are reporting the exact same problem. Dish isn't perfect but I think their customer support is much better then DirecTV's.

 

[nykr95]

I would agree with you if I was expecting brand new features. First of all the 4:3 feature was advertised as feature from the very beginning. Second the software that was released through the existing quality control isn't very stable and has problems. So I would expect them to put more effort in getting the software update in the hands of users - hopefully before the equipment is obsolete.

 

[hhord2]

I have had both and I think Dish is the better of the two. Wouldn't it be nice though if some start-up company could be on the leading edge of HD programming, but the market just isn't htere yet.

 

[rodmanbra]

Mr. 95,


I have a brand new DP 501 with all sorts of problems. It looses picture with signal strength of 99! The hard drive play back is buggy. And the fan works less than 1% of time!!


I have to wonder if this product is a beta test unit!