Dish Network or DirecTV

[Northstar]

I'm looking to get satellite TV but don't know which carrier is better. Just wondering which carrier you guys think is best quality wise.

 

[bergauk]

I have DirecTV. Have had it since we moved into this house when I was 5. It's pretty good, we never had a problem that couldn't be fixed easily. Works great in the random Cali storms we get that destroy fences and stuff.

 

[Terronium-12]

I also have DirecTV, and we've never had a problem with the service. It can hold strong against storms and whatnot as well, as bergauk pointed out. Pretty good customer service and they're usually more than willing to solve any problems you have.

 

[Venom800tt]

We have Dish Net and it works pretty good also. Only went out due to storms a handful of times. Heck, it has been more reliable than the Comcast Digital Cable we had before lol...
Anyway from what I have seen you really can't go wrong with either.

 

[Keef]

I used to have Dish Network and I didn't like the interface of their boxes. The recording quality was very poor also compared to our new AT&T U-Verse service. It's based through fiberoptic telephone lines I believe.

 

[Tornado]

Our family has had DirecTV since 1996, and we haven't had any problems with it. It is very rare for the signal to cut out these days, and we've had god experiences with customer service. My grandfather had DirecTV, then switched to Dish, then switched back because he didn't like their service as much.
A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. If you have multiple TVs, it is more expensive than Dish Network, I believe.
2. Make sure you set it up yourself. The on-site guys don't really seem to care, in out experience.

 

[Earth]

In my family we have both DirecTV and DiSH Network

Picture Quality (As seen on the same TV)

DirecTV has better picture quality, both the SD and HD channels. The DiSH network picture quality was pretty bad imo but both HD pictures were highly compressed, but DiSH looked worse

DVR

We only have DVR on DiSH, it can hold 50 hours of HD and 400 hours of SD I believe. But the big thing about Dish is that for a one time upgrade of $40 to your DVR you can export anything you recorded onto your computer to free up more space. I dont think DirecTV DVRs can do this

I think the DirecTV DVR can only hold 20 hours of HD, and 200 hours of SD

Contracts and packages

DirecTV requires you to sign a 2 year contract, and if you cancel it early the fee is 5 or 10 dollars for each month that you cancelled early, I cant remember the exact number. If you wait for the right time they will have a sale that gives you all the premium channels (HBO etc) for 3 months free.

When my sister signed up for Dish they gave her Cinemax for 12 months for just 1 penny along with HBO and other channels free for 3 months. I'm not sure about the contract.