Dish TV

[windycitydog]

Can anyone give me info on Dish TV. Thinking of dropping Comcast and going to DISH TV.

Thanks, Bob

[rjm1cc]

When it storms you may lose your signal for a little bit. If you tape shows you could always switch to a taped show. I do not think this is a big problem.
I do not think they are good on support.

[billethkid]

At our lake home in the mountains we used DishNetwork for 20 years.
Their up to date as any other provider technology wise.
Multiple room, multiple recording/playback.
Yes during a heavy down pour there is a signal loss. Normally a few minutes as the storm passes.

They are very responsive service wise.

A reasonable, reliable alternative to Comcast/Infinity.

[Chatbrat]

WE used Dish when we lived on our boat, was a pain during downpours, nothing wrong with Comcast, unless $$'s are a priority

[BobnBev]

We switched from DirecTV to Dish and couldn't be happier. Have 5 tv's hooked up, with room for a 6th. Have the DVR "Hopper 3", and can record like 30 shows at once, while watching 5 different live or recorded shows on all the tv's. Paying exactly 1/2 of what I used to. I think you will be quite happy. If you would like the name of my dealer, PM me. Bob

[Retiring]

In homes not in TV, had DISH for about 10 yrs., have been with DIRECTV for the last 10 yrs. Most definitely prefer DIRECTV. In TV, I don’t find the signal loss during storms acceptable so it’s cable for me. Just my opinion.

[Kenswing]

If HBO and/or Cinemax is important to you don't get Dish. They're in a tiff with ATT over carrying those channels. Not sure when/if they'll be back in the lineup.

[JerryLBell]

I've had DISH Network for 2 1/2 years now here in The Villages. As pointed out by other posters, you can get signal breakup during heavy rains, particularly if the rain is to the East. However, that doesn't seem to bother us all that often. In fact, during the hurricane that went overhead a year and a half ago, we didn't get any signal breakups.

You need at least one box in the house as TVs can't directly decode satellite signals (or most cable signals). Most people get a box with video recording capabilities (a "DVR"). This is where DISH particularly shines. On their top model, you can record a ridiculous number of channels simultaneously; something like a dozen or more. They use a very compressed format that, in combination with their fairly large hard drive, allows you to store an equally ridiculous number of shows and/or movies. They have an option to record every show on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox from 8 PM to 11 PM at night (and erase it after 2 weeks) and that barely makes a dent on the hard drive. You can watch any channel or recording you have made in any room in the house by getting additional, smaller boxes ("Joeys") that don't need a cable connection. You just plug them into the wall and into the TV. If you hook your main box into a home network with reasonable speed, you get a ton of channels "on demand". The picture quality is not stellar compared to Blu-ray but it is pretty good. It supports 5.1 channel sound but not 7.1 or higher and not "lossless" audio codecs like Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, Dolby ATMOS or DTS:X. So the Dolby Digital sound is pretty good but not great.

If you don't want to use a "Joey", you can get the Dish Anywhere application on Amazon Fire Sticks and on some phones and tablets and watch TV on them (but not on Roku sticks or TVs). I tried this and found jumping to a channel directly with the Fire Stick remote was frustratingly difficult. You are also limited to having only a single device use the Dish Anywhere application at a time on your account (where you can have several "Joeys" working simultaneously).

They have all the channels that most every other provider has with the exception of "sub-channels" and some highly localized channels. For example, the local PBS outlet might broadcast a "main" channel and a few additional specialized channels but DISH (and DirecTV for that matter) only have the "main" channel. You won't get The Villages channel on satellites either. You can get any of several packages (including some less expensive but more limited "ala carte" packages) to get the channels you want.

Like DirecTV and most cable companies, they have a great price for the initial year (or perhaps two), then the price increases begin. You'll probably get a few premium channels like HBO, Showtime or Starz for free for a few months as a new customer. When they eventually raise the price, you can threaten to quit to renegotiate (though you probably won't get the introductory pricing) or just switch to another provider. I don't remember who I got DISH through (I do remember it was a vendor in the same shopping plaza as the Sam St. John's seafood restaurant on 441) but it seems like they did a good job installing it and I think the installation was free.

I've had DirecTV in Michigan and North Carolina and found them comparable. I have not had them here so I don't know if the occasional signal loss is better for one over the other. I do know that DirecTV kept raising and raising and raising their prices on me in North Carolina until I finally quit and went to a local cable provider for the last several months before I retired and moved here. I considered quitting DISH when my 2-year contract was up but I've had too many friends complain about Comcast, didn't like the DVRs offered by other cable companies, though DirecTV was too expensive and didn't really like the streaming alternatives (my wife would go nuts trying to watch all her shows scattered across multiple streaming services). I went from a "full" package to a basic "ala carte" service and only miss BBC America (which I can get on the Philo streaming service if I really want).

I do stream NetFlix and it seems like there is or was a way to integrate that with the DISH receiver. However, I found it easier to use the Netflix app built into my smart TV in the living room and to use the Netflix app on the Fire Sticks in the other rooms (I gave up the one Joey I was using to save a few bucks per month).

If you know somebody who has DISH, get them to refer you. When I did this for a buddy, it cut $100 off their bill and off my bill ($10/month for 10 months). I'm not sure if they do this anymore.

I do enjoy watching TV but now and then I remember back when I seemed just as happy with the 4 or 5 channels I got for free over the air back when I was young. I know I could try an antenna to get OTA TV from Orlando but am not sure what reception I would get with an antenna in my attic. Also, I'd have to buy a TiVo or something to record TV (I am WAY too spoiled by DVRs to give them up) and don't really like paying as much as TiVo wants for their channel listing information.

[JerryLBell]

If HBO and/or Cinemax is important to you don't get Dish. They're in a tiff with ATT over carrying those channels. Not sure when/if they'll be back in the lineup.
Most likely that will be a temporary thing. Every satellite and every cable company seems at some point or another to be in a tiff with one provider or another. It always comes at a bad time, like the beef with HBO right when the Game of Thrones final season was on!

[Chi-Town]

If HBO and/or Cinemax is important to you don't get Dish. They're in a tiff with ATT over carrying those channels. Not sure when/if they'll be back in the lineup.Dish had a tiff with AMC a few years back which took out Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead. They credited me $35. Then came no HBO recently. Dish is gone.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Kenswing]

Most likely that will be a temporary thing. Every satellite and every cable company seems at some point or another to be in a tiff with one provider or another. It always comes at a bad time, like the beef with HBO right when the Game of Thrones final season was on!
It's been going on since November. Since ATT owns DirecTV they're in no hurry to work out an agreement. They figure the longer they stall, the more people will leave Dish and go to DirecTV.

[Shimpy]

When it storms you may lose your signal for a little bit.

Not good to lose your signal with a hurricane approaching. That's when you need it most.

[Shimpy]

[QUOTE=Retiring;1655530 In TV, I don’t find the signal loss during storms acceptable so it’s cable for me. Just my opinion.[/QUOTE]

Yea, would be my luck to lose the signal during the 4th quarter of the Super Bowl, or with a hurricane bearing down on us.

[Topspinmo]

I had dish when we lived OKC where cable wasn’t available. Had little problems and was way cheaper than Comcash. I was disappointed when I got here and my house was only wired for comcash. Plus comcash don’t have RFTV which I liked several programs they ran. I didn’t want no holes drilled in my roof and centurylink did find run cable in my neighborhood, but centurylink don’t offer the tennis channel so that’s out.

[roob1]

Most of us have non satellite internet service. That allows us to obtain most local or regional news seen on TV.



Not good to lose your signal with a hurricane approaching. That's when you need it most.

[PaulDenise]

Dish has the Orlando stations.

I had Dish for 15-20 years before coming down here. Was great for boats, cabins, and rv’s because you could take one box and a cheap dish with you.

Have had it here now for 5 years and still fairly happy. The price tends to slowly rise, but the cable companies seem worse.

[Bay Kid]

LOVE DISH. Lots of recording space. Ease of use. Rain clouds are short loss at best. Always reliable.

[Bay Kid]

Dish has the Orlando stations.

I had Dish for 15-20 years before coming down here. Was great for boats, cabins, and rv’s because you could take one box and a cheap dish with you.

Have had it here now for 5 years and still fairly happy. The price tends to slowly rise, but the cable companies seem worse.

Negotiate price every 2 years. Got a better price this past year than the previous 2 years, plus they replaced my 2 Joeys and remotes for free. Only took 10 minutes on the phone.

[Kahuna32162]

Have had DISH for over 12 years, both up north and here. Best equipment, best service and eay to negotiate prices. Right now, no HBO, no problem, just subscribed to HBO now. And by the way, throughout the entire "hurricane", never lost signal for even a minute.

[LI SNOWBIRD]

WOW that was comprehensive!

[John_W]

I sat up until 5am until the eye of Hurricane Irma had completely passed and we never lost Directv, not even HD, never had to go back up. If you know how to switch to backup non-HD channels, you'll almost never lose picture with Directv. Plus my DVR records up 1000 hours of HD video, I've got probably 800 hours in movies now, can never watch everything. Worse case scenario, a Super Bowl, I got an attic antenna hooked to the guest BR TV, unless it's on channel 2 I can still see 6, 9 and 35.

[EdFNJ]

I had dish when we lived OKC where cable wasn’t available. Had little problems and was way cheaper than Comcash. I was disappointed when I got here and my house was only wired for comcash. Plus comcash don’t have RFTV which I liked several programs they ran. I didn’t want no holes drilled in my roof and centurylink did find run cable in my neighborhood, but centurylink don’t offer the tennis channel so that’s out. You probably don't need any holes in your roof, a sat dish can easily be ground mounted in probably 90% of the homes. Most people in my area have ground mounted sat dishes.

[Bay Kid]

I have my dish mounted to the side of my deck.

[Avista]

We've had Dish since we dropped Comcast a number of years ago. We are satisfied, but must renegotiate price every couple years.

[Imagine701]

I got rid of cable and have antenna installed in attic, which you can get all networks and many other channels. I also got a ROKU and subscribe to YOUTUBETV it's the best and has unlimited DVR storage.

[kaydee]

I got rid of cable and have antenna installed in attic, which you can get all networks and many other channels. I also got a ROKU and subscribe to YOUTUBETV it's the best and has unlimited DVR storage.

What village are you in that gives you such good reception with the antenna?

[PennBF]

I heard, and can't swear to it but was told that if you mount the Dish on the roof you may risk losing your roof warranty? :popcorn:

[JimJohnson]

DISH Is great for us. DISH sponsors an APP called DISHANYWHERE, it’s free and I have it downloaded on our outside pool TV. I watch the full network to include taped stuff with no wires, just our house WIFI.